Micah 6 is framed as a court case with God as the one who brought an indictment against his people, while the mountains and hills stood as a jury considering God's accusations (6:1-2). The original hearers of Micah's prophecies lived around seven hundred years before Jesus' arrival and around seven hundred years after the exodus from Egypt. They had been God's special people, his covenant partners, and his image bearers for a long time. But when Micah rolled onto the scene, Israel was not even close to what God intended.

Instead of behaving as a kingdom of priests representing God to the world around them, they devoted themselves to the false gods of the world around them. Instead of joining God in his mission on earth, they were frustrating God's mission on earth. And instead of being the one nation in all of human history with God as its king, they followed wicked kings who gave terrible counsel.

Because they had been guilty and showed no remorse for so long, God was finally ready to sentence them to the judgment of discipline. They would become a desolation, meaning they would be carried into exile for their longstanding crimes against God and his world (6:16).

Plenty of people groups did the things Micah rebuked during Micah's era, but God did not confront them. The discipline spoke of in this passage happened because God didn't like what he saw among his people. Their guilt was a breach of covenant, an impediment to his mission, and a misrepresentation of his character, and he was bound by Deuteronomy to do something about it.

And when Micah arrived, it was as if he had the book of Deuteronomy in his pocket and on his mind. It was in that book that Israel had agreed to follow God. If they did, they would prosper. If they didn't, God would be forced to discipline them. And now, after so many years of rebellion, God's discipline had to be severe, and Micah knew it, so he decried the greed and corruption among God's people and told them that the Assyrians and then the Babylonians would come against them and carry them into exile.

But for all the doom found here, there is an underlying assumption. All the greed, injustice, and wickedness Micah saw in Israel was at odds with Israel's identity. They had not behaved consistently with their identity for a long time, so God tried to pull them out of the false-identity ditch so they could walk with him again.

And every word out of Yahweh's mouth is an invitation for us to live according to—up to and in alignment with—our identity in Christ. Micah has told us all about a Shepherd-King figure. This passage shows him calling his people to be who they truly are—and it can do the same for us. In it, we can hear our Lord inviting us be who we are in him.

1. God's Special People (6:1-5)

In the first movement of this oracle, God reminds us that we are his special people. Micah said that God's indictment was against his own people, and in his opening salvo, he repeatedly cries, "O my people" (6:2, 3, 5). After all the goodness God showed them, their rebellion against God was disorienting, so he asked, "What have I done to you? How have I wearied you?" (6:3).

Like a betrayed husband crying out to his unfaithful bride, God reminded his people how special they were to him by recounting what he had done to make them his own. He had delivered them from their slavery in Egypt (6:4). He gave them good leadership, good priests, and good prophets in the siblings Moses, Aaron, and Miriam (6:4). And when they wandered in the wilderness and the king of Moab tried to hire a sorcerer named Balaam to curse them, God made sure the answer of Balaam's mouth was full of blessing for Israel. Instead of a curse, out came a blessing! And this brand of favor ran with them all the way from Shittim (their last stop while wandering in the wilderness) to Gilgal (their first stop in the Promised Land), meaning God was faithful to get them to his desired destination (6:5). All these stories should have reminded them—we are God's special people!

Our Shepherd-King wants to remind us of the same—we are his special people! Like ancient Israel, the church has been marvelously rescued from slavery. Like ancient Israel, the church has been specially blessed despite attempts to the contrary. And like ancient Israel, the church has been miraculously protected on its journey. But when we neglect our identity—who we are—in place of lies, we falter just like ancient Israel did.

I once heard a story of a notoriously cantankerous church gardener. He grew to dislike it when people visited the church property because they would inevitably destroy his fine work. People even started avoiding the church during the week because he found ways to criticize them for everything—just an unpleasant man. One day, in a class at his church, he announced that he was simply a cranky old man who had been cranky his whole life. But the teacher pushed back, "I thought you said you were a Christian? Being cranky is what you do when you forget who you are."[^1]

But how can we retrain our minds and souls to live from our new identity in Christ? Two major ways are found in our passage. First, while God reminded them of their true identity, he reminded them of his past intervention in their lives. Their deliverance from Egypt, arrival at Gilgal, and all the events in between should have reminded them of their position as Yahweh's special people.

What this shows us is that it is important for us to develop our core God memories, things God has done to show us how special we are in his sight. This begins, of course, with the cross, which is one reason why we have adopted a weekly practice of partaking in communion. But core God memories would also include your story of how he reached you, moments of his guidance and faithfulness as you look back on your life, and ways he has spoken to you over the years. Meditating on these memories helps you recall who you actually are in him, so I encourage you to regularly meditate on the cross but also cultivate a collection of times God has been faithful to you. His faithfulness will help remind you of who you are.

