Judges Chapters 17 & 18
Now there was a young man from
Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite; and he was
staying there. Then the man left the city, Bethlehem in Judah, to stay wherever
he would find a place; and as he made his journey, he came to the hill country
of Ephraim, to the house of Micah. Micah said to him, “Where do you come from?”
And he said to him, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to
stay wherever I may find a place.” Micah then said to him, “Stay with me and be
a father and a priest to me, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year, a
supply of clothing, and your sustenance.” So the Levite went in. The Levite
agreed to live with the man, and the young man became to him like one of his
sons. So Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest and
lived in the house of Micah. Then Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will
prosper me, because I have a Levite as a priest.” Judges 17:7 – 13 (NASB)
What do you see in this passage? What
do you see concerning Micah? Concerning the Levite? How do the thinking and
actions of Micah and the Levite conform to the Law of God given through Moses?
Do you see the two men as being well – meaning? How would you characterize the
relationship between Micah and the Levite?
Let’s begin with
the Levite. The tribe (or clan) of Levi was to be dedicated unto God and the
service of Tabernacle. Unlike the other tribes of Israel, the tribe of Levi was
not given land as an inheritance, for Yahweh was to be their inheritance. However,
while they were not given land, they were given cities to live in and the land
immediately surrounding those cities on which to grow crops. Within the tribe
of Levi, the family of Aaron was specifically dedicated to the priesthood and
the rest of the tribe was dedicated to the service and maintenance of the
Tabernacle. Every Levite had a place to live among his people and every Levite
had a job to do.
It appears that
our Levite of Judges chapters 17 and 18 wasn’t happy with his place or his job,
for he was on the move; he was looking for a place and a job that better suited
him. When the Levite leaves Bethlehem of Judah he is not looking for a
particular place or job, he is not “looking for that City that has foundations,
whose Builder and Maker is God”; he is looking for “wherever I may find a
place.” In other words, he is looking for opportunity.
Because the writer
of Judges simply describes this man as a Levite, and not a Levite of the family
of Aaron, I think we can surmise that he was not of Aaron’s priestly family.
However, if he were of Aaron’s family then his actions would be even more
egregious, for he would not just be abandoning his calling to serve the Tabernacle
and the God of the Tabernacle, he would be abandoning his calling as a priest
of the God of the Tabernacle. Let’s keep in mind that he is not only abandoning
his calling to serve the True and Living God, but he is serving the idols of
Micah and Micah’s family – he is taking an opportunity to serve idols and to
lead others in the worship of idols.
The Levite,
however, is not only taking an opportunity, but what is worse he is missing an
opportunity. The Levite is missing the opportunity to instruct Micah in the true
way to worship Yahweh, he is missing the opportunity to encourage Micah to
destroy his family’s idols – the Levite is rejecting the opportunity to teach
others the Way of God in order to personally profit by serving idols.
Sadly, the
history of Israel and Judah would include the abandonment of the Law of God by
its priests and Levites, a rejection of the true worship of Yahweh, and the
adoption of myriad idols, even bringing idols into the Temple of God. The sons
of Eli in 1 Samuel show us that this abandonment began at an early stage of
Israel’s history, though it would reach horrendous proportions in the latter seasons
of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah.
In Judges 17:10
we see that money sealed the deal, Micah made the Levite an offer that the
Levite couldn’t pass up – now the Levite had a place and a job that suited him.
But the Levite also had something else that we should not ignore, he had a
place in Micah’s family, for the Levite “became to him [Micah] like one of his
sons.” There is a lot to be said for having a place to belong, for being part
of a family, and often our desire to belong can override our spiritual common
sense, it can override our submission to the Word of God and our faithfulness
to Jesus Christ…if we succumb to the temptation to place ourselves above the
Word of God, if we give into the temptation to go along to get along, if we
place our personal peace and affluence above faithfulness to the Gospel of
Jesus Christ.
We’ll return to
the Levite and Micah in the next post.
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