Sunday, January 20, 2013

Have You Turned Your Back on God?




Listen to what the Lord is saying:
“Stand up and state your case against me.
    Let the mountains and hills be called to witness your complaints.


And now, O mountains,
    listen to the Lord’s complaint!
He has a case against his people.
    He will bring charges against Israel.
 “O my people, what have I done to you?
    What have I done to make you tired of me?
    Answer me!

For I brought you out of Egypt
    and redeemed you from slavery.
    I sent Moses, Aaron, and Miriam to help you.
 Don’t you remember, my people,
    how King Balak of Moab tried to have you cursed
    and how Balaam son of Beor blessed you instead?
And remember your journey from Acacia Grove[a] to Gilgal,
    when I, the Lord, did everything I could
    to teach you about my faithfulness.”
 What can we bring to the Lord?
    What kind of offerings should we give him?
Should we bow before God
    with offerings of yearling calves?
 Should we offer him thousands of rams
    and ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
Should we sacrifice our firstborn children
    to pay for our sins?
 No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good,
    and this is what he requires of you:
to do what is right, to love mercy,
    and to walk humbly with your God.
-Micah 6:1-8 (NLT)


I logged onto biblegateway.com today and Micah 6:8 was the verse of the day. I then looked at the whole chapter, and was floored. It's as if God is speaking to us, right now, today.

God asks, in verse 3, "O my people, what have I done to you? What have I done to make you tired of me?  Answer me!" The nation of Israel has a history of turning their backs on God. It's easy for us to condemn them for that. But, the reality is, each of us do the exact same thing. As long as it's easy going, no problems, everything is going well, we sing praises to God, we tell of His goodness. But, as soon as something goes wrong, right away we abandon God. We curse God, we turn our backs on Him. God says, "What have I done to make you tired of me?" Then, in verse 4, God reveals what He has done for Israel, "For I brought you out of Egypt and redeemed you from slavery. I sent Moses, Aaron, and Miriam to help you." For us, God has also brought us out of the slavery of sin. Our Egypt is sin, we were slaves to sin (Romans 6:20). God brought us out of sin, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, our Lord! "What have I done to make you tired of me?" Well, what has God done to make you turn your back on Him? He provided salvation to save us from sin. 

Verse 5 says, "Don’t you remember, my people, how King Balak of Moab tried to have you cursed and how Balaam son of Beor blessed you instead? And remember your journey from Acacia Grove[a] to Gilgal, when I, the Lord, did everything I could  to teach you about my faithfulness." Just like people cursed Israel, and said they would never make it, people curse us and say we will never live the life God expects. Look, though, at the end of the verse, "I, the Lord, did everything I could to teach you about my faithfulness." The God that we praise for being faithful when things are going well, is the same God we say is unfaithful when things turn for the worse. God is faithful, God will always be faithful. Then, verse 8 reveals how we should live. "No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." Do we live in this pattern? Do we do what is right? Do you love mercy? Do you walk humbly with God? Not just when things are going well, but 24/7? 

~Think About It~ 

No comments:

Post a Comment