Setting – Micah sets up a shine in his house for himself and ordains a Levite priest live with him and to be his priest.
Content – Micah returns eleven hundred pieces of silver that he took from his mom. She dedicates the returned money to the Lord. She has two hundred of the coins were made into an idol and placed in Micah’s house. Verse 5 (NLT), “Micah set up a shrine, and he made a sacred ephod and some household idols. Then he installed one of his sons as the priest.” This is a repeating theme throughout Judges (v. 6), “In those days Israel had no king, so the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.”
A traveling Levite agrees to stay with Micah to be his priest. Micah felt that by doing this (v. 13), “…Now I know that the LORD will prosper me, seeing I have a Levite as priest.”
Application – This chapter is analogous to what we see today, “…the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.” We’ve got plenty of man-made religions today. For Israel, they just needed to follow what Moses and Joshua wrote down. The second commandment (from the ten commandments) (Ex. 20:4), “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth”. But Micah felt that this was a way to honor God. It doesn’t look like the Levite priest did this, which further shows the degraded state of Israel.
As a society, we seemed to have to interject our additions to what God requires. If we simply follow what God has laid out in His word we’re in the right direction. Grant it, there are variations of churches, but there are those off-shots that are missing the mark.
Personally, this means that I need to challenge my thoughts, actions based upon scripture, asking for God’s direction and counsel.
Content – Micah returns eleven hundred pieces of silver that he took from his mom. She dedicates the returned money to the Lord. She has two hundred of the coins were made into an idol and placed in Micah’s house. Verse 5 (NLT), “Micah set up a shrine, and he made a sacred ephod and some household idols. Then he installed one of his sons as the priest.” This is a repeating theme throughout Judges (v. 6), “In those days Israel had no king, so the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.”
A traveling Levite agrees to stay with Micah to be his priest. Micah felt that by doing this (v. 13), “…Now I know that the LORD will prosper me, seeing I have a Levite as priest.”
Application – This chapter is analogous to what we see today, “…the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.” We’ve got plenty of man-made religions today. For Israel, they just needed to follow what Moses and Joshua wrote down. The second commandment (from the ten commandments) (Ex. 20:4), “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth”. But Micah felt that this was a way to honor God. It doesn’t look like the Levite priest did this, which further shows the degraded state of Israel.
As a society, we seemed to have to interject our additions to what God requires. If we simply follow what God has laid out in His word we’re in the right direction. Grant it, there are variations of churches, but there are those off-shots that are missing the mark.
Personally, this means that I need to challenge my thoughts, actions based upon scripture, asking for God’s direction and counsel.
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