Judges 17

Judges 17

After Samson’s death, Israel reverted to their former ways, and things continued to grow worse. Judges 17 tells the story of Micah, a man who exemplified the hearts of many of the Israelites in those days. A common theme in the book of Judges is the fact that Israel had no king and did whatever was right in their own eyes. That was especially true for Samson who originally took his first wife because she looked good to him. He had only been concerned with his wants and desires and did not consider God’s plan for his life.


Micah’s actions were very similar to Samson. He was concerned about his own desires and pleasures. So when he received money from his mother, his mother constructed idols and gods for him. He took the idols and set them up as his form of worship. He even went as far to hire his own priest to go along with his man-made (false) religion. What is sad is that it is obvious that he knew about the God of Israel for he fashioned his own religion off of some of the practices of Israel (like having a priest). But instead of worshipping the true God, he chose to worship a piece of metal. Then, when a Levite came through his town and stopped as his house, he convinced the Levite to become his priest. Again, he knew enough about Israelite worship to know that Levites were God’s priests. But instead of allowing the priest to aid him in worshipping the true God, he hired this priest for his own sinful purposes.

Of course, the priest is at fault in this story as well. He was obviously not committed to God or to his role as a priest of Israel. He went along with Micah and did just as Micah requested. He did not try to stop Micah for worshipping this false God. He did not decline the offer and move on to another city. Instead, he stayed in that city, stayed with Micah, and received payment from Micah to serve as a priest for this false god. The people of Israel were drifting away from God, and this story is probably just one example of the sin that was in Israel.

Many of us probably cannot relate to a story about a man who was obviously serving other gods. In our culture, most of us do not have little metal images sitting around our houses that we worship daily. However, that does not mean that we do not have idols. Maybe we do not worship idols in the way that Micah did, but that does not mean that false religions are not in our culture today. We have new idols in our lives: sports, TV, Internet, money, etc. They may not look the same as they did in the book of Judges, but this story is actually very representative of us today. At some point, we have all placed something in our life above God. Anything that is put above Him in our lives is an idol. So before we question whether this story can apply to our lives, we need to consider if there is anything that is standing between us and God. If we find some idol in our lives, then we must also be quick to repent and turn back to God.

Matt