Today's Meditation - Monday, August 17, 2020

 Today's Meditation

Read Judges 17:1-13

There was a man in the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah. ²He said to his mother, “The eleven hundred pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse, and even spoke it in my hearing, —that silver is in my possession; I took it; but now I will return it to you.” And his mother said, “May my son be blessed by the Lord!” ³Then he returned the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother; and his mother said, “I consecrate the silver to the Lord from my hand for my son, to make an idol of cast metal.” ⁴So when he returned the money to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver, and gave it to the silversmith, who made it into an idol of cast metal; and it was in the house of Micah. ⁵This man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and teraphim, and installed one of his sons, who became his priest. ⁶In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes.

⁷Now there was a young man of Bethlehem in Judah, of the clan of Judah. He was a Levite residing there. ⁸This man left the town of Bethlehem in Judah, to live wherever he could find a place. He came to the house of Micah in the hill country of Ephraim to carry on his work. ⁹Micah said to him, “From where do you come?” He replied, “I am a Levite of Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to live wherever I can find a place.” ¹⁰Then Micah said to him, “Stay with me, and be to me a father and a priest, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year, a set of clothes, and your living.” ¹¹The Levite agreed to stay with the man; and the young man became to him like one of his sons. ¹²So Micah installed the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah. ¹³Then Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, because the Levite has become my priest.”

    These passages cover the entire chapter of Judges 17 and it's a story about Micah and his mother.  During this time period there was no king in Israel and the people were left to do what they felt was right in their own eyes.  We can note right from the second verse that there is something strange about this mother and son; they are pretty corrupt.  Micah confesses to his mother that he stole the 1100 pieces of silver from her which she had cursed.  Today the sum would be about $12,800 - who knows how she had come into possession of such a large amount of money.

    Because he returned the money to her, his mother blesses him in order to reverse the curse and they set up a shrine in their house to their wealth and power, set aside from a portion of that money.  But, their corruption doesn't end there.  A Levite comes to Micah's house and Micah buys his loyalty as a priest by offering to pay for his lodging, a yearly salary of ten pieces of silver, and clothes.  The most important passage is the last verse, "Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, because the Levite has become my priest."

    Just a reminder to those who haven't paid attention to the events of history; you can't buy your way into heaven and you can't expect God to "prosper you" just because you have your own personal priest in your back pocket.

    Today, ponder the issues brought up by this text.  Consider the entanglement of prosperity and religion, the lawlessness of the land and the lack of integrity of this nameless Levite in relationship to Micah.

It's a strange text, for sure, but one that deserves some thought.

God of all my Days