Chapter 6

The Lord speaks directly - He Himself accuses Israel with a question:  How have I wearied you?  Then He recounts all the times He acted in their favor.  This is vss 1-5.

2024 - This verse:

4 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. [Mic 6:4 ESV].  If I wanted to make a case for women in leadership roles, I would hang a big hat on this verse.  Miriam is surely put into the same rank as Moses and Aaron here.  I checked the Hebrew in BLB, and this is not an insert, her name is there.  Not only that, but this is Micah giving us God's own words to Israel.  This gives me pause...it is not the church...but still...

2025 - 4 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. [Mic 6:4 ESV]

4 "Indeed, I brought you up from the land of Egypt And ransomed you from the house of slavery, And I sent before you Moses, Aaron and Miriam. [Mic 6:4 NASB95]

Dt 7:8; 15:15 are the same thought, and the same word. 

Ransomed and redeemed are the two words used here in most translations.  It is the same word used of the first born.  They had to be redeemed with a sacrifice.  We readily see the connection to Jesus' crucifixion being our redemption from sin.  There is always a redemption price, paid by one for the benefit of another.  What was the redemption price for Israel from Egypt?  What was paid?  Maybe the answer is here:  26 And I prayed to the LORD, 'O Lord GOD, do not destroy your people and your heritage, whom you have redeemed through your greatness, whom you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. [Deu 9:26 ESV].  Perhaps the greater can demand the release of a slave from the lesser.  Perhaps it was ownership.  They were God's people and they were illegally held.  Yes...that is the difference!  They became slaves in Egypt but they did not go in there as slaves.  They went as honored guests.  How did it change I wonder.  But that's it.  God's own people were enslaved though no purchase price was paid for them.  They were taken by "might", they were released the same way.

vss 6-8 are the answer.  Then the answer, vs 8 that I copied out the first time I read this.  It has already been on FB.  What to do is pretty simple to say, but hard in practice.

2024-Another interesting verse:

7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with 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?" [Mic 6:7 ESV].  This seems to ask if human sacrifice is what God wants in order to restore Israel.  Note that it is NOT God that brings this up but those who reply.  The answer is very clear that God does not want human sacrifice, nor any other sacrifice.  What God says he wants most from us is:

8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? [Mic 6:8 ESV].

The rest of the chapter recounts the sins of the people.  Greed, violence, and lies.