This is a part of a sermon series on the book of Judges. You can watch more here.
Hey let’s get started! My name is Michael. I am one of the pastors. So good to be here this morning! Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a great time with family!
I got to celebrate my 50th birthday before Thanksgiving! We went to see the Niagara Falls in Canada, so on my birthday I ordered a Canadian beer and as I was pulling out my ID the bartender says, “Look at this guy thinking he needs to show his ID.”
Then, turns to my wife and says, “Look at your uncle thinking he needs to show his ID.” Now to be fair, the drinking age in Ontario is 19, so I might not be able to pass for 18 but who knows about 21!
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I am sure there might have been some family hiccups for some of us. I am sure there were some sad memories for some of us but what a great opportunity for us to turn to the Lord with those layers of joy and pain, turn to the body of Christ with those layers of joy and pain, turn to God’s Word with those layers of joy and pain, so that we might be reminded of who we are in Christ.
It is in our relationship with Jesus where we are reminded that He knows our joy and our pain. He knows the pain we have on earth is not forever and He knows the joy we find on earth is a fraction of the joy that we will find with Him forever. Amen?
Prayer: This evening we will be gathering as a church family to pray and it is in our joy and our pain we want to turn to the Lord in prayer, so I invite you to come and pray with us. Last time we 3 more people than usual. We had 2 people who wanted to come but life got in the way, it’s okay, so we invite you to come and pray with the body of Christ this evening to be reminded of who we are in Christ!
This morning we will continue in Judges 17-18. You can turn to page 60 in our devotional or you can turn to Judges 17 in the Old Testament. Last Sunday Jerry walked us through chapters 13-16. Didn’t Jerry do a great job? Fantastic!
We are getting close to the end of Judges, this morning and next Sunday. If you are new this morning then you need to know the book of Judges isn’t about judicial judges but military leaders or deliverers.
Throughout Judges we have seen this cycle: Israel sins, Israel is judged, Israel cries out in repentance, so that the Lord raises up a judge / deliverer and for a period of time there is peace in the land until it all starts over again.
In Judges 17 the flow of the story changes a little. We won’t see any more judges introduced but instead we will see a snapshot of what life was like individually. The first 16 chapters the focus is on deliverers but chapters 17-21 focus on the life of regular people and regular lives.
Now, you need to know these snapshots into their world don’t follow the story of Judges chronologically. Chapter 17 isn’t taking place after chapter 16, but instead chapter 17 is dropping us somewhere into this period of time in Judges. Let’s look at verses 1-2.
Judges 17:1-2, “1 Now there was a man of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah. 2 He said to his mother, “The eleven hundred pieces of silver which were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse in my hearing, behold, the silver is with me; I took it.” And his mother said, “Blessed be my son by the Lord.”
In verse 1 we see two Israelites in the tribe of Ephraim, Micah and his mother introduced into the story of Judges. This Micah isn’t related to the prophet Micah in the Old Testament. This is just a regular Micah and a regular mom, but did you catch the tension of our passage?
We don’t know a lot about Micah and his mom, but did you catch that at the end over verse 2, mom can’t find her eleven hundred pieces of silver (which would have been a lifetime of income), and she expresses her frustration in front of her son Micah by “uttering a curse”, and when Micah hears the “curse” he suddenly becomes really helpful and admits he has the money, “behold the silver is with me.” Are you tracking? Turkey lull?
Keep in mind we have been talking about Israel as a nation struggling to follow the Lord and now we are zooming in on one family, a snapshot of each individual in the nation of Israel at this time, and notice Micah’s not confessing to the Lord, Micah’s not repenting of his sin, but Micah is scared of this “superstitious curse” whispered by his mother. Look at verses 3-4.
Judges 17:3-4, “3 He then returned the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, “I wholly dedicate the silver from my hand to the Lord for my son to make a graven image and a molten image; now therefore, I will return them to you.” 4 So when he returned the silver to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver and gave them to the silversmith who made them into a graven image and a molten image, and they were in the house of Micah. “
In verse 3 mom dedicates all the money to the Lord, which sounds like a good thing but then she changes her mind and instead gives “200 pieces of silver” to the silver smith to make a statue of worship in Micah’s house. There’s so much going on in these verses!
