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Introduction

Courtroom dramas have long been popular in America. TV series such as Law & Order have been not only incredibly popular, but also have endured for decades on the screen. Some of the greatest movies of all time are courtroom dramas, like A Few Good Men. Fictional portrayals of intense and riveting courtroom scenes are just part of our culture's fascination with true crime dramas. Real-life criminal trials captivate society as the drama unfolds. O.J. Simpson, the Menendez brothers, and Casey Anthony are some of the most watched legal proceedings ever. Most recently, Americans could not turn away from the high-profile case of Alex Murdaugh, a fourth-generation attorney from South Carolina who was convicted of murdering his wife and son while also stealing from his clients and developing an opioid addiction. Millions watched as he was sentenced to serve back-to-back life sentences.

Why is courtroom drama so compelling? Maybe it is because legal drama has all the makings of good storytelling. There are interesting characters, tension that builds to a climax, and a resolution. I think the primary reason that we enjoy legal theater is that we, as humans, have an innate desire to seek justice. While some may delight in all the gruesome details of a crime, we all long for justice to prevail. For the Christian, this should make total sense. We worship a God who is “just and the justifier” (Rom 3:26).[1] We are made in the image of that same God (Gn 1:27), so it makes perfect sense that we tune in to the “trial of the century” because we want to see justice enacted on the guilty.

The Bible is not without its own legal drama. Paul was brought to trial several times including Acts 18 when he was brought before the proconsul in Corinth and later in Acts 22-23 before the Jerusalem Council. Of course, the Lord Jesus also stood on trial before Pilate. Today’s passage from Micah 6 is set in the court as well, but this trial does not take place in a stale, musky courthouse nor Pilate’s praetorium. No, this trial has a cosmic courtroom with Yahweh bringing His complaint against Israel, His covenant people.

Historical Context

To better understand what is going on, we need to know when in Israel’s history the prophet Micah prophesied. This can be difficult to determine since the prophetic books do not appear chronologically in our Bibles. Fortunately, Micah 1:1 tells us when he prophesied. “The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.” We can gather from 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles that the reigns of these kings of Judah span from around 740-687 BC. This means Micah’s ministry spanned the time of the Assyrian invasion of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 BC, though Micah ministered in the Southern Kingdom of Judah.

Both kingdoms experience prosperity during the reign of their previous kings, Jeroboam II of Israel and Uzziah of Judah. However, in Thomas McComiskey and Tremper Longman’s commentary on Micah, they state, “While Israel and Judah appeared to be strong externally, an internal decay was sapping their strength and threatening to destroy the social fabric of these two kingdoms.”[2]This sounds similarly to Jesus’s accusation against the Pharisees when He referred to them as, “whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.” (Mt 23:27) McComiskey and Longman go on to explain the situation, “A burgeoning wealthy class was becoming richer at the expense of the poorer classes.”[3]

The book of Micah contains three oracles to the Israelites, and today’s passage from Micah 6 is the beginning of the third oracle. The “internal decay” is what has prompted the Lord to bring His indictment against the people of Israel. Something has gone horribly wrong in Judah, and Yahweh now comes before creation to plead His case.

Exposition

The Lord’s Indictment (vv. 1-2)

Micah 6:1 begins with the messenger formula, “Hear what the Lord says”. This messenger formula “identifie[s] the source of a message [Yahweh] given by a messenger [Micah] on behalf of someone.”[4] God says, “Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. Hear you mountains, the indictment of the Lord, and you enduring foundations of the earth, for the Lord has an indictment against his people, and he will contend with Israel” (Mi 6:1b-2). The Hebrew word for “indictment” has the connotation of a legal dispute, which is how we know that what we are about to witness is legal in nature. This cosmic legal scene has now been set. God is the plaintiff with Micah, His messenger. The defendant is Israel, and the mountains are called upon as witnesses. Try to imagine how this might look. How awesome a scene with the mountains being called to be witnesses and God Almighty pleading His case through Micah! And God is not only the plaintiff, but He is also the judge.

