Micah 6

6: 1 HEAR ye now what the LORD saith: Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice. Hear, O ye mountains, the LORD’s controversy, and ye enduring foundations of the earth: for the LORD hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel. O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against me. For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of bondage; and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him; remember from Shittim unto Gilgal, that ye may know the righteous acts of the LORD. Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or 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? He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. 9 The voice of the LORD crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom will see thy name: 10 hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it. Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in 11 the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable? Shall I be pure with 12 wicked balances, and with a bag of deceitful weights? For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their 13 mouth. Therefore I also have smitten thee with a grievous wound; I have made thee desolate because of thy sins. Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied; and thy humiliation shall be in the midst of thee: and thou shalt remove, but shalt not carry away safe; and that which 15 thou carriest away will I give up to the sword. Thou shalt sow, but shalt not reap: thou shalt tread the olives, but shalt not anoint thee with oil; and the vintage, but shalt not 16 drink the wine. For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and ye walk in their counsels: that I should make thee a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof an hissing; and ye shall bear the reproach of my people.

In this last section (chaps. 6, 7), Jehovah, by a bold poetical figure, is represented as holding a controversy with His people, pleading with them in justification of His conduct toward them and the reasonableness of His requirements. The dialogue form in which chap. 6 is cast renders the picture very dramatic and striking. The whole concludes with a triumphal song of joy at the great deliverance, like that from Egypt, which Jehovah will achieve, and a full acknowledgment of His mercy and faithfulness to His promises (7: 16-20). The last verse is reproduced in the song of Zacharias (Luke 1: 72, 73). Dic. B.

Chap. 6. A grand public hearing of the case made by Jehovah against His covenant people is called for (verse 1); the mountains are summoned to be present (verses 1, 2); the Lord presents His complaint and appeals to His past mercies (verses 3-5); the people ask what they shall do to please God (verses 6, 7); the prophet replies (verse 8), and continues still to expose their sins, and to speak of the judgments inflicted therefor.

1,2. The first verse is the Lord’s word to His prophet. “Contend” is used here in the sense of a legal contending—a pleading before a court. This complaint made by Jehovah against His people, the prophet is to bring before the “mountains and the strong foundations of the earth,” as if inanimate nature could not fail of having moral sense enough to appreciate the merits of so very plain a case. The scene is sublimely grand—this holding court before the mountains and the strong pillars of the earth, giving them to understand that the Lord has a controversy with His people, and summoning them to hear and pass upon the case. H. C.

3. The Supreme Lord of heaven and earth appeals to sinners themselves for the mildness and equity of His government, and challengeth them to produce one instance of undue severity toward them, or the least shadow of excuse for their undutiful behavior toward Him. “O My people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? Testify against Me.” And doth the infinitely wise God condescend to be tried at the bar of human reason? R. W.

4,5. Since they could not show anything that He has done against them, He will show them a great deal that He has done for them, which should have engaged them forever to His service. They are here directed, and we in them, to look a great way back in their reviews of the Divine favor; let them remember their former days, their first days, when they were formed into a people, and the great things God did for them. H.

5. Remember what answers I put into the mouth of Balaam, the son of Beor; how I drew blessings even from his mouth upon you, instead of curses, which Balak would have hired him to utter against you; remember all My gracious dealings with you in all the passages of the wilderness, even from Shittim unto Gilgal, till the very entrance into the land of promise; that ye may acknowledge the righteous proceedings of the Lord with you. Bp. Hall.

6,7. These are questions put by the people to the prophet. They respond to his rebukes and expostulations with the inquiry, What will meet the demands of the Lord our God? What does He require us to do? Two things are worthy of note in the general cast of these inquiries: (1) That they are deeply shaded with the current thought of the heathen nations round about them, rather than by the tone of the institutes of Moses; and (2) that they seem to imply that the Deity demands offerings of the most costly sort, and penance the most severe—overlooking all the weightier matters of the law—justice and love. H. C.

7. Man had nothing which could be a compensation or an atonement for his past sins; and after all the efforts, the costly oblations, the gorgeous ceremonials, and the bloody sacrifices, and the painful penances of the pagan world, man is just as far from having made any suitable atonement, as he was when Cain brought his uncommended and unacceptable offering to the offended Creator. And it would have been so to the end of time. Unless man could do something or offer something that would repair the evils of apostasy, how could he make an atonement for his sins? But this difficulty has been removed. An ample atonement has been made. There is no more that needs to be done; and there is no more that can be done. The atonement is sufficient in its nature for all men. The death of Christ is declared to be the “propitiation for the sins of the whole world.” It is expressly affirmed that He “died for all;” that He “tasted death for every man.” Barnes.

