Micah Chapter Six
Read Micah 6:1-5 – God’s
Controversy –
v.1-2 “1Hear ye now what the LORD saith; Arise, contend thou before the
mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice. 2Hear ye, O mountains, the
LORD’S controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth: for the LORD hath a
controversy with his people, and he will plead with
God has now completed
the prophet’s account of the
Hosea 4:1 “Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of
Hosea 12:2 “2The LORD hath also a
controversy with
So God is calling to
the remnant of
Psalms 50:1 “THE MIGHTY GOD, even
THE LORD, HATH SPOKEN, AND CALLED
THE EARTH FROM THE RISING OF THE SUN UNTO THE GOING DOWN THEREOF.” v.4 “HE SHALL CALL TO THE HEAVENS FROM
ABOVE, AND TO THE EARTH, THAT HE MAY JUDGE HIS PEOPLE.”
v.3 “O my people, what have I done unto thee? and
wherein have I wearied thee? testify against me.”
Now, following the
analogy of the book of Hosea, God asks much the same questions that a man or
woman might ask of an unfaithful spouse.
Why? What have I done to you that
would cause your unfaithfulness? What do
you have against me? Why have you grown
weary of me and gone to seek another?
Why do you let your actions stand as a testimony against me after all
that I have done for you?
v.4 “For I brought thee up out of the land of
Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of servants; and I sent before thee
Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.”
Now the prophet begins
to reiterate some of the blessings that God gave
Exodus 12:50-51 “Thus did all the children of
God redeemed them from slavery:
Exodus 20:2 “I am the LORD
thy God, which have brought thee out of the
When God led them into the Wilderness of Sinai he did not leave them leaderless
to wander as lost sheep but gave them prophets; the Chaldean
version of the original text adds the words “three prophets” after the names of
Moses, Aaron and Miriam. Of course we
know that Moses was the first and great prophet of the Old Testament but so was
Aaron:
Exodus 7:1 “And the LORD said unto Moses, See, I have made
thee a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.”
And Miriam was a prophetess:
Exodus
v.5 “O my people, remember
now what Balak king of
The prophet continues
to remind Judah of God’s care and blessings throughout their generations. Balak the king of
Numbers 22:5 “5He sent messengers therefore unto Balaam the son of Beor to Pethor,
which is by the river of the land of the children of
his people, to call him, saying, Behold, there is a people come out from Egypt:
behold, they cover the face of the earth, and they abide over against me:”
Through the protection that God provided, the Moabites did not disturb
Joshua 24:9-10 “9Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of
When they served him faithfully, God through his righteousness protected
his people from all of their enemies, cared for them and provided for their
well-being. But now they have rejected
and abandoned him.
Read Micah 6:6-9 – God’s
Controversy –
Because they had
rebelled, God asks:
v.6 “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?”
The people of
The prophet asks the
question; is this what God wants, will this attitude and ritualistic worship
please Him? We who are here know the
answer to that question; He will not. He
continues:
v.7 “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?”
“WILL THE LORD BE
PLEASED…” with this multitude of sacrifices; we know the answer, NO he will
not. We learned from the words of Samuel
as he chastised King Saul:
I
Samuel 15:22-23 “And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in
burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. 23For
rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected
the word of the LORD, he hath also
rejected thee from being king.”
The psalm given by David in repentance for his sin with Bathsheba also
gives us the answer:
Psalms 51:16-17 “FOR THOU
DESIREST NOT SACRIFICE; ELSE WOULD I GIVE it: THOU DELIGHTEST NOT IN BURNT
OFFERING. THE SACRIFICES OF GOD are
A BROKEN SPIRIT: A BROKEN AND CONTRITE HEART, O GOD, THOU
WILT NOT DESPISE.”
Then the prophet asks the question:
“SHALL I GIVE MY FIRSTBORN”? What
I he talking about? It was common
practice among their Canaanite neighbors and among the Israelites when they
adopted their religion to sacrifice their children to their gods. So he asks does this kind of “ultimate”
sacrifice please God?
This is what God said about Ahaz, one of the kings of
I Kings 16:3 “But
he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yea, and made his son to pass
through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD
cast out from before the children of Israel.”
This was an abomination that God hated, it was the shedding of innocent
blood (Proverbs
v.8 “8He hath showed 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?
God “HATH SHOWED THEE,
O MAN WHAT is GOOD…” and then Micah says that God wants man to “DO
JUSTLY”, “LOVE MERCY” and “WALK HUMBLY WITH THY GOD”. We receive this same message in other parts
of God’s revelation. First from Moses:
Deuteronomy
10:12-13 “And now, Israel, what doth the
LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his
ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and
with all thy soul, 13To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his
statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?
