Dennis Tuuri

Servant scripture is Micah 6 verses 1 and 2. Micah 6 verses 1 and 2. Hear ye now what the Lord saith. Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice. Hear ye, oh mountains, the Lord’s country. Controversy and ye strong foundations of the earth. For the Lord hath a controversy with his people and he will plead with Israel.

Portion of scripture we just read from Micah 6 first two verses began a third major section of the book of Micah as we have said before and I thought it’d be good just for a minute or two here a couple of minutes to speak about the context of this particular section.

The fact that this is the third major section and follows up on the two first sections that we’ve already discussed. In chapter one of Micah, we saw some very similar language to what we’ve just read in the verses from Micah 6 that we’ve just read. Chapter 1 began with similar language speaking of the mountains and of all the earth and its inhabitants. They were called to a royal courtroom scene.

There were covenantal judgments proclaimed. Israel was the covenanted head of the world. The judgments were against the whole world. But then specifically against Israel and then specifically against the northern tribes and the southern tribes and the northern tribes were of course headed by their capital Samaria, the southern tribes by the capital of Jerusalem. So chapter 1 talked about that judgment from God coming down from God and the fact that judgment is premised upon a rejection of God particularly an idolatrous worship that had permeated the northern kingdom originally and then also permeated the southern kingdom as well.

Idolatry and a failure to worship God correctly were the reasons for that covenantal judgment portrayed in chapter 1. And chapter 1 ended with that judgment being worked out first in full against Samaria and then in Sargon’s march to Jerusalem and the approach of that judgment to Jerusalem as well.

Chapter 2 of Micah moved on to speak of the coming destruction that was to come on Jerusalem for the violation of the second commandment. Chapter one dealing primarily with the second tablet rather of the commandments. Chapter one dealing primarily with the first tablet. And by that we mean that the first five commandments or some people break them up as four first four commandments and the last six commandments. I think probably it’s more appropriately the first five and the second five. The first set of five commandments, the ten commandments deal with loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

The second tablet refers to our love for our neighbor and the way that’s worked out. So with chapter one talking about the violations of the first tablet and the judgment from God against it. Chapter two spoke of the violations one to another in the midst of their society, violations of the second commandment, and specifically violations in reference to the vulnerable ones that God had placed in the middle of the covenant community, the people were to extend the royal virtue of grace.

Giving the assistance to the people that they had got received from God themselves being brought as mercy as an object of his mercy into covenant with him. They were not to extend that mercy to the people around them particularly the vulnerable ones. So they didn’t do that. So chapter 2 talked of judgment also but it spoke specifically in context of violations of the second tablet.

Chapter 3 addressed what we called the time the magistrates of society and God’s representative leaders in the civil community the prophetic community the ecclesiastical community all the leaders of society which were given the specific task of representing God to the people had failed so chapter 3 dealt with judgment so chapters 1 through 3 spoke of judgment coming upon the whole world Samaria northern Israel Jerusalem and southern Israel and their failure in terms both of the first and second tablets and also their failure of the rulers as representatives of God in the land.

That was the first major section. The second major section was chapters four and five. Those spoke of the result of God shaking in history, the end to which all judgments move. That end being the establishment of the kingdom of the Messiah when he would come. And so that second major section also began with references to a mountain, but this time the mountain of the Lord. And the mountain of the Lord is spoken of as being established with the coming of Messiah.

Chapter 4. The first four verses give a synopsis of that establishment of that kingdom. The fact that all nations of the earth will eventually come to that holy mountain to worship God. And there’ll be a result in peace and prosperity in the land. Weapons of war would be beaten into weapons, implements of agriculture, and every man would sit under his vine and fig tree, the productive vine, the productive fig tree.

Peace and prosperity is a result of God shaking in history, judging men and nations. Summary statement, as we’ve said several times now, those first four verses of chapter 4 were followed by the liturgical response of the congregation, which was to say that we shall obey God in all that he has commanded us to do. The rest of chapters four and five talked in more detail. Then the way that chapter 1 gave a brief summation of the judgment upon the earth and then showed how that worked itself out in history.

