Judges 17:1-7- Micah the Ephraimite

When we looked at the story of Samson there were three scenes. The first scene was of Samson as a young man who wanted to get married. The second scene was about Samson when he went to a Philistine city and spent the night with a prostitute. The third scene was when Samson fell in love with a woman named Delilah. Similarly, the next story that is found in Judges 17-18 also is a narrative with three scenes.

• The first scene is found in Judges 17:1-6.

• The second scene is found in Judges 17:7-13.

• Then the third and final scene takes place in Judges 18.

And like the story of Samson, when we get to the end of the story in these chapters we will find that there is not a lot of reasons to celebrate the spiritual condition of Israel during this time. Judges 18:30-31 ends with these words, “And the people of Dan set up the carved image for themselves, and Jonathan the son of Gershom, son of Moses, and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land. So they set up Micah’s carved image that he made, as long as the house of God was at Shiloh.”

Today we will consider Judges 17:1-6. The main point of our text today is, “When God’s people lose their focus on understanding and obeying God’s Word, their spiritual health will quickly deteriorate. The evidenced of this will be seen in the home, in the congregation, and in the community."

Let’s begin by looking at verse 1 which says, “There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Micah.” Now if we were reading the Book of Judges for the very first time and we were trying to anticipate what might happen next we might read this verse and conclude that there is reasons for hope that things might change for the better in Israel. I say this for two reasons. First, we are introduced to a man from the hill country of the Tribe of Ephraim. Second, we discover that this man’s name is Micah.

Reason #1 for optimism: The focus of this story has shifted from Samson and the Danites to the tribe of Ephraim a this point in the narrative. We read, “There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim...”.

There have been a couple times in this book where we have seen the Ephraimites cause some trouble in Israel (Judges 8&12); however, Ephraim has a storied tradition within Israel’s history that might be a reason for hope as we near the end of this book.

When we read this verse we might have reason to hope that things will get better because Ephraim and Manasseh are the descendants of the two sons of Joseph. If you have read the Book of Genesis you know that Joseph was a faithful and righteous man. Throughout his life he resisted the temptation to become bitter during long and difficult trials, unlike Samson he consistently resisted temptation, and he when he did experience God’s blessings he did not become prideful with the profound prosperity and power that he came to enjoy.

• At the end of Jacob’s life he gave a profound blessing to Joseph, saying, “Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring; his branches run over the wall. The archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him, and harassed him severely, yet his bow remained unmoved; his arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob (from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel), by the God of your father who will help you, by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that crouches beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb. The blessings of your father are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents, up to the bounties of the everlasting hills. May they be on the head of Joseph, and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers.” (Gen 49:22-26)

• At the end of Joseph’s life he had a strong faith and a steady hope in the fact that God would fulfill every promise that He had given to Israel. (Genesis 50:22-26;Hebrews 11:22) He knew that in the future, after 400 years, God would bring Israel out of Egypt and bring them into the Promised Land. It was because of this hope that Joseph made Israel promise that they would bring his bones out of Egypt and place them in the Promised Land.

• As if this is not enough, there are more reasons to be hopeful that this man who is about to be discussed may provide a change in the continuing decline within this narrative. Of the two sons of Joseph Manasseh was the oldest and Ephraim was the youngest, but when Jacob blessed them he gave the blessing not to Manasseh, but to the youngest Ephraim. (Genesis 48) Because of this blessing Ephraim was a strong tribe. Though at times in the Book of Judges we have seen that they could be a bit proud. (By the way, the temple was located within the boarders of their tribe.)

Because of these things, could it be that this man we are about to discuss will be faithful like Joseph and represent the blessing given by Jacob to this tribe?

Reason 2 for optimism: We read in Judges 17:1b that this man at the center of this narrative is named Micah, “There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Micah.”

This is the first of many times that this name will appear in the scriptures. One day in the future there will even be a great prophet who will prophesy the Word of the LORD, but this is the first of all of them. The meaning of his name should catch our attention and give us a reason to be hopeful because his name means, ‘Who Is Like Jehovah’. Will this man be like the psalmist in Psalm 113: 2-6 who proclaims, “Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time forth and forevermore! From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the LORD is to be praised! The LORD is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens! Who is like the LORD our God, who is seated on high, who looks doown on the heavens and the earth?”

Wouldn’t it be safe to conclude that if this man’s parents gave their son this biblical name that they would be faithful and godly people who would be raising their son according to the Word of God? Yes, you think that they would raise their child according to Deuteronomy 6:4-9, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

With a name like ‘Micah’we would expect that this man’s life will be a reflection of his ancestor Joseph whose relationship to Jehovah is described this way in Scripture,

• Genesis 39:2, “The LORD (Jehovah) was with Joseph, and he became a successful man…”.

• Genesis 39:21, “The LORD (Jehovah) was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor…”.

Question: Wouldn’t it be great if this man is a man who does everything for the glory of the LORD and does not seek his own glory?

Question: Wouldn’t it be great if Micah prospers because his faith in Jehovah so that he enjoys the LORD’s steadfast love and favor like Joseph instead of seeking to pervert the faith for his own prosperity?

As we continue to read, however, any hope that we had for these things quickly disappears. In verses 2 we immediately begin to see that this man and his family have some serious problems, “And he (Micah) said to his mother, ‘The 1,100 pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse, and also spoke it in my ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it.’”

Apparently Micah is not the man that we had hoped he would be. As soon as we are introduced to him we discover that he has taken a large sum of money, 1,100 pieces of silver, from his parents. In the story of Samson we saw that 1,100 pieces of silver is a very significant amount of money. (Judges 16:5) Later in Judges 17:10 we will see that ten pieces of silver appears to be a good yearly wage for a person. If this is the case, Micah has stolen over hundred and ten years of wages from his mother!

