Worship Who

 DEVOTION

JUDGES

WORSHIP WHO

Judges 17

17:1 Now a man named Micah from the hill country of Ephraim 2 said to his mother, "The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you and about which I heard you utter a curse — I have that silver with me; I took it." Then his mother said, "The LORD bless you, my son!" 3 When he returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, she said, "I solemnly consecrate my silver to the LORD for my son to make a carved image and a cast idol. I will give it back to you." 4 So he returned the silver to his mother, and she took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to a silversmith, who made them into the image and the idol. And they were put in Micah's house. 5 Now this man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and some idols and installed one of his sons as his priest. 6 In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit. 7 A young Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, who had been living within the clan of Judah, 8 left that town in search of some other place to stay. On his way he came to Micah's house in the hill country of Ephraim. 9 Micah asked him, "Where are you from?" "I'm a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah," he said, "and I'm looking for a place to stay." 10 Then Micah said to him, "Live with me and be my father and priest, and I'll give you ten shekels of silver a year, your clothes and your food." 11 So the Levite agreed to live with him, and the young man was to him like one of his sons. 12 Then Micah installed the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in his house. 13 And Micah said, "Now I know that the LORD will be good to me, since this Levite has become my priest."

NIV

This is wrong on so many levels, we wonder why God wanted this recorded for us to know about, other than to make sure we do not try to emulate Micah. The first wrong we see is his mother wanting to have the silversmith cast an idol. Micah and his mother are Israelites, and they have to be aware of their history as a people. We are told that his mother used, "The LORD bless you, my son!” Yet she wanted an idol cast from her silver. Why would she think the LORD would be pleased with her having an image, or idol, and then for Micah to have a shrine, or in Hebrew it means a house of gods. However, the worst thing we notice is that everyone did as they saw fit, for Israel had no king. When people do not worship the Lord God, the maker of heaven and earth, then they do whatever is fit in their own eyes. We can see that in our culture because so many have no moral compass; they are, in fact, living in darkness, hiding in the dark so they can do whatever they see fit. They could even be aware of God, in some sense, but refuse to acknowledge his authority in their lives, because they want to do whatever they want to do, being their own authority. We, however, are not like that, for we know God has absolute authority in our lives. We should not even say that we are going to go here, or go there, do this, or do that, without counsel from our Lord. The Apostle James warns us that we should not say, or decide today or tomorrow, we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business, and make money. The fact is, our lives are but a mist, here today and gone tomorrow. We should be thinking correctly and saying, “If the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that”. We cannot do what is right in our eyes, because we have a King, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, and he has given us life, and it is to worship him. We cannot build any shrine or make anything an idol in our lives, including our lives in the church. If we make “good deeds” or some special position or title, or even our giving into an idol, we are missing the mark. We have one God, and we worship Him and Him alone. Sure, our works may follow as a result of our worship for our Lord, but that is all it is; first and foremost, our worship is to our Lord, so that we do what is right in His eyes.