17 And there was a man of mount Ephraim, whose name was Micah.
2 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.
3 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.
6 In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
7 And there was a young man out of Bethlehemjudah of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there.
8 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.
9 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.
10 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.
11 And the Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man was unto him as one of his sons.
12 And Micah consecrated the Levite; and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.
13 Then said Micah, Now know I that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest.
– Judges 17 v 1-3, 6-13
Micah was a character – he lied to his mother, stole from his mother, dishonoured his mother (by my count, that’s three commandments broken right there! This guy must’ve really hated his mum…) and to top it all off, he had happily led his household into idolatry.
Still following? Now this verse isn’t really going to make sense unless you read the entire chapter, so in case you’re wondering who this Micah geezer is, and why Stephanie is dissing the guy who wrote the Book of Micah, please pick up your KJV or click here…
Still with me? Alright Bible Scholar, so back to Micah – he was in my mind a cunning Sycophant, shamelessly pandering to those around him. In short, he was W I L D.
So wild in fact, that he views the apparition of the Levite as a sign that God is favouring him.
Wrong.
Similar to the same way that we cannot pick and choose sin, we cannot pick and choose with God.
Life has taught me that God does not favour those who wilfully sin, and nowhere in the Bible do we see God blessing sinners.
He is merciful towards them, and long-suffering towards their ignorance, always desiring for them to turn back to Him in repentance.
So when we fall into situations similar to Micah, let’s stop trying to mitigate our losses, by trying to bring God in to bless our mess.
Nahhhhhh. It doesn’t work like that.
Just face the facts.
We sin, we repent.
We fall, we get back up again.
So start today. The reality is, we are not going to be perfect. Looking back on my life, I know that I have not been perfect, but I am grateful that God doesn’t expect me to be.
So how do we make it? How do we live a life worthy of the calling of Christ?
Just own up to your weakness, and accept where you have gone wrong – it’s the only way God will be magnified.
9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
2 Corinthians 12 v 9
Now isn’t that something?
Lord, help us to serve YOU, not an invented version of You that we have created to make ourselves feel comfortable in our sin.
Blessings
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