One question we ought to ask as readers of the Word is, “Why is this a legal dispute?” What about God’s relationship with Israel makes this a legal matter? Knowing the answer to this question is the key to understanding the entire passage. Israel and Yahweh are in a covenant relationship. This is a covenant lawsuit. Israel had breached its terms of the covenant, and the Lord is taking them to court.

“What Have I Done to You?” (v. 3)

Now that the cosmic court scene has been set, we are expecting the Lord to rain down a verbal wrath of accusations on a rebellious people. Instead, the Lord addresses them with loving, covenantal language, “O my people”. Israel was indeed God’s elected, chosen people. I think the use of “my people” and not “you people”, like in Isaiah 1:10, indicates that God’s purpose for this legal proceeding is to draw them back in to relationship, not to cast them out. Bruce Waltke says, “The speech, full of grace and truth, aims to reprove and to woo Israel back to her covenant obligations, not to pronounce sentence upon her with withering words.”[5]

God says, “O my people, what have I done to you? How have I wearied you? Answer me!” (Mi 6:3) Instead of beginning with Israel’s sin, the Lord asks if there is anything that He could have possibly done to cause Israel to behave in this way. Of course, this is ironic since we know the Lord is, “not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with [Him].” (Ps 5:4) The obvious answer to the Lord’s questions are “of course not!”

What I Have Done for You (vv. 4-5)

Deliverance from Egypt (v. 4)

What has the Lord done for Israel? Events of Israel’s salvation history are often called upon to remind them of God’s covenant faithfulness. The first reminder is the Exodus. “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.” (Mi 6:4) The Exodus is the prominent event in the Old Testament displaying God’s grace upon Israel. L.C. Allen states in his commentary on Micah, “To [the Exodus] many a psalmist and prophet look back as proof and pledge of God’s election love and saving power.”[6] We only need to look back at Exodus 6, and God’s promise to deliver Israel to see His deep love for Israel:

I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. Say therefore to the people of Israel, “I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.” (Ex 6:2b-8)

Deliverance from Balak (v. 5)

The Lord goes on with another reminder of His covenant faithfulness. As the Exodus is the beginning of Israel’s journey from Egypt through the wilderness to the promised land, this next event takes place just before they cross the Jordan River to enter the promised land. “O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.” (Mi 6:5) This is likely a less familiar story to you than the Exodus. The story comes from Numbers 22. Balak, the King of Moab, had just witnessed what Israel had done in defeating the Amorites, and he feared a similar fate for himself. Balak called on a diviner named Balaam to curse the Israelites. However, his plan backfired as God intervenes to tell Balaam not to curse them because they are a blessed people.

With these reminders, God is saying, “How can you think that I am causing you harm? Don’t you remember all I have done for you?” As a parent, I can sympathize with the Lord. Children often think that parents exist only to make their lives miserable. What children do not really consider is how they were cared for as infants with feedings and diaper changes. They do not consider sleepless nights when mom or dad sat with them after a nightmare. They do not consider a parent’s sacrifice to work long hours to pay for their education. They do not consider flu, scraped knees, broken arms. Sometimes, children can think their parents no longer love them. This was the case with our oldest daughter when she was around ten years old. She would get so upset if she got in trouble, and she finally told us that she felt that when she was being disciplined, that we did not love her anymore. As a father, it was heartbreaking. How could she think this? We have nothing but love for our children. We do not want to see harm come to them. And we are imperfect sinners, so we get this wrong a lot of the time. I am reminded of Matthew 7:11, when Jesus says, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”

God has done nothing to drive the Israelites away from Him; He has kept His part of the covenant. In fact, Allen says, “the Exodus symbolizes not only the covenant love of God but also his claim upon the covenant loyalty of his people.”[7] God has called upon events that remind Israel that they have not kept their end of the deal. God has not failed in His covenant loyalty; Israel is the one that has failed.

Empty Deeds (vv. 6-7)

At this point, Israel has seen their error, and they want to rectify the situation. An unnamed representative for Israel asks what they need to do to return to a right standing before their Lord. “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” (Mi 6:6-7) Israel has missed the point. This is not what the Lord wanted from them. As Waltke says, “Instead of responding to such a wonderful Lord with loving and obedient hearts, Micah’s generation transformed the covenant into a contract.”[8]The Lord cannot be bought. Israel could not simply pay a price to make things right again with the Lord. How we can fall into the same trap as Israel. If we just pray more. If we just go to church more. If we tithed more. These deeds are empty and are not a proper response to the Lord’s lovingkindness toward His people.

