Judges 17:5-6 and 11-13 - Now this man Micah had a shrine,
and he made an ephod and some idols and installed one of his sons as his priest. In those days Israel had no king;
everyone did as he saw fit……
So the Levite agreed to live with him, and the young man was
to him like one of his sons. 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."
After Samson’s death…Israel was without a judge. God left men to do their own study and
interpret for themselves what being a follower meant. Micah’s
family must not have studied very hard…for they had some strange notions about
how to worship him. They dedicated some of
their silver to God by forming it into some sort of image….and Micah dedicated
a portion of his house as a sort of temple …complete with carved images some commentaries
feel were images of the ark and cherubim from the real tabernacle. He even named one of his own sons to act as a
priest.
Micah’s intentions might have been good…he did confess his
crime….and return his mother’s silver.
He created a place to worship God…and felt God had blessed him when a
real priest from the tribe of Levi happened by one day…and agreed to be in charge
of his shrine. How sad that he never
took the time to read the rules of Moses…and find out how much God detested the
idols and carved images in his home.
How sad that he allowed satan to trick him so badly…because he did not
take to time to learn the true ways of the God he wanted blessings from.
It reminded me of how selfish we can become… getting so
wrapped up in our lives that we find ways to justify what we do as acceptable
to God…some of us even study enough to be dangerous…pulling scripture out of context
to support our lifestyle. We are so like
Micah…retaining and justifying the things we want in our lives…instead of
accepting the clear messages of the Bible…that express God’s displeasure in our
ways.
You pick the lie.
Maybe it is drinking….or drugs…..or an affair….or you are having sex
before marriage. Maybe you support partners
of the same sex…. or stealing….or you lust after some material possession. Maybe you are disrespecting your parents….or
you support abortion. The list of things
we accept in our nation is growing every day…all clearly spelled out as unacceptable
to God in his word. Like Micah…our
intentions might be good…but if God has told us that something is wrong in his
word….we had better listen and remove it from our lives. The lies we have told our self about God’s
acceptance of the things we do ...might be clearly wrong according to his Bible…and
we will find ourselves separated from him….confused about why he hasn’t answered
our prayers.
Father…help me examine the beliefs I hold in my heart and
expose the ones that I have accepted or explained as acceptable ….in a way that
is not supported by your word. Forgive me for allowing satan to trick me into
thinking that some things in my life are justified. Show me in your word the
places that I need to study …to help me have a clear picture of the rules you
gave Moses so long ago. Show me how to remove the things that are displeasing
to you…and grow closer in my relationship with you. Amen.
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