Taking the Easy Way instead of the Right Way

Judges 17, 18 - Episode 130

Easier isn’t always better. God’s ways can be harder sometimes, but they are always better. We can’t go our own way, then just ask God to bless it. We must know His laws and listen to His instructions, then follow them exactly. There’s a reason that He tells us to do things a certain way and it’s not for us to decide to do things differently.

“Enter by the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Matthew 7:13-14

Introduction

After Joshua allotted each tribe their inheritance, he told them to continue fighting until all the other inhabitants were gone. Though none of the tribes fully dispelled these people from their land, the tribe of Dan quickly gave up trying. These two chapters explain how they attained territory up north instead. They took this land soon after the rest of the tribes settled in theirs and before any judges ruled over Israel. Since we are walking through the Israelites’ journey with them and not just studying books of the Bible, we will study the resettling of the tribe of Dan before studying the judges.

His Own House of Worship - Judges 17:1-6

            Micah stole 1,100 pieces of silver from his mother and finally confessed this to her. After his confession, she blessed him. I do not know if his mother was happy that he told the truth or just so glad that the money was not gone, but her reaction is horrible and indicative of why her son also doesn’t do what’s right. Presumably to thank God for returning the money, she took 200 of the 1,100 pieces of silver and paid a silversmith to make a carved image for her son. Then, he used it to make a shrine, along with an ephod and other household gods. As if that weren’t bad enough, he ordained one of his sons as a priest. All this so Micah could worship God at his house instead of in Shiloh, as the Lord had commanded.

The Israelites no longer had a leader like Moses or Joshua, and they also didn’t have a king like the other nations. But they did have the law. The Lord had told them how to live according to His ways in the new land, but it took them only a few years to go their own way after Joshua’s death. The second of the Ten Commandments was not to make carved images for themselves. Also, they were only supposed to worship together at the Tabernacle, and only descendants of Aaron could be priests. So, Micah had broken one of the Ten Commandments by making a carved image for himself. Then, instead of worshipping with everyone else at the Tabernacle in Shiloh, he made his own house of God and appointed his son a priest, even though Ephraimite men could not be priests under the law. These were not minor deviations from God’s commands. They were explicitly spelled out and all had to do with the proper worship of God. This just shows how far the Israelites had fallen in just a few short years after Joshua’s death.

A Levite, But not a Priest – Judges 17:7-13

            God gave the Levites 48 cities, and Bethlehem was not one of them. So, why was this Levite wandering around trying to find a home? There were designated cities for each clan, so depending upon which family he belonged to, this man only had a few territories to choose from. He may have been traveling to his designated territory and just got stopped by Micah along the way, but both men were misguided in the least. Micah already made himself a shrine and appointed his son as his priest. But after this man appeared, he thought God would be happier if he had an actual Levitical priest instead of his son. The problem is that not only was he not supposed to have his own personal priest, but not just any Levite could be a priest. This was not his proper role if he was not from Aaron’s lineage. Then, even if he had been a descendant of Aaron, he was supposed to work in a Levitical city for all the people that lived there, and his support wasn’t monetary. Micah was paying him like a hired hand who worked for him instead of someone who worked for the Lord. So, everything about this arrangement was wrong, yet neither man seemed to know or care.

Like Micah, do we sometimes make church services and worship more about ourselves than God? We can easily get concerned with appearances, spending more time and money on the building than its purpose. In an effort to draw unbelievers, bored children, youth, college kids, young families, and others, we may invent more programs or try to make church more entertaining, placing all the focus on ourselves and not on God. Instead of making the church look more like the world, we should be focused on making the world more like the church. Our worship should be directed towards God and not our own pleasure or glory. Romans 1:25; 2 Timothy 4:3-4