AM Bible Study Group; October 7, 2015 from Judges 17:1-13
Theme: Spiritual decline is a decisive stages in a culture’s downward slide.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
We are entering into a new and final phase in our study of the Book of Judges. One commentator said that departing from the history of the judges to these last few stories is a little like stepping off a nice paved road onto sharp and broken gravel. These are some of the most unpleasant chapters of the Bible—rarely preached from in our day, but that need to be heard from more than ever before.
The key to understanding these last few chapters is the phrase we find repeated in it. Whereas in the previous chapters, the repeated phrase was that “the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD”, Judges 17:6 tells us, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” It’s the haunting phrase that ends the book (see 21:25); and is repeated—in shortened form—in the midst of this closing section (see 18:1; 19:1). Some today may celebrate the idea of ‘everyone doing one’s own thing’ as a good social policy; but it is actually one of the most dangerous approaches to life imaginable. That phrase expresses an utter disregard for the written law of God or for reverence toward Him, and an embrace instead of completely self-focused moral autonomy. What came as a result of ‘everyone doing what was right in their own eyes’ was perhaps the darkest period in Israel’s spiritual history.
There are specific themes in the chapters that follow; and they describe a clear and horrifying picture of cultural decline. Chapter 17 sees that decline from the standpoint of the religion of God’s chosen people, Chapter 18 from the standpoint of a culture that ceases to be law-abiding and protective of its citizens, Chapter 19 from the standpoint of a culture in utter degeneracy—little different from the Sodom and Gomorrah of old, and Chapters 20-21 from the standpoint of a culture desperately trying to recover from self-destruction, and groping out for the God that it had left behind. And as this first chapter—Chapter 17—shows us, this horrible decline beings with a decline of the spirit toward the God of the Bible—a breakdown of the religious order of things as He had ordained them in His word.
That spiritual downgrade shows itself . . .
I. WHEN THE GUILT OF SIN BECOMES GLOSSED-OVER BY ‘FALSE PIETY (vv. 1-2).
A. The historical record of Judges ceases to focus on the judges themselves—ending with Samson—and suddenly shifts to a story of a man named Micah. He was a man who lived in the mountains of Ephriam—a tribe that formerly prided itself in its supposed high-standing among the other tribes (see 8:1-3; 12:1-6). This man’s name means ‘Who is Like YHWH’ but his life own before the covenant God of Israel seems very shallow and compromised. He serves as a picture of how far Israel had wandered from the Lord at this time while still retaining an outward image of spirituality.
B. Apparently, Micah had stolen a very large sum of money from his mother. (No father is mentioned; so it may be that he is in his middle years, and she was widowed and somewhat under his care.) Somewhere along the way, his mother issued forth a curse on the thief; but it may be that she knew Micah had taken the money and had meant for him to hear it. Being mostly likely fearful of this curse, Micah said to his mother, “The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you, and on which you put a curse, even saying it in my ears—here is the silver with me; I took it” (v. 2a). Eleven hundred shekels (see 16:5) would have been worth between $6,500 to $7,000 (as silver is valued at the time these notes were written)—but it may have been worth much more in value at that time. This was no small sum that Micah stole from his mother. It was a truly despicable act; but for whatever reason—perhaps out of fear of her curse—he fessed-up and returned the money.
C. This man’s act was evil on a several of levels. For one thing, he had broken the commandment against dishonoring his mother. For another, he engaged in theft on a very large scale. For still another, there appears that there have been some deceit involved in covering up the matter until he confessed it. But does his mother treat these sins as sinful? No. Instead, she says, “May you be blessed by the LORD, my son!” There is no condemnation of sin, no call for a true repentance of the heart, no admission of guilt or shame or sorrow. Instead, God’s sacred name YHWH is evoked to “bless” the man who had just done this dastardly act in a pseudo-spiritual manner. This illustrates a first step in spiritual decline—when the guilt of sin is ignored, and sinful acts are white-washed with false piety. As God Himself said in Isaiah 5:20; “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” When we begin to gloss over the guilt of sin in this way, we cut-short the grace of God’s forgiveness toward sin; and we help perpetuate the sinful acts themselves.
