God Wants Justice More Than Burnt Offerings
Daily Scripture
Micah 6:6-8
6 With what should I approach the LORD
and bow down before God on high?
Should I come before him with entirely burned offerings,
with year-old calves?
7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
with many torrents of oil?
Should I give my oldest child for my crime;
the fruit of my body for the sin of my spirit?
8 He has told you, human one, what is good and
what the LORD requires from you:
to do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humbly with your God.
Daily Reflection & Prayer
The prophet Micah spoke to the kingdom of Judah’s blend of religious ritual and ruthless business dealings. History says most people in his day rejected his message. But, like Elphaba in Wicked, his stance was, “Some things I cannot change, but ’til I try I’ll never know.” * We still need Micah’s call to “do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humbly with your God.” ** That’s why Resurrection aims to “address injustices and build bridges of healing” today. *** Like Micah, we say treating people justly every day outweighs pious words and rituals.
- Micah kept ironically proposing increasingly showy sacrifices in verses 6-7 to try to please God. He ended with child sacrifice, a ghastly practice some Israelites may have adopted (cf. 2 Kings 17:15-17). What do the three divine requirements Micah listed tell you about what God is like? “To walk” was the Hebrew way to identify a person’s lifestyle. In what ways does your lifestyle reflect your choice to be the person your God calls you to be?
- In what ways do your culture and community fall short of doing justice, embracing faithful love, and walking humbly with God? Scholar Gary Smith said, “Micah’s delineation of God’s requirements… includes no negative statements about what is forbidden to the Israelites. It presents a positive case of what God thinks is best for humankind.” **** How can you actively move yourself, your family, your workplace and community toward God’s best for the human family?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, my goal is to walk justly, kindly and humbly with you. Lead and guide me into the newness of life that you died and rose again to offer me. Amen.
GPS Insights
Amy Oden
Dr. Amy Oden, who serves as Adjunct Professor of Early Church History and Spirituality at the Oklahoma campus of Saint Paul School of Theology, wrote today's Insights. Teaching is her calling, and she looks forward to every day with students. Her book (Right Here, Right Now: The Practice of Christian Mindfulness, Abingdon Press, 2017) traces ancient mindfulness practice for Christians today.
In Wicked, both Elphaba and Galinda (later Glinda) see the Wizard as the pinnacle of success, the goal they should be seeking. The Wizard seems to have it all–a castle, a kingdom, minions to do his bidding, magical powers. But the closer Elphaba gets to “having it all,” the more she sees it is false and empty. As the curtain (literally) falls away, she sees the Wizard for who he really is–an insecure person grabbing for power and willing to hurt others for his own gain.
Once Elphaba sees the injustice of it all, she can’t pretend to not know or to not see. She sings, “Something has changed within me… Too late to go back to sleep.” Her path is now changed, converted, turned in a completely new direction. Once she wakes up to the injustice, she is freed, lifted, defying gravity!
Micah also lives in a world where people are scrambling for success and willing to hurt others to get there. Micah tells of “ill-gotten treasures” and “dishonest scales,” where the “rich are violent” and “liars” (6:10-12). Micah himself falls into these notions of the good life, assuming God, too, wants all the trappings of human success, so he offers them to God–unimaginable wealth (thousands of rams) or the security of provision (a year-old calf). He offers God the “good life” that should bring wealth and happiness.
God answers Micah with a completely different list. Not thousands of rams or barrels of oil. God requires not wealth or human “success,” not religious programs or “burnt offerings” that merely go through the motions. Instead, God requires justice, kindness and humble living (Micah 6:6-8), so much harder to give. God asks for our hearts.
I know in my own life how I have chased so-called success and the way it has de-formed by heart. I have also tasted the freedom God offers when I wake up and see the real human cost, the injustice of that success. I want to be awake, I long to be freed. I pray to be lifted, to defy gravity and soar!
© 2025 Resurrection: A United Methodist Church. All Rights Reserved.
Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
References
* Stephen Schwartz, “Defying Gravity” – Defying Gravity lyrics © Universal Music Corp., Greydog Music, Grey Dog Music.
** ‘Embrace faithful love’ “is the Hebrew term hesed…. this term has a general sense of faithfulness and reliability, but it is especially used in connection with covenant relationships…. it also implies kindness in dealings with others.” From David J. Clark and Norm Mundhenk, A Handbook on the Book of Micah. New York: United Bible Societies, 1982, p. 234.
*** From https://resurrection.church/about/vision2030/.
**** Gary V. Smith, The NIV Application Commentary: Hosea, Amos, Micah. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2001, p. 555.
