Here we go with another strange story from the book of Judges.
Here are two maps to help you see the places: Israel in Canaan and The Kingdom Years.
Judges 17.6 reminds us of the times–there was no king in Israel and the people did what was right in their own eyes. I think this is a sad commentary on those days and for these days. We, in areas of our lives, live as if there were no ruler. Not just as individuals as Judges 17 expresses but as a nation as Judges 18 evinces. We live as if there is no God and if we express belief in a god it is a god we have chosen to worship, which can contain aspects of the true God. These passages overwhelm me with grief knowing how far we have fallen personally and nationally. What gods have we created? What do we place above the true and living God? What truth have we distorted?
On with the story. Micah, evidently an Ephraimite, was given silver by his mother who also built him an idol. He took this idol, made his son his priest, and began to worship this idol in his house. Ephraim is what we would know as Samaria. This becomes important when the kingdom is divided. Micah creates his own religion and brings his family into it with the thought that God will bless him because he is worshiping. To validate the religion Micah hires a wandering Levite as his priest. This must mean he fired his son. He believed that someone who calls themselves a priest, even with the lineage, can bring respectability to what is being done. It doesn’t matter, according to Paul in Galatians, if an angel were to come and participate in this religious effort. Paul states flatly that the participants are condemned. No amount of religiosity can validate what God has already condemned. What are we trying to validate that God says to walk away from in His Word?
To make matters worse, the Danites who did not take their land (Judges 1) are now attempting to capture land. They see this idol and this priest and believe that God will bless them in their efforts as long as they have a religion. In the end, they worship this idol and create a shrine to it and worship it as a nation for centuries. This is in the city of Dan north of the Sea of Galilee and will play a large role in the divided kingdom.
There is more to this story that can be expressed: treaties and weakness and bullying, etc. I may cover these in an updated writing.