My people, remember what Balak king of Moab counseled and what Balaam son of Beor answered. Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal, so that you may acknowledge the righteousness of the LORD.'" Sermons
The serious state of the cue between Jehovah and his people is shown by this appeal to the hills and mountains. As though among all the nations none could be found impartial enough to be umpires, or even witnesses, inanimate nature must supply its testimony. (Illustrate from Job 12:7, 8; Isaiah 1:2, 3; Luke 19:40; 2 Peter 2:16.) The mountains hays stability; not so the favoured nation. They have survived many generations of God's ungrateful beneficiaries, and have been witnesses of the blessings those thankless ones have received. The cliffs of Horeb have echoed back the precepts and promises of Jehovah, and the gentler tones of his "still small voice," but his people have remained deaf to his appeals. Hence - I. A PROTEST. Before Jehovah passes judgment he permits himself to be regarded as the defendant if his people can venture to bring any charge against him. He knows that nothing but unrighteous treatment on his part could justify them in departing from him. Hence the appeal in Jeremiah 2:5, and the similar remonstrances of Christ in John 8:46 and John 10:32. Nothing but intolerable grievances can justify a national revolt or a desertion of the paternal home. Had God "wearied" Israel by unreasonable treatment? The whole history of the nation refutes the suggested libel. Or can we make any such charges against God? What can they be? 1. Undue severity? Can "my people (what a sermon in that mere term!) say so (Job 11:6; Psalm 103:10; Daniel 9:7)? 2. A harsh and trying temper? The very opposite is the spirit of the Father of mercies" (Psalm 145:8, 9). 3. Unreasonable exactions of service? No; he can make the appeal, "I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense" (Isaiah 43:23). His "yoke is easy;" "His commandments are not grievous." 4. Negligence in his training of us? Far from it; he can declare, "What could have been done more?" etc. (Isaiah 5:1-4). Forbearance, loving kindness, and thoughtful consideration have marked God's conduct throughout. The case against God utterly breaks down. Instead of desiring to remonstrate, or even "reason with God," u at one time Job did, every reasonable soul, hearing God's words and catching some vision of his glory, must acknowledge, as that patriarch did, "I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (cf. Job 13:3; Job 42:5, 6). The way is cleared. O God, thou art justified when thou speakest, and clear when thou art judged. And now God's messenger may take up his parable, like Samuel (1 Samuel 12:7), and God himself may make the appeal in vers. 4, 5. II. A RETROSPECT. Jehovah selects specimens of his gracious dealings with them from their early history. He reminds them of: 1. A grand redemption. (Ver. 4.) We, too, as a nation can speak of great deliverances from political and ecclesiastical bondage. See T.H. Gill's hymn - "Lift thy song among the nations,
England of the Lord beloved." etc. And for each of us has been provided a redemption from a worse than Egyptian bondage, through "Christ our Passover, sacrificed for us." 2. Illustrious leaders. Moses, their inspired lawgiver and the friend of God (Numbers 12:8); Aaron, their high priest and intercessor; Miriam, a singer, poet, prophetess. What memories of "the loving kindnesses of the Lord" these names would recall - the Paschal night, the morning of final deliverance and song of triumph by the Red Sea, the manna, the plague stayed, etc.! We, too, can look back on our illustrious leaders in English history. And in common with the whole of Christendom, "all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos, or Cephas" - the apostles, the martyrs, the preachers, the poets of the past - "all are yours" by right, if not by actual enjoyment. 3. Foes frustrated. (Ver. 5.) "Remember now" - a word of tender appeal, as though God would say, "Oh, do remember." Balak was a representative foe, striving against Israel, first by policy (Numbers 22.), then by villainy (Numbers 25.), and finally by violence (Numbers 31.). Again the parallel may be traced in national and individual history. 