Relationship-focused, Not Task-focused

Well, we are very blessed this morning to have in our service, Doctor Mike Grisanti of the Masters Seminary. He's been there 14 years. teaching at Old Testament languages and literature there at the seminary, making a wonderful contribution towards the training and development of, the next generation of pastors and church leaders here in this country and around the world. He has traveled extensively, ministered extensively, and, on the Master Seminary website, here's some of the countries that he's ministered in Colombia, Honduras, Albania.

France, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Russia. And Ukraine, and he's also been to Chile, just found that out. So God is using this brother. He's also written and contributed to numerous works that some of which have been very helpful to me personally and, and, in my ministry.

What I appreciate about Doctor Mike Rosanti is that he is a scholar of the highest rank, in my opinion, but he's not simply a scholar. He is a warm-hearted brother with the heart of a pastor, and I think that'll be evident to you as he breaks open. God's word to us this morning. He's married to Martha Ann, who is with him.

here in our service. They've been married for 31 years and have had 8 children, ages 28 down to 11, and their youngest, Teresa, is here this morning. She was in the first service, but she's in Sunday school right now. So, so much to commend this brother, and we're happy to have you with us to open up God's word.

Looking forward to hearing what God has laid on your heart. So why don't you come and let's give our brother a warm cornerstone welcome. Well, good morning. I am, I'm glad to be here today.

Grateful for Pastor Milton's, invitation. I, have respected him from a distance for a number of years, but for obvious reasons when I'm here, he's gone. And so, we've not had a chance to connect personally all that much, but I'm so grateful for his, mentoring in the lives of the men I've seen at the seminary, Mike and, Carlos, and the chance to intersect. We, share with the lays in Albania a love for them, Place Rita.

We're so thrilled, we have to share them with these guys over here for some reason. They want to come to Riverside. I'm not sure why. No, we, we're so, we're so grateful for your investment in their lives too and that common interest.

And just I'm grateful. For fellowships that are committed to being light in a desperately needy world and trying to seek God's honor and as moms and dads leading our families and all of that is so important. We live in a world that's heading in the wrong direction and has no good answers and God's given us the privilege by His strength. Helping direct their attention to the God of gods.

And that's exciting to think of how God does that through fellowships of faithful believers. Trying to live life for God's glory and sharing the gospel with the lost. So thank you for your attention. before I look at what, by the way, my wife is up here, I think Milton said that already, and I'm just so glad she's in my life outside of my salvation.

She's my greatest blessing and treasure, and, God sure is, demonstrating His grace to me on a daily basis by her presence in my life. before I gather, I, I look at Micah 6. Let's gather our hearts together in a word of prayer. Thank you, Lord, that, We can come before you as the God of gods and the Lord of Lords, the King of kings, the God.

Who holds the The mountains and the hills in the dust of his hand. can weigh them in a balance. The God who spoke this world into existence. And who controls it and directs its ways.

That great God you has seen fit. We thank you. You've seen fit to set your love on us. Sinful sinners, sinful people.

What a blessing it is to know that you commended your love. You gave your love to us while we were yet sinners. And Lord, through that gift, Jesus Christ, who lived that sinless life and died that horrific death and rose from the dead and who was exalted to your right hand, you give us the ability to have our feet taken out of the mire clay and set upon a rock and establishing our going. Thank you for the life transforming power of the gospel in our salvation, first, but even for daily living.

To be able to find victory over sin and the ability to live for your glory by living out that gospel on a daily basis. We thank you for your word and the blessing it is to us. I pray that you could take your word, which is clear, and by your spirit, drive it home to each of our hearts. And help us To understand With stark reality.

That we, that I am not sufficient in myself, in ourselves for the task you've put before us. But left to our own resources, left to our own efforts. Left to just focusing on tasks. That we will crash and burn, that we will fall on our face.

But Lord, that's not what you intend. You longed that we would. Depend absolutely and totally on you. To allow your spirit to enable us to live holy lives.

And I pray that as we look at Micah 6 this morning that we would see how important it is to Initiate through salvation and maintain a vibrant and growing relationship with you. And out of that, as the engine driving our heart, that we would obey you and make you big in the world. Hide your servant behind the cross, I pray. And be glorified in all that's said and done.

In Jesus' name. Amen. So as we all know different kinds of people in this world. And two common categories I think that relate to the message this morning, and that is some individuals who may be task focused and others that are people focused, and you've met them before.

Some people are very, very efficient. They get jobs done. They crank out the work, but they're not all that fun to be around. It's hard to talk to them and they're very task focused.

We, we're grateful for God's gift of them to us. Sometimes it's challenging, and then there are other kinds of people who love other people. They talk, they, they visit, they're around other people, they relate, they connect, and they're just people lovers. They may not get a whole lot done, but they just engage people, and those are two extremes, and we know that we ourselves sit somewhere in the middle generally, but those two kinds of people are, are, are things that we can identify with task focused, relationship focused, people focused.

And we would all agree wherever you are in that spectrum that there still is no doubt tasks and things are a lot easier than people, right? I can, I can, I can blow through my to do list much more easily than maybe shepherding my kids in a faithful, strategic, consistent way. It's more life invasive to have relationships. Now I want to assure you as I recognize the difference between those two.

And the greater ease in dealing with tasks and stuff. I want my life full of relationships. I don't want a life full of things and stuff, jobs, tasks. So, so we have, we see that in the real world that we have those kinds of emphases or extremes.

Well, I'd suggest to you that there's a similar, but even more important contrast. In our walk with God between those two extremes. As God's children, we also could be, can be task focused. Or relationship focused, but we have a bigger problem, all of us by nature.

In our walk with God, our default setting. Our tendency, our first step is to focus on tasks, to do lists. Things Rather than relationship. Now keep in mind I want you to understand that lists and Tasks are not intrinsically bad.

Christianity does involve do's and don'ts. In God's word, he lays before us numerous clear expectations that show up in concrete form. The big question is this. Does genuine Christianity, does a vibrant walk with God primarily involve do's and don'ts?