The church seems to have always struggled with this. Paul addressed this in Romans 2:28-29, “For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.” The outward sign of circumcision is not what made someone a Jew; it was their faith in the God who saves. In Romans 4, Paul shows that this not some new revelation, but it is how salvation has always worked. “For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.’” (Rom 4:2-3) Israel’s sacrificial rituals are meaningless with their utter devotion and loyalty to Yahweh.

Proper Response (v. 8)

The Lord says what their response ought to be. “He has told you, O man, what is good;

and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Mi 6:8) This famous passage is often misinterpreted and misapplied. Micah 6:8 is not a formula for salvation. It does not comprehensively summarize Christian responsibility in the world. Keeping this verse in context is extremely important for understanding its intended meaning. We must go back and remind ourselves that this passage is in the context of the covenant relationship between God and Israel. Israel had strayed away from their devotion to the Lord. They were becoming greedy and, in the process, were mistreating and taking advantage of one another. Israel had forgotten that it was Yahweh’s covenant people. God had brought this covenant lawsuit to Israel because it had not kept its covenant loyalty with God. Here, God is reminding them of their covenant responsibility to Him.

Like Paul in Romans 2, Micah reminds Israel that this is not a new command. Israel cannot claim ignorance. By using the word “good”, Micah is summarizing Israel’s covenant moral requirements. God is clearly giving hope to Israel by reminding them of the way back to Him.

The first two elements of the command deal with Israel’s relationship with one another, and the third deals with its personal relationship with Yahweh. The first command is “to do justice”. Allen says, “Commitment to Yahweh included commitment to the covenant community. Justice is the key word so often used by the prophets to sum up this social obligation.”[9] Part of covenant loyalty is treating others in the covenant relationship fairly. The Israelites were mistreating one another, so they were violating covenant stipulations.

The second command is “to love kindness”. The Hebrew word here is “hesed”, and it specifically refers to “covenant love” or “covenant loyalty”. In the Old Testament, it is most often used to describe God’s covenant love toward His people by being translated as “steadfast love”. Some examples include Genesis 39:21, “But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.” Exodus 15:13, “You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed; you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode.” Psalm 25:10, “All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.” We get the sense that the steadfast love of the Lord is inextricably tied to His covenant faithfulness. In its usage in Micah 6:8, “hesed” describes that same covenant loyalty that Israel is to have with one another.

The third command is “to walk humbly with your God.” Israel cannot “do justice” or “love kindness” is it does not align itself with the will of the Lord. The metaphor of “walking” with God is not unique to Micah. Paul uses the same metaphor in Ephesians 5:15, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise”. Our walk is how we live, and in this case, it is how we live in God’s will. It is important to note that Micah was not completely disregarding sacrifices as part of Israel’s covenant relationship with God. However, without a covenant love and loyalty to God and one another, the sacrifices did nothing to appease the Lord.

Application

As we consider what this passage means for the church today, we must recognize that we are not Israel. The church is under the New Covenant of Jeremiah 31, not the Mosaic covenant. Therefore, the ceremonial law and the ritual sacrifices do not apply to us, but that does not mean that we do not try to appease God in other meaningless ways that are detached from a genuine love and devotion to Him. With that in mind, there are three points of application that we can draw from our passage.

The Lord has Shown Steadfast Love to Us

The first point is that God has shown steadfast love toward us. In the same way that the Lord showed His covenant love toward Israel, He has also shown covenant love toward the church. This is first and foremost demonstrated in the sending of His Son John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Paul says in Romans 5:8, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God has demonstrated His covenant loyalty to the church by sending His Son to die in our place so that we may be with Him. There is no doubt that God is faithful to His promises. He demonstrated that faithfulness with Israel throughout the Old Testament, and we can believe that He will continue in faithfulness toward the church as we hope for eternal life with Him.

