Judges 17
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And there was a man of mount Ephraim, whose name was Micah.
2 And he said unto his mother, The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from thee, about which thou cursedst, and spakest of also in mine ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it. And his mother said, Blessed be thou of the Lord, my son.
3 And when he had restored the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, I had wholly dedicated the silver unto the Lord from my hand for my son, to make a graven image and a molten image: now therefore I will restore it unto thee.
4 Yet he restored the money unto his mother; and his mother took two hundred shekels of silver, and gave them to the founder, who made thereof a graven image and a molten image: and they were in the house of Micah.
5 And the man Micah had an house of gods, and made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.
6 In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
7 And there was a young man out of Bethlehemjudah of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there.
8 And the man departed out of the city from Bethlehemjudah to sojourn where he could find a place: and he came to mount Ephraim to the house of Micah, as he journeyed.
9 And Micah said unto him, Whence comest thou? And he said unto him, I am a Levite of Bethlehemjudah, and I go to sojourn where I may find a place.
10 And Micah said unto him, Dwell with me, and be unto me a father and a priest, and I will give thee ten shekels of silver by the year, and a suit of apparel, and thy victuals. So the Levite went in.
11 And the Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man was unto him as one of his sons.
12 And Micah consecrated the Levite; and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.
13 Then said Micah, Now know I that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest.
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Commentary
“Surely the Lord will be good to me since I did such and such…”
Micah presumptuously believed that because he’d paid a Levite to be a priest in his home shrine, replete with idols, that God would bless him. Thinking he could have it both ways, Micah longed for God’s blessing while he continued to violate God’s commands about true worship.
God’s people are still polluted by “idol” worship. Wanting to do things our way, we live as a law unto ourselves. Yet we expect God to bless us while we commingle the holy and unholy in our daily lives. Spiritual anarchy – doing things as we see fit – always leads to worshipping heart-idols.
In the “American Idol” culture, we often worship like Micah: we want God to bless us while we cling to treasured idols, which are not usually golden statues. They are more intangible – idols of wrong priorities, idols of wasted time, idols of addiction, idols of heart-habits. . . and many more. Our bodies may not bow to inanimate objects, but our hearts and minds are idol-worshippers all the same.
God yearns to drench you in grace, but He won’t compete with your idols.
Lori Engel