Is Christianity just? A list. Of do's and don'ts. Would you describe your walk with God?

As a performance treadmill. Checking along, moving forward, checking them off the list, hoping you don't fall off the treadmill and get crunched. Hoping you measure up to God's standard. Well friends, New Old New Testament cries out the message that is not at all what God intended for us.

And the prophet Micah, I think, addresses this issue. He's he's telling us here that a walk with God involves a relationship. That manifests itself in obedience. It's a relationship with the one and only true God that yes, it does evolve.

It does involve dos and don'ts. So this morning, if you look at Mike, I want you to see with me in chapter 6 that God had something to say to Mike about what God wants most and it's as valuable, as biblical as requirements, as lists of tasks are to God. They're dwarfed By his desire for our heart. For a vibrant, growing relationship with him.

Now Micah was a man who God used in a number of ways. Some great things happened in his ministry and through his book. For example, Micah 5:2, where he prophesized that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem, Africa, which is exactly what happened to the word. But Micah is also a prophet that God used to brings some bad news to God's people because he, he had to rebuke the nation of Israel for their constant pattern of rebellion.

You see, one of the, one of the problems of the prophet Micah, Confronts Is Israel's tendency to keep up their religious appearances, cross their T's and dot their I's. While at the same time, as they're maintaining his appearances, their heart drove them to treat their fellow Israelites with injustice and a lack of compassion. They were checking items off the list, but not pursuing God with their whole heart. They didn't understand.

What God wanted most from them. And so through this morning's message, my heart is that you'll understand with me, the thing you have at the top of your outline, that key idea that God desires that we as His children would have a true and sincere growing relationship with Him. He longs that our walk with him is not merely an external show focusing on tasks and lists primarily. But more importantly would be an internal reality inside out.

The passion of our life to make him big. So see that walk through, you have the outline in your, in your, in your bulletin there. first point is the court is now in session. I want you to see in the prophet Micah, a very serious presentation of God's concern for his people presented in a a legal, legal language.

In modern society, we've heard of all kinds of lawsuits. Some are quite frivolous, others have significance. So we know what lawsuits are. Well, Micah 6 is like a, like a lawsuit that the Lord Yahweh brings against his chosen nation, Israel.

For an important reason. And I want to introduce you to the players, to the participants. In the lawsuit and have you understand the biblical foundation. What's the problem?

And we're going to see the accused first of all, then the witnesses, and then the prosecutor and judge. So let's look at the defendant first of all, Israel, the accused, told to present their case. And the Lord says here through the prophet in verse one, stand up, plead your case before the mountains and let the hills hear what you have to say. To plead your case, to defend yourself, to state your case, the Lord is challenging the defendant to defend itself.

Against the charges he is about to bring to them. And who's the second, who makes it the second set of participants? The mountains and the hills. These enduring witnesses are told to listen and compare.

Notice verse 1, plead your case before the mountains. Let the hills here verse 2, hear, all mountains, you everlasting foundations of the earth. Listen. You see, as it is true in the ancient Near East, there are treaties that took place.

Various various places in the Old Testament, the heavens and the earth and the mountains and the hills are called as enduring witnesses. They're personified as legal witnesses that will help to settle the dispute between God and His people. And the biblical prophets refer to mountains and hills and heavens and earth for an important reason. Look at Isaiah one where he says at the beginning of his prophetic book, Here, oh heavens, and listen, oh earth.

For the Lord has spoken. And he's saying that for a reason, not just because he's cosmologically driven. He likes to think about heaven and earth. No, he wants to drive their minds back to something that the indictment that Isaiah brings against God's people in the book of Isaiah isn't about, oh, you violated these list of rules.

No, they've committed treachery in the context of a relationship to which they committed themselves wholeheartedly. He goes back to the Mosaic covenant, where in Deuteronomy 32:1, Moses wrote, Listen, oh heavens, and I will speak and give and hear on earth the words of my mouth. When God established a covenant with His people back in Moses' time. The heavens and the earth and the hills and the mountains were silent, enduring witnesses.

Of God entering into this covenant with his people. They witnessed God, Yahweh establishing this unique covenant relation with Israel and they witnessed Israel's glad acceptance of that covenant when in Exodus 19, they said, all the Lord has spoken, we will do. you hear the prophet Micah calls on the heaven, the hills and the mountains, enduring witnesses to listen to the current situation and compare it to what Israel promised to do and to see, to affirm the treachery that was taking place.

And then the third participant is the Lord Himself, Yahweh, the covenant Lord, who has a dispute with Israel.

But I want you to understand that he brings this dispute, a serious charge against God's people. He doesn't do it as an uncaring God. Arbitrary, malicious, impatient. No, no, not at all.

The prophet who is speaking on the Lord's behalf introduces the dispute that the Lord has with His people, but notice what he says in verse 2. After the serious language about hearing the Lord's accusation, for the Lord has a charge against notice his people. And then verse 3, the Lord Himself says, my people, verse 5, my people. You see throughout the Old Testament, his people and my people emphasize God's covenant love for this nation.

In Leviticus 26:12 and 13, he said, through Moses, I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would no longer be their slaves. I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to live. And freedom with heads held high.

According to the prophet Micah, they are his people. Yahweh calls them my people. The point is, in bringing this indictment against those people, it's in the context of an intimate relationship he enjoys with them. He longs to have with them.

It's not a lawsuit to try to get rid of Israel. No, it's a lawsuit motivated by love. Calling them To live the life of loyalty to which they've committed themselves. So that's the intimacy of the relationship that's at the at the foundation, but notice the severity of the charge.

It says here Invert verse 2 for the Lord has a case against his people. He is lodging a charge. Against Israel. What's the point of this lawsuit?

What's the theological foundation for this legal emphasis? Remember when the Lord had entered into this covenant with Israel back with Abraham and Genesis 12, he committed himself to be their God, to care for them, to guarantee their welfare and destiny, to guard them. But he also demanded loyalty from them. Wholehearted obedience.

