NOTES for Mic 6:1-16

The Lord invites people to plead their case with Him. We are already ready to imagine such a trial as terrible, and it would hardly be a mistake to say that many of us are sure such a trial would be biased toward accusation. All the more striking, then, is that the Lord, with whom by definition no one can compare, intends to contend with the people on equal terms and invites them to say what claims they have against Him. He is ready to humble Himself in order to be heard, and here before us is one of those places in the Old Testament that will be disclosed in the New Testament, when the Lord humbles Himself and begins speaking with people as one of them.

The Lord Himself reminds them what He has done for the people. Precisely because He truly cared for His children, He can demand strict accountability from them. For He kept faith with the people, but it cannot be said of the whole people that they kept faith. They will have to answer for betrayal, and the apostates have punished themselves by calling down on their own heads the consequences of their own lawlessness.

In the time of the Second Temple, after the Babylonian captivity, short definitions, in one or two phrases, of what the essence of the Torah consists in were popular among Jewish theologians. But, as is clear, this post-exilic rabbinic tradition has its roots in the prophetic tradition, which is older than the exile.

Micah also gives such a definition, singling out what is central in the Torah: just judgment, love of mercy (this is exactly how it stands in the Hebrew text), and modesty or restraint before God (what the Synodal translation calls "humble wisdom"). At first glance, such a definition cannot be considered universal: not everyone is a judge, and not everyone has to issue legal decisions. But the prophet speaks of judgment in a broader sense.

The Torah was given to a person not so that he may condemn his neighbor, but so that he may use it as an instrument when making a decision that corresponds to God's will in the concrete situation in which he has to make that decision. And in a concrete situation everyone becomes a judge for himself: everyone has to evaluate the situation itself, the actions of everyone connected with it, and his own choice. The right choice turns out to be the foundation of foundations when it comes to keeping the Torah. But the right choice is possible only if a person is oriented toward mercy from the very beginning (what the prophet calls love of mercy).

As is clear, such an orientation was not an exclusive feature of New Testament revelation. Another matter is that in the Kingdom it is simply impossible to exist without such a spiritual orientation. But even before Christ came into the world, the prophets and the righteous knew that without mercy, keeping the Torah was impossible. Indeed, the Torah presupposes the presumption of innocence, not only legal but also spiritual and moral, and it presupposes it in a world of fallen people who, by definition, cannot act in accordance with the commandments given by God without special and purposeful effort.

In order not to condemn such people in advance in such a world, in order not to presume from the start the worst intentions in their actions and deeds, mercy is needed; one must be ready to give everyone a chance to show himself a better person than, by his fallen nature, he most often turns out to be. And one must be ready to keep God's commandments even toward someone who will not be able to keep them, and may not even want to. But mercy is as little natural to fallen humanity as righteousness is. Both can be acquired only by showing the restraint before God of which the prophet speaks.

Of course, this is not about being embarrassed before God. It is about this: a person who wants to gain righteousness and mercy must follow God rather than run ahead of Him, periodically leaving the road, as a young dog sometimes runs ahead of its master in the woods. Only by following God can one receive from Him the strength and possibilities that make a righteous person righteous and give the one who wants to follow the Torah the strength to carry out that intention.