GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
JUDGES 17:1-2
Chapters 17-21 are the third part of the book. Beginning with this chapter, our author presents a series of accounts or anecdotes that were typical of life in Israel at the time of the judges but in places were there were no judges. These stories illustrate the lawlessness and religious chaos of the nation. They were making up their own religion (chapters 17-18) and they were destroying each other from the inside (chapters 19-21). “Everyone did as he saw fit.” Everyone did whatever they wanted to.
A thief is made priest
17 There was a man named Micah from the hill country of Ephraim. 2 He said to his mother, “Those eleven hundred pieces of silver stolen from you, that I heard you speaking a curse over? Here it is. I took that silver.”
Then his mother said, “My son, may you be blessed by the LORD! ”
There are men named Micah in the Bible from nearly half the tribes of Israel. We think especially of the great prophet from Judah, the contemporary of Isaiah and who is quoted by Jeremiah and Matthew (Jer. 26:18; Micah 1:1; Matthew 2:6). But this man? He was from Ephraim, and the first thing we learn about him is that he was a thief.
The little incident recorded here may be distantly related to the story of Jephthah’s daughter. In that case, the daughter of a God-fearing judge was the object of an oath which he was unwilling to break. Here, a mother realized that her son had stolen from her, but once again there was an oath involved. In this case, the oath was a curse.
It must have been a whopper of a curse. It seems like the curse led Micah to return the silver; he was scared that the particulars of the curse would fall on his head. Although the name of the LORD is invoked by these people, true God-pleasing worship doesn’t seem to be on their minds. They come across like people you and I meet from different Christian denominations. They speak some of the same language, and they seem to be sincere in their faith, but it’s not like ours. They’ve got some things wrong and just not according to Scripture, but they didn’t see it that way.
The curse seems to be what was behind mom’s blessing, too. She wanted her darling son to be removed out from under whatever hideous curse she had uttered. So here in two verses we see people from the heartland of Israel—Ephraim, just north of Judah (and, we might add, within walking distance of the important religious centers of Bethel and Shiloh)—and we encounter our first sin. There will be more (nearly all of the Ten Commandments are violated in these final five chapters). Micah’s first sin is stealing. It’s always worth remembering Luther’s simple explanations of the commandments:
“We should fear and love God that we do not take our neighbor’s money or property, or get it by dishonest dealing, but help him to improve and protect his property and means of income.”
But this ungrateful wretch had stolen from his own mother—and it was a huge amount of money! 28 pounds (13 kilograms) of silver! That weighs about the same as four gallons of milk. His mother loved him dearly, and backpedaled as fast as she could to spare him from her curse, but this manure pile will lead to a whole thriving weedbed of sins.
It was a time when Israel had no king, and everybody did whatever he wanted to. As we continue with this crazy chapter, be warned. Some of the details are going to hit pretty close to home. It’s going to make us uncomfortable, and it’s going to make some people think twice about some of the things they thought were progressive and good for mankind and whatnot. It’s going to make all of us think about what pleases God, and what doesn’t. And this is why the Holy Spirit inspired this crazy chapter in the first place.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota