10/25/26 Weekly Bible Lessons: Remember God's Works

Judges 17:1–6; 18:18–27 (NASB) 

Background — Have you ever said something along the lines of “That really snowballed out of control!” Or have you ever actually made a snowman by rolling a ball of snow around or even pushed a ball of snow down a hill? The snow gathers to itself and gets bigger and bigger the more it grows. A small piece of snow in your hand can grow a hundred times its size with just a small bit of force. This is the same with sin. It snowballs. It begins small and then grows bigger until it, or even we ourselves, are unrecognizable. This is what happened to a man named Micah. 

The last five chapters of Judges are not in chronological order; they are more like an appendix. This account most likely happened during the time described in Judges 2:22-23, before the invasion by Cushan. 

17:1-3 — Strike one. We are introduced to Micah and his mother, who are both Ephraimites. They both proclaim to be followers of the Lord. Micah’s name means “Who is like Yahweh.” 

We find Micah and his mother in an interesting situation. His mother had eleven hundred pieces of silver stolen from her, so she spoke a curse over the thief. Micah heard this curse and confessed to his mother that he was the one who stole her silver. She then spoke a blessing over Micah from the Lord and dedicated the silver to be made into a created image that would be worshipped. In the eyes of God, both are wrong. In three verses, we see that Micah is a thief, his mother only speaks curses when it is not about someone she loves, and they both were willing to worship a created image. This goes directly against Deuteronomy 27:15, which says, “Cursed is the man who makes an idol or a molten image, an abomination to the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.” 

Strike one! Micah’s mom was trying to undo a human curse by getting the Lord to bless him and, in doing so, directly went against what God has already said. 

17:3-6 — Strike two. Micah’s mother gave the silver to a silversmith to craft the images that would be given to Micah. When they were finished, he put them in his home for him to personally worship. There the snowball got bigger, and his illegal worship expanded. Micah built a shrine for his gods. It included the images from his mother, an ephod (an upper piece of clothing worn only by priests), and other household items. Micah then consecrated one of his own sons as his priest. One of the many problems here is that they were not a part of the tribe of Levi, the priestly tribe. This was so wicked in the eyes of God that the text says, “In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.” 

It seems like Micah wanted to worship the Lord. However, he did not do what God had already said. He wanted to worship God when he wanted and how he wanted. He wanted his own images and his own priest. Micah dangerously worshiped God in whatever way he desired. This is the same reason Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu were consumed by fire (Leviticus 10:1-3). They offered strange fire to the Lord and did not worship Him in the way prescribed. This is a warning that we cannot come to God and worship Him in whatever way we please. How does God desire to be worshipped today (John 4:24)? 

18:18-19, 27 — Strike three. What makes this worse is it seems like Micah knows what he did was wrong, and he chose to do it anyway. Later in the chapter he met an actual priest from the tribe of Levi, bribed him to be a priest in his home, replaced his own son as his home priest, and said, “Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, seeing I have a Levite as priest” (17:13). He knew he shouldn’t have had his own priest but chose to do it anyway. 

We see that Micah’s “favorable” situation would not last very long. A priest was the only one who could offer sacrifices. In a way, the Levitic priests were part of the people’s connection to the Lord, so having one in your own home to serve your family was a big deal. 

At the beginning of chapter 18, the Danites were looking for land to inherit and stumbled on Micah and his priest. They wanted Micah’s “favorable” position to be their own; with six hundred armed men at the gate, they took his graven image, the ephod, the household idols, the molten images, and even convinced the priest to come with them. The priest’s heart was glad to serve an entire tribe instead of just one man. 

The account of Micah and his mother is a cautionary one. We learn we must not push the limits and boundaries of what God has already put in order. We need to learn to constantly ask if our life is ordered in a way that brings God glory.