When God’s People Are Not Living Godly

Sermon Transcript

First, I want to give you the background of the book of Judges. Judges is a hard, harsh book. I don’t mean hard to understand, but the things that happen in it are so strange. It is considered to be an R-rated book because of all the violence that’s in it. And it’s amazing when you consider that the book of Judges is about God’s people. Yet there are so many problems throughout the book.

It is believed that Judges covers some 300 to 350 years of the history of the Israelites. It really highlights the faithlessness of mankind and the faithfulness of God. It is amazing to read chapter after chapter of the faithlessness of mankind, and yet to know and to see God time and time again in chapter after chapter, still loving them but disciplining them and working in them. He hasn’t given up on them.

What a great reminder to us, because we can have those times and seasons in our lives when we are stumbling, falling, and find it hard to follow the Lord faithfully. Yet we know that God is faithful, consistent, and loves us unconditionally. What a blessing to us!

Chapter 17 I’ve broken up into two main divisions. Verses 1-4 are about mom’s idolatry. That title alone should give you some clue as to what the chapter is like and what Judges is like. The remaining verses, 5-13, are about Micah’s idolatry.

Starting with verse 1, we read, “Now there was a man from the mountains of Ephraim, whose name was Micah.” This Micah should not be confused with the prophet Micah; they are two different people. “And he said to his mother, ‘The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you, and on which you put a curse…” that’s odd “…even saying it in my ears—here is the silver with me; I took it.’” So he confessed to doing this. We open up the chapter with this son having stolen some silver from his own mother.

Now, he certainly was not the first, nor will he be the last son to steal something from one of his parents. All of us, I’m sure, at some point—even if we were the best of sons, maybe when we were little—took something that didn’t belong to us from our parents.

Verse 2, “And his mother said, ‘May you be blessed by the Lord, my son!’” So it starts out strange. As you read through the book of Judges and come to the end of the book, you’ll say that this is strange; however, it’s not really that strange, considering the book of Judges and all you read in the first 16 chapters. It is a strange time in the life of Israel.

Now, note here that there is no reprimand recorded for us from the mother to her son, Micah. There may have been a reprimand, but it’s not recorded for us. So we are left to understand that her response to hearing that he had the money was, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my son!”
This is a classic mom response. Every mom—and especially with a son—wants him to be blessed, even if he does things that are wrong. Oftentimes, it’s hard for her to see that, to see beyond that. Many of you moms are probably like that. You have an angel baby boy, he’s the best thing in the world, and you may be too soft on him.

My mom was that way. She loved me, but she’s in heaven now. She was proud of me for everything, but I was an absolute loser. Had I gone to prison, my mom would have been proud of me for keeping my cell clean. That’s the way my mom was.

And there are many moms today who are just like that. It’s hard for some moms to discipline and be hard with their kids when the time is needed.

We don’t know all the particulars here, but we do know that this mom said, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my son!” Now I want to point something out. There is some strangeness in this chapter. This son, Micah, is not a little boy. We’ll find that out. He’s old enough to have his own home and has a son of his own. So this is not a little boy stealing some coins from his mother. This is a grown man who is stealing silver from his own adult mother. What a strange thing! He said that he had the silver and he was going to give it back.

You’ll notice also the reason that he was going to give it back. It’s not because he felt bad for stealing it; he gave it back because he was afraid, verse 2. He said to his mother, “On which you put a curse, even saying it in my ears.” So before she knew he had taken the silver, she had pronounced some curse on it. And her son believes she had placed a curse on it. Something is askew here.

In verses 3-4, we will see an improper view of God. This mother had an improper view of God. “So when he had returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, ‘I had wholly…” or “entirely” “…dedicated the silver from my hand to the LORD for my son…” note what it’s for “…to make a carved image and a molded image; now therefore, I will return it to you.’” She’s speaking to God here. She had dedicated all this money to God, and she was getting it back, so she was going to have “a carved image and a molded image” made for her son.