II. WHEN ‘SPIRITUALITY’ DEGENERATES INTO A THING OF ONE’S OWN MAKING (vv. 3-6).
A. And it gets worse. We’re told that when he returned the eleven hundred shekels to his mother, his mother announces, “I had wholly dedicated the silver from my hand to the LORD for my son, to make a carved image and a molded image; now therefore, I will return it to you” (v. 3). Again, she is evoking the sacred name YHWH; but we might detect some hypocrisy in this since she made this announcement after the money had been returned. Before then, she had been cursing the thief. And then, of this money that was supposedly “wholly dedicated” to the Lord, she gave slightly under a fifth of it to the cause. And furthermore, what a cause! “Then his mother took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to the silversmith, and he made it into a carved image and a molded image; and they were in the house of Micah” (v. 4).
B. The Lord was clear in the Second Commandment: “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments” (Exodus 20:4-6). The essence of idolatry is a hatred for God as He really is—and a desire to make Him into something we would like better. It’s a desire to change Him, and thus change our relationship to His commandments. What a wicked act this was! And yet, we’re told, “The man Micah had a shrine, and made an ephod and household idols” (v. 5a).
C. What’s more, because Micah had sought to change God Himself, he also sought to change God’s priestly order. We’re told, “and he consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest” (v. 5b). Micah and his son were men of Ephriam—not of the priestly tribe of Levi. It was utterly unlawful for Micah to simply disregard God’s law, ignore God’s appointed order of priesthood, and make one of his own sons into one of his phony ‘priests’. No amount of man-made religion can ever make up for such disobedience; for even when acts of rebellion are made to look “spiritual”, it is still true that “rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry” (1 Samuel 15:23). He may have tried to make his actions appear ‘spiritual’ and ‘religious’; but from God’s standpoint, they were as abominable as acts of the vilest sorcery and witchery. But what more can we expect; for “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (v. 6)?
III. WHEN THE THINGS OF GOD BECOME USED FOR SELFISH ENDS (vv. 7-13).
A. It was bad enough that Micah sought to make-up religious things for himself. He then goes so far as to use the holy things of God for his own selfish ends. We’re told that a young Levite from Bethlehem of Judah came by. There were several cities already dedicated by God’s law for Levites to live in; but for some reason, this particular Levite was ‘on the bum’ in Micah’s region—“wherever he could find a place” (v. 8). (This may be because the Levites had grown to be neglected by the people of Israel.) He came to the mountains of Ephriam where Micah lived.
B. Micah gave him an invitation: “Dwell with me, and be a father and a priest to me, and I will give you ten shekels of silver per year, a suit of clothes, and your sustenance” (v. 10). It’s important to note in this that the young man have been a Levite, but he was not necessarily a priest from the linage of Aaron. Only the sons of Aaron could serve as priests; and that fact that Micah then “consecrated” the man as a priest suggest that this man was not a priest by law. And this may further be shown by the fact that the young man became Micah’s “priest” on the promise of a yearly salary, a suit of clothes, and room and board. It was a sweet deal to the young man—but an abomination in the sight of God. (And as we’ll see in the next chapter, it wasn’t so ‘sweet’ a deal that he was completely devoted to it; because when an even sweeter deal came along in 18:19-20, he very quickly ditched Micah and took it.)
C. Yet, for now, Micah has his own personal priest. And notice how self-satisfied Micah is with it all. He feels that he now has a good-luck charm in the form of a priest who is an authentic Levite. He feels that he has ‘bought’ God’s favor by pseudo-spiritual works of idolatry and disobedience; and that God is now somehow obligated to him. “Now I know that the Lord will be good to me,” he said, “since I have a Levite as priest!” (v. 13).
* * * * * * * * * *
The first half of the story of Micah shows us the sad spiritual condition of Israel at this time. But there is a very practical lesson in it all for us today who live in a culture that started off as distinctly “Christian” in nature. It warns us of the kind of spiritual decline that is the first stages of such a culture’s end. That spiritual decline from the holy standards of God’s law, and from a true worship of Him in obedience to the standards He gives us in His word—and indeed of making-up a ‘spirituality’ for ourselves that ends up rejecting the God of the Bible—is the first step in the downward slide of the whole of culture that leads to complete social disorder and degeneration.
That describes our current situation. And this passage suggests to us that a true spiritual awakening and a restoration of the worship of the God of the Bible through faith in Jesus Christ His Son is the great need of the day. May God give revival in our time; and may He see fit to heal our land!