Micah 6:2, commentary and pictures

The enduring mountains and strong foundations of the earth are summoned as witnesses to hear the Lord's controversy and His pleading case with His people Israel. The controversy exists because of departure from God and failure to heed His instruction, follow His guidance and follow the light He has sent, and when His people reject His blessings and light for a contrary course He cannot continue to fulfill His promises to them. He meets that rebellion by calling His people to account and asking what He has done to them and wherein He has wearied, burdened or wronged them, bidding them testify against Him and consider what He has done for them. The charge covers unjust actions, unfair dealing, falsehood, robbery, fraud, sharp dealing and selfish gain that misrepresents His character, and He requires humiliation of spirit, to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with Him, and will surely punish persistent misrepresentation of Him. That pleading shows He is long-suffering whose compassions fail not, who has no pleasure in the death of the wicked but throughout probationary time entreats helpless and hopeless sinners to turn and live, with every provision and encouragement offered in Christ to take hold of His strength and make peace with Him.

Summons Witnesses and Setting

The mountains and the strong foundations of the earth are called to hear as witnesses while the Lord lays out His controversy and pleads His case with His people Israel. The hearing is a courtroom setting in which God brings His charge against rebellion and calls His people to answer and consider what He has done for them. In that setting God speaks to quicken the understanding of His people, requiring humiliation of spirit, doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with Him.

The pleading was given through Micah during the reign of Ahaz as invitation upon invitation sent to erring Israel. It is a wonderful and tender pleading and an earnest exhortation to return to allegiance to Jehovah in repentance and reformation, and those words bore fruit to the glory of God. The pleading shows God as long-suffering, whose compassions fail not, and whose Spirit entreats men throughout probationary time to accept the gift of life. He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked but calls the wicked to turn from evil ways and live. He invites sinners whom Satan has led into sin and left helpless and hopeless to take hold of His strength and make peace with Him, with every provision made and every encouragement offered in Christ.

Cause and Terms of Controversy

The Lord's controversy arises because of departure from God, a failure to heed His instruction, to follow His guidance, and to follow the light He has sent. For this He calls His people to account, and He has sent His rod in correction, a rod that belongs to His own people and has come upon them. When people reject the blessings and light God has given and choose a course contrary to His direction, they show perversity and ingratitude. Then God cannot continue to fulfill His promises to them or offer them words of encouragement.

He meets that course of rebellion by asking His people what He has done to them and wherein He has wearied, burdened, or wronged them. He bids them testify against Him and calls them to answer and to consider what He has done for them. The charge embraces unjust actions, unfair dealing, falsehood, robbery, and speculation that makes men and women poor and causes human suffering. It testifies against mismanagement, blinded judgment, buying and selling in trade, and doing injustice to even one soul, with every transaction told in the record book in heaven and condemned by God, including fraud, sharp dealing, and selfish unjust gain that misrepresents His character.

God so speaks to quicken the understanding of His people. He requires humiliation of spirit, and all He requires in the appeal is to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with Him. He will not be trifled with, and He will surely punish those who persist in misrepresenting His character. The day of that controversy brings trial and darkness, but faith and past experience give comfort and hope. For the darkness is a veil covering God's glory as He comes to give rich blessings.

Present Warnings to Church

The Lord's controversy is a present warning to the church in Battle Creek to consider carefully its course of action and where those who continue in rebellion will be found, for He confronts a course of rebellion by asking what He has done to His people and wherein He has wearied them, bidding them testify against Him and calling them to answer. In the present time that controversy is especially with those who claim to control and direct the work. God requires every institution to stand on the highest vantage ground, and every director to be first controlled by God, to make it his first work to take counsel of the living God, to see that every movement bears Christ's character and harmonizes with God's Word, and to copy Jesus' character in Christ's school. Without this learning, when crossed a man will be sharp and severe in words that are not commended, and no one can safely follow his own heart and will or lead enterprises without counsel, since matters may look right while mistakes lie in his calculation, so the Lord in mercy gives warnings and testimonies to show danger when men refuse His counsel and do as they please. The call is to know just where they are, to call a halt, and to know whether they have the Lord God of Israel for Leader.

The same controversy is with publishing-house managers for placing Satan's falsehoods and deceptive, spiritually harmful material before the workers, thereby helping prepare a snare for souls. They are accountable to God, He will not hold them guiltless, and lowering the standard of truth and righteousness brings danger of divine judgment. It is also with those who departed from Bible principles, ignored repeated warnings and counsel, and used methods that brought embarrassment on God's cause; they are accountable for these actions, yet it is not too late to repent and be changed in character. The controversy is with ministers who have failed to teach church members to work for perishing souls, and their neglect belongs to an individual accounting before God for how they used the means entrusted to them. It is with brethren and sisters in Mountain View because they criticize one another while not individually working in straight lines, calling them to remove from the heart everything that bars Christ's entrance, to let every soul humble himself, and to break away from Satan's snare.

The truth that the Lord has a controversy with His people warns that life and conduct are under God's scrutiny. It holds accountable those in positions of trust who dealt secretly and neglected to give a needed message and faithfully seek to save an erring person, condemning this failure to address wrongdoing openly and decisively. It concerns actions taken against Lincoln College in crippling and limiting its resources to advance personal ideas, with warning as a call to restore matters to their former state or face the Lord's reckoning. The charge falls on leaders in responsible positions because their conduct and motives have been repeatedly exposed, their lack of clean hands and pure, unselfish purposes and their attempt to control others by virtue of position standing under the Lord's charge.

The controversy is with ministers and people because they have failed to take up giving present truth in the Southern states and have failed to enter new territory and work the cities in the South. God calls for placing upon them the burden of the Southern work and of the cities of the land, including Greater New York and many other as yet unworked cities, and the cities of California, New York, and many other states. It rebukes sending all means gathered in America to distant lands while the home field suffers a dearth of means and laborers and much remains to be done at their doors. It is applied to believers who keep their means tied up in homes, land, or speculation instead of putting it to work in God's cause, and their failure to use those resources to extend God's kingdom and prepare for Christ's coming brings guilt. God has the controversy with His own people who keep His work from advancing by crooked characters, with church members who allow wicked feelings to rise in their hearts and flow forth in words that help Satan, calling them to take themselves in hand and conquer those feelings, humble their hearts, confess their sins, and receive reconversion and renewal of the Holy Spirit's power to make them children of God and members of His family, with characters made all over again. The controversy is with the Lord Himself, so those deciding whether to obey must receive and believe God's word, not the word of man.