John Trapp on Micah 6:4

Verſe 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 unthankfulneſſe. Now there was brutiſh, and worſe. To render good for evill is divine: good for good is humane: evill for evill is brutiſh: but evill for good deviliſh. This makes God, contrary to his cuſtome, upbraid people with what he hath done for them: and angrily call for his love-tokens back againe, as Hoſ. 2.9. For their deliverance out of the Egyptian ſervitude how great a mercy it was, ſee the Note on Hoſ. 11.1. ſuch as they were againe and againe charged never to forget Deut. 6.12. and 5.15. and 26.5. to 12. How much more bound are we to God for our Redemption by Chriſt? for what's Pharaoh to Satan? Egypt to this preſent evill world? Egyptian bondage to fins ſlavery? Seeing then that our God hath given us ſuch deliverance as this, ſhould we againe break his commandements &c. Well might the hills and mountaines teſtify againſt ſuch a monſtrous unthankfullneſſe, and diſingenuity.

and redeemed thee out of the houſe of ſervants] Gradatim progreditur, ſaith Calvin. It was ſomthing 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 (for they defiled their king Oſiris) and of birds (for they worſhipped the hawk and Ibis) and of foure-footed beaſts (for they worſhipped an ox,Rom. 1.23. 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 the Poet Felices gentes,Iuven. quibus haec naſcuntur in hortis Numina— To be brought out therefore from amongſt ſuch hatefull Idolaters was no ſmall favour, leſt they ſhould ſmell of their ſuperſtitions, as Mica's mother did after all that ayring ſin in the deſert Judg. 17.3. and Jeroboam, by being there awhile, had learned calf-worſhip: hence that ſtrickt charge never to make leagne with them. But to be redeemed out of the houſe of ſervants, was more: out of the iron furnace Deut. 4.20. Ier. 11.4. where they wrought night and day in latere & luto Exod. 1. in ſetting up thoſe famous Pyramids, and treaſure-cities for Pharaoh, where they ſerved with rigour, Exod. 1.13. their lives were made bitter with hard bondage ver. 14. till God withdrew their ſhoulders from the burden, and their hands did leave the pots Pſal. 81.6. till they ſaw the God of Iſrael: and there was under his feet as it were a paved-work of a Saphire-ſtone Exod. 24.10. to ſhew, that God had now changed their condition, their bricks made in their bondage to Saphirs. Confer Eſay 54.11. and conſider what God hath done for us, by bringing us into the glorious liberty of his own children, who were once the devils drudges and dromedaries, ſerving diverſe luſts and pleaſures Tit. 3.3. which gave lawes to our members Rom. 7. and held us under in a brutiſh bondage, much worſe then the Heathens mil-houſe, the Turks gallies, Bajazets iron-cage, the Indian mines, or Egyptian furnace. For there, if they did their task they eſcaped ſtripes; but here, let men do the devill never ſuch doughty ſervice, they are ſure of ſcourges and ſcorpions after all, armies and changes of ſorrowes and ſufferings: terrours and torments, without any the leaſt hope of ever either mending or ending. This ſhould make us lift up many an humble, joyfull, and thankfull heart to our moſt powerfull Redeemer: ſaying with St. Paul, Now to the King eternal, immortal, inviſible, the only wiſe God, be honour and glory for ever and ever, Amen. 1 Tim. 1.17.

and I ſent before thee, Moſes, Aaron and Miriam] As three principall guides, and Miriam for one: who did her part among the women Exod. 15.20. and, having a prophetick ſpirit, became a ſingular inſtrument in the hand of God who ſpake by her Num. 12.2. But her weak head was not able to bear ſuch a cup of honour, without being intoxicated: which cauſed her father to ſpit in her face Num. 12.2, 14. Her death is recorded in ſcripture Num: 20.1. but not her age, as is Sarahs Gen. 23.1. Some have obſerved that God thought not fit to tell us of the length of the life of any woman in Scripture but Sarah, to humble that ſex. But as ſoules have no ſexes, ſo of ſome women (ſuch as were Miriam, Deborah, the Virgin Mary, Priſcilla, Blandina, the Lady Jane Gray, Q. Elizabeth &c.) it may be ſaid, that in them, beſides their ſex, there was nothing woman-like or weak: as if (what Philoſophy ſaith) the ſoules of theſe noble creatures had followed the temperament of their bodies, which conſiſt of a frame of rarer roomes, of a more exact compoſition, then mans doth. It is poſſible that Miriam might (till that matter of emulation betwixt her and Moſes his wife fell out) be as helpfull to Moſes and Aaron, as Nazianzens mother was to his father;Non ſolum adjutricem in pietate, ſed etiam doctricem & gubernatricem. Nazian. Epitap. pat. not a help-fellow only, but a doctreſſe and governeſſe.