Micah 6:6-8 (NKJV)
“With what shall I come before the LORD, And bow myself before the High God?
Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, With calves a year old? 7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, Ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you. But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?”
In my last blog, I picked the three things the Lord requires from us:
We looked at the 3rd point; to walk humbly before the Lord. In this blog, I want to look at the 2nd point: loving mercy. Webster defines Mercy as a “compassion or forbearance shown especially to an offender or to one subject to one’s power.” We tend to love justice more than we love mercy and we are critical of one another. Christians are the only army that shoots its wounded. We are to treat people the way Jesus treats us and not the way they have treated us.
When we love those who love us, we haven’t done anything at all, the world does that. We are called to love the unlovable. Abraham Lincoln said “I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.” Habakuk prayed to God asking Him to remember mercy in His wrath. You are “to love mercy.” You are not only to love the mercy of God but also to be merciful in your own dealings with others.
The people of Israel wanted to please God so much so, that they were ready to give Him thousands of ram, ten thousand rivers of oil, or even give their firstborn as a sacrifice; but God said NO! All of that will not be necessary. All I need is for you to walk humbly before me and love mercy. But He knows that no fallen soul can act as such without special assistance from Him. That it is only the regenerate man, the man who has found redemption through the blood of the cross, and has God for His God, that can thus act and walk. Salvation is of the mere mercy of God alone; for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
God has shown you what is good to man – love mercy. We have been shown mercy so that we can show mercy. Are you merciful? Do you show mercy? Do you show kindness?
I’ll leave you for now. If we don’t meet again, I’ll see you at the dinner table in Papa’s house.
Pastor King