What about in good times?

There are very definite patterns in the book of Judges in the Old Testament.

• Israel disobeys, or does not follow through on their promises or obligations,
• God delivers them into the hands of a more powerful local rival: Midianites, Philistines, etc.
• Israel cries out for help to the LORD in their misery
• God sends a rescuer, a “judge” to deliver them
• Israel enjoys peace for a period until the cycle begins again.

Last week in the Samson stories we saw a break in the cycle. Israel had become so lost that she had stopped crying out to God. Instead God intervened in the life of a barren woman to send Samson as a rescuer against the Philistines.

For many of us who have jobs, houses, relatively secure incomes, etc. this cycle often makes God look bad. The United States is increasingly “spiritual but not religions” and the baseline assumption about God, if he, ze or it exists is that God is love and is just always there to give good things to people who ask.

Religion is to Spirituality as Technology is to Science

When Oprah was on Stephen Colbert they talked about favorite Bible verses. Oprah embodies and champions western, secure, affluent spirituality. Her version of the universe basically says that karma rules and so if you want good things you should do good things. She believes that this rule and others like it are the spiritual truths that underlie all the world religions. In other words religions are applications of these spiritual truths kind of like various technologies are applications of scientific laws below.

While ancients didn’t share these modern assumptions, partially fueled by skepticism brought on by religious pluralism, how it works out looks surprising similar between moderns and ancients. The spiritual realm is like the physical world, a level of existence that has rules and properties that informed, motivated and clever people can take advantage of in order to achieve the lifestyle goals they set for themselves. Gods or spiritual forces are available for our interaction in order to make our lives the way we want them.

Micah Sets Up His Family Shrine

While most Christians who know anything about the book of Judges usually see it as a book about the consequences of disobeying God, I think the deeper theme is the slow Canaanization of Israel. God used the desert wanderings to try to get the Egypt out of Israel, but once in the promised land Canaanization occured. Israel was increasingly assimilate into the Canaanite way of life.

The story we have in the book of Judges today breaks from the pattern and establishes a new one. God it appears is not more far off. He isn’t intervening like he did with Gideon and Samson but in the minds of his people who are doing well economically he is available as a spiritual asset among many. The new mantra in the book will be “In those days Israel had no king and each man did what was right in his own eyes.”

We meet a new character, not a judge, but a man in Israel whose family, unlike most of the people we meet in the book, is doing very well for themselves.

Judges 17:1–6 (NET)

¹ There was a man named Micah from the Ephraimite hill country. ² He said to his mother, “You know the eleven hundred pieces of silver which were stolen from you, about which I heard you pronounce a curse? Look here, I have the silver. I stole it, but now I am giving it back to you.” His mother said, “May the Lord reward you, my son!” ³ When he gave back to his mother the eleven hundred pieces of silver, his mother said, “I solemnly dedicate this silver to the Lord. It will be for my son’s benefit. We will use it to make a carved image and a metal image.”⁴ When he gave the silver back to his mother, she took two hundred pieces of silver to a silversmith, who made them into a carved image and a metal image. She then put them in Micah’s house.⁵ Now this man Micah owned a shrine. He made an ephod and some personal idols and hired one of his sons to serve as a priest.⁶ In those days Israel had no king. Each man did what he considered to be right.

Right off the bat there are some interesting elements to the story

• A son steals from his mother. No father is in the picture. This is a crime in nearly every culture, a despicable act.
• The son fesses up but there are no consequences. The mother is naive, or weak, or a pushover, or simple.
• The amount stolen is a huge amount of money, the same amount paid by the Philistine lord’s each to Delilah to betray Samson
• The mother had intended the money to be “set aside” to the LORD, Yahweh. Well that sounds good. But then we learn how she intends to use it. To make an idol out of it possible of Yhwh in violation of the second commandment. We also learn about the “household gods” in violation of the first commandment. Mom is kind of religious but in a very personal way.
• She doesn’t really turn over all the money she had set side. What did she do with the rest? It disappears. Part of a string of missing features in the story. The whole story speaks of sloppy, neglectful, selfish, whatever she thinks is best.
• Micah takes the shrine, sets it up, and installs his son as priest. Micah’s name in Hebrew means “Who is like Yhwh?” The ironies will increase.

