IDOLATRY AT THE LOCAL LEVEL (Judges 17:1-13)
INTRODUCTION:
As we begin to look at chapter 17, we will quickly see that we are starting a new section, or a different part of the book of Judges. Some have said that chapters 17-21 are appendices to the book. What we have seen up to this point is the judges that God has raised up to deliver Israel from the hands of the foreign nations that He allowed to oppress them for their apostasy. What we have as we come into chapter 17 is a focus shift to the internal state of the nation of Israel and the religious and moral decay that was weakening the nation within. We have already seen this, or at least glimpses of it in the preceding chapters in the statement that said, “Israel did (or again did) evil in the eyes of the LORD.” Not only have we seen it in this statement but also in the religious and moral failings of some of the judges themselves. We certainly saw this in Samson’s life, but now the focus shifts entirely to view what is happening on the local level and in the lives of ordinary people. And what we will find in these closing chapters of this book is not pretty, in fact the picture painted for us by the author is a picture of chaos, religious chaos in chapters 17 and 18, and moral chaos in chapters 19-21. More than anything else these chapters show us a society that has lost its way and is on the verge of complete collapse.
This morning we begin with a man and his mother who seem to have no idea of what being an Israelite, one of God’s chosen people, is supposed to look like. Let’s pray and then get into our passage for this morning.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles this morning to Judges 17:1-13. Please, if you are able, stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word, and follow along as I read.
Judges 17:1-13,
“Now there was a man of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah. He said to his mother, ‘The eleven hundred pieces of silver which were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse in my hearing, behold, the silver is with me; I took it.’ And his mother said, ‘Blessed be my son by the Lord.’ He then returned the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, ‘I wholly dedicate the silver from my hand to the Lord for my son to make a graven image and a molten image; now therefore, I will return them to you.’ So when he returned the silver to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver and gave them to the silversmith who made them into a graven image and a molten image, and they were in the house of Micah. And the man Micah had a shrine and he made an ephod and household idols and consecrated one of his sons, that he might become his priest. In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes. Now there was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite; and he was staying there. Then the man departed from the city, from Bethlehem in Judah, to stay wherever he might find a place; and as he made his journey, he came to the hill country of Ephraim to the house of Micah. Micah said to him, ‘Where do you come from?’ And he said to him, ‘I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to stay wherever I may find a place.’ Micah then said to him, ‘Dwell with me and be a father and a priest to me, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year, a suit of clothes, and your maintenance.’ So the Levite went in. The Levite agreed to live with the man, and the young man became to him like one of his sons. So Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in the house of Micah. Then Micah said, ‘Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, seeing I have a Levite as priest.’” (Judges 17:1–13, NASB95)[1]
RELIGION OF YOUR OWN MAKING (Judges 17:1-5)
This chapter opens up in the hill country of Ephraim. We have been here several times during our time in the book of Judges. This is where Joshua was buried after his death as recorded for us in Judges 2:9. This is where the judge Ehud went and sounded the trumpet after he had assassinated Eglon, the king of Moab in chapter 3, verse 27. This is where Deborah, the judge held court, under a palm tree in the hill country of Ephraim according to chapter 4, verse 5. This is also where Gideon sent messengers to call out the men of Ephraim to take the waters of the Jordan so the Midianites could not escape as Gideon pursued them, this is recorded for us in Judges 7:24. Now however, we narrow down our focus onto one household in the hill country of Ephraim, one Ephraimite family, a mother and her son Micah.
The events that are unfolded for us revolve around 1100 pieces of silver that was stolen from Micah’s mother, this is not a small amount of money, and the mother pronounces a curse on the thief who stole it from her, she does this in the hearing of her son not knowing that he is the thief. Micah then tells his mother that he is the one who stole the silver and that he still has it and will return it to her. On hearing this, Micah’s mother is greatly relieved and blesses her son in the name of the LORD. When Micah returns the 1100 pieces of silver to his mother as he said he would do, his mother immediately dedicates it to the LORD to be made into an idol for Micah. We are told she takes 200 of the 1100 pieces of silver and gives them to a silversmith, who uses them to make an idol or two idols, a graven one carved out of wood and plated with silver and a molten one poured into a mold and made of solid silver. When the idol or idols are made, he gives them to Micah, who makes a shrine in his house where he puts these idols and some other household idols, and he makes an ephod which could have been a robe for his son who he consecrates as his priest. Thus, he has his own little temple.