Chapters four and five begin with a brief summation of the judge of the establishment of the mountain of God in the first five verses and then went on to give details about that in chapter 5 specifically relating it to the coming the birth of the shepherd king who would then manifest righteousness in the land. It would also deliver the covenant people from their enemies. And even more than that, he would extend his military might as it were, the Messiah would extend his might over Nineveh and over Assyria and over the pagan people that would seek to oppress the people of God.

And so again, we have the picture of all nations being permeated by the kingdom of God, the mountain kingdom of the Lord established by Messiah and his coming. So all these things were spoken of in chapters four and five. The end result of that is that either men either bow their knee to a sovereign God or they have their necks broken by that God as the gospel is preached forward. And so we move into this third section of the book.

Now this third section bears a resemblance to the first section. Once again here we have a call to shama to hear repeated twice in these first two verses. The same way they were called to hear in verse two of chapter 1. Once again there’s references indicating a courtroom scene in progress. We saw that in chapter 1, the first few verses, and we see it here as well. God calls the people into a courtroom scene.

Once again, we have reference to the creation as a participant in the courtroom proceeding going on. But I think that there’s a major shift in emphasis from that first section to this third section. There’s a major difference as we move into this third and concluding section. Now, the emphasis is not upon God’s awful world destroying judgments essentially and primarily and basically, but now the emphasis is upon God’s condescension to the men who have rebelled against them.

Now, in verses 3 and 5, we’ll talk more about this at length next week, but look for a minute just at verse three after the section deal with this morning. He goes on, if he calls the courtroom scene into process, he gives in verses 3-5 the charge against the people. But look at the way it’s addressed. Oh my people, what have I done unto you? Verse 5, oh my people, remember now what Balak, king of Moab, consulted, God refers to them twice here in terms of, oh my people, God reaching out to his people and saying that the judgments that come are for the purpose, the end result of reconciliation to God in the covenant.

And so while the first chapter was essentially and totally a statement of God’s judgment, this is going to happen. This is worked out, this terrible judgment of God, here in the third major section, there’s a shift. The judgment is there. The courtroom scene is there. But the end result of all that is that men might be reconciled to God. Now, they couldn’t hear it in the first chapter, I suppose, is one way to look at it.

But having given him that strong statement of judgment, and in the strong statement of the end, the end goal of that judgment being the establishment of his kingdom, in this third section, he’ll move now and talk about reaching out to the people that are the subjects of that judgment. And so, there’s a major shift in emphasis.

Now, in chapter 1, there was really no hint of repentance possible for the people in chapter 1. But the note behind the whole scene that we have just referenced briefly here in chapter 6, the beginning of this third section, the note behind that whole scene is that God lovingly reaching out, condescending to the people that have acted an ethical and moral rebellion against them, correcting them with his judgments that they might then bow the knee and might be brought back in repentance to him.

So there’s a possibility of pardon held out in this third section.

Now, if we’re to be true to the book of Micah, then we must with Micah proclaim forth God’s thunderous and destructive judgments against the nations in the overt rebellion against Yahweh. We must also affirm the validity of the first and second tablets of God’s law. And that means all ten commandments, not nine commandments. We must also with Micah affirm the responsibilities of all the rulers and society, the magistrates as it were, all rulers, economic, civil, religious, and educational, to obey God’s holy standard of his law in those ten commandments in their specific calling.

And surely we must affirm, as Micah did, the wondrous truths of the extent and blessedness of the reign ushered in by Messiah’s work on the cross 2,000 years ago and his resurrection. Now, these are very good and strong Christian Reconstruction distinctives. And the first and second sections of this book speak to those distinctives. Application of God’s law, the predictive portions of those law, the cursings from God due to rebellious men and nations, individuals who violate the first and second tablet, leaders of society.

The second section dealing with the optimistic eschatology that will come when Messiah that all this points forward the shakings due to the coming of Messiah and to the establishment of his kingdom and to the preaching of his gospel. The fact that he slays men and nations to serve him and those are good solid Christian Reconstructionist distinctives that we must affirm both in the book of Micah and throughout the rest of the scriptures.

