The Fine Print
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8 NASB
Told you – Approximately 700 years before Yeshua began his teaching, the prophet Micah brought a message of hope to Israel. The message was really quite simple. Three things, three behaviors, were needed in order to enjoy a full relationship with the Father. Those three actions had plenty of history. No one could possibility be confused about the meaning. They were 1) ‘asot’ mishpat (to do justice), 2) ‘ahavat hesed (to love hesed) and 3) hashnea leket im-eloheka (to humbly walk before your God). We have spent hours examining the words mishpat and hesed. We all know that “walking” is a metaphor for obedient execution. The message is unambiguously clear. This is what YHVH requires. Nothing more is needed.
But what about the fine print?
What about the necessity to affirm Yeshua as the Messiah, the Son of God or even God the Son? What about the requirement to endorse the ecclesiology of Paul’s letters? What about the dogma of the virgin birth, the depravity of Man after the Fall, the rapture, the dispensation of the Church? What about the teachings of Augustine, Aquinas, Luther and Calvin? What about the declaration of “grace alone,” “Scripture alone,” and the other points of the various creeds? Where is the fine print covering all the things we so vigorously defend, and so quickly use in order to distinguish heretics among us?
Here’s the overwhelming truth. There is no fine print. We can make as much as we like of all the rest of our explorations, extrapolations, eruditions and doctrines, but Micah has given us all that is required. Do these three and you will find favor with God and His children. That’s enough. All the rest in invisible ink, destined to disappear in the return of the King. Don’t do these three and you will have to answer to YHVH. But what you do with all the rest is really, in the end, not very important, is it?
In recent days I have experienced a lot of loss over the fine print. It’s not that I withdrew. It’s that others apparently considered the fine print so important that Micah’s three no longer took priority. I found the experience emotionally very difficult. Perhaps I am just too confused to understand why the fine print becomes justification for separation. But then, it seems that it has always been so. The history of Christendom is rife with divisions over the fine print. Perhaps that’s where the Church is most comfortable—reminding others that they are not like us. It makes me very sad.
By the way, the verb here (nagad – to tell, to make known) is a causative, perfect. God makes this known! He tells us. It’s hard to imagine it isn’t crystal clearer.
Topical Index: Micah 6:8, separation, nagad
AMEN!!! I love you, Skip.
Thank you, Skip. We do forget to be God’s children and keep it simple.
Skip, sorry for your loss…and theirs. May YHWH open our eyes and hearts to the simplicity of reality and the plain instructions of Torah.
Thank you Skip- dogma is a mountain of curses and I have come to learn that that mountain is only moved by prayer and fasting. Our hearts have to break over this mountain of theology and dogma that rises like a mountain of curses over the body of Messiah. It takes our broken hearts shut in with the Father and weeping like David did for Saul.
Amen, bless you Skip! This is the pearl of great price…
I’m sorry that has happened, Skip. It is difficult to lose some of our traveling companions on this journey.
I recently was confronted with the question, “But do they believe He is the son of God?” I replied that I did not know what they believed about that. It seemed as if my answer allowed the questioner to dismiss the ‘others’ who might not embrace the same “Fine Print” as they did.
I don’t look at it as the fine print; I look at it
as the whole truth . . . from cover to cover.
Sure, we can have disagreements. Our human
understanding is full of complicating questions . . .
yours and mine. Who’s right?
Him!
My spirit is driven by the same journey, thanks for sharing yours with us.
It’s true. At the end it’s very simple. you can make it as complicated as you want, you can also get hung up on every single detail to know what, “Do justice” really means etc.
Dogma just changes when you come into Hebrew Roots. It’s easy for people to lose the Xmas but be overly protective of ‘x’. Or believe Christians are wrong because they took away and Jews are wrong because they added. All of a sudden everyone now knows, “truth” . I wish I would have kept perspective from the beginning with this verse. It’s actually extremely simple. It’s a journey and make sure to smile along the way. But in the journey of seeking Him out, make sure that you keep this verse in the forefront of you mind. This verse along can keep you busy many life times over with action.
