• Sign in

• Home
• Write for World-Wide Bible Studies
• Sign in
• About
• Contact

Micah 6 - Justice

Oracle of Indictment

The last two chapters form the third major section of Micah’s book. In this last section is a clear pattern. God reminds us of his salvation, indicts sin, explains what is required, executes judgment, exhorts perseverance, promises victory, and demonstrates ultimate love and compassion. The message was directed at the Jews, but the theme is ageless and just as applicable today as then. Micah 6:1-5 is the first part. It begins with the command to hear God. The people are reminded of God’s salvation. Implicit in this oracle is an indictment to those who have forgotten and forsaken God’s grace.

Mic 6:1 Hear what the Lord says: Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. Micah begins by announcing a message from God. God is sovereign, even in communication. We are without excuse because God has spoken and made Himself and his absolute standards known. The question is not whether God has told us what we need to know, but whether we will hear Him. The command to “arise, plead your case” is God’s directive to Micah. Mountains and hills refer to upper and middle political and religious management. God is telling Micah to go tell all of the priests and rabbis from top to bottom what He has to say. In today’s language you might say God appointed Micah to be president of the national seminary and set them straight on the message.

Mic 6:2 Hear, you mountains, the indictment of the Lord, and you enduring foundations of the earth, for the Lord has an indictment against his people, and he will contend with Israel. Obeying God’s directive in 6:1, here Micah begins relating God’s message to the religious elite. To refer to them as mountains and enduring foundations sounds very complimentary. In reality it is designed to make it clear these leaders have tremendous responsibility before God. The message itself is that God has raised charges against His people and He is going to take corrective action.

Mic 6:3 “O my people, what have I done to you? How have I wearied you? Answer me! This statement reminds me of a frustrated parent trying to communicate with a rebellious teen. A parent loves their child, feeds and clothes and bathes them, trains them, and at some point the child starts to think they know better than mom and dad. As a parent might ask a child, God is asking His people what He has done to deserve their disrespect. Of course they are without excuse, just as we are without excuse when we sin.

Mic 6:4 For I brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. The exodus from Egypt is one of the most powerful images in the Hebrew culture. Their existence as a nation came about because God, through Moses and his siblings, led the tribes of Jacob out of slavery to a place of freedom and plentiful resources. It was during the exodus that God gave Moses the Ten Commandments and directed him to write and assemble the volumes which became the Torah. In countless ways the Torah points to Christ. Micah alludes to this when he uses the term “redeemed” to describe God’s work of bringing Israel out of slavery. As a foreshadow of Christ, the slavery and redemption were physical. With Christ we are redeemed by his blood which pays for our sin and frees us from sin’s bondage to death. It is also interesting to note that Micah’s prophecy includes direct references to Aaron and Miriam along with Moses. God spoke to Moses, but Moses directed Aaron to speak for him. Moses represents the God the Father who issues all of the directions to the people. Aaron was used by Moses to speak on his behalf. Aaron was also established as the high priest who performed the annual atonement sacrifice for the people. Christ spilled his own blood and atoned for sins of his people once and for all. If Moses figuratively represents the Father and Aaron figuratively represents Christ, it stands to reason Miriam represents the Holy Spirit. As we see in the Torah, Miriam sang praises, she nurtured, she encouraged, and she counseled. This reminder of the exodus was a reminder that God is a God of redemption and hope to those who will follow Him.

Mic 6:5 O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the saving acts of the Lord.” This verse contains multiple references to great things God did to rescue His people. While Israel was in the wilderness they were forced to camp in one place after another. At one point they were camped on the edge of territory ruled by the Balak, king of Moab. Balak feared the massive group of refugees. He asked for one of the prophets in his country named Balaam to come and curse the Israelites. Balaam knew and worshipped God. When he prayed, God forbade him to curse Israel. In the end, after being told repeated by Balaam to that God had blessed Israel and he could not curse them, Balak finally gave up and Israel was left untouched by their would-be enemy (Num 22-24). Num 25:1-9 tells about God’s wrath toward Israel at Shittim for fornication and idol worship and God relenting from wrath when one faithful man took action because of his zeal for the Lord. Whether you’re in danger from the enemy or from God, when you zealously seek the Lord He will save you. The obvious implication here is that during the time of Micah these great acts of God and His requirement to seek Him were being forgotten.

