Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice
God’s controversy with Israel
In this text we have God offering to plead before the sinner.
The parties, who are they? On the one part, the Lord of universal nature. On the other part, man, Israel, the Church. The manner of pleading this cause. Who can coolly hear this language? At the sound of these words conscience takes fright. The matter of controversy is, the whole conduct of man to God, and the whole conduct of God to man.
I. Hear what complaints man has to bring against God, and what, God has to answer. That a creature should complain of his Creator should seem a paradox. We are apt to complain of God on three accounts: His law seems too severe, His temporal favours too small, and His judgments too rigorous.
1. Are not the laws of God just in themselves. What is the design of those laws? Is it not to make you as happy as possible? Are not those laws infinitely proper to make you happy in this world? And doth not God exemplify these laws Himself? What does God require of you, but to endeavour to please Him?
2. Complaints against God as the governor of the world. Man complains of providence; the economy of it is too narrow and confined, the temporal benefits bestowed are too few and partial. This complaint, we allow, has some colour. But from the mouth of a Christian it cannot come without extreme ignorance and ingratitude. If the morality of Jesus Christ he examined it will be found almost incompatible with worldly prosperity. Temporal prosperity is often hostile to our happiness. Had God given us a life full of charms we should have taken little thought about another.
3. Complaints against the rigour of His judgments. If we consider God as a Judge, what a number of reasons may be assigned to prove the equity of all the evils that He hath brought upon us. But if God be considered as a Father, all these chastisements, even the most rigorous of them, are perfectly consistent with His character. It was His love that engaged Him to employ such severe means for your benefit.
II. Hear what complaints God has to bring against man. Every one is acquainted with the irregularities of the Jews. They corrupted both natural and revealed religion. And their crimes were aggravated by the innumerable blessings which God bestowed on them. Apply to ourselves--
1. When God distinguishes a people by signal favours, the people ought to distinguish themselves by gratitude to Him. When were ever any people so favoured as we are?
2. When men are under the hand of an angry God they are called to mourning and contrition. We are under the correcting hand of God. What are the signs of our right feeling and mood?
3. To attend public worship is not to obtain the end of the ministry. Not to become wise by attending it is to increase our miseries by aggravating our sins.
4. Slander is a dangerous vice. It is tolerated in society only because every one has an invincible inclination to commit it.
5. If the dangers that threaten us, and the blows that providence strikes, ought to affect us all, they ought those most of all who are most exposed to them.
6. If gaming be innocent in any circumstances, they are uncommon and rare. Such is the controversy of God with you. It is your part to reply. What have you to say in your own behalf? (J. Saurin.)
God’s appeal to His people
The prophet is directed to plead with Judah, and to expostulate with them for their rebellious backslidings. The prophet is directed to address himself to inanimate nature; to summons the very senseless earth itself, as it were, to be an auditor of his words, and an umpire between God and His people. There is something, indeed, very solemn and awful in this appeal. The prophet was directed to proclaim, in the face of all nature, the equity and justice of God’s dealings; and to challenge, as it were, a scrutiny from His people. He condescends to put Himself (so to speak) on trial, to demand an investigation into His dealings, and to plead His cause as man with his fellow man. Having exhibited the claims which God had upon the grateful obedience of His people, and, by consequence, the inexcusableness of their revolt, the prophet next introduces, in His figurative description, the Israelites as being struck with alarm and consternation at the condition whereunto their transgression had brought them, and, in the excitement of their minds, as seeking to appease the anger of a justly offended God by the most costly and abundant sacrifices. May we not take up the words of the prophet, and, adapting them to our own times and circumstances, say, “The Lord hath a controversy with His people”? May we not, as Micah did, stand forth to challenge a hearing for the cause of the Lord, to show of His righteous dealings towards us, to plead for the equity and mercy of His government, and to leave the folly and ingratitude and rebellion of those whom He hath so signally favoured utterly and absolutely without excuse? We cannot plead ignorance, or that He is a rigid taskmaster whose service is hard and oppressive. Nor can a conscious sense of unfitness and depravity be pleaded as an excuse for not complying with the invitations of a gracious God to engage in His service. Why, then, is it that men refuse to listen to the gracious calls of God? There is but one plea that can be urged with any apparent reason; namely, the utter inability of fallen man, of himself, to turn unto God, or to make one movement toward that which is good. While it is acknowledged that the grace of God alone can change the carnal mind, and renew the corrupt heart, and incline the apostate will, yet we must ever bear in mind that God worketh not without means; He accomplisheth not without methods and instruments. In the work of grace it is precisely as in the works of nature, that God hath appointed certain steps to be followed, in the economy of His providence, on the part of man, which He doth cause to be successful to the production of their object. Then we must use the means of His special appointment; humbly come to Him in faith and prayer, to pray that we may have grace to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God. (J. B. Smith, D. D.)
