If you remain standing with me and turn yet again to the prophecy of Micah, the prophecy of Micah, and we are beginning in on our consideration of Micah chapter 6 this evening. Micah chapter 6, and we'll be considering together Micah chapter 6 verses 1 through 8. Micah chapter 6 verses 1 through 8. This is the word of our God. Hear what the Lord 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. O my people, what have I done to you? 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. O my people, remember what Balak the 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. With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with a calf 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? He has told you, O man, what is required. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God? This is the word of our Lord. You may be seated. Now let us pray yet again and ask the Lord's blessing on our consideration of this word. Heavenly Father, we come, we come yet again to this book, this book which speaks to us of the sinfulness of your people and the faithfulness of your character. And we pray, even as we meditate yet again upon these truths this evening, that you would remind us of your goodness, of your steadfast love towards your people, and that you would bless us that we might always walk all the days of our life in awareness of that truth. We pray all of these things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Well, when I was a child, I used to spend a good deal of time with my grandparents. especially during the summertime, my parents would drop me off at my grandparents' house, and I would actually alternate between grandparents during the week. So I would go to one grandmother's house for Monday, and then I would go to the other grandmother's house on Tuesday. With my one grandmother, I spent all my time fishing, which is a hobby that I still continue to have, and she left a lasting impression on me that way. With my other grandmother, I would play in the backyard in the morning and then in the afternoon after lunch I would gather together with the rest of my cousins and we would sit down for her favorite television show and we would watch rerun after rerun of the show Matlock. Now some of you may be familiar with the show Matlock. It is, as I was looking into it to refresh my memory this week, quite literally a southern fried version of Perry Mason. It is literally the same show except for set basically in the south. Very similar. It starred Andy Griffith and it's a crime show. It's particularly a courtroom drama. And what's interesting about that is that I would watch this show with my grandmother and then we would have dinner and then my father would come and pick me up and he would take me home And even though he was a police officer, for some reason, what show would he pick to watch at night for his relaxation other than Law and Order? And we would sit around as a family and watch Law and Order. Now, I don't recommend this much TV viewing with your children. But it is interesting, the appeal that these courtroom dramas have. You wouldn't think it would be that exciting in reality. It's kind of boring when you think about it, just a bunch of people talking. But there is, though, this undertone of high drama that's involved in a courtroom. Now, I personally have never had the experience of being on trial, but you can put yourself in the situation of people in these TV shows, particularly those who are wrongly accused, and you can imagine how horrible it would be, but as the viewer, you sit there and you don't think about that. You simply enjoy the TV show and you root for justice to be done. But I would imagine that when the nation of Israel received the prophecy contained here in Micah chapter six, which in a very real sense is an account of a courtroom drama, they were less than thrilled with what they heard in the message. There certainly is all the constituent parts of your typical court viewing or court experience here. You notice, as the text begins, that we see the Lord calling witnesses. Calling witnesses. Indeed, He actually calls upon the earth itself, the mountains, the hills, to come and to bear witness against His people. And in the next section of the text, really from verses three to five, you notice that he then, through his prosecutor, through his prophet, his covenant lawyer, if you will, Micah, begins to present the case that he has against the nation of Israel for their infidelity against him. And then as the text continues, you see the defendant, as it were, taking the stand and beginning to cry out. He understands that he is guilty and he begins to ask how he can possibly make restitution. And yet, even in the course of seeking to make restitution before God, the defendant, Israel in this case, exposes their own sinful hard heartedness. and the sad misunderstandings they have about their own relationship with the Lord. And what happens at the end? Verse 8, the prosecution comes in, shuts down the objections, as it were, of the people, and rests their case against Israel. It's a courtroom scene that we have set before us. And undoubtedly it would have been a difficult scene to have described to you if you were an ancient Israelite because very clearly here in the passage what we see is simply this. God has been fateful and his people have been unfaithful. Now, of course, this wouldn't have come as a surprise to them. They were familiar with the ministry of Micah at this point, but you notice here that we have a fresh onslaught, as it were, against the nation of Israel. And that's what I want us to do this evening, really, is just walk through the account of this courtroom scene, if you will. As we see the witnesses gathered, the case presented, the defendant's response, and the prosecutor arresting his case. We'll see here, again, the Lord vindicated himself. And the Lord beginning to speak to his people yet again about their failure to live up to their covenant obligations. Look with me, if you will, at verse 1 as we begin to consider the witnesses as they are gathered. Now notice here at the beginning of verse one we hear something, no pun intended, that we've heard many times before. Here the text tells us what the Lord says. Now I don't think I have to remind you at this point, but that phrase is very significant in the prophecy of Micah. Indeed what we see here is the beginning of the final cycle of the