Micah 6:6-8: "With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has showed you, O 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."
When Israel lost their vision of who God was, when they were divided into two kingdoms about 750 B.C., God sent Micah to speak the truth to a back-slidden nation.
When Israel was relying on who they were and what they did for their relationship with God, Micah told them how God viewed their religious life. What Micah said still has great meaning for those who desire to serve the Lord today.
First he asks a hard question: What offering I can bring to worship God? Today, like then, people want to appease God with financial giving, self- denial, religious activities, group affiliation, or how they dress. So Micah asks questions to provoke thought. Just what is it that allows people to come to a holy God?
It's not sacrifices. The price of a man or woman's soul is greater than the death of an animal. It's not costly offerings. God is not concerned about the value of your gift but how much it cost you.
When Jesus was watching the offering box, many wealthy people put in large amounts of money, making sure everyone knew how much, when a poor widow woman put in two copper coins worth about a half a penny.
Jesus said of her: Luke 21:3 "This poor widow has put in more than all the others."
She gave out of a desire to hear from God the others gave out of their surplus.
So sacrifice or offering do not get us to know God. Perhaps giving his oldest child would appease God. Of course that's ridiculous, for that is what the pagans do - offer their children to false gods.
But there is a Son that was sacrificed that can bring us to God. The only price that proved to be enough to purchase people from the sin that separates everyone from the living God.
2 Corinthians 5:21: "God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God."
Micah looking through time knew there was one coming who would show just what the Lord requires. Jesus Christ became the justice, mercy and humility that bridges the gap to God. By faith in Him and what He did, suddenly the only sacrifice that could get anyone to God gives us access to God. By that faith and through God's grace, you can be saved.
-- Pastor Rich Lammay of High Sierra Fellowship is a member of Carson Valley Ministers' Association.
