The third broad range of questions that the AI Grok was asked about God came under the heading of, "What does God want from us?" Under that, the sub-categories were: 1- Worship, behavior, rituals; and 2- Expectations. Before I address any of this, I want to frame the nature of this question. Is God in any need that we do anything?
Psa 50:7 “Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, I will testify against you. I am God, your God.
Psa 50:8 Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you; your burnt offerings are continually before me.
Psa 50:9 I will not accept a bull from your house or goats from your folds.
Psa 50:10 For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.
Psa 50:11 I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine.
Psa 50:12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine.
Psa 50:13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?
Psa 50:14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High,
Psa 50:15 and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”
No, God does not NEED from us. Even in those days, when it was becoming obvious we could not obey the Law, God was already leading us towards the answer. Here, then is His 'expectations':
-Offering a sacrifice of Thanksgiving. Praise and thanks should be the lead of our Prayers to Him. But more: To be truly thankful means you ACT as if you're thankful. Among those things are realizing all you have, He gave you, and being willing cheerfully to give back, whether in money, time, donations of food and clothes, service.
- Perform your vows. This might not seem 'applicable' to our day and age- who makes vows anymore? But listen to the explanation of John Gill:
...meaning not ceremonial ones, as the vow of the Nazarite; nor to offer such and such a sacrifice, since these are distinguished from and opposed unto the sacrifices of the ceremonial law before mentioned; and much less monastic ones, as the vow of celibacy, and abstinence from certain meats at certain times; but moral, or spiritual and evangelical ones; such as devoting one's self to the Lord and to his service and worship, under the influence and in the strength of grace; signified by saying, I am the Lord's, and the giving up ourselves to him and to his churches, to walk with them in all his commands and ordinances, to which his love and grace constrain and oblige; see Isa_44:5; and particularly by them may be meant giving God the glory and praise of every mercy and deliverance, as was promised previous to it; hence those are put together, Psa_65:1
Thus you can see that our whole concept of a 'vow' is wrong. It isn't a performance we are expected to do in return for something, but a way of life that brings praise to Him.
- Call upon God in your day of trouble! True praise is living a life that inwardly and outwardly recognizes we NEED Him, not the other way around. In Marvel Comics, and in most pagan faiths, the gods drew strength from worship; Our God has all the strength He needs.
So, basically, His expectation IS our worship; we've killed two birds with one stone. What about behavior? Here's where a much discussed verse around our household comes into play:
Mic 6:6 “With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?
Mic 6:7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
Mic 6:8 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?
Once again, we start with the realization that we can DO nothing, by way of ritual, or even by way of the Law, to please Him. He gives us three behaviors He expects from us.
-Do Justice. Here I was led to a passage that explains just what God expects from us- ESPECIALLY our leaders- Congress, Executives, judges, take note- in this area:
Jer 21:11 “And to the house of the king of Judah say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD,
Jer 21:12 O house of David! Thus says the LORD: “‘Execute justice in the morning, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed, lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of your evil deeds.’”
"Deliver him who has been robbed". But now, define "robbed": Micah 3 gives a short list of examples-
- You rob by hating good and loving evil (v2)
-You rob by taking advantage of your fellows, as if they are meat you're putting in a pot (vv2, 3). Companies using basically slave labor to make cheap items and those that buy them, take note.
-Those "who cry “Peace” when they have something to eat, but declare war against him who puts nothing into their mouths. "(v5)
-Those who thrive on corruption- again looking at you congressmen, but not only you- (v9)
- All forms of bribery (v 11)
-To love kindness (mercy) Loving mercy is a bit different than "showing mercy". Think on who you show mercy to. Your family? Usually. Friends? Sure. The guy who cut you off on the road, or shouted insults at you from a protest line? Not so much. LOVING mercy means you are showing kindness and forgiveness to all of these- WANTING to show it to them! That is a step farther than most of us care to take.
-To walk humbly WITH your God. It just occurred to me that the key word in this verse is WITH. Any good action we take does us little good in the eyes of God, unless we do it FOR Him. My mind goes back to a debate with an anonymous atheist a while back, whose parting shot was along the lines of, "Get off your keyboard and go help in a soup kitchen." The thing is, I can give $5 to our local food bank, and it will mean more to God than him working day and night the rest of his life in a soup kitchen- because of the motivation. His was, "Look at me, I'm helping! Go me!" Where mine is more like:
Mat 10:42 ...And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”
Once again, it isn't the doing- it's the WHY you are doing. And it's not just doing the special things:
Col 3:22 Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.
Col 3:23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,
Col 3:24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
For our day and age, replace "bondservants" with "Laborers", and "earthly masters" with "bosses, supervisors, and group leaders".
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