Understanding the Ancient World and Religion

I was reading the original Dracula and came across this line.

The shutters had been opened, but the blinds were already down, with that obedience to the etiquette of death which the British woman of the lower classes always rigidly observes.

Stoker, Bram; Top Five Books (2014-07-11). Dracula (Illustrated) (Top Five Classics Book 2) (p. 83). Top Five Books. Kindle Edition.

The novel was written in the late 19th century and some of what it deals with is the imagined struggle between scientists and the natural and  supernatural personified in Count Dracula. In this telling quote class is associated with rigid religious tradition which in a sideways way associates religion with superstition. The United States had a similar moment when it was revealed that Nancy Reagan was consulting an astrologer.

In the same way a modern farmer or industrialist might invest considerable money in a piece of equipment in order to make their operation more efficient or profitable. The ancients invested in the machinery of religion for the same reason. They world was alive with the gods who controlled the weather, the fertility of their fields, herds and loins. When someone prospered in meat space it meant that the spiritual forces that controlled life in this world were smiling upon them. Religion was the way to keep the gods smiling.

They also assumed that if one god was good, two gods were better. The gods they believed had not only different interests but also domains of responsibility so that if you wanted to flourish on many levels you should engage many gods. The more and better you could do this the wealthier, happier and better fortune you would have.

Now again in public company today people poo poo these ideas but in my experience most people of the world still participate in this thought world. Secularism may dominate in public, but religion flourishes in private. When you see the huge popularity of Oprah and many others you have a sense of the power of religion. Many today aren’t working this out of concern for hell, they are more doing so meaning, happiness and prosperity in this life. Micah and Oprah would have felt at home together.

Religious Service Providers

The story continues with a young Levite looking for opportunity.

Judges 17:7–13 (NET)

⁷ There was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah. He was a Levite who had been temporarily residing among the tribe of Judah.⁸ This man left the town of Bethlehem in Judah to find another place to live. He came to the Ephraimite hill country and made his way to Micah’s house.⁹ Micah said to him, “Where do you come from?” He replied, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah. I am looking for a new place to live.”¹⁰ Micah said to him, “Stay with me. Become my adviser and priest. I will give you ten pieces of silver per year, plus clothes and food.”¹¹ So the Levite agreed to stay with the man; the young man was like a son to Micah.¹² Micah paid the Levite; the young man became his priest and lived in Micah’s house. ¹³ Micah said, “Now I know God will make me rich, because I have this Levite as my priest.”

This Levite isn’t stupid. Here is a man who wishes to install him as priest and pay him well for it. The assumption is of course that if the Levite helps Micah to flourish then both will be secure.

Sounds reasonable doesn’t it? Micah has the need and the resources, and Levite has the ability and needs a job. Sweet. What we fail to realize, however, is that all of this comes at God’s expense. God is an impersonal force, a natural resource, something that can be manipulated and exploited for Micah and the Levite’s glory.

Martin Luther when talking about the nature of sin noted this. Incurvatus in se, We are turned in on ourselves.

Our nature, by the corruption of the first sin, [being] so deeply curved in on itself that it not only bends the best gifts of God towards itself and enjoys them (as is plain in the works-righteous and hypocrites), or rather even uses God himself in order to attain these gifts, but it also fails to realize that it so wickedly, curvedly, and viciously seeks all things, even God, for its own sake.”^[2]

The gravitation force of Micah’s own self is such that his view of the entire world is bent by it and it reshapes all that he can see. God is his tool. His son was his tool, until the Levite came along. Sorry son, you’re out. I’ve found a better priest. It’s all nicely based on power and performance.