This history of Micah and his mother could be looked upon as a good news event. A thief owns up to his stealing from his mother and returns what he has stolen. A mother and son are reconciled, a curse is turned into a blessing. A gift is given and received. The plans of both mother and son succeed. But as we look closer to what is happening here, we find things are not normal. A mother dedicates silver to the LORD and has an idol made with it! A man whose name is Micah, which means “Who is like the LORD?” manufactures household gods and makes a shrine in his house to honor all his idols! Then, even though he knows only Levites should be priests, makes his son, who is an Ephraimite, a priest. And the 1100 pieces of silver that Micah gave back to his mother that she wholly dedicated to the LORD, what happened to the 900 pieces that she did not give to the silversmith? This whole scene is bewildering, and the sad thing about it is that neither Micah nor his mother give any indication of knowing that what they are doing is wrong. It is a scene of complete religious confusion.
WHY? (Judges 17:6)
Verse six gives us the answer as to why Micah and his mother saw nothing wrong in what they were doing, and it is because of unrestrained individualism. “In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 17:6, NASB95)[2] We will see this statement over and over throughout the last five chapters of this book. What we are seeing in the opening verses of this chapter is what happens in a society when there is no center to hold that society together and no generally accepted standard to which the members of that society observe and follow. Because every man did what was right in his own eyes meant that he was serving only himself, and the standard by which he lived by was relative because it was whatever he chose it to be. In that kind of society and that situation the only possible religion is idolatry—a religion that is self-made and self-serving and therefore essentially the worship of oneself. We see Micah and his mother giving lip service to the LORD but that is all it is, according to their standard, according to what was right in their own eyes, the LORD was just another god among the myriad of gods that they had to choose from the the nations around them. Back in chapter 10, verse 6 we read, “Then the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the sons of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; thus they forsook the Lord and did not serve Him.” (Judges 10:6, NASB95)[3] This verse could just as easily been written, “Then the sons of Israel again did what was right in their own eyes and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the sons of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; thus they forsook the LORD, their redeemer and king, and did not serve Him.” Instead of worshipping the LORD who had redeemed them out of Egypt, out of slavery and bondage, who had led them into this land flowing with milk and honey that He had promised would be theirs, and instead of serving Him by following the standard that He had given them through Moses, they chose to be in bondage again to the nations around them and serve and worship their gods and bring the one and only true God down to the level of the gods of the nations and make Him one among many gods.
Fast forward to our world today, is it any different? Do we not see people doing what is right in their own eyes? Now we are more sophisticated, and we do not worship idols of gold and silver, but there are still idols that fill our lives as we do what seems right in our own eyes. This is because we have forsaken the one true and constant standard that is given to us in God’s Word, the standard that tells us what true religion and true morality is and have instead chosen our own standard and it may not be the same as someone else’s, but it is what works for me. Isn’t that the society that we live in today, everything is relative, every man does what is right in his own eyes. The gods of today are not gold and silver, they are fame, fortune, sex, or anything in your life that consumes your time and energy, and that is more important to you then God. Paul wrote in Colossians 3:5, “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.” (Colossians 3:5, NASB95)[4] What is your standard of morality, what are you passionate about, what are your desires in life, what do you want more than anything else, if your answer is anything but God, Paul says it is idolatry. It is good to check our hearts from time to time to make sure our desire and passion is God alone and that we are not harboring some idol there.
WILL A LEVITE HELP? (Judges 17:7-13)
Verse 7 opens with a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, a town belonging to the tribe of Judah, but the young man we are introduced to is not a son of Judah, but a son of Levi, he is a Levite. How long he had been living in Bethlehem we are not told, just that he was staying there. Then we are told that he left Bethlehem seeking a better situation for himself. In his travels he finds himself in the hill country of Ephraim and he comes upon the house of Micah, most likely he approached the house seeking a place to stay for the night. When Micah inquires about this young man and finds out he is a Levite, his interest is aroused, and he does not waste any time in making the young man an offer that he cannot refuse. Micah asks him to stay with him, and be a father and a priest, and in return Micah offers him 10 pieces of silver a year, plus clothes and room and board. The Levite cannot believe this good fortune and accepts the offer at once. Micah consecrates him as a priest right away, the young man moves in and takes up his duties as a priest. It is all very businesslike; everything seems straightforward and above board. Both Micah and this young man are happy with the arrangements they have made, and it seems like a win-win situation for both of them. All of this seems to be on the up and up, but a closer look reveals that this event is just as irregular as the event before it involving Micah and his mother. It just appears to be normal.
