Micah

O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against me. (Micah 6:3 KJV)

God knows the answer to the question He asked. However, He calls upon them – and us – to give witness to what He has done, or is about to do. Judgment is the theme. And, a future.

How do we answer this question? What has God done unto us? Why have we become weary of Him?

My own answer is that God has blessed me greatly. Undeservedly, I know, for I come up short in so many ways. I am not weary of Him, though I do not understand all I hear and read of Him I never tire of hearing and learning more. He has never failed me, though I have failed Him and have received His forgiveness.

The six short chapters written about 700 bce have been quoted for centuries. Herod heard them from the priests and scribes (Matthew 2:5-6). Jesus spoke them to His disciples (Matthew 10:35-36). Long before that, Micah was quoted in Jeremiah 26:18.

Compare a few verses – the first from Solomon:

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. (Ecclesiastes 12:13 KJV)

The second from Micah:

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? (Micah 6:8 KJV)

The third from Christ, quoting Moses:

Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. (Matthew 22:36-40 KJV)

Do we heed these words, or do we listen to the voice that Eve heard, twisting the commandments with subtle questions that lead astray and separate from the love of God?

There is hope:

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39 KJV)

Are you?