Judges 17

Judges 17:1

III. RELIGIOUS, MORAL, AND POLITICAL DECAY (Chaps. 17-21) This last section of Judges is almost like an appendix to the book. As far as time is concerned, chapters 1721 do not advance the narrative. Rather, they give frightening glimpses of the low religious, moral, and political state to which Israel had sunk during the period of the judges. The little book of Ruth likewise does not advance the history of the judges in time but, by way of contrast, does give a charming glimpse of the godly remnant during this dark era in Hebrew history. A. Micah’s Religious Establishment (Chap. 17)17:1-4 The first narrative is one of religious corruption. Micah, a man of Ephraim, had stolen eleven hundred shekels of silver from his mother. She in turn had cursed the thief, not knowing that it was her own son. Apparently he feared the results of the curse, so he returned the silver to her. She then lifted the curse and blessed her son for returning the silver. Now she could use it for its intended purpose. She took two hundred shekels of silver and ordered two idols to be made from them. One was a graven image . . . carved from wood and overlaid with silver. The molded image was made entirely of silver. 17:5, 6 Micah put the idols in a shrine with his household gods (teraphim). He also decided to set up a priesthood for his family, so he made an ephod (priestly garment) and consecrated one of his sons to be his priest. This, of course, was contrary to God’s law, which forbade an Ephraimite from being a priest. In fact, the whole procedure was contrary to the Mosaic Law. 17:7-13 Sometime later a Levite who lived in Bethlehem, among the people of Judah, went into the hill country of Ephraim looking for a place to stay. (He should have been employed in the service of Jehovah and supported by the tithes of the nation. But since the law was not obeyed he was forced to seek out his own placement.) Micah offered him a position as priest in his family. Though this man was a Levite, he was not of the family of Aaron and therefore not eligible to serve as a priest. However, Micah offered him a salary, food, and clothing, and the Levite agreed to serve. The Levite should have confronted Micah with the fact that all these arrangements were contrary to God’s order. Instead, he gave tacit assent by accepting the salary and other fringe benefits, thereby effectively sealing his lips from declaring the full counsels of God. The word to describe the state of affairs in this chapter is “confusion”: Stolen money is used for idols, and the Lord is invoked to bless the thief (v. 2); individual shrines replace worship at the tabernacle; Levites and common people are consecrated as priests; idols are used in the worship of Jehovah. And Micah supposed the Lord would bless him in all of this (v. 13)! This confusion stemmed from the heart of man (v. 6). If the law of God had been observed at this time in Israel, none of these things would have happened. “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Pro_14:12), as we shall see in the next chapter.