Love Mercy
What Is Good • Sermon • Submitted
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Intro: Do you like courtroom dramas?Law and Order, The Closer, The People’s Court, Judge Judy. Micah is written like a courtroom drama.
Intro: Do you like courtroom dramas?Law and Order, The Closer, The People’s Court, Judge Judy. Micah is written like a courtroom drama.
Micah is the mouthpiece of God, he is the prosecuting attorney. God is the judge and the leaders of the nation act like the defense attorneys.
Notice the language Micah, empowered by the Spirit of God uses, “Arise plead your case before the mountains” (Mic. 6:1) God invites the people to respond, to defend themselves against the charges God has spoken against them, the nation of Israel, the people of God, the people God rescued from slavery have strayed away from the Lord, what are the charges?
Idolatry (Mic. 1:7, Mic 5:12-14)
The Improper Seizure of property (Mic. 2:2,9)
Failure of Civil Leadership (Mic 3:1-3, 9-10, 7:3)
Failure of Religious Leaders (Mic 3:11)
Failure of Prophetic Leaders (Mic 3:5-7, 11)
Belief that personal sacrifice satisfies divine justice (Mic 6:6-7) *READ
Taking advantage of people to get rich (Mic 6:10-12) *READ
When the people make their case against God, they said what do you want from us more animals, more oils, do you want my first born? In essence what they are telling God, haven’t we done enough? What more do you want from me?
The people of Israel treated the covenant relationship with God like a business contract. If I do this… then God has to do that...
Before we judge the people of Israel don’t we do the same? Don’t we sometimes treat God as if he owes us something? When bad things happen to us or when we are going through difficult times, don’t we ask God why is this happening to me? God I am faithful, I go to church, I give my offering, I share the Gospel, why is this happening to me?
Are we guilty of treating our relationship with Christ like a business deal? If God removed his hand of protection and favor off of your life and your life was full of trials, sickness, you lose your health, your family, your job, your belongings, you lose everything, will you still be here singing the praises of God? Would you say like Job, who lived through this, “even if he kills me, I will still trust him”?
In response to all this Micah reminds the people what God has told them,
English Standard Version Chapter 6
8 He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
Do justice, as Bryan pointed out last week we need to be just in our actions towards others, regardless of where they are from, how much money they make or what side of the town they live on. We shouldn’t take advantage of others, we should be just people because God is a just God and we should be more like Him.
Today we come to the second item Micah tells the people God requires of them love mercy, love Chesed, which is a gutteral so it makes a k sound in the Hebrew language. Since I am a gentile and not a Jew I will make it easy for us and just say hesed.
I. Mercy Came Running
I. Mercy Came Running
A. If you notice if you read different version of the Bible this word gets translated different ways in this passage.
Mercy
Kindness
faithfulness
steadfast love
Miles Coverdale, invented This is biblical word, to describe hesed, Loving-Kindness. and carried over into the English versions generally. It is one of the words he used in the Psalms (23 times, plus Hosea 2:19) to translate the Hebrew chesed when it refers to God's love for his people Israel.
B. The reason for that is that there is no good English word for what Hesed is.
Here is why, let me take you back to a scene in Exodus, Moses pleads with the Lord, let me see your glory. God says no one can see my glory and live, but I will pass before you and proclaim my name
Exo 34:6-8 6 The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” 8 And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.
The word steadfast love is our word hesed, but hesed is all the qualities in that passage.
mercy
grace
slow to anger
abounding in steadfast love
faithfulness
keeping steadfast love (even when the person doesn’t deserve it)
forgiving
This is what hesed is, this is our God
The closest NT concept we have of hesed is (Charis) Grace, Martin Luther used the same German word to translate both
in the 4th and 5th Century, when the Bble was translated into what is known as the Latin Vulgate, their is a word Jerome uses that should be very familiar to us, misericordia, which takes 2 words and combines the mercy and heart
God’s love toward us was not just words but it was action it came out of his character, came out of who he is, God is love.
C. While we were yet sinners…mercy came running after us,
One of my favorite songs Mercy Came Running goes like this...
