MPC 20th June 2004.Micah 6 - "Open and Shut Case"
Maurie Cropper MPC 20th June 2004.
Earlier this year an English teenager took his father's credit card and racked up almost $30,000 in a four-day spending spree.
His spree included a return plane ticket to Rome. Fifteen thousand dollars on clothes. A video camera to record his exploits. Luggage worth five and a half thousand dollars. He stayed in four-star hotels.
He said he got bored with shopping so he hired a limousine to see the sights of Rome for a couple of days at a cost of around four thousand dollars.
On his return to London he hired another limousine, picked up three friends and went to Brighton for two more nights to, as he put it, "see the sea".
Tom Smith, 17, from London, said that as a child his parents had given him anything he wanted but, since entering adulthood, their generosity had waned.
So when a request for new clothes was refused, he took his father's credit card and started spending.
He's quoted as saying: "I am not sorry I spent the money because I have lots of lovely things. I have wanted some new clothes for a while."
Despite a dressing down and a police investigation, Tom Smith remains unrepentant, and blames his privileged upbringing for his actions.
Mastercard is considering how it can bring what it sees as an open-and-shut case against the 'misuse' of its contractual agreement.
In today's Bible reading, the Lord God presents an open-and-shut case against Israel. Because they too, have have misused their contractual agreement with God. In fact, misused is too light a term.
They have deliberately broken the covenant agreement to remain faithful to God, and instead of further blessing coming their way, God is now delivering His judgement upon them.
Micah's prophecy began in chapter one as a courtroom scene. Here in chapter six Israel's still in the dock. And creation, which has watched on from the beginning of Israel's relationship with God, is called as a witness. The mountains and hills of Israel have always been witnesses to the covenant that God made with Israel. They were witnesses to Israel's promise to obey the commands of the Lord and, in turn, God would bless Israel. Now God calls on the mountains to hear the charge which he was about to bring against his people.
From Micah 6 verse 1:
Listen to what the LORD says: "Stand up, plead your case before the mountains; let the hills hear what you have to say. Hear, O mountains, the LORD's accusation; listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth. For the LORD has a case against his people; he is lodging a charge against Israel."
I don't know about you but I'm always intrigued by the drama of a courtroom. I've been asked a few times to go to court with people to give them support. A courtroom has a vibe all of its own. The way it's set up has an imposing feel about it. And when it's in session, it can be very tense. Like in the TV series 'Law & Order', with Jack McCoy from the Prosecutor's Office, glaring at the person in the dock. Or back a few years it was Perry Mason, rotund and very serious. Or maybe you're more familiar with TV's Judge Judy Sheindlin.
There's an on-going fascination about any legal drama. Maybe we get some sort of satisfaction about watching other people having to give an account of their life. Sort off, airing dirty linen for all to see sort of stuff.
Well, one thing's for sure. In God's case against Israel, he's insisting that the case is not only done in public, but also in the presence of all creation. Which suggests that there's nothing secretive about God's relationship with his people.
It's a daunting reminder that our relationship with God is to be a transparent one. Jesus says his followers are "the light of the world" and that we're to "let our light shine before others"... "not to put it under a bowl" (Matthew 5:14-16). In fact he says: "What I've told you... shout it from the rooftops" (Matthew 10:27).
Whenever God's people hide themselves away and shun exposure to and involvement with the wider world, they betray God's purpose for them. God wants his people to be distinctively holy in the midst of the general corruption that surrounds us - to be in the world, but not of it!
But as the many cases of institutionalised abuse have shown, we have an instinctive inclination to protect our shortcomings. To hush up any wrong-doing, often with the result that unbelievers have little or no genuine encounter with authentic Christian discipleship, or what it means for us to be accountable to God for our lives.
And because the believer can have a general misconception that the world expects us all to be spotless, and while that's a worthy intention to work at, what's very important is to be authentic, real... acknowledging our vulnerability and our weaknesses, and most importantly, our reliance of God's grace.
God's activity, from the creation of the world, to the coming of Christ and beyond, has always been open and accessible to everyone.
God's blessings are out in the open, and Micah is saying that His judgement will also be public.
In that way the whole world will be on notice to what God says and does!
And in His case against His people, God agonisingly calls them to speak in their own defence. Look at verse 3. "My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me."
But there's no answer. Not even one word! It's not surprising. What could they say? They knew they were in the wrong. They'd disobeyed God's commands time and time again. Even after being forgiven time and time again, they still continued to thumb their noses at God. They were guilty and they knew it! Like an employee ripping off their boss, they were caught with their hands in the till.
And like a gentle boss who's saddened by trust being broken, and dejected by a lost opportunity, God reminds them that they had it all. He'd taken them out of the cruel hands of Egyptian slavery, and in Moses had given them a guide and had delivered them, even against the threat of foreign gods like Baal, to a land of promise.
Verse 4:
I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam. My people, remember what Balak king of Moab counseled and what Balaam son of Beor answered. Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of the LORD.
It's a good thing as a 'follower of Jesus' to remember the time when you first acknowledged the saving work of God in your life. The famous hymn writer Charles Wesley speaks for us when in a tribute to God's grace he wrote: 'My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth and followed thee.'