But if we’re to be true to the message of Micah and indeed the message of the whole of God’s revelation to us, we must also ensure that the message of these two final concluding chapters, this third final section of the book of Micah is also a central tenant of what we preach as a church individually and also corporately. And that message is of God’s great grace, compassion, and condescension to be known in a covenant of grace.

This covenant lawsuit has as its goal and end reconciliation of the creature to the creator. That is the means, the secondary means whereby God has decreed that he be glorified and that he be praised for. And so we have to be sure that as we move into this third and final section, we note carefully the central theme throughout it as we will over the next couple of months as we deal with it and be sure also that it also rounds out then these other two sections in the book of Micah and in our own lives as we speak about the validity of God’s law the sureness of cursings from God and blessings the optimistic view that we have of history being on this side as it were the coming of Messiah the establishment of his kingdom we must recognize that all this points forth to the preaching of the gospel to men who are in God’s providence to be brought to reconciliation.

We’ve been given the ministry of reconciliation. And Micah closes his book in chapters 6 and 7 with a heavy emphasis upon that. And so, we want to make that emphasis our own emphasis in this church and in our lives as well.

Now, as the specific passage that we’re addressing this morning, I’d like to briefly look over it a bit to get the sense of how this begins this final section. And then we want to move on to address a question that kept coming into my mind as I went through this material over the last three or four weeks and address that in concluding first an overview of the text.

As I said this begins the third section and we have here I think in verse one of chapter 6. Hear ye now what the Lord saith arise and contend thou before the mountains and let the hills hear thy voice. I believe this is a commandment to Micah to the prophet. He has specifically commanded by God to arise and to contend before the mountains is God’s mouthpiece as it were in this covenant lawsuit. He’s to get up.

He is to contend and to bring the lawsuit. The word being there to contend being a specific term there to bring lawsuit against somebody or something. That person is not identified in verse one. He is told merely to get up and he’ll be pleading this case before the mountains and the hills. There’s a command then in chap in verse two for the mountains. They’re to hear the Lord’s controversy. The mountains and the foundation of the earth are to hear the lawsuit that are ushered that are that is spoken forward by Micah as the mouthpiece of God.

And then in verse two, he goes on to say that the suit is against and he puts it in the second half of verse two. Again, we’ve seen this device used by Micah throughout the book where he’ll bring a heightened interest in terms of the announcement of this lawsuit. Calls the mountains and the hills to hear the lawsuit. Obviously indicating this is a big deal. He’s calling the very mountains and foundations of the earth to hear this case as it were.

And then finally at the end of verse two, he identifies who he is pleading against, who he’s contending with, and it is none other than his people, the covenant people of God, Israel. Real shocker in terms of Micah’s preaching to the people that heard this. They would have expected the lawsuit to be issued against Sennacherib or the Assyrians or some other ungodly group of people, but instead it is with them.

The lawsuit talked about here is then initiated and we have in these first couple of verses. Then the calling of the witnesses, the participants as God brings suit against his people. Now we’ll get into this more in detail next week, but after these first two verses that announce the lawsuit, call the participants. You’ve got God, you’ve got the mountains hearing the case, and then you’ve got the people of Israel that God is bringing the case against.

In verses 3 through 5, then he actually gives his case against these people. And then following that in the next few verses 6-8 there’s a series of questions and answers on the part of the people. You can look at that as a response on the part of the people to God’s lawsuit. And we’ll talk about this more later. But those verses 6-8 can be seen in terms of for instance the liturgy developed in Psalm 15.

If you remember that Psalm 15 the question is who can ascend to the hill of God? Who can reside with God on his holy hill his holy mountain? And then the answer is given. Well, after God brings this lawsuit in verses 1 and two and then gives his argument against the people, they then respond at this there’s a series of questions asked which the people are to respond correctly if they’re to be brought into reconciliation with God.

So that’s the basic structure of this these first this first section of chapter 6, the covenant lawsuit brought and then this question and answer liturgy that reinforces to the people the only way to approach God and it’s not by sacrifice. It’s by humbling themselves before God. We’ll get to that in a couple of weeks.

