Micah 6:4

For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt,.... Instead of doing them any wrong, he had done them much good; of which this is one instance, and he was able to produce more: this a notorious,

For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of servants; and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

Look as far back as thy coming out of Egypt, near seven hundred and forty years agone; for I brought thee up, with an out-stretched arm, out of the land of Egypt, where by servants thou wert oppressed, where thy oppressors did plot thy utter extirpation, where thou servedst in the iron furnace. Redeemed thee; delivered thee by mighty power, and gave Egypt for thy ransom; I made them pay dear for their detaining thee, and ill using of thee. Out of the house of servants; being offspring of Canaan, they were in their father’ s curse doomed to be servants, and were (as servile minds are) most barbarously cruel to Israel, as appears by the bloody edict against the male children, and by requiring brick without straw; their bondage was a cruel bondage under which they groaned. I sent before thee Moses; a man excellently qualified to be a conductor to them, a very learned, martial, and experienced man; he improved his forty years by the advantages of a royal education first, and next by the great employments which such persons are called to: for his wisdom and learning, his might and valour, you have witness, ; the Hebrew tradition is, that he fought and got many battles, in which he commanded as generalissimo for Pharaoh. Moses was beside this admitted to extraordinary consults with God: by this means their model of polity was made very exact. Aaron; a person called to the exercise of the highest office in the priesthood, to offer sacrifice, and make atonement for the sins of the people, and to be a type of the great Intercessor. Miriam; a prophetess, to be assistant to her brothers last mentioned, to be example and counsellor to the women: God furnished them with magistrate, priest, and prophet.

Micah 6:4 For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of servants; and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.Ver. 4. For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt] Here God twits them with his former favours; which he never doth but in case of brutish unthankfulness. Now there was brutish, and worse. To render good for evil is divine; good for good is human; evil for evil is brutish; but evil for good devilish. This makes God, contrary to his custom, upbraid people with what he hath done for them; and angrily call for his love tokens back again, as Hosea 2:9. For their deliverance out of the Egyptian servitude how great a mercy it was, such as they were again and again charged never to forget, Deuteronomy 6:12; Deuteronomy 5:15; Deuteronomy 26:5-12. How much more bound are we to God for our redemption by Christ! for what is Pharaoh to Satan? Egypt to this present evil world? Egyptian bondage to sin’ s slavery? Seeing then that our God hath given us such deliverance as this, should we again break his commandments? Well might the hills and mountains testify against such a monstrous unthankfulness and disingenuity. And redeemed thee out of the house of servants] Gradatim progreditur, saith Calvin. It was something to be brought out of the land of Egypt, a most superstitious place, where they turned the glory of the incorruptible God to the similitude of the image of a corruptible man, Romans 1:23 (for they deified their king, Osiris), and of birds (for they worshipped the hawk and ibis), and of four-footed beasts (for they worshipped an ox, a dog, a cat, a swine), and of creeping things, for they worshipped the crocodile, ichneumon, &c., yea, they worshipped plants and pot herbs. Hence Juvenal, “ Felices genres, quibus haec nascuntur in hortis Numina ” - To be brought out, therefore, from among such hateful idolaters was no small favour, lest they should smell of their superstitions, as Micah’ s mother did after all that erring sin in the desert, Judges 17:3; and Jeroboam, by being there a while, had learned calf worship; hence that strict charge never to make league with them. But to be redeemed out of the house of servants was more; out of the iron furnace, Deuteronomy 4:20 Jeremiah 11:4, where they wrought night and day in latere et luto, Exodus 1:11, in setting up those famous pyramids and treasure cities for Pharaoh, where they served with rigour, Exodus 1:13; their lives were made bitter with hard bondage, Exodus 1:14, till God withdrew their shoulders from the burden, and their hands did leave the pots, Psalms 81:6, "till they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone," Exodus 24:10, to show that God had now changed their condition, their bricks made in their bondage to sapphires.

(4) For I brought thee up.—There seems a pause intended; but Israel, abashed, remains silent. So the Lord continues to plead: “Thou dost not testify against me? No; for I showed thee the greatest mercies: I redeemed thee out of Egypt, the house of bondage.” Moses, Aaron, and Miriam are mentioned as the three great members of the family to whom it was committed to carry out the Divine decree.

Verse 4. I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt] Where you were slaves, and grievously oppressed; from all this I redeemed you. Was this a small benefit? I sent before thee MOSES, my chosen servant, and instructed him that he might be your leader and lawgiver. I sent with him AARON, that he might be your priest and transact all spiritual matters between myself and you, in offerings, sacrifices, and atonements. I sent MIRIAM, to whom I gave the spirit of prophecy, that she might tell you things to come, and be the director of your females. To this sense the Chaldee, "I have sent three prophets before you; Moses, that he might teach you the tradition of judgments, Aaron, that he might make atonement for the people; and Miriam, that she might instruct the females."

4. For I brought thee up] ‘Nothing,’ is the only truthful answer to the divine question. Jehovah has indeed wonderfully assisted His people in their troubles. Nothing could extinguish the sense of the overwhelming grandeur of Israel’s first deliverance. A prophet, writing in the name of the Jewish Church of the Captivity, points back to the happy days of old, when he ‘brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock’ (Isaiah 63:11). I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam] These were the shepherds, by whom ‘God led His people like sheep’ (Psalms 77:20)—Eastern shepherds going before their sheep (John 10:4).

For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the hoarse of servants - What wert thou? What art thou? Who made thee what thou art? God reminds them.

JEHOVAH AND ISRAEL IN — THE , Micah 6:1 to Micah 7:20.With Micah 6:1, begins a new series of utterances.