Bible Commentaries

The Divine Requirements

Micah 6:6

Such is the question which the Prophet urges upon the people of Israel. He answers it for them in words which we can hardly ever forget, "He hath showed thee, O Micah 6:6-8

It is not right to say that this inspired summary of wherein true worship, true ritual, true religion consists, was a wholly new thing when Micah spoke. "Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt-offerings as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold to obey is better than sacrifice." The notes of this trumpet-call had never died away since Samuel uttered them to the ashamed Saul. It was, however, given to a man of the soil, a simple vinedresser, to whom "life was real, life was earnest," to put into words that bum and shine for ever the noblest views as to the reality of religion ever delivered by a Prophet of Old Testament times to the world.

I. It was the crofter trouble of these old times which in part caused Micah to speak burning words. It was a time of splendid luxury up at the Capital, and the worst of it all was that the rich tyrant class felt itself so respectable that it could not think the judgment was possible. Meanwhile the great palaces at Jerusalem were rising upon the ruin of the people.

II. The patriot Micah perceives that the sin of Jerusalem is not want of zeal in worship, nor rebellion against God, but the real lack of understanding that religion to be anything must mean conduct and character, and that Jehovah, if He is God, is a God who demands that men should give Him their reason and thought as well as their emotions and desire to fulfil the minutest regulations of ritual or religious ceremonial. He urges them to believe that like as a father pitieth his children, so will God reason with their reasonable minds.

III. As one gazes back upon the Old Testament heroes, one sees that with all their faults their righteousness lay in conduct Righteousness was for them not holiness so much as right dealing and kindly dealing between man and man as members of a nation. Not purity of heart so much as right doing—this was what the Prophets demanded. They lifted up their voices in protest against the mistaken importance given to outward forms of religion. They did not denounce sacrifice, for the idea of sacrifice was as much a matter of course as our idea of going to church on Sunday. But they did denounce the hypocrisy of all this outside show of worship when the heart refused to humble itself upon the altar by deeds of mercy and justice.

IV. Micah's voice has never been silenced. It may sound paradoxical, but the very fact that men are forsaking the ordinances of religion in all the churches in this money-seeking age of commerce and competition and unreality in religion is a sign that they feel that till our ways are more just and kind, and full of reverence in our dealings between man and Micah 6:6-8

1. A Rebuke of the Religion of Mere Outward Ceremony and Ritual.—Very few people indeed now go to a church because they have to; it is a far more healthy condition that religion is being regarded less as a ceremony and more as a life.

II. A Rebuke of the Religion of Ostentation.—Are there not gifts made to religion whose main purpose Micah 6:8

If we could know that, we need not desire to know any more. Our life is best spent when spent in asking, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? We are not to consult ourselves, but to consult God; the law is written; it is not a conjecture, it is a statutory declaration, and it is to be found in the law-book: to the law and to the testimony, therefore, and to no supposition, fancy, or conjecture of mortal man.

I. Where can we begin? God has given us a thousand points at any one of which we can begin. We might, first of all, think it impossible to know the will of God, because it would be so stupendous, that is to say, so comprehensive, so vast, and so overwhelming, that it would be utterly impossible for the finite imagination to conceive what God intends us to do. The Lord delivers us from that difficulty; He has written down His will in little words, He has come right into our daily life and told us how to manage ourselves, and how to conduct the economy of life. He does not always talk theology to us, He talks about daily things in our mother tongue, and says in effect, You may begin there. And wherever we can begin God begins along with us, hears us spell a little lesson, tells us just the quantity of the syllable, the measure of the rhythmic foot, and repronounces the music to us in order to make us sure of its accent and its balance. He comes down from all the mountains of eternity and meets us at the base of the hill, and says, Little children, I will speak your language until you are able to speak Mine.

II. What doth the Lord thy God require of thee? If I could know that I should know all philosophy. You may know it, you may know it at least in parts, and you may proceed from one part to another. Revelation is progressive; moral education adds to itself increment by increment until the final topstone is put on with the acclaim of the universe. I could tell you where you could begin: "Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling-block before the blind". Is that religion? Yes; you thought religion was talking an unknown language, but the mistake is yours, not the Bible"s; you thought that religion was an act of clasping hands and turning up eyes into the immeasurable heavens and speaking into an infinite void in the hope of getting some blessing out of it. Nothing of the kind: "Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling-block in the way of the blind". The further and implied Hebrew meaning of the word Micah 6:8

I. The simplification of religion has always been the Prophet's vocation. These were the men of brains, the men of conscience, the men of power. They were the thinkers of their age. True, they differed in social position. Isaiah was a courtier, Micah a yeoman farmer voicing the grievances of his class. The one thing common to the man of the court and the man of the field was the faculty to see that the salvation of their times was not to come from princes but from God. Micah is a grand example of the way these heroes faced the community. At the opening of this chapter the Prophet pleads for man to use his reason. The priest seeks to suppress reason and fall back on authority, but Micah asserts God challenges us to use our reason.