4. Curses turned into blessings. (Deuteronomy 23:5.) So has it been with many of the trials of the past. "Remember from Shittim unto Gilgal" (cf. Numbers 25:1 and Joshua 4:19). What a contrast! Sins forgiven; reproach "rolled away" (Joshua 5:9); chastisements blessed; the long looked for land of promise entered. All these blessings show us "the righteous acts of the Lord." They remind us of the successive acts of God's righteous grace. They make sin against him shamefully ungrateful as well as grossly unjust. Oh, that the goodness of God may lead to repentance! that he may overcome our evil by his good! that "the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" may constrain us to live henceforth, not to ourselves, but to him! - E.S.P. O My people, remember now This chapter is a pathetical expostulation of God with His chosen people, the Jews, for their ungracious demeanour and miscarriage towards Him. This expostulation is carried in a gracious manner. God pleads the justice and equity of His cause by a threefold argument.1. By an attestation of the dumb and senseless creatures (ver. 1). 2. An appeal and reference to themselves. 3. A commemoration of many blessings bestowed upon them.He insists upon three fundamental blessings, by all which He manifests His favour towards them, and aggravates their impiety and ingratitude against Him. 1. A redemption from a long and tedious bondage; from a grievous and miserable bondage, and from a vile and base bondage. 2. The placing of a gracious administration over them. 3. He watches over them, against all attempts of their malicious enemies. He defeated Balak and Balaam's conspiracy. And this makes up the full sum and measure of God's goodness to His people. I. THE COMMEMORATION ITSELF. Here is a gracious compellation. "O My people." It imports three things. It is a speech of claim and possession. It is a speech of love and affection. It is a speech of recall and invitation. Here is a forcible quickening of memory. "Remember now." God appeals to His ancient mercies. He kept them upon record; registered them up in His holy Book; framed them into songs of commemoration; put them into the form of an oath; founded the sacrament of the passover as a commemoration. These remembrances are provocations of thankfulness, and obligations to obedience, and encouragements to faith. II. THE BENEFIT OR BLESSING TO BE COMMEMORATED. 1. Of the danger that beset them. Notice the ground of it; the manner of it; the matter of the conspiracy. 2. The issue out of this danger. The answer to Balak contains God's gracious deliverance of His people from Balak's malicious and wicked intendment. In it there is a strict prohibition, a gracious inversion, a just retorsion. III. THE END AND PURPOSE OF THIS GRACIOUS DELIVERANCE. That ye may understand the righteousness of the Lord. () That ye may know the righteousness of the Lord If idolaters are zealous in the service of imaginary deities, we ought much more to be engaged in the service of the one living and true God forever. The ideas which people entertain of their God do actually exert great influence, and produce interesting effects upon their disposition and conduct. It has been observed by men of the best information, that idolatrous nations have cherished the dispositions and indulged the vices which they have attributed to their deities. Virtue and vice are measured by the supposed disposition and character of their idols. The descendants of Abraham imagined that God was partial to them and vindictive to other nations. Hence they despised and hated the nations around them, and looked upon them as dogs and outcasts from God. Then it is easy to see the high importance of entertaining just notions of the Lord our God. If we believe that God is partial, arbitrary, and vindictive we shall cherish a similar disposition and practice, as far as we make any sober pretensions to religion. And we ought to imitate the moral character of God. See what results if we think God arbitrary, hard and revengeful, or passionate and wrathful. Our relations with our fellows will match our thoughts of our God. The same applies to better thoughts of God. It would be difficult to set in a just light the moral purity, excellence, and happiness of a character formed by such a glorious and perfect model as that of the infinite God, who is emphatically love. But most persons arrive at mature years without acquiring just, enlarged, and honorary notions of God, especially on some important points and traits of character. How shall this evil be remedied? By a careful attention to the Bible, where the character of God is fully revealed. By excluding from the character of God everything that appears to be hard and unreasonable, partial and vindictive — everything that would be thought unreasenable and unworthy in a good man, a wise and affectionate parent, or an upright and compassionate judge. () People Aaron, Ahab, Balaam, Balak, Beor, Ephah, Micah, Miriam, OmriPlaces Bethlehem, Egypt, Gilgal, Moab, ShittimTopics Acts, Balaam, Balak, Beor, Be'or, Consulted, Counsel, Counseled, Designed, Devised, Events, Gilgal, Journey, Mind, Moab, O, Order, Remember, Righteous, Righteousness, Saving, Shittim, UprightOutline 1. God's punishment for ingratitude;
6. for ignorance,
10. for injustice;
16. and for idolatry.
