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Plainly Speaking
with Karl J. Forehand
What
God Requires
(Micah 6:6-8)
by
Karl J. Forehand
With what shall I come to the LORD And bow myself before the God on high?
Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings, With yearling calves? Does the LORD take delight in thousands of
rams, In ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my first-born for my
rebellious acts, The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, O man, what is good; And
what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to
walk humbly with your God? (Micah
6:6-8)
What a monumental question,
“With what shall I come to the Lord?”
I recently attended an orthodox service where tradition and ritual
were obviously deemed critical to worship.
Many of the debates going on right now have to do with this
question. We ask, “Should I come to
the Lord raising my hands or not raising my hands?” “Should I come sitting in a pew or a chair?” “Should we come singing choruses or
traditional hymns?” “Should we gather
under a denominational umbrella or be independent?” “Should we be stoic or lively?”
I believe the answer is “Who
cares!” All of the above issues are
ritual issues. May I say, if you have
made any of these issues essential to your worship, you are distracted. Satan has convinced you that the ritual
matters more than the substance. What
is the substance? We will get to that
in a minute.
Raising hands was used during
prayer in the New Testament and was never forbidden or required. Pews are a matter of available seating. In my opinion, they very
uncomfortable. The importance of
music is it’s message. We probably wouldn’t like Hebrew or Greek music of the
Bible. They didn’t have organs in the
New Testament and the music we consider traditional was once contemporary. There were no denominations in the New
Testament, but certainly we should work together as long as we don’t follow
men instead of God. You can literally
find almost any demeanor of worship you desire in the Bible. The importance of worship is that we
experience God.
There is one more thing that is
very important for worship. We forget
about it often. In the second phrase
of this passage it says “Wtth what shall I come to the Lord and bow?” We have forgotten how to bow. Someone said, “We are so proud that we can
strut sitting down.” I have seen some
people strutting in worship. The
natural posture of worship is to bow.
Bowing is a position of humility.
What about the burnt
offerings? God gave Israel rituals to
symbolize certain things. Unfortunately, they fell in love with the ritual. Did you know that God never loved the
ritual?
What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?" Says the LORD. "I
have had enough of burnt offerings of rams, And the fat of fed cattle. And I
take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats. "When you come to appear before Me,
Who requires of you this trampling of My courts? "Bring your worthless offerings no longer, Incense is an
abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies-- I cannot
endure iniquity and the solemn assembly.
"I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts, They
have become a burden to Me. I am weary of bearing them. "So when you spread out your hands in
prayer, I will hide My eyes from you, Yes, even though you multiply prayers,
I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood. (Isa. 1:11-15)
The thought is continued in
Hebrews:
For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away
sins. Therefore, when He comes into
the world, He says, "Sacrifice and offering Thou hast not desired, But a
body Thou hast prepared for Me; In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for
sin Thou hast taken no pleasure.
"Then I said, 'Behold, I have come (In the roll of the book it is
written of Me) To do Thy will, O God.'"
(Hebrews 10:4-7)
Falling in love with the rituals fuels our desire to simply do
more. Micah asked the question, “Do
we need thousands of rams, 10,000 rivers of oil or what?” Understand that more of what is not
effectual does not make it effectual.
The ritual never solved anything in God’s eyes and more of what didn’t
get it done still won’t get it done.
So what should we do?
I’m glad you asked. I’ll let
this passage answer.
1. Do justice
Wait a minute – weren’t we talking about worship? Aren’t we supposed to be talking about
rituals? I want to know the right
ritual. Hello! Is anyone in there? The right ritual is how we live our
lives. Believe it or not God cares
about how we act. It makes a
difference how you act and it is an integral part of worship.
We have to DO justice.
What is justice? Justice is
doing the “right” thing to all people.
What does God say is right when someone has offended me? What does God say is just toward the
downtrodden? How does God say we
should live our lives.
The primary command God gives us is to love. We have to help them in love. We have to teach them in love. We have to bear witness in love. Occasionally, we have to rebuke in love.
How do I know what is right (just) ? Fortunately, for us, God gave us His Word to teach us and His
Spirit to guide us. Aren’t we
blessed. I think we know that we are
blessed – the question is: Are we
obedient?
2. Love Kindness
Two words here. Love = “an ardent and vehement indication
of the mind and a tenderness of the affection at the same time.” Cool – but what is kindness? Kindness = “the loving kindness of God –
this word is central to the character of God. It involves His covenant nature and His character of
compassion. We then are commanded to
love “loving kindness.”
I often can force my self to be
kind, but I often have trouble loving it.
We have to be so much about letting God’s character be displayed in us
that we learn to love it. My coach
used to tell me he was going to make me like running sprints. He never succeeded. To love “mercy” or “loving kindness” we
have to submit to the God’s purposes in our lives.
3. Walk humbly
This passage literally says, “Make
humble to walk with God of you.” We
must understand that we can’t even approach God in pride, much less walk with
Him. We have to prepare to walk with
God and we have to maintain that walk – both are done in humility.
Karl J. Forehand, 2002
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