This mother is talking about idols here. She is an idolater; she worships idols. In her mind, she wants her son to be blessed. She was going to provide some idols for him to keep in his home.

These are God’s people, and obviously, the point of our story is to find out why they were doing this and to avoid the same mistake. She had an improper view of God, and her son had that as well.

She had said she had dedicated all the silver to God, but in verse 4, it says, “Thus he returned the silver to his mother. Then his mother took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to the silversmith, and he made it into a carved image and a molded image; and they were in the house of Micah.” So she only dedicated 200 shekels of silver to the Lord instead of the 1,200 shekels.

This woman was an idolater, and of all the things to pass on to her son, it was idolatry. By way of contrast, in 2 Timothy 1:5, Paul, in speaking to Timothy, said, “I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also.” Paul was saying he was convinced that Timothy’s faith came from his mother Eunice, and her faith came from Timothy’s grandmother Lois. It was passed on. That’s a wonderful thing to pass on. You as a mom, the best thing you can pass on to your children is a faith in the Lord.

Over 20 years ago, my own mom was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease. She was diagnosed early in the year, and before the year was up, she went home to be with the Lord. We were thankful for that, but it was bittersweet, obviously. As soon as we found out her diagnosis, we started praying that the Lord would either heal her or take her home quickly. And God very graciously took her home very quickly. We’re thankful for that. We’re thankful she isn’t here to experience our present society. She’s home.

I can remember that she had a doctor appointment, at which she was going to be diagnosed, but it fell on her birthday. The doctor liked my mom so much that he cancelled that appointment and asked if she could come by the next day. He liked her so much, he didn’t want to break the bad news to her on her birthday. That was my mom; she had an impact on everyone is talked to. We hated taking her to Stater Brothers because she would talk to all the employees for 45 minutes while we waited. That was my mom. Everybody knew her and loved her. She was crazy!

So the next day, my wife took her to the doctor, and when she came home, we gathered everybody together and shared the news. Lou Gehrig’s disease essentially paralyzes you in your own body, but it does it slowly. For most people who have it, it goes on for years. But my mom was diagnosed and went home to God in the same year! That’s the mercy and graciousness of God.

I remember I came home that afternoon and saw her sitting on the couch. We gathered everyone up, and she told us she had Lou Gehrig’s disease. And she began to weep. That’s what you do when you find out you have a fatal disease. We did our best to comfort her, to tell her it’s going to be alright and that we’re going to trust the Lord. She said, “I’m not crying because I’m dying; I feel bad for you guys, because you’re going to have to take care of me.” That was my mom.

In the house my mom was living in, we moved her from the back bedroom to the front bedroom, which was mine when I was growing up. And a lot of people came to visit her. People would come in wanting to encourage my mom, but they would leave crying, because my mom had encouraged them! She had prayed for the person—literally on her deathbed!

That’s what my mom passed on to me. That’s why I’m such a great guy now! She passed that on to me and my family, to my kids, and everyone she came into contact with. This was many years ago, but our pastor, John Miller, went to visit with her. And he came out the same way—encouraged. He was amazed at her faith. And my mom passed that on to me.

Sadly, the mother in our text did not pass that on to her son, Micah.

Now in verses 5-13, we move into our second main division, which is Micah’s idolatry. And it makes sense to us that he would also be an idolater because of his mother. In verse 5, we see that Micah establishes a personal place of worship. “The man Micah had a shrine…” a place of worship “…and made an ephod…” a religious, priestly garment “…and household idols…” no doubt the idols his mom had made for him “…and he consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.”

And we will see Micah consecrate someone else in the chapter. What is it with this guy? Who said that he could go around consecrating people? And then to choose his own son, who was not part of the priesthood, to consecrate as his own priest! Who said he could do all this and make a shrine and worship idols and make priestly garments?! Not God.