Inside out. And, sometimes we misunderstand what God is looking for. If I were to ask you, what's the sum and substance of the Mosaic law, Many of you might say sacrifices, clean and unclean food, this requirement, that requirement. But if you were to boil down the mosaic covenant into one sentence, you have it at the bottom of the screen.

I will be your God. You will be my people. The Mosaic covenant isn't about doodads primarily. It's about a relationship into which God was entering into with his people.

He was wanting to enjoy this relationship with them as their God and them as His people in an unparalleled way. And remember, they had said, all the Lord has spoken, we will do in Exodus 19, Israel had committed themselves to an exclusive covenant relationship with the Lord, the Redeemer and Maker. And Micah 6, as with other passages, refer to the heavens and the earth or the hills and the mountains as witnesses of this far-reaching covenant. The problem is all too often in Israel's existence, it was a climax here in Micah's day.

Israel's committing covenant treachery. They were rejecting the Lord's exclusive claims and the loyalty or pursuing other things, or hypocritically pursuing the God they claim to serve. And so we have some very serious language here, this, this lawsuit terminology, and I want you to understand that from the perspective maybe of marriage. We can identify with that.

At some point in time, a lot of you here before God as your witness, before the pastor, before the bridal party, the people ascended assembled at your wedding. You, you made lofty, And, significant commitments to one another. Not empty words or trivial promises, but things that were life impacting, not to be taken lightly. And for you to conduct yourself in a hypocritical way in that relationship, not really living out your promise or even commit treachery in the context of that relationship is a horrific thing.

It's a grievous thing. And that's the similar issue that Mike is bringing up today. He's he's saying Israel's God longs to have an exclusive covenant relationship with this covenant nation. Israel had committed themselves to the same relation, but they betrayed.

That God They've committed treachery against that relationship. That's why court is now in session. That's what Mike is, Mike is bringing this message to God's people. Look secondly at The Lord's indictment of Israel verses 3 to 5.

We've heard about the fact of an indictment being brought in the first two verses. Now the word spells out. Evidence for this indictment, and he starts in an absolutely shocking way with these probing questions in verse 3. Unlike any court case where a trial begins with laying charges against the accused, that's how the case normally starts.

The Lord begins by turning the scrutiny toward Himself. He does the first focus on their covenant treachery and their rebellion, which, of which there was abundant evidence. Now, he gives them the accused, the first shot. By asking these questions and and it seems like it almost implies there was a complaint circulating among God's people that God had failed them somehow and that was just cause for the rebellion.

Has God conducted himself improperly? Has God failed to bring to pass something he promised? He asks here in verse 3, my people, what have I done to you? Or how have I wronged you?

How have they burdened you? Did a burden could have the idea of physical exhaustion, to frustrate somebody's attempts to get something done, to, to exhaust someone's patience. How have I exhausted your patience, oh Israel? Could it be that this broken relationship is the result of God's failure, something he had done?

Was he an oppressor of Egypt, instead of a deliverer? It's like Lord is saying, Israel, I don't know what to say or think when I see your conduct. In light of what I know I've done on your behalf. So help me, go ahead.

What are the evidences of my unfaithfulness that could in any way justify the way you've been conducting your lives? He says, answer me. In the end of verse verse 3. And of course They had nothing to say.

No substantiation. For their conduct, no word against the charge. And so just to make sure they're clear that he hasn't failed them, as a, as a matter of fact, had intervened on their behalf on numerous occasions. He gives them an abbreviated brief historical reminder in verses 4 and 5, and there are 4 things here.

We'll cover 2 of them a little more carefully and fly over 2. 1st one, enemy number 1, Egypt, in the first part of verse 4. So he talks, he begins his historical overview by referring to his impressive deliverance of them from the land of Egypt, and he says there, I brought you up. Out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery.

Look at the action Lord took, first of all, those two verbs, he brought them up and he redeemed them. When he brought them up, that verb brought up and brought out occurs over 50 times in the Old Testament to describe how God extricated his chosen people out of a horrific set of circumstances. And this act of deliverance was something deeply embedded in Israel's Israel's history was something that happened repeatedly. It should have been part of the fabric of their memory.

It it happened so frequently. God himself brought this deliverance to pass. He brought them up. He had, he had not only brought them up.

But he also redeemed them. He delivered them from bondage in Egypt. He freed them from their downtrodden existence as slaves. He brought them out.

He brought them up and he redeemed them. And when you can contrast this with verse 3, it's like, wearied you, done something wrong. You've got to be kidding me. As a matter of fact, I brought you up from the land of Egypt.

I redeemed you. The prophet who was trying to make a contrast between their warped understanding of God's dealings with them, and the plain facts of history in the Bible. And we should resonate with that, I suggest, because there are various times in our lives when We think God's failed and we're disillusioned and God hasn't stepped up and And we got to feel sorry for ourselves and justify our choices, my friends. We need your eyes off of the mire clay around us.

We need to get off of the circumstances that are plaguing us and realize there's a God of gods who has set his love on me. And he's giving me his mercy and grace then and now to motivate me to obey him. The problem is with God. It's where the focus of my attention.

And so he's trying to help them understand that that there's a contrast between what they thought. And what was really true, the action the Lord took, he brought them up and he redeemed them. But look at the place of deliverance. Again, this is not an inconsequential information.

He says, I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land, from the place of slavery. This occurs over a dozen times in the Old Testament to refer to the situation from which the Lord delivered His people. First of all, the land of Egypt. You, well, OK, it's a place in the world.

What's the big deal? Well, just this. It's just that at that time, the land of Egypt, the country of Egypt was one of the most important, strong international powers in the world. That's all.

And what God did in delivering his people out of Egypt, out of the clutches of this powerful empire was something that was absolutely unparalleled. Unique and to see that Deuteronomy 4:34 and 35, Moses asked the question, a rhetorical question that has an obvious no answer. Has any god ever taken, tried to take for himself one nation, Israel, out of another nation, Egypt? By testings, by miraculous signs and wonders, by war, by mighty hand and outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes.

