The chapter opens with the Lord challenging the people to present their case in a “lawsuit” with the summons to the mountains to appear as witnesses. In the Old Testament context, God has called “heavens and earth” to be witnesses when a covenant between Him and the people was enacted, and here, in Micah 6, the mountains, which are permanent fixtures in the physical world, are poetically personified to be witnesses and to add to the solemnity in the proceedings. Something had gone wrong in the covenant between God and His people. Which party had been guilty of breaking the covenant?
The people of God, in disobedience, were acting as if God has mistreated them in some way. They were in fact accusing God of oppressing them and burdening them.
However, the historical reality shows clearly that they were obviously wrong: God had delivered them from bondage in Egypt in a miraculous way; He had given them leaders to guide them to the promised land and He had also protected them all the way in the wilderness and against enemies who sought to destroy them. Their accusations were certainly unfounded; God has been just and righteous in His dealings with His people. It is in fact the people who were unfaithful in their ways and they were constantly rebelling against God and the leaders God had appointed for them.
God then focused on His requirements: it was not rituals and sacrifices which God required; even thousands of animals sacrificed and burnt offerings will not be appropriate. God basically expected HIs people to meet certain ethical requirements: “to act justly, to love mercy (hesed) and to walk humbly with Him.” The people of God, despite their many religious activities and rituals, had failed miserably to uphold these ethical standards required by God. Hence their sacrifices, their so-called worship and the keeping of all the externalities amount to hypocrisy before God and were not acceptable.
The word “hesed” would sound familiar in our study of the book of Ruth; it speaks of loyal, faithful love although it is translated as mercy. God is much more concerned that His people are actively involved in bringing about justice than He is about the rituals of worship. Likewise, He wants His people to be zealous about faithful, loyal love (hesed) both toward Him and toward other people. Walking in humility would mean recognising the glory and the power of God in contrast to our weakness and sinfulness – we are to walk with God in constant, daily relationship.
However, God’s people had failed in these requirements. The Lord was fully aware of the socio-economic injustice going on in the city; merchants were cheating customers and dishonest business was rife. Their practices were so gross that they resembled the injustice and evil practised in the times of kings Omri and Ahab -these two kings were well known for their evil and rebellion against God.
So God intended to intervene and to judge; the judgement would be devastating and the people would become a reproach among the surrounding nations. They had blatantly violated the covenant with God and judgement would surely fall on them in line with the justice and holiness of the Almighty.
We see here the dangers of grumbling and murmuring against God and pointing the finger at Him when in fact, the reality has been God showering His grace, mercy and love on us as His people. We easily forget God’s deliverance of us from the penalty and bondage of sin; we fail to realise His provision in giving us brethren, teachers and leaders to guide us and to lead us; we quickly overlook His protection and undertaking for us in so many ways. Instead, we are quick to complain when we see “things going wrong” in our lives and we blame God for all these. Oftentimes, such things happen because of our own wrong choices and desires; the Lord may allow them, in His love, to remind us of the need of total dependence on Him and He also uses such situations to mould us and make us more like His Son.
A grumbling spirit, a lack of gratitude, an attitude of blaming others – these may lead to a falling from grace and to God intervening in His love to bring us to our senses and to contriteness and repentance. Let us not harden our hearts when God speaks to us today.