Judges 17:1 ¶ And there was a man of mount Ephraim, whose name was Micah. 2 And he said unto his mother, The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from thee, about which thou cursedst, and spakest of also in mine ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it. And his mother said, Blessed be thou of the LORD, my son. 3 And when he had restored the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, I had wholly dedicated the silver unto the LORD from my hand for my son, to make a graven image and a molten image: now therefore I will restore it unto thee. 4 Yet he restored the money unto his mother; and his mother took two hundred shekels of silver, and gave them to the founder, who made thereof a graven image and a molten image: and they were in the house of Micah. 5 And the man Micah had an house of gods, and made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest. 6 In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
Micah, whose character or lack thereof is established here
confesses to stealing from his own mother who blesses him and then takes part
of the money and has a heathen image created. Micah is literally said to have an
house of gods and yet still consecrates one of his sons to be a priest of
God, capital G. You can see here how the worship of God has been contaminated
by the worship of many gods in Israel. Religion has deteriorated to simply
being a paganized Hebrew worship. Strong’s defines a teraphim as a household
idol.
Doesn’t this remind you of the United States today where so many
things are mingled in, so many pagan things, with the worship of God. How is
this possible? Well think about our cultural view of simply feeling like you
have the right to do what is right in your own eyes. We have become our own
gods in America today and are clearly under judgment.
John Gill believed that this and the following passages were
flashbacks to show how and when the tribes began to descend and occurred before
the previous passages in time. Note the 1100 shekels of silver here and that
this is the same amount offered to Delilah and Gill believed that number was
significant as symbolic. Gill believes this explains why the Israelites had
descended so low in their religion that Samson could consider what he was doing
as good.
Judges 17:7 ¶ And there was
a young man out of Bethlehemjudah of the family of Judah, who was a
Levite, and he sojourned there. 8 And
the man departed out of the city from Bethlehemjudah to sojourn where he could
find a place: and he came to mount Ephraim to the house of Micah, as he
journeyed. 9 And Micah said unto him,
Whence comest thou? And he said unto him, I am a Levite of
Bethlehemjudah, and I go to sojourn where I may find a place. 10 And Micah said unto him, Dwell with me, and
be unto me a father and a priest, and I will give thee ten shekels of
silver by the year, and a suit of apparel, and thy victuals. So the Levite went
in. 11 And the Levite was content to
dwell with the man; and the young man was unto him as one of his sons. 12 And Micah consecrated the Levite; and the
young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah. 13 Then said Micah, Now know I that the LORD
will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest.
John Gill claims that there are two Bethlehems, one being in
Zebulun’s territory as per Joshua 19:10-15, and this one being in Judah’s
territory and here designated as such.
This Levite is looking for a place to establish himself and make some money and he has found it. Micah is
clearly a man of property.
We see here how the Israelites mixed the religion of the heathen
with the worship of the true God as Americans do even today and still expect
God to bless them. Notice how religiously the priest would be considered a
father, like a Catholic priest, a mentor and spiritual leader dispensing ritual
that was supposed to be pleasing to God.
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