8. This is the prophet’s brief but exceedingly comprehensive reply. “Do justice” first of all, everywhere and always; then, yet further, toward your fellow-men “show mercy;” do acts of kindness and favor where no merit creates a claim of justice; and finally, as toward God, walk with Him humbly, in constant communion and fellowship. Recognize His surrounding, all-pervading presence, and adjust thy spirit and thy life to a due sense of that presence. In the last clause the Hebrew is specially expressive: “Bow low to walk with God,” as if only so could sinning mortals hope to come near to the Holy One. Thus, in fewest, briefest words, does the prophet reply, giving us precisely the great duties which man owes both to his fellow-man and to his God. H. C.

The law might instruct them about sacrifices, and purifications, and the elements of justice and charity; but it required the trumpet voice of the prophet to remind king and people alike that an obedient spirit is better than sacrifice (1 Sam. 15:22), and that what the Lord requires is not a self-satisfied conformity with written enactments, “but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.” The eternal principles of right and wrong, the unwritten law of God, these are the subjects of the prophet’s utterance from Samuel to Malachi. Plummer.

Here we are plainly told that humble, sincere and conscientious obedience to the will of God is more pleasing and acceptable to Him than all burnt-offering and sacrifices. A careful conformity to moral precepts recommends us to God more than all ceremonial observances (Hos. 6:6). Obedience is enjoined by the eternal law of nature, but sacrifice only by a positive law; obedience was the law of innocence, but sacrifice supposes sin come into the world, and is but a feeble attempt to take that away which obedience would have prevented. God is more glorified and self more denied by obedience than by sacrifice. It is much easier to bring a bullock or lamb to be burned upon the altar than to bring every high thought into obedience to God, and the will subject to His will. H.

The prophet here tells them that they were quite out of the way in thinking to pacify God upon the terms proposed; that there are other things much better and more pleasing to Him than these sacrifices. For some of them were expressly forbidden by God, as the offering up of children; and the rest were not good in themselves, but merely by virtue of their institution, and because they were commanded. But the things which he would recommend to them are such as are good in their own nature, and required of us by God on that account. “He hath showed thee, O man, what is good.” Abp. Tillotson.—We have reason all to apply to ourselves these words of the prophet. For though it still be true that some ages of the world have been dark and others blinded with false lights; that some men naturally see little and others are strangely given to see wrong; yet in general the duties of life are level to the capacities of all men: and especially among Christians so peculiarly blessed with the means of instruction as we of this nation are, no one can possibly, without either deliberate obstinacy or intolerable negligence, continue unacquainted with what he is bound to do, or the recompense he is to expect if he do it not. Abp. Secker.

And what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do, etc. The whole of man’s duty is here summed up in three parts: 1. To “do justly” is to give to all their due; to do in all things what is equal and right, not oppressing any nor defrauding them in any kind of dealing, not to hurt them by word or deed, nor injure them in their persons, estates, or good name, or anything belonging to them. 2. To “love mercy” is not only to give to every one what he might in justice require, but to be kind, merciful, compassionate, exercising all acts of charity and beneficence willingly, cheerfully, and without expecting recompense. 3. To “walk humbly with thy God” is to frame the life and conversation with a view to God’s commandments, in a dutiful performance of His will, in a patient resignation to His dispensations, and in a ready assent to His revealed truths. The two first parts comprise the duties of the second table; the third, those of the first; together they are a summary of all the Ten Commandments; and the performance of them is “more than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices” (Mark 12:33). Dr. Pocock.

This triple command cannot be dismembered. There may be stern, inflexible justice executed in a merciless manner. There may be mercy without justice or truth. Men have endowed worthy enterprises with money dishonestly acquired. Men have been both just and merciful among their fellows, while ignoring the claims of their Maker. Also notice the order, logical, not that of historic development. In time, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” but here justice is put as the root, mercy the foliage, and godliness the fruit. We are to be just before we are generous. We are more shocked at the profession of godliness without honesty, than we are at seeing honesty without godliness. Worcester.

