"The Lord, Doing Me Good”
Judges 17
August 20, 2006
by C.W. Powell
The events of this and the following chapers took place much earlier than the life of Samson, which the previous chapters have recorded, but took place shortly after the entry into the land when Phinehas was still high priest. The purpose of Judges is not to give a strict historical account, but to tell the story of Israel’s sad spiritual decline and the people who were raised up from time to time to call them back to righteousness.In this and the next several chapters we have the account and progress of idolatry in Dan in the north of Israel. This idolatry would continue for many, many years, until the fall of Israel and its captivity. This shows where the calf worship began in Israel, and shows that the idolatry that the Israel brought from Egypt continued throughout their entire history. The particular idol that is created in this account probably did not exist through the reigns of David and Solomon, but I believe it was the pattern for the idolatry of Jeroboam, who created two such images and put one at Dan and the other at Bethel in order to provide an alternative worship for Israel after the division of the kingdom after Solomon. But that is another story. Let us look at the scriptures.
Judges 17:1-3
1 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.
2. The money, however, was stolen, and the woman was very upset and uttered a curse against whoever had stolen it. She probably suspected her son, but at least her curse was known. Her son was grown, old enough to have a son of his own old enough to be a priest.
3. The curse frightened the thief, who turned out to be her son. She seemed to be gratified that her son had showed remorse, and so she blessed him instead of cursing him. Curses and blesses often fall from the same mouth—James says that this ought not to be.
4. She was a pious old hypocrite, pretending to really intended the work of the Lord, perhaps feeling guilty that she had not used the money where it would have done some good. Such is often done.
5. The idolatry in her heart, is now translated into outward idolatry, for she returns at least a part of the sil-ver to her son in order to make an idol, although she pretended that it was for the service of Jehovah. But the 2nd commandments prohibits all images for the worship of God, for God is in heaven, and cannot be represented by earthly things. It is suggested that the rest of the money was to be used to support the new worship. Judges 17:4-6
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 Mi-cah.
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.”
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1. It was a home-made religion that was formed there by this old woman and her son. Micah had a house of gods with an ephod and terraphim which are somewhat obscure, but indicate images of Jehovah. Into this house of gods this graven and molen image of Jehovah—the words indicated an im-age of a bull or calf—was place, along with the other gods, and Micah ordained his son to be the priest.
2. I have commented on the phrase. It was a fact they had no king, but a king is not a cure for the disease. Later on, a king would ordain calf worship for the entire kingdom. Centralized government is never a cure for what ails main. The sin is in the heart and setting rulers over yourself will not cure the disease of the heart, although man cherishes that dream, for they will not have God to rule over them, or submit to the rule that He has established, that of the word and spirit.
7 And there was a young man out of Bethlehemjudah of the family of Judah, who [was] a Levite, and he so-journed 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.
2. You remember that only certain cities were given to the Levites for their inheritance. Some of these cit-ies were still in the hands of the Canaanites, so the Levites had to live where they could. This Levite from Bethlehem was on a journey and came to Micah’s house.
3. It seemed really good to Micah for a Levite to be a priest. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing and easily lapses into superstition and folly. The Levites were not priesst in a proper sense, for that only be-longed to the sons of Aaron. The rest of the tribe of Levi were servants of the religious system and per-formed administrative and maintenance duties.
4. A made-up worship will not be sanctified because you get the right person in charge. Humanism is hu-manism, not matter how deep you scratch it.
5. But a Levite for priest would be impressive to the ignorance, and Micah was proud of his house of gods. Judges 17:11-13
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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1. One of the chief duties of the Levites was to teach Israel the right and proper way. This Levite seemed to be as ignorant as Micah was, but the Levite was willing to use what he knew to take advantage of Micah.
2. What a sorry story this is. An old miserly woman has her hoard of gold stolen. She is embarrassed, probably because she didn’t want her son to know she had the money saved up, so she curses the thief, and then pretends that she was saving the money for God. She continues the fiction, has an idol made, and her son places it in the house of his gods among his other objects for worship. Now a straggly Le-vite comes along, and he is ordained as priest for this whole sorry establishment.
