My people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, from Shittim unto Gilgal, that ye may know the righteousness of Jehovah.
God brings a case against the people He redeemed, and He opens with a plot they never knew about. A hostile king, a hired prophet, and the road from Shittim to Gilgal are His evidence — not of Israel's goodness, but of His own righteousness.
God's case does not open with threats. One writer traces how He builds it out of what He has already done for Israel.
Micah 6. Having declared the counsels of God in grace, the Spirit returns to His pleadings with Israel about their moral condition. He calls the whole earth as audience to hear the case; for the LORD had a controversy with His people. In a touching appeal to their heart and conscience He asks what they could have against Him. He had redeemed them from Egypt. He had led them by the hands of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. He had refused to listen to Balak and Balaam, who had done their utmost to curse Israel. If they would only consider, they would know His faithfulness.
"What Balak king of Moab devised" points back to a scheme aimed at more than defeat.
Satan stirred up Balak and Balaam to raise a great question against the people of Israel. We need to understand that question, for it touches us closely. Satan is as full of malice against God's heavenly saints as against His earthly people. The people were now on the threshold of the promised land. Satan had damaged them again and again through the wilderness years. Now he roused himself for a supreme effort against them, and Balak and Balaam were his chosen instruments. He sought to rob them of the promised blessings; in fact, he wanted them wiped out.
The hired curse came out as blessing. Another writer presses for the reason behind that reversal.
Again and again Balak, king of Moab, tried to use enchantment and divination against this people. He hated them as much as he feared them. But God stepped in every time. There was "no enchantment against Jacob, no divination against Israel." The LORD their God turned the curse into a blessing for them, and why? "Because the LORD your God loved you" (Deut. 23:5). And that is always the great reason for God's intervention.
The two place names are not decoration. Where God answered matters as much as what He said.
This is a truly remarkable passage when we consider the places named in it. "Shittim" was on the wilderness side of the Jordan, but "Gilgal" was inside the promised land. So the LORD's answer to the enemy came in deeds as well as in words. He spoke His words at Shittim, and very full and wonderful they were. Israel saw His deeds at Gilgal. There they pitched their camp after their miraculous crossing of the Jordan, and from there they went out conquering. So the LORD displayed His righteousness in the most blessed way, by fulfilling His gracious word to His people.
The verse gives the reason for all this remembering. Where the ESV reads "the righteous acts of the LORD," older translations read "the righteousness of the LORD," and the writers below explain that phrase.
In Old Testament Scripture the phrase "the righteousness of the LORD" carries one steady sense. It means God's faithfulness to His character and promises, shown in His ways toward a sinful people. When Balak sent for Balaam to curse the children of Israel, God refused again and again to allow anything against them. He Himself often had to chasten them for their misconduct, yet He turned the curse into a blessing. So Satan failed in his efforts, and Balak failed in his purpose to strike them. God appeals to this as proof of His righteousness in His dealings with them.
Commentators differ over how far this remembering reaches. One writer sets out a popular reading of the verses that follow, and rejects it.
Some well-known names have argued that verses 6-8 preserve an actual dialogue between Balak and Balaam... It hardly needs saying that we cannot accept this interpretation. God had rescued His people from Balak's designs by the answers He had caused Balaam to give. He brought this back to His people's memory so that they might know the righteousness of the LORD. They were to learn that if they had been unfaithful, He could not deny Himself. He was still faithful to His word.
The same question presses on believers today. Can our failures undo what God has promised?
Can our failures affect God's counsels of grace concerning us? Will He stop loving us, erase our names from the book of life, and fling us back to where He found us? Blessed be His holy name, NO!... All this must stand for ever, for God is faithful, whatever His people may be. In His righteous government He may discipline us, just as He disciplined Israel long ago. But He will never abandon His counsels of grace.
- Remember — God's controversy with His people opens not with a charge sheet but with a call to recall what He has done.
