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“What Does The Lord Require?”
What Does The Lord Require?
Wade Webster
We should all be interested in what God says is good for us. We should all want to know what God requires of us. Micah revealed three things that God says are good and that He requires of us. We read, “He 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?” (Micah 6:8).
To Do Justly
Solomon wrote, “To do righteousness and justice Is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice” (Proverbs 21:3). Although God loves sacrifice, He loves justice more. He is a just God and He wants His children to be like Him. You may recall that justice is one of the reasons why God chose Abraham. We read, “For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice, that the LORD may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him” (Genesis 18:19). It should come as no surprise that this man was later called the friend of God (Jam. 2:23). After all, he loved the things that God loved.
To Love Mercy
God is a merciful God. He loves mercy and He wants His people to be merciful. Jesus declared, “Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful” (Luke 6:36). Not only does showing mercy make us like God, it puts us into a position to receive the mercy of God. We read, “Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7). James warned that judgment would be without mercy to those who have shown no mercy. We read, “For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment” (Jam. 2:13). No doubt, you recall the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant (Mat. 18:21-35). May we realize the great mercy that we have been shown by God and show it to others.
To Walk Humbly
God receives the humble, but resists the proud. Peter wrote, “Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time” (1 Peter 5:5-6). We see several examples of this in the Scriptures. The first is Hezekiah. We read, “Then Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the LORD did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah” (2 Chronicles 32:26). The second is Josiah. We read, “Because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and against its inhabitants, and you humbled yourself before Me, and you tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you,” says the LORD” (2 Chronicles 34:27). A third example is that of the praying publican. We read, “Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:9-14). Humility is one of the foundational requirements of God.
What does God say is good for us? What does He require of us? Micah says that it is good for us to do justly. He says that we are required to love mercy. He says that we should walk humbly before our God. How are you doing with these three things?