From Isaiah:
Isaiah
And from Hosea:
Hosea 6:6 “For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God
more than burnt offerings.”
v.9 “9The LORD’S voice crieth
unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name: hear ye the rod,
and who hath appointed it.”
Micah characterizes his
message as the voice of the Lord crying unto the city of
Proverbs
Read Micah 6:10-15 – God’s
Controversy –
v.10 “Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the
house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?”
The beginning of wisdom
is the fear of the Lord. The Judeans
claimed to fear God, held on to the fact that they were God’s chosen people,
above all others but their manner of living made them liars of the highest order. Much of the bounty they enjoyed, their
wealth, came from wicked and unethical business practices. They were cheats, liars, covenant breakers,
sharp dealers, always seeking to gain the advantage. Their scant measure was an abomination to
God. They were not like what my father
taught me. He demanded, fill that sack
full, shake it down, leave just enough top to tie it closed, give full measure
and then mound it up. Can you imagine
God accepting an offering that was gained through wicked means? I can’t, yet
v.11 “Shall I count them pure with the
wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights?”
He asks through the
prophet a question that is totally rhetorical, He knew the answer, they knew
the answer and we today knew the answer as well. “SHALL I COUNT them PURE” who gain
their living with “WICKED BALANCES” and “DECEITFUL WEIGHTS?” God’s commandment couldn’t have been clearer:
Leviticus 19:35-37 “Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in
meteyard, in weight, or in measure. 36Just balances, just weights, a
just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of
the
v.12 “For the rich men thereof are full of
violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.”
Men had made themselves
rich at the expense of others, they were jealous of their wealth and had
degenerated to the point were they would not only use violence to keep it but
also to add to it. In their business
dealings they used lies to their advantage.
I learned two things in the business I was in during the last several
years. First of all if you are
negotiating with an oriental company, especially the Japanese they do not count
it a shame to lie.
It is a normal, completely acceptable business practice. The only way for shame to come of it was for
them to be exposed. Secondly it was very
easy to tell when a large percentage of the people I dealt with were lying to
me. It was literally any time their lips
were moving. The deceitfulness in
v.13 “Therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting thee, in making thee desolate because
of thy sins.”
“THEREFORE”! We have the sin exposed now comes the promise
of punishment, the consequences that God is going to bring upon
Leviticus 26:14-16 “But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will
not do all these commandments; 15And if ye shall despise my
statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my
commandments, but that ye break my covenant: 16I also
will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and
the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and
ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.”
v.14 “Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied; and thy
casting down shall be in the midst of thee; and thou shalt take hold,
but shalt not deliver; and that which thou deliverest will I give up to the
sword.”
In his covenant with
the Israelite nation God had promised them certain things would take place if
they abandoned him, if they ignored his commandments. God had promised them:
Leviticus 26:23-24 “And if ye will not be reformed by me by these
things, but will walk contrary unto me; 24Then will I also walk
contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins.”
Leviticus 26:25-26 “And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant:
and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the
pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. 26And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake
your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again
by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.”
v.15 “Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap; thou
shalt tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoint thee with oil; and sweet
wine, but shalt not drink wine.”
Again, during the
giving of the Mosaic Law and the repeating of it in Deuteronomy Moses reminds
the Israelite nation of these warnings from God.
Deuteronomy 28:15 “But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not
hearken unto the voice of the LORD
thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command
thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:”
And part of these curses included:
Deuteronomy
28:38-40 “38Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field,
and shalt gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it. 39Thou
shalt plant vineyards, and dress them, but shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the
grapes; for the
Both
Read Micah
v.16 “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: therefore ye shall
bear the reproach of my people.”
According to the time
line established by James Ussher, a renowned scholar who was an Anglican
Archbishop who lived between 1581 and 1656, about 200 years have passed since
Omri and his son Ahab ruled the northern kingdom of
I Kings
So the influence of the works of Omri and then added to that all of the
works of Ahab, the son of Omri, and presumably the influence of Jezebel
remained among, not only in the northern kingdom, but was also now manifested
in Judah. We find that Manasseh, the son
of Hezekiah, who ruled
II Kings 21:3 “For he built up again the high places which
Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made a
grove, as did Ahab king of Israel; and worshipped all the host of heaven, and
served them.”
As a result
Is it any different
today? Have you ever had anyone you were
trying to reach with the gospel tell you “the people in my church are just as
good as those in yours.” Have you ever
had someone you were trying to teach that a brother or sister in Christ was a
hypocrite because of their business dealings or in some of the things that they
do? Did these people refuse to listen to
the gospel because of their observations and contentions?
William L. Schwegler, Sunset church of Christ,