- The plot — Satan drove Balak's scheme, and it aimed to strip Israel of the promised blessing altogether.
- The love — the curse became a blessing, and the stated reason was that the LORD loved them.
- The proof — God spoke at Shittim and acted at Gilgal. Promise and performance together display His righteousness.
- The lesson — the righteousness of the LORD is His faithfulness to His own character and promises. His people may prove unfaithful; He still cannot deny Himself.
Wherewith shall I come before Jehovah, bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves of a year old?
God has just brought His people into court, reminding them of the rescue from Egypt. Now a voice answers Him. It is not a confession but an offer: what will it cost to quiet a guilty conscience?
The question comes after God has laid out His case. He asks His people to name one thing He ever did to wear them out.
Then comes the conclusion of the prophecy. The first section of it (Micah 6) is partly a most solemn pleading of Jehovah… Jehovah appeals to their own sense of what is right. "O my people, what have I done to you? How have I wearied you? Answer me! For I brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam." Had He ever been anything but the same God?
Some read verses 6 and 7 as words once spoken by Balak, the king of Moab who tried to hire a curse against Israel. Verse 8 would then be the reply of the prophet Balaam. Commentators here reject that reading and place the question in Israel's own mouth.
It is true that some well-known names have argued that verses 6-8 preserve an actual dialogue between Balak and Balaam… It is hardly necessary to say that we cannot accept this interpretation in any way. On our reading, Israel is the one who asks these questions. They had wandered so far away that they had forgotten the path of return… This teaches a lesson valuable at all times and in every age: no rites or sacrifices, even if God Himself set them up, are worth anything without a right state of heart before God.
The speaker is alarmed and looking for cover. Something real has woken in him. Yet his own words show how little he knows the God he is trying to approach.
A remnant has heard this challenge, and they answer it in verses 6, 7. They are awake now to the sword of the Lord, which He has lifted up. They are alarmed, and would gladly find a refuge. Ignorance of God and of His ways and truth marks their words. But no matter. It is no longer the sleep or dullness of the soul: there has been a quickening.
Notice the direction the questions travel: from a single year-old calf, to thousands of rams, to rivers of oil, to a child. The offer keeps growing because the heart behind it never does.
Here the people speak, but it is significant that they do not address the Lord, who had spoken to them through the prophet. They knew themselves guilty and condemned. So they address the prophet and ask what to do… For generations they had brought burnt offerings, thousands of rams and rivers of oil. But it was nothing but outward worship; inwardly they remained the same. But they were willing to do more in this outward service, even to the sacrifice of the firstborn.
The last offer in verse 7 is a firstborn child. It is the highest price a person could pay, and the clearest proof that no price will do.
God could not accept the blood of one born in sin. That would be an insult to a holy God. To give one's firstborn for one's transgressions, the fruit of one's body for the sin of one's soul (Micah 6:7), might look to a pagan like a way to soften an offended god of his own imagining. But it could not meet the holiness and righteousness of the one true God… Long before, He had declared that animal sacrifices were powerless. Yet in that same revelation He had shown that one day a sacrifice would be offered that pleased Him — offered up and accepted too.
Verse 8 gives the answer. But it names what is right; it does not give the power to do it.
Israel did not act in righteousness. They did not love mercy. They did not walk humbly in fellowship with the Lord. Why not? Because they were uncircumcised in their hearts. To do right, to love mercy, to walk in humility with God is impossible for the natural man. For this there must be the new birth. The new birth takes place when the sinner believes and expresses his faith in true repentance.
Kelly reaches the same conclusion by another road: no one walks this way "until he is brought in as a converted soul and receives the grace of God in Christ."
- Charge. God speaks first. He names what He gave: rescue from Egypt, and leaders to guide them. The question of verse 6 goes up to a God who has already proved faithful.
- Question. The speaker's conscience is awake. He is alarmed and hunting for refuge, but his words show he does not yet know the God he is bargaining with.
