Micah 6:1-2
Listen to what the Lord says:
‘Stand up, plead my case before the mountains;
let the hills hear what you have to say.
2 ‘Hear, you mountains, the Lord’s accusation;
listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth.
For the Lord has a case against his people;
he is lodging a charge against Israel.
For most of chapter 5 Micah has been speaking of a future time, when a promised shepherd-ruler would rescue and purify a remnant of God’s people, so that they could be restored to live in right relationship to their Lord.
The start of Chapter 6 marks a new section. We know this because of the repeated words - we’re told to ‘hear’ and ‘listen’, just as we were at the start of chapter 1 and again in chapter 3. But there’s also a shift in the setting. We’ve moved from the battleground to the law court.
God is bringing charges against his people. Israel is in the dock and God is the lawyer for the prosecution, calling Micah to speak on his behalf and outline the case. But instead of a jury and a public gallery, the onlookers in this courtroom are the mountains and hills. I don’t think it’s entirely obvious why - perhaps because the mountains have witnessed the way that the people have treated God, so now it’s right that they witness the consequences. It’s especially fitting that the land is a witness, when we remember that part of the people’s wickedness is the fact that they have been stealing land from their fellow-Israelites. Perhaps, also, the ‘everlasting’ nature of the mountains means that they are reliable witnesses to the way that God has been faithful to his people over generations (as we will see tomorrow) while the people have been faithless.
Wherever else is going on here, these verses remind us that our sin is never a purely private matter. As Romans tells us, the whole creation is groaning, subjected to frustration because of the fall. Humanity’s rejection of God is so serious that its effects ripple out beyond ourselves, leaving a trail of devastation that impacts not only other people, but the whole created order. And so the judgement and forgiveness of that sin has consequences for the whole creation, too. Why else would this world need to be totally remade when Jesus returns? The salvation that he makes possible is so significant that it requires a whole New Creation for us to experience it fully. And that is just what he provides. Let’s praise him for that today.