3. Idolatry is but a gilded and hypocritical lie. It is always a lie and hides a lie and is a lie at bottem. An idol is nothing in the world. In this case, Micah’s idol was the spawn of the greed of an old woman’s heart.
4. But the priest had now a good racket going. He had a regular income, a place to live, and all he had to do was perpetuate the lie. Gradually a myth would arise. People would talk solemnly about the hal-lowed place; rumors would circulate that miracles had occurred. People felt better after sitting for a while in the hallowed sanctuary. A cult would arise until the lie could not be refuted, for many people testified as to its truth, and gave stories about the wonders performed there. Besides, it was dedicated to the image of Jehovah, the god that had brought them out of Egypt, and didn’t the shrine have a real son of Levi, who alone was qualified to serve God in his place of Worship. This phony priest had a lot go-ing for him, and he didn’t have to work too hard or long. The young priest settled down. It would get even better for him, but not so good for Micah.
5. But for now, Micah was content and trusted in his idol ad his priest. “The Lord will do me good, now that I have a Levite,” he told everyone.
1. We have here the heart of idolatry—it is an attempt to hide by religious ceremonies the sin of the heart. The better and more legitimate the outward form, the better it can conceal a coveteous heart. Paul recognized this in that great 7th chapter of Romans. “I was alive without the law.” This does not mean that Paul, the Pharissee, never had the law. No, he had it from his earliest memory. But he didn’t under-stand it. Not understanding the law is like hot having it. Micah didn’t understand the law, and neither did his hypocritical mother.
2. Paul said the law came, and he died. Romans 7: 7-13. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God for-bid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.
3. When he understood the law it was like a death to him. The commandment he referenced was the Tenth Commandment, “Thou shalt not covet.” Paul said, I would not have known lust except the law said, “Thou shalt not covet.” When Paul understood that, it was like a death to him for he then realized that the law was against the sinful desires of his heart. These sinful desires could be concealed by ceremonies, but the ceremonies were no remedy for these same sinful desires. The law was not the cause of the sinful desires, but exposed them.
4. Men always fabricate idols and idol systems in order to hide sinfulness. They hide under a human legitimacy, not realizing that the only true legitimacy is the Word and Spirit of God. True religion always emphasizes these things, and not the human, fleshly element. The true religion could not be established by phony Levites. Only the tabernacle decreed by God could be the place of true worship, and there were no images of God there, for God is a spirit and must be worshipped in spirit and in truth—that is from the heart by faith in Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life.
5. All else is vanity and death.
6. Micah and his greedy old mother, however, were without excuse, no matter what good will toward Jehovah they expressed. They could have found the right way. Like Cain, they could have been accepted even though sin lay at the door. But this would involve the confessing of sin and the turning away from the idolatry that concealed their folly. Only the Spirit of God can do this important and necessary work if the sould is to be saved.
7. Flee idolatry. Pray that the Lord would teach you the truth of worship and service to Him. It is only through the power of the Gospel and the Holy Spirit that you can escape the folly and bondage of idolatry and death.
8. Yes, “The Lord will bless me, now that I have all my T’s crossed and the I’s dotted. I have a Levite to be a priest. What more could I want. I will be blessed.” The lie in the heart deceives the mind and corrupts the hand, and the result if idolatry, idols that cannot speak, cannot hear, cannot do good, and cannot do evil.
9. But they can corrupt those who believe in them. Next week we will se how they corrupted the House of Dan and the whole house of Israel. The worship of the image of Jehovah, that came from Egypt, that Aaron had made at Mt.Sinae and was destroyed by Moses, is revived in the house of Dan and corrupts the whole nation, because they did not yet have the Spirit of God, who would be poured out by Christ alone.
May God bless you.
Amen and Amen. May God bless you.