NOW: The final five chapters of Judges constitute two non-chronological appendixes to the book, omitting any reference to judges or times of oppression. While chs2-16 describe primarily foreign threats to Israel, these last chapters show an internal breakdown of Israel’s worship and unity.

An accurate subtitle for Judges 17 would be "The Marks of False Religion" which is followed in Judges 18 by "The Motivation of False Religion".

How did the state of the chosen people who were to be a separate and holy people unto Jehovah get to be so bad? The answer echoes forth over and over (with some variation), on four separate occasions (Judges 17:6, 18:1, 19:1 and 21:25)...

"In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

Judges 17-21  underscores the principle that when that foundation of a society based on God's principles begins to crumble, the society begins to fall apart. The psalmist testifies that...

If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?" Psalm 11:3 (Spurgeon's comment)

After the death of Samson, the chronological sequence in Judges ends so that one cannot assign the events in the last five chapters to any specific time. Some therefore consider these chapters almost like an "appendix' which exemplifies the utter apostasy of Israel in their religious, civil, and moral life. These chapters picture the climax of the downward path of Israel resulting from departure from the Word of God.

 It is interesting that Rabbinic commentators placed the story of Micah in the time of Othniel.

These appendices do not contain any references to great leaders.

The Preacher's Commentary has a sobering comment reminding us that...

These closing chapters are actually very dark indeed. They show the depths to which even God’s covenant people can sink when once they begin to disobey His instructions and trample His grace and mercy under their feet. They prove beyond all doubt the truth that God has not chosen us because we are costly, or impressive, or morally any better than anyone else, for we are not. The grace of God is that He chooses to have mercy on totally undeserving sinners, such as Israel and today’s church. In the end, we cannot get further than that magnificent statement to Israel about God’s covenant love and mercy, recorded in Deuteronomy 7:7–8.

“The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you ….”

He loves us because He loves us! (Jackman, D., & Ogilvie, L. J.  The Preacher's Commentary Series, Volume 7 : Judges, Ruth. Page 252. Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Inc)

THERE WAS A MAN OF THE HILL COUNTRY OF EPHRAIM WHOSE NAME WAS MICAH:

EPHRAIM is in the highlands of central Palestine begin some 12 miles N of Jerusalem. EPHRAIM also played an important role in the success of Ehud, Deborah, and Gideon (Judges 3:27; 4:5; 7:24).

Micah means “Who is like Jehovah?” an ironical name for a man who sadly began an idolater! It's not how we begin our walk with Christ but how we end and just because we can claim the name of Christ does not guarantee a good ending. Let us all learn the danger of drifting from God's foundational truths in His Word.

It is also sad to note that God honoring names such as Micah were usually only given in homes where Jehovah was at least outwardly recognized. Nothing is said about Micah's family or his wife; and one gets the impression that his mother lived with him and that she was wealthy. Extended families were common in Israel.

Henrietta Mears summarizes these last chapters noting that...

First, we find confusion in the religious life of the nation (Judges 17, Judges 18).

Second, we find confusion in the moral life of the nation (Judges 19).

Third, we find confusion in the political life (Judges 21).

The story of the backsliding of individuals is followed by the backsliding of the nation. The last chapter proves that the children of Israel had lost the way to God’s house, so low had they sunk. We find faithlessness, failure and forfeiture! But God loves His own.

The history of the Church through the ages has been like this with Martin Luther (1483-1546, leader of the Protestant Reformation); John Knox (1513-1572, Scottish Reformer); and John Wesley (1703-1791, founder of the Methodists) as deliverers.

The biography of many a Christian in just the common run of life is like this. God opens doors and gives us grace for great tasks. Then we forget Him and begin to have our interests in the world about us. This brings loss and defeat. But God hears our cry of repentance and restores us to favor again.

You may want to listen to the sermon 10 SHEKELS & A SHIRT (audio - a must listen!) based on some of the events in Judges 17. It is a riveting sermon!