But God also reminded his people of their identity by reminding them that he had given them Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. Moses became a figurehead who delivered God's word to them; Aaron became a priest who interacted with God for them; and Miriam was a worship leader who led songs for them. And when God is trying to remind you of your identity, he will ask you, "Who are your people?"

And our people are the saints of old. What is our tribe like? We have boldness like Moses. We are consecrated to God like Aaron. We worship like Miriam. We are loyal to God like Abraham. We are devoted like David. We are steady like Isaiah. We are prayerful like the psalmists. We are hopeful like the prophets. We take steps of faith like Peter. We mine the depths of God like Paul. We are on a mission like the early church. And we love like John. And all these attributes and more are ours because they are all found in Christ, and we are in him. Those people are our people, so when you don't feel like these elements, remember who you are.

2. God's Covenant Partners (6:6-8)

In the second movement of this oracle, God reminds us that we are his covenant partners. Once Yahweh finished his accusation, Micah wondered aloud, "With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high?" (6:6). His core question: "What does God really want?"

Micah went on to wonder if God wanted a list of sacrifices. Would burnt offerings, up to thousands of rams or ten thousands of rivers of oil be enough? Or should he imitate the neighboring pagans and offer his firstborn to God? What did they need to offer to cover the sin of their souls? (6:6-7).

Micah then gave a general exhortation: God has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (6:8). Micah was not dogging the sacrificial system God had prescribed, but was putting it in proper perspective. God gave them sacrifices to help them find relief for their failure to do as they agreed, but what he truly wanted was for them to do justice, love kindness, and humbly walk with him. The sacrifices were meant to help them stay on mission, but they weren't the mission. God had invited them into a covenant with himself, and now they were partners in reaching the world.

In the book and film, American Sniper, Chris Kyle tells about a formative moment early in his life. He said his father explained to him that there are three types of people in the world: sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs to protect the sheep from the wolves. He encouraged Chris to be a sheepdog, which he said was a major reason he wanted to serve as a sniper who watched over troops in combat.[^2] To borrow that terminology, every Christian is called to a sheepdog life. Like Israel, we are God's covenant partners to reach our world.

And Yahweh's answer to Micah's question is incredibly helpful. The Torah was filled with laws and requirements for Israel, but they could be boiled down to these three statements: do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God (6:8). God wanted all his people to practice love for their neighbor and do—literally, build or fabricate—justice. He wanted them to love kindness, which means "being a person of loyalty and faithfulness who helps people, particularly in their need...providing practical help."[^3] And all this was to be done from the foundation of a humble walk with God, meaning they were to be in constant contact, but also agreement, with God—they had daily devos, but also did good things for people in need.

In our modern world, justice has become a complicated and hotly debated concept. What does justice look like today? Since this exhortation was given to ancient Israelites living in the only theocracy to ever exist, how do we apply it in our modern societies? I know there is nuance and all kinds of political theory behind exhortations for justice, but all I want to say here is that God's people should not complicate the issue. We are to care for those in need. We are to love widows, the fatherless, the parentless, the impoverished, the imprisoned, the addicted, the marginalized, the forgotten, the downtrodden, the oppressed, the taken-for-granted, the disabled, the sick, the mentally ill, and the hurting of this world.[^4]

When we do these things, we are behaving a bit like Jesus. These acts do not save us, nor are they the sum total of our walk with God, but they are natural ways to express our salvation and walk with God. They are ways Christlikeness can evidence itself in our lives. Even Paul's simple exhortation in Galatians is enough to fill our lifetime: "Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do" (Gal. 2:10).

This concept from Micah explains much of the frustration people sometimes experience in their relationship with God. God has goals—here, he clearly wants his people to be instruments of his love for their world. But we also have goals.

When there is misalignment or conflict between God's goals and our goals for our lives, our walk with God becomes frustrating. We go to church, read the word, and pray, all with hopes that don't line up with what God wants for us. And we become frustrated. But that's like trying to order a Big Mac at In-N-Out. You've gone to the wrong place. In-N-Out serves Double-Doubles. And when we try to use God to fulfill our dreams and desires, we often miss what he is really trying to do through us. What does he want? For us to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with him.

Jonah is a good example of the type of frustration we might experience. God's goal was for Jonah to preach to the people of Nineveh. Jonah's goal was for God to judge the people of Nineveh. Jonah had dreams and desires that conflicted with God's dreams and desires, which led to a miserable few days in Jonah's life. God wasn't about to change his mind (or nature, for that matter).

I say all this because Micah's words should massage our perspective on what God is trying to produce in us. He is trying to generate Christlikeness in us. When you see the phrase "love God, love others," you should think the cross of Christ. It was the ultimate in loving God and loving others. And it is the type of sacrificial life God has destined us for as we partner with him.

But this brand of sacrificial life Micah mentioned, and that Jesus lived and then called us to imitate, is often difficult. We don't do it perfectly or even well all that often. For this shortcoming, they had the sacrifices, and we have the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus' cross, but all that grace is designed to get us back up and moving in God's purposes once again.