Dictionary of Bible Themes Micah 6:5 1125 God, righteousness
4945 history
4963 past, the Library God's Requirements and God's Gift
'What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?'--MICAH vi. 8. This is the Prophet's answer to a question which he puts into the mouth of his hearers. They had the superstitious estimate of the worth of sacrifice, which conceives that the external offering is pleasing to God, and can satisfy for sin. Micah, like his great contemporary Isaiah, and the most of the prophets, wages war against that misconception of sacrifice, but does not thereby …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy ScriptureThe Record of Two Kings
'In the thirty and first year of Asa king of Judah began Omri to reign over Israel, twelve years: six years reigned he in Tirzah. 24. And he bought the hill Samaria of Shemer for two talents of silver, and built on the hill, and called the name of the city which he built, after the name of Shemer, owner of the hill, Samaria. 25. But Omri wrought evil in the eyes of the Lord, and did worse than all that were before him. 26. For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sin …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture August the Ninth God's Requirements
"What doth the Lord require of thee?" --MICAH vi. 1-8. "To do justly." Then I must not be so eager about my rights as to forget my duties. For my duties are just the observance of my neighbour's rights. And to see my neighbour's rights I must cultivate his "point of view." I must look out of his windows! "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." "And to love mercy." And mercy is justice plus! And it is the "plus" which makes the Christian. His cup …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year "On Conscience"
"For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience." 2 Cor. 1:12. 1. How few words are there in the world more common than this, Conscience! It is in almost every one's mouth. And one would thence be apt to conclude, that no word can be found which is more generally understood. But it may be doubted whether this is the case or no; although numberless treatises have been written upon it. For it is certain, a great part of those writers have rather puzzled the cause than cleared it; that they …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions Fast-Day Service
BRIEF INVOCATION. O GOD, the God of heaven and of earth, we do this day pay Thee reverence, and meekly bow our heads in adoration before Thine awful throne. We are the creatures of Thine hand; Thou hast made us, and not we ourselves. It is but just and right that we should pay unto Thee our adoration. O God I we are met together in a vast congregation for a purpose which demands all the power of piety, and all the strength of prayer. Send down Thy Spirit upon Thy servant, that he, whilst trembling …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 3: 1857 Micah's Message for To-Day
"Walk humbly with thy God."--Micah 6:8. THIS is the essence of the law, the spiritual side of it; its ten commandments are an enlargement of this verse. The law is spiritual, and touches the thoughts, the intents, the emotions, the words, the actions; but specially God demands the heart. Now it is our great joy that what the law requires the gospel gives. "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." In him we meet the requirements of the law, first, by what he has …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 39: 1893 The Christian's Walk a Walk with God.
"He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God." Micah 6:8. The life of Enoch is descriptive of the Christian's life, and it is said that he "walked with God." Hand in hand with God, heart in heart, and life in life, is the true Christian way. In order to walk thus with God, we must be in agreement with him; for two can not walk together heart in heart unless they be in agreement. To be agreed …
C. E. Orr—How to Live a Holy Life The Social Test of Religion
Religion Must be Socially Efficient The teaching of Jesus dealt with three recalcitrant forces, which easily escape from the control of social duty and become a clog to spiritual progress: ambition for power and leadership, and the love of property, have been considered. How about religion? Is it a help or a hindrance in the progress of humanity? Opinions are very much divided today. No student of society can neglect religion as a social force. What did Jesus think of it? DAILY READINGS First …
Walter Rauschenbusch—The Social Principles of Jesus The Foundations of Good Citizenship.
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.--Ex. 20:1-17. Parallel Readings. Hist. Bible I, 194-198. Prin. of Politics, Chap. II. Lowell, Essay on "Democracy." Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image. Thou shalt not take the name of Jehovah thy God in vain. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Honor thy father and thy mother. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Thou …
Charles Foster Kent—The Making of a Nation A Godly Reformation
'Hezekiah began to reign when he was five and twenty years old, and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. 2. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done. 3. He in the first year of his reign, in the first mouth, opened the doors of the house of the Lord, and repaired them. 4. And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the east street, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Balak's Inquiries Relative to the Service of God, and Balaam's Answer, Briefly Considered.
"Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with, thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first born for my transgression; the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?--He hath shewed thee, 0 man, what is good: And what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" As mankind are …
Andrew Lee et al—Sermons on Various Important Subjects An Ox in the Congregation
Friday, July 10.--I rode to London and preached at Short's Gardens on "the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth" [Acts 3:6]. Sunday, 12. While I was showing, at Charles' Square, what it is "to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God" [see Micah 6:8], a great shout began. Many of the rabble had brought an ox, which they were vehemently laboring to drive among the people. But their labor was in vain; for in spite of them all, he ran round and round, one way and the other, and at length …
John Wesley—The Journal of John Wesley The Pioneer's Influence Upon a Nation's Ideals.
ABRAHAM, THE TRADITIONAL FATHER OF HIS RACE.--Gen. 12:1-8; 13:1-13; 16; 18, 19; 21:7; 22:1-19. Parallel Readings. Hist. Bible I, 73-94. Prin of Pol., 160-175. Jehovah said to Abraham, Go forth from thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, to the land that I will show thee, that I may make of thee a great nation; and I will surely bless thee, and make thy name great, so that thou shalt be a blessing, I will also bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will …
Charles Foster Kent—The Making of a Nation Second Sunday after Trinity Exhortation to Brotherly Love.
Text: 1 John 3, 13-18. 13 Marvel not, brethren, if the world hateth you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not abideth in death. 15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. 16 Hereby know we love, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoso hath the world's goods, and beholdeth his brother in need, and shutteth …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. III The Life of Mr. Hugh Binning.
