What is the most hated aspect of any sport? The official judge. So why do we have these hated refs and umpires in games? It doesn’t matter if it’s chess or boxing between two minds, two teams of eleven people like in Football, or even individual sports like Nascar racing, every sport has some sort of referee or judge to let you know what is permissible and what is not. The reason why we have these referees is to make sure the rules of the game are followed.
In our modern era, we want to make sure those rules are followed to a “T”, so we even have judges who judge the judges. In the modern era, teams can challenge a referee’s call and it will be video reviewed by either the field judge, or another judge who sits up in a box. These judges, referees, and umpires, keep everyone playing the same game, within the same rules.
These guys and gals get a lot of hate, because when their call goes against your team, they are attacked and ridiculed, but they play an important job. Without them the game would dissolve into chaos; nobody would play, and it would end pretty quickly in popularity.
Judges help keep the boundaries of play in view, so that everyone is held to the same standard and fair play can proceed
And it’s this idea of good boundaries that brings us back to our series in Judges, where we’ll be picking it up in chapter 17, verse 1. As we open up to Judges 17:1, we are entering into the final part of the book. As we have seen, the book of Judges is divided into three parts: the unique introduction of both past and present intertwined to help us understand the state of the nation of Israel. After that we looked at the judges themselves, who started with the best in Othniel, progressively getting worse until we ended with Samson last week.
Through these first two parts of Judges we have seen three themes: God’s faithfulness despite people’s unfaithfulness; God’s call to obedient lives, following his commands; and how disobedient lives lead to all sorts of personal and social problems. In each of the judges, we have seen these three themes play out. And it was last week that we leaned heavily into the first theme.
It’s in Samson’s last moments that we see the heart of God. God responds to even the slightest sign of humility from his people, because his main goal is to bring people back into right relationship with him, and he is willing to work even in the smallest of humble actions on our part.
But moving into the final section, we’re going to see how the rejection of being obedient, embracing unfaithfulness, leads into disobedience, outright destroying individuals and the social structures. For the next few weeks, we are going to be covering several chapters at a time, this is because the stories are so big and interconnected. Because of this we will only be reading select passages and your homework is to read the stories in as a whole.
With that all in mind, let’s read Judges chapter 17, starting in verse 1.
“1 There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Micah. 2 And he said to his mother, ‘The 1,100 pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse, and also spoke it in my ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it.’ And his mother said, ‘Blessed be my son by the Lord.’ 3 And he restored the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother. And his mother said, ‘I dedicate the silver to the Lord from my hand for my son, to make a carved image and a metal image. Now therefore I will restore it to you.’ 4 So when he restored the money to his mother, his mother took 200 pieces of silver and gave it to the silversmith, who made it into a carved image and a metal image. And it was in the house of Micah. 5 And the man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and household gods, and ordained one of his sons, who became his priest. 6 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
The overall story that begins with Micah is separated into three parts and introduces three parties. The first is Micah, who’s name means “Who is like the Lord?” The meaning of the name is to put God up against other deities, asking the question who is comparable to God? Last week we answered this question in comparing Samson and Jesus, and the answer is, no one. It is the same answer that is given throughout the book of Judges; no one is comparable to the God of the Israelites. And so, the final section begins with a man who’s name brings this comparability to the forefront of the reader’s thought. In addition to this, we must notice that he is an Ephraimite. We need to remember that it was the Ephraimites that were twice upset in not being called to war with the other tribes, and in once case entered into civil war with their fellow Israelites.
But Micah doesn’t seem to follow in this understanding that no one, neither human nor god are comparable to the God of Israel. In fact, we see Micah breaking God’s commands. The first of these commands is that he stole the silver coins from his mother. Only giving it back because of a curse she said. He follows this up by disobeying another command which is to not make a carved image, which is an idol. These are two of the ten commandments that we talked about from Exodus 20. The purpose of not stealing is to keep right relationships between people and to keep people’s personal possessions safe. Whereas the prohibition against making carved images into idols, was so that the people wouldn’t confuse the unseen immaterial God who created the universe, with the creation itself. Yet, here in Micah’s disobedient acts, he is destroying relationships through theft and is comparing the Lord to a material possession.
