[Note: the blog is early this week because I will be leading the men of Red Rocks Fellowship in a weekend program called “Putting on the Armor of God: Advancing, Not Retreating, in Turbulent Times” in Estes Park, Colorado. I’d love to do it for your church, too!]
The decades pass and Israel forgets all about its heritage and about God. The result is recorded bluntly by the author if Judges:
“…every man did what was right in his own eyes” (17:6, NASB).
In America, as the decades pass, we are busy erasing God from our heritage. The result is being recorded more bluntly every day: every person is encouraged to do what is right in his or her eyes!
So the story of Micah is a cautionary tale because whatever we choose as “right in our own eyes” is seen as idolatry by God with strong consequences – maybe not today, but inevitably.
Micah’s mother thinks hoarding silver is right in her eyes. Her son Micah believes stealing silver from his mother is right in his own eyes. Micah’s mother believes cursing is the right way to respond to her son’s treachery, and he is so shocked he returns the silver to her. Her response is to dedicate that which was lost but now is found to the Lord.
How? She gives a tithe of silver back to her son and tells him to create an idol, a graven image that is an abomination to the Lord!
Micah does not stop there. He makes a shrine to the silver idols in their house, creates priestly garments, and even consecrates one of his sons as his priest!
Then a wandering Levite by heritage only (he too had forgotten God) comes to Micah’s house looking for a place to stay. Rather than abhorrence at the idolatry in Micah’s house (he should know better), the Levite agrees to become Micah’s priest.
Hey, you’ve seen one god, you’ve seen ‘em all!
When the tribe of Dan comes to the area seeking an inheritance of land from the Lord God of Israel, they steal Micah’s idols and his Levite priest and proceed to slaughter the residents of a harmless city in the hill country of Ephraim.
The only problem is that the Lord God of Israel never spoke through the authorized priestly worship commanded by Moses long ago. The action was taken because Micah and his priest told them to do what was right in their eyes.
This passage in Judges is the first in the Old Testament where every verse in the entire two chapters is classified as disobedience according to the Cycle.
America is in the process of giving up its leadership position protecting oppressed people of the world because we are told that everyone should be allowed to do what is right in their own eyes.
How would this current chapter in American history be classified according to the Cycle?
Certainly not unity with God.
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