So here's where we're up to. Israel's been caught with the hand in the till and is now in the dock. God has given them a history lesson. And they're feeling rebuked. And you know what that's like. You know how you've reacted when it's been you in the dock.
Okay Dad. I'll pay you back. I'll wash the car or mow the lawn all summer.
Or maybe as a stunned mullet, you sit there thinking what you can do to make things right.
I'll buy her some flowers. I'll do the ironing without be asked. I'll make him his favourite meal.
Picture it now.
Israel in the dock. Stunned by being caught out by God. Thinking, what should I do to appease Him?
I know what I'll do. I'll go out and get a fat year old calf and sacrifice it before Him.
Or... maybe I should do better than that and bring Him a thousand rams. Or, maybe ten thousand rivers of oil. Or maybe, maybe I should sacrifice my own son.
But God reads their minds, and reminds them that all the offerings under the sun isn't what he requires from the. But there is something He requires.
Follow along from verse 6.
With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
But they're not what God wants from His people.
What God wants from His people He has modeled! Verse 8 says it all. "He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."
I mean, it's not as if they don't know what God is like and has shown them. And it's not like they haven't been told before either. It's even chronicled in their history!
Listen to what the people of Micah's time would have had read to them.
It's from the second book of Chronicles chapter seven. Detailing Israel's history. And the setting is God talking to Solomon at the completion of the temple being built.
I'll start at verse 11:
When Solomon had finished the temple of the LORD and the royal palace, and had succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to do in the temple of the LORD and in his own palace, the LORD appeared to him at night and said: "I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices. "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people..."
I'll pause there. Now note that the temple is finished. And we're told that included in what happens in the temple are sacrifices. So when a time of drought comes, or when locusts come in plague proportions, you'd expect that God would want the people to go to the temple and sacrifice something to him, wouldn't you? Well let's see.
Picking it up from where we left off... verse 14:
"...if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place."
You see, it's not sacrifices of calves, or rams, or oil, or children that God wants, it's us he wants.
God wants us to humbly and prayerfully, seek after Him and model our lives on Him. That's the sacrifice he wants to see and hear from us.
The Apostle Paul puts it this way in his book to the church in Rome. Romans 12 verse 1:
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -- this is your spiritual act of worship. Don't conform any longer to the pattern of this world, instead be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is -- his good, pleasing and perfect will. For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.
God wants us to sacrifice chasing after the things of this world.
He wants us to sacrifice thinking about ourselves. And according to the faith his given us, we're to renew our thinking with His thoughts. Thoughts that are never kept secret. Just as his intentions are never kept secret.
Through Micah, Israel were warned again and again. And to not heed God's warnings was foolish and would only lead to, what Micah calls "ruin".
From verse 9 through to the end of the chapter, Micah says it how it is.
That to fear God is to be wise and that they're to listen to God because he's the one with the rod of judgement.
God knows how wicked and dishonest they are. He knows how violent and deceitful they are. They'll tread over anyone to get what they want and where they want to go. And because of their rebellion against following God's ways, they're warned that they'll be ruined.
And their ruin will come in the form of never being satisfied with what they've got. And in fact what they've got will be taken by those whom they once admired, listened to, and even joined forces with.
And what was Israel's response to the warnings given to them? Well we know from history that their lack of response meant ruin for them.
So from this chapter, what's our response to God?
Well, like those living in Micah's time, we too live in an age of prosperity. Where many people, including Christians, lead middle-class suburban lives. Are we to be sensitive and willing to help the disadvantaged of our society? The Bible's response is a firm: 'Yes'. Does getting ahead in life mean we're to scramble over the top of others? The Bible's response is a firm: 'No'.
Are we meant to give up our comfortable lives? Maybe.
But while we're not meant to pursue materialism, or power, or status... to focus only on those things would be to miss the point of Micah 6. The importance of those things is not to be minimised.
But there's something other than those things that we need to respond to.
And like God's people in Micah's time, we have no excuse for not knowing what it is. We have no excuse for knowing how we should respond to God.
Let me remind you: Verse 8 "God has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."
Our response to God is: To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
And the incredible thing is... God has always shown by His own actions, how His people how to act justly and to love mercy.
Since the beginning of time God has shown justice and mercy and love, as he constantly went about saving His people.
In fact... sending Micah to his people was in itself an incredible act of God's mercy!
So to the matter of walking humbly.
The word for humble here in Micah stresses the humility of those who are prepared to listen to God and follow his ways, rather than listening to and following their own desires.
Well, there's no better example of that sort of humility than the sacrificial death of Jesus as payment for our rebellion against God. I mean, the guy was God. Yet he was obedient to his heavenly Father, and humbled himself for our sake.
What a fantastic model of humility. Best summed up in the Bible's own words.
So as I conclude, turn with me to the most beautiful description of humility you'll ever find. And one we're exhorted to imitate.
Philippians 2:1-16
1If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!
9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
12Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed--not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence--continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
14Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life.
As in Micah's day, we live in a world that is so self-absorbed; so only interested in taking and receiving, and not in giving.
A world where humble people are hard to find.
Yet against such a tide, God calls us to be humble. And not a false humility that seeks to draw approval from others. But a humbleness that gives expression to our faith in God, and as a consequence draws people's attention to the Lord Jesus.