First, we see some relational dynamics in the home. Why is Micah stealing from his mom? Where is Micah’s father? Why isn’t Micah able to make his own money? What’s the condition of the economy in Israel? How did their relationship get to the point where Micah is stealing from his mother? Lots of volitility.
Second, Micah’s mom is making a graven image to a foreign god, which is called idolatry. All throughout the book of Judges we have read about Israel turning away from the Lord to serve the foreign gods of the land but in Judges 17 we get to zoom in on a real-life family taking resources that could be used for food, housing, business, or worship and instead she is making a false idol of worship. You with me?
Third, Micah’s name means “Who is like the Lord” so there is religious subtext throughout the passage that Micah has been raised in a family that honors the Lord. There is religious language of blessings and cursing’s. There is references to the Lord in general but something is off in the family.
Micah’s mother is dedicating the silver to the Lord and to the foreign gods? She is praising the Lord and giving money to the silversmith to make idols of worship. Philosophically this is called syncretism or synchronization. This is a blending together of two or more opposing beliefs and we still see this in our culture today in 2024.
It can be as simple as the person who finishes their workout with an ice cream shake for a reward. I’ve done this. I have done a workout that at most burns 300 calories and then I reward my hard work with a 1200 calorie ice cream shake. Doesn’t make any sense?
We also see this when people can commit murder and still hold onto a moral standard of not wanting to be a liar. Have you seen this? I will do this horrible thing but at least I am not a liar. Doesn’t make any sense?
And sometimes syncretism bleeds into the local church when we think things like, “I got a speeding ticket on Monday because I didn’t go to church on Sunday.” That’s called Karma. That’s not how our relationship with God works!
Or we are really committed to these 20-30 areas of God’s Word but we completely ignore these 2-3 areas. In fact, we just block those parts of our faith, because consciously or subconsciously we tell ourselves, “These 20-30 areas are what really matter.”
As a result, in Judges 17 we see Micah and his mother are clothed in religious language, but at the same time, they are blending the beliefs of their day into their faith as they create idols of worship. Let’s keep drawing that out. Look at verses 5-6.
Judges 17:5-6, “5 And the man Micah had a shrine and he made an ephod and household idols and consecrated one of his sons, that he might become his priest. 6 In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.”
In verse 5 we see the Micah and his mom are in the process of creating their own temple of worship. Micah has a son and Micah installs his son as a priest, which you should know that isn’t something you can do in Israel. The tribe of Levi are the priests in Israel.
In addition, the designated place of worship for Micah and his mom was in Shiloh, which is about 10 miles away and in Shilo there was a tabernacle, sanctuary, priests, altars, and Micah and his mom are like, “Nah, we will just set up our own place of worship in our home, get our own priest and make our own gods.”
Now, you need to know we do this today also. As we grow in our faith we are going to come to areas of our faith that make us uncomfortable. We are going to come to Scriptures that push against our lives. It might be God’s Word on sexual immorality, greed, gossip, but there are going to be areas where we will be tempted, like Micah, create our own gods, find our own priests, and our own places of worship.”
We say things like, “I just want to do what I want to do, I don’t like those verses, I don’t like those people, I connect with god in my own way” so that like Micah we might have 20-30 areas of our life that are very committed to our faith but in these 3-4 areas we just bend a little here and a little there.
Look at verse 6 again, “In those days there was no king in Israel.” Yes, there is…it is the Lord, God almighty! He is the One who has been providing and protecting Israel every step of the way but the spiritual condition of Israel at this point isn’t to follow the Lord as King but instead “to do what was right in their own eyes” and in the same way, we need to consider how this might be taking shape in our lives today.
Listen to me, Judges 17 isn’t describing wicked, murderous, violent people. These are good people who just bend the truth of God’s Word a little. These are good people who blend their faith in the Lord with the idols of the day, so that the allure to look like godly people is just as challenging for us today. Amen? Look at verse 7.