3. God's Image Bearers (6:9-16)

In the third movement of this oracle, God reminds us that we are his image bearers. If the question of the first movement is who are your people? and the question of the second movement is what does God really want?, the question of this third movement is which king do you reflect? What I mean is that the third section of this oracle is a long rebuke of the injustices God saw in Israel, followed by the statement that they had all kept the statutes of Omri and done all the works of the house of Ahab (6:16). The people of God, who should have walked humbly with God, instead walked in the counsels of some of the most wicked kings of Israel's long history (6:16). They reflected Omri and Ahab—leaders who introduced idolatry to the nation—rather than Yahweh and his Shepherd-King.

In the first chapter of the Bible, we are told that humans were created to bear God's image on earth. In the times Genesis was written, kings who ruled over foreign territories would place images of themselves in those distant lands as a way to remind the populace of their reign. He may have been far away, but those images told everyone a little about his power. And God placed us on this rotating rock to express his dominion and cultivate it all under his supervision. We are his image here on earth, different from any other species.

And for as much as Micah's Israel had forgotten that they were God's people and covenant partners, they had also forgotten they were his image. Their financial treachery—wicked scales and deceitful weights—along with their violence and lies, were not reflective of the King of Kings (6:11-12). And because they were made for something different, made in God's image, they would never experience satisfaction. God said, "You shall eat, but not be satisfied, and there shall be hunger within you; you shall put away, but not preserve, and what you preserve I will give to the sword" (6:14). God made sure their crops would be barren—a lot of work for no payout. He could not let their wickedness go unabated.

We are God's image bearers, designed to reflect our King. If our citizenship is in heaven, we must act like it (Phil. 3:20). I once heard of a Christian coach who challenged his team to be more aggressive with the question, "Do you think Jesus let himself get punked like that?" To which one player responded, "He was crucified."

What king do you follow? Who are you imitating? Don't allow yourself to mimic Omri and Ahab-like authority figures who introduced Baal worship and wicked economic practices attached to that false god. They turned Israel from a community that cared for one another to an economy that sacrificed its integrity on the altar of money-making with the nations around them. Do not follow wicked leaders like them. Instead, follow the King, who laid down his life and made a new humanity with his blood. As Paul said, "Be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God" (Eph. 5:1–2).

But at this point in Micah, the die has been cast. They had rebelled for so long that they were now destined to become a desolation (6:16). They were clearly guilty as God presented his case to the mountain jury. The only way out was for them to remember their identity and begin to act like themselves—God's special people, covenant partners, and image bearers. As Peter said to the church, "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Pet. 2:9). We must remember who we are, sometimes a thousand times a day, and then live it out by the power of his Spirit.

Study Questions

Head (Knowledge, Facts, Understanding)

What were the three movements or main points the prophet Micah presented in Micah 6, and how do they connect to the overall message of God reminding His people of their identity?
Discuss the historical context of Micah’s prophecies. How does understanding the time and situation of Israel enhance our comprehension of God’s message through Micah?
Examine the role of sacrifices in Micah 6:6-8. How does Micah contrast the acts of sacrifice with the deeper requirements of justice, kindness, and humility before God?

Heart (Feelings, Impressions, Desires)

Reflect on the emotional tone God uses when questioning His people in Micah 6:3. What does this reveal about God’s heart towards His people, despite their rebellion?
Consider the analogy of God as a betrayed husband to His unfaithful bride. How does this image impact your understanding of God's feelings towards disobedience and unfaithfulness?
In the sermon, the story of a cranky church gardener was shared to illustrate forgetting one's identity in Christ. Share a personal experience where you felt disconnected from your identity in Christ and how it affected your emotions or actions.

Hands (Actions, Commitments, Decisions, Beliefs)

1.Micah 6:8 outlines a simple yet profound lifestyle: to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. How can we practically implement these principles in our daily lives and communities?

Considering the sermon's emphasis on remembering and acting according to our identity as God's special people, covenant partners, and image bearers, what specific commitment can you make this week to better reflect this identity in your interactions?
The sermon concludes with a challenge to live out our true identity in Christ, reminding us that we are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation. What is one way you can proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light in your context?

[^1]: Marcus Warner, Jim Wilder, Rare Leadership

[^2]: Kyle, Chris, American Sniper

[^3]: Dempster, S. C. Micah

[^4]: To start, see Ps. 82:3-4, Prov. 31:8-9, Is. 1:17, Zech. 7:9-10, James 1:27, Deut. 10:18-19, Jer. 22:3, Matt. 25:35-40, Luke 14:13-14, Gal. 2:10, Prov. 14:31, Prov. 19:17, Ps. 146:7-9, Is. 58:6-7, Heb. 13:3, 1 John 3:17-18, Matt. 22:39, Lev. 19:18, Luke 4:18-19, and Prov. 22:22-23.