Re-envisioning Micah 6:8

Well everyone, it has been awhile. My job was a bit hectic this last week so I could not find the time to post. I hope you are all doing well as we approach the end of the second reading.

I thought I would take the time to share an insight that occurred as I was reading through Micah for a one-on-one Bible study that I am doing with a good friend of mine. A very popular verse in Micah, which has been set to a tune, is 6:8: "He has told you, O [hu]man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you? To do justice and to love mercy (probably better translated "covenant faithfulness") and to walk humbly with your God."

As I reflected on this verse in my past, I realized that, as the only verse I was actually familiar with in the book, it was the one verse I looked for as I read. I found myself skimming the rest of the book until I arrived at this familiar territory. This time, I was surprised what caught my attention. Read these verses that lead up to it in Micah 6:3-5:

3 “My people, what have I done to you?
    How have I burdened you? Answer me.
⁴ I brought you up out of Egypt
    and redeemed you from the land of slavery.
I sent Moses to lead you,
    also Aaron and Miriam.
⁵ My people, remember
    what Balak king of Moab plotted
    and what Balaam son of Beor answered.
Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal,
    that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.” (NIV from Biblegateway.com)

I found myself thinking, "Hey, I remember what Balak plotted! I remember the journey from Shittim to Gilgal! I remember the righteous acts of the Lord!" (My thoughts were very exciting: hence the exclamation marks.) Here, Micah is illustrating the current situation (Samaria and Jerusalem are being threatened with invasion by Assyria) with a story from Torah. Balak, in Numbers, was plotting the downfall of the Israelites and sought to curse them by means of Balaam. The God of Israel's reminder to these people is that they were delivered through this into the land of Canaan, namely to Gilgal.

Now read what precedes the famous Micah 6:8, 6:6-7:

⁶ With what shall I come before the Lord
    and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
    with calves a year old?
⁷ Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
    with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
    the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? (NIV from Biblegateway.com)

Micah, having called the people of Israel to remember the righteous acts of the Lord from Shittim to Gilgal, asks the question of what is required as an offering in the act of repentance. I have described above the plot of Balak, but here we should remember the moral failing of Israel at the advice of Balaam to fraternize with the women of Moab and Midian, which resulted in idolatry. In that case, one thing was "required" of the Israelites. But, this "one thing" was not an offering, which is strange since Numbers details a number (Ha!) of sacrifices for cleansing (see chapter 18). What was required to save the people of Israel was the just and covenant-faithful action of one person to stop the plague that was sweeping through Israel. I would suggest that it is not the death of the man, Zimri, who brought the Midianite woman into the camp that caused the plague to cease, but the covenant-faithful act of Phineas to do what others were apparently too scared to do: namely, to punish the deliberate sin of another Israelite for the sake of the preservation of the community. 

It was not a calf or a ram, not a thousand rams, or ten thousand rivers of oil that would bring about God's mercy. The Lord requires justice, covenant-faithfulness, and humility. Micah does not call us to abstract concepts, but to actions that are rooted in the narrative of Israel. I challenge you all to branch out a bit and see the veins of the prophets filled with Torah: the heart of the Hebrew Scriptures.