AND HE SAID TO HIS MOTHER, THE 1100 PIECES OF SILVER (about 28 lbs): Compared with a yearly wage of ten pieces of silver (v10), its value represents a fortune. No wonder Micah's mother cursed the thief!

WHICH WERE TAKEN FROM YOU, ABOUT WHICH YOU UTTERED A CURSE IN MY HEARING:

It was the fear of the curse, not the fear of the Lord, that motivated Micah to confess his crime and restore the money. Ancient peoples greatly feared the power of a parental curse. Thus Micah is superstitiously fearful of a curse, but not attuned to true godliness. Someone has rightly concluded that outward losses drive good people to prayer, but bad people to curses.

BEHOLD, THE SILVER IS WITH ME; I TOOK IT AND HIS MOTHER SAID, "BLESSED BE MY SON BY THE LORD:

Instead of his mother turning him across her knee and applying the board of education to the seat of knowledge, she congratulated him responding to the confession of theft with a blessing! Values were certainly upside down. As a reward for such “honesty,” his mother sought to neutralize her curse with a blessing. Blessing was superstitiously believed to countermand a cursing! This is a striking example of the permissive spirit that had infected Israel at this time. There is an old saying: “As goes the home, so goes the nation.” Israel was in trouble for everything about this home violated the law of God. Corruption in the home spreads into society; and in this specific instance it spread to a whole tribe (see Judges18:1ff). False doctrine is like yeast: it grows quietly in secret and affects everything it touches.

A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough.  (Galatians 5:9).

The events in this section are a dramatic example of what James warned about writing...

HE THEN RETURNED THE ELEVEN HUNDRED PIECES OF SILVER TO HIS MOTHER:

Micah had stolen a small fortune (1100 pieces of silver) is indicated by the fact in [Jdg17:10] where the Levite was pleased to get a position for an annual salary of 10 pieces of silver!. These 1,100 silver shekels are not to be confused with the 1,100 silver shekels that each of the Philistine rulers gave Delilah [Judges 16:5, 18]

AND HIS MOTHER SAID, "I WHOLLY DEDICATE THE SILVER FROM MY HAND TO THE LORD FOR MY SON:

Out of gratitude for getting her silver back, Micah's mother decided to consecrate it to the Lord. Yet the desire to make an idol was counter to God's command and made Micah's mother liable to God's curse, Moses recording...

Cursed is the man who makes an idol or a molten image, an abomination to the LORD, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.' And all the people shall answer and say, 'Amen.'  (Dt 27:15)

Compare what happened to Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1-11 when they held some of the money back!

But a certain man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2 and kept back some of the price for himself, with his wife's full knowledge, and bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles' feet. 3 But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back some of the price of the land? 4 "While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God." 5 And as he heard these words, Ananias fell down and breathed his last; and great fear came upon all who heard of it. 6 And the young men arose and covered him up, and after carrying him out, they buried him. 7 Now there elapsed an interval of about three hours, and his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 And Peter responded to her, "Tell me whether you sold the land for such and such a price?" And she said, "Yes, that was the price." 9 Then Peter said to her, "Why is it that you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they shall carry you out as well." 10 And she fell immediately at his feet, and breathed her last; and the young men came in and found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 11 And great fear came upon the whole church, and upon all who heard of these things.

Note that she dedicated only 200 of the 1100 which also brings even her motivation into question. In fact "MOTHER MICAH" proved also to be a THIEF, as well as an IDOLATER! And she eventually even leads her own son into this abominable practice of IDOLATRY! Why is there such perversion of God's order? The ROOT cause goes back to  Judges 1 where Israel failed to DRIVE OUT THEIR ENEMIES but instead COMPROMISED WITH THEM and ultimately ADOPTED THEIR ABOMINABLE PAGAN PRACTICES.. Judges 17-21 represents the FRUIT of the ROOT OF WICKEDNESS and REBELLION TO GOD'S STANDARDS that Israel was now REAPING because they failed to TOTALLY ERADICATE the EVIL LEAVEN! What a lesson for modern day saints...let us be warned and return to the LORD and repent and amend our ways while we still live in the day of His mercy and grace.

