What Does the Lord Require?

by Dr Philip Satterthwaite

I like to draw your attention to a short and familiar text from Micah 6, where the LORD, speaking through His prophet, addresses His people Israel in these terms: “He has told you, O mortal, what is good: and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)

The Hebrew word translated “humbly” is in fact a rare word, and scholars debate its precise meaning. “Circumspectly”, “prudently”, “wisely” are some of the translations which they suggest – which do not perhaps take us that far away from the traditional translation “humbly”. One who walks “circumspectly” or “prudently” or “wisely” with their God probably walks “humbly” as well.

What does the LORD require? What does God expect of His people?

Israel - called to witness as a nation

That is the first point to make about this text, that it is addressed to God’s covenant people Israel, the people with whom He entered into a unique relationship, and to whom He gave a special calling.

Let us remind ourselves briefly of the context. These words dated from the late 8th or possibly early 7th centuries BC, several centuries after God first delivered His people from slavery in Egypt and brought them into the land of Canaan.

Micah 6 begins by telling us that “the LORD has a controversy with His people” (v 2). He has a bone to pick with them, as we say, a grievance to address. V 3–5 reminds the people of how God blessed them - saving them from Egypt, bringing them through the wilderness, leading them into Canaan. What have I done wrong, says God? “How have I wearied you?” What more could I have done?

In v 6–8 the prophet asks: What is the appropriate response to a God who blesses His people so richly? Is it to offer copious sacrifices, is it to go through complicated and costly rituals? “Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression…?”

No, what God requires of His people is simpler than that, something that lies within the reach of anyone. That is one reason why v 8 addresses Israel using a very general term: “O mortal” or “O man” (translating the Hebrew word “’adam”, which denotes humanity or humankind as a whole). If you want to do what God requires, you do not have to be so wealthy that you can sacrifice thousands of rams; you do not have to make extravagant gestures like sacrificing your firstborn (a kind of sacrifice which was in any case strictly forbidden for Israelites). All you have to do, if you want to fulfill your calling as a member of God’s people, is “to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly (wisely) with your God.”
That is the only response that is needed; that is all that the LORD requires. You can never match God’s generosity; you can never do enough to earn God’s favour. So here is all you have to do in response to God’s gracious call: “to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”

This is what God requires of His people: First, to “do justice”: to act with integrity; to treat others fairly; to uphold the rights of others, particularly the vulnerable, who are not able to protect themselves

Second, to “love kindness”: to treat others in a generous and open-hearted way, to care for the welfare of others, to do more for others than you (or they) may have felt that they had a right to expect. (If you want to know what Micah means by “kindness”
– the Hebrew word is “chesed” – then read the Book of Ruth, where “chesed” –kindness”, “generosity”, “loyalty” – is a key term. See how Ruth, Naomi and Boaz behave towards each other, and you will understand what the word means).

Third, to “walk humbly with your God”: to recognise that God is LORD; to recognise that you are not put on earth to please yourself but to please God; to keep God’s laws out of respect for God’s majesty.

That is all you have to do, says Micah. If you belong to the people of the LORD, that is all the LORD requires.

Israel – failed to witness as a nation

But the rest of chapter 6, that is, v 9-16, goes on to describe how the people have not done this, or even come close to doing it. V9-16 speak of “the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked”; of “wicked scales and a bag of dishonest weights”; of “violence” and “lies” and “deceit”; of a people who have “kept the statutes of Omri and all the works of the house of Ahab” – two famously unjust and oppressive kings of Israel.

Injustice, deceit, violence - these are things that rule the day, and not justice, kindness and respect for God’s requirements. And because of this, says Micah, judgment is going to come. The covenant blessings will be stripped from God’s people until they return to Him. That is the point towards which Micah is driving in chapter 6.

But let us consider these references to the sins of the people in the second half of the chapter. They remind us negatively of the teachings and commandments which God gave to Israel at Mt Sinai and in the plains of Moab; the teachings recorded in the Pentateuch which we often refer to as the Law of Moses. So let us consider the Law of Moses: why was it so important? Why does God in Micah 6 react with such indignation when His people break the law? Well, why was the Law given? What was the point of the Law of Moses?

The teaching of a book like Exodus or Deuteronomy can be boiled down to two main points:

First, God has been very gracious to you, O Israel: He delivered you from Egypt, saving you when you could not possibly have saved yourselves. God is going to be very gracious to you: He will bring you to the land of Canaan, a land which you could not conquer by yourself, a land whose blessings you have in no sense earned by your own righteousness.

In the Old Testament, law is always presented within a framework of grace. It is important to stress this. The teaching that you can earn your salvation by your own righteous acts, by keeping the law, is as foreign to the Old Testament as it is to the New Testament.

Second, God has been gracious to you, Israel, for a particular reason. God has blessed you, and with the blessing comes a special calling. You are to be God’s witnesses: witnesses to the nations around about. Your job is to act as a signpost, pointing the nations toward the God whom you worship, so that they too may come to share in God’s blessings.

The language of Israel as God’s witnesses to the nations is taken from Isaiah 43 and 44. But the idea is there in the Pentateuch, in the texts which describe how God gave Israel the law. Israel was to be a kingdom of priests (Exodus 19), a nation that showed God’s glory to the nations around. Israel was to keep God’s law so that their national life will be marked by justice and righteousness, and so that the nations around will marvel at the wisdom of the God who has given these laws; so that the nations of the world will themselves be drawn to worship this God (Deuteronomy 4). Israel was called to keep God’s law as a witness to the nations, to bring blessing to the nations, in fulfillment of the promise to Abraham in Genesis 12.

