“I will take vengeance in anger and wrath on the nations that have not obeyed me” (Micah 5:15). 

“I will uproot from among you your (symbols of other gods) when I demolish your cities” (Micah 5:14)

In this passage God is seen as the one who punishes disobedience. Yet in Micah 6:1-8 God also says this: “Listen to what the Lord says: “stand up, plead my case before the mountains; let the hills hear what you have to say. 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” (Micah 6:1-2). 

What is the case that his prophets are pleading on his behalf? God tells Micah to take his message to the mountains and the hills, the places where people historically worshipped other gods. In modern times this is represents all things we place our trust in above God. So God is telling his prophets to take this message to everything and everyone you have put your faith in. 

We are the righteousness of God. 

What is God’s case? Micah 6:4 says that he is a redeemer from bondage. God tells his prophets to tell his people to remember that he is the one who redeems you from punishment for unrighteousness. Micah 6:5 says that he has chosen to bless his people and not curse them and asks Micah to remind his people of the time when their enemies tried to curse them and how God sent his word of favor and blessings (Numbers 22:12; Numbers 23:8; Numbers 23:19-20; Numbers 24:1-9). 

God told his prophet to remind his people that he is the one who takes you by the hand from slavery and oppression to the promised land, the journey from Shittim to Gilgal (Micah 6:5). God describes the journey from oppression to his promise as a righteous act that he has done for humanity (Micah 6:5). 

Then Micah asks what do we have to do to receive this righteousness in our lives, this justice, this favor, this salvation, these blessings (Micah 6:6-7)? Do we get it from offering sacrifices on altars? Would a thousand sacrifices be enough (Micah 6:6-7)? Would ten thousand rivers of oil be enough (Micah 6:7) “shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul” (Micah 6:7)? 

Micah is saying is there a price that I could pay to earn the blessings and favor of God? Is there something I could do willfully with my money or my actions? Could I make a thousand prayers and spend 10,000 days praising God? God says no in Micah 6:8. 

God says that there is nothing that you can do to receive his favor. There is nothing you can do to become righteous. God alone is righteous and has chosen to favor us. He has chosen to make righteousness accessible to us. He has chosen to take us from under the curse of sin to the blessings of reconciliation under his care. He has chosen to bring a way of salvation to us, a way of righteousness to us, a way to access him through his righteous act. 

When God says this is what you can do, this is what I require, “to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8) God is describing what he has done and who he is. You cannot be just without God, but if you must try to do something, act justly, follow my example and be merciful and show your faith through humility, not believing that you can do something to save but having faith that God has done the righteous act that he requires. 

When God says, “I will take vengeance in anger and wrath on the nations that have not obeyed me, uprooting from among you symbols of other gods and demolishing your cities” (Micah 5:14-15). This is God’s punishment for sin, things that stand in opposition to God. God’s punishment brings sin into captivity and releases justice into a world of injustice. When God punishes it is spiritual punishment, and his justice is not intended to condemn people but to create a way of salvation from sin that condemns. 

God tells Micah to take this case against sin to the foundations of the earth and to tell them that he has made plans to destroy and uproot the curses of unrighteousness in every part of the earth and establish righteousness himself (Micah 6:2). The curses of sin that requires punishment he was going to destroy so that his righteousness that reconciles everyone to him could be established. God tells his prophet to make this case and remind his people that he has always made a way of redemption; to take his people from oppression to promise and fulfill his promise to bless them.

Be reconciled to God. 

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:16 that we are the new creation that God established through Jesus. The foundation that was built on punishment for sins, that brought curses, and condemnation was destroyed and the new foundation built on mercy that brought reconciliation and blessings was established.  

The righteous work that God has done through Jesus is a spiritual work so that Paul writes, “now we don’t regard anyone from a worldly point of view” instead we say, “if anyone is in Christ that person is a new creation: the old has gone the new is here” (2 Corinthians 5:16-17).

God tells Micah to make the case for his righteousness and take his message to the foundations of the earth, that his righteousness will uproot punishment for sin. Then God tells Paul that this righteous act has brought reconciliation and to take this message of reconciliation to everyone who will believe it and receive it. 

Paul writes that this message of reconciliation through Jesus is a gift from God “who reconciled us to himself through Christ…not counting people’s sins against them” (2 Corinthians 5:18-19).

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).  

God’s righteous act that took vengeance and anger on sin, uprooted condemnation to establish righteousness through faith, because of God’s love and mercy. The God of the Old Testament and old covenant is the same God of the New Testament and the new covenant. Under the old covenant God told his prophet Isaiah that he heard people’s cries for salvation from oppression and the curses of sin and in that time he helped and saved the people of God. Under the new covenant he has spoken through his word that, the time of God’s favor and the day of salvation is here (2 Corinthians 6:2; Isaiah 49:8).

Righteousness has been established through Jesus but we must accept this truth into our lives to receive the favor, help and salvation. When we put our faith in ourselves or in anything else we are subject to their power to save, but God has spoken that all power has been given to Jesus. All power to save, all power to rescue, all power to make righteous, all power to bring favor; and all power to reconcile. 

Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. The one who can accept this should accept it (Matthew 19:11-12). 

“As though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God”, not through any sacrificial act but through faith; putting your trust in God (2 Corinthians 5:20).

Reconciled to be one body through Christ.

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.

All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions–it is by grace you have been saved.

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–not by works, so that no one can boast.

We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Therefore remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (or unrighteous by those who call themselves righteous)–remember that at that time you were separate from Christ…and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.

But now, in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.

By setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations his purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.

He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.

In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit” (Ephesians 2:1-22).