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            The prophet Micah lived about 200 years after King David and about 800 years before Jesus during the time when the people of God were divided into two nations, Israel and Judah. Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, had rejected the counsel of elders (1 Kings 12:6-8) which resulted in a rebellion by Jeroboam and others and the setting up the golden calves in Dan and Bethel (1 Kings 12:26-29) and the result being the establishment of the nation of Israel. Micah was one of the Lord’s prophets that prophesied to Israel and by his prophecy the Lord’s message was clear concerning what he required of the people. The question was asked by Micah, “And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). That same question had been asked by God through Moses, and it was “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord…” (Deuteronomy 10:12). From the time of Moses until the days of Micah what the Lord required had not changed. In fact, what Jesus taught some 800 years after Micah is the exact same message (Matthew 22:37-40). What does the Lord require according to Moses, Micah, and Jesus?
            Micah prophesied to people of Israel that they needed to live justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. Some translations use the word “justice” instead of “justly”. The people in Israel had fallen into a life of idolatry, immorality, and treating others unjustly. Micah provided several examples of how they were living unjustly. “They covet fields and take them by violence, also houses, and seize them, so they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance” (Micah 2:2), “Who build up Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with iniquity. Her heads judge for a bribe, her priests teach for pay, and her prophets divine for money…” (Micah 3:10-11).
            Micah also said that Israel was “to love mercy” or as some translations have “to love kindness”. It is interesting that Micah did not say that they needed to be merciful, although that would be the implication, but he said that Israel needed “to love mercy” or “to love kindness”. What the Lord wanted was not just some rote form of obeying the Ten Commandments or a rote form of doing what they “should do”, but God wanted Israel to genuinely love that which was right for another person, mercy or kindness, and to demonstrate it in their lives. Not only was that what God desired for them, but also for Christians today. Paul wrote that “kindness” was one part of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). Jesus quoted the prophet Hosea when he said, “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice’” (Matthew 9:13). Jesus also said, “Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7).
            Micah completed his thought by saying “And to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). The prophet had reference to living daily in an humble manner toward God and his will and not living arrogantly disregarding and ignoring what God desires. Jesus is the ultimate example of walking in humility and Paul encourages Christians to follow in that mindset of humility. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but…being found in the appearance of a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross” (Philippians 2:5-8). The humility that Micah spoke of to Israel is the same humility that God desires of Christians some 2,800 years later. What does God require of you and me? Live and do justly, love mercy and kindness and walk humbly with God. May that be the goal of each one of us.