Man in the moral court of history
I. Here is a call on man to give audience to Almighty God. “Hear ye now what the Lord saith.”
1. Natural. What is more natural than for a child to hang on the lips and attend to the words of his parent? How much more natural for the finite intelligence to open its ears to the words of the Infinite!
2. Binding. The great command of God to all is, “Hearken diligently to Me; hear, and your souls shall live.”
3. Indispensable. It is only as men hear, interpret, digest, appropriate, incarnate God’s Word that they can rise to a true, noble, and happy life.
II. Here is a summons to inanimate nature to hear the controversy between God and Man. “Arise, contend thou before the mountains.” The appeal to inanimate nature--
1. Indicates the earnestness of the prophet. Every minister should be earnest. “Passion is reason” here.
2. Suggests the stupidity of the people. Perhaps the prophet meant to compare them to the dead hills and mountains. As hard in heart as the rocks.
3. Hints the universality of his theme. His doctrine was no secret; it was as open and free as nature.
III. A challenge to Man to find fault with Divine dealings. This implies--
1. That they could bring nothing against Him.
2. It declares that He had done everything for them. (Homilist.)
Hear ye, O mountains, the Lord’s controversy--
The influences of external nature
The striking feature of Micah’s prophecy is the mode in which he appeals to the objects of nature. While Isaiah borrows his imagery from the sublime realms of the imagination; Jeremiah, from the scenes of human life; Ezekiel, from the realms of the dead; and Daniel, from allegories connected with history; Micah paints from the mountain, the tree, and the flood. In the text, and many other passages, we see the tendency of this prophet to associate with the external forms of nature the presence and the judgments of God. It is very natural that the objects of God’s creation should speak to the human mind of Himself. The sublime silence of nature raises our mind far above the thoughts of this world, and fixes its gaze on the Eternal.
1. The objects of nature in their different ways speak of Him, and show in singular fashion how He is ever present at the events of mankind.
2. The objects of nature indirectly speak of religion and of heaven to the thoughtful mind. They embody and call out from us each elementary principle of religion. Majesty and sublimity are suggested by the mountain; repose by the evening sky; joy and gladness by that of the morning, etc.
3. The objects of nature become the home of association. This power of association that connects us to the scenes of daily life is essentially religious; it appeals to all the higher and holier parts of our nature when severed from their earthly dross.
4. There is another way in which this appeal to nature becomes a very practical matter. Nature is monotonous; so is God. We find it where we left it. The scene of nature which witnessed our early devotion becomes in after years our accuser and condemnation.
5. And nature suggests the Divine cause, the intelligent mind, the adaptation of the physical world to the wants of His creatures. But while this observation of nature so elevates the mind to God, it has its faults and infirmities, which are its own. Without the Word of God the works of God may mislead us. There is a further infirmity; the tendency there is in the objects of nature to cast melancholy and despondency over the mind. There are two elements of our nature which produce conscious happiness--hope and practical energy. To make hope effective, there must be a certain amount of connection between our practical energy and itself. The essence and health of our being rests in overcoming difficulties. Where we find no opportunity of doing this we become conscious of feelings without their natural vent, and the result is melancholy and ennui. But when we come to gaze upon the sublime forms of nature, none of our practical energies being of necessity called out towards them, we turn away with impressions of disappointment and sadness: the objects are too much for us, because we are not necessarily practically concerned upon them. It is singular that few people are more negligent of the call to Divine worship, are more blunted in their appreciation of Christianity, than the farming and agricultural classes. Manufacturing populations are much more actively intelligent. (E. Munro.)
O My people, what have I done irate thee?--
The Lord’s controversy with us
God offers Himself to be judged as to His dealings.