Repent therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you" (Acts 3:19)

Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless; Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together," Says the LORD, "Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool. (Isaiah 1:16-18)

Seek the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. (Isaiah 55:6-7)

And rend your heart and not your garments." Now return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness, And relenting of evil. (Joel 2:13)

TO MAKE A GRAVEN IMAGE (wood overlaid with silver) AND A MOLTEN IMAGE (of solid silver):

"SHRINE " = literally "a house of god (s)," (as in KJV) which may be an intentional contrast with "the house of God," which was probably not that far from Micah's house, since it was located at Shiloh (see note Judges 18:31) (site of Ark of Covenant & the Shekinah Glory of God) which was in the same territory of Ephraim.

Nelson's Bible Dictionary defines "SHRINE":

"a sanctuary or sacred place set apart for worship. The Israelites worshiped God first in the tabernacle and later in the Temple after its completion by Solomon. But they never spoke of worshiping God in a shrine. This word was always used to describe the temples or sacred places where pagan gods were worshiped (Jdg 17:1-5). The prophet Ezekiel spoke of adulterous and idolatrous Jerusalem erecting a pagan shrine at every road and building (Eze 16:24, 31)."

HOUSEHOLD IDOLS (teraphim) is used for “idols.” Though plural in form, “teraphim” can refer either to one or more “household idols”. Scripture consistently condemns the use of teraphim, Samuel declaring to King Saul that...

Rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry (Hebrew = teraphim). Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has also rejected you from being king." (1Samuel 15:23).

Calvin wrote the following regarding images...:

"A true image of God is not to be found in all the world and hence His glory is defiled, and His truth corrupted by the lie, whenever He is set before our eyes in visible form. Therefore to devise any image of God is itself impious, because by this corruption His majesty is adulterated and He is figured to be other than He is."

CONSECRATED is an idiom composed of 2 Hebrew words (male yad) which literally means "fill the hands" conveys the meaning of ordain or consecrate. This idiom was for example the standard expression for induction into priestly service. The background for this unusual figure of speech is the filling of the hand of the officiating priest with portions of a sacrifice, particularly the wave offering.

ONE OF HIS SONS, THAT HE MIGHT BECOME HIS PRIEST (Nu3:10):

Observe the fact that when a Levite appears on the scene in the next section and is immediately preferred over one of Micah's sons, this action suggests that Micah had some remnant of knowledge that priests were to be from the tribe of Levi.

This is a sad sampling of syncretistic worship...Micah took a bit of the pagan world and a bit of that which had been revealed by God and mixed them together like oil and water until he had something that was right in his own eyes and that he thought might please the Lord!

Micah had a Place, the Paraphernalia (ephod, etc) and a Priest, a sad illustration of man-made religion which was right in his eyes but evil in God's eyes! Today the temptation to mix elements of true worship of God with practices unacceptable to Him remains with us, albeit in different ways.

When you get "off course" and think you are "on course" it is a sad state of deception...Micah is like the two Florida men charted a course and drove their fishing boat out into the Gulf of Mexico. Using the boat's compass, they headed to deep waters 60 miles offshore where they hoped to catch grouper. When they arrived at what they thought was the right place, they turned on their depth finder and realized they were nowhere near their target. They discovered that one of them had laid a flashlight near the ship's compass, and the attached magnet had affected the reading. Just as that magnet changed the compass, so our sinful hearts can influence our thinking. Micah thought he was moving in the right direction. We too can be self-deceived, and must continually ask the Lord to expose the inner motives that cast shadows across our minds and dim our spiritual discernment (Ps 139:24 - Spurgeon's comment). With His help, we can get back on course. To avoid self-deception, seek God's direction.

