Judges 17

Micah’s idol, his priest, people from Dan

And there was a man of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah. 2 And he said to his mother, “The eleven hundred shekels of silver which were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse and also spoke about in my hearing, look, the silver is with me. I took it”.

And his mother said, “May you be blessed by the LORD, my son”.

3 And he returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, and his mother said, “I had wholly dedicated the silver to the LORD from my hand for my son, to make a carved image and a cast idol. So now I will give it back to you”.

17:3 Making idols in the name of Jehovah God who had forbidden all idolatry (Ex 20:4-5, 23)! This is the sort of thing that happened when “every one did what was right in his own eyes” (v 6), and did not do what was right in the Lord’s eyes.⚜

4 So when he returned the money to his mother, his mother took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to the silversmith, who made a carved image and a cast metal idol with it. And they were in Micah’s house. 5 And the man Micah had a shrine for the gods, and he made an ephod and household idols and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.

6 In those days there was no king in Israel, but everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

7 And there was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, among the family of Judah, who was a Levite and was staying there. 8 And the man left the town of Bethlehem in Judah to live where he could find a place. And as he travelled he came to Micah’s house in the hill country of Ephraim.

9 And Micah said to him, “From where do you come?”

And he said to him, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to stay wherever I can find a place”.

10 And Micah said to him, “Stay with me, and be a father and a priest to me, and I will give you ten shekels of silver yearly and a set of clothes and your food”. So the Levite went in.

11 And the Levite was content to stay with the man; and to him the young man was like one of his sons.

17:11 As with many in Christian circles so with this Levite – he was willing to work where the money was. God’s will and the principles of God’s Word didn’t enter into his decision (vs 19,20). Alas, that there should be any Christian workers who hire themselves out to the highest bidder! They should remember that he who pays the piper calls the tune.⚜

12 And Micah consecrated the Levite; and the young man became his priest and was in the house of Micah. 13 Then Micah said, “Now I know that the LORD will do good to me, since I have a Levite as my priest”.

17:13 Micah in his ignorance made three mistakes in his thinking – that God was pleased with his idols (vs 3,4), that God was pleased to have all Levites as priests (v 5), and that God would bless him merely because of what someone else was and did. If the Lord was good to Micah it was in spite of these things, not because of them.⚜