Our Religious Formalities are Meaningless in and of Themselves

The second point of application is that our religious formalities are meaningless in and of themselves. As I mentioned before, we are not under the same covenant as Israel, so we do not have ceremonial requirements to fulfill our covenant obligations. However, we treat our religious exercises in the same way. We get fooled into thinking that checking off a list of religious duties is an indication of a healthy relationship with God. In cultural Christianity, we go to church because it is what everyone else does, at least here in the Bible belt. We call ourselves Christians because it is acceptable in our community and makes us look like wholesome, pious people. We bring our families to church because we want them to learn how to live good, moral lives.

The problem is that none of this really matters apart from a genuine devotion to the Lord. None of it matters is we do not desire a relationship with Him. None of it matters if we never engage in communion with God through prayer and Bible reading. None of it matters if we treat our Christian brothers and sisters poorly.

The Proper Response is Covenant Love for God and One Another

This brings us to the third point. The proper response to God’s steadfast love for us is genuine covenant love for Him and one another. The same covenant loyalty to God and one another required of Israel is the same covenant loyalty required of us. Jesus affirms this when he answers the Pharisees’ question about which is the greatest commandment. “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.’” (Mt 22:37-40) And just like in Micah 6:8, Jesus is not telling the Pharisees anything new; He is quoting Deuteronomy 6.

Again, it is important to remind ourselves that this is not a prescription for entering a relationship with the Lord or keeping us from falling out of relationship with Him. These commandments are about maintaining a healthy relationship with the Lord.

Therefore, how can we love God and one another well? Let us use Micah 6:8 as our instruction. For a healthy relationship with the Lord, we must “walk humbly” with Him. How do we do this? If walking humbly is to align ourselves with God’s will, then we need to know what God’s will is. There are two ways to do this: through Bible reading and prayer. God’s Word reveals His will for mankind, so reading and understanding more of it, helps us to walk in step with Him. We talk with God through prayer. It is an intimate action that draws us nearer to Him.

For a healthy relationship with our brothers and sisters, we must “do justice” and “love kindness”. The New Testament is filled with examples of what this looks like. Romans 14:19, “let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.” Romans 12:16, “Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.” 1 Corinthians 12:26, “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.” Galatians 6:2, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” These are just a few of the “one anothers” in the New Testament. We do not show love to our brethren if our conversations are filled with gossip. We do not show love to our brethren if we do not demonstrate the grace of Christ when one falls into sin. We do not show love to our brethren if we selfishly withhold from serving them in their time of need. We do not show love to our brethren if we do not grieve with them when they lose a loved one. Instead, we go to one another with our concerns. We serve one another when in need. We hear the grieving widow’s cries. We mourn with the spouse who has been cheated on, and we surround a brother trapped in sin.

Conclusion

The church is often found guilty of the same sin that Micah is addressing. The surrounding nations must have been saying, “They say they are God’s people, but look how they treat one another.” The world says similar things about the church. “How can they call themselves Christians when they behave this way?” Christians can often lose their way and stray into a lifestyle that does not differentiate them from the rest of the world at all. They no longer look set apart. When we recognize this pattern in our lives, it can be tempting to go to church more, tithe more, listen to Christian music more, etc. However, those things are just empty deeds. We must look to the cross and be reminded to His steadfast love for us. Only then can we respond in genuine love and devotion to God and the church.

[1] Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references in this paper are to the English Standard Version (ESV) (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016). [2] Thomas E. McComiskey and Tremper Longman III, “Micah,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Daniel–Malachi (Revised Edition), ed. David E. Garland, vol. 8 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008), 493. [3] McComiskey and Longman, 493. [4] William W. Klein, Craig L. Blomberg, and Robert L. Hubbard, Jr., Introduction to Biblical Interpretation, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2016), 463. [5] Donald J. Wiseman, T. Desmond Alexander, and Bruce K. Waltke, Obadiah, Jonah and Micah: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 26, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988), 212. [6] Leslie C. Allen, The Books of Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, and Micah, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1976), 366. [7] Allen, 366. [8] Waltke, 212–213. [9] Allen, 373.

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