Compassion (Tuesday) – Micah 6:6-8
Micah 6:6-8
“With what shall I come to the Lord and bow myself before the God on high?”
I wonder, with this question, if Micah was not asking the question that has been present in some form at some time in the heart of every human? If we all descended from Adam and we are beings created in God’s own likeness, who were then banished from Eden, where we had once known (by virtue of our natures), intimacy with God, what manner of catastrophe occurred in Adam’s (our) hearts at the Fall? And… I also wonder, what manner of trauma did God experience as this first born son who bore His likeness brought separation between Him and all the offspring He had desired?
I think as Adam looked back over His shoulder at Eden and ahead at the ground he was to plow, with a spirit whose light had just gone out, he was certainly shocked at the change in scenery. But that was nothing I suspect, compared to the devastation (beyond our comprehension) at having lost the treasure of relating intimately, moment by moment to God. The separation was not just geographic. Original sin created separation between the spirits of God and man.
I believe the perfect harmony that God had crafted between Adam’s spirit, soul and body was lost at the Fall. As the toxins that derived from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil were being absorbed into Adam’s being, I imagine they went directly to his spirit, which had been originally animated by the breath of God, and put it to sleep. Then like a computer virus, the invasive code moved into Adam’s soul, corrupting it with a program that was never intended to operate in a human. In the vacuum created by a lifeless spirit, the soul expanded to fill the void and serve as the primary operating system. The body too would succumb to a finite existence.
Operating now by his wits alone, Adam no longer had the spiritual capacity of simply and instinctively knowing God. All his fallen nature can do, with its memory growing progressively dim regarding God and Eden, is attempt to manage things with his still brilliant mind. As many answers as that mind was destined to generate in the manipulation of his physical world, it remains tragically incapable, by itself, to answer the fundamental questions of; “Who am I?”, “Where did I come from?” and “What is my purpose?” Adam left the Garden and God’s presence with a cosmic-sized “rejection complex”. Consequently, Adam’s legacy to us is a misshapen and insecure identity that perpetually wonders what will be required of it to please God and return to His presence. Hence;
“With what shall I come to the Lord and bow myself before the God on high?” ……Micah continues:
“Shall I come to him with burnt offerings, with yearling calves? Does the Lord take delight in thousands of rams, in ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my first-born for my rebellious acts, the fruit of my body for the sins of my soul?” This would be impressive looking but –
These are the questions asked by our enlarged souls reeling from the Fall; running on a corrupted program that suggests to man that he has the ability within himself to DO something that will save him and restore him to what he instinctively knows is missing and is groping to find. If you could look at the name of that program running in us, I think we would see that is labeled “religion”. The lie embedded into this program code is that WE can DO something that will atone for our sin and that can win God’s favor. As noble as this may sound, and as impressive as it may look, it is a satanically inspired idea designed to distract man from the only real solution that has ever been made available to him – a new heart. (See Isaiah 64:6)
Micah’s answer to his own question (in 6:8) is true; it is poetic, yet it is incomplete. Ezekiel has a better answer to the separation problem sin created in chapter 36, verses 26 & 27 ( a new heart & a new spirit).
An even more complete answer is found in a conversation Jesus had with a pharisee named Nicodemus in John 3:5&6.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
The New Testament is the revelation of the deepest truth’s of the Father’s heart. It is absolutely true that man is a fallen being that has inherited a nature that is estranged from God, being disabled in fulfilling its created function which is communicating to God spirit to spirit. It is also true that God is a holy being that despises this satanic code running in His beloved creation because it has robbed them and Himself of the joy of fellowship. God has wrath and anger toward sin. The great, great, great news is that every ounce of it was absorbed on the cross in Jesus Christ who was the only sacrifice (as an unblemished sinless lamb) who could atone for the catastrophe that has been our hearts.
So, the deepest truth about God’s heart is not His anger and wrath. The Father’s heart is not inclined toward men in anger and wrath. The deepest truth about God’s heart is that it is inclined toward man in COMPASSION. We are the apple of His eye, the dream in His heart, the love of His life. He was predisposed toward us in kindness even before we surrendered to Him. This is the heart of the gospel and the New Testament and it is the essential revelation that will alone destroy the code of “religion” that operates within the Church.
When we receive Christ as our Lord and Savior, His Spirit comes into us restoring to us the spirit-to-spirit connection Adam briefly enjoyed. In Christ, God has once again breathed His life into us and we are born from above. We have new natures and hearts that are formatted to be compatible with the Word and the Spirit of God. We have old natures that have grown accustomed to living out of our enlarged souls. The transformation God intends for His children is a byproduct of His Word and Spirit displacing the spiritual virus that has been the rule of our hearts.
Father, may you continue to breathe upon us, stoking Your life within us. May your Spirit burn so bright and hot that it consumes every remaining effect that the evil of religion has propagated in us and this world. In the freedom of our rest, may we learn to live in and enjoy the open heaven you have given us access to. May you receive the reward of Your suffering and Your sacrifice as we avail ourselves of the spirit-to-spirit connection that has been restored in Your Son. May the world see a Bride who has rediscovered and claimed her rightful treasure of intimacy with You. Amen.