Mercy came running
Like a prisoner set free
Past all my failures to the point of my need
When the sin that I carried
Was all I could see
And when I could not reach mercy
Mercy came running to me
la misericordia vino corriendo
Como un prisionero liberado
Más allá de todos mis fracasos hasta el punto de mi necesidad
Cuando el pecado que cargué
Fue todo lo que pude ver
Y cuando no pude alcanzar la misericordia
La misericordia vino corriendo hacia mi
English Standard Version Chapter 5
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
You see mercy is more than words, feeling sorry for someone or compassion. Mercy goes beyond feeling to action. Mercy is Jesus leaving the glories of heaven, the fellowship of the trinity, to become human, live like us and live for us. Mercy is Jesus healing the sick, giving the blind sight, feeding the hungry, making the lame walk. Mercy is suffering the death of the cross, not because we deserve it or are good people, but because Jesus Christ is the Mercy of God, Jesus is,
mercy
grace
slow to anger
abounding in steadfast love
faithfulness
keeping steadfast love (even when the person doesn’t deserve it)
forgiving
Have you experienced this mercy?
II. Missionaries of Mercy
A. The problem with the people in Micah’s day is they felt like they didn't need the mercy of God, they were too good for God’s mercy, because they didn’t love mercy, experience mercy, they couldn’t show mercy.
B. Turn your Bible to Luke 10:25, it is a very famous parable, The Good Samaritan.
Luke 10:25-28 - This lawyer had all the right answers, he knew the law of God, had most of the Law of God memorized. The evidence of God’s mercy in your life isn’t determined by how much of the Bible you know, how many books you read, how many times you go to church or how much money you give but your active goodness, kindness and mercy you show to people in misery and in need.
Luke 10:29 The lawyer asks who is my neighbor? He didn’t ask because he was truly searching, he asks because he wants to justify himself. Jesus answers, but he doesn’t answer the question the lawyer asks, he answer a whole other question.
Luke 10:30-37
Jericho rd - mountainous, caverns, rocky - Cerro de Pasco is a city in central Peru, located at the top of the Andean mountains. It is the capital of the Pasco region, and an important mining center. At 4,330 metres (14,210 ft) elevation, it is one of the highest cities in the world, and the highest or the second highest city with over 50,000 inhabitants, with elevation reaching up to 4,380 m in the Yanacancha area. It is connected by road and by rail to the capital Lima, as far as 300 km.
Priest & Levite - Religious leaders and church members
Samaritan - Jews hate Samaritans, Samaritans were Israelites who intermarried with the Assyrians. Samaritans and Jews hated each other, which is interesting because Jesus takes a Samaritan and makes him the hero of the parable, something that would have been unthinkable to a Jew.
Also notice loving mercy means acts out in goodness and kindness and reacts in a way that implies there is a relationship.
The Samaritan had compassion which led him to action. It isn’t enough to feel something, your feeling needs to lead to action. Compassion without action is just pity not mercy.
Mercy doesn’t ask the question “does he deserve it?” Does he have a plan to better himself for the future?
Mercy pays the bill and extends credit, expecting nothing in return.
Notice how much disdain and hate there is between Jews and Samaritans, the lawyer can’t even bring himself to say the Samaritan showed mercy.
You go and do like wise! this parable started with the question “who is my neighbor?” but the question Jesus answers and what God is most concerned about for you and me is “how can I be a neighbor?”
Jesus sends us out into this world as Missionaries of Mercy
to go and be a neighbor to all we come in contact with?
Jesus is telling us today Go and do like wise!
C. I have a confession to make it, too often I am consumed by my own daily activities, the things I need to get done at work, at home, or just self centered on satisfying my own needs that I miss the opportunities that God places in my life to merciful. Just this week, even yesterday I had the opportunity to show mercy and failed to do so and I laid in bed thinking of this sermon, God shook me and asked what are you doing? I realized how easy it is too be so consumed by my own life, tasks, needs or my own rights we push showing mercy to others to the side.
I’m sorry!
Blessed are the Merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ex 34:6–8). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
This is a biblical word, invented by Miles Coverdale, Loving-Kindness. and carried over into the English versions generally. It is one of the words he used in the Psalms (23 times, plus Hosea 2:19) to translate the Hebrew chesed when it refers to God's love for his people Israel.