Micah 6:6-8 With which shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings… I. THE RELIGION OF MAN. "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord?" etc. 1. This is simply the voice of man's religious instinct seeking after God. In Pope's universal prayer, there is truth, as well as error. "There are," says the late Dr. Vaughan, "tendencies in man which make religion, in some form, a necessity of his nature; but it is no less certain that there are tendencies in him which ensure that the religion chosen by him will not be a spiritual one," etc. 2. Consciousness, history, the Bible, prove that this inward light has become darkness. Man's religious faculty has become impaired, and reveals its degeneracy in superstition and cruelty. God must be propitiated, but by "thousands of rams, and ten thousands of rivers of oil," and by the sacrifice of their own offspring. "Where there is no vision," etc. 3. The ignorance in which man has involved himself is rectified by God's revealed will. "He hath showed thee, O man," etc. Reason has failed to discover a resting place for the soul. The course of ages witnessed the trial, and in the most favourable circumstances. II. GOD'S RELIGION. "He hath showed thee, O man." Notwithstanding their gorgeous economy of symbol and sacrifice, they were taught that the symbol could not save, that God desired truth in the inward parts." The religion of God is summed up under three heads — 1. "Do justly." Love to God ensures love and justice to man. 2. "Love mercy." This strikes at the selfishness of our nature. 3. "Walk humbly with thy God." The soul of religion is here; reconciliation — communion — reverent, constant converse with God. (John Lewis.) Parallel Verses KJV: Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? |
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