WHAT DOES THE LORD REQUIRE OF YOU
DR. JIM DIXON
MICAH 6:6-8
FEBRUARY 5, 1995
“How shall we then live?” That question Francis Shaeffer put to the Christian world 20 years ago. “How shall we then live?” Every generation of Christians seeks to answer that question. But in truth, the question has been answered. It was given by the prophet Micah so many years ago. “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8. This verse has been called the John 3:16 of the Old Testament. It is not. John 3:16 has to do with salvation. John 3:16 has to do with salvation which is offered through faith in Jesus Christ. But Micah 6:8 tells us how to live a life as Christians, as the people of God… how to live a life pleasing to God.
In Matthew 23:23, our Lord Jesus Christ quotes Micah 6:8. This verse, Micah 6:8, is our subject this morning. What does the Lord require of you? Three things. First of all, if we would live a life pleasing to Him, if we long to hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” then we must do justice. If you would live a life pleasing to the Lord, do justice.
There was a strange story that came out of World War II. Two young men were captured with a segment of the German armies by Americans. These two young men were put in an American POW camp. They did not speak German. They were with the German soldiers, but they did not speak German. They were not German people. They looked Asian. They did not speak English. When United States interrogators tried to question them, they could not communicate with them. These two young men seemed confused, they seemed befuddled, they obviously didn’t want to be there, and they didn’t know what was going on.
The United States government brought linguists in, people who spoke various Asian languages, because these two young men looked Asian. Finally, they were able to communicate with these two young men and they discovered (this was in 1944) that these two young men were actually from Tibet. In 1941, they were just taking a hike. They didn’t even know there was a war going on. They were just taking a hike and they went up over the mountains. They continued to hike and they came down near the Soviet border where they were apprehended by Russian soldiers. Incredibly, they were given uniforms, Soviet uniforms, Soviet rifles, and they were sent to the Russian front. They were Buddhists and they were pacifists. They didn’t know what was going on anyway.
When the Russians were fighting the Germans, these two young men from Tibet began to kind of try to avoid the fighting. They tried to get in the background, but ultimately they were captured by the Germans. They were taken to Germany and then incredibly they were given German uniforms. They were given German rifles, and they were sent to fight the Americans. Again, they didn’t know what was going on. They didn’t want to fight and they tried to hide. They were captured by the Americans and so it was in 1944 they came into that American POW camp. When they finally found someone that could communicate with them, they asked one question. “Why are all these people trying to kill each other?”
Well, a lot of people died in World War II. Seventeen million soldiers died from Allied and Axis nations. Seventeen million soldiers. But that number pales when compared to the number of civilians who died. We don’t know the total number of civilians who died in World War II, but we do know that thirty million civilians died in the Soviet Union and China alone. In Europe, six million Jews were incinerated in Nazi ovens. The death toll was massive.
But for us in America, for this nation, most people viewed that war as a just war. I think most people view World War II as a just war today. Most Americans who fought in that war would tell you that they fought because they were seeking justice on the earth. They fought because they were seeking to make this world a fairer place, they thought, to stem the tide of aggression and greed by imperialistic Japan and they fought to stop a madman named Adolph Hitler. They fought because they were seeking justice and fairness on the earth.
You may live the rest of your life and never fight in a just war, but if you’re a Christian, you have been called to war for justice. You have been called into battle for fairness. You are to seek justice. You are to seek fairness on the earth.
Perhaps you’ve heard the story of George and Harry. George and Harry were golfers. They were golfing partners. They golfed together all the time. You never saw one golfing without the other. This went on for years, but then people noticed that George was golfing alone. Harry wasn’t with him. People came up to George and said, “How come you’re golfing by yourself’? Why aren’t you golfing with Harry?” George said, “Well, would you golf with somebody who cheats? Would you golf with somebody who is always improving their lie? Somebody who is always progressing their ball illegally up the fairway? Someone who is always lowering their score? Would you golf with someone like that?” They said “No.” George said, “Well, that’s how Harry felt about it.”
