Judges 17:1-6 – The importance of knowing and obeying God's Word

The period of the book of Judges covers a duration of approximately 324 years. In this duration, God raised a total of twelve judges to deal with different oppressors and granted the Israelites some 300 years of peace. This book can be divided into two parts. The first sixteen chapters, which we have already covered, described the ministry of the twelve judges namely, Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah, Gideon, Tola, Jair, Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon and Samson. Each of these was raised to deal with the oppressors such as the Arameans, the Moabites, the Philistines, the Canaanites, the Midianites, and the Ammonites. These came to oppress the people of God at different times in different places. God allowed the oppressors to harass them because they had strayed from Him. And when they could not endure the pressure of the oppression, they would realize their sin, repent and cry out to God for help. Being gracious, God came to their rescue by raising a deliverer to rescue them. We see this cycle repeating because of their propensity.

The book of Judges is not arranged in chronological order. The second part of this book consisting of chapters 17-21 should have come first. These chapters actually reveal how the Israelites had degenerated shortly after the death of Joshua. In the closing scene of the life of Joshua, they pledged their loyalty to God, promising to serve only Him. But in a few years, after Joshua had faded off the scene, they were already showing signs of waywardness. The last five chapters of Judges capture those scenes and describe for us what happened during those times. The events described in these chapters tell us the negative attitude of the people during this dark period of Israel’s history. They provide the backdrop for us to reflect on what had taken place in the first sixteen chapters. We saw how God had to deal with this propensity of “going ahead to do anything as long as one feels it is right.” In chapters 17-21 we will see how wrong and dangerous this assumption truly is.

Judges 17 begins with an account that surrounds the life of a man, an Ephraimite by the name of Micah. His name literally means “who is like God.” But ironically, he failed to live up to his name. He was a totally untrustworthy fellow who had stolen eleven hundred pieces of silver from his mother. Not realizing that it was her son Micah who had stolen them, she pronounced a curse over him. What’s uncomforting was that Micah overheard the curse she had made. This must have made him return the silver that he had stolen from his mother. When Micah returned the silver to the mother, she then realized her impulsiveness and tried to walk back. She quickly dedicated the returned silver to the LORD. This mother took two hundred pieces of the silver and had the silversmith made a graven and a molten image. Unwittingly, she had placed her son under a greater curse in trying to negate the curse she had pronounced over him. It pays for all mothers to be circumspect. Never put our children in an untenable situation.

The image was placed in Micah’s house and eventually, he made a shrine and even consecrated one of his own sons as a priest. It is sad to see a man with such a godly name being the first to be used in the promised land to show how the people of God had deteriorated. From the mistake of his mother, they had established their own way and made cultic objects to represent the invisible God. The author did not mince his words. He bluntly reveals that “every man did what was right in his own eyes”.

In these verses, we see an inconsistent mother. We saw how she would invoke a curse, then she would walk back and pronounce a spiritual blessing. To make matters worse, she had an idol made, forbidden by God. She was obviously unaccustomed to the Word of God and so acted presumptuously. Micah also did not care to act rightly. He added to his mother’s wrong by allowing the idol in his house, built a shrine for it and even consecrated one of his sons as a priest. What Micah and his mother had done underscored for us the importance of acting rightly in life. One wrong move will lead to others. We must be careful about how we go about life to honour God. Do our best to diligently know and carefully obey His Word!