Now, there in these first two verses, there’s several repeated statements. In verses 1 and verse two, we have the statement, “Hear ye, Shama,” and it’s issued twice there for a reason, for emphasis, both in verse one and verse two. The term Lord Yahweh, the covenant name of God, is used three times in these first two verses. In verse one, here what the Lord saith. In verse two, it’s the Lord’s controversy. And in verse two, it says, “The Lord hath a controversy.” So the covenant name of God, Yahweh, is spoken three times in these first two verses for emphasis again. And of course, the covenant name being used because this is a covenant lawsuit that they’re entering into.

The term suit or lawsuit is used three times and probably a fourth time as well. The term contend in verse one, arise, contend thou before the mountains. And then again in verse two, the Lord’s controversy and then also the Lord hath a controversy with his people. Those three terms contend, controversy, controversy all have the same root and that root is when is used throughout the scriptures to indicate a formal lawsuit heard in a court of law.

And so for instance, judges were appointed to hear controversies between men and men in the book of Deuteronomy. And so three-fold emphasis upon that. And then the fourth term reply referring also to the idea of a covenant lawsuit is the final phrase of verse two. He will plead with Israel. Again, there that has a formalized sense of contend in a covenant lawsuit. So, we have at least three times repeated the idea of a lawsuit.

And the fourth verse also fourth occurrence of plead also referring to action that occurs in the context of a court of law. So, that’s repeated. And then finally, the creation elements are repeated four times. In verse one, we have the phrases before the mountains, the hills here, And then in verse two, hear ye old mountains and ye strong foundations of the earth. And so we have again there the repetition a four-fold repetition now of elements of creation specifically mountains, hills, foundations of the earth.

So if we take those four-fold repeated statements and just use those, we have the central message of verses 1 and two. Here the Lord’s lawsuit mountains. Okay. Here the Lord’s lawsuit comma mountains and then you have the four-fold emphasis that’s throughout these first two verses.

Now as an introductory statement of bringing a lawsuit against his people we would expect here the Lord’s lawsuit that’s how you call a court to convene but the question that kept running through my mind these last few weeks as I read this particular section was why are the mountains referred to here I have no problem with hear Lord’s lawsuit but mountains why are the mountains called forward to hear this law lawsuit.

And so we want to look a little bit this morning then at looking why God uses the mountains, the creation as a witness in this case. So we want to turn then to an examination of the appeal to the mountains. And now I wanted to just read a couple of passages first from two different books. And I won’t name the first book, but it’s a fairly typical sort of comment dealing with language. And specifically the author in this book is talking about the term jealous and about how God is spoken of as being jealous.

And yet we know that when we’re jealous that’s always bad. The author says so what’s the deal here? Why does God why is God spoken of as being jealous? He says the reason for our dilemma is that we must employ human language to describe the characteristics of God our father. Scripture is full of anthropomorphisms where human features are attributed to God. God’s arm, hand, fingers, hearing, sight, anger, joint, and so on.

All we have at our disposal are words, the tools of communication men use to describe each other. We must remember, however, that man is not and never could be the measure of the maker. Attempts to describe God using human language always require greater qualification.

Now, that’s there’s certainly a lot of truth in that statement that the language is limited and certainly when the language refers to God, there must be an understanding that this is referring to God and that there must be some qualifications. However, as you read a statement like this and other very similar statements or even stronger ones in other publications that are in vogue these days, you get the idea somehow and we’ve talked about this a little bit before, but you get the idea that God is forced to reveal himself in this language that he’s stuck with. We only have language to understand God. God has to use these words and therefore uses these words like jealous that may mean one thing to us another thing to God.

And it’s almost like God has to sort of somehow deal with this awkward language to communicate himself. But of course, we know that’s not the case. The mindset behind that is again the evolutionary mindset that says that these things just evolved in process and then God at some point in time in the context of this great evolution of man decides to reveal himself and he has to use the common denominator of what men have already developed for themselves.

This language that they have or the created world and that’s why I’m using in this illustration because why does God talk about the mountains? Some people would say, well, God wanted to convey to these people the sense of importance and he kind of looked around and he saw that there were mountains out there and they were big and impressive. So, he decided to use those mountains and that’s about all there is to it.

