Study Guide: Seeing What God Sees

Sunday October 4, 2009 | Greg Boyd

Focus Scripture:

• Micah 6:8, Ezekiel 16:48-50

  Micah 6:8 He has shown all you people what is good.
  And what does the LORD require of you?
  To act justly and to love mercy
  and to walk humbly with your God.

  Ezekiel 16:48 As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, your sister Sodom and her daughters never did what you and your daughters have done.

  “ 'Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.

Brief Summary:

When we ask the simple question, “What does the Lord require?” we get a clear answer from Scripture. There are many passages we could turn to for a response, but one of the most concise is Micah 6:8. Act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God.

Extended Summary:

When we ask the simple question, “What does the Lord require?” we get a clear answer from Scripture. There are many passages we could turn to for a response, but one of the most concise is Micah 6:8. Act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God.

Today’s message focused on the last phrase: walking humbly with God. At the core of humility is a recognition of our own finitude and the limits of our understanding as a result of that finitude. One of those limits is that we cannot know all that is necessary to pass judgment on another human being. That is God’s job and God’s alone. There are two types of judgment that Greg warned us about with regard to the topic of poverty: judgments of “the wealthy” toward “the poor”, and judgments of “the poor” toward “the wealthy”. For the sake of this conversation, “the wealthy” are those who have more than they need and “the poor” are those who have less than they need. These are not labels for us to assign to others, let each person find their own way to describe their situation.

Greg mentioned many examples of the way the wealthy and poor tend to judge each other as groups. Walking humbly with God, means opting out of the judgment game. This series is not about fixing the poor or judging the poor. This series is also not about “sticking it” to the wealthy. Rather, our hope is that all of us can come together, learn from one another, and begin to pursue the question together, “What does the Lord require of us?”

Reflection Questions:

1. What stood out to you most from this message and the supporting texts?
2. What are some of the common judgments that the wealthy have about the poor? What are some common judgments that the poor have about the wealthy? How do we deal with these sorts of judgments when they come up?
3. Our hope is that the division between the wealthy and poor can be overcome when people choose to build relationships across that line. Greg emphasized the importance of the wealthy learning from the poor about what sorts of decisions they face and what sorts of challenges are present for them. What else might the wealthy learn from the poor? What might the poor learn from the wealthy?
4. Reflect back on the main topic for today: walking humbly with God. What role does humility play when we are in the middle of a conversation like this one about poverty?

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