Often I have walked in my own way,
Trusting in my self-deceiving heart;
Now I realize that I must pray,
"Lord, from Your way I will not depart." –Hess

The sins that would entangle us
Must never be ignored;
If we do not get rid of them
They'll pierce us like a sword. –Sper

Have you ever seen a family more spiritually and morally confused than this one? They managed to break almost all the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17) and yet not feel the least bit guilty before the Lord!  In fact, they thought they were serving the Lord by the bizarre things they did!

The man’s mother broke the first two commandments by making an idol and encouraging her son to maintain a private “shrine” in his home. According to Deuteronomy 12:1-14, there was to be but one place of worship in Israel; and the people were not permitted to have their own private shrines. Furthermore, Micah’s mother didn’t really deal with her son’s sins; his character certainly didn’t improve by the way she handled the matter. But she was a corrupt person herself, so what else could he expect?

Preacher's Commentary applies the truth in this section to our age noting that...

At a time when subjective “worship experiences” are all the rage, these sobering reflections should provide a much-needed assessment of some of our current practices. Of course, we are liberated in the New Testament from geographical restrictions on corporate worship, as we are from the whole Old Testament cultus. But we are not free to worship God in any way we choose. There is still the qualification that He seeks those who will worship Him “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24)." (Jackman, D., & Ogilvie, L. J.  The Preacher's Commentary Series, Volume 7 : Judges, Ruth. Page 257. Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Inc)

To summarize Micah's actions:

(1) He was either grossly ignorant (or blatantly rebellious to) of the most obvious of God's laws (Ex 20:4-16).

(2). We can see the clear influence of Canaanite practices on Micah. The Canaanites worshiped with the aid of images at local sanctuaries (shrines) called "high places".

(3) Micah was living a life of religious syncretism, blending Canaanite practices and the traditional worship of Yahweh. Micah intended to worship Israel's God with his idols much as Aaron in (Ex 32:4-5). God condemns the worship of the one true God by images.

The Preacher's Commentary in applying this first section of Judges 17 draws some painful parallels warning us that...

it is helpful not just to point out the more obvious materialistic idols of our culture, but to explore their Christian equivalents, which we so often justify and sanctify. Religious idols are the most dangerous of all. We may be liberated from idolatry to the toys of our society—the cars and boats, the airplanes and swimming pools, the exotic travel trips and even larger houses—but at the same time, in Christian circles, we can often substitute our own much more respectable and accepted idol shrines. After all, if lots of other people worship there too, that gives the idol greater credibility. An idol is anything that usurps the place of God, because I am looking to it to give me real life, to protect or to enrich me. It is anything that squeezes God into the margin of my life because that thing has now become worth more to me than He is. It could be our marriage or family life, the achievements of our kids, the success of our church, our position as a valued Christian leader or a growing disciple, our service for the Lord, our financial generosity, our biblical or doctrinal knowledge, our spiritual gifts. Once we fall in love with any of these good and potentially godly ingredients of life rather than with the Lord as the undisputed Number One in our experience, we are casting our idol, as surely as Micah did. For behind each of these good things when it usurps the central position of our affections and worship lies ourselves. I am really worshiping acceptable extensions of little me, while all the time fooling myself and my fellow Christians that it’s all for the Lord. Only God can read our hearts, and we each have enough to do coping with our own depravity without trying to sit in judgment on one another, but we do need to take the closing injunction of John’s first letter with deadly seriousness. “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21). The Bible places the responsibility fairly and squarely with us." (Jackman, D., & Ogilvie, L. J.  The Preacher's Commentary Series, Volume 7 : Judges, Ruth. Page 255. Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Inc)

This story illustrates the powerful inclination in the heart of unredeemed man toward idolatry. It is vital that the church pay careful attention to John's warning to believers, writing...

