Micah 06: What Do You Give the King

Ever tried to buy a gift for someone who has everything? That’s the framing question we use to walk through Micah 6 and discover what God actually wants from us. Spoiler: it’s not rivers of oil or grand gestures. It’s a life shaped by three simple, demanding practices—act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.

We start by setting the scene: Israel is squeezed by Assyria, leaders are corrupt, and everyday people have learned to live with dishonest scales and quiet lies. As we read Micah’s courtroom drama, God reminds His people of past rescue and asks why they’ve grown tired of Him. From there, we tackle the heart of Micah 6:8 and unpack how justice, mercy, and humility move from verse to street-level action.

Justice shows up in daily decisions—fair dealings, honest work, and refusing to benefit from someone else’s loss. Mercy goes beyond fairness—offering forgiveness, breaking cycles of payback, and choosing kindness when hurt feels loud. Humility becomes the posture that keeps both alive, turning faith from performance into companionship. We also face Micah’s warning: when a culture normalizes deception, life feels empty no matter how hard we hustle. The cure isn’t spectacle; it’s steady faithfulness with God and neighbor.

Across the conversation, you’ll hear practical steps, reflective questions, and a prayer to help you choose one focus for the week. If you’ve wondered how to honor God in a noisy world—or what gift He actually wants—this guide through Micah offers clarity and courage for real life. Listen, share with a friend, and tell us: Which practice are you leaning into first—justice, mercy, or humility? If this helped you, subscribe, leave a review, and pass it on.

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Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Purpose Of The Podcast
• 0:52 Community Shoutouts And Resources
• 1:46 Setting The Theme: Direction In Difficulty
• 3:05 Reading Micah 6 And God’s Complaint
• 4:31 What God Wants: Micah 6:8 Unpacked
• 6:02 Consequences Of Injustice In Israel
• 7:22 Bringing It Home: Justice, Mercy, Humility
• 8:42 Guided Prayer And Closing Promise

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

Hey everyone and welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. In this podcast, we will be breaking down the Bible one chapter a day. Whether you are a new believer or have been following Christ for a while, we believe that you will learn something new and fresh every single day. So thank you for joining us. Let's get into breaking down the Bible together.