Judges 17:7, “7 Now there was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite; and he was staying there.”
In verses 7-13 Micah is going to run into this man from Bethlehem and spoiler alert, he is a Levitical priest. In verses 7-13 Micah finds out this man from Bethlehem is a Levite, and Micah thinks to himself, “I am about to upgrade my temple of worship with a real priest!” Remember, Micah had installed his son as a priest, but now he tells Festus, “You’re out, new guy is in.”
In verses 7-13 Micah offers the priest a salary, a suit of clothes, basic care for life, and the priest takes him up on the offer, so that we are seeing a peak behind the curtain to the spiritual health of this priest.
Why is the priest not at the temple in Shiloh? Why is the priest not rebuking Micah and proclaiming the Word of the Lord? And again, none of these people are being described as wicked, violent, murderous people.
We have seen some really dark descriptions in Judges but in Judges 17 we see people who at best are at spiritually confused and at worse creating their own cult, so that we need to lean into God’s Word and ask ourselves, “Where am I just tricking myself into external religious behavior?” Jump down to verse 13.
Judges 17:13, “13 Then Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, seeing I have a Levite as priest.”
Do you see how Micah is taking religious language and just re-creating his own belief system? You need to know we do this today. We take a little Christianity, a little humanism / belief in self, a little new age, a little superstition and we start creating our own belief system that is at best spiritually confused and at worse our own cult.
Lean in with me, because God’s Word doesn’t just invite us to believe in Him. Belief in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection is a part of our relationship with God but the demons believe in God, so that God’s Word also invites us to follow Him, so that over time we are bending our will to His will.
This can get confusing because sometimes we can think if I am not 100% committed to following Jesus then what’s the point, so we tell ourselves, “If I can’t follow Jesus 100%, then I am not going to follow Jesus at all.”
It isn’t about following Jesus 100%. It’s about a heart and mind that wants to follow Jesus 100%. There is a reason we hear about these faith leaders involved in immorality and live lives contrary to God’s Word. There’s a reason we hear about friends and family who drift from their faith in the Lord and it’s because they trick themselves into “external religious behaviors.”
In Judges 17 we see Micah is stealing money from him mom, nobody says anything. Micah and his mom are worshipping idols and nobody says anything.
We never see Micah humbling himself to the Lord. We never see Micah confessing to the Lord. We never see Micah, his mom, or the priest repenting of their sin, but instead we see them covering it all up with religious habits and rituals, so that in the same way, we would do well to ask ourselves, “Do I know God?”
Do you know that I am a sinner? Do you know that Jesus has come to take our sin at the cross and conquer our sin in the resurrection, so that we are indwelled with the Holy Spirit to follow Him and bend our will to His will?
It doesn’t matter if you grew up in a Christian home. It doesn’t matter if you have gone to church your whole life. It doesn’t matter if you’ve read the Bible forwards and backwards. It matters if we know Him and we want to follow Him!
We won’t look at it this morning but if you look at the end of Judges 18 you will see the priest’s name in Judges 17 is Jonathan and Jonathan is the son of Gershom and Gershom is the son of Moses, so that Jonathan is the grandson of Moses.
Which means that Jonathan probably had Moses priestly robe. Jonathan probably had Moses commentary on the Commandments. Jonathan was probably bounced on Moses knee as a toddler.
And yet, Jonathan has found himself wondering from place to place, and using his family name with a religious heritage to make a financial profit. What happened? I am guessing it was small decisions over a period of months and years of Jonathan slowly not bending his will to God’s glory and following Him, but God’s glory to his will. Be careful!
We all have areas of our life; emotionally, mentally, physically, spiritually where, like Micah, we want to bend His will to our will, the Lord’s desires to our desires, and when we do that we are giving ourselves over to “external religious behaviors” and instead the Spirit of God invites us to turn to the Lord with humble hearts who confess, receive His forgiveness and ask for His help to know Him, walk with Him and live for Him. Amen? Look at Judges 18:1.
