Judges 17:1

Judges 17:1 says, And there was a man of mount Ephraim, whose name was Micah.  Verse two adds, And he said unto his mother, The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from thee, about which thou cursedst, and spakest of also in mine ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it. And his mother said, Blessed be thou of the LORD, my son.   A young man named Micah went to his mother and confessed to taking eleven hundred shekels of silver from her.  She had evidently been cursing about it, but when he told her he had taken it, she asked that he be blessed by the LORD.  Even though he confessed to taking it, he was still the one who had done so.  Verse three states, And when he had restored the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, I had wholly dedicated the silver unto the LORD from my hand for my son, to make a graven image and a molten image: now therefore I will restore it unto thee.  When her son returned the silver, the mother said that she had dedicated the silver to the LORD from her hand for her son, to make a graven image.  Matthew Henry says this was the first time it was mentioned of a graven image being made since the rule of Joshua.  Now, if she had really dedicated it to the LORD, He would not have led her to make a graven image out of it,  We cannot claim to give something to God and then use it for something that goes against His will.  Plus, we should not curse people on the one hand and ask God to bless them on the other.  Verse four declares, Yet he restored the money unto his mother; and his mother took two hundred shekels of silver, and gave them to the founder, who made thereof a graven image and a molten image: and they were in the house of Micah.  Though the mother said she had dedicated all the silver to the LORD, she only took two hundred of the eleven hundred pieces of silver to the founder to make the image with.  We need to beware of promising all of everything to God and then attempting to only give Him a small part of it.  Verse five adds, And the man Micah had an house of gods, and made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.  The son had a house of gods now, and made an ephod and teraphim and consecrated one of his sons to be a priest.  In effect, he had put himself in God's place.  He made the things that had been used to signify the worship of God, and he called his own priest.  We cannot create our own worship and call those who are to lead it, but must rely on the leadership and calling of God.  Verse six says, In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.  We are told that their was no leader in Israel in those days, but everyone did what was right in their own eyes.  We would have thought that those called  God's people would have done what was right in His eyes, but we know that this was never the case for too long.  Verse seven states, And there was a young man out of Bethlehemjudah of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there.  Then verse eight adds, And the man departed out of the city from Bethlehemjudah to sojourn where he could find a place: and he came to mount Ephraim to the house of Micah, as he journeyed.  There was a young Levite, a part of the priestly tribe of Israel, wandering around the country and he came to the house of Micah.  Verse nine declares, And Micah said unto him, Whence comest thou? And he said unto him, I am a Levite of Bethlehemjudah, and I go to sojourn where I may find a place.  Micah asked the man who he was and where he had come from, and he identified himself as a Levite.  As such, he shouldn't have been just wandering around, but should have been going where God directed him to go.  As followers of Christ today, especially if we identify our self as a preacher, we must go where God sends us and not just wander around looking for a place to serve.  Verse ten adds, And Micah said unto him, Dwell with me, and be unto me a father and a priest, and I will give thee ten shekels of silver by the year, and a suit of apparel, and thy victuals. So the Levite went in.  Micah told the Levite to stay with him and be his father and priest and he would pay him, and the young Levite agreed.  At no time did the Levite ask if this was what God wanted, and he was going into a house full of idols to be a priest for pay.  We cannot sacrifice our calling for pay, and we certainly can never be a follower of Christ and worship idols at the same time.  Verse eleven states, And the Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man was unto him as one of his sons.  The Levite, one of the men of the priestly family of God, was content to dwell with the young man.  Verse twelve declares, And Micah consecrated the Levite; and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.  Once again, Micah put himself in the place of God.  He consecrated the Levite to be his priest, not a priest of God as he should have been.  Verse thirteen concludes, Then said Micah, Now know I that the LORD will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest.  Micah thought that God would have to be good to him since he now had his own Levite as a priest.  We should never think that because we have something physical that represents God to the world that He has to bless us if we are not His spiritually.  For example, having all the Bibles and crosses in the world does us no good if we do not believe in the teachings of the Bible or what the cross really means.