- Escalation. Calf, rams, oil, firstborn — the price climbs while the heart stays still. Outward worship can grow forever and change nothing inside.
- Dead end. Even a firstborn child cannot meet God's holiness, because that child is born in sin. God promised the one acceptable sacrifice long before it came.
- Answer. What God asks for is moral, not material. It stays out of reach for the natural heart until the new birth, which comes when a sinner believes and repents.
Will Jehovah take pleasure in thousands of rams, in ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
God has spoken to His people through the prophet, and here they answer back — not with repentance, but with a price list that climbs until it reaches a human child. The question behind the verse is whether guilt can be bought off at all, and if not, what God asks instead.
The bidding in this verse is not God's demand. It is the people's own answer — and it matters who they speak to.
Here the people speak, but it is significant that they do not address the Lord, who had spoken to them by the prophet. They knew they were guilty and condemned. So they speak to the prophet and ask what to do... For generations they had brought burnt offerings, thousands of rams and rivers of oil. But it was only outward worship. Inside, they stayed the same. But they were willing to do more in this outward service, even to the sacrifice of the firstborn.
Wrong as the answer is, something real has happened in these people.
A remnant has heard this challenge, and they answer it in verses 6, 7. They are awake now to the sword of the Lord, which is raised. They are alarmed, and would like to find a refuge. Ignorance of God and His ways and truth marks their words. But no matter. It is no longer the sleep or dullness of the soul: something has come alive in them.
Thousands of rams and rivers of oil fail for a reason that has nothing to do with amount.
When God deals with man about rest of conscience, the question is not what man is to do, but what he is; not the fruit, but the tree. Man may bring many offerings, and God sweeps them all away. He says, I have to do with you, and you with Me. The condition of your soul is what I have to do with... See Micah 6:7. The fountain is foul... You may put something into the stream to make the water sweeter, but the stream itself is always foul. This cannot satisfy God. But God has settled the question by putting sin out of the way by the blood of Jesus.
The final bid — a child for a sin — belongs to a way of thinking about God that is not God's own.
The blood of one born in sin could not be accepted. That would be to insult a holy God. To give your firstborn for your transgressions, the fruit of your body for the sin of your soul (Micah 6:7), might look to someone who worships false gods like a way to soften an offended deity of his own making. But it could not meet the holiness and righteousness of the one true God... Long before, He had declared that animal sacrifices could not take sin away. But in that same revelation He had shown that a sacrifice well-pleasing to Him would one day be offered, offered up too, and accepted.
This was not only a theory. Scripture records a cornered king doing what Micah's verse describes.
The King of Moab with seven hundred men tries to break through to the King of Edom, no doubt to take refuge with him, but he does not succeed. Then he offers up his firstborn son for a burnt offering upon the wall. Does this not remind us of what the Lord says later about this same Moab: "Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul" (Micah 6:7)?
The same instinct is alive now. A conscience wakes up, and at once it starts trying to pay.
The world is always inviting the Christian back into it; it is an immense system which Satan has built up to work on the flesh and to hide God. This cannot satisfy conscience. So when a man's conscience wakes up, he bows his head like a reed and says, "Shall I give the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" Then he puts himself under religious rules... He is making out his religion as a living man, not as a redeemed man.
The next verse answers the bidding, and it names nothing you can weigh or count.
The Lord shortly answers them. He lets the awakened, enquiring ones learn what is "good" and what is "required." That which is "good" is shown to them. God reveals it, as we know, as belonging to Himself... What is "required," or demanded, is none of man's cattle for offerings. It is not rivers of oil, or the fruit of his body. It is only what is morally fitting: that we should do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly.
- Awakened. The speaker is an alarmed conscience — a real stirring, but words full of ignorance about God.
- Bidding. Alarm always answers by raising the price: calves, then thousands of rams, then rivers of oil, then a child.
- Refused. No bid works, because God's issue is the tree and not the fruit — the fountain itself is foul.
