Micah 6:1-5--The Indictment of the LORD

Micah 6:1-5
English Standard Version

The Indictment of the LORD
6 Hear what the LORD says:
Arise, plead your case before the mountains,
    and let the hills hear your voice.
2 Hear, you mountains, the indictment of the LORD,
    and you enduring foundations of the earth,
for the LORD has an indictment against his people,
    and he will contend with Israel.

3 “O my people, what have I done to you?
    How have I wearied you? Answer me!
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.
5 O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised,
    and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him,
and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal,
    that you may know the righteous acts of the LORD.”

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The LORD is going to read the indictment so that the heavens and the earth can stand as witnesses in agreement with the indictment and the verdict.    Though the people wish to stand up and make their case for why they are innocent they will have the LORD, the mountains, and the sea as witnesses against them.

The LORD asks what He has done to them that might have led them to turn to idols and all kinds of wickedness.  He recalls how redeemed them from slavery in Egypt and made them who were not a people or a nation into both a people and a nation in a single day.  He gave them leaders like Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, and even then they sinned greatly at Peor when Baalam realized he could not curse the people by his regular incantations and divinations, so he told the Midianites to seduce the hearts of the people with women that would turn them towards their false gods.  The LORD would have nearly consumed them that day if it were not for the zeal of Phineas.  

The two places mentioned, Shittim and Gilgal, are the last place they camped before crossing the Jordan River into the Canaan, and the first place they camped after crossing the Jordan River into Canaan, so the LORD is speaking figuratively here that He is once again able to deliver them and deliver on all the promises that He made to them.  This is true now in the LORD promising them something better than just the Land of Canaan that by itself was not enough to bring about the perfect kingdom that the LORD had in store for them.  By this, the LORD vindicates Himself to say that He is in no way at fault for the way that "His children" have turned out.  He did everything right, and yet, they still rebelled and became just like or worse than the Gentile nations.