Do justly. Private justice between man and man, and family justice between parents and children, masters and servants, and political justice between the magistrates and the people, do all maintain the order of the world, and procure both public and private peace. It is selfishness and injustice, tyranny, oppression, disobedience and rebellion that procure the miseries of the world. But justice is safe and sweet. Baxter.

It is the law of heaven that you shall not be able to judge what is wise or easy, unless you are first resolved to judge what is just, and to do it. You will say, “Charity is greater than justice.” Yes, it is greater: it is the summit of justice—it is the temple of which justice is the foundation. But you can’t have the top without the bottom; you cannot build upon charity. You must build upon justice, for this main reason, that you have not at first charity to build with. It is the last reward of good work. Do justice to your brother (you can do that, whether you love him or not), and you will come to love him. But do injustice to him because you don’t love him, and you will come to hate him. Ruskin.

A just man does justice to every man and everything; and then, if he be also wise, he knows there is a debt of mercy and compassion due to the infirmities of man’s nature; and that is to be paid; and he that is cruel or ungentle to a sinning person, and does the worst to him, lies in his debt, and is unjust. Pity, and forbearance, and long suffering, and fair interpretation, and excusing our brother, and taking in the best sense, and passing the gentlest sentence as certainly our duty, and owing to every offender and penitent, as calling to account can be owing to the law, and are first to be paid; and he that does not so is an unjust person. Bp. Jeremy Taylor.

Conscientiousness is fundamental and essential to personal goodness. It is the underlying granite of the life, like the granite of the earth, composed of diverse elements fused into one firm substance. Raleigh.—Duty is duty, conscience is conscience, right is right, wrong is wrong, whatever sized type they may be printed in. “Large” or “small” are not words for the vocabulary of conscience. A. M.

Walk humbly before God. Literally it is to “bow low.” Thus we feel an invisible presence and power, and have fellowship with the unseen. Walking with God involves five particulars: a choice of Him, as the text says, “before thy God;” a sense of God’s actual presence, “Thou God seest me;” prayerfulness; sympathy; and constant dependence. We are to love and hate what God loves and hates. Only as they are agreed can two walk together. Here we are not equals, for God is the Father, and each of us a child. We must “bow low” and become as little children in order to enter the kingdom of God. Worcester.—Bernard of Clairvaux gives us the best description that has ever been given of humility; for he says that it is “the grace, whereby out of the truest heart-knowledge a man becomes vile unto himself.” He tells us that “the root of humility is a deep sense of our own utter unworthiness—not making humble speeches about ourselves to others, and pretending to do humble things for others, but having humble thoughts about ourselves in our own hearts, and taking our place with the lowest and least, because we deeply feel that that is the place that belongs of right to us.” And Bernard not only gives in this way the true scriptural definition of humility, but he exemplified it in his own life; for while he was the oracle of all Europe, and the highest places and dignities were at his disposal, he declined all worldly advancement, and continued to the end of his life a humble abbot, exercising in all meekness the duties of his office. Macmillan.

A Christian is one who shows mercy to all; who is provoked by no wrong; who relieves the wretched, succors the needy; who mourns with mourners, and feels the pain of another as his own; whose wrongful dealing no man feels; who serves God day and night, and ever meditates upon His precepts; who has no deceit in his heart; whose soul is simple and undefiled, and his conscience faithful and pure; whose whole mind rests on God; whose whole hope is fixed on Christ, desiring heavenly rather than earthly things, and leaving human things to lay hold on things Divine. Fastidius.

It is perilous to separate thinking rightly from acting rightly. He is already half false who speculates on truth and does not do it. Truth is given, not to be contemplated, but to be done. Life is an action—not a thought. And the penalty paid by him who speculates on truth is that by degrees the very truth he holds becomes to him a falsehood. There is no truthfulness, therefore, except in the witness borne to God by doing His will—to live the truths we hold, or else they will be no truths at all. F. W. R.

The highest reach of faith is loving, intelligent consecration of all our life to the will of God. We are to have desires, but they should be held in subordination to God’s desires and thoughts for us. We are to have plans, but they should be laid down at God’s feet, that He may either let us work them out for Him or show us His plan for us instead of our own. Complete consecration of our will to God’s—that is the standard of Christian living at which we are to aim. J. R. M.

