The book of Judges can be a difficult book to get through. It's more enjoyable for us to read about the people who steadfastly loved God; through them we God's obvious beauty. But through these who made so many mistakes, we learn about the resilience of God. We learn about the magnanimous nature of His love and that is instructive for us because we each need and benefit from that particular trait of his.
More than that, we learn about the nature of idolatry. We learn to recognize the areas in our own lives where we have placed things and desires above our faith. Inconsistent faith and idol worship are so boldly portrayed in this scripture because they help us to recognize the subtle ways our own idolatry is damaging our own lives.
We learn a lot from the biblical heroes, the advocates, the disciples the messiah. But those who got it wrong have a message for us a well; we must pay equal heed to it.
This account of Micah's idolatry is out of sequence, likely occurring before Samson's time, but the message fits the context.
17:1 We are introduced to a man named Micah of the mountains of Ephraim. Micah is a product of his generation, a generation which has fallen away from God. God's philosophy has been so corrupted that people live hypocritically, neglecting the core of God's word while living to satisfy their greed.
.
17:2 Micah confesses to stealing silver from his mother. Immediately we know that we have been introduced to a family whose god is money. Micah's mother was distraught at losing her money and curses the person who takes it. Likely she had an inkling that her son took the money, as she yells the curse in his ears.
Their world, and our world, is established with a monetary system. But God wants us to understand that He is our capable provider. A storage of savings is not our rescue, He is. Our pile of money, in silver or in a bank is not our security blanket: God is. Jesus would not have wept over losing money; God wants us to get to a point where we would not cry over lost money either.
So, Micah's mother hoards money. And Micah steals it. Neither has faithful priorities. But let's make that an observation rather than a judgement. Many of us have our own circumstances where we place our trust and desire outside of faith. Many of us are still working on trusting God and remaining steadfastly with Him.
17:3-4 Micah's mother's intentions were to give the money to her son after passing over. With the money, she wants to have an idol built for her son. Red flag: Exodus 20:4. God does not want us to create images because we begin to worship the thing rather than the source of our life. God does not want us to place our faith in inanimate things because He knows that those things do not love us and are incapable of taking care of us.
Our idols today look like that which is purchased by material wealth. Sometimes, our idol is even ourselves: vanity. While it is healthy to love ourselves, we should not have an arrogant opinion. A child of God is proud to call themselves a servant of His, an agent of compassion, an instrument through which His will is done. We must place our passion properly, outside of ourselves, because God rewards selfless work.
17:5 Micah surrounds himself and his family with idols. The family begins to worship money and their greed effectively removes God from their lives.
17:6 It is explained to us that this is a period of faithlessness. The law and philosophy of God is abandoned: the children of Israel live in chaos. Each person lives according to what they desire. Scripture teaches humanity that when we abandon our connection as kin, we delve into recklessness and futility.
17:7-12 A Levite man travels into the mountains of Ephraim and meets Micah. The two men make an arrangement: the Levite man will serve as Micah's personal priest. But this priest is a charlatan. For if he were a true teacher of God's word, he would have immediately went to work restoring Micah's corruption. Instead, this man is content to live with Micah and be provided for by him (rather than God).
17:13 Micah is completely deluded; he has convinced himself that wealth makes him a child of God. He thinks possessions make him stand out. Not quite. The meek shall inherit the earth. The humble, the weak, receive God's most passionate love and protection. Those who are not connected to the world's ways are adopted by the Spirit.
