Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
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Micah
Book: Micah
Chapter: 6
Overview:
God's controversy with
Israel.
(1-5) The duties
God requires.
(6-8) The wickedness of
Israel.
(9-16)
1-5 The people are called upon to declare why they were weary
of
God's
Worship, and prone to
Idolatry.
Sin causes the
controversy between
God and
Man.
God reasons with us, to teach
us to reason with ourselves. Let them remember
God's many
favours to them and their fathers, and compare with them their
unworthy, ungrateful conduct toward him.
6-8 These verses seem to contain the substance of
Balak's
consultation with
Balaam how to obtain the favour of
Israel's
God.
Deep conviction of guilt and wrath will
Put men upon
careful inquiries after peace and
Pardon, and then there begins
to be some ground for
Hope of them. In order to
God's being
pleased with us, our care must be for an interest in the
Atonement of
Christ, and that the
Sin By which we displease him
may be taken away. What will be a satisfaction to
God's
Justice?
In whose name must we come, as we have nothing to plead as our
own? In what
Righteousness shall we appear before him? The
proposals betray ignorance, though they show zeal. They offer
that which is very rich and costly. Those who are fully
convinced of
Sin, and of their misery and danger
By reason of
it, would give all the world, if they had it, for peace and
Pardon. Yet they do not offer aright. The sacrifices had value
from their reference to
Christ; it was impossible that the
Blood
of bulls and goats should take away
Sin. And all proposals of
peace, except those according to the
Gospel, are absurd. They
could not answer the demands of Divine
Justice, nor satisfy the
wrong done to the honour of
God By Sin, nor would they serve at
all in place of
Holiness of the
Heart and reformation of the
Life. Men will part with any thing rather than their sins; but
they part with nothing
So as to be accepted of
God, unless they
do part with their sins. Moral duties are commanded because they
are good for
Man. In keeping
God's
Commandments there is a great
reward, as
Well as after keeping them.
God has not only made it
known, but made it
Plain. The good which
God requires of us is,
not the paying a price for the
Pardon of
Sin and acceptance with
God, but
Love to himself; and what is there unreasonable, or
hard, in this? Every thought within us must be brought down, to
be brought into obedience to
God, if we would walk comfortably
with him. We must do this as penitent sinners, in dependence
On
the
Redeemer and his
Atonement. Blessed be the
Lord that he is
ever ready to give his
Grace to the humble, waiting penitent.
9-16 God, having showed how necessary it was that they should
do justly, here shows how
Plain it was that they had done
unjustly. This voice of the
Lord says to all, Hear the rod when
it is coming, before you see it, and feel it. Hear the rod when
it is come, and you are sensible of the smart; hear what
counsels, what cautions it speaks. The voice of
God is to be
heard in the rod of
God. Those who are dishonest in their
dealings shall never be reckoned pure, whatever shows of
devotion they may make. What is got
By fraud and oppression,
cannot be kept or enjoyed with satisfaction. What we
Hold
closest we commonly lose soonest.
Sin is a root of bitterness,
soon planted, but not soon plucked up again. Their being the
people of
God in name and profession, while they kept themselves
in his
Love, was an honour to them; but now, being backsliders,
their having been once the people of
God turns to their
reproach.