We have only to remember that the “earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof: the world, and they that dwelt therein,” to see that if a man is engaged in any sort of occupation which tends, in however humble a manner, to replenish the earth and bring out its fulness to benefit the world or any of its inhabitants, he is engaged in the Lord’s service, and may do, and ought to do, what he is doing “as unto the Lord.” No matter what kind of service he is rendering, whether he is ministering to bodily or intellectual or spiritual wants, whether he is making shoes or sermons—and it is far better work for God to make a good shoe than a poor sermon—pictures or pins, provided only he is doing some good in God’s world, he may, and ought to, look upon his work as service rendered to the great Ruler of the world and King of men, and therefore may do it, not only without interfering with, but in fulfilment of the claim God makes on the supreme devotion of the heart and life. J. M. Gibson.

There is glory everywhere in life if only we have eyes to see it. The humblest lot affords room for the noblest living. There is opportunity in the most commonplace life for splendid heroisms, for angelic ministries, for fullest and clearest revealings of God. “Every day,” says Goethe, “is a vessel into which a great deal may be poured, if we will actually fill it up—that is, with thoughts and feelings and their expression into deeds as elevated and amiable as we can reach to.” The days are well enough; it is with ourselves whether we make them radiant and beautiful, whether we fill them with life. A mere dreamy treadmill round—waking, eating, drinking, walking, working, sleeping—is not enough to make any life worthy; we must put the glory of love, of best effort, of sacrifice, of prayer, of upward looking and heavenward reaching, into the dull routine of our life’s every day, and then the most humdrum and uneventful life will be made splendid with the glory of God. . . .

A secret of sweet and happy Christian life is in learning to live by the day. It is the long stretches that tire us. We think of life as a whole, running on for years, and it seems too great for us. We cannot carry this load until we are threescore and ten. We cannot fight this battle continually for half a century. But really there are no long stretches. Life does not come to us in lifetimes; it comes only a day at a time. Even to-morrow is never ours till it becomes to-day, and we have nothing whatever to do with it but to pass down to it a fair and good inheritance in to-day’s work well done and to-day’s life well lived. It is a blessed secret, this of living by the day. Any one can carry his burden, however heavy, till nightfall.

Any one can do his work, however hard, for one day. Any one can live sweetly, quietly, patiently, lovingly and purely, till the sun goes down. And that is all life really means ever to any of us—just one little day. Said Charles Kingsley, “Do to-day’s duty, fight to-day’s temptation, and do not weaken and distract yourself by looking forward to things which you cannot see, and could not understand if you saw them.” God gives us nights to shut down the curtain of darkness on our little days. We cannot see beyond, and we ought not to try to. Short horizons make life easier, and give us one of the blessed secrets of brave, true, holy living.

These are some of the secrets of a beautiful life. We ought not to be content to live otherwise than beautifully. We can live our life only once. We cannot go over it again, to correct its mistakes or amend its faults. We ought therefore to live it well. And to do this we must begin at the beginning, and make every day radiant and lovely as it passes. Lost days must always remain blanks in the records, and stained days must carry their stains. Beautiful days make beautiful years, and beautiful years make a beautiful life at its close. J. R. Miller.

Let a man, then, go forth, day by day, from whatever refreshments of feeling he may indulge in, to the rough work of actual life; let him go with a contented cheerfulness to whatever business or calling God has made his; let him determine in all things to do the right, and to do it unto God; let him steadfastly set himself to be conscientious, true, faithful and loyal, in word and deed, to duty and to Christ; let him sometimes pause in the course of the day, just to cast a look on some gush of light that will come at his call from the truth that is in him, to offer an ejaculation, to realize the nearness and observance of God, and to give for the moment a distinct consciousness to his intention to please Him; let a man do this, and he will find that the world itself will be to him a church; the streets of the city as the aisles of a cathedral; his worldly life, a spiritual worship; his business engagements, the service of a priesthood! Daily work, thus discharged, however it may seem in itself, will be to Him to whom it is done fragrant as altar incense, melodious as the voice of a psalm! T. Binney.