1. Is there nowhere a cry to provoke the Lord to ask, What have I done unto you? What should the heart reply? It concerns us to consider. When we fall short in putting to account the whole store of God’s mercies we are sure to charge the deficiency upon God’s niggardliness, and not upon our own unfaithfulness; for self-justification is always the immediate consequence of self-inflicted loss. It is the very extent of God’s mercies which makes men murmurers and complainers; for by so much the more they have failed to take due advantage of them. What would one reasonably expect from those highly favoured of God? But what is the real state of things? Discontent, disobedience, unthankfulness, unwatchfulness, murmurings, rebellion, open violation of God’s statutes, public profanation of His ordinances, common and declared neglect and contempt of His sacraments and means of grace, are the prevailing features of the picture. What a question to be put by a merciful God and a redeeming Saviour, to any one of us--“What have I done unto Thee?” Do we incur the rebuke?
2. The question goes further yet,--“Wherein have I wearied thee?” How cutting a question to the people that profess His name! (R. W. Evans, B. D.)
The Lord’s controversy
The history of Israel is a most humbling and affecting picture of the depravity of the human heart. The Sinai covenant, though it had much of Gospel in it, yet was essentially a covenant of works. The turning point of its blessings was the nation’s obedience. In the New Testament the legal dispensation is ever opposed to the Gospel covenant, in which the turning point is not our obedience, but the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ; yet are its blessings dispensed in such a way as infallibly secures the highest obedience of the renewed soul. The first covenant excited to holiness, and in those that were real saints, and lived above their covenant, it promoted it, but did not secure it; but the Gospel not only excites on higher grounds, not only promotes to the highest point, but infallibly secures sanctification in all that really receive it.
II. God’s affecting complaint of His ancient people. They were wearied of the Lord and His pleasant service. And as they sowed, they reaped. They reaped misery and destruction. But is this confined to them? How often even the true saints of God seem weary of their God! How soon we are weary of His services; of His rod; aye, even of God Himself,
II. God’s most tender expostulation. Such an expostulation from a grieved fellow creature would be wonderful, but consider the dignity of Him who speaketh. Let unwearied kindness, unbroken faithfulness, tender love, most unmerited and most sovereign grace all speak. Oh, that this view of the Divine character were laid on all our hearts and consciences! Oh, that our souls might be stirred up deeply to repent of past unwearinesses, to take them to the Fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, and there receiving fresh springs of life and love, consecrate ourselves unweariedly to His glory. (J. H. Evans, M. A.)
What can man accuse, God of?
It is impossible to predict what impression the same truth will make upon the different minds of men. But surely, all the terrors of God could not more effectually overawe the heart of a sinner than the passage of Scripture which I have now read. It strikes my ear like the last sound of God’s mercy. Instead of vindicating His authority, does He condescend to plead the reasonableness of His law? Then His forbearance is almost exhausted, and the day of grace is nearing its end. The supreme Lord of heaven and earth appeals to sinners themselves, for the mildness and equity of His government; and challenges them to produce one instance of undue severity towards them, or the least shadow of excuse for their undutiful behaviour towards Him.
I. A direct proof of the goodness of God, and of his tender concern for the welfare of His creatures. This appears from--
1. The unwearied patience which He exercises towards transgressors.
2. The sufferings and death of our Lord Jesus Christ.
3. The various means which God employs for reclaiming men from their ways of folly and vice. He is not only the gracious Author of the plan of redemption, but He has likewise set before us the most powerful motives to persuade us to embrace His proffered favour, and to comply with His designs of mercy.
4. The fact that He has selected some of the most notorious offenders in the different ages of the world to be monuments of the riches of His grace.
II. Objections urged against the mildness and equity of the Divine administration.
1. Is it the holiness and perfection of His law that is complained of? This complaint is both foolish and ungrateful. The law of God requires nothing but what tends to make us happy, nor doth it forbid anything which would not be productive of our misery.
2. Is it the threatening with which the law is enforced that is complained of? But shall God be reckoned an enemy to your happiness because He useth the most effectual means to promote it? There is a friendly design in all God’s threatenings.
3. Perhaps the objection is to the final execution of the threatenings. But would the threatenings be of any use at all if the sinner knew that they would never be executed?
4. Do you blame God for the temptations you meet with in the world, and those circumstances of danger with which you are surrounded? But temptations have no compulsive efficacy; all they can do is solicit and entice.
5. Do you object that you cannot reclaim or convert yourselves? But you can use the means appointed. He who does not employ these faithfully, complains very unreasonably if the grace is withheld which is only promised with the use of the means. The truth of the matter is, that the sinner has no right to complain of God; he destroys himself by his own wilful and obstinate folly, and then he accuses God, as if He were the cause of his misery. Consider that to be your own destroyers is to counteract the very strongest principle of your natures, the principle of self-preservation. (H. Blair, D. D.)