There being a great demand for the several books that are printed under Mr. Binning's name, it was judged proper to undertake a new and correct impression of them in one volume. This being done, the publishers were much concerned to have the life of such an useful and eminent minister of Christ written, in justice to his memory, and his great services in the work of the gospel, that it might go along with this impression. We living now at so great distance from the time wherein he made a figure in …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning "All Our Righteousnesses are as Filthy Rags, and we all do Fade as a Leaf, and Our Iniquities, Like the Wind, have Taken us Away. "
Isaiah lxiv. 6, 7.--"All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." Not only are the direct breaches of the command uncleanness, and men originally and actually unclean, but even our holy actions, our commanded duties. Take a man's civility, religion, and all his universal inherent righteousness,--all are filthy rags. And here the church confesseth nothing but what God accuseth her of, Isa. lxvi. 8, and chap. i. ver. …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning "To what Purpose is the Multitude of Your Sacrifices unto Me? Saith the Lord,"
Isaiah i. 11.--"To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord," &c. This is the word he calls them to hear and a strange word. Isaiah asks, What mean your sacrifices? God will not have them. I think the people would say in their own hearts, What means the prophet? What would the Lord be at? Do we anything but what he commanded us? Is he angry at us for obeying him? What means this word? Is he not repealing the statute and ordinance he had made in Israel? If he had reproved …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning The Greater Prophets.
1. We have already seen (Chap. 15, Nos. 11 and 12) that from Moses to Samuel the appearances of prophets were infrequent; that with Samuel and the prophetical school established by him there began a new era, in which the prophets were recognized as a distinct order of men in the Theocracy; and that the age of written prophecy did not begin till about the reign of Uzziah, some three centuries after Samuel. The Jewish division of the latter prophets--prophets in the more restricted sense of the …
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible Mothers, Daughters, and Wives in Israel
In order accurately to understand the position of woman in Israel, it is only necessary carefully to peruse the New Testament. The picture of social life there presented gives a full view of the place which she held in private and in public life. Here we do not find that separation, so common among Orientals at all times, but a woman mingles freely with others both at home and abroad. So far from suffering under social inferiority, she takes influential and often leading part in all movements, specially …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life The Soul.
Man as we behold him is not all there is of man. He is a wonderful being. He stands in the highest order of God's creation. He Is A Compound. Man was created a physical and spiritual organism. He possesses an animal and a spiritual life. Thus he is connected with two worlds. The physical creation is termed the "outward man," and the spiritual, the "inward man." "For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day." 2 Cor. 4:16. "For we know …
Charles Ebert Orr—The Gospel Day Meditations against Despair, or Doubting of God's Mercy.
It is found by continual experience, that near the time of death, when the children of God are weakest, then Satan makes the greatest nourish of his strength, and assails them with his strongest temptations. For he knows that either he must now or never prevail; for if their souls once go to heaven, he shall never vex nor trouble them any more. And therefore he will now bestir himself as much as he can, and labour to set before their eyes all the gross sins which ever they committed, and the judgments …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety Effectual Calling
'Them he also called.' Rom 8:80. Q-xxxi: WHAT IS EFFECTUAL CALLING? A: It is a gracious work of the Spirit, whereby he causes us to embrace Christ freely, as he is offered to us in the gospel. In this verse is the golden chain of salvation, made up of four links, of which one is vocation. Them he also called.' Calling is nova creatio, a new creation,' the first resurrection. There is a two-fold call: (1.) An outward call: (2.) An inward call. (1.) An outward call, which is God's offer of grace to …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity The Books of the Old Testament as a Whole. 1 the Province of Particular Introduction is to Consider the Books of the Bible Separately...
CHAPTER XVIII. THE BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT AS A WHOLE. 1. The province of Particular Introduction is to consider the books of the Bible separately, in respect to their authorship, date, contents, and the place which each of them holds in the system of divine truth. Here it is above all things important that we begin with the idea of the unity of divine revelation--that all the parts of the Bible constitute a gloriously perfect whole, of which God and not man is the author. No amount of study devoted …
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible "He is the Rock, his Work is Perfect. For all his Ways are Judgment. A God of Truth, and Without Iniquity, Just and Right is He.
Deut. xxxii. 4, 5.--"He is the rock, his work is perfect. For all his ways are judgment. A God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is he. They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children. They are a perverse and crooked generation." "All his ways are judgment," both the ways of his commandments and the ways of his providence, both his word which he hath given as a lantern to men's paths, and his works among men. And this were the blessedness of men, to be found …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning Links Micah 6:5 NIV
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