Imagine an unbeliever has died and is standing before God, and God asks the unbeliever why he or she did not trust Christ for their redemption. Would they have a good answer? This is the situation in verse 1. God said, “Stand up and state your case against Me.” That was God’s question to His chosen people, but they had no answer.
Beginning in verse 2, God listed His case against Israel and Judah. He began by asking them questions; “What have I done that makes you turn away from Me?” Then He reminds them of all He had done for their ancestors.
In verse 6, the people tried to get back on the Lord’s side, but there is no real concern on their part; their response was simply to do the usual religious things. Micah went on to describe several things they may have practiced with their foreign gods, but these would not satisfy the true God. “No, He has told you what He wants, and this is all it is: to be fair, just, merciful, and to walk humbly with your God.”
Micah began in verse 9 to repeat what God told him would happen to the people of Israel and Judah. What was the problem with the people during that time? Verse 16 tells us, “The only commands you keep are those of Omri; they only example you follow is that of Ahab!” In other words, they were religious but without a real relationship with God.
There are a lot of people like that today. They attend church but that is as far as they go. Once they leave the church service, their thoughts of God and His desires slide into the background until the next church service. We forget that we have a priestly duty, and maybe that is because we have never heard about it from the pulpit. In many churches, the pastor spends his time trying to reach a few lost people, and we are thankful we made that decision in the past. I am sure these pastors hope we go home and study our Bibles and do what we are supposed to do, but our lives become so busy we don’t really think about it and become indifferent. We may think that salvation is the only important thing in our religion.