C. Consolation in the Prophet’s Plea From God for Repentance and Restoration (6:1-7:20)
In a tender entreaty the Lord speaks through Micah to the people and poses a controversy. He calls on the mountains and hills to listen to his case and the charge he makes against his people. In deep pathos God asks “What have I done to you? How have I burdened you?” (6:1-3). He rehearses his faithfulness to Israel in all their history from Egypt to Gilgal and from Moses to Balaam (vv.4-5).
Jehovah does not call attention to their gross sins but asks wherein he has failed them. He does not command, but pleads with them to remember his faithfulness to them. Israel responds to the Lord’s controversy by asking three questions: (1) How about our regular sacrifices? (2) How about our special and lavish offerings? (3) How about our spirit of sacrifice, even to our firstborn? (Ries, 6:6-7).
In one of the greatest passages of the OT, the Lord summarizes the nature and requirements of true religion (6:8). No one can act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly and fail to please God. Before these conditions can be met, every person must seek peace with, and forgiveness from, God. The Talmud states that David reduced the requirements of the Mosaic Law from 613 to 11 in Ps 15. Micah reduced the 11 to 3, and Christ reduced the 3 to 1, or to 2 if one needs the second one (Earle, 60).
Wesley makes these observations on Micah’s key verse: “God has already told you in his word with what you ought to come before him. To render to every one their due; superiors, equals, inferiors, to be equal to all and oppress none in body, goods, or name. To be kind, merciful, and compassionate to all, not using severity towards any. Keep up a constant fellowship with God by humble, holy faith” (Wesley, 385).
A second controversy follows as the Lord leads Micah to name the vices of the rich merchants of the city. They had cheated with a short ephah, they had dishonest scales and false weights, and they were deceitful liars (6:9-12). Since these sins were so obvious, the ruin of the fields and produce would be a curse upon them. Walking in the ways of Omri and Ahab, they would reap what they had sown (vv.13-16a), and they would be held in derision and contempt by the nations around them (v.16b).
Micah saw these conditions as a great menace to religion and national integrity. The men of the city were crooks. They were mad, sick, lonely, uprooted, shallow, abnormal. They had a form of godliness in their tradition, background, and character; but they were wholly corrupt. They followed their senses, appetites, and passions like animals. They had lost contact with their past. The deep roots of their piety had rotted away (Knopf, 59).
Whether in the OT or NT, true religion before the Lord means a right relationship with the Lord and one’s fellows. Justice is the basis of all moral law and life. Mercy is God’s goodness to the redeemed, which must be shown to all his creatures. Humility is the “low, sweet root from which all heavenly virtues shoot,” and it must be the characteristic of every true believer in walking before God.
In his final message and before ending his oracle with a doxology of praise to such a faithful, loving, forgiving God (7:18-20), Micah confesses the sins of Jerusalem or Zion (vv.1-6), as well as the sins of the spiritual remnant (vv.7-17).
With heavy heart Micah exclaims, “What misery is mine!” There are few if any who are righteous. Hopelessness and despair mark the prophet’s lament. Instead of being models of upright living, the ruler, the judge, and the powerful lie in wait to take the life and possessions of the helpless (7:1-3). No wonder Micah was pessimistic. Not even a close friend or those of one’s own household could be trusted. Only the Master himself could fully comprehend the prophet’s attitude of despair (vv.4-6). Jesus cited the inspired words of Micah in his discourse and instructions to his disciples as he sent them out (Mt 10:34-36).
Only as Micah looked to God did he find comfort and hope for his people. As light at the end of a dark tunnel, the prophet saw that God was utterly faithful (7:7, 9). In the day when Zion’s glory will be restored, when captivity is ended, when people from all parts of the earth will turn to God in fear, then and only then will Micah’s paean of praise be understood (vv.12, 15, 17).
How glorious are these promises of blessing and goodness from Jehovah! All of these are given in spite of the ingratitude and wickedness on Israel’s part. The prophet stands in awe at the presence of such infinite love and greatness. In this awe he closes his message with an ode of praise to the Lord. . . . There is none to compare, for Jehovah passes over iniquity, the grossest and basest of sin, and pardons transgressions, . . . He does all this because He is God who retains not his anger forever, and because He delights in demonstrating lovingkindness. . . . Thus the prophecy of judgment and promise, of travail and birth, of gloom and hope, ends with the glow of faith and happy hope (Hailey, 220-21).