Moses and Micah

BySkip Moen, Ph.D.

“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?”  Deuteronomy 10:12-13  NASB

Require – Abraham Heschel followed Moses when he wrote, “The Bible is an answer to the supreme question: What does God demand of us?”[1]  Moses uses the Hebrew šāʾal, a verb that can be translated “ask, inquire, borrow, beg, demand” or “request.”  “Over and over again in the [Old Testament] šāʾal is used of men and women asking or failing to ask God for guidance, i.e., enquiring of the Lord.”[2]  But in this case, it is God who’s asking.

Centuries later, Micah reminds wayward Israel of Moses’ declaration, with the same answer:

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

We’ve looked at this verse in the past.[3]  We’ve discovered the continuing demand for justice, ḥesed, and obedience. These three require personal involvement.  “. . . to do justice is what God demands of every man: it is the supreme commandment, and one that cannot be fulfilled vicariously.”[4]  The demand has never changed even if the way that it is applied needs to be adapted to current circumstances.  You and I are asked to work out these principles in our lives today.  Moses and Micah aren’t merely historical figures in Israel’s past.  They are living prophets expressing God’s will toward men every day.

When we realize that God is asking this of every man, we start to recognize these three things in completely non-religious places.  One adaptation of Moses and Micah can be seen in the work of Brené Brown when she writes, ““Compassion and connection . . . can only be learned if they are experienced.”[5]  If human beings are hard-wired for connection, as she concludes, then they are hard-wired for a God-connection, and that God-connection can’t happen by proxy.  It must be lived.  It must be discovered in justice, ḥesed, and obligation.  And that means a lot more than just following the rules.

We are apt to read šāʾal as our requests of God.  All those times we asked something from Him.  Safety, prosperity, comfort, help—requests according to our desires.  Requests that should have reminded us of the really big request.  The one God asks.  The one that He’s been asking since Sinai.  His question has never changed.  I wonder if our answer has the same longevity.

Topical Index: šāʾal, demand, request, Deuteronomy 10:12-13, Micah 6:8

[1] Abraham Heschel, Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity, p. 186.

[2] Harris, R. L., Archer, G. L., Jr., & Waltke, B. K. (Eds.). (1999). Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 891). Chicago: Moody Press.

[3] https://skipmoen.com/?s=Micah+6%3A8

[4] Abraham Heschel, The Prophets (Hendrickson Publishers, 1962), Vol 1, p. 204.

[5] Brené Brown, Daring Greatly, p. 219.