When she discovers that the silver is missing she uttered a curse against whoever had taken it. When she does this Micah hears this curse and he is convicted by it. This compels him to confess his sin to her, saying, “Behold, the silver is with me; I took it.”

Observation#1: I wonder what this says about Micah’s manner of life? It seems as though most people who get to the point where they can take such a large sum of money, from their own mother(!), would probably have been sinning in other ways for quite some time. As they do this their conscience gets more hardened and it becomes easier for them to sin even more.

Observation#2: If something like this happened to most people today I don’t think that it would effect them in this way. Because Micah had a responsive conscience when he heard this curse we might wonder if this story is going to be salvaged. Maybe, like Samson, Micah will address his sin and from this point on things will improve and we will see the fruit of true repentance. (Matthew 3:8) Will Micah respond with a repentance that is reflective of what the scriptures teach?

Observation#3: It took a very long time, and some pretty strong discipline from God, to bring Samson to repentance. One of the reasons for this was because when Samson would have been helped by experiencing godly instruction and discipline by his parents it was lacking. (14:1-5) Regrettably, we see the same thing happening in this story. Although this could be a decisive turning point in Micah’s life if he were aided by his parents to move towards godly repentance he will not receive this help. In the end, Micah’s repentance will fall short of true repentance and his heart will become even more deceived and hardened towards the truth of God’s Word. Instead of repenting, changing one’s minds and ways, Micah will be set upon a very different path.

So, will Micah’s mother use this as a teaching moment (Dt.6:4-9) and say to Micah, “Micah, if you are truly repentant you need to confess your sin to God, restore what has been stolen plus an extra fifth to it, bring an appropriate offering to the priest of God and sacrifice it to the LORD. It is only by doing this that your guilt will be forgiven before the LORD.” (Leviticus 6:1-7)

No, we read this in Judges 17:2b, “And his mother said, ‘Blessed be my son by the LORD.’” All she really cares about is that her money is restored to her. Her priorities are messed up. She is igmorant of God’s Word and so she will not be able to instruct her son in the Word of God so that he might truly repent and be forgiven.

In Judges 11 we saw that Jephthah made a tragic vow. He did not know how to deal with this in a biblical way and his daughter died. Similarly, this woman’s ignorance of biblical truth will destroy her family for many generations in this life and in the life to come! She thinks that her curse can be replaced by her speaking a blessing over Micah when he gives her the money back. (Leviticus 27) We hear a lot about generational wealth these days, but what we don’t hear a lot about is the generational spiritual wealth and poverty. Many parents today leave financial wealth to their kids but they are spiritually poor for many generations. That is what is going to happen to this family. (17:5-6)

When Micah gives the silver back to his mother things get even worse. We read, “And he restored the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother. And his mother said, ‘I dedicate the silver to the Lord from my hand for my son, to make a carved image and a metal image. Now therefore I will restore it to you.’ So when he restored the money to his mother, his mother took 200 pieces of silver and gave it to the silversmith, who made it into a carved image and a metal image. And it was in the house of Micah.”

Consider with me what happened shortly after the Fall in Genesis 4. Cain, who was a worker of the ground, brought an offering to the LORD. He did not bring an animal to sacrifice; instead, he brought the fruit of the ground. The LORD did not receive this offering because it was not what He had commanded. (Genesis 4:3-5) In a similar way, Micah’s mother is making all this stuff up and doing it in the name of Jehovah, saying, “I dedicate the silver to the Lord from my hand for my son...”. This will serve only to provoke God’s anger.

Even though she promised to dedicate all of the silver to the LORD, saying, “I dedicate the silver to the LORD…”, she only parts with 200 pieces of silver. The silver is the idol that she loves and so she cannot part with it. Even if she gave it all, would God be pleased to accept such an offering? No!

In Leviticus 6:6 what was required was a lamb without blemish needed to be offered. This will not happen and then we read that something worse does happen. She says, “I dedicate this silver...to make a carved image and a metal image.” (3) This mother and her son are not going to do what the LORD has commanded them to do, but they are going to ignore the clear teaching of scripture by doing what they are commanded not to do! (Deuteronomy 5:1-15)

As I thought about these things I wondered, “Is idolatry so rampant in Israel that they can find a Jewish person in Israel who would take this gold and make it into an idol?” There are two answers to this question. First, because of Israel’s failure to conquer the land from the Canaanites who lived in the land, they could be helping with this. Remember what Judges 1:29 says, “And Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer, so the Canaanites lived in Gezer among them.” Secondly, because Ephraim did not remove the Canaanites, they were being influenced by them and becoming more like them. (Deuteronomy 14:2, 26:18)

Our text began in verse 1 with the words, “There was a man…”. When we read those words we had two reasons for hope. First, he was an Ephraim. Second, his name testified to the greatness of the LORD. The end of verse 4 tells us that Micah kept these idols in his house. And then we read these words, “And the man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and household gods, and ordained one of his sons, who became his priest.” (5) As we began to read this story we had hope, but now we see what this man Micah was really like. He was a wicked, faithless, idolater who discipled his family in these things.

In this first scene of this first story in Judges 17-18 we have seen that three generations of a family in Israel has gone terribly wrong. At this time the problem is much worse than a single family. All of Israel is in trouble because of what we read in verse 6, “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

Last week we saw that these last two stories in the Book of Judges is showing us just how quickly Israel is turning away from the LORD. Every family, every church, every denomination, and every culture that turns away from God and His Word will quickly drift away from the truth and all the blessings associated with it. Once this happens the Book of Judges shows us just how hard this downward slide is to recover from. To do so, there must be a turning to Jesus Christ in true repentance. He is King and if we will humble ourselves before Him and incline our heart to His Word there will be the fruit that is associated with repentance.