Micah 6 · The Lantern

The Case against Israel

Hear, please, what the LORD says: Rise, contend with the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice.

Hear, mountains, the case of the LORD, and you enduring ones, the foundations of the earth; for the LORD has a case against his people, and with Israel he will set things right.

My people, what have I done to you, and how have I wearied you? Answer against me.

Would you like me to utter to you the words of God to Israel, stiff-necked and hardened? "O my people, what have I done to you, or in what way have I injured you, or wherein have I wearied you?" This language indeed is more fit from me to you who insult me.

(Verse 3 onwards) O my people, what have I done to you, and how have I wearied you? Answer me! For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of slavery; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

"For the Lord will judge his people, and he will [give] comfort among his servants." The reason for the previous praise is stated: "For the Lord will judge his people," that is, the Jewish people, to whom he revealed great miracles and assigned his prophets so that the people would not sin.

For I brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slaves; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron and Miriam.

My people, remember, please, what Balak king of Moab counseled, and what Balaam son of Beor answered him — from Shittim as far as the Gilgal — so that you may know the righteous acts of the LORD.

With what shall I come before the LORD, bow myself to the God of the height? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?

Is everyone who is turning from sin to faith, turning from sinful practices (as if they were his mother) to life? I shall call in evidence one of the twelve prophets, who says, "Am I to make an offering of my firstborn son for my impiety? Should I offer the fruit of my womb for the sin of my soul?" Can the mother buy her way to God by giving up her firstborn?

For what is asked of you, O man? Only that you fear God: seek for him, walk after him, follow in his ways. "With what shall I win over the Lord?

(Vers. 6, 7.) What shall I offer to the Lord? Shall I bow down before the Most High God? Shall I offer burnt offerings to Him, and yearling calves? Can the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with many thousands of fattened goats? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? LXX: Where shall I find the Lord?

Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of streams of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my belly for the sin of my being?

He has told you, man, what is good; and what does the LORD seek from you but to do judgment, and to love loyal love, and to walk humbly with your God?

"But God,"[adulterers and fornicators say,] "is good and most kind." He is "merciful, compassionate and rich in mercy," which "he prefers to every sacrifice." "He desires not so much the death as the repentance of the sinner." He is "the Savior of all people, and especially of the faithful." Therefore the children of God must also be "merciful" and "peacemakers," "forgiving eac…

Forget about burnt offerings, countless sacrifices and oblations of firstborn, he is saying. If you are concerned to appease the divinity, practice what God ordered you in the beginning through Moses. What in fact is that?

Here is a priest who serves at every hour with great fear while walking humbly with the Lord his God in accordance with the word of the prophet. Meanwhile another priest is hardly capable of having that much fear even when he is about to die and enter into the last judgment before his Lord.

The Punishment of Israel

The voice of the LORD calls to the city — and it is sound wisdom to fear your name. Hear the rod, and who appointed it.

Are there still in the house of the wicked the treasures of wickedness, and the scant ephah that is cursed?

Shall I be pure with wicked scales and with a bag of stones of deceit?

Her rich men are full of violence and her inhabitants have spoken falsehood, and their tongue is treachery in their mouth.

And I also have made you sick with striking you, laying you waste for your sins.

You will eat and not be satisfied, and your emptiness will be within you; and you will put away and not carry off, and what you do carry off I will give to the sword.

You will sow and not reap; you will tread the olive and not anoint yourself with oil, and the new wine and not drink wine.

For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the work of the house of Ahab, and you have walked in their counsels — so that I make you a desolation and her inhabitants a hissing; and you will bear the reproach of my people.

Micah6

The Case against Israel

The Punishment of Israel