SPEAKER_01: 0:23

Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Micah chapter six. And today's title is What Do You Get The King? What Do You Get The King? We're going to jump into this because one of the things I think is so interesting is what do you get someone who has everything? Like, have you ever ran into that problem? We're going to talk about that in just a moment. And especially when it comes to what exactly can we give to God that can really be a gift to him? And we'll get into that. But if you want to, go get your Bibles out. Get it open to Micah chapter six. It's going to take a second to find it. So while you're looking for it, you might want to pause as well and make sure to like, share, and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Thank you so much to everybody who's leaving us those five-star reviews. It really does help us kind of get a little forward there in the search engines where we're reading through the Bible every day. Also, make sure you're going to the Bible breakdown discussion on Facebook. They're such an amazing team and they're so faithful putting out those devotions every day for us to just engage with God's Word a little bit deeper. And you can find all of that at the Biblebreakdown.com. And by the way, I don't mention this every day, but if you would like a link to both the YouTube channel and to the audio podcast, you can text RLC Bible to 94,000 and you'll get those texts to you every single morning, probably before you get up and do your devotion. If you, if you do you do your devotion at like 2 a.m., I can't help you. I'm sorry. But otherwise, you can get those, okay? All right. Well, if you've been with us, we are walking through and almost finished with the book of Micah. And we've we've kind of said the central, the central idea of the book of Micah is direction during difficulty. And we talked about how the nation of Israel is just, man, they are they are in the process of slowly getting overrun by the Assyrians. It's not looking good. And they're looking around for something. And this southern prophet, this small town southern prophet, he comes out and just starts telling everybody, listen, here's the direction. Here's where we need to go. We got to run to God. We got to run straight to him. And what this reminds me of is this reminds me of the idea. Have you ever been trying to buy a gift for someone who has everything? You know, I was, I was talking about this not long ago with a friend of mine, and we were both talking about wanting to get a gift for a mutual friend. And it's not like this person is like wealthy or anything like that. It's just they don't want a lot. You know, they're they're very content as a person. And so we were trying to think through and like, what do you give someone who already has everything they want? Because they don't want anything. They're they're like super just content in life. Like, what do you get them? And so we started talking about, you know, different things. And finally we settled on, you know, what we can do is we can give this person an experience, or we can give this person our undivided attention, you know, something like this, something that's non-tangible, you know, that kind of thing. And when you think about it, what can we give God? Like He He created the heavens and the earth, he He has everything in His hand. He he can listen to the most beautiful music whenever he wants to. And just, I mean, he sits outside outside of time and space. Like, what do you give the God who wants anything? You imagine if you went to God right now and said, God, I just want to bless you. What can I give you today? Well, it turns out God tells us what he wants from us when it comes to how we relate to one another. And so we're going to read this chapter today. And if you've ever wondered what God wants, this is what he wants. Here we go. Micah chapter 6, verse 1 says this. Listen to what the Lord is saying. Stand up and state your case against me. Let the mountains and hills be called to witness your complaints. And now, O mountains, listen to the Lord's complaint, his case against his people. He will bring charges against Israel. O my people, what have I done to you? What have I done to make you tired of me? Answer me. For I brought you out of Egypt, and redeemed you from slavery. I sent Moses, Aaron, and Miriam to help you. Don't you remember, my people? How King Balak of Moab tried to have you cursed, and how Balaam, son of Baor, blessed you instead? And remember your journey from Acacia, the Acacia grove to Gilgal? When I, the Lord, did everything I could to teach you about my faithfulness? What can we bring to the Lord? Here's the question. What can we bring to you for all you've done? What should we bring him? Should we bring him burnt offerings? Should we bow before God most high with offerings and yearly calves? Should we offer him thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Should we sacrifice our firstborn children to pay for our sins? Okay, hyphen, or not hyphen, um, uh like whatever. I'm trying to think of the phrase. But parenthesis, no. God is not want our firstborn children. No, no, no. He says it right here. Verse 8, no, no, O people, the Lord has told you what is good and what he requires of you. So, in other words, for Christmas, if or whenever, for God's birthday, if you want to give him what he really wants, here it is to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. Like we could pause right there to do what is right, love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. We'll finish that in just a moment. Let's keep going. Fear the Lord if you are wise. His voice calls to everyone in Jerusalem. The armies of destruction are coming. The Lord is sending them. What shall I say about the homes of the wicked filled with treasures gained by cheating? What about the disgusting practice of measuring out grain with dishonest measures? How can I tolerate you merchants who use dishonest scales and weights? The rich among you have become wealthy through extortion and violence. Your citizens are used to lying, that they're so used to lying that their tongues are no longer telling the truth. Therefore I will wound you. I will bring you to ruin with all your sins. You will eat, but never have enough. Your hunger pains and emptiness will remain, and though you try to save your money, it will come to nothing in the end. You will save a little, but I will give it to those who conquer you. I will plant crops but not harvest them. You will plant crops but not harvest them. You will press your olives, but it will not get enough oil to anoint yourselves. You will trample the grapes, but have no juice to make your wine. You keep only the laws of evil King Omri. You follow only the example of wicked King Ahab. Therefore, I will make you an example, bringing you to complete ruin. And you will be treated with contempt and mocked by all who see you. So basically, because you got me something I didn't want, I'm gonna keep the receipt and I'm gonna take it back. Because what is he what did he say? Let's go back to it. If you're watching this on YouTube, we're gonna show it one more time. He says, What do you what do you want? What does God want? He says, I want you to do what's right. I want you to do what what I've what I've actually asked you to do. Do what do what is right. I want you to love mercy, and I want you to do it with me. I want you to walk humbly with me. If you think about it all the way back in the book of Genesis, Genesis 3, the Bible said that God created Adam and Eve put them in the garden, and then he would walk with them in the cool of the day. All God has ever wanted is sincere love given in relationship. That is why you see, I mean, there are so many different ways you could sum up the Bible. One of the ways you could sum it up is a love story that there was that God wanted us, we denied him, and then it is the process of him coming going on a rescue mission to win back that lost love. And the whole time he is constantly trying to get us back to a loving relationship with him. But here's the thing there is that sin nature inside of us that that doesn't want God, that reaches out for the rebellion, reaches out for all the things that we shouldn't have. But you know what I love about God is he constantly reaches back to us over and over and over again. And so, if we were to say it like this, what does God want for Christmas? What does God want for his birthday? Whatever it is, you know what he wants? He says, You know what, all I want, I want you to do what is right. Do do what is right. I want you to love mercy, love doing good to others, and I want you to do it with me. Can I tell you? That's one of the greatest things we could aspire to. So here's my question for you today Which one of those do you need to work on? You need to work on just loving justice? Do you need to work on just maybe showing mercy to somebody? And then how about this? Are you trying to do life independently of God? Like you've got God over here in this compartment, over here in this box, when really what he wants is he wants to do relationship with us. Which one of those do you need to work on? Here's the thing whatever it is, God already knows, and he's already drawing you to himself. Let's pray together right now. God, thank you so much for today. Thank you, God, that you see us and you know us, and Lord, you know which one that we need to work on. God, I pray for everyone who needs to work on that justice piece. You know, I'd have no idea why, but you do. And so I pray for your mercy to go ahead of them, before them, behind them, to do it only you can do. I pray, Lord, for maybe those who need to to kind of take a step forward in loving mercy. Maybe it's difficult for them to love mercy because they feel like they've experienced injustice. Help them to realize, Lord, that all that they need is found in you. You are the one who works out ultimate justice and mercy. And then, Lord, maybe for some of us who we love you, but we struggle to know how to do life with you. But we can't see you with our physical eyes so many times, and so we don't we don't know when to move forward, we don't know when to step backward. And it's just a confusing process. Give us the wisdom to take all the steps forward we need to take. And we celebrate you in advance because your word says the fear of the Lord will make us wise, and we celebrate you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Well, just like we got through reading, Micah 6, verse 8 says, What does the Lord want? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for the finale, Micah chapter seven.