2026 02 01 - Living God's Blessing - Hoffman

A few moments ago, you heard Dan read that First Old Testament you've got to print in your bulletin if you're following along, if you took one this morning. If not, look up Micah 61 8. Why? Because this is a courtroom scene. This is all legal courtroom language.

And God brings his case against his people. So you have the prosecution. Is that the case? You have the defense trying to defend itself against God's charge. And finally you have God's verdict, in a sense, his invitation to come back to him.

The text is, as I have said, from Micah chapter six. Now, I'm not going to read all of that. I read parts of it from the translation, but I'm going to begin at verse three. O my people, what have I done to you? What have I done to make you tired of me?

Answer me. For I brought you out of Egypt and redeemed me from slavery. I sent Moses, Aaron and Miriam to help me. Don't you hurt my people. How King Balak of Moab tried to have you cursed, and how Balaam, son of Beor, blessed you instead.

And remember your journey from Achai, from Achishbo to Gilgal, when I, the Lord, did everything I can teach you about my faithfulness.

What can we bring to the Lord? Should we bring burnt offerings? Should God, before God, on his cotton, give off the deer and calves? Should we offer him thousands of rams and 10,000 rivers of oil? Should we sacrifice our firstborn children to pay for our sin?

No, O people of the Lord. No, O people, the Lord has told us what is good. This is what he requires of you. Do what is right, love, mercy, to walk humbly with your God. It's our text.

God, we know we have sinned against you. We plead for your forgiveness and restoration, your love and grace. Bless us, God, that we might daily live in your blessings as you bring us back to you through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. So at the beginning of this text, we have God who comes to his people and pleads his case and.

And gives them a charge of what? Desertion, leaving them going another way. And so we see already early on, as Micah recounts these words of God, listen to what the Lord is saying. Stand up, state your case against me. Let the mountains and hills be called to witness your complaints.

Now, O mountains, listen to the Lord's complaint. There's a case against his people, and he will bring charges against them. Now, here's what's going on.

God's got an issue with his people. In fact, it's really more than that, isn't it God reminds Israel and reminds us that we have drifted away, have we not? That they had left their first blow and been disobedient. And already, let's think about this for a moment. We're in the minor prophet Micah.

So there is a hole at this history of the people of Israel leading God and worship the armies. Unless we think of ourselves better because we are in a post Christ era, we just confess to God, we too sin, that we too drift away from God. Now, as we think about that, hear also what God says. I bow witnesses against you. And this is not uncommon language for God.

The witnesses are not necessarily people. The witnesses are creation itself, mountains and the hills. And all that God has made reveals how we are in a sinful condition and falling away from God. But God simply wants to know why. So he presents this case.

What did I do? Where did I go wrong? Why have you left my covenant of Hamos? A love for you.

Well, if we're talking today, why don't you leave? Because, see, I have a better idea. I know better than God what's going to happen. Really? If that's true, then why are you all here for this cold disorder?

So God asks why? And then God does something that might seem strange to us, and yet it's part of how God always invites his people Israel, how he always invites us to come back to his love, to come back to his grace, to come back to his mercy. How he does that all the time by reminding Israel what He's done for them.

In essence, God says, hey, you guys got such a short memory.

Long term, that's questionable too.

Don't you remember when I took you out of Egyptian slavery? Don't you remember when I led you through the wilderness? Don't you remember when I led you into the promised land? What did I do wrong?

Of course the answer is God didn't do anything wrong. We do. We do. And we need to hear this invitation. And yet it comes to us like a friend.

Think about this. God set the people of Israel free from Egyptian bondage and slavery and captivity, by the shedding of the blood of the sacrificial lamb of Passover. And doesn't he do that with us even today? By the shedding of Christ's blood on the cross for us, the meal that we will share in a few moments to set us free from that sin, to make us right with him, to welcome us and invite us back into his loving embrace.

So what happened to God's sake? Why don't you follow me? I mean, he was with them all the time, was he not? Did God enter, not lead his people?

Does God ever not lead us?

We may think he does, but it's we who follow it, who have better ideas, who go in a different direction. So having said all of that, then we pick it up again in verse 6, where the people come back as a defense. And isn't this an interesting question?

