He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8 ESV

With yesterday being both the remembrance of September 11th, along with the shock of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, it feels as if we are in crisis mode. In this mind-set, the “Fight or Flight” reaction seems to set in with most of us. Should we be drawing inward for safety and reflection or demanding justice and fighting?” I have found today’s verse both short and to the point. The people of Israel were also in a crisis. Their nation, which had begun as God’s Promised Land was now politically divided between Judah in the South and the kingdom of Israel in the North. Rather than getting along, they had just finished fighting a long and bloody war with each other, while the empire of Assyria was on the doorstep of them both. On top of all the military and political problems the people faced, many of them had turned away from God and were worshipping the idols of the nations around them. Then add to that mix, the intrigue and corruption within the palace and you begin to get a picture of a life that was not all that different from today. Stepping up to the microphone in the middle of this turmoil, the prophet Micah didn’t mince words. He called the people to repentance and to turn back to their God, who had brought them out of slavery, given them a beautiful land and blessed, rescued and helped them over and over. His message wasn’t complicated. God was calling them to more than just returning to certain religious practices and showing up at the temple during the holidays. What God asked was a return to living out “what is good,” in their personal relationships, families and homes. He summed up his message in three words: Justice, Mercy and Humility.

Now, justice, mercy and humility may not be at the top of the bucket list items for our culture, but they are for God, and He gives them to us, not as three separate goals but as a package deal. He knows that often our demands for justice ring out, without an equal call for mercy. But justice without mercy gives us neither, and mercy without justice is an invitation for selfishness to rule the day. But when both justice and mercy follow us all the days of our lives, then God walks with us through the valley of the shadow, sets a table before us in the wilderness and leads us to His own home, where He promises we may live with Him forever!