This chapter of Judges takes a decidedly different turn. Instead of hearing about the exploits of the Judges (chapter 16 wrapped up the story of the Judges), we instead are getting a look at a smaller set of stories that tell us about the heart of Israel. The first is a brief story of a man named Micah. 1 Now a man named Micah from the hill country of Ephraim 2 said to his mother, “The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you and about which I heard you utter a curse—I have that silver with me; I took it.” Then his mother said, “The Lord bless you, my son!”
As noted in previous chapters of Judges, Israel’s spiritual health wavered greatly over a 350-year period. As a snapshot of this spiritual erosion, Micah steals a great fortune from his mother and later returns it. 10 shekels was an average income per year, so the money stolen by Micah is quite large.
It is also important to note that Micah is not a Gentile; he is a Jew, from the tribe of Ephraim. In this vignette, Micah returns the money to his mother and there is no admonishing. In fact, she blesses him for it.
3 When he returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, she said, “I solemnly consecrate my silver to the Lord for my son to make an image overlaid with silver. I will give it back to you.” 4 So after he returned the silver to his mother, she took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to a silversmith, who used them to make the idol. And it was put in Micah’s house.
Upon the return of the money, Micah’s mother takes a portion of the money to create an image. Although it is not stated what the image is (it could as easily be Baal or Asherah as much as it could be an image of God), the second commandment forbids images to worship (Exodus 20:4-5).
The image is carved and there doesn’t seem to be any opposition to it. The silversmith in Ephraim does the job without protest. This is striking because it subtly shows an Israel that is not in alignment with God not only in the large ways, but also in the small. If it is easy to get a carving of a false idol, or an idol clearly in opposition to the second commandment, then it seems likely it would be easy to do just about anything in opposition to God.
5 Now this man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and some household gods and installed one of his sons as his priest.
We see the erosion of morals in Micah.
He first sets up a shrine. A shrine is an official place of worship.
Second, he makes an ephod (a ceremonial vest worn by the priests of the tabernacle). Gideon also did this in Chapter 8. Gideon’s ephod, made out of the plunder of the battle with the Midianites, eventually led Israel astray in false worship.
Third, he sets up household gods. These were idols, common in a fallen Israelite’s home, that were placed around the house for prosperity and guidance.
Last, he consecrated one of his sons to be priest over this religion. Micah developed his own religion, from his own mind, to please not God but himself. The next verse answers why he would do such a thing.
6 In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.
This same phrase also ends the book of Judges and its no mistake we see it in both places. The author of Judges (who remains unknown, although some passages may be attributed to Samuel), was making a point of the spiritual condition of Israel. It had fallen into Moral Relativity.
Moral Relativity is important to understand. It’s nothing new (as we see in Judges) and it continues today. It’s the concept that truth for one person doesn’t equal truth for another. Different people can have different truths and culture equates them both as valid truth.
Why is this problematic? Because Christianity teaches there is one truth - the word of God - and all truth can be measured against it. But if one chooses not to measure his actions against the truth of the bible, then he is apt to create his own truth - just as Micah did. When Micah forwent the truth of God (second commandment, as an example), he chose his own truth to live by.
This practice, unfortunately, permeates the world in our time. Again, it’s nothing new. We see deep examples of this throughout history (through the Roman, Greek and Persian Empires) and can see it in every modern civilization on the face of the earth. When people reject God’s law for their own, they create a new truth, a new morality, and wrap themselves up in a theology of their own making. Just as Micah had with his own idea of worship.
7 A young Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, who had been living within the clan of Judah, 8 left that town in search of some other place to stay. On his way he came to Micah’s house in the hill country of Ephraim.
Enter a Levite priest from Judah. This priest (Jonathan, as we’ll learn in chapter 18), has left Judah for some reason. There are two theories as to why: 1. He left to act as a “freelance” priest. Jonathan may have left Judah, where he had a designated place, set up by God, in order to find his fortune as a priest for hire. 2. He left because of lack of support: He was from Bethlehem in Judah (not a designated Levite city), and was dependent on the support of the people there. If the people didn’t support him by their sacrifices and what they set aside, then he may have left to find a better way to serve God.
9 Micah asked him, “Where are you from?” “I’m a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah,” he said, “and I’m looking for a place to stay.” 10 Then Micah said to him, “Live with me and be my father and priest, and I’ll give you ten shekels of silver a year, your clothes and your food.” 11 So the Levite agreed to live with him, and the young man became like one of his sons to him.
There are two sides at play here. Micah wants to legitimize his shrine by having a bona-fide priest preside over it. But how does he do it? He sets the priest up for a year and buys him a new suit.
The other side of the coin belongs to the Levite priest. Many people fall into the trap of money and comfort. It’s an easy way of sacrificing their morals for their human needs. This priest does just that and sacrifices more than his comfort. He is not acting in a way to glorify God but is acting in his own-self interest.
12 Then Micah installed the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in his house. 13 And Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will be good to me, since this Levite has become my priest.”
Both men are guilty of sin. The Levite should have known not to accept Micah’s terms. And Micah, although sincere in his faith, had to know that legitimizing it through the priest didn’t bring any real legitimacy to it.
As we expand the picture and apply this story to the condition of Israel’s heart, we see the people of Israel (Micah) are lost in sin and moral relativity. The priestly class (Levite) are corrupt because they are greedy and unable to stand up for God.