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Then his mother said, “The Lord bless you, my son!”
When he returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, she said, “I solemnly consecrate my silver to the Lord for my son to make an image overlaid with silver. I will give it back to you.”
So after he returned the silver to his mother, she took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to a silversmith, who used them to make the idol. And it was put in Micah’s house.
Now this man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and some household gods and installed one of his sons as his priest. In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit." - Judges 17: 1-6
[Beginning with the deceit of a child stealing from his mother, we will see the impact of one man's sin on an entire nation . . .
Also, in the following verses, we will see Micah doubling down on his pattern of duplicity. - my commentary added]
"A young Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, who had been living within the clan of Judah, left that town in search of some other place to stay. On his way he came to Micah’s house in the hill country of Ephraim.
Micah asked him, “Where are you from?”
“I’m a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah,” he said, “and I’m looking for a place to stay.”
Then Micah said to him, “Live with me and be my father and priest, and I’ll give you ten shekels[d] of silver a year, your clothes and your food.” So the Levite agreed to live with him, and the young man became like one of his sons to him. Then Micah installed the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in his house. And Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will be good to me, since this Levite has become my priest.” - Judges 17:7-13
Okay . . . let's do a quick recap, Micah steals from his mother, then in a rare moment of conscience and clarity, he returns the silver he stole from his parent. She takes two hundred of the eleven hundred sheckles that he stole, goes to the local silversmith, and has the silversmith make an idol, of the silver that her son just returned as stolen property! Micah promptly makes that idol and the wayward Levi priest into his own personal temple / priest to ensure favor from the gods.
[Yes, this is going to end well . . . - my commentary added]
"In those days Israel had no king. And in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking a place of their own where they might settle, because they had not yet come into an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. So the Danites sent five of their leading men from Zorah and Eshtaol to spy out the land and explore it. These men represented all the Danites. They told them, “Go, explore the land.”
So they entered the hill country of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah, where they spent the night. When they were near Micah’s house, they recognized the voice of the young Levite; (?) [question mark added] so they turned in there and asked him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? Why are you here?”
He told them what Micah had done for him, and said, “He has hired me and I am his priest.” [Because that's how the calling of God works . . my commentary]
Then they said to him, “Please inquire of God to learn whether our journey will be successful.”
The priest answered them, “Go in peace. Your journey has the Lord’s approval.” [Maybe I'm slow but I didn't read anything that records that the priest consulted God in this matter . . . my commentary]
Then the five men who had spied out the land of Laish said to their fellow Danites, “Do you know that one of these houses has an ephod, some household gods and an image overlaid with silver? Now you know what to do.” So they turned in there and went to the house of the young Levite at Micah’s place and greeted him. The six hundred Danites, armed for battle, stood at the entrance of the gate. The five men who had spied out the land went inside and took the idol, the ephod and the household gods while the priest and the six hundred armed men stood at the entrance of the gate.
When the five men went into Micah’s house and took the idol, the ephod and the household gods, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?”
They answered him, “Be quiet! Don’t say a word. Come with us, and be our father and priest. Isn’t it better that you serve a tribe and clan in Israel as priest rather than just one man’s household?” The priest was very pleased. [Of course he's please! He just got a promotion - rather than work for one man, now he is the priest to an entire tribe. - my commentary added] He took the ephod, the household gods and the idol and went along with the people. Putting their little children, their livestock and their possessions in front of them, they turned away and left.
When they had gone some distance from Micah’s house, the men who lived near Micah were called together and overtook the Danites. As they shouted after them, the Danites turned and said to Micah, “What’s the matter with you that you called out your men to fight?”
He replied, “You took the gods I made, [little gods is right and saying they took his priest is a bit of a stretch in my book - my commentary added] and my priest, and went away. What else do I have? How can you ask, ‘What’s the matter with you?’”
The Danites answered, “Don’t argue with us, or some of the men may get angry and attack you, and you and your family will lose your lives.” So the Danites went their way, and Micah, seeing that they were too strong for him, turned around and went back home. [let's think about this for a moment, everything that Micah attributed to power and importance in his life he trusted only in his might to see returned - not the power of his "god" or priest - my commentary added]
Then they took what Micah had made, and his priest, and went on to Laish, against a people at peace and secure. They attacked them with the sword and burned down their city. There was no one to rescue them because they lived a long way from Sidon and had no relationship with anyone else. The city was in a valley near Beth Rehob.
The Danites rebuilt the city and settled there. They named it Dan after their ancestor Dan, [can't say these guys aren't creative . . . my commentary added] who was born to Israel—though the city used to be called Laish. There the Danites set up for themselves the idol, and Jonathan son of Gershom, the son of Moses, and his sons were priests for the tribe of Dan until the time of the captivity of the land. They continued to use the idol Micah had made, all the time the house of God was in Shiloh." - Judges 18
So for the tribe of Dan, until they bought into the false promises and security of a silver idol and a wayward priest, they had found their own land too hard to conquer. Despite God's, capital G, promise of victory over the people who lived in the promised land Moses had shown them after delivering them from Egypt.
You see, Judges 17 was the story of sin and idolatry of a few individuals. Yet, by the end of Judges 18, we see how those sins led to entire tribes sinning and rebelling against God. Another lesson is seen in the early verses of Judges 18 where Danites on a sinful mission, met with a sinful Levite, and wanted to know from a righteous God, if their mission would be successful. Then the sinful Levite, sent the sinning men on their way with God’s blessing.
That sounds about right . . .
Then these sinning men went into Micah’s house and took the carved image, the ephod, the household idols, and the molded image, "and the priest said to them, “What are you doing?”
This was a strange combination of low morality and strong religious feeling. It was as if someone really wanted to study the Bible – therefore they stole several Bibles. They used violence and theft to supposedly advance a religious cause, and the priest allowed them to do so by standing aside during their actions.
"So he said, “You have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and you have gone away. Now what more do I have?’” [In the end, his false gods had not brought him any lasting good - my commentary added]
Even Micah knew deep in his heart that the idols were powerless. If you can make it, another can take it. Obviously, his gods should be able to care for themselves. We wonder if Micah saw the foolishness of this. The lesson here is we can either worship a god of our own making, or we can worship the one true God who made us.
The other part of this heist was the taking of Micah's priest, who allowed himself to be swayed for mercenary gains and fled with the highest bidder. How wonderful it is to have a High Priest who cannot change, and who can never be taken away from us. As F.B. Meyer wrote, “Whatever can be taken from us has the mark and signature of man upon it.” Yet Jesus Christ, our High Priest, can never change; will never leave us out of a concern for someone else; and our sins and failures cannot rob us of Him.
The children of Dan set up for themselves the carved image: This was the beginning of established idolatry in Israel in the Promised Land. There was individual idolatry in Israel long before this, but this is official idolatry. Through a strange chain of events, this began with a son stealing 1,100 shekels from his mother (Judges 17:1-2). It ended with an entire tribe of Israel led into established idolatry.
So they set up for themselves Micah’s carved image: We can suppose that Micah had no idea how far-reaching the effects of his sin would become. His personal idolatry became the idolatry of an entire tribe, setting up a rival center of worship to the house of God in Shiloh.
“Whether intentionally on the part of the writer or no, there is a touch of satire in this declaration. There, at Shiloh, was the true center of the national life, the house of God…. Nevertheless, at Dan they gathered about the false, and rendered a worship which was destructive.” (Morgan)
One sin, ushered in a avalanche of deceit, idolatry, and rebellion for a nation. The enemy always will understate the impact of our sin, but God tells us, with love and truth, " . . .that the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." - Romans 6:23