This adds to the strangeness of the chapter and the time. He’s not supposed to be doing these things. And mom was not supposed to be doing what she was doing. Notice the progression: Mom was an idolater, and her son also was an idolater. We didn’t read that she had a shrine, but she may have. She did not have priestly garments, but he went a step further.

That’s what happens. We don’t evolve; we devolve. Things are always getting worse. This man, Micah, is showing us proof of that.

This is not so far-fetched; everybody wants a personal relationship with God. The problem is that the majority of people go about it the wrong way. It’s amazing to me the theology and the things that people believe! They’ll hear a country song and something the singer said in that song, and they take that and believe that about God or Jesus. Or they’ll read something on YouTube or hear something from a friend or a neighbor and piece all these things together as their own religion. So they’re wanting a relationship with God, but they’re going about it the wrong way.

Everybody wants a relationship to God. Depeche Mode wrote a song about it in 1990 called Personal Jesus. Don’t sing that in church!

However, I do want to commend Mom and Micha on one point only: there was a desire in their hearts for a relationship with God. But they’re going about it all the wrong way, making all the mistakes you can, because they’re dreaming these things up on their own or getting it from the idolaters who are living around them.

In John 4, we are told that Jesus “needed to go through Samaria” verse 4. That wasn’t necessary; He could have gone around Samaria, which was what the rest of the Jews did. But He did have to go through Samaria, because there was a woman at a well that He was going to meet and share the good news with. So he went there, sat down at the well because He was tired and thirsty and this woman came near Him. He asked her to give Him a drink.

There was racism in that day. She said to Jesus, “How is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. They didn’t like each other. There was much Jesus and this woman discussed, and she brought up the subject of worship. Can you imagine sitting with Jesus? She didn’t know who He was. She said that the Samaritans worship on this mountain, and the Jews worship on that mountain. Jesus set her straight; He told her that “The true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth,” verse 23.

