What is God's expectation of me?

Text: Micah 6:1-8
Micah is one of the Minor Prophets, which is a collection of books that make up the last few pages of the Old Testament. Micah was the prophet of the downtrodden and exploited people of Judean society. He prophesied during a time of great social injustice and boldly opposed those who imposed their power upon the poor and weak for selfish ends.

The name "Micah" is a shortened form of "Micaiah," which means, “Who is like
Yahweh”? Micah prophesied during the reigns of the Judean kings Jotham (750-732 B.C.), Ahaz (732-715 B.C.), and Hezekiah (715-686 B.C.; 1:1).

The text that was read to us has two parts to it. It is written in a poetic form. The first section is from verse 1 to 5. God seems to be bringing up a case against the Israelites. Yahweh had a case (lawsuit, Heb. rib) to bring against His people. The Lord was summoning Israel to defend herself in a courtroom setting. He addressed the mountains, hills, and foundations of the earth as the jury in this case (cf. Deut. 32:1; Isa. 1:2). The Lord called this jury, which had observed Israel's history from its beginning, to hear His indictment against the nation. If these jurors could speak, they would witness to the
truthfulness of the Lord's claims.

As for the second section (vs 6 – 8), Micah responded to God's goodness, just reviewed, as the Israelites should have responded. This section is entitled “What God Requires of Man”. Today, we will see 3 things that the Lord required of the Israelites and of all of us as a whole.

I. ACT JUSTLY

Or, in other words, act with fairness, honesty, and integrity.

Micah had a special concern for justice, primarily because he saw so little of it.

What God requires of us is that we do what is right and fair in our relationships with other people. Justice involves the sense of a standard of equality among people. It can be as simple as being honest in even the smallest routine business transaction. In Micah, the prophet complained about the person who uses “dishonest scales, with a bag of false weights.” (Micah 6:11)

There is an old saying, “honesty is the best policy.” But for the Christian, that slogan should be, “honesty is the ONLY policy.” Because this is a consistent theme in all of Scripture -- that we are called to be people of fairness and integrity in all our dealings.

In Psalm 51:6 we read, “You desire truth in the inward parts.”

In Proverbs 4:23 we read, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring all the issues of life.”

We must settle it deep in our hearts to be a people of integrity, and be on guard in the battle to “act justly.”

Micah tells us three things God requires of us. One is to act justly. Easy task. But it is hard to make a reality.

II. LOVE MERCY

The second thing that God requires of us is that we “love mercy.” We are also to fill our hearts with compassion and kindness toward one another. The Hebrew word that Micah uses here is translated as “mercy,” is a rich one, used variously as mercy, tender mercies, loving kindness, steadfast love.

It is a word that most often used in a covenant sense, involving the attitude of two parties who are in covenantal relationship with one another. In relation to God’s mercy, it is used most often of His grace, or of UNEXPECTED kindness.

Notice also that the requirement here is not that we HAVE mercy, but that we are to LOVE mercy. There is a big difference between the two. One way of describing the difference is to say that we don’t just do acts of kindness from a sense of obedience or compulsion, but we do them out of love.

There seems to have been an emphasis in Jesus’ teaching on the idea of UNEXPECTED acts of kindness.
1. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, it was the one considered least likely to offer help who did so.
2. The parable of the prodigal son reveals to us the heart of a father who accepted his son against the expectation of almost everyone.
3. The story of the woman caught in adultery teaches a compassionate mercy scarcely revealed in Old Testament Jewish law.
4. The dying thief on a cross has a lesson for us about the depth of God’s mercy
Because we have such a merciful God, we are exhorted to have mercy. Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7).
Peter wrote, “All of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tender-hearted” (1 Peter 3:8).
Mercy is often not what we would show one another; but it is the only response that makes any sense in light of the mercy that God has shown us in Jesus Christ.

III. WALK HUMBLY WITH YOUR GOD

Have you noticed that when Micah tells us what God expects, the first two things he expects have nothing to do with God. They have to do with how we behave toward one another.

God expects His children to love and get along with one another. He expects His children to treat one another justly and fairly, and He expects His children to love mercy and to show kindness toward one another.
But the third expectation Micah shares is that God expects us to have a right relationship with Him – with God Himself.

That right relationship with God always begins with humility, not arrogance.

Our New Testament reminds us (Ephesians 2:8-9), “it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast.”

God expects us to walk humbly with Him. We are arrogant. We are proud. We tend to think that God’s role is to make us happy, to serve us, to answer our prayers. But it is we who are to serve and glorify God. The Israelites were arrogant in their own ways. They were arrogant because they were the chosen people of God. The very special call of God itself made them arrogant people because they failed to humble themselves before God. They failed to realize that it was a God given privilege for them instead they became very proud of their nation and looked down upon others.
At times, we too get proud of who we are, what we have, what we have achieved in live. Lets be reminded that whoever we may be, whatever we may have or whatever we may have achieved in life – we are nothing without God’s grace. Whatever we have received is solely base on God’s grace and not our merits. So, let us humble ourselves before God. The Lord reject the proud and honors the humble.
Humility is what the Lord expects of each of us. Without humility we can even worship God.

SO -- WHAT DOES GOD WANT FROM US? Not that much, really.
To act justly, To love mercy, and to walk humbly with God – if we notice carefully, we will see that the first 2 requirements are horizontal relationship (between human beings – among one another). The third requirement is a vertical relation (between man and God). God is very concern about our relationship with one another. If our relationship with one another is not right than we can not have a right relationship with God. They are both interrelated. One can not say I love God and hates his brother…..the bible says they are liars.