You cannot set the world right, or the times, but you can do something for the truth, and all you can do will certainly tell if the work you do is for the Master who gives you your share, and so the burden of responsibility is lifted off. This assurance makes peace, satisfaction, and repose possible even in the partial work done upon earth. Go to the man who is carving a stone for a building; ask him where is that stone going, to what part of the temple, and how is he going to get it into its place, and what does he do? He points you to the builder’s plans. This is only one stone of many. So, when men shall ask where and how is your little achievement going into God’s great plan, point them to the Master, who keeps the plans, and then go on doing your little service as faithfully as if the whole temple were yours to build. Phillips Brooks.

It requires more strength to be faithful in the ninety and nine commonplace duties, when no one is looking on, when there is no special motive to stir the soul to its best effort, than it does in the one duty which, by its unusual importance, or by its conspicuousness, arouses enthusiasm for its own doing. It is a great deal easier to be brave in one stern conflict which calls for heroism, and in which large interests are involved, than to be habitually brave in the thousand little struggles of the common days, for which it seems scarcely worth while to put on the armor. It is very much less a task to be good-natured under one great provocation, in the presence of others, than it is to keep sweet-tempered month after month of other days, amid the frictions, strifes, and petty annoyances and cares of home life or business life.

So it is not from conspicuous deeds of life that the blessings chiefly come which make the world better, sweeter, happier, but from the countless lowly ministries of the every days—the little faithfulnesses that fill long years. We could lose out of the world’s life its few great, brilliant deeds, and not be much the poorer; but to lose the uncounted faithfulnesses of the millions of common lives would leave this earth a cold and dreary place indeed in which to live. There ought to be both cheer and instruction in these glimpses of the glory and blessing of the every day of life. Most of us can expect to do only plain and commonplace things. Only a few people can become famous. Only a rare deed now and then can have its honor proclaimed from the hill-tops. Only a day or two in a life, with most of us, can be brightened by the light of popular praise. It is a comfort to reflect that it is the common life of the every-day that in God’s sight is the truest and best, and that does the most to bless the world. J. R. Miller.

9. “The wise will regard Thy name”—whatever fools may do or may not. The prophet assumes that the unwise will not regard the name of Jehovah. The exhortation is, “Hear ye the rod!"—the lessons taught by the Lord’s rod of discipline—and so learn to know Him who has appointed it, and who directs its mission in a sinning world. H. C.—God speaketh by the rod beyond all the eloquence of words. Hear ye the rod. The voice of God is His rod, that speaks so loud from heaven in many strokes that the profanest sinners are sometimes forced to hear and acknowledge it. Caryl.

10. The Hebrew people seem to have been strangely addicted to falsifying by unjust weights and measures, although their statute law most expressly forbade it. (See Lev. 19: 35, 36 and De. 25: 13-16.) Other passages note the prevalence of this sin, and strongly condemn it (Prov. 11: 1; 20: 10; Hos. 12: 7 and Amos 8: 5). H. C.

Of course, the plain lesson these texts are meant to teach is, that all cheating in weights and measures is hateful to God. Those who are guilty of it commit an injustice against man, and they provoke God’s anger. We have got into a bad habit of being amused by the dishonest tricks to which many tradesmen resort in their haste to get rich. These texts teach that every trick of this kind is observed by God’s eye, is recorded in God’s book, and will be punished by God’s hand. . . . A further thought is that God’s laws for our conduct to each other are a revelation of His own character, and are in strict analogy to the laws which determine His own action toward His creatures. The time is coming when He will judge every man; and He will use no false balance, He will put into the scales no light weights. He is merciful as well as just; but now is the time for mercy. When He judges He will judge righteously, He will “weigh” the reasons and motives which led men to neglect public worship and private prayer. He will “weigh” the temptations which betray us into sin against the considerations which should have led us to do right. He will “weigh” our love for Himself and our obedience to His law against His infinite grace; our trust in His goodness and submission to His hand in times of trouble against His “exceeding great and precious promises;” our religious earnestness, our loyalty to Christ, our triumphs over sin, against the sanctifying power of Christian truth and the grace of the Holy Ghost. We might well tremble in the anticipation of the hour when, one by one, we shall wait for the Divine sentence on our deeds; but our rest and hope are fixed in this, that the critical act of the soul, in God’s judgment, is its acceptance or rejection of the mercy of the Lord Jesus; and that if we trust in Him we shall not only be justified by faith in this world, but shall be so strengthened for all good works that God Himself, when He looks at our deeds, will be able to say, “Well done, good and faithful servants; enter ye into the joy of your Lord.” R. W. Dale.