Let’s imagine a man, call him Hugh, who has four girlfriends. Julia is a great cook and lavishes upon him her culinary gifts. Marilyn is drop dead gorgeous and she’s really good in bed. Sheryl leans in, is organized, focused, has a great career and will someday earn a lot of money. Mary P is a wonderful nurturer. She’ll make a great mother and help the family become a wonderful emotional home.

Let’s imagine he gets all four into a room and says “I’ve got a proposal for all of you. Together we make a great team. Let’s do a plural marriage. I’ll be the leader, the broker and the stud horse, you all can do what you’re good at and life will be great! How about it ladies?”

How might that conversation go?

Probably all four women will say “I’m not a thing to be used for you to manufacture your perfect life. I am a person.”

Now I ask you. Why do we find an impersonal god far less threatening, offensive and convenient over a personal god?

An impersonal God puts us in control, me in charge, and the universe including God as a tool to get what I want. It makes Me GOD.

600 Danites Come to Town

If you read the next chapter in Judges we meet some scouts from the tribe of Dan. Things haven’t gone well for them in the first allotment. The Philistines are too close and too strong so they are going to relocate to a better neighborhood. On the way they bump into Micah and the Levite. They check things out. Micah is prospering, things are good. He’s got a pretty sweet deal going with this Levite. This shrine thing, like that industrial machine is really putting out.

Well the scouts are soon followed by 600 armed men from the tribe who stop. They talk to the scouts and they do the logical thing. Let’s take Micah’s shiny silver idol, the house hold gods and the Levite to the north with us. The shrine after all is a prosperity machine. If it can work for Micah, it can work for us.

Now they don’t have to do much convincing for the Levite. They basically say “we can pay you more. Better to be the priest for a tribe than a household.” so he goes.

What should Micah do?

Judges 18:22–26 (NET)

²² After they had gone a good distance from Micah’s house, Micah’s neighbors gathered together and caught up with the Danites. ²³ When they called out to the Danites, the Danites turned around and said to Micah, “Why have you gathered together?” ²⁴ He said, “You stole my gods that I made, as well as this priest, and then went away. What do I have left? How can you have the audacity to say to me, ‘What do you want?’ ”²⁵ The Danites said to him, “Don’t say another word to us, or some very angry men will attack you, and you and your family will die.”²⁶ The Danites went on their way; when Micah realized they were too strong to resist, he turned around and went home.

Misery: The Way of the World

The story of Micah is how we try to make God our tool.

• We do it by multiplying gods
• We do it by making God into an image in our minds or hands
• We do it be making God into something impersonal
• We do it to put us in charge

This all seems to work until the day we run into the end of our power

• Our power to use others
• Our power to control others
• Our power to make the world into what we want it to be

At this point we realize that if we are our own god, we need a new one.

• One not of our hands or minds
• One not under our control
• One that has all knowledge
• One that has all wisdom
• One that loves us

Deliverance

Part of our difficulty in seeing Jesus is in seeing is conflicting excellencies.

Our cultural mainstream likes to imagine Jesus as something less than a person. He’s all accepting, tolerant, etc. He is these things, more so than we usually find safe or responsible.

He is also demanding and conflictive. Have you read the Gospels? Do you know what happens to him? They kill him. You are not angry enough at a super nice but spineless guy to kill him. After 3 years of ministry all sides in their culture war figure the world would be better without him, so they had a kangaroo court and pressured the Romans to kill him.

Jesus himself walked right into it. It was his plan. His plan to show us that while he isn’t a force for us to harness or use, he is the all powerful God made flesh and made our victim so that we can see who we are.

• To see that if we are our own god we have an evil, selfish, worthless god
• To see that the true God cares for our well-being at his expense
• To see that the path to life lies in following this God-man who gives himself for the unworthy without actually losing himself.

Gratitude

So what will you do with this.

We naturally mimic Micah. We want to employ God, spirituality, the universe, whatever to keep ourselves at the center.

Jesus goes first and invites us to follow.

He promises it will go with us like it went with him. Losing, bleeding, suffering but also joy and security that this world with its swords, money and power can never touch.

We are asked which way we wish to live.