Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vols. 13–63

Verse 1. Hear you now what the LORD says. And yet some doubt the Infallible Inspiration of Scripture! I would commence every reading of the Scripture with such a word of admonition as this—"Hear you now what the Lord says." That is what the Prophet said, but God spoke by the Prophet—"Hear you now what the Lord says."

1. Arise, contend you before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. As men were hardened and turned away their ears, the Prophet was told to speak to the mountains, those mountains which had been disfigured with the shrines of idols, with altars on every high hill, or, perhaps, those higher hills that were never cultivated and that remained untouched by the defiling hands of men. God makes an appeal to these ancient things.

2. Hear you, O mountains, the LORD'S controversy, and you strong foundations of the earth: for the LORD has a controversy with His people, and He will plead with Israel. It was amazing condescension on God's part that He should deign to come as a Defendant before the august court of the mountains and in the presence of the deep foundations of the earth. It is a noble conception—in poetry, most excellent—in grandeur, worthy of God. He made His appeal to the ancient hills to hear His pleading while He condescended to argue and ask His people why they had rejected their God and turned aside to idols. Then He pleaded with Israel.

3. O My people, what have I done unto you? "What but good, what but mercy, have I done unto you?"

3. And wherein have I wearied you? Testify against Me. He asks them to give any reason whatever why they had turned away from Him. Beloved Friends, have any of you, who are the people of God, grown cold in your love to Him? Are you neglecting the service of the Most High? Are you beginning to trust in an arm of flesh? Are you seeking your pleasures in the world? Have you lost the love of your espousal, your first love to your Blessed Lord? Then hear Him plead with you! Be not as Israel was, but let the Lord speak to you rather than to the hills—"What have I done unto you? And wherein have I wearied you? Testify against Me." O Lord, we have nothing to testify against You! We have very much to testify for You and we blush to think that we have not done so more often. Oh, that we had felt more love to You and had borne a bolder and more consistent testimony to Your love, Your Grace, Your faithfulness!

4. For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of servants; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. God constantly refers to Israel's coming out of Egypt—on every great occasion He begins, "I am the Lord your God, which have brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." And to His people, the Lord still says, "I brought you up out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery." Is it not so? Do we not still delight in His redeeming work, in the sprinkling of the blood of the Paschal Lamb and in the high hand and outstretched arm with which the Lord delivered us from the bondage of our sin? Remember that you, also, were a slave! Forget not who bought you and with what price! Remember who delivered you and led you out with mighty power! Remember this and let your cold love burn, again, and let your indifference turn to enthusiasm! O Lord, revive Your people! The Lord further says to His people, "I sent before you Moses (the Lawgiver), Aaron (the priest) and Miriam (the prophetess)." One to teach you, another to plead for you and to sacrifice for you, and the third to sing for you, to sing your song of gladness at the Red Sea. God has given to His people many ministries in many forms—and they are all concentrated in His Son who is everything to us. Oh, by the greatness of His gifts to us, let us come back to our former love to Him and to something more than that!

5. O my people, remember now what Balak, king of Moab, consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal; that you may know the righteousness of the LORD. Balak endeavored to get Balaam to curse the people of God, but they could not be overcome by human power. He sought to destroy them by superhuman agency, but Balaam's curses turned to blessings. God would not permit the false prophet to curse Israel and He has in our case turned the curse of the great adversary into a blessing. He has delivered us and our trials have strengthened us and taught us more of God. Will we not remember this? Shittim was the last encampment on the far side of Jordan. Gilgal was the first in the Promised Land—therefore they are united, here, with God's righteousnesses to His people, for the word is in the plural. It is a remarkable idiom—"That you may know the righteousnesses of the Lord." He is always righteous, in every way, towards everything and under every aspect! I wish we knew this, for sometimes we begin to think that He deals harshly with us. When we are severely tried, we begin to doubt the righteousness of the Lord. Remember all that He has done to you from the first day to the last, "that you may know the righteousness of the Lord." Now the plaintiff takes up the case, but he, too, turns defendant, and asks what he can do to bring about a reconciliation.

