The casual use of such words as love and hate has emptied them of their meaning. So we picture God as gentle and kind and our concept of what he hates is tempered by our misconceptions and wishful thinking.

Love and hate are together both unending, irresistible, and unfathomable.

Threefold Indictment

The Indictment of the cities

The Indictment of the leaders

The Indictment of the people

What God Hates

Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil in their beds! At morning’s light they carry it out because they have the power to do it. They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them. They defraud a man of his home, a fellowman of his inheritance. Micah 2:1-2

God hates plotting evil, fraud and coveting.

Lately my people have risen up like an enemy. You strip off the rich robe from those who pass by without a care, like men returning from battle. You drive the women of my people from their pleasant homes. You take away my blessing from their children forever. Micah 2:8-9

God hates stealing, dishonesty and greed.

Hear this, you leaders of the house of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel, who despise justice and distort all that is right; who build Zion with bloodshed, and Jerusalem with wickedness. Her leader’s judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money. Yet they lean upon the Lord and say, “Is not the Lord among us? No disaster will come upon us.” Micah 3: 9-11

God hates injustice, distorting what is right, murder and taking bribes.

The Final Charge

O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me! Micah 6:3

Threefold Response

The People’s Response

With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? Micah 6:6-7

They bid high

They bid wrong

Micah’s Response

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require with you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8

God loves justice.

God loves mercy.

God loves humility.

God loves the sinner.

God’s Response

But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from the ancient days. Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor bears a son and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites. He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth; and he shall be the one of peace.

Micah 5: 2-5a

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:16-17