Calvin in his commentary said the reason why he referred to mountains was to illustrate to the people their hardness of hearing. That’s probably more to the point, but I don’t think that exhausts what the scriptures had to tell us about mountains and covenant lawsuits. But in any event, we would want to say as Van Til said the following let’s see the idea and he’s talking about the use of Jesus’s use of parabolic teaching the parables and the fact that he refers to himself as in terms of the vine and the branch the vine and the branches give a metaphorical but faithful expression to the spiritual union between Jesus and his own and this is the key now because The physical is created for the purpose of giving expression to the spiritual.

Okay. Now, that’s a far different way to look at the use of such language as mountains here in the text before us than the first quote I read. Point that Van Til is making is that the mountains, the language that we have didn’t just happen. They happened by God’s providence and as a part of his decree. He brought these things to pass for a reason. He didn’t have to accommodate himself to common denominator that arose apart from his creation.

The language, the physical universe we live in, etc. have been created by God for the purpose of giving expression to the spiritual. And so the physical things that we’ve been given in our universe are there explicitly from God. And in his providence and decree, they are there specifically to teach us true although metaphorical truth about the spiritual realities that God calls us to recognize. All that just by way of saying that it’s important that he says, mountains, listen to this lawsuit.

Hills, listen up, foundations of the earth, I want you to pay attention now. And it’s not just some sort of accommodation. God wants us to think something when he uses that terminology. And if he wants us to think something when he uses that terminology in the context of the scriptures, then he certainly wants us to keep those things in mind as we walk around outside and see hills in the context of where we live and Mount Hood occasionally off here to the east.

And if the physical is there to give expression to the spiritual and the scriptures tell us connections between the physical and the spiritual, then we should remember how to interpret the created world around us as God has instructed us to in the word of God. So all that by way of saying it’s important to try to realize why God is calling here the mountains as witnesses to this court action. And it’s important as we consider these things to remember these things when we go out into the created order.

Well, the mountains certainly are given here in the context of a covenant lawsuit. And it’s important then to recognize that there is a vital connection in the scriptures between mountains and the covenant itself. So we’ll look at two things here. We’ll look at a covenant connection and then we’ll also look briefly at the mountain as God’s dwelling place.

First, the covenant connection. The mountain was the place of the giving of the law, the covenant in the first place. Exodus 19, we have Moses receiving the law of God. God entering into that formalized covenant with God as it were in the context of Mount Sinai. And so when the mountains are used in terms of the context of a of a covenant lawsuit, certainly one thing that reminds us of is that the mountains were where God gave us the law that he is now going to judge Israel on the basis of. And of course in verses 3 through 5, we’ll actually see more Exodus language used.

And it’s important to recognize that in covenant lawsuits throughout the scriptures, you see this language used and that’s to remind us of course that they have broken the covenant that was established as a result of God’s deliverance of his people. That’s how they got into covenant relationship with him. And so that formalized structure given on the on the mountain is then used in the court of law.

Now I’m just going to mention one other thing here briefly and that is that I think it’s fallacious to say there’s one reason why God chooses the word mountain here and causes those people to be participants to this court process. We moved from a time when at one time physics was controlled by the idea that there was one cause or one action and then a reaction as a result of that thing. Newtonian physics was based upon one cause producing one effect.

But we know today that there are a multitude of causes and I guess one way to think about it is like a billiard ball. You know if you shoot pool well people have at times thought that what we had was one thing affecting another thing. One ball hitting another ball. But the universe isn’t like that the universe is comprised of all kinds of different elements. If you think about the one ball hitting the other ball, there’s speed involved, there’s the force of the impact, there’s the size of the two balls respectively, there’s the friction on the felt, etc., etc., etc.

And so today, we recognize there’s a multitude of factors that we have to look at that produce any single cause or any single effect rather. And so there’s in the same way in the scriptures, the mountains are referred to in a number of different ways from God. And it’s important to look at least a few of those ways this morning.

