What Does the Lord Require?

Jim Frantti | The Voice of Zion September 2025 - The Sabbath Word 2 Article -- 

Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or 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? He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?  – Micah 6:6-8 

The prophet Micah lived at the same time as Isaiah. The book of Micah was written about seven centuries before the birth of Christ. It was a time in which many of the people had fallen away from God. Micah rebuked the people because of their idolatry, self-righteousness, and treatment of others. Yet, the Word of God was preached – a Word of rebuke but also of repentance and God’s goodness. 

Through Micah, God reminded the people that He had delivered them from the bondage of Egypt and redeemed them from servitude. In reminding the people of this, the question was asked, “How can one become God’s own again?” Micah asked, can one offer burnt offerings, year-old calves, thousands of rams, or even rivers of oil? Finally he asked if God would be appeased if one offered his firstborn, his own child, as a sacrifice. 

God Is Forgiving 

The prophet makes it clear that humans cannot offer anything to appease God. After all, everything that we have comes to us as gifts of God; even our children are God’s creation and gifts. Micah reminds the people that God is forgiving and gracious. “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:18,19). 

This message of forgiveness is still the message of God’s kingdom today. In His kingdom, Jesus left the keys of the kingdom (John 20:21–23). Martin Luther wrote in his time that in God’s Christian Church “He daily and richly forgives me and all believers all our sins.” God brings a person into His kingdom through the hearing of His Word, a Word of forgiveness. He gives the power to remain believing through the message of the gospel. When a person is thus able to receive faith and to preserve faith through the message of forgiveness in the Name and Blood of Jesus, God’s Word becomes dear. God’s child wants to continue to endeavor in the hearing and believing of God’s Word and to be a doer of it. 

Walk Humbly before God 

Micah showed that God does not demand anything more from a person. He wrote that God has shown us what He requires: “To do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.” Faith and God’s forgiving love bring this fruit of love: that a person loves God, His congregation, and all people. Faith brings forth the desire to do justly toward all people and to treat others with the same mercy that God has shown to us. 

A child of God endeavors in the hearing and believing of God’s Word, accepting rebuke, instruction, and the teachings of God’s Word with the faith of a child. Thus, it is our desire to travel in faith with a humble heart. God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble (1 Pet. 5:5). A believer acknowledges, as Apostle Paul, that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief” (1 Tim. 1:15). We place our trust in God’s gracious care. By the power of the gospel, the child of God will one day reach the destination of heaven.