AMEN! Praise YHVH. Thank you, Derek, for stating the simple fact that “this verse alone can keep you busy many lifetimes over with action!” Hesed… that’s what it’s all about… and that means sacrifice for others.
I have often pondered this question, Skip, thanks for the topic!
I hear your heart’s pain, Skip. We who love you and refuse to be separated by doctrine and dogma, stand with you. YOU ARE NOT ALONE.
Pride and deception are what has brought about the (is this # correct?) 70+ thousand “denominations” and “non-denominations” of “Christianity.” “And YHVH was sorry [reconsidered; repented] that He had made man on the earth and He was grieved in His heart.” [Institute for Scripture Research translation of Genesis 6:6.]
This tells all; YHVH gives us what He requires of us [Micah 6:8] but we insist on doing things our way, always 100% confident that WE are the Biblical ones. As we continue separating and dividing, we grieve Him… think on the magnitude of that. To grieve God with our pious attitudes… what sort of evil is that?
Sarna’s commentary says about – justice …… goodness ……. walk modestly, “Abravanel astutely interprets this triad as a graded series of obligations: 1) the demands of justice – the formalities and externals of civil and criminal law; 2) the requirement of loving-kindness – actions performed in the spirit of the law, going beyond its formal minimal demands; and 3) the inwardness of true piety hidden from the world at large.
Does this not remind us of what someone else would say about 750 years later to ALL who have ears? Thanks for the k.i.s.s. (keep it simple Skip), and Micah too.
Also I should add Skip. People that want to separate themselves from others on the fine print have not either been alone long enough or truly don’t know what it means to be alone because they have a club of people that want to feel alone together. Once have truly felt being alone, being an island, and seen that you were part of, “But I’m so different” thing going on – that is when you truly grasp to connect with people on your similarities because it is such a dark place to be in for too long. Micah is an excellent place to begin with. It doesn’t dismiss that you can have your beliefs, you can believe in Torah you can do Shabbat on Saturday not Sunday but at the end this is bread and butter.
“that is when you truly grasp to connect with people on your similarities because it is such a dark place to be in for too long.” AMEN. We were created for community. Oh how we praise YHVH continually for the little group of His servants that He has FINALLY led us to where we can learn to really love one another, to really be involved in each other’s lives (this group just started meeting together in June… by God’s miraculous Hand… people of different backgrounds and even different towns and states!) We praise Him continually that He has drawn each of us “out of her” as a teeny tiny remnant really seeking what it means to be grafted in. (At least 3 families there are readers of Today’s Word… and we didn’t even know one another! How cool is that!?) We are learning to “drop the dogma and doctrine” at the door” one step at a time. We cherish our new family and I think we all are pretty protective of pushing stuff. The problem is that this stuff has brainwashed us for 2000 years and is in the subconscious… we don’t even know what we think we know, but we (as believers worldwide) sure stagger around with it all the day long defending this and that! We assume that we are all on the “same page”… which we are NOT, of course. Please pray for us.
Dear brother Skip, I feel your loss and know the pain of separation. Paul so clearly warns to not give oneself to “the vanity of the Greek mind” . My experience has been being right gets in the way of being real and loving. Having met you recently I doubt your being right and others simply can’t conceive of the beauty of the mysterious white space between the words of scripture. I have heard of and read only one really good book about “church” splits. It’s by Gene Edwards and titled “climb the highest mountain”. In it implies that most divisions between brethren are caused by men “protecting their territory” area’s of expertise, knowledge or theological perspectives. Being right vs being brothers who disagree. You know the dance, but it hurts none the less. You have my prayers…
Thanks, Mark. So nice to meet you in Fresno. Hope to see you again the next time I am there.
It is very clear. I’m grateful I came across this blog years ago. I’m in as long as I’m breathing. I appreciate this group.
Truly, Skip, contention over doctrines and dogma causes such consternation of spirit! It surely is NOT of the LORD.