Well, First of all, in terms of the covenant, the mountain is the place where the covenant law is given. And of course, for us today living this side of the work of the Messiah, Messiah came and he also went onto a mountain and he declared there also the law of God. And what he did on that mountain sermon was to correct the to remove the accretions of rabbinic teaching as it were that had made the law of none effect and that replaced the law of the traditions of men. And so Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount went up to a hill to a mountain and restated God’s law in essence.

Said that it’s still valid, but you’ve screwed it up in this way. Your traditions have said this. You have heard it said this, but God actually always intended it to be this way. So Jesus comes to the covenant mediator and again goes to a mountain or a hill and restates the law.

Now secondly, the mountains are given as a covenant witness, not just in the text before us, but there’s a long history in the Old Testament of these verses. We’ll just look at a few. here briefly. Deuteronomy 4:26. And of course, Deuteronomy is the great restatement of the covenant relationship they had with God. And so, it’s important to see the context of all this in of covenant lawsuit in dealing with the book of the covenant laid out of the book of Deuteronomy. And they are told specifically by Moses in Deuteronomy 4 well verse three says, “Watch yourselves lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which he made with you.” Then he says in verse 24, “For the Lord our God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” And that’s of course also a admonition given to us in the New Testament.

The same admonition to covenant faithfulness based upon God being a consuming fire and a jealous God. And then he goes on in verse 25 says, “When you become the father of children, you remain along in the land and you have all these blessings and when you then act corruptly and make an idol in the form of anything and do that which is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, so as provoke him to anger.

Verse 26, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that you shall surely perish quickly from the land where you are going over the Jordan to possess it. And so you see there’s a correlation between this passage and the one in Micah. We said that Micah the first section dealt with the idolatry, the idolatrous worship that they had engaged themselves in. And specifically here in Deuteronomy 4, he says, “When you end yourselves in idolatry, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that you will surely perish off the land.

And so that sets up this idea that indeed the created order, heaven and earth, are witnesses to the rebellion of Israel and will be witnesses in the future as well.

Again, in Deuteronomy 30 verses 17 to 19 start with verse 17. But if your heart turns away and you’ll not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, essentially all sin comes from that sin to serve other gods and to worship them.

I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You shall not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan and possess it. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants.

Again, in Deuteronomy 31:28, assemble to me all the others of your tribes and your officers that I may speak these words in their hearing, and call the heavens and the earth to witness against them. For I know that after my death you’ll act corruptly. And then in Deuteronomy 32 which is the song of witness. This is the song that is a witness to the covenant arrangement and describes the covenant relationship and how it came to be and the blessings of it. And in that song of witness in the very first verse Moses sings his song here in chapter 32:1 give ear shama listen up oh heavens and let me speak and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.

Let my teaching drop as rain. So here in the very establishment of the covenant described in the book of Deuteronomy four different times here we see repeated the same phrase that the heavens and the earth are to give witness to the covenant arrangement that God has called the people into and the heavens and the earth are to be declared as witnesses to the covenant agreement. And this proceeds of course also into the prophetic writings for instance chapter 1.

Isaiah being of course contemporary of Micah Isaiah 1, Isaiah begins his prophecy much the same way that Micah did. Listen, O heavens and hear, O earth, for the Lord speaks. Sons I have written and brought up, but they have revolted against me. So again, called God calls the heaven and the earth to witness.

Now, it’s interesting to note here, by the way, that in other Hittite covenant relationships and treaties that were entered into the attesting party, the witness to the covenant relationship made between the vessel or the lord as it or the servant rather and the sovereign the lord the witness to that arrangement were all these false pagan gods.

Okay. Well, now God enters into a covenant with his people and he surely is not going to have some greater source out there as a witness. What he has out there as a witness to himself are the heavens and the earth. The creation that he has provided that is the context for all this stuff. And so there’s no one to swear by that is greater than him. He swears by himself. But as a witness to the fact that the covenant was made, he invokes the heavens and the earth.

And in the book of Micah, the mountains themselves as representatives of the earth. Now, the heavens and the earth and the mountains specifically that part of the creation are also witnesses to blessings and cursings. In Deuteronomy 27 verses 9-28, we read of Moses instructing Israel In verse 9 of Deuteronomy 27, take heed and hearken, O Israel, this day thou art become the people of the Lord thy God.

