Commentery on Micah 6

      I want to look at a prophet from the latter days of the old kingdom of Judea.  After the Babylonian captivity.  Setting the stage, the whole kingdom was backsliding from the worship of God.  Idolatry became the norm in the public square. Values eroded, and people did not care for one another.  Unfair business practices became so common Adam Smith would have changed his economic philosophy had he lived through it.  In this environment Micah spoke forth the Word of God.
      I won't quote the whole passage, those of you who want to read this know where to find a Bible.  The rest of my readers will have already quit by now.  Turn to Micah 6:6-8.  Read the passage a couple of times until you think you have a good understanding of what Micah had weighing on his heart.  Go ahead, I'll wait till you're done.
      In the first two verses, Micah expresses a frustration in approaching God.  He gives examples of some of the idol worship as ways that God disapproves.  It seems that all the things that the Judeans were doing in their idol worship were repugnant to God and led them further from Him.  This sounds like the American elite society position today.  They declare themselves the morally superior bunch in our land.  Yet their moral judgment has led them farther from God.  The Proverb says, "There is a way that seems right to man, but the ends of it are the ways of death."
      In verse eight, Micah takes the gloves off and delivers a knockout.  The simplicity of the way of God had been rejected by society.  They wanted their own, more difficult and selfish way to get to God.  But Micah reminds them what it is that God wants us to do.
      "He has shown you, oh man, what is good."  God already told the people of Judea, as He has told us, what He deemed to be virtuous.  He gave us a moral direction to follow, and like the Judeans, we have strayed from it.
      "And what does the Lord require from you, but to deal justly, and to love mercy, and to be ready to walk with your God."  God wants to act with justice in all of our interactions.  Business people should treat their employees with as much deference as they do their customers. And the practices of price gouging and fraud are to be avoided.
      The idea of extreme punishment, interminable incarceration for missteps in society, the death penalty for people who have committed no crime, debtors' prisons, and bars to review of convictions that keep the innocent falsely under the onus of convictions are all symptoms of straying from the path God has set us upon and trying to make our own way to Him.  When mercy is gone from the justice system, you can be sure that God is not invited to the churches in that place.
      "...[B]e ready to walk with your God," is translated in the KJV as, "...walk humbly with thy God."  We have to set aside our own preconceived notions of religion and do as God has ordained.  Daily prayer and contemplation will give us a closer relationship with God.  This will help us to understand God's mind.  All day long, in everything we do we must keep our mind on God, ready to acknowledge His presence and seek His guidance.  With God in our lives, our hearts and our actions, we will treat each other with more equanimity, and our society will not face its own destruction.