prophecies that are contained in the book of Micah, which is indicated right by that word here. Remember, that's how the book starts. That's how the sections, all the new sections begin here, what the Lord says. And in this case, he is crying out, or Micah in this instance, is crying out for the people, yes, but also for the creation itself to hear what the Lord has to say to his people. Listen to what he does here. Arise, plead your case before the mountains. Let the hills hear your voice. And then he goes on to call the mountains in verse two to hear this indictment that the Lord has brought against his people. Now it's very interesting that he notes why they are called, as it were, as witnesses. Because they are the enduring foundations of the earth. Now notice this. Why does God call upon the mountains of Israel to testify against the people? Because they have witnessed the entire relationship that has existed between God and His people. He can't call a person as a witness, because He made this covenant in the past. And people, of course, are like the flower of the field. They fade, they pass away. They're like chaff that is blown. and never returns. And here, the Lord calls upon those sturdy mountains to witness His relationship with His people and His own just actions towards them. Now that's not actually an unusual thing for us to see here. It sounds unusual for us in some ways, for God to be calling the creation to witness But if we were to cast our minds back to Deuteronomy chapter 30, we would be reminded that God, even there in that most important chapter about how God is going to deal with this covenant people, tells them that He is calling the earth and the heavens. His witnesses as he makes that covenant with them and he agrees to them that he will bless them whenever they walk in accordance with his will and he will curse them and bring about repentance whenever they do not and Thus he appeals them to this covenant Witness the mountains they are called to come and to bear witness against the people of Israel He has an indictment against them. He comes to, at the end of verse 2, contend with them. Now, if you're familiar at all with the book of Job, for instance, you'll know that it is not a good place to be whenever God is contending with you because He is always right. He's always right. And he comes to contend with them. The witnesses are gathered. Now he begins to present his case. Look at what he does here in verse 3. Oh my people, what have I done to you? He asks them the question here. What have I done? How, he says, have I wearied you? And then he goes on to say, answer me. He demands that they bring an answer to Him. One commentator points out that it makes it clear here in this verse that we're not in a criminal court proceeding so much as we are in a family court proceeding. You hear here the cry of an exacerbated husband who is coming to his unfaithful wife and he's saying to her, what have I done that you have treated me like this? He shows his intimate desire to have the nation of Israel be faithful to him. He cries out to them, what is the answer that you might bring to me? How is it that I have failed you that you have treated me thus? And then he goes on to list what he has done for the people of Israel in the past. Particularly verses 4 and 5 speak to us, again, not surprisingly, about the great act of God's redemption, which we see is really the center of all Old Testament religion, the Exodus. What does he say? He says, for I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and I redeemed you from the house of slavery. I delivered you from bondage, He says. I delivered you. I heard your cries whenever you were being oppressed by the Egyptians, whenever you were suffering at the hands of the unjust. I heard you, and I came, and I have mercy upon you, and I redeemed you out of that horrible situation. And how did he do so? He sent Moses, the mediator, to come and to lead the people of Israel out. He sent Aaron to assist Moses, but also to become a priest before God. He sent Miriam to be a prophetess to the people of Israel. Look at the gifts that he has given to the nation in their redemption. He's reminding them, think of all the ways that I have showered love upon you. Remember that? Remember that? Remember what it was like whenever you were confronted by Balak, the king of Moab, who devised evil against you? Remember when he sent Balaam, the son of Beor, to try to curse you and I turned his curses into blessing? Remember that? Remember what I did? Remember how I preserved you? Remember what happened from Shittim to Gilgal? Remember what happened, in other words, whenever you crossed over the Jordan on dry land? These two cities, by the way, one is on one side and one is on the other side. That's what's being referred to here. It's the crossing over into the promised land, on dry land, through the Jordan River. Remember, he says, all that I have done. for you, how I delivered you from bondage, how I led you through the wilderness, how I led you through the Red Sea, how I led you through the Jordan Sea, how I led you into the promised land. Remember what I have done." And he goes on to explain why he wants them to recall, to memory these things, that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord." And notice that. He wants them to recall all of these actions, not so that they would have in view simply this give and take. that exists between them and God. Look at the good things He's done to us. You know what? We should really be nicer to Him. No. He reminds them of all of these activities, these salvific activities that He's done in the past, so that they would be reminded of His faithfulness. We could go further. Of His character. He wants them to remember the righteous acts so they remember His grace and His glory. Now, at this point I think we can stop for a moment and make some applications to ourself. Because here we see the Lord calling his old covenant people to remember the acts by which he delivered them from their temporal, physical bondage and slavery in Egypt. And no doubt here, it would be appropriate for us to say that we should take a few moments to cast our minds back and remember the greater acts of redemption that God has done for us. Remember, everything that we see set forth in the Exodus is simply a typological way of pointing us to how God would redeem us when He sent a new and greater Moses to deliver