Judges 17 – A man in the hill
country of Ephraim, who has taken 1100 pieces of silver from his own mother,
returns it to her; and in gratitude (?) she gives him 200 to make an “idol” for
him. His name is Micah. He sets up a shrine, makes an ephod and teraphim
and installs one of his sons as a priest.
It’s as if he is starting his own cult from his own house. The writer simply says “In those days there
was no king in Israel; all the people
did what was right in their own eyes” (17:6).
Now, I cannot be sure I am reading this right, but it seems to me
that we are getting pretty low here. The law and cultic observances the people
were given in the Torah are nowhere in evidence here. The “good” people have taken up stealing from
their mothers and setting up idols and private shrines in their own houses. Doing what is right in one’s own eyes is
bringing the people farther and farther away from the standards established by
Moses and the first leaders. And the
trend is blamed on the lack of a king.
This is certainly a different tradition from the one that steadfastly
sees in the idea of kingship a failure of obedience to the Lord, such as we see
reflected in Gideon’s speech (Judges 8:23) and later in Samuel’s response to
the request for a king.
A
Levite from Bethlehem, searching for a place to settle, happens upon Micah and
is invited by him to “be to [him] a
father and a priest” (17:10). He
will pay him an annual salary and living expenses. Micah is pleased because he knows “that the
Lord will prosper him” because he has made the Levite his priest.
Again, this little story is so interesting. Micah
seems to know nothing about what he supposed to do to live according to the law
as it was given by Moses. But he knows a
few things: he knows his faith is supposed to be central to his life. He sets up his worship at the center of his
home. He knows that the Levitical
priests are blessed by God and that to have one attached to one’s worship as
father and priest is something pleasing to God.
He does what he knows; he can do
no more. There is a failure though
in the larger community to nurture the people in the Law, to teach them what
they should do and be. That is why the writer says, everyone did
what was right in their own eyes.
Whether the institution of monarchy will make things better still
remains to be determined. But this
writer thinks having a king will help.
Augustine (354-430 AD)
Confessions
5 - Oh! How shall I find
rest in you? Who will send you into my
heart to inebriate it, so that I may forget my woes, and embrace you my only
good? What are you to me? Have compassion on me that I may speak. What am I
to you that you demand my love, and unless I give it you art angry, and
threatenest me with great sorrows? Is it, then, a light sorrow not to love you?
Alas! Alas! Tell me of your compassion, O Lord my God, what you are to me.
"Say unto my soul, I am your
salvation." So speak that I may hear. Behold, Lord, the ears of my heart are before you; open
them, and "say unto my soul, I am your salvation." When I hear,
may I run and lay hold on you. Hide not your face from me. Let me die, lest I
die, if only I may see your face.
Forget my
woes? Here seems to be the first mention of these great burdens, which we carry in this life. It is
not all seeing the beauty and presence of God in nature and in our ability to
SEE and meditate on the order of the cosmos. These are great things, but then
there are the sorrows and miseries of life too – everyone goes through them.
How do they fit into the order? Augustine
seems to see them rooted in God’s anger for our not giving Him the love and
obedience He demands. But I don’t think that is where our sorrows come from.
And for me it is the hardest thing to contend with because there is so much
Scripture that points to God’s wrath as the origin of our woes. A testing of our faith – that I am
willing to accept – but not wrath, especially not when the woes we suffer are
related to the suffering of those we love, not ourselves.
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