Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 242 · August 30
Wherewith Shall I Come
“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?”
How much would you offer God to make things right with Him? A man in Micah 6 works that out, and he starts reasonably: "shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?" Then he raises the price: "Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil?" Then he goes where no one should ever go: "shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?"
Look at what he is answering. The chapter is set up like a court case, and the mountains are called as witnesses: "Hear ye, O mountains, the LORD's controversy." Yet God opens almost tenderly: "O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against me." God asks His people what He has done to them, and the answer comes back as a price list. That last item was no figure of speech in Micah's time, because people really did sacrifice their children, and through Jeremiah God said of it, "which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart."
The answer begins by saying this is old news: "He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good." They had already been shown, so nothing new needed to be bought. Then He names what He wants: "to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God." Moses had asked the same question in the same shape long before: "what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him." And Jeremiah, standing in the gate of the temple, said that sacrifices had never been the first thing God asked for: "I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice."
So think about what you have been offering God in place of what He asked. Then go to one person you owe fairness or kindness, and put it right this month. You do not have to bargain with God to be welcome, because He is the One who brought His people out of Egypt and still asks them to walk with Him.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 242 is Many Mansions (John 14:2).