Judges 18:1-1, “1 In those days there was no king of Israel; and in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking an inheritance for themselves to live in, for until that day an inheritance had not been allotted to them as a possession among the tribes of Israel.”
Just a side note for context. The Danites are another tribe of Israel. They were given a piece of land in the book of Joshua, but they didn’t listen to the Lord, so that the tribe of Dan is wandering around to find a home. It speaks to the spiritual condition of Israel. Look at verses 2-3.
Judges 18:2-3, “2 So the sons of Dan sent from their family five men out of their whole number, valiant men from Zorah and Eshtaol, to spy out the land and to search it; and they said to them, “Go, search the land.” And they came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there. 3 When they were near the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young man, the Levite; and they turned aside there and said to him, “Who brought you here? And what are you doing in this place? And what do you have here?”
Again, we don’t have time to read it, but the Danite tribe, a tribe of Israel, is going to do the same thing we see in Micah, Micah’s mom, and the priest, so that the Danites are simply using religious context to get what they want. Incidentally, if anyone wants to hire me to be their personal pastor, I am taking offers. Just kidding.
When you read verses 4-19 on your own you will see the Danite tribe off the priest more money, more influence, and say to him, “Is it better for you to be a priest to one man or to a whole tribe?” Huh? Look at verse 20.
Judges 18:20, “20 The priest’s heart was glad, and he took the ephod and household idols and the graven image and went among the people.”
In the next verse Micah finds out what is going on so he rally’s his local army of soldiers and goes after them to confront them, and look at Micah’s words. Look at verses 23-24.
Judges 18:23-24, “23 They cried to the sons of Dan, who turned around and said to Micah, “What is the matter with you, that you have assembled together?” 24 He said, “You have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and have gone away, and what do I have besides? So how can you say to me, ‘What is the matter with you?’”
Do you see what is coming to the surface? Micah is under the impression that if the Danites take his statues, altars and priests then he is left with nothing. Do you see that in verse 24? All of Micah’s religious language is of his own creation. All of Micah’s words are biblical, godly words, but they are all absent of biblical meaning, therefore, we need to ask ourselves this morning, “Have I come to a place where I have put my trust in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection?” Do you know Jesus?
I met Jesus when I was 18-years old. I’ve walked with Him for 30-years. I know Him. It is in the life of Jesus that the glory of God comes and takes on flesh. It is in the life of Jesus that God not only tells us He is glorious, but He displays His glory on a hill for everyone to see. Do you know Him?
Jesus doesn’t set up a temple on earth and say, “Come find Me.” Jesus isn’t closer to people born in Texas. Jesus isn’t closer to people born in a Christian home. No, Jesus is alive and accessible to all people, by grace through faith in Him. Won’t you meet Him!
Won’t you not only meet Jesus but follow Him? Ask for help. Commit to a local church. Commit to reading God’s Word. Confess the idols of your heart and mind, turn to Jesus and receive His forgiveness. This is the good news of Jesus!
We might not see that in the moment but the idols of this world will let us down. The romantic relationships. The careers. The political platforms. The pursuit of just making ourselves happy will let us down at some point, so that whether it is in this life or the next, there will be a day we will see the futility of the idols of this world. Won’t you trust in Jesus?
Let’s invite the worship team to the front. Let’s lower the lights. Let’s take a moment to reflect on the spiritual condition of our heart this morning and where we are in our relationship with God.
North Village Church
This sermon is brought to you by North Village Church, a non-denominational church in Austin. established in 2009 and built around Jesus and Bible teaching.
Are you looking for a church in Austin? At North Village Church we put Jesus at the center of our church family. We worship together every Sunday at 10:30am, encourage Christ centered fellowship through groups, and host special events such as Bible studies and Theological Training, to ensure that we are rooted in in God’s Word. We also serve our local community in association with several Austin based organizations.
North Village Church is made up of professionals, married couples, singles, and families who are wanting to experience the life-transforming power of Jesus. If you are a family with children or teens, we can support you with either or both our Kids Ministry and Youth Ministry.
You are welcome to contact us if you would like more information.
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