Micah 6:8 is one of the most famous verses from the prophets, and perhaps the only reason many people even know who Micah is. When President Jimmy Carter was inaugurated, this was the verse to which the inauguration bible opened. It is a common phrase and has been put on everything from t-shirts to keychains. But it makes more sense when we understand the verse's full context and how it is translated.
Micah was a prophet from the town of Moresheeth. This fortified city in the southwest portion of Judah in the foothills overlooked a highway that would have been used by armies moving into the hill country nearby. But Micah did not work in Moresheeth. He prophesied in Jerusalem. He was considered a traditionalist who wanted to get back to the “good old days” and was suspicious of government bureaucracy. Historians aren’t sure if he was a cult prophet, an elder, or perhaps even a landowner sensitive to the plight of the people. All we know about him is contained in chapter 3 verse 8. He was likely working previous to Jeremiah, as he is mentioned in Jeremiah 26:18, so he was active during the reign of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. He was likely a contemporary of Isaiah, and he too “felt compassion for the poor and dispossessed, and held leaders responsible for their suffering.” (Simundson 2000, 534)
The entirety of Micah is a court case- God vs. the people of Jerusalem. And the book is set up with God’s case against the people. But the people are responding with a kind of false optimism- a “God has always let us off the hook before” attitude. Micah’s job is to squash the false optimism but leave instead a measured hope. It is in chapter six that we have the culmination of the litigation and get a list of what the people have done- we are told, “The Lord has controversy with his people and he will contend with Israel”- in other words, God is angry and Israel is in big trouble. “Israel has broken the covenant God has not. If disasters are now the result of that disobedience, God cannot be declared unjust. The mountains and hills will be the jury.” (Simundson 2000, 578). And then God lets them have it with a“What have I done for you?” parental guilt speech.
But then the question comes, “How can we make it right?.” This is where the heart of the verse comes from- God doesn’t want offerings, oil, firstborn, or fruit. God wants three things. Justice, Kindness, and Humility.
My favorite translation of this verse puts it this way, "The Lord has told you what is required. to make justice happen, to love passionately as God loves, and to remember that although we are not God, we are God's very own" (Davison 2005).
It isn’t enough just to “do justice” No, we must make justice happen. In Hebrew, the verb form means that justice is something that must be made, not just done. It requires active behavior. To Make justice happen is to go out into the world and change the systems that cause oppression. We are responsible for creating just societies and ensuring that justice is served. We have to te be the ones that make the changes to the systems. We cannot rely on God to do it for us.
The word for justice here is MISHPAT. Tim Keller says “mishpat’s most basic meaning is to treat people equitably. It means acquitting or punishing every person on the merits of the case, regardless of race or social status. Anyone who does the same wrong should be given the same penalty. But it means more than just the punishment of wrongdoing. It also means giving people their rights. Mishpat is giving people what they are due, whether punishment or protection or care.” (Timothy Keller 2012). This word, MISHPAT, shows up a lot in the first testament- over 200 times. Its use in Micah is not a coincidence, but rather a reinforcement of the idea that people must be treated equitably. Whenever this word shows up in the Hebrew text it is almost always worried about the “Care and cause of widows, orphans, immigrants, and the poor– those who have been called the quartet of the vulnerable” (Tim Keller 2012).
“In premodern, agrarian societies, these four groups had no social power. They lived at a subsistence level and were only days from starvation if there was any famine, invasion, or even minor social unrest. Today, this quartet would be expanded to include the refugee, the migrant worker, the homeless, and many single parents and elderly people. The mishpat, or justness, of a society, according to the Bible, is evaluated by how it treats these groups. Any neglect shown to the needs of the members of this quartet is not called merely a lack of mercy or charity but a violation of justice, of mishpat. God loves and defends those with the least economic and social power, and so should we.” (Tim Keller 2012)
That’s what it means to make justice happen- it means to do the work of righting the wrongs of society and creating a society of justice in which all are treated equally.
We must love as passionately as God Loves. See, this is beyond kindness. The Hebrew word here is Hesed. Hesed is a passionate love, a fierce mama-bear kind of love. This is the kind of love God expects- love that bears no resentment or uses no manipulation or coercion. It is a kind of love that motivates and shares and protects. It is loyal. It is faithful. And it goes far beyond the trite notion of “be kind.” Hesed means that we are to love as God loves- passionate, fierce love for all people- especially those who need it most. And if we must reduce this to the word kindness, (which I don’t agree that we must), let us practice RADICAL kindness. Radical kindness intentionally seeks to build bridges across differences, develop solidarity and shared ground, and promote social connections between different groups and communities(Davies Hayon et al. 2022). Radical kindness is an outward expression of Hesed.
And we must remember that although we are not God, we are God’s very own. The common translation is “Walk humbly with God.” The word halakh here does mean to walk, but this does not mean a literal stroll in the park with God. Instead, this is about interdependence with Go and humanity. This interdependence is the root of humility. As Carter Heywood puts it, “Humility is a relational quality rooted in a realization that we truly are walking together on common ground. We see that we are grounded together. Humility is steeped in a sense of our shared humanity, to our being moved by a radically relational God to live in mutuality with our sisters and brothers here on earth: sister and brother humans, sister and brother creatures. We’re all in this together, no one of us above the others. To live with humility is to be aware of this, and celebrate it.” (Heyward 2013). Recognizing our place in the human community reminds us that no one is more or less valuable than another. We depend on God, and God depends on us. Walking humbly reminds us that we are not God, but we are God’s very own.
When we take this verse from a trite translation- “Do Justice, Love Kidness, And walk humbly with your God”- When we take it off of the t-shirts and coffee mugs and really look at it through new eyes, it changes. It becomes a much more radical idea.
"The Lord has told you what is required. to make justice happen, to love passionately as God loves, and to remember that although we are not God, we are God's very own"
This is Micah’s call to the people- that they have to work fervently to make justice happen. They can’t just trust the system or let the laws be enforced unequally. They have to MAKE it happen- they have to do the work of ensuring justice for the community. They have to love passionately and in the same way, God loves. That means they have to love without reservation or without condition. And they have to remember that they are not in charge, but rather they belong to God and God is depending on them to live up to their covenant.
This is good advice and a good lesson to take forward for us. We are also called to work fervently to make justice happen- to do our part to ensure that people are treated with dignity and equality. We are called to love passionately and in the same way that God loves. We’re meant to be the “mama bear” protecting those who are vulnerable or who need extra love. And we are reminded that as much talent and technology that we have does not mean that we are God, but rather we are God’s own.
So, what does God want from you?
"The Lord has told you what is required. to make justice happen, to love passionately as God loves, and to remember that although we are not God, we are God's very own"