us, not from physical oppression, not even to deliver the Jews from the oppression of the Romans, but to deliver us from the greatest enemy which we have, which is our sin and the misery that it brings. Remember that this is a picture. As he comes and he redeems them, what also does he do? He establishes that tabernacle so that they can dwell with him. It's a picture of what Christ would do when he comes. He saves us from our sin, but he restores to us fellowship with our God. Now friends, we need to remember that. Dove tells rather nicely what we saw this morning actually. There's a great danger that we, being those who were, you know, always at danger for becoming hard-hearted, forgetful and unbelieving, can forget what Christ has done for us. Indeed, in the Old Testament, the Lord gave Celebrations such as the Passover by which the people of God had the privilege and the obligation for that matter to remember God's exodus salvation. And even this evening we see set before us at this very moment in the bread and the wine that sits before us a meal which was given by God to us so that we could impart at least remember. that Christ had His body broken and His blood spilled for our salvation. Remember, He tells His people. Now here, He has really presented a case. He implies very clearly that they have been unfaithful to Him. but he has been steadfast in his faithfulness towards them. But it's at this point that the defendant begins to speak. We notice that. We see here in verse 6, Israel, corporately considered, cries out, 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 ten thousands, or rather with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? We'll stop right there for a moment. And notes, as I often say in the book of Micah, because it's often the case, commentators are divided. You're not surprised to hear me say that. Those on one side of the issue suggest that what we see here is the cry of a partially, at least, penitent Israel. And what they're doing here is they're crying out and saying, how is it then that I can actually approach the Lord? Now, I'll tell you, I'm not sure that I buy that. I don't buy it in part because of the response we'll see in verse 8, but I don't buy it also in part because of what we see as we continue to read verse 7. What's that latter half of verse 7 say? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression? The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? Now think about that for a moment. What is Israel suggesting here? They are suggesting that, well, if it's not enough for me to come before the Lord with burnt offerings, if it's not enough to come with a calf a year old, if it's not enough to come with thousands of rams, if it's not enough to come with ten thousands of rivers of oil, perhaps I should give Him my very own human offspring. That's bad, if you were wondering. That's bad. You're not supposed to do that. That's murder. That's destroying the image of God. God shows himself consistently throughout the Old Testament to be against child sacrifice. Now some commentators, of course, will point to Genesis chapter 22. And they'll say, well, perhaps in this flurry of piety, which has been brought out by this repentant Israel, they are suggesting that they should take this step of showing their fate to God that Abraham took. But I don't think that's the case. I think most likely what's going on here is Micah is reflecting the contemporary situation in which he prophesies. Remember the days in which Micah prophesied. Remember how the book starts. that the word of the Lord came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah kings of Judah." If we were to turn over to 2 Kings chapter 16, we would find there an account of the reign of Ahaz, at least the beginning of it. And what we would see is that one of the great acts of wickedness that he committed against the Lord is he burnt his own firstborn son to try to gain the favor of a deity. I think that verse 7 is presenting us with the reality of Israel's intense theological, if you will, confusion. They're so confused that they think perhaps they should offer their own children. But of course, that's not the only reason why we identify this section as confused. Because again, they have a very transactional view here, don't they, of God and their relationship with Him. confronted with their sin, confronted with their own unfaithfulness and God's faithfulness, they immediately begin to clamor for ways that they can, to be crass, pay God off. That's what they want to do. They want to give him something that's going to pacify his anger, that's going to make him, you know, go away, stop bothering them. But friends, that's not what the Lord desires. And that becomes very clear to us in verse 8. They ask this question, with what shall I come? Verse 8 gives the answer. As I've said it before, here we see really the prosecution resting its case, I believe. The words of Micah come, He has told you. Now just pause for a moment. The indication is very clearly this. He has told you in the past what you were supposed to do. And you've refused to do it. He has told you, oh man, what is good. It goes on, and what does the Lord require of you? I'll tell you again, he says, but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God. We could put it in the words of some other prophets in the Old Testament. He desires obedience rather than a sacrifice. He doesn't want an unfaithful person who just simply says, well, I'll go on sinning, but every once in a while I'll make atonement through these works that I'm doing for my sin. No, no, no, that's not what he wants. He wants cultivated, godly character in his people. He wants his people to be like him. He's made that very clear to them time after time after time throughout all of the Old Covenant's revelation. And here, he reiterates it for them. He wants them to do justice. The opposite, by the way, of what they've done. He wants them to know what is good, and he wants them to put it into place in their society, in their covenant community. He wants them to straighten out the wickedness that is at play in the nation of Israel. He's really saying here, I want repentance. He wants justice. them to love kindness. That's a little bit of an awkward way to translate what's actually there in the Hebrew. The word is, you're probably familiar with here, that underlies loving kindness, hesed. This is that powerful word