Now what’s true in golf is true in life. People don’t always play fair. We want people to play fair in golf and in life, but the truth is people don’t always play fair. It’s not a fair world. Even if people did play fair, it still wouldn’t be a fair world because it’s a fallen world, tragically fallen. Life’s not fair. Some people are born in Cherry Hills Village. Some people are born in Calcutta, India, and that’s not fair. Some people are born rich. Some people are born poor. It’s not fair. Some people are born with brilliant intellect and some people are born with mental retardation. That’s not fair. Some people are born handsome or beautiful. Some people are unattractive. It’s not fair. Life’s not fair. I think as Christians, if you really want the world to be more fair, if you’re seeking justice, this can be frustrating because the task can seem overwhelming. Sometimes it just seems like we are impotent, that it is impossible for us to effect change.
I think a lot of Americans who are watching this OJ Simpson trial perhaps wonder about the criminal justice system in our nation. It was Judge Lance Ito who said, “Perhaps the criminal justice system in America is really on trial here.” But even if the criminal justice system in America were pronounced guilty, it would take a long time to effect change, and then very slowly. Justice, fairness, is not easy to bring about. Yet as Christians we are called to seek fairness and we’re called to seek justice wherever possible. The Hebrew word that is used in this verse is the word “mishpat” from the word “tsadaq,” a very special Hebrew word. It does mean “fairness,” but it had a specific application. Normally the word “mishpat,” the word “tsadaq,” referred to the poor or the afflicted or the impoverished and it meant to seek justice for them. It meant to seek fairness for the poor of the world, to seek fairness for the afflicted, for the oppressed.
You see, if you would live a life pleasing to God, if you want to stand before Jesus Christ someday and hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” then somehow, someway we need to be involved in seeking fairness for the poor. I think in white suburban America there is a kind of calloused attitude towards the poor. Towards the world’s poor there is a kind of indifference in suburbia. I mean, they’re so far away. Towards indigenous poor, towards the poor who live in this nation and who live in our inner cities, there is in suburbia a kind of critical spirit, almost a judgment of the poor. You hear people in suburbia say things like, “Well, the poor people are poor because they don’t really have a good work ethic. They’re kind of lazy. Therefore, they don’t avail themselves of all the opportunities that are equally attainable under the law.” But this attitude is not fair. This attitude is not just. I mean, try to imagine, and I don’t think we can imagine, but try to imagine what we would be like if we grew up in the inner city, if we grew up in an impoverished community, in a broken home in the midst of poverty. Perhaps we wouldn’t have a great work ethic either.
The call of God upon us is to do justice. It’s to seek fairness. You can’t read in the Bible the story of Lazarus and deny that God has exhorted us to reach out to the poor and to seek to show them the love of Christ and to enable them that this world might be a little more fair.
You know, I thank God for Manna Ministries in our church. I thank God for our mission project in Juarez. I thank God for our support of Food for the Hungry and our support of World Vision and all that we seek to do for the poor. I’m most grateful, I’ve said this before and I say it again, for our inner city tutoring program because it gives us a chance to actually enable a new generation of young people in the inner city to begin to compete for jobs and for dignity. To do this in a context where we can show them the love of Christ and even share with them the gospel of Christ. We need hundreds of additional people, men and women, to go into the inner city and become tutors.
What does the Lord require of you but to do justice and, secondly, to love kindness. The Lord has shown you what is good. For what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness. This word for kindness in the Hebrew is the word “hesed.” The word “hesed” has been called the most beautiful word in the Hebrew Old Testament, and perhaps it is. It’s a word that is impossible to render into the English. It’s not even possible to render this Hebrew word into the Greek. If you look at the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, three different Greek words are used to translate this one Hebrew word “hesed.” Sometimes in the Septuagint the word “hesed” is translated with the Greek word “charis,” which means grace. Sometimes in the Septuagint this Hebrew word “hesed” is translated with the Greek word “eleos,” mercy. Sometimes in the Septuagint this Hebrew word “hesed” is translated by the Greek word “agape,” which means love. But this beautiful word “hesed” means a love that is expressed in grace and mercy. This is the call of God upon the people of God with respect to society that we would seek fairness and justice but in our relationships we would even go a step further. In our relationships, we would do beyond fairness and we would offer mercy and we would offer grace.
