God issues a challenge to all who have ever professed belief in Him, but have wandered from Him,
to testify against Him, if they have found His demands unreasonable,
or if He has not fully paid His accounts.
If our ceremonies be accepted of Him,
they must be backed by lives conformed to His will and in communion with Him,
for He cannot be deceived by external ceremonies.
If professors of religion ruin themselves by sin,
it will be the most terrible of any ruin.
Micah 1
1 Hear ye now what the LORD saith; Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.
2 Hear 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 Israel.
3 O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against me.
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.
5 O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal; that ye may know the righteousness of the LORD.
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?
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?
8 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 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.
10 ¶ Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?
11 Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights?
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.
13 Therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting thee, in making thee desolate because of thy sins.
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.
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.
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.
Micah 1 – J. Vernon McGee
Micah 6 – “What Doth the LORD Require of Thee?”
In Micah 6:1-4 the prophet returns from his vision of the future to the actual condition of his people, which was utterly desperate. The mountains, as the most enduring monuments of nature, are summoned as witnesses in the great trial between Jehovah and His people. Like Israel, we have been delivered from the house of bondage with infinite love, but how wayward and willful we have been! Micah 6:5-8 prove the impotence of a religion which is only external.
Few have known more sublime truth than Balaam, Micah 6:5, but he loved the wages of unrighteousness; and this eclipsed the divine radiance that became overcast and finally overwhelmed. Micah 6:9-11 reveal the fruitlessness of a life of sin. Sooner or later nature herself becomes unresponsive—sowing, but no harvest; the treading of the press, but no juice. The only path to real satisfaction and peace is in the love and faithful service of God. Why are we so slow to tread it? —Through the Bible Day by Day
Micah 6:8—Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God.
The perfunctory sacrifices of lambs and rams, rivers of oil, and of tender children, were eagerly practiced by the surrounding nations, such as the Moabites, but were abhorrent to God. What to Him is the outward rite without the holy purpose; the child’s form of obeisance, apart from filial love! Grave questionings as to the utility of mere ritualism suggested themselves in the old-world religions. It appears that the questions of this chapter were put by Balaam; and the words before us were uttered by the Divine Spirit to his heart. But however that may be, it is matter for our adoring gratitude that God has stepped out of the infinite to show us what is good, and what He requires.
To do justly is to preserve the balance of strict equity: if an employer, treating work-people with perfect justice; if a manufacturer or salesman, making and selling what will thoroughly satisfy the just requirements of the purchaser; if an employee, giving an exact equivalent of time and diligence and conscientious labor for money received.
To love mercy is to take into consideration all those drawbacks which misfortunes, which enfeebled health, or crushing sorrow may impose on those who owe us service or money, or in some other way are dependent upon us.
To walk humbly with God implies constant prayer and watchfulness, familiar yet humble converse, conscientious solicitude, to allow nothing to divert us from his side or to break the holy chain of conversation. We must exchange our monologue, in which we talk with ourselves, for dialogue, in which we talk as we walk with God. Ask Him to make these good things the ordinary tenor of your life. —Our Daily Homily
Micah 6:8 – In A.D. 59, not many years after Paul’s conversion, he was “the least of the apostles…not meet to be called an apostle” (1 Corinthians 15:9). Five years later in A.D. 64, he speaks of himself as being “less than the least of all saints” (Ephesians 3:8), and in A.D. 65, he calls himself the “chief” of “sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15). (Moody)
Micah 6:8 – Lightly laden vessels float high in the water, heavy cargoes sink the barques to the water’s edge. The more grace the soul has the humbler it will be. (Moody)