You challenge us to dig deeper into truth through Hebraic paradigm, ONE word a day, not so much into doctrines, but translations etc..,and that has bless us richly. But folks who assume they have ALL truth has nothing to glean, nor learn from here.
We so need this reminder, thank you! We feel sad too.
Micah 6:8 is among my favourite verses and easily the most quoted, the verse is succinct and yet more relevant than many other comparable passages because of its clarity, there are possible misreadings, as can often be expected, however the emphasis on loving mercy is integral and helps remind many to try and be nicer and kinder in various ways in their daily life
if only kindness and practising goodness were not so foreign to the belief, but how much more normal it is easy for many to contemplate more prayer or more church attendance and never properly even consider learning to be kinder: kinder to family, friends, regular strangers and even animals
even seemingly trivial areas of our lives such as modifying our choice of words and phrasing, our tone (important), and our mannerisms are good and truly meaningful ways to improve
belief has been hijacked by fixations on potentially important but nonetheless skewed elements at the full expense of what the Scriptures specifically emphasise from the earliest portions of the Bible – being kind and good towards all, seeking these ways to live
speaking of goodness towards all, I just read the conclusion of Jonah earlier and it is noticeable the last word is “cattle”, as it is explained to Jonah there would be loss if the original judgements were continued because of all the humans and the ‘cattle’ of Nineveh
we can take from the same examples the desire to do goodness extends well beyond humans to the animal kingdom, which certainly feels and experiences emotions and thus which shares a special state of sentience that we should be carefully mindful of
returning to the verse in Micah, ‘to do justice’ (justly) is an expression often connected in the Scriptures to righting the wrongness of the world, it is frequently associated with helping the poor, the widow, the orphans and all cases of those who are desolate, both materially and emotionally, in their needs (e.g. Isaiah 1:17, Psalm 82:3, Jeremiah 22:15 – 16, among many other verses)
we see from this that justice and judgement have special connotations they are directly related to practising mercy, there is for those somewhat familiar with these ideas as they are expressed in the Scriptures a type of redundancy, but it is rather a special imperative with restated emphasis which I would say places a wider range of focus of this principle. Nonetheless we can see from this meaning the idea is a continuation of a universal principle, one that is very noticeably lacking in believers awareness and contemplations and which now requires special appeal to bring to awareness (how to live unto God), and this is why Micah 6:8 is very easily the most commonly referenced verse in my discussions, because it helps in an almost unparalleled succinct and yet germane manner to bring to attention what is really important and what is really going to prove decisive, if we are living unto God let us learn to be caring and kind for the world as a whole, and take this law with utmost earnestness
I very much agree with the lament, but without at least a general sense of sola scriptura – can’t Micah’s words be interpreted to mean pretty much anything?
I find this especially helpful since scripture gives a context even for Micah’s words. Isn’t Micah just making a reference to Deuteronomy 10:12,13?:
“Now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require from you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the LORD’S commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good?”
It’s of no surprise that on the day you posted this our small group decided to shelve our survey of the major prophets to discuss Micah 6:8 this coming Thursday. In light of our presidential election results, we realize some fields are ready for tending all around us and we need to take on the character presented in this verse as we interact and hopefully minister to those so shaken by them. We hope to shed what we think we already know about doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly before the Lord to discover something we haven’t. Your nudges on the subject are helpful.
We also find it strange that our search for new kahal/ekklesia/church keeps us interacting with believers whose methods seem so alien to us. Perhaps part of our mission is to use Micah 6:8 perspective to join them and see how God uses us there.
Thanks for the post!
The Messiah Alone brings Justice , the Messiah is Kindness, We are only to be a willing vessel for His hands and feet , his body for him to use for his glory …to do as Micah declares ( is in my limited understanding) being ,doing, purposing to be used of the Messiah …all true, loving, pure , goodness that is done ,expressed acted on comes from Him and is for His glory …whether a soul “knows” Him
Or not.