Oracle of Requirements

In the previous oracle God accuses the people of forgetting all He has done for them. Mic 6:6-8 explains very clearly what God wants from us. Through Micah, God asks a series of rhetorical questions to let us know our human thinking of what God wants from us all wrong. What God really wants is for us to demonstrate our love for Him by seeking Him and showing compassion for our fellow man.

Mic 6:6-7 “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? 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?” This passage begins by asking what can a man present to God to appease Him for the sins outlined above. The rhetorical questions then asked all relate to sacrifices. The concept is that once you’ve been shown that you do something wrong, the right response is to repent and make amends. The problem is that people tend to think they can do some specific act, perhaps some sort of grand gesture, to please God. Such was precisely the common thinking among the pagans. God instructed Moses in detail to make certain kinds of animal and grain offerings. Annual sin offerings and other sin offerings were sacrificed at the Temple in Jerusalem. The significant difference between the Hebrew sacrifices and the pagan sacrifices is in the purpose. God never said He was pleased with sacrifices. God commanded the ceremonial sacrifices as a prophetic gesture pointing forward to the perfect sacrifice to one day be made once and for all by Christ. Pagan sacrifices were generally believed by the pagans to appease the angry deity. Since sacrifices were part of their culture, it is not surprising that at least some of the people would take up the pagan line of thinking. The last of the rhetorical questions asks if sacrificing the firstborn son would be sufficient to cleanse the soul tainted with sin. On the one hand this question was intended to show just how absurd was the idea of atoning for sin with a one-time act, no matter how magnanimous. On the other hand, God did this very thing, putting to death His suffering servant, His own son, the Anointed One of God. Unlike human acts to appease, God’s act of sacrificing Jesus for sin was one of ultimate love and compassion. It met God’s own requirement for atonement with blood and God raised Jesus, glorified him, and gave him all authority to forgive sin by his own blood.

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? In 1 Sam 15, Samuel anoints Saul as king over all Israel. In his first mission Saul does not do exactly what God commands. Instead, Saul does what he wants thinking his own idea is better than God’s command. In so doing Saul rejected God’s command. Through Samuel, God calls him on it. Samuel tells Saul it is better to obey God than to sacrifice. God rejected Saul as king because of his sin. Solomon repeats this wisdom in Eccl 5:1, but in Solomon’s words it is better to draw near and listen to God than to offer a fool’s sacrifice. In Mt 9:13 Jesus quotes Hosea’s variation of this theme (Hos 6:6) when he says, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” Micah says it beautifully and with a more complete description of what God really wants from His people. Micah begins by telling people this isn’t news. God requires us to do the right thing. Be just, be kind, be humble, all while always walking with God.

Oracle of Justice

First the Lord proclaimed the problem (6:1-5). Then He reminded them of what they should be doing (6:6-8). In this passage the Lord reminds them He will not put up with wrongdoing (6:9-12) and tells them what to expect from God’s justice (6:13-16).

Mic 6:9 The voice of the Lord cries to the city— and it is sound wisdom to fear your name: “Hear of the rod and of him who appointed it! Micah introduces God’s judgment with the instruction to hear the Lord cry out to His people. As David wrote, the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Fear of the Lord, rather than simple fright, means to revere and respect with proper humility. In other words, you would be wise to shut up and listen to what the Lord has to say. The warning begins with introducing the idea of a cosmic paddle ( rod) and the role of God as father figure with the responsibility to wield it ( him who appointed it).

Mic 6:10 Can I forget any longer the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is accursed? One of God’s qualities is omniscience. God knows all and His knowledge as well as His memory is perfect. God sees the evil done by the wicked. He knows their materials treasures as well as the character qualities and skills treasured by those of evil intent. The “scant measure” refers to the dishonesty in trading by which the wealth is accumulated. Treasure built up by such means is a curse to its accumulators.

