CRITICAL NOTES.] The third division now begins, after declaration of judgment and salvation which awaits the future remnant. Hear] Plead with God in controversy. Mts.] Witness and murmur with the echo (Deuteronomy 32:1; Isaiah 1:2). Contend] in strife or quarrel (Judges 8:1; Isaiah 1:8.
Micah 6:2. His] Emphatic intentionally to indicate Jehovah’s right to contend, and to sharpen their conscience by pointing to their calling [Keil].
HOMILETICS
A LISTLESS PEOPLE REBUKED.—Micah 6:1-2
These words are an introduction to what follows, an expostulation to an ungrateful people. God wishes them to see their guilt, and hear his voice in the controversy. A sinful people are obstinate and listless. But they must be roused and reproved:
I. By the voice of God. “Hear ye now what the Lord saith.” God speaks to us and reasons with us in his word. He pleads with his people in condescension and grace, requires them to justify, if possible, their cause, and seeks to prove the equity of his dealings. “Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified.”
II. By the earnestness of the Prophet. The Prophet was reluctant to herald woe to his people, but the command was urgent. Arise.
1. He was earnest in his tone. “O my people,” Micah 6:3. Bedewed with the spirit of his message.
2. He was earnest in his attitude. Arise, stand up as one having authority to rebuke, ready and undaunted before men. He must rouse himself that he may rouse his hearers. A cold frosty heart can never touch and kindle others into a flame.
3. He was earnest in his method. “Let the hills hear thy voice”—any way to stir up a careless people.
III. By the stability of creation. “Hear, O ye mountains.” Mountains remain steadfast and hills are not carried from their place. The earth changes in its surface and its inhabitants pass away, but rocks endure for ever. Yet Nature is subject to its Creator and trembles at his voice, but men are stupefied and hardened by sin. “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.”
THE CONTROVERSY BETWEEN GOD AND MAN.—Micah 6:2
I. Man’s complaints against God. He complains,
1. Of a corrupt nature;
2. Of the power of temptation;
3. Of the dealings of Providence.
II. God’s complaints against man.
1. Mercies despised.
2. Grace refused.
3. Calls neglected.
4. Judgments sent in vain [F. Wagstaff].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 6
Micah 6:1-2. Hear. If Adam needed to hear his Father’s voice, sounding amid the fair bowers and the unshaded glory of Paradise, surely much more does this prodigal world, that has gone astray from him, need to hear a Father’s voice asking after us, and the first intimations of a Father’s desire that the lost may be found, and the dead at length become alive [Dr Cumming].