"Little children, guard (aorist imperative which conveys a sense of urgency) yourselves from idols" (1John 5:21)

John is speaking to believers ("little children") which is a clear warning to all of us to continually be on guard. And remember that an idol is anything that substitutes for God. And even closer to home Paul warns believers...

Don't be greedy for the good things of this life, for that is idolatry. (Colossians 3:5, NLT) (see note)

Thus even Greed equates with idolatry. That brings this warning "close to home" for all of us doesn't it!

How could such improprieties come into existence? As discussed earlier it begins with failure to obey God and drive out the enemies. When men reject God's law as the standard of conduct and righteousness, the only other alternative is the subjective determination of man in regard to what is right or wrong. This moral and spiritual relativism is where we find Israel during the period of the Judges and also where we find America at the beginning of the 21st century. How long can it last? The point is clear that if we do what is right in our eyes we end up doing what is wrong in God's eyes. People will not just hit bottom morally. They will break clean through with gross idolatry, immorality, brutality, injustice, etc. This is INEVITABLE when God's standards of right and wrong are discarded. America is in a precarious situation beloved. Godly Daniel recognized that

Jehovah brought against us the disaster He prepared, for we did not obey him, and the LORD our God is just in everything he does. (Daniel 9:14)

All those who are godly need to cry out for America as Daniel did for faithless, rebellious Israel...

IN THOSE DAYS THERE WAS NO KING IN ISRAEL (17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25,):

Rather than follow the law of God, their King, they became a law unto themselves. It is interesting to note that  this description did not begin in judges as we see a virtually identical phrase in (Deut 12:8), Moses recording that...

"You shall not do at all what we are doing here today, every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes"

Israel should have known better, for Jehovah through His prophet Moses had clearly commanded that...

"You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess serve their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. 3 "And you shall tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and burn their Asherim with fire, and you shall cut down the engraved images of their gods, and you shall obliterate their name from that place. 4 "You shall not act like this toward the LORD your God. 5 "But you shall seek the LORD at the place which the LORD your God shall choose from all your tribes, to establish His name there for His dwelling, and there you shall come. 6 "And there you shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the contribution of your hand, your votive offerings, your freewill offerings, and the first-born of your herd and of your flock. 7 "There also you and your households shall eat before the LORD your God, and rejoice in all your undertakings in which the LORD your God has blessed you. 8 "You shall not do at all what we are doing here today, every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes" (This was the "virus" that infected Israel because she failed to take radical action and eradicate the highly infectious and deadly "strain".) (Deuteronomy 12:2-8)

Commenting on Deuteronomy 12:8, John MacArthur writes that...

There seems to have been some laxity in the offering of the sacrifices in the wilderness which was not to be allowed when Israel came into the Promised Land. This self-centered attitude became a major problem in the time of Judges (MacArthur, J. J. The MacArthur Study Bible. Nashville: Word Pub)

As we learned in Judges 2 (note) (see death of Joshua in Jdg 2:8), without leaders the past history of God's acts and the future hope based on those acts can be easily forgotten. Lack of leadership and forgetting of history lead to self-centered life where wrong begins to look right! God's people need role models and spiritual leaders. The writer of Hebrews exhorted his readers not to...

"...be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises."  (see note Hebrews 6:12)

Israel ignored God's moral and religious demands when no one led them to remember His historical deliverances.

Judges 3-16 of report external disasters that came on Israel, especially enemies from without who were literally sent by God to judge His people and bring them to repentance. What we discover in Judges 17-20 is the internal enemy of the wicked unredeemed flesh, which produces decay and deterioration of our moral compass with consequent loss of direction and ever increasing conflict from others who are also infected with "the corruption that is in the world by lust." (see note 2 Peter 1:4) As emphasized earlier, these last chapters show us what happened within Israel when they abandoned God and His ways. Abandoning God’s standards sears the conscience and confuses the ability of the individual to distinguish between good and evil. No wonder Proverbs says

“There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Pr 14:12).

The “way which seems right" is a deceptive illusion. The hard reality that it leads to death is not an illusion but a certainty!