And then he in verse 12, he charges them. He says, “Thou shalt stand upon Mount Gerizim to bless the people when you are come over Jordan, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Esser, Joseph, and Benjamin. And these shall stand upon Mount Ebal to curse Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. And the Levite shall speak and say unto all the men of Israel with a loud voice, cursed be the man. And he lists then a whole line of curses.

And so God had done was when he established this covenant. First of all, he reminded them that heaven and earth were going to witness against them that day. They’d been in a covenant relationship with God and they would be invoked later on when Israel was to go after other gods. They’d be invoked as witnesses to their violation of the covenant. And then he actually tells them specifically as they go into the land to set people on these two mountains, Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim.

Mount Ebal the curses. Mount Gerizim the blessings of the covenant. Now, and so he reminds them that these mountains also who are witnesses to them. On one we have represented the curses of the covenant, the other the blessings of the covenant. And so again there mountains the created order is used as a witness to the people that they will surely suffer the curses of God should they violate the covenant that has been witnessed and affirmed by the created order itself.

And this is actually done later on. These things are brought to mind. It wasn’t just a one-time occurrence in Judges 9:7. Jotham goes up and stands on the top of Mount Gerizim and he lifts up his voice and cries and said unto them, “Hearken unto me you men of Shechem that God may hearken unto you.” And so in Judges 9:7, Jotham goes up on Mount Gerizim and yells down to the Shechmites, that they have broken God’s covenant, and that they will have curses come upon them.

Now, it’s interesting because he goes on top of Gerizim, which is the mount of blessing, but he shouts from that mount of blessing cursings down to the men of Shechem. And there’s lots of ways that people have used to think through that. I’ve not studied it myself, but some people have noted the fact that the curses listed in the covenant statement that we just looked at from Deuteronomy 27, those curses are primarily for sins that would be hidden from the civil magistrate.

And the fact that the mountains are then calling forward the curses from God against the people that rebel against God in hidden ways is an indication that you may get away with it before men. The civil magistrate may not be able to understand your sin in this matter and your rebellion. You may get away with it before men, but you shall surely not get away with it in the sight of the mountains representing God to you.

He will bring these curses upon you. And so some have thought that Jotham here goes on the mount of blessing and reminds the Shechmites that instead of blessing, they’re actually reaping curses to themselves for the disobedience. But the important thing I want you to note here is again that the mountains are a witness to the covenant realities, to the laws of the covenant, and to the blessings and cursings of that covenant as well.

And again, Jesus when he went up on the gave the Sermon on the Mount, not only did he restate the law, but he also restated the blessings and the cursings. He gave a series of woes or cursings to the Pharisees and others who would break God’s law and replace it with their own law. And he gave the blessings, the beatitudes to those people that would walk in obedience to the covenant requirements. So mountains as a witness to the covenant is a repeated theme throughout the scriptures.

In Psalm 50, we have a parallel covenant lawsuit as it were as we have in Micah 6. Let’s look at Psalm 50 for just a minute or two here. Psalm 50. The mighty one. God the Lord has spoken and summoned the earth. From the rising of the sun to its setting, out of Zion the perfection of beauty. God has shown forth. May our God come and not keep silence. Fire devours before him, and he is very tempestuous around him.

He summons the heavens above and the earth to judge his people. Gather my godly ones to me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice, and the heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is a judge. Hear, oh my people, and I will speak, oh Israel, I will testify against you. I am God your God. I do not reprove you for your sacrifices and your burnt offerings are continually before me.” And he goes on then to list what their specific transgressions have been.

It’s important to recognize again the parallel here to Micah. He calls the people to covenant lawsuit. And when he does that, he invokes heaven and earth as judges now or witnesses to the nations covenant violations. As we read in verse four, he summons the heavens above and the earth to judge his people. And so God invokes the created order in terms of a covenant witness. That was where the law came forward from.

That was where the blessings and cursings were symbolically as it were put on the on the top of these mountains. And the mountain then serves as a covenant witness. The heavens and earth do the created order does to the covenant community’s unfaithfulness to God. And therefore they judge them.

