Answering Micah's Question (Micah 6:6-8)

"I'm sorry."

"I am so sorry."

"Shouldn't have done that. Sorry."

After awhile, isn't it reasonable for you to want to see a change in the person's behavior, not just words repeated over and over?  

Remember Peter's question: 

“Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”

Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times." (Matt. 18:21-22) 

These words carry an echo from Lamech, an evil man of the Old Testament:

Lamech said to his wives,

“Adah and Zillah, listen to me;
wives of Lamech, hear my words.
I have killed a man for wounding me,
a young man for injuring me.
If Cain is avenged seven times,
then Lamech seventy-seven times.” (Gen. 4:23-4) 

Revenge and forgiveness cannot occupy the same table in the Kingdom of God. Peter knew his Hebrew Scriptures and would have caught Jesus' meaning in echoing Lamech's boast, and how He turned it on its head. 

Maybe you are justified in seeking revenge. OK.  But in this new Kingdom that Jesus is inaugurating, forgiveness is how we process insult.  Jesus then tells a parable to elaborate on His teaching. He tells of a servant who has been forgiven a great debt from the king, and then turns on a fellow servant for a small of amount of money.  Jesus ends the parable by saying, 

"This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” (Matt. 18:35) 

Jesus, I believe, is teaching here about revenge, which is not our prerogative. It is God's. We are not to be revengeful, but obedient.   

Obedient?

Think of the king that forgave the servant in the parable.  The servant owed him a great debt.  This debt accrued over time with sin after sin, until the king called in the servant to settle his accounts with him.  The servant owed a debt he couldn't pay.  Then the king forgave him.  Now the servant, totally in the financial clear, grabbed his fellow servant to shake a few shekels out of him.

This servant launched into a revengeful act after receiving forgiveness.  His fellow servant didn't pay what he owed (he's in debt, too, no doubt) and this other servant probably screamed at him:

What do you mean you don't have the money? You owe me!

But there's an irony here.  The forgiven servant is debt-free.  His earnings, however meager they are, are his. He can afford now to be gracious, merciful and kind.  He now needs to be obedient to the king who demonstrated what godly behavior looks like. 

One note here: We will need to walk away from someone who is abusive, but not from revenge, but with a desire for that person to seek God. Revenge will turn to bitterness and we will miss the grace of God (Heb. 12:15). Wanting revenge will destroy us. Forgiveness sets us free, regardless of whether or not the person accepts the forgiveness or changes their behavior. 

Remember how we started this series by looking at God's justice?  Without the king forgiving the servant's debt, the king could have thrown the servant into prison and thrown away the key. But the king was gracious, merciful and kind. 

God's mercy always precedes His justice:

Say to them, "As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel?" (Ezekiel 33:11).

God is not a maniacal tyrant who enjoys watching us cringe as His blasts of justice rain down. 

He grows despondent (if I may use that word) at the continual stubbornness of His children and their unwillingness to repent.   He sends His prophets time after time, throughout Israel's history, to guide, warn, admonish and chastise. 

Time after time, the people do not listen.

He wants to see a change in their behavior. "I'm sorry" is not indicative of a change of heart unless accompanied by a change of behavior. 

Then a bigger question looms before us. How can we show to a mighty and holy God that we are truly sorry, not just murmuring under our breath or going to the temple to make a sacrifice and then leaving without a true change of heart? 

If repentance is a change of direction, then what direction do we go? Let's listen in to Micah:

With what shall I come before the Lord
    and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
    with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
    with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
    the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly with your God (6:6-8).

"Humbly" can also mean, "prudently," according to Bible Gateway.  I see humility as tempered wisdom.  You know your limitations.  You know your weaknesses.  You listen to wise advice.  You are open to new holy perspectives. And you know that without the filling and empowerment of the Holy Spirit, this walk with God will be defeated time after time, as your flesh interferes. 

Micah asks rhetorically if all the sacrifices in the world will constitute an adequate "I'm sorry."   But without justice, mercy and humility, and behavior that reflects those qualities, your words are empty.

God has shown us what He requires of us.  We are to reflect His justice and mercy, for our hearts are humble and we see Him as the only One who can save us from ourselves and our sins. 

But I sense more in Micah. He knows that all the sacrifices in the world cannot remove sin. The writer of Hebrews says: 

The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:

“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
with burnt offerings and sin offerings
you were not pleased.

Then I said, "Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—
I have come to do your will, my God." (Heb. 10:1-7)

Jesus is the answer to Micah's question. He paid the debt once and for all. 

He dispenses justice, wanting for us to repent, and live. 

He is merciful.

He is humble.

He shows us the way, because He is the way. 

Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—
I have come to do your will, my God.’”