To understand fully this word “hesed” we should understand that the early Hebrew Christians chose this word “hesed” as a word that described best the gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s where we see grace and mercy. You can read the Tripitaka, the three baskets of Buddhism. You can study the so-called noble eightfold path and you’ll learn a lot of interesting things but you won’t see the mercy and the grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ there. You can read the Gita. You can study Hinduism. You can read the Bhagavad-Gita. You can study the entire dialogue between Arjuna and Krishna. You can study karma and reincarnation or the transmigration of souls and you’ll learn a lot of fascinating things but you won’t find the grace and mercy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. You won’t find “‘hesed.” You can read the Koran from cover to cover and you could seek to follow the five disciplines. You could make your pilgrimage to Mecca and circle the Kaaba and kiss the black stone that allegedly fell from heaven. You can practice ritualistic prayer day by day. You can fast in the month of Ramadan. You can be faithful in your alms giving. You can make the confession to Allah and you’ll never see in Islam the grace and mercy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. “Hesed.”
Last Christmas, I was thumbing through a magazine and I saw a picture, a nativity scene, that had the wisemen and the shepherds there around the manger. I looked at it for a while. I don’t know why I was so fascinated, or I didn’t at first, because I’d seen many nativity scenes. But then I saw that there was an article accompanying this picture. The article explained that all the men in this nativity scene were incarcerated in prison as murderers. Every single man in that picture was convicted as a murderer and was currently incarcerated, but in prison they had met Jesus Christ. In prison they had heard the gospel of Christ and they had embraced Christ and they had found His grace and His mercy. They had found eternal life in Him and now they were putting on this play in the prison and that picture reflected that play and that nativity scene.
You see, that’s “hesed.” That’s the power of the grace and mercy of the gospel, power to save anyone in the world. If you’re a Christian and you believe in Jesus Christ, you’ve come into the grace and mercy of Christ. Having done this, you are now called to live a very special life. I am called to live a very special life, a life that reflects the love of Christ and the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. You see, that’s why Jesus told the parable of the unmerciful servant. When Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how many times does my brother sin against me, my brother or sister, and I forgive them? Seven times?” Jesus said, “I don’t say to you seven times but seventy times seven.”
Then He told the story of the unmerciful servant who had been forgiven a massive debt so great that if he lived many lifetimes he could never repay it but then he went out and found a fellow servant who owed him a debt, seized that fellow servant by the throat and said, “Pay what you owe,” and Jesus said judgment would fall upon that unmerciful servant who had been forgiven so much and then refused to forgive. He said, “So shall it be for any of you who do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” You see, having found His mercy, having experienced His grace, we are now called to go into the world and manifest that grace and mercy that we might be His love incarnate, that people might look at us and see some measure of Christ’s love.
That’s what we see in the Sermon on the Mount or in the Sermon on the Plain. In Luke, chapter 6, Jesus states, “I say to all who hear, love your enemy, do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer him the other as well. From him who takes away your coat, do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs of you. And from him who takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. But as you would have people treat you, even so treat them. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much again. But I say to you, love your enemy, do good, lend, expecting nothing in return, and your rewards shall be great and you shall be called children of the Most High. For He is gracious even to the ungrateful and the evil or the wicked. So be merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful. Judge not and you will be not judged. Condemn not and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you shall be forgiven. Give and it shall be given unto you.”
You see, this is the message of Christ. Give and forgive. To forgive is mercy. To give is grace. What does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness. “Hesed.” Grace. Mercy. Every day of our lives as Christians, if we believe in Him, as we leave our homes in the morning (and at home as well) we are to look for opportunities to give and forgive, for this is the call of Christ if we would live lives pleasing to Him.
Finally, walk humbly. “For what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” The word for humble is the word “tsana.” This word had a number of meanings and six applications, but the word “tsana” was used to describe a person who accepted the lot that God had portioned them. The word “tsana” was used to describe the people of God who accepted the hand that God had dealt them without complaining and was willing to play that hand and make the most of it.
