Micah 6:6 KJV
Wherewith shall I come before the Lord,
and bow myself before the high God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves of a year old?
‘I come to meet with the Lord ,’ you say. ‘I must know what to bring when I come. I bend down to worship him. I must know what to offer when I bend down. He is God and he is greater than everything. Perhaps he would like it if I burn young cows one year old for him.
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Wherewith shall I come before the Lord?
The people, convicted by the previous appeal of Yahweh to them, ask as if they knew not (compare Micah 6:8 ) what Yahweh requires of them to appease Him, adding that they are ready to offer an immense heap of sacrifices, and those the most costly, even to the fruit of their own body.
Burnt offering
(Leviticus 1:1-17).
Calves of a year old
Which used to be offered for a priest (Leviticus 9:2,3).
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The portion we recently read showed us how the Lord acted as accuser against His people.
In this verse, and the following verses, the people convinced of guilt ask what it should do to see the charges lifted:
How shall I meet the Lord and bow down to the high God? “
The prophet then says that Israel should not think that it is done with some sacrifices. No, the Lord wants most of all: repentance…! That the people will again walk humbly with their God.
Here too, it is so clear that the Lord most of all wants our hearts.
However it is good that you sacrifice for the Lord, and outwardly walk in His way, you must not think that you can pay your debt to Him with that.
More is needed for this. The Christ is needed for this.
In short: the Lord is concerned with this:
▪ That you bow before Him confessively.
▪ That you seek reconciliation and salvation with all your heart in the great and perfect sacrifice of the Christ, and that from there, it comes to a humble walk with Him.
How shall I meet the Lord?
With nothing but Christ and His sacrifice alone …!
This text is the people’s response to the charge of God.
Deeply impressed, it wonders how it can settle the account for God in judgment. And the people list the possibilities.
▪︎ Will burned sacrifices or one-year-old calves take the sin away?
▪︎ Will the Lord be pleased with rams or streams of oil?
▪︎ Or should I give my firstborn for my transgression?
You can feel that the dispute between God and man goes to the last questions of life: the questions of guilt and punishment, of life or death.
Is a person able to make up for any of his sin and guilt on his own?
Deep in our hearts we want nothing more than to pay our debts ourselves. Because if we can do that ourselves, then we are not dependent on grace, not on forgiveness and not on redemption.
We want to do anything, as long as we don’t have to indulge ourselves as beggars in God’s grace.
Only then I have two questions.
- Is it possible to pay yourself and does it indeed give us the peace we are looking for?
- Is it really that bad to surrender into the loving hands of Jesus Christ?
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