And the unanimous answer should have been no. And why? Why did God do those things? You were shown these things and you might know.

That the Lord is God. Beside him, there is no other. That he is the one and only absolutely incomparable God of the universe, and he's the one with whom Israel had the privilege of having a relationship with. So what a God did those kinds of things and unparalleled God, a God who brought to pass what he promised, the God who brought them out of Egypt.

was a great God, who deserved their obedience and loyalty. But he also says now we brought them out of Egypt, he redeemed them from the land, from the place of slavery. This place of slavery is not an official topographical name for Egypt. It's a, it's a title that describes Egypt from Israel's perspective, and they would have resonated with us.

What God brought to pass was not simply a change of address. Oh, you live here now. No, he delivered his chosen people from abject slavery to a foreign power. And friends, this was a situation from which there was absolutely no human deliverance.

Without God, they were toast, didn't have a chance. They were doomed to stay there, but God made the difference. This is the God who is not in an active do nothing God, an empty windbag God. No, he, he intervened on behalf of his people in order to bring his promises to pass.

He had committed himself to make, give them a land. That wasn't an empty promise. He was bringing that to pass, by bringing them out of Egypt and deliver redeeming them out of the land, the place of slavery. And just As an aside, think about how important this references to the land of Egypt in the in the place of slavery.

You see, about a dozen times, these two occur as a pair in the Old Testament, it's important to see why it occurs, where it occurs. Look at one of them with me. Turn back to Exodus chapter 20. I could look to Deuteronomy 5, but I want to shock people by going to another book with Exodus 20.

The 10 Commandments is given in both books Deuteronomy 20 and Exodus 20, Deuteronomy 5. The 10 Commandments begin in verse 3, where he is laying out for God's people his demand for their loyalty in an unparalleled way. And who is it that is asking their loyalty? Notice verse 2 gives you the front porch for that.

I am the Lord, your God. He's the covenant, making covenant, keeping God their personal God, the absolute sovereign Creator God. Who brought you out of Egypt and out of the land of slavery. There are two terms.

He's the God who brought to pass his promise on the page of human history. Didn't just talk about it, did it. Transform their lives. That's the God.

That calls them to obey the 10 Commandments. That's the God that deserves their obedience, and that's the God the Israel for misunderstanding. Has he wronged them? Has he wearied them?

As a matter of fact, no. He is the God who's intervened in their life in a powerful way to accomplish his plan on their behalf. You see, the reason that the Lord could demand that His chosen people obey Him wholehearted, wholeheartedly and live a life of absolute loyalty is that he is totally responsible for the deliverance from Egypt. That should have been the fire that moved them forward, the passion of their heart that showed up in obedience.

He's the redeemer. He formed them as a nation. That's the first part of the historical overview. Next two, just fly over with mention.

You have 3 leaders, Moses, Aaron, and Miriam that were given to God's people to direct them, to give them leadership in this very difficult situation of wandering in the wilderness. There's Bala, Balak of Moab, who hired Balaam the prophet to curse God's people, and God prevented that from happening and made him bless God's people. The point is God is intervening in in things that don't just involve the exodus, but look at the fourth one with me, the stupendous miracle. Sorry.

There we go. This is Venous miracle in the universe. 5, remember your journey from Shaim to Gilgal. What in the world is that?

Shaim to Gilgal. Well, here on the map you can see on the right side the circled word is Shaim and the one in the center is Gilgal, and notice there's a little blue line between the two called the Jordan River. OK, think about this with me, Shati. What happened to Shaim?

Well, when they, when they got to Shaim, they were done wandering. When they got the team, that's when Balaam tried to curse them and God prevented it. While they're at your team, God gave Moses the message of Deuteronomy, and when they're at your team, they sent the two spies into the Land of Promise to check the land out and came back and gave the report. And what's Gilgal?

Well, Gilgal is their first encampment in the Land of Promise. This is the beginning of their experience of the fulfillment of the promise that God would give them the land. And what had to happen in order for point A to point B to take place? Well, what's between the two?

It looks like there's a very narrow strip of water would be easy to jump across. It's the Jordan River, which if you've ever been there before, is not all that impressive, especially down here. But it was at flood stage, and then the Jordan River flood stage was 0.5 mile to 2 miles wide. And so what does God do?

This isn't the guy that runs into the Jordan River and say, OK, you're on your own, buddy. Get the cross the best you can. No, this is the God who reminisces of the cross of the Red Sea as the priests approach the waters with the Ark of the Covenant as their feet get near to the water, the water parched and their feet comes down on dry ground. This is a guy who says, I'm going to facilitate the fulfillment of my promise in a way that glorifies me before the world and before you.

And he mentions this here from Gilgalhin. As an important indication of the God he is, and what does he want them to do? It says in verse 5 twice, my people, remember. And then partway through the verse.

Remember your journey from Shaim to Kilgel. He wants them to not just recall a collection of facts in order to pass an exam, and those of you who are either done with or wrapping up your semester at school really identify with that. That's not what he's talking about. He wanted Israel to experience these historical realities as present events that impacted the way they lived.

He's talking about life transforming remembrance. This remembrance of what God had done on their behalf was the foundation for their present and future loyalty to Him. And why else that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord. He's the one who always does what's right.

He doesn't fail. He doesn't Have unjust expectations. No, he's the guy who always does what's right. He can be trusted to bring to pass precisely what he promised.

So in his indictment against his people, he blows away the idea that he could have failed, that he demonstrates that he has been flawless in his care for them. Which brings their conduct to an even sadder spot. And we read then in verses 6 and 7, Israel's response to the Lord. After hearing the Lord's painful probing questions and this convincing summary of all he had done on their behalf, Israel should have been speechless.