Now the fact that the blessings and cursings both are deposited on these two mountains Gerizim and Ebal are also important because what this means is that we frequently think of the heavens and earth as a negative witness. But if we have a mountain of blessing and a mountain of curse, It also means that these mountains represent to us the stability of God’s law and of stability of blessings as well as cursings. And so what it means is that while if we’re in disobedience, the mountains are a witness to us of the covenant negatively. And yet if we’re in obedience and if we’re repentant before God and if we walk humbly before the God of our salvation, these mountains are a witness to our blessings from God.

One final passage I want us to look at is Joshua 24. And this kind of wraps this all up really. Joshua 24. You should be familiar with a little bit of this passage. This is the passage out of which it says, “As for me in my house, we will serve the Lord.” Pretty famous well-known passage of scripture. That’s in Joshua 24:15. And the context of this, of course, is that Joshua is saying, “You have to decide who you’re going to serve.

You got to serve somebody here. You’re going to serve God. God, or are you not going to serve God? Are you going to serve yourselves and the idols of the land about you? Choose whom you will serve, either the gods which your fathers served in verse 15, which were beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But as for me, in my house, we will serve the Lord. And so the people say, “We want to serve God.” And Joshua warns them, “This is not a light covenant you’re entering into here that you’re retaking.

This is an important thing. And I want you to be recognizing that you’re going to fall short of these righteous commands.” And they say, “That’s okay. We know that. We can do none other but serve the God of Israel and his commandments. And so they do that. And then Joshua does something very interesting starting at verse 25. So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.

And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God. And he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. And Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone shall be for a witness against us. For it has heard all the words of the Lord which he spoke to us. Thus it shall be for a witness against you lest you deny your God. Then Joshua dismissed the people each to his inheritance.

And so this is an interesting passage of scripture. You’ve got Shechem which was located between the two mountains of blessing and curse Gerizim and Ebal. And remember it was in Judges when we read about Jotham yelling the curses down from Gerizim. It was to Shechmites because they dwelled in the midst of these two mountains or hills. You have these two hills of blessing and cursing here. You’ve got Shechem in the middle.

You’ve got the sanctuary of God located there. And some people believe because it was close then to the idea the visual representations of blessings and cursings. God dwells in his people that dwelling is blessing and it is cursing. It’s blessing to the obedient ones. It’s cursing to the disobedient rebels. And so you’ve got Shechem located with the sanctuary. You’ve got these two mountains of blessing and cursing.

And now you’ve got the covenant being retaken by Joshua and the people. And there in the midst of Shechem by the sanctuary by the mountains of blessings and cursings he sets up a big stone a large stone a hill as it were kind of a picture of a mountain there because the mountains are the ones that going to witness to God and on this stone Joshua wants them to remember as they look at that stone that this stone has heard what they’ve said this stone was there when the people took that covenant with almighty God now we know that stones don’t hear things in that sense right this is not animism.

These stones don’t have spirits to them. The stone is a witness though because it was there and is a reminder to them that their taking that covenant was a historical event before God and it is then a witness to them. And when their children would walk by that stone and when they would walk by that stone later and walk between those mountains of blessings and cursings, those were visual reminders that the covenant has a reality in our lives and that the earth and the heavens, God will have the heavens and the earth themselves war against his people should they break the words of that covenant and serve idolatrous gods.

So the mountains are a picture certainly of the covenant and here in the context of the covenant lawsuit then it makes a lot of sense when God summons the people to their violations of the covenant law issued from a mountain to the fact that his judgments are coming upon them as they came as they were prefigured upon mount Ebal and the fact that those judgments are now going to produce reconciliation for some people as they bow the knee to Almighty God and they’re going to experience the blessings of Mount Gerizim.

It’s certainly appropriate then that Micah and God instructs Micah to have the earth to have the foundations of the earth, the mountains and the hills witness to the covenant realities that he is about to speak in this lawsuit with his people. A visual indicator of all that.

Now secondly, and this isn’t really a separate concept, it’s related very closely to the first one. The scriptures speak of the mountains as God’s dwelling place. And we mentioned Psalm 15 many other places of course, but we could just turn to Psalm 15.