What Does God Require of You?
Ritual? Or relationship?
In junior high school, I spent a Saturday night at a friend’s house. His family was Roman Catholic, and so we went to church that night. I was a raised Presbyterian, so I had no clue what to expect in a Catholic service. I remember there being a lot of rituals, involving holy water, kneeling, and genuflecting at various points. This was all new to me, and I had no clue what to do or when to do it.
When it came time for mass, I went up and got my wafer like everybody else, not realizing that might offend some Catholics. I had been taking communion in my church for years by that point and knew what it was about. First, I was only 14 years old and I didn’t know that Catholics might object. Second, I figured that I knew Jesus, that was all that mattered, and he would be cool with it. It turns out that he was.
Since then, from time to time, I’ve thought about all that ritual. Does God really care if you genuflect? Or is all that just nonsense, created by humans to satisfy a deep desire for a religion based on works?
It turns out that this is not a new discussion. Back in the time of the prophets, this came up as well.
In Micah 6, the prophet writes:
6 What can we bring to the Lord?
Should we bring him burnt offerings?
Should we bow before God Most High
with offerings of yearling calves?
7 Should we offer him thousands of rams
and ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
Should we sacrifice our firstborn children
to pay for our sins?8 No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good,
and this is what he requires of you:
to do what is right, to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with your God.
Read that again and let it sink in.
In verses 6 and 7, the people are asking themselves what sorts of ceremonies they should engage in to please God. What should they sacrifice to pay for their sins? They even ask whether it’s appropriate to sacrifice their children (which was a requirement of the Canaanite god Molech).
And then Micah answers them. You know what is good, he says, because God has told you. While the Jewish Law might require you to sacrifice, God looks beyond the ritual associated with the Law. He wants more than that. He wants your heart.
And so Micah summarizes what God requires with three points:
Do what is right.
Love mercy.
Walk humbly with your God.
First, he says, “Do what is right.” That’s both simple and complex at the same time. Humans have a tendency to want to expand that into a million rules for every situation. But I find it fascinating that God doesn’t expand it. He knows that we know, deep down, what is right. You feel it in your soul when you do something wrong and you feel it when you do something right. So, do it right. If you want a bit more guidance, I’d point you back to the Greatest Commandments.
Second, he says, “Love mercy.” Our God is a merciful God. Yes, he has strict standards, but he also loves us and he sent his Son to die for us to both find a way to maintain his standards and to save us from eternal destruction. So, God says that we should love mercy as well.
What does that mean? You know the answer to that deep in your soul. When someone sins against you, you need to show them mercy and forgive them, just as God has forgiven you through Jesus. Further, you shouldn’t just do it, you should love to do it, the same way that God loves to show mercy. Showing mercy should be something that delights you as it does God.
Finally, Micah says what I think are some of the most beautiful words in the Bible: “Walk humbly with your God.” The picture I get here is of two people walking side by side through the woods, talking to each other as they go. In Genesis 3, after Adam and Eve have sinned, God comes to the garden to walk with them and they are hiding from him. Our sin separates us from God so that we cannot walk with Him, but He desires it so much.
But notice that Micah doesn’t just say “Walk with your God.” He says “Walk humbly with your God.” What does he mean by humbly?
The Dictionary app on my MacBook says:
humbly | ˈhəmblē | adverb
1 in a way that shows or suggests a modest or low estimate of one's importance; meekly: the servant bowed humbly before his master | may I humbly suggest a solution?
2 in a lowly position or condition; unpretentiously: she is living humbly in a shared house.
So, to do things in a humble manner is to do them in a way that “suggests a modest or low estimate of one’s importance.”
How do we interact with God? Do we do so in a humble manner, with a modest or low estimate of our own importance? Do we treat him as the Holy, creator of all things? Or do we burst into His throne room with a list of demands, as if He works for us? Do we walk with Him day by day, consistently, for our whole lives? Or do we just approach Him when we’re in trouble and then rush back to doing our own thing?
Overall, in this passage, the picture I get is that God doesn’t really care for our ritual. He doesn’t want a superficial, drive-by relationship with us. He doesn’t want us just trying to appease him. To check the box on our side so that we can then expect Him to do things for us.
Rather, he wants a deep relationship with us. He wants us to love the things that he loves, to do right by others and to love mercy. He wants us to walk alongside him each day with a proper understanding of who we are and who He is. That means being extremely humble: God is God, and we are not.
He wants to know us and for us to know Him.
Rather than coming to God with a long list of wants, we should start the conversation with, “God, I’m here and I’m listening. What do you want to talk about?” After you’ve talked about God’s priorities, I’m sure he’ll want to hear all about yours (if any are still relevant after you’ve listened to him; so many have a way of fading in importance once He speaks).
Now, step back and think about how amazing that is. God wants to walk with you. The creator of the universe. The giver of all life. Wants to take a walk. With you. You’d be a fool to pass that opportunity by.
Today’s Prayer
Holy Father, creator of all things in heaven and on earth, thank you that you’re a God of relationships. Thank you that you want to walk with us and talk with us. Thank you that you love relationship more than you do sacrifice and rituals. Help us to understand the depth of your love for us. Help us to approach you humbly, with a desire to know you and your priorities rather than a long list of demands to satisfy the gaps in our own lives. Thank you above all for the sacrifice of your Son, Jesus, who paid the penalty for our sins, once and for all time, so that we could have a deep relationship with you. Amen.
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Beautiful Dave. Thank you.
Thank you, this resonated with me. 🙏🏼