Devotional Commentary on Micah 6
One
of the unfortunate errors of Rabbis in the Middle Ages, and that is not all of
them, is that some of them kept thinking that the book of Micah is speaking of
events in the days of Micah and no further.
The special setting of Micah 6 is a
court-scene. This is fundamental to the chapter. The formulation of the various
verses are done with such a scene in mind. The judge, the witnesses, the
prosecutor, the accused or defense, the advocates.
Delitzsch calls it: “Announcement of the
lawsuit which the Lord will have with His people.” The Investigative Judgment
since 1844 is that lawsuit that God will have with His people in future.
Cuffey in 1987 summarized it as follows:
God’s case against the people (6:1-8); the people’s sins (6:9-16); the hopeless
situation caused by the sin (7:1-6); waiting until the judgment has been borne
(7:7-10); the day to come (7:11-13); anticipation of God’s care (7:14-17); God
is a forgiving God (7:18-20).
Micah
started chapter 6 with an annoucement of the courtcase. He calls upon creatures
to hear the words of the Lord (6:1). He is calling the witnesses together for
the courtcase, the jury. The jury are symbolically called mountains and hills.
There is no reason to claim that God has an interest for mountains and hills to
hear what He has to say. God speak to the abilities of creatures able to hear
and understand. Both earthly and heavenly creatures should pay attention. In
verse two we have the legal prologue to the case, the announcement of the
parties and what the case is all about (6:2). Years ago, B. Gemser (1955) wrote
articles on the rib-passages of the Old Testament. Rib is the
Hebrew word for contention. It can mean "to cry out; to contend; to
argue; to have a courtcase". Did God plan a rib with His people? Is there
a special time set aside by God when He will rib with all generations of His
people in a heavenly court scene? The secret is understood in Daniel 7 with the
courtcase of the Son of Man before the Ancient of Days. It is further
understood as starting in 1844 at the end of the 2300 days prophecy of Daniel
8:14 which is 2300 years (with the year-day principle) since the 70 weeks
prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27 works on the year-day principle accurately
identifying the baptism of Jesus in 27 CE and His death in 31 CE and the
Martyrdom of Stephen in 34 CE. Christ entered the Most Holy as Highpriest to do
atonement for His people. It is an Investigative Judgment on behalf or in favor
of His people and the purpose is to clear their names before the heavenly jury,
angels and other unfallen worlds, in order to secure their space in heaven
"and when I have prepare a place for you, I will come again" (John
14:1-3). It is the stigma against His people's names that is cleared and this
is also a kind of atonement. It was the symbolic background of the Day of
Atonement theology of the Old Testament. The rib-theology was widespread in the
prophets and we will mention Amos 7; Micah 6, 7; Hosea 2, 4, 5; Isaiah 1, 3,
19, 27, 41, 49, 50, 51, 57, 58; Jeremiah 2, 3, 12, 15, 18, 25, 50, 51. Nearly
25 references in the Old Testament prophets. In each one God is announcing that
He has a case or a contention with His people. If the Investigative Judgment of
His people was to start in 1844 and further, then what we have in Micah 6 is a
prolepsis in which the prophet can see what is at stake in a future event but
which people in Micah's day should pay attention to since specific aspects also
affects them in Micah's day. We do the same when we say, Lord, help me to be
resurrected at the Second Coming. We pay attention to actions that will be in
future events. And that is what Micah is doing hearing and seeing the event in
advance.
In
Micah 6:1, since it is a court-scene, there is a first announcer who ask the
jury and witnesses to listen to the advocate who is about to speak. A second
announcer in Micah 6:2 announce the agenda of the case. He explains who is the
accuser, the defendant, and why there is a case. It is done in the presence of
the jury. The angels and unfallen worlds are the jury since they are the
righteous innocent ones who did not follow Lucifer in his great deception with
the Rebellion in Heaven (see Isaiah 14:12-14 for the locus classicus of the
Rebellion in Heaven of Lucifer). It is not just metaphore or symbolic, but
reality. The announcer asks the "mountains" again to listen
"hear". In heaven and on earth the universe is asked to listen to the
Lord's case. On earth God chose of cause through this deliberation, Micah to
talk to the great ones on earth "you mighty ones, the foundations of the
earth". This has nothing to do with cosmology or even ancient cosmology.
The righteous keeps the world stable. It is that simple. God has a rib =
contention with His people. Every generation there were rebellious people but
God does not have a rib every generation of people. God has a specific time for
the rib and that was announced in Daniel 8:14, "Unto two thousand three
hundred evenings and mornings then the sanctuary shall be righteous
(nizdak)". It is the start of the Investigative Judgment and this was to
last since 1844 until the Second Coming, based on the prophetic principle of
the year-day principle.