WHEN I DO MY OWN THING (i.e., do "right" in my own eyes) I DO JUST LIKE MICAH and HIS MOTHER and REJECT GOD AS KING and HIS KINGDOM STANDARDS AS MY GUIDE FOR LIVING!

Because Micah and his family didn’t submit to the authority of God’s Word, their home was a place of religious and moral confusion. What a vivid example of Do-It-Yourself Religion! But is the situation any different today? People ignore [Isa 8:20, La 2:14] and do what is right in their own eyes. The prophet Isaiah witnessed this dynamic and recorded that...

"To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn." (Isaiah 8:20)

Their home was a good deal like many homes today where money is the god the family worships, where children steal from their parents and lie about what they do, where family honor is unknown, and where the true God is unwanted. Television provides all the “images” the family will ever want to “worship,” and few worry about “thus saith the Lord.”

Vance Havner speaking specifically about America had a quip that would have been relevant to Micah's day...

“We shouldn’t worry because the government won’t allow children to have Bibles in school. They’ll get free Bibles when they go to prison.”

But today our prisons are so crowded that the government doesn’t know what to do. If every family would make Christ the Head of the home, we could stop some of the nation’s crime right at the source. Godly homes are the foundation for a just and happy society. Ungodly homes end up with dramas like that in Judges 17.

Ralph Davis notes three characteristics of spiritual apostasy in this story: religious syncretism, moral relativism, and extreme materialism.

Wood notes several sins that openly occurred in this account:

(1) The failure and apostasy of the Danites;

(2) the making of graven images;

(3) unauthorized priests serving for hire;

(4) establishment of private worship sanctuaries;

(5) the movement of the Levites from their assigned cities (click map above); and

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DEVOTIONAL
OUR DAILY BREAD
CONFUSION

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Judges 17.6
G Campbell Morgan

NOW THERE WAS A YOUNG MAN FROM BETHLEHEM IN JUDAH, OF THE FAMILY OF JUDAH WHO WAS A LEVITE:

How was he both a Levite and from family of Judah? Quite likely the Levite father had married a mother from the tribe of Judah. But we cannot be absolutely certain. This Levite was named Jonathan & was identified further as Moses' grandson (18:30). He compromised in departing from one of the 48 cities God gave for Levite service to Israel (Joshua 21). His compromise in this small point then led him to greater sin as he prostituted himself as priest for hire in Micah's private sanctuary of graven images and molten images, complete even with a priestly ephod for "discerning" the will of God. How blind we can be when we are deceived and begin to travel further and further from God's standard.

AND HE WAS STAYING THERE: this was a violation which probably set him up for restlessness. After all he had been given a great and glorious purpose for his life, having been set apart wholly unto God, and he undoubtedly had a specific city from the 48 proscribed Levitical cities. So as he began to seek his will & what was right in his own eyes, he began to become restless. And so he wandered even farther from the way, the truth and the life as the following verses illustrate.

He also may have been in search of support as the context suggests. Israel’s forsaking God began with forsaking the Levites, which therefore they are warned against, Deut 12:19, Moses recording...

"Be careful that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.

THEN THE MAN DEPARTED FROM THE CITY, FROM BETHLEHEM IN JUDAH:

Bethlehem was not one of the 48 Levitical cities assigned by Moses. Levites were doubtless scattered because of lack of support, a situation that prevailed all too often in Israel's history. For example, years later Nehemiah

"discovered that the portions of the Levites had not been given them, so that the Levites and the singers who performed the service had gone away, each to his own field." (Nehemiah 13:10).

