“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?
7 Will the Lord be pleased with[a] 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?”
8 He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,[b]
and to walk humbly with your God?
It's interesting..... the last verse I've heard many times, but I've never really noticed the preceding verses. God isn't interested in sacrifices made to appease Him so He'll leave us alone. God wants changed lives. He wants living sacrifices. And that is something that is impossible to do on our own strength.
So, we need to follow Micah 7:7
But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.
And rejoice in the truth of Micah 7:18-20
Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.
In our NT passage we see Jesus' struggle in Gethsemane. He knew what God's will was, but it did not make it easy to fulfill the plan that had been set in motion ever since the beginning of time. I read a quote today on Facebook by Danny MacKay that referenced this exactly.....
Happy birthday my King.
You went from being the King of Heaven, to a vulnerable and helpless baby. I imagine another type of 'Gethsemane' for you on that night before you descended. Before your arrest, you wrestled in that garden with how much you were about to suffer. I bet it was similar in Heaven the night before you came to earth.
Such cost.
But You came.
You put us before yourself. Our souls were more important to you than your own blood. Our place in Heaven was more important to you than your place, so you gave up yours so we could have ours.
This goodwill is overwhelming and very much undeserved.
Today we celebrate that you wanted peace between us. No greater sign than this could ever be given:
You came.
For all the sinful, the broken, the hopeless, the dirty. The lonely, the oppressed, and the forgotten. For all who have shame. For the inexcusable.
You opened the way home.
What a marvellous hope for us that you include the word "whosoever" in this:
"For God SO loved the world, that He gave His only Son that WHOSOEVER believes in Him, will not perish, but have everlasting life" Jn 3:16
No single person should ever doubt their worth again.
Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: Zechariah 1-4; Luke 22:47-71
3 comments:
Good point about Jesus also being in anguish the night before He came down to earth to be born to Mary. I have never thought about this, it could have been more difficult than the night before He was crucified. This humbles me, to know that He gave up so much for a dirty sinner like myself. How could anyone ever doubt how much He loves us?
He has told you, O man, 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? - Micah 6:8
This verse stood out to me too. For me, the key words are "with our God." Like Tammy said, we cannot do this on our own but need God's help.
I also had never thought about the fact that it was probably also very hard for Jesus to come to earth as a baby. He didn't choose that, He obeyed. Sometimes I have thought that it would have been nice to be born into a family with the genes of making it possible to make the NHL. How foolish and immature my thinking can be.
This verse was our school's theme verse last year:
He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,[b]
and to walk humbly with your God
And I too had never really looked at the verses before this one. It's a challenge to walk and be a living sacrifice. We cannot do it alone. We will, as the disciples did, fall asleep on the job. We need to seek God continually to be the kind of living sacrifice that Jesus was in our words, deeds, and life.
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