In
Micah 7:3 the Advocate in heaven in that sanctuary court (Daniel 7 with the son
of Man before the Ancient of Days), Christ is talking about the sinful remnant
of God. "O My people" Christ says "what have I done and how have
I wearied you?" Christ is asking how one can say the worship of God is
wearing the souls of humans? It was in the Garden of Eden that God walked with
Adam and Eve, it was walking that He did with Enoch. The rabbis of the Middle
Ages pointed out that God has no intention to weary His faithful. That is why
He did not require from them to hunt for wild animals and bring that as a
sacrifice. He chose comfortable settings, domestic animals only. God is not a
God of ceremonies and pomp. The law can be read on the way or sitting at home.
God wants to be worshipped while humans are comfortable (Numbers Rabbah
20:5; Leviticus Rabbah 27:4).
God
is calling on the jury to ask if they agree that He wearies anybody.
God
presents then some examples of how He took care of historical Israel. He
brought them out of the land of Egypt after 1450 BCE and redeemed them (Micah
6:4). The interesting thing is that before He redeemed them, He sent Moses,
Aaron and Miriam as Elijah like heralds to announce His redemption before it
happened. The Middle Age rabbi, Redak (1157-1236) said that "Prior to the
exodus, I sent you heralds during your labor to inform you that the redemption
was at hand". It is the same function that the third Elijah message had in
1844 and the same one that the fourth Elijah message will have at the Latter
Rain experience, which will be the final call. The rabbis thought that
Moses was called because of his legal expertise, Aaron to take care of
atonement and Miriam to instruct. A second case is lifted out of history by God
and that is in the days of Balak king of Moab and the incident of Balaam son of
Beor in Numbers 23:8 in Micah 6:5 "How shall I be angry if God is not
angry?" "From Shittim to Gilgal, may you recognize the righteous
deeds of the Lord". Rabbis Kara and Redak pointed out that "at that
time, Israel deserved to be destroyed, but God bestowed His kindness upon His
people".
In
Micah 6:6-7 Micah interrupted the court proceedings by focusing on his own sin
and himself. Just like Isaiah reacted when he was taken in vision to see God in
Isaiah 6, so Micah also became aware of his own unworthiness in God's presence.
Sin needs atonement and this is what Micah is thinking first.
"With
what shall I come before the Lord, bow before the Most High God?" If Micah
as representative of the human race is to come in this court-scene before the
Ancient of Days, what is the ransom he can pay to get his sins settled? He
asked if the Lord will be pleased with a thousand rams and oil? Whether he
should offer his firstborn that is also filled with sin just like himself?
(Micah 6:7). The solution was of course that the Advocate has died Himself as
ransom for all the faithful's sins. "Shall I give [to] my firstborn, my
transgression [or/and] [to] the fruit in my body, the sin of my soul".
The
divine solution to this dilemma of sin is given in Micah 6:8: "He has told
you, O man, what is good, and what does the Lord demand of you: but to do
justice, to love lovingkindness, and to walk discreetly with your God".
Again, very comfortable religion of God.
Says Ellen White about this passage: “God
desires His people to place themselves in right relation to Him, that they may
understand what He requires of them above all things else. They are to reveal
to every struggling soul in the world what it means ‘to do justly, and to love
mercy, and to walk humbly’ with their God. Wherever they are, at home or
abroad, they are to be His commandment-keeping people.”—Ellen White,
Testimonies to Ministers, pages 458, 459.
In similar vein, Delitzsch said in 1878:
496-497 “The prophet therefore proceeds in ver. 8 to overthrow these outward
means of reconciliation with God, and reminds the people of the moral demands
of the law.”
Then the narrator continued that the voice of
the Lord calls out in the city and the wisdom of the Torah saying: "The
one who sees your name [city name]; listens to the staff and [He] Who appointed
it" (Micah 6:9). God gives kingship and rulership to people and others
will listen to it because it was given by God.
The
voice of the Lord continues to say: "Does the house of the wicked last
long, [or do] the treasures of wickedness?" (Micah 6:10). Economic
malpractices are condemned and in the vein of Deuteronomy 25:13 it is said that
one should not have two different measures for ephah. In Micah 6:11 God is
saying that the scales of the wicked are deceitful weights. Those who got rich
with deceit are full of violence and the inhabitants of their houses and towns
are speaking lies and their tongues are full of guile (6:12).
A
number of punishments will await the wicked but in this case also those remnant
members who turned wicked: sore wounds (6:13), desolation, remain hungry
(6:14), physically bent over, shall not be fruitful to have children, shall
have no successful harvest even oil or grapes (6:15). The big reason is that
these remnant members went astray and follow the statutes of Omri and every
deed in the house of Ahab. They walk in their counsels. For this reason God
will make them an astonishment in the executive judgment and the inhabitants of
their cities a hissing and the disgrace of My people the remnant. The remnant
will have 1000 years during the Confirmation Judgment to re-establish for
themselves why the Lord did not save their other loved ones. They Lord was
right and they will see that for themselves and therefore the indignation of
their loved ones in the remnant will be felt before the Executive Judgment at
the end of the 1000 years of which Revelation of John speaks about.
Dear Lord
What does God expect from His people
that but that they walk humbly with their God and follow His commandments. In
Jesus Name. Amen.