AND MICAH SAID TO HIM, "WHERE DO YOU COME FROM:

AND HE SAID TO HIM, "I AM A LEVITE FROM BETHLEHEM IN JUDAH:

MICAH THEN SAID TO HIM, DWELL WITH ME AND BE A FATHER:

So Micah promises the Levite PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT and honor as one would one's own father. Micah does not seem interested in his credentials, takes no time to inquire how he behaved in the place of his last settlement, etc. Micah is focused. He wants a "full-fledge" priest. Micah foretold of similar actions by Jeroboam I (1Ki 12:31) and this may have been the "leaven" beginning to make the yeast rise. Micah's action should not surprise us -- if he can make anything an image of God, he wouldn't hesitate to make anyone a priest of God.

The Levite became both a "father" and a "son" to Micah (v10-11). "Father" is a term of honor used of Joseph's position in Egypt (Ge 45:8) and of Elisha as a respected prophet (2Ki 13:14, Ge 45:8). The salary of ten shekels of silver a year may not, however, have matched the lofty position (cf. 16:5; 17:2-3).

AND A PRIEST TO ME:

Not only were the Levites to assist the priests in their ministries (Nu 3:6-13; 8:17,18), but also they were to teach the Law to the people (Neh 8:7-9; 2Chr 17:7-9; 35:3) and be involved in the sacred music and the praises of Israel (1Chr 23:28-32; Ezra 3:10). Jonathan gave all that up for comfort and security in the home of an idolater.

AND I WILL GIVE YOU TEN PIECES (shekels) OF SILVER A YEAR, A SUIT OF CLOTHES, AND YOUR MAINTENANCE:

a poor salary in comparison of what God provided for the Levites that behaved well; but those that forsake God’s service will never better themselves, nor find a better master. The ministry is the best calling but the worst trade in the world.

SO THE LEVITE WENT IN:

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Judges 17:10
F B Meyer
Our Daily Homily

Dwell with me, and be unto me a priest.

Men crave for a priest. In every age of the world’s history, where there has been a tent indicting the presence of human life, there has been an altar indicating man’s consciousness of God, and a priest suggesting his consciousness of unworthiness to enter into the Divine presence. Man has perpetually taken one of his fellows whose character seemed less blemished than that of others, and after setting him apart with special rites from the ordinary engagements of life, has promised him maintenance and honor, if only he will act as priest. Be my priest; say for me to God what I cannot say. The sacrifices offered by thy hands are more likely to avail with Him than those rendered by mine.

(1) Let us beware of the religion which ignores man’s craving for a priest. — The world abounds with attempts at religious systems, from which the conception of the priest is eliminated. These reduce the worship of God to a system of high-thinking, but fail to deal with man’s consciousness of sin, and his yearning for a settled basis of peace.

AND THE LEVITE AGREED TO LIVE WITH THE MAN:

SO MICAH CONSECRATED THE LEVITE: Micah did not have the authority to consecrate the Levite. In the next verse, Micah makes the naive assumption that the Lord would do hom good, since he had a Levite for a priest! It is obvious that Micah’s motivation was based on superstition, not faith in God’s revelation. Micah had what Paul years later called a "form of godliness" (2 Timothy 3:5), with the external trappings of a mixed up religion  that included idols, his house of gods and his own priest. It may have looked right in Micah's eyes but it was blatantly evil in God's eyes. Similarly today in American "Christianity" there are many sincere individuals who sadly are beguiled and misguided in their religious activity because they have failed to hold their activity up to the plumbline of God's Word and be a Berean (Acts 17:11).

Don't churches today do the same thing as Micah did? Preacher's Commentary writes...

THEN MICAH SAID, NOW I KNOW:

Whenever we human beings imagine that we have God in our pocket, we are desperately misguided. What Micah did not know (or blatantly disobeyed if he knew it) was the Word of God in which appointment of anyone to the priesthood other than from lineage of Aaron was strictly forbidden (cf. Num 3:10 "So you shall appoint Aaron and his sons that they may keep their priesthood."). Micah practiced a false religion and worshiped false gods (with Jehovah thrown in for good measure), and all the while he rested on the false confidence that God was blessing him! Micah's smug assertion of "now I know..." ranks with Aaron's declaration the day after the golden calf was made, Moses recording that...

when Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation and said, "Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD." (Exodus 32:5).

