Judges Chapters 17 & 18
As we continue
to ponder Judges Chapter 17; even though Micah and his mother are referring to
Yahweh, the Covenant God of Israel, their actions are pagan and idolatrous.
This ought to be a warning for us, we can talk “Jesus talk,” but that doesn’t
mean that our thinking and practices reflect Jesus Christ – we can be just as
far from the person and teachings of Jesus Christ as Micah, his mother, and the
Levite were from the Law of God given through Moses.
Micah, his
mother, and the Levite were making up their own rules as they went along. They
were melding talk of Yahweh into pagan practices. They were referring to Yahweh
while worshipping idols. Micah first consecrates one of his sons to be a priest,
then he recruits a rootless Levite to be a priest (one wonders what happened to
the son who had been consecrated). Micah took upon himself the authority to
consecrate, thus usurping the Law of God. One of the great threats to the
People of God through the ages has been syncretism, the blending of the Word of
God with the cultures, religions, and philosophies of the world – syncretism is
often subtle and seductive, and other times it is overt and blatant. Syncretism
can be obvious to us, or we can be oblivious to it.
When we are
raised in a syncretistic culture, such as in the United States, it can be
challenging to discern what beliefs, thinking, and practices belong to the
Kingdom of God and what don’t belong. Peer pressure, both in general society
and in the professing church, can discourage us from pursuing the truth of God’s
Word, for communities typically do not care for the destruction of their idols –
whether those idols are within the church or in general society.
Micah operated
without regard to the Law of Moses, without regard to the established
priesthood of Aaron, and without regard to the covenant that Yahweh established
with the Patriarchs. Is there a difference between Micah, his mother, and the
Levite, and ourselves?
We are taught
that we belong to the communion of saints, and that we’ve been “built on the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone”
(Ephesians 2:20). But do we actually believe this? Does this actually inform
our thinking, our decisions, and our actions?
Are we linked to
the apostles and prophets? Do we build upon this foundation? Do we know the
Bible well enough to answer this question? Is the cornerstone, Jesus Christ,
central to all that we do? Do we have a functional understanding of the
Patriarchs? The Patriarchs of the Old Testament and those of the Church, those
whom we term the Church Fathers?
Do we, as
individuals and congregations, live with reference to the Body of Christ? That
is, are our lives informed by the reality that we do not live in a vacuum, but
that we are to serve, and to be accountable to, the Body of Christ? This means
the Body of Christ in our communities, in our regions, and in our world.
What would you
think if you were on a tour of the Mississippi River, traveling north from New
Orleans, and that you were promised that you’d be taken to see where the Father
of Waters began, only to find that after a few hours your riverboard docked in
upper Louisiana where a small creek enters the Mississippi and were told, “This
is where the Great River begins?”
Or perhaps the
riverboat tour traveled a bit farther and stopped at where the Ohio River
entered the Mississippi, or where the Missouri River entered the Mississippi –
and you were told at each place that “this is where the River begins.” What
would you think?
O friends, this
is what happens when we begin our history with our traditions; whether it is a renewal
movement in this decade or that century, or a reform movement in another
century -we fail to reach the headwaters of the Great River, we fail to see
where we have come from, we fail to build upon the Apostles and Prophets, with
Jesus Christ as our cornerstone. When we limit our heritage and understanding
and praxis to a tributary of the Great River, we fail to live in the fulness of
the Great River, we fail to live in the context of the heritage and trajectory
that is expressed in Hebrews Chapter 11.
Little wonder that
we are a fragmented people, when we dogmatically insist that our own
tributaries are the Great River, when there is only one Great River, flowing
form the Throne of God (Rev. 22:1; John 7:38).
Are we really
any different than Micah and his mother and the Levite?
What do you
think?
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