Micah 6
The earlier chapters of this prophet have been giving us a view of the Lord’s hand with Israel: here we get the way of His Spirit with them. These two subjects very much occupy all the prophets some way or another. They constitute the political and the moral history of God’s people, all the restoration and the conversion of Israel.
The work of the Spirit, in these chapters of Micah, is given to us in the form of a dialog. The exercises of the soul are delineated as in a living person, and the dealings of God in answer are given to us as upon the voice of the Lord Himself; and, therefore, these chapters may remind us of the Psalm where the pulses of the heart are so constantly felt, and the path of the spirit of a man as led of God is so variously tracked. We get personality here as there.
It is the Lord that opens this dialog. He challenges the ways of His people; and this He does as in the hewing of the mountains and the hills and the foundations of the earth. He refuses not, as it were, to let the whole creation be present when He judges. The Judge of all the earth does right; therefore let heaven and earth wait as in the courts of His righteousness, and before the throne of His judgments. (See Deut. 32:1.)
This challenge has been heard by a remnant, and they answer it in Micah 6:6-7. They are awakened to know the sword of the Lord which has now been lifted up. They are alarmed, and would fain find a refuge. Ignorance of God and His ways and truth mark their words. But no matter. It is no longer the sleep or stupidity of the soul: there has been a quickening.
The Lord shortly answers them. He lets the awakened, inquiring ones learn what is “good” and what is “required.” That which is “good” is shown to them. God reveals it, as we know, as belonging to Himself. “There is none good but one, that is God.” The gospel reveals this in its fullness. That which is “required,” or demanded, is nothing of man’s cattle for offerings; it is not rivers of oil, or the fruit of his body: it is that only which is morally fitting, that we should do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly (Mic. 6:8).
This is perfect in its place. But having thus shortly answered the remnant, (the “man,” as he is here called, the one that had ears to hear in the midst of the reprobate nation), the Lord goes on with His challenges of the nation, detailing still further, and with awful disclosures, the ways and iniquities of Israel. “For His voice was to the city, though He will surely hear and answer the cry of His remnant, who have heard His rod and Him that hath appointed it” (Mic. 6:9-16).