First, the Levite’s situation and behavior are both abnormal. Remember that Moses had told the Levites that they would not have an inheritance in the land of Israel, that He was their inheritance. Joshua had allotted certain cities throughout Israel to be for the Levites, cities and their pastureland for their livestock. The family of Aaron were to serve as priests and the rest of the Levites were to assist them. The Levites were to be supported by the tithes of their fellow Israelites. So why was this young Levite seeking employment? Why had he been living in Bethlehem, it was not one of the Levitical cities, nor do we get any indication that this young Levite was headed for one. His willingness to accept Micah’s offer of employment shows that he either had no idea what was normal or had no regard for it. In other words, his situation and behavior are at the very least symptoms of the general disorder of the times.
Micah’s actions in this event are just as abnormal as they were in the first event. In spite of the total confusion caused by Micah’s previous actions, he shows in this event that he is at least aware of a traditional connection between the Levites and the priesthood. But by what authority does he consecrate one in that role? Also, what happened to his son who he had already installed as his priest. Has he been replaced, demoted, or simply gone missing like the 900 pieces of silver that went missing after the 200 pieces were given to the silversmith? No one seems to care, least of all Micah and his new employee who settle into a new father-son relationship of their own making. The reality is that nothing has changed at Micah’s shrine except the officiating priest. The installation of a Levite as priest, may on the surface, be a move toward what outwardly would seem right, but in reality, this is not true. In fact, this has only made the evil nature of Micah’s shrine more evil by bringing in someone who should have been devoted to the service of the LORD alone with absolutely no connection to the worship of idols. To bring it to a close the author takes us below the surface in verse 13 to show us why Micah has acted as he has in the event. “Then Micah said, ‘Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, seeing I have a Levite as priest.’” (Judges 17:13, NASB95)[5]
This chapter is full of religious words, objects, activities, and persons, but none of it has been ruled by respect for God’s Law, or a desire to honor or glorify God as an end in itself. Rather it has been all about people using religion to serve their own interests, a mother uses it to indulge her son, a Levite uses it to secure a better life for himself, and Micah believes that it will bring him prosperity by making a Levite the priest at his idolatrous shrine. He believes and may even be confident that this will bring him success, but that could not be farther from the truth. Though he has seemed to prosper steadily through these two events, that is about to change, and he will suffer a sudden loss of all of it. From the moment we get into chapter 18 nothing will go right for him. Idolatry is still idolatry, even if the name of the LORD is used from time to time and a Levite is employed to give the appearance of respectability. This is not the way to real prosperity; in fact, we will learn that it is the way to tragic loss.
CONCLUSION:
We see from this chapter that idolatry has become the way of life in Israel, here in the heartland of Israel, the hill country of Ephraim where we have seen the LORD bring about deliverance on multiple occasions, even here at the local level they had sunk to new depths of evil. Idolatry has become the way of the world—we live in a society in which people pursue their own interests. The God who made the world and all that is in it and sustains it all by His power is either outright rejected or paid only lip service, and people are only concerned about other things and how they relate to their lives. These other things may become idols in their lives because they have taken the place of God in their lives.
We expect to hear about idolatry in the pagan world, but the history of Micah and his idols is not about pagans, it is about Israelites. It is about idolatry in the life of the people of God, those for whom it was least excusable. Our Scripture reading this morning from Romans 1 explains that man is without excuse when it comes to knowing about God, because God’s invisible attributes, His eternal power, and His divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made. In other words, creation is a display for mankind of God’s attributes, His power and His divine nature, and because this can be seen in what God created, man is without excuse when he denies God or replaces God in his life with other things. For the Israelites, they not only had this revelation of God in creation, but He had also revealed Himself to them in their own history and He was revealed to them in the Law He had given them. All this was close at hand, they still spoke His name, there was an annual festival to the LORD in Shiloh. But because they had not driven out and completely destroyed those who they were told to drive out, the Canaanites who remained in the land, because they were still there, the combined pull of the Canaanite culture in which they were living, and their own sinful desire to make everything, including religion, a means of prospering made the drift towards idolatry irresistible. In the end they became so self-deceived that doing “what was right in their own eyes” seemed not only excusable, but natural and good. This had happened because they had no king, but that was not true, their King was there but they ignored His rule and authority in their lives as He punished them and delivered them over and over because of His love for them.
The same thing is taking place in our world today, people have become so self-deceived that doing what is right in their own eyes seems the way to live, then you do not have to answer to anyone but yourself. Man is still without excuse; creation still displays God, and His wrath is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Do not get caught up in the things of this word like Micah did, instead be heralds of truth in a world where most are suppressing the truth in unrighteousness.
[1]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[2]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[3]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[4]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[5]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.