Judges 17-19
Judges 17-19 begins to paint the picture of how bad things had become amongst the Israelites. Each chapter contains many actions that break God’s commands to His chosen people. Chapter 17 begins with Micah and his mother. He steals from his mother, tells her that he stole from her (only after finding out that his mother had cursed it), his mother blesses him for returning it, and she makes him an idol with it!? What an outlandish way to handle the situation. If Micah was my brother and had stolen from my parents or someone and my parents would’ve found out, things would’ve been very different for Micah.
As a child, my parents and I thrifted numerous times. We would find lots of fun, cool, odd, and quirky things to look at, touch, or buy (if we had the money). One day, we went shopping and I went to the toy section while my parents shopped elsewhere. I found a Yu-Gi-Oh card lying on a shelf with no price tag and thought it looked awesome. So, I showed it to my parents and brother and they told me something like, “Go and ask the people at the register if you can have it or see what they would charge you for it.” I, being scared to do something so profound (or at least it felt that way to little ol’ me), decided to just slip it in my pocket and take it with us (hoping my parents and brother would forget about it). Unfortunately for me (or fortunately for me now looking back at it), my parents saw me holding and looking at the card and boy did they discipline me for it. Not only did they not “spare the rod” but I was also told I had to take it back to the store, apologize to the staff there, and I was informed about the various biblical methods they could’ve used instead. I learned that day that stealing was not worth the pain it caused me or my family.
Micah, his mother, and the nation of Israel had strayed so far away from God that this kind of behavior (stealing, lying, and idolatry) was deemed to be acceptable behavior in their eyes. Micah would later continue in this foolishness as he had a shrine, made an ephod, household gods, and made one of his sons a priest. The Danites in chapter 18 weren’t doing any better. They burned down a peaceful city, attacked the people of Laish, and decided to set up Micah’s idol they took from him. Yet, if you thought these things were bad, reading chapter 19 we find more repulsive, vile, and cruel actions. A Levite who took for himself a concubine (v.1), a stop in a not-so-god-like place named Gibeah in Benjamin that wouldn’t take them in (v.15, 22), a horrible decision to give the Levite’s concubine over to be raped (v.25), a rude/cold response from the Levite the next morning (v.27, 28), and a brutal yet seemingly necessary decision to send 12 parts of the concubine to all the areas of Israel (v.29). My parents gave me a wake-up call when I needed one, and fortunately for me it didn’t result in death of any kind (though maybe a departure from or “death” to bad habits). All of the Israelites needed a wake-up call to return to God and they received one that spoke volumes (v.30).
-Jeffrey Seiders
REFLECTION Q’s
- Micah stole, lied, and practiced idolatry. In what ways have you stolen, lied, and departed from God’s law? How can you use what has happened to glorify God now?
- Too often we see the people of this world “doing what they think is right in their own eyes.” How can we speak into their lives without “preaching at them” and bring them into a relationship with God and His son Jesus Christ? Is there anyone in your life you could discuss this with?
- Though the Levite did some horrific things, he elicited a response or call to action from the people of Israel. How can we, without acting like the Levite, bring the people around us into a place where they can “imagine” and feel the need to “do something” about their spiritual life?
Seek Grow Love 