Numbers 25:1-2 - While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in…immorality with Moabite women, who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate and bowed down before these gods.
Psalm 40:6-7 - Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but my ears you have pierced; burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require. Then I said, "Here I am, I have come—it is written about me in the scroll.
Psalm 51:17 - The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
1 Samuel 15:22 - But Samuel replied: "Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD ? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
Hosea 6:6 - For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.
Conclusions:
- Shittim is another name for the region of Israel's staging for the conquest of Canaan; it was across the Jordan river opposite the ancient city of Jericho
- Israel's engagement in the fertility rites of Baal involved not only the evil of immorality
- It was also a breach of covenant with the Lord, a worship of the gods of the land and a foretaste of the people's ruin in the unfolding of their history
- The thought of Micah 6:6 is also expressed in 1 Samuel
- Micah does not deny the desirability of sacrifices but shows that it does no good to offer them without obedience
- More important than sacrifices and offerings is obedience, especially to God's moral law--i.e., the ten basic commands of His covenant
- Pierced probably refers to the sign by which a servant pledged lifelong service to his beloved master
- If, however, pierced is translated opened, it refers to ears made able and eager to hear God's law
All Scripture verses taken from NIV
Conclusions derived from NIV Study Bible
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