Love Mercy
God, What Do You Expect From Me?
“Love Mercy”
Micah 6:1-8 (New Revised Standard Version)
Hear what the Lord says: Rise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the Lord, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for the Lord has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel. “O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me! For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of slavery; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. O my people, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised, what Balaam son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the saving acts of the Lord.” “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” 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?
“God! What do you expect from me?!”
Micah, the prophet is trying to respond to the people of Judah who knew they had messed up, they knew they were not living for God, and they knew God was angry with them.
The people know they have messed up and want to make it up to God.
Micah 6:8 is God’s answer for how they can make it up.
Embrace Faithful Love (Love Mercy)
Hebrew: Hesed– Translated in many different ways from kindness, mercy, covenant faithfulness, compassion, loyal love, steadfast love, and devotion.
This term is used to describe God’s faithful actions throughout history on behalf of God’s people.
The term can also be used of people, often in the same covenantal contexts in which the people were expected to respond to God with a steadfast loyalty and love that reflected the compassion and grace that God had demonstrated to them.
The greatest debt ever paid on our behalf is a debt we are not expected to pay back, but to pay forward.
“Hesed,” is a relationship term, built out of the commitment and steadfast dependability that arises from mutual relationship.
To love “hesed” was to be committed not only to God who had demonstrated “hesed” to the people, but also to live in community in such a way that “hesed” marked life together as God’s people.
To love “hesed” was to be committed to a quality of life that was governed by the principles of mutual respect, helpfulness, and loving concern.
God wants us to acknowledge when God intervenes on our behalf and to extend the same kind of love to others.