They should have rolled over in repentance and and begged God for forgiveness and, and, and obeyed him from the inside out. They should have known beyond doubt that Yahweh had been absolutely faithful and they'd been nothing but rebels. There's a problem They're at odds with their covenant Lord. There's a chasm fixed between them and Yahweh.

How can they fix the problem? Well, I imagine between verse 5 when the Lord finishes his overview of what he's done on their behalf, and verse 6, there's a long pause, as it sinks in. And it seems that the prophet then switches gears and plays the role of an Israelite hypothetical worshiper, Joe Israelite, we'll call him. And he, he wants to know how does he fix the problem?

How does he have access to God? How does he bridge the gap? It's like he's asking someone else for advice. OK, will this work?

How about this? It's like this hypothetical Israel is standing outside the sanctuary of God and the door is locked. How do I get back inside? What's the key?

How can I restore my relationship with God? And you're going to see in this verse, that the Israelites don't understand what God expected of them. The Lord had entered into a covenant relationship with them. But they had corrupted That covenant relationship into some a detailed externally focused contract lists, tasks is what God wanted first and foremost.

And it seems like this Joe Israelite, this representative Israelite worshiper, was asking the price that will win God's favor, raising the bid as time goes by. It appears he assumes that God as man can be bought. And so he asks in verse 6, this hypothetical Israelite worshiper Joe Israelite says, with what or how shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Then he offers three answers.

Increasing in value and sacrifice. The first one talks about total dedication, verse 6. Shall I come before him with burnt offerings with calves a year old? You see burnt offerings which involve various animals without blemish, represented very expensive offerings.

Most of the sacrifices of the Mosaic law were not totally consumed on the altar. The vast majority of sacrifices of the Mosaic law involve taking a certain part of the sacrificial animal, burning that on the altar, and the rest was eaten by the Levites and the priests, the meat. And that was the way God provided for the priests and the Levites through the sacrificial system as well. There's one set of sacrifices called fellowship offerings where it's like a potluck, if you will, where the worshiper's family and the priests and Levites attending the sacrifice would share and have a meal together from the meat of the sacrificial animal.

The burnt offering is another category all by itself. With a burnt offering, the entire animal was consumed. Nothing was for the offer, the offerer, the worshiper, or for the priests and the Levites. And a calf was commonly offered as a sacrifice, and it could be as young as 7 days old and be offered.

Here we're talking about a yearling. A yearling calf was always regarded as the best, and think about it. If you have any farming in your past, you'd understand what this would involve. By the time, by that time of the year had gone by, that calf had eaten a lot of food and received a lot of attention, was worth a fair bit of money.

And so to offer a yearling calf as a burnt offering was a demanding sacrifice, total dedication. Well, let's think bigger, one step bigger than that. What was another option according to Joe Israelite here in verse 7, abundant sacrifice. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams and with 10,000 rivers of oil.

Maybe God wanted a mammoth impressive set of sacrifices like what Solomon offered when he dedicated the temple and he offered hundreds of sacrificial animals. To honor the Lord for his role in the life of Israel. And before we look at those two aspects of of rams and oil, look at the progression of numbers here. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams and 10,000 rivers of oil?

We've seen that before at the bottom of the slide, 1 Samuel 18:7, as David and Saul were coming back from the battle with the Philistines that took place in the wake of David's defeat of Goliath. They had both distinguished themselves in that battle and slain many Philistines. And the ladies lined the street and they say, as they dance, they sang, Saul has slain his 1000s and David has 10s of 000s. And we see Saul have a little hissy fit and get really upset and huff off.

Because they're comparing his deeds as puny compared to David doing something 10 times greater than him. Well, Saul didn't have a clue. That's not what that set of that set of phrases meant. He had this inferiority complex, he was listening to what he wanted to listen to, and he missed poorly responded to it.

When they say 1,000s and 10 and 10,000s, the point isn't win, loser winner. That's not the point. They're saying thousands and tens of thousands are saying, together as a poetic pair. A number beyond what you can imagine.

What they're saying is, Saul and David are responsible for impressive victories. They've slain many Philistines. It's a way of describing unimaginable numbers. OK, let's look at how it's applied here.

Rams and rivers of oil. Thousands of rams and 10,000 rivers of oil, both of these come out of these rams. Male sheep and rivers of oil were part of the sacrificial system at the temple, tabernacle. Though he's not pitting one against the other, they both have a role to play, and he's talking about an abundant lavish sacrifice.

So he's saying, he's saying. Perhaps First of all, the first option was a burnt offering. The most expensive sacrifice that involved. Everything being offered consumed.

Lavish sacrifice option number 2. What about 1000 rams, something that no one could afford with that unlock the door to let me back in. Beyond that, what about 10,000 streams of oil? Now to understand that last statement, we need to think about streams in like the Midwest or the East because in Southern California, I think we're like Israel in some ways., back in Santa Clarita we had the mighty Santa Clara River.

First time we visited the interview at the Master seminary, we were shown by one of our colleagues. Oh yeah, this is the Santa Clara River, and my wife and I looked at each other and we said, back home rivers have water in them. So if you're from the Midwest or the East, what rivers are. We're not too far from the, from the Mississippi River back in Minneapolis, big river, lots of water, and we know from our news headlines that flooding rivers do a lot of damage, overflowing their banks, and so we know what full rivers are, but this is what the picture is in in Mica.

We're talking about 10,000 waddies, dry riverbeds of oil. Here's a picture of the land of Israel. Think about it. I know this is backwards for you.

Here's west and here's east. So the Mediterranean Sea, a storm is coming off the Mediterranean Sea and it's going to drop water on the land of Israel. So it drops off water and as it raises an elevation of the continental divide to the middle of Israel, it starts dropping water on the east side as well. It's petering out a bit, but it's still dropping rainwater that goes over the east side of the continental divide.