- Borrowed. Offering a firstborn is the reasoning of false worship, acted out by the king of Moab on the wall.
- Answered. God asks for no cattle and no oil — only justice, mercy and a humble walk. And He Himself provided the one sacrifice He accepts.
He hath shewn thee, O man, what is good and what doth Jehovah require of thee, but to do justly, and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with thy God?
Micah 6 reads like a courtroom case: God reminds Israel that He rescued them from Egypt, then asks what they have against Him. The people answer by offering more and more sacrifices, and this verse is God's reply — is it a religion of good living, or something else?
The chapter turns from promise to prosecution, and the tone is not cold. One writer follows the chapter as an appeal to Israel's heart and conscience:
After telling of God's purposes in grace, the Spirit turns back to pleading with Israel about the way they lived. He calls the whole earth to listen, for the LORD had a case against His people. In a touching appeal to their heart and conscience He asks what they could have against Him. He had redeemed them from Egypt and led them by Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. He had refused to listen to Balak and Balaam, who did all they could to curse Israel. If they would only consider, they would know His faithfulness. Then He sets out in detail the wickedness that ruled among them. He holds their ceremonies up against real, practical righteousness.
Verse 8 does not stand alone. It answers verses 6–7, where the people offer more and more:
Here the people speak, but it is significant that they do not address the Lord, who had spoken to them by the prophet. They knew themselves guilty and condemned. So they turn to the prophet and ask what to do… For generations they had brought burnt offerings, thousands of rams and rivers of oil. But it was nothing but outward worship; inwardly they remained the same. But they were willing to do more in this outward service, even to the sacrifice of the firstborn.
Commentators differ on whose voices these are. Some have read verses 6–8 as a preserved exchange between Balak and Balaam; that reading is rejected by others, who take the questions as Israel's own response to God's pleading.
The verse holds two words side by side, and one writer pulls them apart:
He lets those who are awake and asking learn what is "good" and what is "required." God shows them what is "good." He reveals it as something belonging to Himself. "No one is good except God alone." The gospel reveals this in its fullness. What is "required," or demanded, is not a man's cattle for offerings. It is not rivers of oil, or his own children. It is only what is morally fitting: that we do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly.
The order matters:
Doing right in daily life is the clothing a worshipper must put on first. Those who bring their gifts to God must put evil away and follow righteousness… Without obedience and right living, God takes no pleasure in outward ritual and lip service. He desires mercy and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. Obedience is better than sacrifice. God looks upon the heart; His searching eye penetrates the mask of outward appearance.
The verse is often quoted as if it were a complete religion. One writer challenges that use:
Where has God made the demand? In the law. There is no more deadly error than to hold up this verse as the heart of the gospel and the one true, saving religion… Israel did not do justice. They did not love mercy. They did not walk humbly with the Lord. Why not? Because their hearts had never been changed. The natural man cannot do right, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. To do that, he must be born again.
The same point is put in terms of order — the standard is real, but it is reachable only from a certain starting place:
Nobody walks this way until he is converted and receives the grace of God in Christ. No one can act justly or be truly humble before God until he has turned to Him in faith… Faith produces real repentance and true humility.
The last of the three shows up in ordinary work and in being content with a small place:
Oh, to walk humbly with our God! To be content with His will, to be glad of a very humble place, and to do the plainest work! This is true dignity, and true happiness. If God gives us a street to sweep, let us sweep it, under His eye and to His praise… We live at a time when everyone is pushing himself up and forward.
- Controversy — The verse sits inside God's case against His people. He appeals to their heart first.
- Question — It answers people who offer more and more outwardly, but stay the same inside.
- Shown, then required — What is good belongs to God, and He shows it. What He requires is not cattle or oil, but justice, mercy, and humility.
- Order — Right living is the clothing a worshipper must wear. God takes no pleasure in ritual without obedience, because He looks at the heart.
- Power — This demand is law, not gospel. The natural man cannot meet it. It follows the new birth and faith.