Judges 17:1-6

Micah’s unlawful worship 17:1-6

The writer told us nothing about Micah’s background, except that he originally lived in the Hill Country of Ephraim, with or near his mother (Judges 17:1-2). Micah’s name means "Who is like Yahweh." As is true of so many details in this story, Micah’s name is ironic. He was anything but like Yahweh. The fact that Micah’s mother blessed him in the name of Yahweh creates a positive impression, but other features of the story demonstrate that her veneer of orthodox Yahwism was extremely thin.

Micah was a thief who stole a fortune from his own mother. The amount of silver he stole could have sustained one person for a lifetime in Israel (cf. Judges 17:10). Apparently he confessed his theft because he feared his mother’s curse (Judges 17:2). Instead of cursing him she blessed him, a very unusual reaction in view of the amount of money involved. Perhaps she believed that her blessing would undo her previous curse. [Note: Wolf, p. 481.] Micah’s mother then claimed to dedicate all 1,100 pieces of the recovered silver to Yahweh. However she gave only 200 pieces to a silversmith to make an image. The Lydians first produced coined money in the sixth century B.C. Therefore these were not 1,100 silver coins but 1,100 measures of silver. The writer did not identify how much silver was in each measure, but this was a fortune by any estimate. [Note: See The New Bible Dictionary, 1962 ed., s.v. "Money," by A. F. Walls.] She stole from God as her son had stolen from her. Micah had evidently learned dishonesty at home.

The "graven image" (Heb. pesel) was apparently the idol, and the "molten image" (massekah) was its base. Both of these words occur at the head of the list of curses (Deuteronomy 27:15) to describe what the law forbade making for idolatrous purposes. The Hebrew word that describes the graven image occurs almost exclusively in relation to the golden calves that Aaron made (Exodus 32:4) and King Jeroboam made (1 Kings 12:28-30). Micah’s mother evidently intended this image to represent either Yahweh or the animal on which pagan people visualized gods standing. [Note: See Amihai Mazar, "Bronze Bull Found in Israelite ’High Place’ From the Time of the Judges," Biblical Archaeology Review 9:5 (September-October 1983):34-40; Hershel Shanks, "Two Early Israelite Cult Sites Now Questioned," Biblical Archaeology Review 14:1 (January-February 1988):48-52; and Amihai Mazar, "On Cult Places and Early Israelites: A Response to Michael Coogan," Biblical Archaeology Review 15:4 (July-August 1988):45.]

"The gods were often depicted as standing, or more rarely sitting, on the back of a bull, which by its strength and power of fertility well represented the essence of the nature cults." [Note: Cundall and Morris, p. 184.]

Obviously Micah and his mother were either ignorant of, or more probably chose to disregard, God’s law against making graven images (Exodus 20:4; Exodus 20:23; Deuteronomy 4:16). They also seem to have been unaware of, or unconcerned about, Israel’s tragic experience with the golden calf at Mt. Sinai (Exodus 32:19-35).

"Micah and his mother are sharply distinguished from Samson and his mother [and even more from Samuel and his mother] by their materialism and idolatry. Here there is no evidence of the presence or call of the Spirit in their lives." [Note: Lewis, p. 88.]

God commanded the Israelites not to multiply sanctuaries in Canaan (Deuteronomy 12:1-14), but Micah built one in or near his house (Judges 17:5). He did not need to do this because he lived close to Shiloh, where the tabernacle stood (cf. Judges 17:1; Judges 18:31). In his convenient shrine Micah kept an ephod that he had made, probably for divination (cf. Gideon’s ephod, Judges 8:27). This was evidently an imitation of the high priest’s ephod (cf. Judges 8:27). He also kept household gods that probably had some connection with ancestor veneration and divination (cf. Genesis 31:19). [Note: Davis and Whitcomb, p. 144.] He also disregarded the Aaronic priesthood by ordaining his son as the family priest.

"The by-passing of the Levitical priesthood by Micah may be due either to a breakdown in the distribution of the Levites amongst the community or to an overlooking, wilful [sic] or ignorant, of the provisions of the law." [Note: Cundall and Morris, p. 185.]

The writer explained editorially that there was no king in Israel at this time and everyone did as he pleased (Judges 17:6). That is the reason Micah could get away with such flagrantly disobedient behavior. Even though there was not yet a human king, Yahweh reigned as Israel’s monarch from heaven. Since His people paid no attention to His authority by disregarding His Law, Israel was practically without a king. Kings enforce standards, but in Israel the people were setting their own standards.