Both Aaron and Micah were sadly deceived in their expectations. When a person is a deceived by definition they don't even realize their tragic state. The writer of Hebrews offered the preventative for deception exhorting us to...

"encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called "Today," lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." (see note Hebrews 3:13)

Solomon wrote that...

"He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, But he who walks wisely will be delivered." (Proverbs 28:26)

Micah and most others in Israel during this dark time were

"being corrupted by (their) deceitful desires" (see note Ephesians 4:22)

Micah’s naive, complacent confidence that God would bless him because he has installed a Levite priest illustrates the shocking degree to which truth had been corrupted because of their wicked desires. The people had lost the ability to distinguish between God’s truth and mixture of God with idolatry, or pagan syncretism. They had apparently forsaken the intake of solid food for so long that they were like those described by the writer of Hebrews who recorded that...

"solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil."  (see note Hebrews 5:14).

J V McGee wrote that...:

"This chapter is certainly a revelation of the low spiritual ebb to which the nation Israel had come. Here is a man who thinks just because he has a Levite for his preacher that that is all he needs. How tragic is that kind of thinking. Yet Micah expected the blessing of God upon him. And how many people are like that today?"

Let us remember what Israel (and Micah) should have known according to God's Word:

(1) making idols was forbidden
(2) Aaron’s descendants only were to serve as priests
(3) sacrifices were to be made only at the tabernacle
(4) and blessing was an outcome of obedience rather than ritual observance.

Micah violated every basic principle and yet was so self-deceived that he was convinced that his actions merited God’s favor!

How shall we apply the truth in this chapter?

Preacher's Commentary warns that...

The attraction of the idol is that it belongs to me, so that I can control it and enjoy a special relationship of favor with it. When my church, or my work for the Lord, or my financial capacity, or my status in the community begin to whisper to me that now God’s blessing is certain or inevitable, I can be sure that these things have become idols, by means of which I am actually worshiping myself. They provide only a thin veneer of godliness over the unmistakable features of a worldly idol (2 Timothy 3:1–5).Such idols drain the church of the power of the Holy Spirit which could otherwise be experienced in all his fullness. They paralyze us (see 18:24). Their worshipers become as inert and ineffective as they are, so that far from the future providing certain blessings from God, it is condemned to be a predictable, boring round of self-worship. Then the devil has won. Spiritually, he has destroyed us because we were not prepared to venture out on the bare word of God’s promises in faith. Instead, every time we chose to operate on the basis of sight and of what our own hands and minds could achieve for ourselves, we were playing the devil’s game and becoming enmeshed in a web of idolatrous self-reliance “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21)." (Jackman, D., & Ogilvie, L. J.  The Preacher's Commentary Series, Volume 7 : Judges, Ruth. Page 260. Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Inc)

Brensinger reminds us that...

Both the veneration of idols and the equation of divine favor with external religious practice have this in common: God is reduced to a controllable and totally predictable deity. In the case of idols, God takes on whatever form we humans desire. We do the shaping and the fashioning. We determine the expectations and demands. We regulate the sphere of influence. We handle God, move God, spend God, control God, and play God. As a result, the God we worship is in reality nothing more than what Martin Luther labels an idol concocted for ourselves. When people associate divine favor simply with religious possessions and behaviors, they put God into the role of a convenient and manageable checklist. From the beginning of time, people have sought after gods who are consistent and predictable, gods with unambiguous likes and dislikes. In this way, everyone knows precisely what to do and when to do it. We may assume that God automatically delights in regular church attendance, hour-long prayers, and the sharing of financial resources, for example. Then we confidently go ahead and do them, fully anticipating his blessings in return. What results, all too often, is a contract or bargain...God’s favor cannot be bought with a list of “religious” behaviors. (Brensinger, T. L. Judges. Believers Church Bible commentary. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press)