Well,
welcome back again to another episode of Struggling Well, and we just finished up a look at the book of Habach. And I'm going to stay in the minor prophets or we will this morning. here's the thing, Suzi, that I find about minor prophets are they're short.
Um
not very sweet. Not sweet. Sweet.
No, they're short. They're not sweet. But typically, we kind of remember maybe one or two verses out of each minor prophet. We don't necessarily remember the whole book or the flow of the book. And one of those is in the book of Micah in Micah 6:8, which people have and they read and they put it on their walls. He has told you, oh man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. But what begins that passage in the sixth chapter is Israel has messed up again like we all do. and then they say, "What with what shall we come before the Lord and bow myself before God on high?" In other words, how what does God want from me? And they go through all the external things of worship that they would think, you know, sacrifice, a lot of sacrifices, and they get to the absurd and they said, "Does he want me to take my firstborn and give that to him. And it's in that context of Israel kind of going, "Okay, God, what do you want that he come, we come to Micah 6:8, he's told you what is good and what does the Lord require of you?" And he doesn't do anything that's external. He does everything that's internal. I
I find this passage fascinating because in you know, there's Israel's disobedience in the first five verses and then Israel responds and asks that question like you said, You know, God, what do you want? And then they go to, and I'm familiar with this because I am hyperbolic. Is that the word?
H hyperbole.
Word.
Hyperbolic sounds like I have a high blood pressure, which I do, but we're not talking about that. We're talking about a, you know, using a lot of over-the-top questions, you know, 10, 000 rivers of oil. Like, that's ridiculous. But they're trying to figure out and manage God and saying, "What in the world do you want? I'll do this. this like over-the-top stuff. And God's response is so simple. And it's been simple up to this point. It's about, you know, obedience and do good and walk humbly and be merciful. And as I read that, I think about my own response to God. What do you think about that?
Well, I think it's again, yeah, I agree with that. And I think that they always their focus on all of their things is external things.
And so God brings it back to internal and relational things. for example, to do justice. Well, that involves how I treat other people. I treat other people, not just people that I like, but people around me. So, maybe people who are different than I am. I'm to do justice for them. One of Israel's biggest issues, and I think it's one of our issues in our culture today, is the injustices that in how we treat people and then to love kindness. Well, that's again speaking to how I treat somebody else. And then the ultimate to walk humbly with God. I think the thing that God despises the most is pride. And you think about how many people are building their life based around the pride of who they are and what they have and what they do.
Yeah, that's I think we're seeing that a lot. Of course, you know, I kind of read a lot of news, but I'm deciding I can't take it anymore in my Twilight years here. I can't take all that news. But it's power struggle after power struggle. It's one person
wanting power and I'm not sure what that ultimate power does for somebody. I don't know what it does internally for them, but Micah, what Micah 6:8 says is the antithesis of that kind of power. It's walking humbly before God. So, it's the outward, inward, and upward to make it a little cute and pathy there, but that's what he requires of us. And it's simple yet profound because it would be much easier if God said, "I need 10, 000 rivers of oil. I can do that. Well, I'll try to do that and then I'll work really really hard and I'll feel good about doing this. and for us today it's like I'll make sure I go to church. I'm part of a Bible study. I will serve. I will give my money. I will do that. And it's, you know, it reminds me of the verse I'm not sure where it is, but what does God require? A broken and contrite heart,
right?
He doesn't require all this stuff, but this is what we think we need to do. So then we get angry at God because we feel like we can never measure up.
Yeah. And the idea of humility to me is not thinking of and this isn't my definition. Somebody else has given it but I think it's a good one. It's not thinking of myself thinking less of myself. It's thinking of myself less often.
And that's the thing. I wake up every day and if I'm left in my own ways, I think about myself all day long. I think about what I want, where I want to go, what I want to do, who I want to be with, who I don't want to be with. And so it's all about me. And then that transfers over, I think, into my relationship with the Lord. It's all about me. It's not about him.
Yeah.
And God says, "I want you to walk humbly." Well, I think humility is that towards other people, but it's also that in my walk with the Lord.
Let me ask you a question that just popped in my mind. so you were a pastor for 42 years. You were in ministry. So, how do you think that passage would apply to somebody in ministry when there is such a push for bigger and better and attendance and money and buildings and all that. How do you think that applies? And how did that work out for you?
Well, I don't know how it worked out for me. I mean, I think that you know, the again, it's that sense that you've got to put your ego in check. So, even if God gives you and grants you the success, and I put quotes around that word that the world would say is a success, it really is not your doing, it's his doing. And I don't believe that just because numbers appear or the checkbook is in the black, it necessarily means you're doing everything right. It he
he gives you the or he causes the grace to come that allows that to happen. But I think what he's longing for and what I hope was true for us in all the years of ministry is faithfulness.
Yeah.
Faithfulness to whatever season he brings you through. And the church in this day and age is very different than it was even a few years ago when we were still pastoring. I think that there's been a redefining of church that's come out of co not because of co but it's kind of exposed the internal things that are there. so I don't know that I answered that really well but I do think humility is the realization that I can't do anything without his help.
So even if there is the outward signs of success in ministry. The only reason it's there is because of him
and not because of me. You know, we were at church yesterday morning and the in the service they read the passage from Philippians, which I think is the New Testament version of what Micah 6:8 says. because the truth is, we've said this many times from beginning to end from Genesis to Revelation. It's just one story that God is telling. He uses different people. But in Philippians 2, it says Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being full in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interests of others.
And that's really Micah 6:8 in a New Testament version that Paul uses in the book of Philippians.
And that was part of what the issue was with the Israelites is they were disobedient to that. They were not treating one another well. They were treating people that were less lesser poorly. They weren't taking care of the widows and the orphans and all that. And so God comes to them and says, "This is not what I want."
No, it's not. And in other prophets, other spokespeople that he had for him in the Old Testament, they accused even the leadership of that.
So God in a couple different places says, "I'll come down and shepherd my people." In other words, you guys are aren't doing it, I'm going to do it for you. And so whether you go to Philippians 2 or whether you go to Micah 6:8, it's a great picture of how we're to treat one another and how we're to live and how we're to walk and what pleases God.
Good words.
Thank you. Same to you.
Have a good day.