Well, while that's happening, unknown to the folks who have decided to go on a camping trip over Memorial Day weekend, let's say, really would be happy earlier than that for the rainy season, they're down there camped in a nice flat spot on the way to the Dead Sea, very comfortable. They had their s'mores the night before, great meal. They go to bed in their tent and they're just happy as clams, right? And they're, they're sleeping and all of a sudden they hear this rumbling.

The ground is vibrating a bit and the roar is hearing and they open up their tent door and there's a 10 ft wall of water that. They're toast. They're gone. They're swept into the Dead Sea.

By the way, that happens every year in Israel. Unsuspecting campers camping in a waterbed, a dry waterbed, a riverbed that they don't know is a river, get washed away because up there on the continental divide when the rain was falling, they had no clue. It was dry as a bone where they were at. But you have this dry riverbed that gets full of water, just rages down the hill and sweeps anything in its way into the Dead Sea.

So what what Mike is talking about here when he talks about 10,000 streams of oil, he's not talking about these little gentle gurgling brooks in your backyard. he's talking about 10,000 overwhelming torrents of oil. That's his analogy. So he's saying this lavish or abundant sacrifice quantity.

Should I offer thousands of rams and 10,000 rivers of oil isn't we don't impress God with my dedication to this idea. Well, we'll see, the answer is obvious. Here's the 3rd option. Absolute sacrifice.

7 The hypothetical Israelite worshiper, Offers the greatest sacrifice, the culmination of what a person could offer. More precious than a burnt offering, more treasured than even thousands of rams and 10,000 overwhelming torrents of oil. This hypothetical Israelite worshiper, Joe Israelite offers what should have paralyzed him with pain at the very thought of it. He says, Shall I offer my firstborn?

For my transgression. The fruit of my body For the sin of my soul. What if I were to offer my own son Even my firstborn son, my own flesh and blood. For the sin of my soul, the sacrifice of my son will serve as some payment.

For the worshippers sin. So that was Israel's response to the Lord. Maybe we'll try. Total dedication.

Maybe we'll try lavish sacrifice, maybe we'll try absolute sacrifice. And again, there's another pause, I imagine that we come to the Lord's remedy for his covenantation. What does God think about this? The hypothetical worshiper has offered his suggestions, and to be frank, they're all bonehead ideas.

They didn't get it. And, and it'll help illustrate this, guys, can you empathize with this? Have you ever said or done something? Really stupid.

That did not make a positive contribution. To your relationship with the one you love, I'm thinking mostly of husbands with wives, could be parents with kids, could be girlfriend, boyfriend. So you're not just locked outside, you're, you're locked in the doghouse or in the deep freeze. you're in big trouble.

What do you do? So I'm in this big, I'm in this tough spot. There's tension in my relationship. It was totally dumb of what I said or what I did, and it didn't help things.

How do I fix the problem? OK, here's some ideas. These are all bonehead suggestions you'll see. Here, here's some ideas.

I wanna go buy my lovely bride some flowers. Maybe I can earn her favor. Maybe I'll go out and buy that kitchen utensil she's been asking for and I've been ignoring for several weeks. Or maybe, and this is more significant for my wife maybe than for yours, but maybe I'll go and take her.

I'll commit Saturday morning to going to garage sales. Or going to Goodwill. That's one of the top 2 stores in some of my girls, shopping habits. And, and, all those ideas are bonehead ideas.

They're not ultimately effective. And I'm not saying that buying my wife flowers is bad, and I'm not saying that buying her that kitchen utensil wouldn't be a good thing to do or to spend time with her doing something she enjoys would not be a manifestation of my love. That's not what I'm saying. You see, when we, when we have some tension in our relationships with people that we love, the solution rarely revolves around stuff or things to do.

Yes, there are things we can do to help restore a relationship, but guys in particular, what we really need to do in those kinds of cases when we're experiencing relational tension, it's our fault. That's something we've done. The solution is to be a loving husband who lives as if our wife is the greatest treasure on earth. From the inside out it is abundantly obvious to everybody around us, including her, that that's true.

That replaces all the things we can talk about. On the get out of the doghouse list, right? And so that's what Mike is talking about here. He's, he's transitioning from the Israelites bonehead idea as to what God really is looking for here.

And without introducing a new speaker in verse 8, he wants his people to understand God's people, Israel to understand this is what God's looking for instead of your task-oriented to do list idea. Buying God's favor. That is not what God's interested in. Here's what he wants.

He says something amazingly generic. He has showed you a man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you. I remember before in the chapter he talked about my people, my people, his people, and his intimacy that's there. He says he has showed you a man.

It's like, that's different. I think what God has in mind is He wants us people to know really who they are. They're the creature. He's the creator.

They're a man. He is God. They are frail creatures with little to offer God except their loyalty. God doesn't need my obedience.

He doesn't need my list. He doesn't need my tasks. He doesn't feed on them. But what he's done is he's, he's, he's demanded that I live a life of loyalty from the inside out because that makes him big in the world.

That helps people around the world see what it's like by me living out a life of vibrant loyalty from the inside out that shows up in concrete forms. So where we start is the idea. And then he does something here in the first part of verse 8 that I think is really interesting and there may be a Hebrew geek in me, but hang with me here. This is called a chiastic structure.

The point of the chaotic structure, it's like a mirroring image. It reverse goes with A, B, C, D, E, F, then E D C B A reverse backs up, goes forward six steps and goes backward methodically in the same six steps. Notice the parallel that's happening. He is told he requires you from you, oh man, Yahweh, what and what is good.

Now most of the time this chaostic structure that occurs in Old Testament literature, the very basic significance is very memorable. Something that's arranged in this a fashion is something you can memorize. some verses in the Bible are easier to memorize than others because they have a pattern to them that you grab onto. This would be very, very memorable, but some chaotic structures have this crescendo point, this singular entry that everything focuses on.

It's like the culmination of the point. And I think that's what we're seeing here with Micah, not just something memorable, but something that God approves of, something God values is what we should pursue. Back in Genesis 1, the creation account, day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5, at the end, it says he saw that it was good. Day 6, he saw that it was very good, something that satisfied God's expectations.