6, 7. 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? The people will give God everything but what He wants. They begin, you see, by saying that they will bring burnt offerings—they are ready to do that. The axe shall fall upon the head of numberless young bullocks, such as God demanded under the Law. The people are ready enough for that sacrifice—and as for rams, they will shed their blood by thousands! If oil is needed for the meat offering, rivers of it shall flow! When they have offered what God would have, they offer what He would not have—what God abhorred and loathed—for they offered to give their first-born for their transgressions! They insulted Jehovah with the sacrifices of Moloch, with human slaughter, offering their children to obtain atonement for their sins! They were willing to go, even, to that length, and to do anything but what God wants. And men will still give to God anything but what He asks for, majestic edifices, gorgeous services, ecstatic music, gold and silver—anything but what the Lord demands! Here is God's answer:

8. He has showed you, O man, what is good and what does the LORD require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? It was a spiritual worship that the Lord required—not externals, not outward gifts— but the HEART! If you will bring an offering, bring yourself—there is no other gift that the Lord so much desires. The Prophet mentions three things that the Lord required of His people—"To do justly"—here are the equities of life. "To love mercy"—here are the kindnesses of life which are to be rendered cheerfully. The Prophet does not say, "to do mercy," but to "love" it, to take a delight in it, to find great pleasure in the forgiveness of injuries, in the helping of the poor, in the cheering of the sick, in the teaching of the ignorant, in the winning back of sinners to the ways of God. "And to walk humbly with your God." These are the things which please Him. And when we are in Christ and He becomes our righteousness, these are the sacrifices with which God is well-pleased. They make an offering of a sweet smell, a holy incense which we may present before Him. Talk no more of your outward ordinances, your will-worship with abundance of music, or human eloquence and learning and what-not. These things do not delight the Lord—no offering is acceptable unless the outward conduct shows that the heart is right with Him.

9. The LORD'S voice cries unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see Your name: hear you the rod, and who has appointed it. God's voice to His people is often uttered by means of their affliction—"Hear you the rod." He wishes us to understand that judgments and calamities are His voice crying to the city. Oh, that we were men of wisdom, that we would hear what God has to say! Alas, Israel did not hear and Judah would not listen, even, to God's own voice!

10. Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable? Here He comes to practical details. In Micah's day, men had grown rich by oppression, by a lack ofjustice—they had wronged their fellow men—and God asked them whether they expected to be pleasing to Him when their houses were full of treasure which they had virtually stolen by giving scant measure and short weight. God condescends even to point out these minute particulars of moral conduct and so should His servants. It is not for us, His ministers, to be soaring into the clouds, to astonish you with the grandeur of our thoughts and words—but to come to your shops, to look at your bushel-measures and your pecks, your yardsticks and your weights!

11. 12. Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights? For the rich men thereof are full of violence and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouths. They were, I suppose, very much what Orientals still are. You cannot trade with them without having need of more than two eyes. Their price has to be beaten down and their quantities must be counted. God would not have His people like this. He says nothing about the Moabites or the Babylonians doing this, but for His people to do it was very grievous to Him.

13. Therefore also will I make you sick in smiting you, in making you desolate because of your sins. They lied and they cheated—so God would give them a sorry tongue, betokening their ill health. He would make their present distress to get worse and worse till they should be sick through their wounds.

14. You shall eat, but not be satisfied. The satisfaction that comes to us through eating is of His mercy and when He wills, He can say, "You shall eat, but not be satisfied."

14. And your casting down shall be in the midst of you. "You shall feel an inward sinking—even when you have eaten, you shall be faint—as a man who has eaten nothing."

14. And you shall take hold, but shall not deliver; and that which you deliver will I give up to the sword. So that in every project they would be disappointed—in every design they would be frustrated because God would be against them.

15. You shall sow, but you shall not reap; you shall tread the olives, but you shall not anoint you with oil; and sweet wine, but shall not drink wine. God can let men have every form of outward prosperity and yet make nothing of it. I fear that some, perhaps some present, have every outward religious blessing yet nothing comes of it. You hear sermons, you come to meetings, you tread the olives, but you are not anointed with the oil. The grapes are in the wine vat, but you drink not the wine. God save us from that sad condition!

16. For the statutes of Omri are kept. They would not keep the statutes of God, but they kept the foul statutes of Omri, which appear to have been especially objectionable to God.

16. And all the works of the house of Ahab, and you walk in their counsels. He was an arch rebel against God. Remember his murder of Naboth to get his vineyard? And these people followed his evil example.

16. That I should make you a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof an hissing: therefore you shall bear the reproach of My people. Very hard was it to bear that reproach when there would be none of the comforts of the Spirit to go with it. There are some professors who bear the reproach of Christ, but will never share His crown—that is a fearful state of things. Gladly enough would we take up that reproach that we may be truly His. But if we profess to be God's people and act inconsistently, we shall bear all the reproach, but have nothing to sustain us under it. O Lord, in Your mercy, save us from this!