What can we bring to the Lord which could also be said, what can we do to redeem ourselves before God? What can we do to buy ourselves back, to be in God's grace and love and mercy?

When we know the answer to that, we can do nothing.

And yet the people of Israel ask that question. And we and in this world ask that question every day. So look at how they attack this stuff. Now, I find it fascinating that the defense of peace appeal here is in God's own law.

What do they appeal to? They appeal to the Levitical sacrificial laws that God had already laid out, because all of these are there. So what do they ask? What do they say? Well, it's just a list, right?

Should we bring a burnt offering? Should we bow before God Most High with offerings of yearly calves? Should we offer thousands of rams and 10,000 rivers of olive oil? Should we sacrifice our firstborn children to pay for our sin?

Now that list could be made today, but at the end of that list is Israel's own downfall.

Did God's Levitical law ever call the people of Israel to sacrifice their firstborn for him? No. So what does that say? It says this. That they have fallen away from him, that they worship other gods.

And we do that too. And I want to raise this issue because I think it's something we need to think about. We offer sacrifice. We bring our offerings, our gifts, our tithes to the Lord. And I want to suggest that we even offer up our children as sacrifice.

Some of you, what do you mean? How do you do that? This is how we do it. We let our kids participate on Sunday morning.

Because if we truly are in the Lord, if we truly have a time of worship, then where does that begin in the world?

Now, Timothy gives us an interesting insight into not just how Israel responded, but how we respond and live day by day. So what it says in second Timothy, chapter three, you should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. People will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents and ungrateful. They will consider Nothing sacred.

They will be unloving and unforgiving. They will slander others and have no self control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will betray the friends directly puffed up with pride and love pleasure rather than God. They will act religious, but they will reject the power they convict with God.

Stay away from people like that. God makes that charge today, doesn't he? It's the same charge that he's always made. That hasn't changed. Why did you leave me?

But it's made in such a way that God invites us. God desires us to accept his invitation and come back to his love and his grace.

We just don't get it. What good works or what kind of good life do I have to earn my way back into God's grace?

And you sit there and think, well, I don't do that. I already know the answer to that. But doesn't the world do that? Aren't they trying to entice us into doing the same?

Finally, we get to the end. God says this. 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, to walk humbly with your God. John's David mentioned earlier.

It's also one of my favorite passages.

How do we respond? And this is what God says to the what is good? And you can sit there and say, okay, what's good? He finds it, does he not?

Doesn't it clearly define it?

Do justice false.

Now someone might come up and say, well, where's the gospel there? Or where is that in our lives?

What doesn't Paul tell Romans and tell us to offer up our bodies as a sacrifice? This is exactly what he says.

Give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice, the kind you will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. You will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

And at the very end of that chapter, this is what Paul says to how he puts God's word. Don't let evil conquer you. Don't let the influence of Satan conquer you. Don't let temptation conquer you. But instead he says, conquer evil by doing what is good.

What is good. We know what is good. God already provided it through His Son Jesus Christ, to do justice. The love was above kindness. You walked humbly.

Yeah, Is that a tall order? Was it a tall order for Israel? You're back. How they do.

It's a tall order for us. How are we doing?

Well, according to national international news, it's not getting any better.

So there is only one. God invites us. He wants to draw us back into Himself. And while we read this as a kind of a courtroom scene and the presentation of cases on both sides, what it really is God reminding us of his continual and unending love and mercy, his covenant, his promise that through His Son Jesus, we will be with Him. Now, here's the thing.

It's not just doing justice, building kindness, walking humbly. It's living in that lesson. And did you hear the Gospel lesson today? It's part of it. God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth.

God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied. God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy. God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.

Jesus blesses everything who responds to his invitation, turns back to him and gives him worship and praise and glory. Do justice, love, mercy, walk humbly living in God's blessing. Amen. Be some of our God that is beyond our understanding. Keep us and guard us to life.

Everlasting name. Amen. We continue our worship with confession of our faith and the words of the Apostles Creed. Let us rise and speak that together as our confession is faith. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.