Micah 6-7
If God’s judgment on His people seems harsh, consider what He says in Micah 6. First, not only was God good to Israel, saving them from bondage and blessing them where men intended cursing, but He had done them absolutely no wrong. “O my people, what have I done to you? How have I wearied you? Answer me!” (Mic. 6:3). And yet they rejected Him, giving their allegiance to everything but God. Second, people jumped through all kinds of hoops for their non-gods, even offering up their children to them. All God asked of them was “to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” (Mic 6:8b). And third, God asks, “Shall I acquit the man with wicked scales and with a bag of deceitful weights?”. (Mic 6:11). They filled the land with wickedness, violence, and deceit. God was well within His rights to address it.
The truth is, God’s actions against His people were beyond justified. They were fully deserved, and probably even owed. What doesn’t make sense and what isn’t owed is God’s faithfulness, steadfast love and compassion. “Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of His inheritance?” (Mic. 7:18). God not only continues to offer Himself to those who will at least try to “do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God”, but He makes up the difference – an unfathomable, insurmountable difference – in their efforts in order to accept them as righteous. Where is the harshness in that?
Acts 22
Now here’s something *new* – a mob of people shouting someone off the stage, saying that he deserves to die because he told them something they did not want to hear. Okay, maybe not so new. Some things never change. What I can’t really tell is why they got upset. Was it because Paul told them they were rejecting the truth? Or were they, like a child who has no interest in a toy until another child wants to play with it, upset because he told them God was offering what they rejected to the Gentiles? Perhaps it was both. Whatever the case, their hearts were so filled with pride and hate that they could not see, hear, or think straight. They were unwilling to give even the slightest consideration to anything other than what they wanted to believe. This is a sadly familiar situation that is far too common today.