So what Micah is saying is this is what God wants from you is what's good, based on God's definition. According to God's value system. This is what God firmly wants from his people. What is good.

And the interesting thing is the life described here with good and the three phrases to follow is not primarily. Buildings and ceremonies as much as that can be part of religion. And a valid part we're in one, right? Praise God for a building.

Praise God for a service. Those are good things. But that's not primary. You see, The verse describes a God honoring life from the inside out, the essence of what God expects from His people for all ages.

And this is not something absolutely new or revolutionary, something I've never heard of before. For example, in First Samuel 15:22, he said, Samuel said this to Saul, does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? No. To obey is better than sacrifice and to heat is better than the fat of rams.

And Hosea 6:6, write is I mercy and not sacrifice the acknowledgment or knowledge of God. Rather than burnt offerings, a knowledge of God that impacts life. You see, by saying these things. In other places, Micah is barking up that same tree is hitting the same chord, but I want you to understand that the biblical prophet then and what happened in the first Samuel and what happened in Hosea, the prophet is not saying that animal sacrifices are unimportant or unnecessary.

The prophet isn't saying, well, all you have to do is obey God, never mind the sacrifice talk, that's unimportant. No, no, the truth is that God. has commanded those sacrifices as a manifestation of the heart relationship. But the issue here is that God does not delight in sacrifices that are offered without a hard attitude that matches the sacrifice being put in the altar.

Because when a person would put a sacrifice on an altar and had a heart that didn't match that sacrifice, what word do we have for that? Hypocrisy Empty ritual. So when that Israelite worshiper would come to the altar with a, with a, with a, with a guilt offering triggered by his sin, he comes with a heavy heart, maybe tears in his eyes, but broken. Over the way he's not represented represented God with clarity by his conduct, or the believer who brings that Thanksgiving offering and takes a part of his harvest, part of his profit margin.

And offers it freely on the altar. It isn't like I've got to give this thing. I'd rather not, and it's cutting into my profit margin. That's hypocrisy is the point.

He's saying he wants there to be a correlation between her heart and her action. So what he's got to want most from his people? Look at these three statements. First of all, to act justly.

justice. is not just a legal term. It refers to behavior that measures up according to a certain standard. And as sinners, our tendency isn't to seek what's best for others, it's to seek what's best for ourselves, whether it's just or right.

And why is that so important? And again we come back to why God gave the law to His people. God gave the law to His people to address the two kinds of dimensions a horizontal dimension and a vertical dimension. If you took all the verses that deal with the virgical dimension, you're talking about sacrificial system, dedication of priests, and other verses like that.

But then there's a lot of passages in the Mosaic covenant that deal with everything else about how Israelites relate to fellow Israelites first and the people in general second. And you look at those, at those, those laws and they're all asking God's people to live lives of justice, equity, and compassion. You see, What God wanted Israel to do was to live in a way that people would see God stamped on their hearts. To be treating each other as Israelites so the world sees the a God they're serving.

Because by treating each other with justice, equity and compassion, according to the Mosaic covenant, they will be doing something that was absolutely countercultural. Can you imagine what that would look like if people in a nation treated each other this way? We've never seen it yet. We will in the millennium.

And so he's desiring that they would represent this God in the world. I want you to understand it's like you have an arrow pointing up and then arrows pointing out. They had a responsibility to God to honor him and their relationship with Him, but an important part of the Mosaic covenant was to demonstrate to the world what God was like by the way they related to each other. By the way they treated each other.

That's what it says here to them, do justly. What this looks like is negatively a person who does justly will have nothing to do. We're taking advantage, Of their their their their brethren. Through oppression, perjury, bribery, anything to their detriment.

No deal. Positively it means that a person who does justly desires, a person who does justly will notice and care for the needs of their fellow citizens, their brethren, will carefully defend their rights, will advocate for them. You see, God wants his people to live out from the inside out what he's like, and it shows up by doing justly. So it's not just an act of obedience, it's a heart that shows up in obedience.

And again, why does Micah mention it here? Because Israel is doing so poorly at this point in time. Read Amos and Micah sometime, and the tear will come to your eyes when you think about the horrific departure of God's people from His requirements. Here's a couple of examples, very sad passages in Micah 2.

The prophet says, Woe to those who plan iniquity and to those who plot evil on their beds. At morning's light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it. They covet. These are fellow Israelites we're talking about.

They covet fields and seize them and houses and take them. They defraud a man of his home and a fellow man of his inheritance, Israelite on Israelite oppression. An absolute corruption of what God expected of his people. The next one is even more graphic.

Then I said, now listen, leaders of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel, aren't you supposed to know what is just? Yet You hate good and love evil. You tear off the skin of people and strip their flesh from their bones. You eat the flesh of my people after you strip their skin from them and break their bones.

You chop them up like flesh for the cooking pot, like meat in a cauldron. That's just nasty. And the point is he's not accusing them of cannibalism. He's likening the level of their oppression of each other to cannibalism.

And it's in that a world, the prophet Micah says, this is what God wants from you. Not just checklists, not just tasks completed without a heart. Do justly from the inside out. Pursue that relationship with him.

God says enough. Take care of each other rather than take advantage of each other. And then the sad thing is, and then they move on to the next phrase, and that the sad thing is, is that all the while Micah 2 and Micah 3 are happening, folks are eating the right food, celebrating the feast days, going to the temple, offering their sacrifices, and it was a veneer to hide who they really were. Look at the next, the next phrase, and that's that's to love mercy.

The word translated mercy or faithfulness here refers to a committed love based on a previously established relationship. Loyal love, loving kindness, steadfastness, covenant love or different ways it's translated. You probably remember the Psalm where every verse ends with, and his loyal love endures forever, His loyal love endures forever, His loyal love endures forever. That's what we're talking about here.

This fixed commitment in the context of a relationship. And God had entered into a covenant relationship with the nation of Israel, and he was unswerving in his commitment to that relationship. Even when they're faithless, he was faithful. He was characterized by covenant love, by mercy.