That, if you like, is the background to Micah 6. That is what lies behind Micah’s statement in v 8 that what God requires of His people is “to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God”. Israel was called to enjoy the blessings of God’s grace; and to keep God’s law so that the nations of the world might see what it means to be blessed by God, and to live in the way that He requires.

The tragedy of Israel in the Old Testament is that Israel so frequently failed to live up to its calling.

The church - called to witness for God

I will to develop this point and take it forward into the New Testament and cite texts to show that the same dynamic of grace and law applies in the New Testament as in the Old.

We, too, as believers in Jesus Christ, enjoy the blessings of God’s grace. We, too, as Christians, are called to respond to God’s grace. We are called to be witnesses, taking the gospel of Jesus to the ends of the earth. (Matthew 28)

As those who have experienced God’s mercies in Christ Jesus, we are called to a renewal of the mind, a change of perspective which will affect every area of our lives. (Romans 12) Everything needs to be thought through and brought under Christ’s lordship. We are called to a new lifestyle; to put to death certain habits of mind, and to put on “compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience”. (Colossians 3) We Christians are called to be a “royal priesthood”, a people who show to the non-Christian world by word and deed what it means to belong to God’s people. (1 Peter 2)

Will you notice how Peter in using that phrase applies to the church of Jesus Christ a term which in Exodus 19 was used to describe God’s calling to Israel? This is the point – Israel was called to witness to the character of their God by the way they lived as a nation; and we too belong to a community – the church – which is called to witness to God by word and deed.

Micah’s call to 8th-century Israel to “to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” is a call that we can quite appropriately apply to ourselves as well, Christians living in Singapore in the 21st century AD.

GCF – called to be salt and light

I believe that a text like Micah 6:8 is part of the life-blood of GCF as it sums up a lot of what GCF is about. In the last 24 hours or so, I have been responsible for quite a lot of activity on your website. I have looked at the main site and followed the links which describe your ministries – the sectional groups affiliated to GCF such as the Christian Medical and Dental Fellowship, Engineering and Science Christian Fellowship, the
Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship and so on. If I may say so, I like what I see on your website. I like the way in which you so often use the words “salt” and “light” to describe what you hope to accomplish. Those, of course, were the words which Jesus used to set out His vision of what God’s kingdom should be, and how it should work to transform all human societies and bring them to God.

I like the way in which the sectional groups are reflecting on what it means to be a Christian in the marketplace, to be a Christian professional (doctor, engineer, teacher, lawyer, in the caring professions, in the financial sector). I like some of the initiatives
I see described on this website. Doubtless many of you feel that you could have done more, thought through issues more deeply, worked harder, and so on. But it seems to me that your aims and your activities are very much in the right direction, very much in the spirit of Micah 6:8. In bringing this text before you today, my aim has simply been to encourage you to keep on with what you have started and remain true to your vision.

But I leave you with one question, as I close my reflections on what the Lord requires of us: To what extent is the GCF in dialogue? To what extent is the GCF seeking partnerships, or at least alliances with other Christian groups in Singapore and the region?

There is a lot of expertise represented in the GCF - a lot of practical experiences which have been gained as each of you (and the groups you represent) have sought to live out your callings in your different professions. To what extent have you been able to share that expertise with other Christian groups, so that your expertise may enrich and build up the body of Christ?

One of the reasons I am here is that I am the Principal of Biblical Graduate School of Theology (BGST), a school that includes in its mission statement the sentence: Together we seek to grow in Christ likeness and develop an integrated biblical worldview for effective service in the Church and the Marketplace. I see in GCF a natural ally of BGST. One of my aims in coming here has been to start conversations with many of you, conversations which may last for years, in which I hope we will be able to explore ways in which BGST and GCF may work together and mutually benefit each other.

But my main point here does not relate to BGST. There are many other theological schools in Singapore, with which you might reasonably explore collaborative enterprises of various sorts. There are also many churches in Singapore; many, many churches.
How far has your expertise been used to bless the churches to which you all belong?
Just one example is that I note that you have a group which regularly meets to view films and discuss them from a Christian perspective - a worthy activity. I ask the members of this group: Have you been able to take your activities into any churches
in Singapore? I should imagine that there are many pastors in Singapore who would welcome some help in the area of cultural critique; who would be willing, say to host a youth group meeting which showed a film and then lead the group into a serious discussion of the question: How do we respond to this from a Christian perspective? Could the GCF film group help such pastors? That is just an example, and I leave these genuine questions with you. I am merely reminding you of issues that are already of concern to you.

What does the Lord require of us? Justice, kindness, walking humbly with our God, as Micah 6 has reminded us. What does the Lord require of us? That we direct all our energies to building up the body of Christ, with each part of the body fulfilling its
proper function. That, as far as is possible and in appropriate ways, different Christian groups in Singapore work together to extend God’s kingdom, with our separate gifts and talents combining and supplementing each other.

(This talk was given at the GCF Annual General Meeting on 23 July 2011 at 49 Chee Hoon Avenue)