Posts Tagged: God seeking things from us

“God’s Requirements” (Micah 6, 8)

“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?”  (NAU  Micah 6:8)

So, what is required of me?  Micah 6:8 is a verse that haunts me.  Micah makes it sound straightforward, if not easy.  (It may be straightforward, but it is not easy, as Micah no doubt realized.)

The word for “seeks” is dôr­ēsh.  This is a participle, which suggestions ongoing or continual action, flowing from the character of the one who is seeking.  In this case, since it refers to God, it is the One who is seeking.

God seeking us!  Now, there is a picture!  We sometimes speak of seeking God, and the Bible speaks in that way as well.  However, Micah 6:8 speaks of God seeking something from us.

It is not enough that the One occasionally sees me doing what is right and fair, or loving mercy, or walking humbly.  The question is this: Does God catch me living in that manner at all times?  The question answers itself.

Well, what about today?  Will God (“my God”, as Micah says) catch me doing what is right each moment of today?  Theoretically, this is possible.  However, as they say, the devil is in the details.  However, God is also in the details.  For some reason, we seem to think that the devil is more involved in the details than God is.

And here is the problem, it seems to me: Other parts of the Bible point out that seeking the LORD God is not so easy, and that, therefore, obedience to what God is seeking from us is not easy.  It requires the whole heart (Jeremiah 29:13.)  And who of us actually seeks God—or anything, for that matter—with a whole heart?  Indeed, there are some Bible verses that suggest that no one really seeks God.  (See Psalm 53:2-3 and Romans 3:11 for further details.)

The very fact that God so often commands God’s own people, Israel, to seek God suggests that seeking God does not come naturally.

I am comforted by the teaching of Jesus, who said, “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost” (Luke 19:10).  Perhaps the bottom line is this: We can only seek the one who has first sought and saved us.  Only so, can we begin to fulfill what God spoke through the prophet Micah.

 

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