Mic 6:11 Shall I acquit the man with wicked scales and with a bag of deceitful weights? Justice requires fairness and equality. Deceitful weights and wicked scales were a very real problem. Shady business dealings and con men were common, just as they are today. The point of dishonest business is material gain. When Jesus was asked what was the most important commandment, he said it was to love the Lord and a close second was to love one another. Elevating self at the expense of others violates this moral law of God. A morally perfect God would not and does not simply excuse sin. God is just and justice requires judgment against sin.

Mic 6:12 Your rich men are full of violence; your inhabitants speak lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. “Your rich men” implies the judgment is against a whole group. The problems of deceptive business, ignoring Godly morality, idolatry, prostitution, and people generally feeling smugly superior were common in Hebrew society. Violence was physical, mental, financial and religious. There were a few good Godly people in those days, such as Micah and his contemporary Isaiah, but the population in general suffered from severe moral degeneration. The same could be said of “Christian” society of the western world in the dark ages or America today. While good people certainly do exist in any age, there are many wicked people. In a society which claims to belong to God, the Lord is going to judge the society as a whole and chasten His people to return to Him. In the dark ages Islam nearly conquered Europe and took over most of the Middle East and southwest Asia. In Micah’s time it was the Assyrian Empire that would conquer Israel and nearly Judah. A century later the Babylonians would conquer the Assyrians and soon come back to finish the job of conquering Jerusalem.

Mic 6:13 Therefore I strike you with a grievous blow, making you desolate because of your sins. The reason for judgment is sin. Sin was the cause of death and expulsion from the Garden. Sin was the reason for God’s judgment of worldwide destruction in the great flood of Noah. For sin God destroyed Sodom and for sin God was judging the children of Jacob with a sentence of exile from the promised land and immeasurable loss. Unlike the previous example, God spared their existence as a people, but even so most of the original tribes of Israel were scattered and dissolved as they were integrated into foreign societies in the exiles.

Mic 6:14 You shall eat, but not be satisfied, and there shall be hunger within you; you shall put away, but not preserve, and what you preserve I will give to the sword. Several examples are given to illustrate the emptiness of life without God that the people would come to know. They may not go hungry physically, but their lives would be empty and unsatisfying. The “hunger within you” refers to a spiritual desire which only seeking and finding God can satisfy. The phrase “you shall put away” suggests that the society would generally know material wealth, but in the end it would be lost either to natural circumstance or ultimately to the attacking armies. The years leading up to the fall of Samaria knew great material wealth in the divided kingdoms in spite of the differences among the tribes of the two kingdoms. These descriptions could just as easily describe the last decades of the Roman Empire. It may be descriptive of modern society facing decay or the sword for its indifference to the righteous moral absolutes of a pure and just God.

Mic 6:15 You shall sow, but not reap; you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil; you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine. The description of sowing but not reaping is also an illustration of external wealth in contrast to internal bankruptcy. The descriptions of olives without anointing and grapes without wine are strongly symbolic of external religion with spiritual emptiness. People would go through the motions of ritual without experiencing the benefits of God’s blessing.

Mic 6:16 For you have kept the statutes of Omri, and all the works of the house of Ahab; and you have walked in their counsels, that I may make you a desolation, and your inhabitants a hissing; so you shall bear the scorn of my people.” Omri was the first king of Israel (Northern Kingdom) to make his capital in Samaria. God judged Omri as evil for his idolatry and general wickedness and Ahab was, in God’s opinion, even worse. Through Micah, God is accusing Judah of going along with and participating in the same sins as Omri and Ahab. For such sin God’s appointed judgment would be desolation and humiliation before the civilized world. These promised judgments came about when Samaria was utterly destroyed and its inhabitants taken away into slavery. Although this prophecy was directed at and completely fulfilled in the Assyrian exile of the Northern Kingdom, God’s character is unchanging and His chastening of his wayward children was not limited to Samaria. Although King Hezekiah repented, buying Jerusalem time, within a century Judah fell back into moral decay again. When the Babylonians came, Judah was exiled and Jerusalem was left virtually empty for 70 years. A proud nation, once ruling territory almost from the Nile to the Euphrates under Solomon, became the laughing stock of the international community.

Majoring in the Minors

Micah Chapters:

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7

 

• Home
• Terms of Service
• Privacy
• Categories
• Writers' Guidelines
• Write for World-Wide Bible Studies
• Tag Cloud
• About
• Contact