Micah 6:1-3 Hear you now what the LORD said; Arise, contend you before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice.… 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.) Parallel Verses KJV: Hear ye now what the LORD saith; Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice. |
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