Micah: Canonically to Christ

I’ve been wanting to put the “Preaching Christ from the OT” from a previous post to the test and have the opportunity to do so this Sunday. I am going to attempt preaching Micah 6:1-8 in a canonical way to arrive at Jesus.

The passage itself is pretty straightforward. God calls Israel into His courtroom and asks, “How have I wearied you?” Israel responds, “What do you want? How can we get you off our backs? You want sacrifices—fine. You want the best of our flocks—fine. You want thousands of sacrifices and rivers of oil—fine. Hey, even if you want us to sacrifice our firstborn for you—fine. Just get off our backs.” Then God famously replies, “I’ve told you what I require of you—do justly, love lovingkindness, and walk humbly with Me.”

I’ve actually preached this sermon before. My message was: Silly Israelites, God didn’t want their sacrifices—God wanted their heart. So my application for today would have been something like: Change your heart attitude towards God because that’s what He really wants, not your extravagant gifts. Yes you guessed it–that’s not gospel, that’s law.

So how do you preach an OT Text canonically and bring it to Christ? Just take it back to the heart of OT theology—Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy, Moses sets before Israel life and death. Obey God and you live and are blessed. Disobey Him and you are cursed and die. Pretty simple. Except that Moses also tells the people, after he tells them to choose live, that they will in fact NOT choose life. They will fail. All the curses will come to pass. He even composes a song (ch. 32) that is basically an “I-told-you-so.” When they are in captivity, after they have failed to choose life, they are to remember the words of this song.

 Micah 6 is actually pretty easy to bring back to Deuteronomy because 6:8 is a clear adaptation of Deuteronomy 10:12 “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you except to fear the LORD your God by walking in all His ways, to love Him, and to worship the LORD your God with all your heart and all your soul?” Interestingly, Moses tells them how they will be able to fulfill this requirement a few verses later. They are to “circumcise their hearts” (v. 15).  The only way Israel could “choose life” is to receive a heart-circumcision. In Deuteronomy 10 this act was given as a command—Do it! This change of heart is necessary if Israel wants to live. But they don’t choose life—precisely because they do not have this necessary heart circumcision. The good news of Deuteronomy is in 30:5. Here God promises that after He restores Israel, He Himself will circumcise their hearts—then they will love Him. What was before an imperative that could not be obeyed is now a future promise. This is the gospel—God Himself doing for His people what He requires of them to do but what cannot do for themselves.  

Back in Micah, the requirement of 6:8 is, therefore, not a reprieve for Israel. It is not that God “only” wants a good attitude. The point is that they COULD have given Him tens of thousands of sacrifice. They COULD have sacrificed their firstborn to make God happy. But God demanded more—acts and attitudes that are the results of heart circumcision. He is not letting them off the hook—he is asking the impossible. In this light, all of the monergistic promises of Micah make a lot of sense—I will destroy your idols, I will tear down your poles, I will gather, I will assemble.  

This future hope was fulfilled, of course, in the “Consolation of Israel” (Luke 1:25). Jesus Himself brought grace and truth. He did justly. He loved mercy. He walked humbly with His Father. Thus, the only way the cursed that were promised in Deuteronomy and re-affirmed in Micah will not fall upon a person is if that person is in union with Christ (the essence of the Gospel).  

Colossians 2:11-14   In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,  ¹² having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.  ¹³ And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,  ¹⁴ by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.