READING FOR JANUARY 16, 2026: MICAH 6, JOHN 11, PSALM 144:1-8 MICAH 6 God is calling on His people to plead their case in the court of all creation. Let’s all consider our ways today to see if they are righteous according to God’s standard. First of all, God indicts His people. He said He has rescued them from bondage in Egypt under the leadership of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. (Notice how he includes Miriam as one of the deliverers.) Then He prevented Balak, king of Moab, from using Balaam’s curses to harm Israel. But God also wants His people to remember “what happened from Shittim to Gilgal?” (vs. 5). “While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with the daughters of Moab, who also invited them to the sacrifices for their gods. And the people ate and bowed down to these gods. So, Israel joined in worshiping Baal of Peor, and the anger of the LORD burned against them” (Num. 25:1-3). God wants them to remember their sin and His anger. But what’s the significance of the journey from there to Gilgal? Gilgal was their first stop upon crossing into the promised land. Thus, despite their literal and spiritual adultery at Shittim, God faithfully led them to Gilgal. They/we are blessed beyond what is deserved.
With all this grace, what does God want from Israel then and from us today? No amount of offerings or even giving our first-born child is sufficient alone. “And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (vs. 8). This three-pronged requirement from God might be the most famous verse in the Old Testament. Reading the verse from this side of the cross, there seems to be a sequential progression from back to front. As we 1) receive Jesus as Savior and Lord (walk with God), 2) our character develops the fruit of the Holy Spirit (love kindness), 3) empowering us to act rightly (do justice).
Against the standard just provided of God’s requirements (vs. 8), how has Israel done? What’s the verdict? They cheated, acted violently, and lied—not exactly doing justice. So, what’s the sentence handed down by God to Israel?
- Their eating will not provide satisfaction.
- They will live amongst filth.
- They will not be able to protect their valuables.
- They will plant but not harvest.
- They will tread their oil but not anoint with it or drink it.
Because they followed the ways of the evil kings Omri and Ahab, they will be given up by God for destruction and derision. The first paragraph more than demonstrated God’s love for and fairness to them. God’s finally giving them up represents both their choice and His holiness.
JOHN 11 When I am memorizing passages of Scripture, I work at it slowly, adding one sentence or phrase at a time, moving on only when I have that new line added to the previous ones I’ve learned. It’s a slow process, taking weeks or months to finish a passage, slowly layering one phrase upon another. This often provokes new insights, as I find myself stopping and staying on an idea or image when I normally would rush on in my read- ing. With this chapter, it was especially so. You see, I have lost a brother. So, while working on memorizing this chapter, I found myself here for a couple days as I added Martha’s first words upon meeting Jesus that day: Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. My heart ached with Martha: Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died. I felt with the sisters the sense that this death did not have to happen. You could have stopped it, Jesus, but you didn’t. Where were you? Stopping there, rather than reading straight on to the conclusion, caused me to feel the universal cry of humanity in grief: God, if you had been here my brother/mother/sister/child would not have died. If you had been here, my loved one would READING FOR JANUARY 16, 2026 CONTINUED: JOHN 11, PSALM 144:1-8 not have suffered. In the days that followed, as I slowly added line by line, I read Jesus’ response to Martha, “Your brother will rise again.” In fact, in committing the passage to memory, I said the line out loud over and over. And I felt Jesus’ calm reassurance: My brother will rise again. Then I quickly found myself drawn on to
Martha’s reply: I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Can you hear the pain in her voice – perhaps even the disappointment? I know that, Lord, but I want him here. Now. And Jesus doesn’t tell her what he is planning to do. He doesn’t tell her that in just an hour or so she will indeed have her brother back. In answer to her grief, he offers only himself. “I am the resurrection and the life. . . Do you believe this?”
Martha affirms her belief in him. Then, still carrying the grief and the unanswered questions, she hurries back to Mary, who had been too burdened with grief to even go out to meet Jesus. Somehow the encounter – though it didn’t answer her questions or take away the pain – was enough for Martha for the time being. She hurried to get her sister, somehow certain that being with Jesus was enough.
Remember, when Jesus learned of Lazarus’ illness he was across the Jordan in a remote place. We can be sure that he was praying and listening for the Father’s direction in this matter. He remained firmly anchored in his mission to join the Father in bringing new, eternal life into the world. And in doing so, Jesus brought us the sixth sign that John recorded – the final sign before his resurrection itself, the sign that gives us ultimate confidence that we can trust him with our lives and with the life and death of those we love.
Do you, like me, have an “if only”? Most of us do, I imagine. If you had been here, Jesus, then. . . Perhaps you can do as Martha did, run to Jesus. Tell him your pain. Ask him why he didn’t come sooner or step in and prevent the pain. Listen to his response. Perhaps allow this brief exchange to be his answer to your grief. I think you will find yourself, like Martha did and like I did, resting on his love and faithfulness and coming day of restoration. Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the Resurrection and the Life, who has come and who will come again into the world to make all things new.
The key to it all, now as then, is faith. Jesus is bringing God’s new world to birth; but it doesn’t happen automatically. It doesn’t just sweep everyone along with it, willy-nilly. The key to sharing the new world is faith; believing in Jesus, trusting that he is God’s Messiah, the one coming into the world, into our world, into our pain and sorrow and death. (N.T. Wright, John for Everyone) PSALM 144:1-8 Within the first two verses we see that David considers the Lord his trainer for battle and ultimate love of His life. We often consider God as one or the other, but the reality is more complex. If we think there is no opposition to being a Christian, perhaps that is a sign we don’t love God enough to cause the forces of evil to bother with us. The profound question David asks about the nature of man (vs.3), he asked in Psalm 8:4. The writer to the Hebrews expands upon this same question by pointing to the Gospel and to Jesus’s dual nature as God and man: “What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him... but we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor be- cause of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone” (Heb. 2:6,9). In fact, David’s request for God to come down from heaven to deliver him (vs. 5-8) was answered in a greater sense than David could have foreseen, when Jesus became man and tasted death for everyone. Have we received this gift of grace Jesus offers?
