“He has told you, O mortal, 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?” “He has told you, O mortal, 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?”
Isaiah 40:8 (NRSV)

According to FunTrivia, “The For Dummies” series of how-to books was started by John Kilcullen for book publisher IDG Books with the book DOS for Dummies in 1991, written by Dan Gookin about the computer operating system DOS. The story goes that a customer back in 1987 wanted a book that was simple and easy to use, as he considered computer books at the time dull and dreary reading. Next came PCs for Dummies by Gookin and Andy Rathbone, propelling the series popularity ….” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…For_Dummies.

Today you can find all kinds of titles in books “For Dummies.” It is really interesting when something like that catches on and the public clamors for books on a variety of subjects with the condition that the information be simple and easy to use.

Now Micah was not writing “For Dummies,” but what he did was to simplify the Ten Commandments and those many other laws given to the Israelites to obey to remain in good standing with God and their neighbors. Micah distilled the Ten Commandments into three. Micah wrote, “He has told you, O mortal, 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?” As one obeys those three commandments, so that person keeps all ten. If one does justice and loves kindness, then he or she will be fair in all their dealings with his or her neighbors and will honor his or her parents. If one walks humbly with God, then the person will not misuse God’s name, will not worship idols and will keep the Sabbath as God instructed. Our Lord Jesus Christ also did not write for or instruct dummies! Jesus did however later reduce Micah’s three commandments to two saying one shall love the Lord Your God with all of the person’s heart, soul, mind and strength and to love one’s neighbor as oneself.

Prayer

O Lord, keep us ever mindful that by doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly with You, we will have fulfilled the Ten Commandments. Even more importantly we will have fulfilled those two commandments which our Jesus Christ gave a lawyer and us. Help us to be faithful and obedient! In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.