Micah 6:1 - Meaning and Application

Here, the prophet begins with a very solemn call, so the people will pay close attention. “Hear now what the Lord says.” What the prophet speaks comes from God and in God’s name, so they must hear it, not as the word of a sinful, dying man, but as the word of the holy, living God. Hear it now, because sooner or later, God will be heard.

The prophet is also told to speak with force and urgency: “Arise, contend before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice.” He is to speak as if he could make the mountains themselves listen. This is meant to stir up his own seriousness, so he will cry out openly and boldly, without shame or fear. It also exposes the dullness of the people, because if they will not listen, then even the hills and rocks may be called to witness that Israel had fair warning.

The message itself is moving. God has a case against his people, and their sins are public, so the charge is made public too. The Lord has a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel through his prophets and through his providences, that is, through the events of his rule in their lives. Sin always creates a dispute between God and man. The righteous God has a real claim against every sinner, whether for debt, wrong, or false accusation.

If Israel, his own professing people, provoke him by sin, he will make it clear that he has a controversy with them. Their sins grieve him and dishonor his name more than the sins of others do. Yet when God pleads with his people, he does it to convince them and to show that he is right. At the end of the last chapter, he pleaded against the nations in anger to bring them down. Here he pleads with Israel in kindness to bring them back. He reasons with us to teach us to reason with ourselves.

God first asks them to show what he had done against them that could justify their turning away. They had rebelled, but had he wronged them? “O my people, what have I done to you? How have I wearied you?” If subjects leave their king, they usually claim his rule is too heavy. But can Israel make that claim here? Had God treated them unfairly, or made their service unbearable? Had he burdened them with hard demands or unreasonable tribute? He never deceived them, disappointed them, or did them wrong. So why do they wrong him, dishonor him, and disappoint his expectations?

Then God points them back to his many acts of mercy, things that should have bound them to his service forever. They are told to remember their early days, when he first formed them into a people, and to recall his great works on their behalf. First, he brought them out of Egypt, the land of slavery. They had become settled in bondage and even seemed to want to stay there for the sake of food. But God brought them out, gave them courage to seek freedom, and broke their chains. He redeemed them, not by paying a price, but by power, from the house of bondage. The point is clear, if God’s mercies do not move us to duty, they will stand as reasons against us in our sin.

He did not leave them in the wilderness without help. He sent before them Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, three leaders who guided them on the way. Moses was the great prophet of the Old Testament, Aaron was his spokesman (Exodus 7:1), and Miriam was a prophetess (Exodus 15:20). When we remember God’s kindness, we should not forget the gift of faithful teachers and leaders in our youth. God sent them before his people to prepare the way for the Lord and to prepare a people for him.

God also showed his mercy when he brought them into Canaan. He honored them just as much by leading them into the land of rest as by bringing them out of slavery. Even after Moses, Aaron, and Miriam were gone, God remained the same. They should remember what he did for them there, beginning with how he ruined the plans of Balak and Balaam against them, by his power over human hearts and words (Numbers 22-24).

Let them remember what Balak, the king of Moab, plotted against Israel when they camped in the plains of Moab. He wanted to curse Israel, break their bond with God, and pull God’s protection away from them. Among the nations, people often thought they could use magic or rituals to drive away a people’s protecting gods, like trying to steal Troy’s sacred protector, the Palladium. Macrobius even wrote about the ceremony of calling out the gods.

Balak tried that kind of attack against Israel. But remember what Balaam, the son of Beor, answered him, and how that answer went against Balaam’s own wishes. Instead of cursing Israel, he blessed them, to Balak’s great shame and anger. Israel should remember the hatred of the nations, and for that reason never learn their ways or join themselves to them. They should also remember God’s kindness, how he turned the curse into a blessing because the Lord your God loved you (Deuteronomy 23:5), and for that reason never turn away from him.

When the church’s enemies are frustrated, that should always be remembered to the glory of the church’s Protector, who can make a person’s spoken answer directly contradict the plans already formed in the heart (Proverbs 16:1).

Second, they should remember how God brought them from Shittim to Gilgal. Shittim was their last camp before entering Canaan, and Gilgal was their first camp in the land. Between those places, after Moses died, Joshua, a picture of Christ, was raised up to bring Israel into the promised land and to fight their battles. There they crossed the Jordan through divided waters, and there they renewed the covenant through circumcision. These mercies shown to their fathers should make them remember the righteousness of the Lord, that is, his justice in destroying the Canaanites, his goodness in giving rest to his people, and his faithfulness to the promise made to the fathers.

Thinking about what God had done for them should have convinced them of all this and bound them to his service forever. Or these words may point to the case now being argued between God and Israel. Let them remember God’s many favors to them and their fathers, and compare those with their own ungrateful behavior toward him. Then they will see the righteousness of the Lord in dealing with them, and it will be clear that in this case God is in the right. His ways are fair, for he will be proved right when he speaks and clear when he judges.