And once he starts down this path of sin, he takes another step away from God. He sets up a shrine with the carved image, a shrine separate from God’s prescribed tabernacle in Shiloh, and then ordains, or sets up a priesthood from his own sons. This is in direct violation Exodus 28, where we see the priesthood established through the tribe of Levite. So Micah has, stolen, set up an idol, which God said not to, in a shrine, that is not where God said to have it, and has established a priesthood that is separate from God’s prescribed priesthood. We’re basically seeing a modern cult, and what eventually will be called, syncretism. Basically Micah starts out as a thief, and eventually combines what little he knows about God it with other religious practices around him, to establish his own religious group that is both within God’s covenant people, and separate from them.
And this introduction ends with these words, “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” These words are really important, because it tells us that, one, Israel wasn’t following anyone, be it a man nor God himself. Therefore a human king was needed to corral these people from creating sub-nations and sub-religions within the greater state of Israel. And it lets us know that, like Samson who, in chapter 14 verse 3 said about the Philistine woman, “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes,” this sentiment, of following whatever your eyes desire, has permeated all around Israel. In fact this phrase, “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes,” replaces the previous statement of, “The people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord…” The sight of God has given way to the sight of man. The evil that is seen by God, fills the sight of the people to the point where selfish desire is all they see.
And so we leave Micah for the moment and look to the second character in the story, the unnamed Levite. Let’s read in verse 7, “7 Now there was a young man of Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there. 8 And the man departed from the town of Bethlehem in Judah to sojourn where he could find a place. And as he journeyed, he came to the hill country of Ephraim to the house of Micah. 9 And Micah said to him, ‘Where do you come from?’ And he said to him, 'I am a Levite of Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to sojourn where I may find a place.’ 10 And Micah said to him, ‘Stay with me, and be to me a father and a priest, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year and a suit of clothes and your living.’ And the Levite went in. 11 And the Levite was content to dwell with the man, and the young man became to him like one of his sons. 12 And Micah ordained the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah. 13 Then Micah said, ‘Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, because I have a Levite as priest.’”
We move from Micah the Ephramite to the sojourning Levite. Now the fact that there is a Levite in the story isn’t that strange, what is strange is why he’s there to be encountered. We’re told that he left his home in Bethlehem and was looking to find a place. In fact, Micah asks him, “Where do you come from?” Why because he’s not in the typical place that you would find a Levite. God had given them specific places and cities to live. They weren’t like the other tribes who had vast swaths of land to live in, they were supposed to live within a certain area around a city, because their allocation of territory was basically nothing, because it was understood that their inheritance was to serve God. And they accomplished this by either serving him in their cities or when called upon to Shiloh at the tabernacle. But this Levite was off on his own trying to find a new place to call his home.
And once we know that, we can begin to understand everything that happens here on out. Micah the cult leader, sees a wandering Levite and makes a deal with him, which gives legitimacy to his cult. Now he had the idol, the shrine, a priesthood and a genuine priest. And Micah believes that God will now bless it. But will he though?
We move to the third group of the story in chapter 18, verse 1, “In those days there was no king in Israel. And in those days the tribe of the people of Dan was seeking for itself an inheritance to dwell in, for until then no inheritance among the tribes of Israel had fallen to them. 2 So the people of Dan sent five able men from the whole number of their tribe, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land and to explore it. And they said to them, ‘Go and explore the land.’ And they came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there. 3 When they were by the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young Levite. And they turned aside and said to him, ‘Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What is your business here?’ 4 And he said to them, ‘This is how Micah dealt with me: he has hired me, and I have become his priest.’ 5 And they said to him, ‘Inquire of God, please, that we may know whether the journey on which we are setting out will succeed.’ 6 And the priest said to them, ‘Go in peace. The journey on which you go is under the eye of the Lord.’”
The final party to this story is the tribe of Dan. Their out looking for their inheritance, but they haven’t been able to conquer it like their fellow Israelites. Except somethings off. Their tribal lands were not in the north, they were in the west by the Mediterranean Sea. So not only is the Levite way out of the way from his home, so is this group of Danites. And when the two meet, the Danites are confused with why the Levite is so far from home. But they don’t bat an eye as to his explanation, rather they want to know if God is going to bless their journey.
Not here’s the interesting part, God never speaks in this story. In fact, God won’t speak, nor will he do anything until chapter 20. That let’s us know, somethings off; somethings not right with this whole situation. But that’s because, remember, everyone’s doing right in their own eyes. Micah did it by making an idol, setting up a shrine, and installing a new priesthood. The Levite did it by leaving his God given land in the south and moving north and then becoming a priest for Micah’s cult. And the Danites are doing what is right in their own eyes, by leaving their allotted land in the west from something else in the north. No one is doing what God wants them, but they still want to be blessed by God. And we get no confirmation that God does bless the journey, we only get the Levites word, which at this point is suspicious at best. In fact God would later call out these type of people who look as if they are speaking for God, but are really not. In Jeremiah 23:16-17, we read, "16 Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. 17 They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, “It shall be well with you”; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, “No disaster shall come upon you.”’”
