Judges 17 MAN-MADE RELIGION The remainder of the book of Judges reveals the over-all effects of religious, political and moral decay. Life lived without moral and spiritual standards that are unchanging, goes in a downward spiral again and again. The events in the later part of the book may have taken place long before the time of Samson. We learn from this conclusion of the unfolding of the three hundred years of the judges what happens when people make up their own religious practices to suit themselves and how self-made religion leads to self-seeking service when people are dissatisfied with the laws of God. Life without moral and spiritual standards fails again and again, and the people of God are left spiritually starving. When that happens, it seems like anything goes, "and every man does that which is right in his own eyes."
God's commands were to be taken seriously and applied to life in order to live productively with "quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty." It is no different in any time or generation. Independence and self-reliance must be kept within the parameters of God's revealed will and word. Some people have the idea that I will do what I want, how I want and when I want no matter what God or anyone else says. That superficial satisfaction leads to spiritual failure, weakness and ultimately, spiritual starvation. When that happens there is no power for righteous living and people fall first, then nations, under external pressure because of internal weakness.
The example of Micah is given to show us how things can happen and why we should be aware of who we are and what we are doing. Micah was a thief of the worst kind. He stole a fortune from his own mother. There was nothing in his life for God because he had no spiritual foundation under him to support him and had no spiritual example to guide him. He was following the way of the whole nation doing what he thought "was right in his own eyes." Israel followed the same cycle of failure time after time because they would not follow the Lord with their heart. There were times of repentance and submission under the different judges but the people were only following the accepted form, not the living and true God. Micah and his mother were no different. She cursed on the thief who took her eleven-hundred pieces of silver, and Micah must have gotten afraid of the judgment of God falling on him, so he confessed the robbery to his mother. His confession was without remorse or repentance and she basically said her son was a good thief and blessed God with the same mouth she had cursed with.
Between the mother and the son, the laws of God were broken over and over without hesitation. It is possible to become so used to sin and forget the inevitable consequences of sin, that we will continue to do what we know is wrong because judgment hasn't immediately fallen. Religious apostasy can sound like it is holy, and with a more reasonable approach to divine things, than the word of God plainly states. The mother said she was giving the silver to God for religious purposes, a carved and a molten image. However, she kept nine hundred pieces for herself. She was a covetous cunning woman who had a covetous and cunning son. We communicate our values to our children in ways we may not realize. Parents who do not discipline or correct their children can expect failure and deceit in time to come. Micah began as a thief and then became an idolater. From there he established a false priesthood that led to man-made religion. Any view of God that demeans Him, whether it be images or humanly designed worship, misleads people and may cause their eternal damnation. Micah's "house of gods" containing the ephod and teraphim was a false place of worship even as he made his own son a false priest. What an awful perversion of that which is truly right in God's eyes, when we do "that which is right in our own eyes."
The young Levite who came from Bethlehem-Judah must have not been supported by the people as was the Levite's right under God's plan. He was also living in a place that was not one of the designated cities of the Levites. In the wrong place, doing the wrong thing leads us to go to other wrong places to do other wrong things if we follow "that which is right in our own eyes." The young Levite became a priest under contract to Micah. Moral decay affects people like a communicable disease, and affects the work of the Lord as well. Servants begin to serve people for money rather than God for the sake of truth. The young man left where he was for material reasons instead of spiritual reasons, and went on an aimless journey just "looking for a place." Those who look for "a place" can usually find one, but it will be in the wrong place. Those who serve for money will find themselves compromising truth and serving in "a house of gods." This Levite should have been appalled at the offer to be a paid priest, but rather he gladly took it.
It is possible for us to sacrifice all that we know is right and should stand for, just to gain material advantage and become well-off. Religious "hucksters" know how to get money from people and assure them they are doing what they do for God, and at the same time be privately getting wealthy. He corrupted what should have been a holy priesthood. It wasn't long before he had a better offer, with more prestige and more people. Jonathan, moved up in the eyes of men because the circumstances dictated his move and he "did that which was right in his own eyes." Self-made religion by a self-seeking man, became a self-serving form of service that was evil in the eyes of God.