Judges 17 Devotional

Religion Made to Order

“Then Micah said, “Now I know that the LORD will be good to me, because a Levite has become my priest.””Judges 17:13 (BSB)

Chapter 17 has no battle and no judge, only a household redesigning worship. Micah admits stealing eleven hundred shekels of silver from his mother, and she blesses him in the LORD's name (17:2). She dedicates the silver to the LORD and uses part of it to make an idol (17:3-4). Micah adds a shrine, an ephod, and household gods, and makes one of his sons a priest (17:5). Later he hires a wandering Levite and announces that now the LORD will surely be good to him (17:10-13).

Everything here uses the LORD's name, and almost nothing listens to his word. The narrator gives the diagnosis in a single line: Israel had no king, and each person followed his own judgment (17:6). Micah wants God's blessing on his own terms, managed by a priest on his payroll. But God cannot be hired. Israel needed a king who would lead them back to God's word. Confidence before God rests on his promises, not on arrangements made to keep him on our side.

To think about: Where are you trying to secure God's favor on your own terms instead of resting on what he has promised?