II. Religion is not in the treadmill of duties, nor in the bewilderment of ritual, costly though it may be. If not in these things it is natural they should ask in what does it consist. The Prophet appeals to two things for his reply. The first is history, the second is reason. He turns their thought to the incidents of their great national history (vv4 , 5). It told of the God who delivered them from Egypt, whom they had forgotten; then he directed them to the prophecy of Balaam.

III. Micah does not turn their thought to philosophy for relief of the people's problems. Neither does he go to Samuel or some other outstanding Prophet of the past. He went to an outsider. He went to one who even did not belong to the Church at all. Very often God gives some great truth to a messenger outside the Church rather than within. From that strange utterance against Israel they might gather the Lord had shown them what was good, not the round of their ritual, but the justice, mercy, and humble walk with God.

IV. The thing God wants before all else is not form, but qualities of the heart. These are set forth in this programme, which is good both in itself and in its results. These qualities of life are given in their right order. It is first justice It is the fundamental principle of all great lives. The first word in heaven and earth is justice. But justice is not enough; you must also have mercy. These two qualities are things which make men Godlike. But there is one step farther. I can imagine a man saying, why bring the religious element in it at all? If a man does justice, loves mercy, what need is there for the humble walk with God? This is necessary as the inspiration and power for the two.

V. The solution of our modern problems, as those of Micah's day, will not be found in legislation or machinery, but in realizing the sufficiency of God. No great and permanent solution of social problems has ever been reached without religious influence. The only way is to get back to God, to go to the house of the Lord and there find the power to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God. Then will be found the true bond of brotherhood.

—S. Chadwick, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxvii1905 , p317.

The Perfect Ideal of Religion

Micah 6:8

I. Social Justice.—Consider the three requirements of the text; and first of all, God requires us to "do justly". The highest welfare of society depends upon its observance. The laws, for example, which are framed for the peace of the nation and the prosperity of the community, must be just—such as are equal and reasonable, useful and beneficial; and it was to this latter—or to social justice—that the Prophet specially referred. The immense majority of our people consider themselves the victims of social wrong—believe that their lot is much harder than it need be, than it ought to be, and are finding ways and means whereby they may be released from the galling fetters which bind them and the depressing conditions in which they are compelled to live and work. There is much to be said in favour of the social movement; but it must be remembered that in order to help the toiling millions there must be no injustice done to those who are privileged. What is wanted is not legislation, although that would help considerably, but true Christian justice, not the justice of Shylock, who pertinaciously insisted upon his pound of flesh, not the justice of Rob Roy, who maintained that "They should take who have the power, and they should keep who can"; but the eternal justice of the Lord Jesus Christ who said, "As ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them".

II. Compassion.—God requires us to "love mercy". This is a far higher quality than mere justice. It postulates greater goodness, for while justice implies a debt, this means favour and kindness. It means pity and compassion towards the poor and needy, the fallen and oppressed. The mercy which God requires is not necessarily confined to mere charity in the commonest acceptance of the term, to mere giving of alms. It is not so much your money that is wanted, your doles of charity, though these are needful and will come in due course as God prospers you, as your mercy, your love, and sympathy; not so much, in short, yours as you.

III. Walking with God.—This third requirement of the text—the "walking humbly with God"—alone enables us "to do justly and to love mercy". But how are ordinary mortals "to do justly and to love mercy" unless and until we walk humbly with God. The Prophet Micah realizes this, as his language clearly and manifestly shows; and we realize it even more fully than Micah 6:8; Proverbs 3:34; Proverbs 16:19; Psalm 138:6

The absolute freedom of the Christian man is absolute allegiance to God: his independence rests in utter dependence. His freedom is from the tyranny of partial claims, individual desires and objects, from the halfnesses and weaknesses of our nature: and it is won by identification with the universal. It is, in short, here that there comes in what is called humility. To define it exactly is difficult, if not impossible; for, like all goodness, it has the defect of its quality, and to be precious it must never part with its correlative independence. Humility is the sense of solidarity and community: the controlling and regulating power of the consciousness that we are not our own, that we are God's and our neighbour"s. Humility is the attitude of an individual who recognizes his individuality, his partiality, his dependence, his immanence in the whole, and his conformity with all the parts, and yet of an individual who knows himself his own, and not another"s, a free man of God, a son and heir. To be genuine, it must go hand in hand with the good conscience and the faith unfeigned.

—Prof. W. Wallace, Gifford Lectures, pp50-57.

References.—VI:8.—F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. v. p279. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvi. No1557. H. C. Beeching, Seven Sermons to Schoolboys, p13. J. Parker, City Temple Pulpit, vol. vii. p50. F. J. A. Hort, Village Sermons (2Series), p214. H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No." 2125. R. Balgarnie, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiii. p322. VI:8 , 9.—G. W. Brameld, Practical Sermons (2Series), p34. VII:1.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvi. No945. VII:7.—Ibid. vol. xxxi. No1819. VII:8.—J. Keble, Sermons for Easter to Ascension Day, p220.