Micah - Judges 17 & 18

Chapters 17 and 18 are about one story, so we’ll be studying them together. A couple of things about the rest of the book of Judges, consisting of chapters 17-21. First, these are known as the Appendices chapters because they aren’t about Israelite judges at all. Second, they happen chronologically BEFORE any of the other incidents in Judges that we’ve already gone over. In fact TB notes that the story from chapters 17 and 18 actually happened about 200 years before Samson. Thirdly, the IM notes “In the closing chapters of Judges the writer turned from stories of Israel’s heroes to two incidents that illustrate the low state of religion and morality in the days when Israel forsook her covenant with the Lord and everyone ‘did that which was right in his own eyes.’ The stories… are samples of Israel’s worst days. Nothing in the stories show the Israelites doing what was right.” I almost wish that these chapters were at the beginning of the book of Judges just so that we could see how far Israel had fallen away from their God after Joshua died, like it seems almost immediate. The reason that that is interesting is because it begs the question why? Why does Israel constantly reject God immediately, even though they had seen so many miracles, and why don’t I? And I don’t mean that in a prideful way, like “they fell away and I didn’t,” I mean it more in a way of “if they fell away and saw great things, does that mean it’s inevitable for me? What do I need to do to make sure that that doesn’t happen?” It's a cautionary tale for me.

Some information that is important before going into chapter 17 is that the tribe of Dan had been given the land bordering the Philistines and they were unable to drive them out of the land so they never were able to settle that land. As a result, the tribe of Dan, some assimilated into other tribes, and some moved way far north to just south of Lebanon, so they felt that they were a displaced people without an inheritance. That comes into play later.

There was a man named Micah stole 1,100 shekels of silver form his mother. This is the second mention of 1,100 pieces of silver in the last two days so that seems concentrated. I don’t know what the significance of that is, if it’s important at all, but I’ve gone my whole life not aware of the specific denomination of 1,100 pieces of silver and now I’ve heard it twice in two days. Seems weird. Anyway, when the mother discovered the money was gone, she cried and cursed the person who took it, and Micah heard his mother’s curse. TB suggested that the mother pronounced the curse within Micah’s earshot because she knew that he had taken it. But hearing that cursing was enough for him to feel guilty and return the money to her. The mother praises God that her money was returned and dedicates it to God “to make a graven image and a molten image.” Very weird to me that the Israelites are still persistently making and keeping graven images when it has been condemned repeatedly by God and sometimes with deadly results, I don’t get it.

The mother doesn’t actually dedicate all the money though, she only gives about 200 pieces of silver to make the idol, which in this case, she’s disobeying the commandments with the money so whether or not she kept it isn’t really that serious of a violation to God. Micah is the one who takes this silver and makes the idol, and apparently he does this a lot because he has a whole separate “house of gods” and he made an ephod, which is a sacred garment used by the Levite priests in temple ceremonies so the fact that he made one for his own personal use is pretty sacrilegious. Additionally, he “consecrated on of this sons, who became his priest.” This is a call back to before the Levites were assigned to be the priests that officiated in the priesthood capacity for all of Israel and the oldest sons were usually the priests for their families. A lot of oldest sons didn’t want to give up that power and prestige so a lot of them just held on to it and did it anyway and then when the priesthood was defunct, then they just went back to doing what they were doing. The truth is that Micah didn’t have the authority to consecrate anyone to be a priest, let alone his own son.

So along comes a Levite man, wandering, and Miach comes across him and offers him a place to stay, as hospitality. Once he gets to know him better, he realizes that he’s a Levite and decides to offer him the job of being his own personal priest, giving him room and board as well as ten shekels of silver per year. The Levite accepts, and Micah thinks, “Now know I that the lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to me priest.” Micha thinks he’s going to be blessed because he’s gotten a Levite to be his own personal priest. There are multiple problems with this, not the least of which is that this Levite is not a priest. Every Priest is a Levite but not every Levite is a priest. Remember, priests who officiate in ordinances have to come from one of three families, going back to Aaron as the high priest, so this guy wasn’t qualified to be a priest according to God’s own requirements. Secondly, priests were to serve the entire community, not only family. Third, favor from God comes from obedience to His commandments, not by paying money to employ a charlatan to serve in your house personally. All the way around, not great, but just an example of how bastardized the priesthood and the religious lives of the Israelites at that point, just so soon after Joshua died.

This Levite is serving as a priest in Micah’s house when along comes some guys from the tribe of Dan who were wandering around trying to find out where some good land for their inheritance would be. The travelers recognize the priest from somewhere else and in talking, they discover that he’s working as a priest. The travelers ask the Levite if their search will go well, if God will be with them. The Levite answers “Go in peace: before the Lord is your way wherein ye go.” I mean, he really had a 50/50 shot at being correct here and it’s better to just give the people hope regardless. TB says, “right, as though this fellow has contact with God or that God would give him a vision of Dan’s future.” I thought that was funny.

The travelers leave and on the assurance that they will win, take 600 men to conquer the city the they thought looked good called Laish. On their way back through town with their soldiers, they ask the Levite to go with them and be their personal priest, and he agrees and they also take the graven image Micah had made, along with the ephod he made and all the other religious items that he had held personally for his family. Micah and his household try to fight back but they are outmatched, so they just go home and let the Danites take their stuff.

The Danites go and attack this village inhabiting the land that they want, beat and kill them, burn everything to the ground and move in, calling the city Dan. They won, and Micah got his stuff stolen, just like he stole that stuff from his mother. It’s just such an interesting commentary on the religious state of Israel at that time, yet they still won and lived pretty good lives. I wonder how much of that is still God’s favor and support, and how much of it is just life circumstances.