The Levite is fulfilling the role, not of a seeker of God, but a seeker of self, and he is speaking from his own mind, and not the mind of God.
So the scouts go on their way with the confirmation that they are going to get what they came out for. They then meet up with the rest of their group and the group returns to the Levite; they take the idol and the priestly ephod that was made, and they tell the Levite to come with them. And in verse 19 we get this interaction between the Danites and the Levite, “And they said to him, ‘Keep quiet; put your hand on your mouth and come with us and be to us a father and a priest. Is it better for you to be priest to the house of one man, or to be priest to a tribe and clan in Israel?’” To which we read, "And the priest's heart was glad (v.20a).” Why was it glad? Because it was about him. Micah gave him a sweet deal, but these guys were giving him a sweeter deal. And now the cult that was started, grows with the Danites. And the chapter ends with, “30 And the people of Dan set up the carved image for themselves, and Jonathan the son of Gershom, son of Moses, and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land. 31 So they set up Micah's carved image that he made, as long as the house of God was at Shiloh.”
This idolatry continues for hundreds of years, and is one of the reasons that God eventually uses the Assyrians to destroy the northern tribes.
And so the first of two stories about a Levite end with worship of God being replaced with the worship of idols. It ends with a cult growing within God’s covenant people. It ends with people following selfish desires that seem right in their own eyes, but are evil in God’s. And it ends with people setting up their own kingdoms apart from God’s intent. And it leads into the most horrific story yet, which we’ll cover next week.
But what are we to take away from this? It’s really easy for us to fall into the trap of Micah, the Levite, and the Danites. How many of us want something for ourselves? We want something grander than our parents or the childhood we grew up with? We want the security that we can build with our own two hands. Even if that security is outside of the command of God.
See God isn’t denying that we should be secured, but he wants us to be secured within the boundaries that he sets up. Micah didn’t stay in the boundaries of no idols and so it leads to not only him loosing the idol, but also his priest and what he thought was a blessing from God. The Levite didn’t stay in God’s boundaries and it led to Micah thinking he was blessed by God, but he wasn’t, and it led to the Danites thinking their moving away from their allotment of land, was being blessed by God, but it wasn’t. Finally the Danites didn’t stay in God’s boundaries which caused problems with Micah, and it puffed up the self importance of Levite who himself was outside the boundaries of God.
When we move beyond God’s boundaries, which are God’s commands, as set down in the Bible, we can have short term victories, like Samson, but it leads to long term problems. In this case, its the destruction of the unity of Israel and eventually the almost full eradication of the northern tribes.
God calls us to his boundaries, because it’s within those boundaries that we thrive. God knows us better than we know ourselves, and when we submit ourselves to his knowledge, we are more satisfied with ourselves, and we are more at ease with what’s happening around us.
If we take a moment and look at the world around us right now, our society, which was built on the principles found in the Bible, i.e. the boundaries, has moved so far away from those principles that we are seeing dissatisfaction with ourselves personally, and with the people around us. Corruption is up, justice is down. Suicides are up, love is down. Contentment is down, uncertainty is up.
Only when we submit and say, God I’ll do what you want and go where you want me, can we ever get to a place where we are no longer sojourning for our own kingdom and our own fame, but finally be satisfied in who God created us to be.
God is calling us to his boundaries, not to constrict us, but so that we may experience this life to its fullest. This is why Jesus states in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” The thief breaks the boundaries of God and in turn brings about destruction. Whereas God puts in place boundaries so that we can experience life to it’s fullest.
This week I want to challenge you to first read Judges chapters 17-18 in light of God’s boundaries. Then look at your life and ask the question, what boundaries of God am I going beyond. It could be in the area of self desire, where we want something God has said no to. This can pop up in lust, in pride, in letting our mouth run. It could be in worry, where we see things falling down around us and we go outside of God to fix it, when he says rest in me. It could be something in holding anger or grudges, instead of seeking God’s love for others through praying for God’s blessing and work in their life. This week, let’s seek God to bring us back into his boundaries, repenting of going beyond them, and for any sins that follow it.
We are called to be a boundary seeking people, that know, when we live within God’s appointed boundaries, there lay the blessings of God, the abundant life. And by doing so, we may be blessed and bless our Lord in return. Amen.
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