Micah 6

The prophet had delivered two of his three messages: a message of warning (chaps. 1—2) and a message of promise (chaps. 3—5). His third message was a challenge for the Jews to trust the Lord and obey His will, for only then could the nation escape terrible punishment and fulfill God’s purposes in this world.

As you read Old Testament history and prophecy, keep in mind how important it was for Israel to be obedient to the Lord. God had raised up the nation to bring blessing to the whole world (Gen. 12:1–3), for it was through Israel that the Savior would come. “Salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22). When the Jews began to adopt the practices of the godless nations around them, it defiled them and made them less able to do the work God had called them to do. It was because they despised their high and holy calling that the nation had to be chastened so severely.

Micah’s first message was presented as a courtroom drama, and so was this third message. The Judge declared the indictment (Mic. 6:1–8), pronounced the sentence (6:9—7:7) and then graciously promised mercy (7:7–20)! Micah used these three factors—guilt, punishment, and mercy—as arguments to plead with his people to repent and return to the Lord. “Trust the Lord, not in spite of these things but because of these things!” is his closing message; and it’s a message we need to hear today.

The sins of the people were hidden behind a veneer of religious activity—routine worship that didn’t come from their hearts. Micah’s contemporary, the prophet Isaiah, told the people that the nation was sick from head to foot (Isa. 1:5–6) but wouldn’t admit it, and that their “worship” was nothing more than “trampling” the temple courts (v. 12). They were like the patient who asked the doctor to retouch his X-rays so he wouldn’t have to endure surgery! His deceit didn’t cure him; it made him worse.

In this courtroom scene, the Lord called the witnesses (vv. 1–2) and told the people to be prepared to plead their case. The Lord opened the proceedings by telling His side of the controversy, emphasizing the gracious way He had dealt with the nation from the very beginning. He redeemed them from Egyptian slavery; He gave them leaders who guided them through the wilderness with His help; and He brought them to their promised inheritance. And throughout this journey, the Lord had put up with their unbelief, disobedience, and repeated complaints (Ps. 106).

On three occasions, Balak, king of Moab, commanded Balaam to curse Israel, but God turned the curse into blessing (Num. 22—24; Deut. 23:5; Neh. 13:2). The Israelites didn’t even know that this spiritual battle was going on; yet God protected His people. What did the Jews do in return? They became friendly with the Moabites, attended their idolatrous religious rites, and committed fornication with their women! (see Num. 25). What Balaam couldn’t do by means of his curses, the Jews themselves did with their sinful lusts.

The phrase “from Shittim unto Gilgal” (Mic. 6:5) reminded the people of Israel’s crossing of the Jordan River and entering the Promised Land (Josh. 3—4). The same God who opened and closed the Red Sea also opened and closed the Jordan River so His people might claim their inheritance. He did for them what they couldn’t do for themselves, but they didn’t remember.

It’s good for God’s people to know the past and remember with gratitude all that God has done for them. The word remember is found at least fourteen times in the book of Deuteronomy, and frequently the Jews were instructed to teach their children the mighty deeds of the Lord (Ex. 10:2; 13:8, 14; Deut. 6:20ff.; Josh. 22:24; Ps. 78:1–8).

While we don’t live in the past, we must learn from the past or we’ll commit the same mistakes. Philosopher George Santayana wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Because Israel forgot God’s mercies (Ps. 106:7), they also ignored God’s commandments. The result was a hard heart that deliberately rebelled against God’s will. God had every right to ask them, “What have I done to you that you should treat Me this way?”

Now the people replied to God (vv. 6–7). Instead of confessing their sins or standing mute because their mouths had been shut by their sense of guilt (Rom. 3:19), they asked what they could do to get rid of their sins. Their request shows how shallow their spiritual life really was and that they were ignorant of the enormity of their sin and the high cost of forgiveness. They were like the rich young ruler who didn’t really see himself as a condemned sinner before God (Mark 10:17–27), but they were not like the people at Pentecost who were cut to the heart and cried out, “What shall we do?” (Acts 2:37).

We get the impression that these questioners were interested in bargaining with God and “buying Him off,” for they kept raising the bid. “Shall we bring a few calves as burnt offerings? If that’s not enough, maybe we could offer a thousand sacrifices, such as Solomon offered [1 Kings 3:4; 8:63]? Would rivers of oil please Him? How about the ultimate sacrifice: our own flesh and blood offered on the altar, as Abraham did with Isaac?” But God doesn’t bargain with sinners, and none of the sacrifices they offered to bring could have cleansed them from their sins.

“Doing penance” without truly repenting and trusting God’s mercy only multiplies the sin and deadens the conscience. Thinking they were good enough to please God, the people asked Jesus, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” He replied, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent” (John 6:28–29 nkjv). True saving faith comes from a heart that’s been broken in repentance and realizes that no amount of good works can atone for sin (Acts 20:21; 26:20; Eph. 2:8–9).

The prophet spoke to the people (v. 8) and told them exactly what the Lord wanted each of them to do. It was a personal matter that each individual sinner had to consider. His reply emphasized moral and ethical conduct, not religious ceremonies. Of course, we can’t “do justly” unless we’ve been justified by faith and are right with God (Ps. 32:1–2; Rom. 4:1–8). And how can we “love mercy” if we’ve not personally experienced God’s mercy (Eph. 2:4; Titus 3:5)? If we want to “walk humbly with [our] God,” we must first bow humbly before Him, confess our sins, and claim His promise of forgiveness (Luke 14:11; James 4:10).

Our Lord’s parable about the Pharisee and publican in the temple (Luke 18:9–14) illustrates all three points. The publican was justified by faith, not by doing the kind of good works that the Pharisee boasted about. Since the publican depended on God’s mercy to save him, he humbled himself before the Lord. The Pharisee, on the other hand, informed God (and whoever was listening in the temple) how good he was and therefore how much he deserved eternal life.

To make Micah 6: a salvation text is to misunderstand what the prophet was saying to God’s disobedient covenant people. None of us can do what God requires until first we come to God as broken sinners who need to be saved. Unsaved people who think they are doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God are only fooling themselves, no matter how moral their lives may be. “Not by works righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us” (Titus 3:5).

The people to whom Micah ministered simply didn’t get the point of his messages. The very fact that they were so guilty before God should have motivated them to turn from their shallow religion, humble themselves, and seek God’s mercy. The only people God can save are lost people; the only people God can forgive are guilty people. If we see ourselves as God sees us, then we can by faith become what He wants us to become.

The sins of the people were hidden behind a veneer of religious activity—routine worship that didn’t come from their hearts. Micah’s contemporary, the prophet Isaiah, told the people that the nation was sick from head to foot (Isa. 1:5–6) but wouldn’t admit it, and that their “worship” was nothing more than “trampling” the temple courts (v. 12). They were like the patient who asked the doctor to retouch his X-rays so he wouldn’t have to endure surgery! His deceit didn’t cure him; it made him worse.

In this courtroom scene, the Lord called the witnesses (vv. 1–2) and told the people to be prepared to plead their case. The Lord opened the proceedings by telling His side of the controversy, emphasizing the gracious way He had dealt with the nation from the very beginning. He redeemed them from Egyptian slavery; He gave them leaders who guided them through the wilderness with His help; and He brought them to their promised inheritance. And throughout this journey, the Lord had put up with their unbelief, disobedience, and repeated complaints (Ps. 106).

On three occasions, Balak, king of Moab, commanded Balaam to curse Israel, but God turned the curse into blessing (Num. 22—24; Deut. 23:5; Neh. 13:2). The Israelites didn’t even know that this spiritual battle was going on; yet God protected His people. What did the Jews do in return? They became friendly with the Moabites, attended their idolatrous religious rites, and committed fornication with their women! (see Num. 25). What Balaam couldn’t do by means of his curses, the Jews themselves did with their sinful lusts.

The phrase “from Shittim unto Gilgal” (Mic. 6:5) reminded the people of Israel’s crossing of the Jordan River and entering the Promised Land (Josh. 3—4). The same God who opened and closed the Red Sea also opened and closed the Jordan River so His people might claim their inheritance. He did for them what they couldn’t do for themselves, but they didn’t remember.

It’s good for God’s people to know the past and remember with gratitude all that God has done for them. The word remember is found at least fourteen times in the book of Deuteronomy, and frequently the Jews were instructed to teach their children the mighty deeds of the Lord (Ex. 10:2; 13:8, 14; Deut. 6:20ff.; Josh. 22:24; Ps. 78:1–8).