When Job lost so much and then said, “The Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” That’s “tsana,” to accept the lot that God has given you. When Paul said, “I have learned in whatever state I am in to be content. I know how to be abased. I know how to abound. I’ve learned the secret of facing plenty and want, abundance and hunger. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” that’s “tsana.” When Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaiden of the Lord. Be it done to me in accordance with Thy will,” that’s “tsana.” I don’t know what you’re going through in life. I don’t know what your circumstances are. I don’t know what your situations are, but God wants you to accept the hand He has dealt you without complaining and make the most of it. That’s “tsana.”
But “tsana” had a deeper meaning than that. The word “tsana” literally means “to bow down.” If you would walk humbly with the Lord, you bow down before Him. You live a life of submission to Him. You seek to obey Him if you’re really humble before Him. This was Satan’s problem in the beginning. He didn’t want to be humble before God, didn’t want to bow down. Satan said in his heart, “I shall ascend above the stars of God. I shall set my throne on high. I will make myself like the Most High God.” He has infiltrated society and he has impacted the thinking of men and women the world over. He came to Eden in the Garden of God at the dawn of time. He taught Adam and Eve to think differently. Don’t let God set the rules. YOU set the rules. “Tsana” means to bow down before God.
Earlier this week… I think it was Tuesday night. Maybe it was Monday night. We were watching on television the American Music Awards. We watched them for about a half hour. It was amazing to me. It seemed like it didn’t matter if an award was given to a rap group or a rock group. It didn’t matter whether the people in that group had written songs or performed songs that had gross language or even encouraged people to promiscuity and violence. Still, it seemed like the tendency was to get up there and receive your award and begin with the words, “First of all, just want to thank God.” It was amazing to me. A tip of the hat to God has never been so popular in our culture and our nation, but God doesn’t want us to tip our hat. God wants us to bow down. That’s what He’s really looking for.
“Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, and not do what I tell you to do? Truly I say to you in that day many will say ‘Lord, Lord’ and I will say, ‘Depart from Me. I never knew you.’” What does the Lord require of you? “Tsana.” To bow down. To walk humbly with your God.
Yet there’s another meaning to this great word “tsana.” It also referred to a humility that was not vertical but horizontal. A humility before other people. If you’re humble before God, if we’ve embraced His reign and His rule and He’s come to dwell within us, there’s going to be some manifestation of humility towards people or should be. If we would live lives pleasing to God, He wants to see a certain kind of humility towards others in our lives too.
Our time is close to being up. I want to conclude by just telling a little story concerning Booker T. Washington. Booker T. Washington was one of my favorite people from American history. Booker T. Washington was a black man. He was born into slavery, but he came out of slavery and he became one of the greatest leaders of black America in the 19th century, perhaps THE greatest leader. He founded the Tuskegee Institute, which is today called Tuskegee University. He was renowned for his contributions to education and civil rights, but he was a very humble man. Booker T. Washington was an incredibly humble man. He wrote that book Up From Slavery and he did come up from slavery but he never forgot servanthood. He longed to serve God and he longed to serve people. He was an amazingly humble man.
On one occasion as he was walking through a wealthy section of town near Tuskegee, he was going to visit a friend. A white woman came out and she saw him walking down the street. She didn’t recognize him. She said “Hey Mister…How would you like to make a little money chopping wood for me? Can you come in my back yard and chop some wood?” Booker T. Washington just smiled and he said, “Sure!” He came into that lady’s backyard and he chopped her wood. He chopped it up and he kept hauling it into the house and stacking it by the fireplace for her. The woman’s daughter saw Booker T. Washington doing this and she recognized him. She was astonished but she didn’t say anything to her mother until he was gone. When he was gone she said, “Mom, do you know who that was? That was Booker T. Washington.”
The mother was very embarrassed and so she went to the Tuskegee Institute and she found him in his office and she began to just apologize profusely. Booker T. Washington just smiled. He said “Oh, it’s perfectly alright!” He said, “Occasionally I enjoy a little manual labor, and besides, it’s just a joy to do something for a friend!” What an incredible attitude. What an incredible humility, particularly when you understand, as surely as he did, that she only asked him to chop her wood because he was black, and she only apologized because he was famous. But he’s humble.
What does the Lord require of you? What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to seek fairness for the poor, to love kindness, to manifest His mercy and His grace and to walk humbly with God. Let’s close with a word of prayer.