that shows up so many times in places in the Old Testament, I think. I can't help but think about the book of Ruth. which revolves really around that wonderful little Hebrew word that speaks about primarily God's covenantal, loving, faithful kindness towards his people Israel. Many commentators will say that it's too good of a word. We don't have a word good enough in English to bring out all the meaning that's contained within it, and certainly that's true. But what he's saying here is that, again, he wants them to be like him. He is a God who is defined by His faithful, loving, steadfast kindness towards His people, and He wants them to reflect that. He wants them, in other words, to be, in the words of the book of Leviticus, repeated in the New Testament, holy as He is holy. That's what He desires from His people. He doesn't care about the sacrifices before... before they get their hearts right. They need to have loving kindness. They need to walk humbly with their gods. Again, another place where the ESV perhaps doesn't do as well as it could. Many want to translate this word, walk humbly, as walk carefully, circumscribly. The real idea here is that we are always consciously walking, as we say sometimes, quorum Deo, before the face of our God. Every action that we take, we are remembering that God sees it. Everything we think, we are remembering that God is aware of it. When we make our plans, we plan for God to be glorified in them. When we are confronted with sin, we turn away from it. Why? Because we know that we are living with and before a holy God. We can put it this way. We need to have a fear of God. We need to be conscious of His presence, which is always with us. That's what the Lord desires. Now let me clarify something that I think could be a potential problem with what I've said so far. I don't want you to come away with the misunderstanding that the Lord is not interested in public worship. I think you all know me well enough to know at this point that I would never suggest that for a moment. I'm a public worship guy. But I do want you to see that what is being said here is very similar to what the Lord Jesus was doing when he was bringing those woes against the Pharisees and the scribes. What was his problem with them? His problem with them was not that they were zealous about doing what God's word commanded. His problem with them was that they were hypocrites. His problem with them is that they did all these outward things But they didn't do it because they desired to draw near to God with their heart. They did it because they desired to show that they were outwardly holier than everyone else. And in the same way, the Lord is not saying here, I don't desire for you to be obedient to my word which I have given to you, which speaks to you about bringing sacrifices, which speaks to you about the burnt offering, which speaks to you about how to come before me under the old covenant system, which was meant, again, to point to the Lord Jesus Christ. But what he's saying is that as you do so, you must do so with a heart that is right. Again, we could reflect on the words of Psalm 51 here. What does the Lord desire as an acceptable sacrifice? Well, a broken heart, a contrite heart. He desires repentance before he desires public worship. Now, simultaneously, We have to acknowledge as well that even as they desire to bring that public worship, they desire to do so in a very confused way, even suggesting human sacrifice. So be clear there, that's not appropriate ever. But also be clear that God does desire this outward acts of obedience, but he desires it as it comes motivated from a heart that is consecrated to him. Another warning about this verse in particular. There are many people who have sought to co-opt this verse for all sorts of interesting projects. Indeed, this verse gets a lot of traction even out in the world. My understanding is that there is a copy of this verse hung up somewhere in the Library of Congress even. And people use it often to speak about what the world refers to as social justice. Now let me say, even as I've executed the passage here, I hope you understand that the distorted understanding of social justice that is presented by the world is not at all what's being spoken of here in these verses. That doesn't mean that the Lord is unconcerned with societal ills, of course he is. You can't read the book of Micah and miss that. But I do want you to understand that this verse is first and foremost, as we've already said, about God's people and their relationship with Him. It's not about transforming society into a utopian dream. And really, I think many people miss this. It comes in the form of a rebuke. A rebuke to these unfaithful covenant people. We'll see as chapter six continues that the Lord is going to again remind His people of their failings and of the judgment that is coming. But be reminded as well that even as we enter into this last section of the book of Micah, that the Lord here calls his people to repentance, but he calls his people to repentance all the while understanding that he is going to be compassionate upon them and that he is going to, as he says in verse 19 of chapter seven, cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. As we come now to this last section of the book of Micah, things become clearer and clearer. And we begin to see what God desires, not only for the people of Israel and their repentance, but for his people today as we walk before him. So as we depart from this place, from this sermon, let us keep this verse interpreted correctly before us. Let us be those who go out into this world, who live in relationship to those whom we live in the church with, always seeking to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with our God. Amen. Now let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you, oh Lord, for passages of scripture which even speak words that are harsh. Father, as we come and we meditate upon your contention with your people Israel here, we are reminded that you come to contend with them because you desire to restore them to yourself. We give you all the glory and the praise for the fact that you have not rejected your people. We rejoice and we take heart and we hope in your steadfast love towards us. For Lord we understand that it is the only basis upon which we can live before you in Christ Jesus. We pray all of these things in his holy and powerful name. Amen.