While we don’t live in the past, we must learn from the past or we’ll commit the same mistakes. Philosopher George Santayana wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Because Israel forgot God’s mercies (Ps. 106:7), they also ignored God’s commandments. The result was a hard heart that deliberately rebelled against God’s will. God had every right to ask them, “What have I done to you that you should treat Me this way?”

Now the people replied to God (vv. 6–7). Instead of confessing their sins or standing mute because their mouths had been shut by their sense of guilt (Rom. 3:19), they asked what they could do to get rid of their sins. Their request shows how shallow their spiritual life really was and that they were ignorant of the enormity of their sin and the high cost of forgiveness. They were like the rich young ruler who didn’t really see himself as a condemned sinner before God (Mark 10:17–27), but they were not like the people at Pentecost who were cut to the heart and cried out, “What shall we do?” (Acts 2:37).

We get the impression that these questioners were interested in bargaining with God and “buying Him off,” for they kept raising the bid. “Shall we bring a few calves as burnt offerings? If that’s not enough, maybe we could offer a thousand sacrifices, such as Solomon offered [1 Kings 3:4; 8:63]? Would rivers of oil please Him? How about the ultimate sacrifice: our own flesh and blood offered on the altar, as Abraham did with Isaac?” But God doesn’t bargain with sinners, and none of the sacrifices they offered to bring could have cleansed them from their sins.

“Doing penance” without truly repenting and trusting God’s mercy only multiplies the sin and deadens the conscience. Thinking they were good enough to please God, the people asked Jesus, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” He replied, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent” (John 6:28–29 nkjv). True saving faith comes from a heart that’s been broken in repentance and realizes that no amount of good works can atone for sin (Acts 20:21; 26:20; Eph. 2:8–9).

The prophet spoke to the people (v. 8) and told them exactly what the Lord wanted each of them to do. It was a personal matter that each individual sinner had to consider. His reply emphasized moral and ethical conduct, not religious ceremonies. Of course, we can’t “do justly” unless we’ve been justified by faith and are right with God (Ps. 32:1–2; Rom. 4:1–8). And how can we “love mercy” if we’ve not personally experienced God’s mercy (Eph. 2:4; Titus 3:5)? If we want to “walk humbly with [our] God,” we must first bow humbly before Him, confess our sins, and claim His promise of forgiveness (Luke 14:11; James 4:10).

Our Lord’s parable about the Pharisee and publican in the temple (Luke 18:9–14) illustrates all three points. The publican was justified by faith, not by doing the kind of good works that the Pharisee boasted about. Since the publican depended on God’s mercy to save him, he humbled himself before the Lord. The Pharisee, on the other hand, informed God (and whoever was listening in the temple) how good he was and therefore how much he deserved eternal life.

To make Micah 6: a salvation text is to misunderstand what the prophet was saying to God’s disobedient covenant people. None of us can do what God requires until first we come to God as broken sinners who need to be saved. Unsaved people who think they are doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God are only fooling themselves, no matter how moral their lives may be. “Not by works righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us” (Titus 3:5).

The people to whom Micah ministered simply didn’t get the point of his messages. The very fact that they were so guilty before God should have motivated them to turn from their shallow religion, humble themselves, and seek God’s mercy. The only people God can save are lost people; the only people God can forgive are guilty people. If we see ourselves as God sees us, then we can by faith become what He wants us to become.

For the second time in this message, Micah cried out to the people, “Listen!” (vv. 1, 9 niv). Like the crowds that Jesus taught, these Jews had ears to hear His words, but they couldn’t hear God’s truth in those words (Matt. 13:9, 43). They lacked spiritual discernment.

God speaks about sin and its consequences (6:9–16). The Lord called to the people of Jerusalem to fear His name and heed what He had to say; for without the fear of the Lord, they could have neither knowledge nor wisdom (Prov. 1:7). God specifically condemned the merchants of the city for being deceptive in their business practices (Mic. 6:10–12). They used weights and measures that were dishonest so that customers didn’t get full value for their money (see Lev. 19:35–36; Deut. 25:13–16).

