Ten Shekels and a Shirt (or Have Idol, will Travel)

There’s a story in Judges 17 and 18 that doesn’t get many sermons preached about it. After all, it is a little strange. In fact, the last five chapters of Judges are pretty weird. Try reading them sometime when you want some, uh… interesting stories. (Just a warning, these passages contain some of the more, shall we say, “disturbing” accounts in the scripture.)

It was the story in chapters 17 and 18 that really caught my attention though. It’s a little long, so hold on. It begins, as all good stories do, with a boy who stole from his mother… ya, a great opening, I know. His name was Micah, and he took eleven-hundred shekels of silver from his mother (that’s about 28 pounds). When he heard her put a curse on it, he decided to return it. To which she said, “Wow! You’re such a great son! I’m going to make this silver into an idol and give it back to you so that God will be happy with you!” I know, sounds like a great family, right?

Oh, but it gets better. A wandering priest shows up. No, this isn’t a bar joke. Micah figures, “hey, I’ve got an idol; if I get this Levite to be a priest for me, God will have to like me!” So he offers the Levite a new suit, food and lodging, and 4 ounces of silver a year to hang around and be his good luck charm.

Well, the Levite agreed. And he was happy to stick around doing his thing for a while. But then a clan of Danites pass through on their way to battle. They see Micah’s house with the idol and the priest and they think, “Here’s what we need right here. If we want to stay safe in battle, we need a little of the supernatural. This couldn’t hurt.”

So, they offer to let the Levite be their priest. He gladly accepts the promotion of serving 600 men instead of just one. Then they steal Micah’s idols and set out on their own. Naturally, Micah is upset so he goes after them. They tell him to back off and shut his mouth or they’ll get mad and kill him.

Anyway, Micah goes home with nothing, and the Danites wipe out a city, settle down there, and keep worshiping the idol that made the whole thing possible.

Whew! Finally got through that. Here’s the point. First of all, don’t steal from your mother. But mainly, this is what I would say: everyone in this story missed the point. They saw God as something they could manipulate into blessing them. They were just trying to get something from Him. And the Levite, worst of all, used his position as priest to move himself up the social ladder.

The point is simple: don’t try to use God for what you can get from Him. The end of all being is not the happiness of man but the glory of God. We were made to glorify Him, not indulge ourselves. This weird story is just another example of how messed up we are. So, don’t build an idol and constrain God to blessing you how you want, don’t go around looking for some way to get yourself ten shekels and a shirt, and don’t think that simply following religious practices will guarantee your success. God is not a means to an end. He is the goal. He is the prize. Having Him is enough.