July 11, 2019: Day 75 – Judges 17

Good intentions don’t always mean good decisions.  Here we find a man named Micah who stole money from his mom, gave it back to his mom, and his mom, out of gratitude decides to make an idol to use in order to worship God.  The son carries out her plans.  There are so many things wrong with this scenario, which simply underscores that statement which repeats itself and we find in vs 6: “In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes.”  This is an example of doing wrong while thinking you are doing right in your own eyes.

So what do we use as a guide to what we should and should not do?  Well, to begin with, Scripture tells us not to steal.  Okay, check.  Then it also tells us not to create or worship idols.  Okay check.  Then the mom said that the silver which was returned would be entirely consecrated to the Lord, but only 200 pieces out of the 1,100 were used to make the idol.  Maybe the rest was used to pay off this strange wandering Levite without a name who then becomes Micah’s private priest.  

The final line is telling to modern day prosperity gospel folks.  Because of all that he did Micah is convinced that “the Lord will prosper me”.  Well, we don’t really have that guarantee.  This is a clear chapter on what not to do.