Why did this sin grieve the Lord so much? Because by doing these illegal things, the businessmen were exploiting and abusing the poor and needy in the land for whom God has a special concern (Amos 8:4–10). The Mosaic economic system provided for the care of the poor and needy, but the wealthy merchants in Micah’s time had abandoned the system. They robbed the poor of both justice and the necessities of life, a sin God could not overlook.

Moreover, along with making their own weights and measures and bribing the courts, the rich were openly violent (Mic. 6:12; also see 2:2; 3:1–3). They forcibly evicted people from their houses and lands and left them helpless, without homes or any source of income. When the poor tried to protect themselves through the courts, the rich merchants lied about the situation and convinced the officials that their actions were right.

But God has ordained that people reap what they sow, whether good or evil (Hos. 8:7; Gal. 6:7–8). Therefore, judgment had to fall on the “robber barons” of the land. Indeed, God warned about two different kinds of judgments (Mic. 6:13–16). The first (vv. 13–15) was already in progress, slow and secret, but very thorough. “Therefore, I have begun to destroy you, to ruin you because of your sins” (v. 13 niv). This judgment was the collapse of their economic system, including their crops (stolen farms), their investments (stolen money), and even their enjoyment of all that they had accumulated. Everything these merchant thieves had amassed for their pleasure would disappear, and whatever they tried to enjoy would bring them no pleasure at all. (See God’s covenant warnings in Deut. 28:15ff.)

The second judgment (Mic. 6:16) would be sudden and open: the total ruin of the nation by the hand of Babylon. That Micah should point to Babylon as the aggressor (4:10) is remarkable, because Babylon wasn’t a major power on the international scene at that time. It was Assyria that everybody feared, and Assyria did ruin the northern kingdom in 722 and did do great damage to Judah in 701. But by the time Babylon was finished with Judah and Jerusalem, the nation would be in ruin and the people in derision. The people’s sins found them out.

The Lord tried to use the judgment on the northern kingdom to awaken and warn the people of Judah, the southern kingdom, but they wouldn’t listen. Their defense was “It can’t happen here. We have the temple!” But they weren’t obeying God’s law or honoring His house. Instead, they were following the godless ways of two kings of Israel, Omri and Ahab, both of whom “did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and did worse than all who were before [them]” (1 Kings 16:25; see v. 30 nkjv). They should have followed the godly ways of King David, because it was for David’s sake that God held back His judgment for so long (11:13, 32, 34, 36; 15:4).

The prophet speaks of his sorrow (7:1–7). The prophets not only declared God’s message with their lips, but they also felt the burden of the people on their hearts. Jeremiah wept over the sins of the nation in his day and wished he could weep even more (Jer. 9:1ff.), and Micah lamented because there were no godly people left in the land. Looking for a godly person was as futile as looking for summer fruit after the harvest was over.

Micah compared the evil officials to hunters who wove clever nets and threw them over the helpless and trapped them. These officials and judges were skilled at weaving their nets (perverting the law so they could rob the unwary), but they weren’t skilled at obeying God’s laws. They were like briars and thorns that hurt people, when they should have been like concerned shepherds who helped people.

“The day of your watchmen” refers to the day of judgment when the watchmen on the walls would see the enemy approaching and call out to warn the people. God’s prophets were His watchmen (Ezek. 3:18–21), constantly warning the nation, but the leaders wouldn’t listen. They preferred lies to truth and this brought about a “time of … confusion” (Mic. 7: niv).

This confusion reached into every level of society. Not only was Micah grieved at the corruption of the officials, but also he was grieved at the unfaithfulness of the common people of the land (vv. 5–6). You couldn’t trust anybody! When truth is no longer the standard for society, then everything starts to fall apart; for faithfulness to our word is the cement that holds society together. It had come to the place where neighbor couldn’t trust neighbor and friends couldn’t trust each other. The basic unit of Jewish society, the family, was quickly falling apart. (In fact, Jesus quoted Mic. 7: in Matt. 10:36.)

In the light of the terrible condition of the land and the judgment that was impending, wouldn’t it have been a wise thing for the people to turn from their sin and trust the Lord? Would it not have been a smart thing for them to claim 2 Chronicles 7: and seek God’s face so that He might heal their land? But sinners don’t do wise things, because their eyes are blinded as they walk in the darkness (John 3:19–21).