And when God expected this of His chosen people, We need to understand this is part of this covenant relationship. You see, Israel is not only part of a covenant relationship with the Lord. But with fellow Israelites, fellow citizens of a covenant community, and what a heart. That Yahweh wants people to possess and manifest in their conduct, one that was absolutely committed to the relationship they enjoyed with the fellow servants of the God of gods.

The Lord wanted His people. To manifest a true heart relationship with Him. And with their fellow Israelites through their treatment of each other. And it's interesting here, this is the only place where they're told to love mercy.

There are several places where it says do mercy, practice mercy, which is important. But the idea here is you love mercy and it's not, it's not like a warm feeling for mercy. The word for love in the context of covenant relationship has the idea of a wholehearted choice, and absolute commitment and the holy embracing of this idea, and having to show up in your conduct. When the Lord says love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind, it's not like, oh, I have this warm feeling for God.

It's with everything you've got, you embrace this relationship with Him and try to live it out for His glory. Love, mercy, ache. To put into practice, wholeheartedly embrace this call of God to live this way with fellow Israelites then. And An example of why this was so important is in Hosea 4.

It says there is no faithfulness, no, in our word, love or mercy, steadfast love, loyal love, covenant love. There is no mercy, no acknowledgement of God in the land. What a sad, sad commentary. There's only cursing, lying, murder, stealing, adultery.

Offenses against each other, breaking all bonds. Bloodshed follows bloodshed. Another passage. Hosea 6:4.

What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with Judah? Your steadfast love is like the morning mist. Well, I can really do, poof, and it's gone, disappears.

What God wanted His people to do is be that just from the inside out. And to love mercy, to be wholehearted commitment to the steadfast love seen especially toward each other, because that makes God big. friends, there are all kinds of people in this world who are immoral people. And I'm grateful for that.

I'd rather have moral people around me than just horrific dedicated sinners. But the thing is, That's not what God's called us to. The difference in the life of an individual shows up when the roof caves in, when the bottom drops out. That's when the difference Christ makes in our life shows up.

So what are we like in difficult circumstances, that's just when things are easy. Do I do justly? Do I love mercy at personal cost? Because that makes God big in the world.

That's what God is calling Israel too and Micah, and us as well. Last one, to walk humbly with Your God. The first two, I think, deal with most of the horizontal relationships. I think the last one deals with our relationship with God more primarily.

And like, like my people, your God, it refers back to that whole intimate relationship God wants to have with his people. I think the basic idea here is understand your position before God, conduct yourself as if you are indeed the children of the God of the universe. Live in light of the fact that you belong to Him. Have God's word be your meat instead of the ideas of the world around you.

Pay attention to his will, and not your desires. Follow his agenda and not yours. Walk humbly with your God, be clay in his hands. Have your eyes fixed on God, a humble servant waiting for his master's direction.

And I suggest to you that this 3rd 1 is foundational for the first two. is as people walk humbly with their God, they're able and they want to do justice and love mercy. So Micah comes to his people and he says, this is what God wants from you. Not the goofy ideas you offered me that were bind God in His favor.

Act justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly. Well, on the one hand, you can say, well, is that all God asks from us?

it's not some complicated formula. You have to have a PhD in semantics to figure it out. Praise God, it's not. God is never a complicated God in that way.

He wants things to be clear. He isn't playing hide and seek with us. Cloaking things. Put it right on the table for us.

This is what God honoring living looks like from the inside out. Not task focused, it's relationship focused. From the inside out, we impact the world. But, on the other hand, this is one of the greatest challenges you and I face.

Having a sinful heart and living in a sinful world, I'm not up for it. Are not sufficient for the task. As lovely as my wife is, as sweet as she is, and as selfless as she is, I need God's strength to love her as Christ loved the church. And so friends This is a huge challenge for us that we need God's strength for.

Peter Craigie, an Old Testament scholar, once said, at first it doesn't sound like much, but it's more than enough for one lifetime. And that's friends, we need to come to, I need you every hour. We need to come to the realization that we are not able to do it ourselves, but we need his strength. And that's why we speak the gospel to ourselves each day and try to live it out by his strength.

So as you look at God's expectations of the nation of Israel then and I think us today. There is relevance then and now, does God ever want mere external conformity to a list of rules and regulations, no matter how biblical that list might be. Is he interested only in our church attendance, offerings, Christian service and acts of obedience? No, not alone.

He wants his children to be devoted to him from the heart. From the inside out. He wants what his children do. To be a clear manifestation of who they are, not a cover for it.

And just a couple of verses to help you see the connection with the New Testament. In John 13, we read, a new command I give you, love one another as I've loved you, so you must love one another. By this, all men know you are my disciples if you love one another. The point is, how do we make God big in the world?

From the inside out, we do justice love mercy. We love one another. How do people know that we're as disciples? By the way, we love one another as countercultural friends, at personal cost.

With the unlovely To live this out and what else? Walk humbly with your God in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who you have who is in you, whom you have received from God. You're not your own.

You're bought with a price. So walk humbly with your God, glorify Him, pursue his agenda, desire His will, pursue his honor. Among all the things that we can devote our lives to, and again, you don't all have to be seminary professors. Doctors, nurses, teachers, garbage collectors, carpenters, whatever it is.

Everything is secondary to my my pursuing God's glory. We're here to make a difference for eternity in the way we live, and it only happens as we pursue this relationship with God from the inside out that shows up in concrete acts of righteousness and obedience. So God is not interested in heartless obedience and the ritualistic devotion to Him, a crossing of the T's and dotting of the I's. What the Lord wants from every adult, young person and child is to obey Him and avoid unrighteousness because it is what our heart compels us to do.

He said to Micah, He has showed you, oh 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. May God help us to have a relationship with Him.

That enables us Of the overflow of that relationship is the engine that drives our conduct. To make him big in the world. Let's pray.