He corrected her; He was letting her know that you can’t just come to God on your own terms. That’s not how it works. God lays down the ground rules. We don’t come to God and just decide what we’re going to do and how we’re going to worship Him. He prescribes the worship; He tells us how to do it. He tells us how to approach Him, how to get to Him, and how to have a relationship with Him.
Micah and his mom had no idea how to do it. They’re lost, wandering, and grasping.
In Deuteronomy 12:5-8, it says, “But you shall seek the place where the Lord your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go.” This place is for worship. In the time of Judges, the place was Shiloh. “There you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks.”
So we find out there was to be a central place of worship where the people were to take their offerings to worship God. “And there you shall eat before the Lord your God…” which means there were offerings that they could partake of “…and you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which the Lord your God has blessed you. You shall not at all do as we are doing here today—every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes.” Moses was telling them that you can’t worship God however you want to. You can’t just make things up; you must come to God on His terms.
Mom wasn’t doing that, and neither was Micah. It makes sense why. We’ll find out why. As a subpoint, he establishes a personal place of worship and employs a lost Levite. Verse 7, “Now there was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah; he was a Levite, and was staying there.”
Levites were a group of people that was assigned to assist the priesthood. In Leviticus and Numbers, you find out that the Levites had specific assignments to serve alongside the priests. Later on, God had given them specific assignments throughout the country so there would be a godly influence throughout the land.
So, no doubt this Levite had a specific place where he was supposed to be. And verse 8 says that “The man departed from the city of Bethlehem in Judah to stay wherever he could find a place.” That’s why I call him “a lost Levite.” Why was he looking for another place? “Then he came to the mountains of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, as he journeyed.” Oh, what a coincidence! Must be God that he ends up at Micah’s place, right?
Verse 9, “And Micah said to him, ‘Where do you come from?’ So he said to him, ‘I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am on my way to find a place to stay.’” He’s wandering around for a place to stay.
I have no idea why this Levite has left his post and is out wandering. I have a theory, but it’s only a theory. I’m wondering that because of the godlessness in the land at this time, he might have been standing around twiddling his thumbs. Perhaps the priesthood was corrupt, and nobody was serving and nobody was worshipping at Shiloh or at Bethlehem or wherever he was. So maybe he decided to go somewhere else or look for something else to do.
It’s obvious that the people are godless. These are all God’s people. They are from the mountains of Ephraim—his mom, Micah, and this Levite. They are all the children of God, in a general sense. But why are they living like this? Why is this Levite out wandering? Perhaps there was nothing for him to do. Maybe he just thought he would go to find something to do.
Verse 10, “Micah said to him, ‘Dwell with me, and be a father and a priest to me.” Wait a minute. Who is Micah that he can just assign a priest? And this is a Levite; he’s not a priest. Then Micah said, “And I will give you ten shekels of silver per year, a suit of clothes, and your sustenance.’ So the Levite went in.” Of course, he did; he was wandering around like a bum and was looking for a place to stay. “Okay, you’re going to give me a job, give me a place to stay, buy me some clothes. Sounds great.” So he stayed there.
Verse 11, “Then the Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man became like one of his sons to him. So Micah consecrated the Levite.” Who told him he could consecrate anybody, set him apart, anoint him for this special service? No one. Micah’s doing what Deuteronomy said not to do, doing his own thing. “And the young man became his priest, and lived in the house of Micah. Then Micah said, ‘Now I know that the Lord will be good to me, since I have a Levite as priest!’”
In other words, Micah is following his mom’s leadership and has an improper view of God. Micah’s mom thought that God was good with or okay with being represented by idols. If you read any portion of the Old Testament, you know that idolatry was always a problem for the children of Israel. They knew they were supposed to stay away from idols. Yet this mom, with her improper view of God, came to the conclusion that God wanted to be represented by idols, so she got some idols that represented God she could worship, and that her son and her grandkids could worship. What a sad thing to pass on!
And Micah was doing the same thing and believed the same thing. And he even went a step further and got himself this priest. In verse 13, what he said reveals to us what he was thinking. “Now I know that the Lord will be good to me, since I have a Levite…” or “since I bought this guy in” “…as priest!” This man was not a priest, but Micah just made him a priest.
What Micah was doing was placing his faith not in God alone but in idols and then in this Levite, whom he decided was going to become a priest. And he thought he would have good fortune. “If I just rub Buddha’s belly, I’ll have good fortune.” Or “If I just go to church and not miss a Sunday, God will bless me.” That’s not the way it works. We don’t work for merits or work off demerits; it’s not a point system.
But Micah thought that was the way it worked. What was the problem? I intentionally left out verse 6 of our text until now. It reads, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” The problem, as pointed out by the author of Judges, was that there was no leadership at this time, no king. God was allowing His people to live in the land at this time without a king. And the people were proving that they did not do well without a king.
However, many years after this, their first king was Saul, but he was not a good king. So it wasn’t necessarily that they needed a king, because the king may be bad, may not be a godly king. The people, whether they had a king or not, had the responsibility to live their lives in godliness. It wasn’t someone else’s responsibility. It wasn’t someone else’s fault if they sinned. It’s their—and our—responsibility. We have the privilege and responsibility of whether or not we will accept a personal relationship with God.
The people here at that time had no king in Israel, so everyone’s doing “what was right in his own eyes.” There was no one leading them. In 1 Corinthians 10:11, Paul had been speaking about Old Testament events and character and wrote, “Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”
So we can understand, by reading Judges 17, what the problem was. These people were supposed to be godly but were not living godly, so according to Paul, we should see their negative example and decide not to do the same; we shouldn’t do our own thing.
When we look at Micah having a personal place of worship, it’s commendable; that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Many of us have the same thing. Maybe it’s a prayer closet or a place for Bible reading or even for worship. If you have a small house and a big family, it might be the bathroom, which is the only place you can escape to. It might be your car or some lunch spot you go to that is private. You sit there and pour out your heart to God. So there is nothing wrong with having your own place of worship.
But you can see that our story goes beyond that; this was forming their own religion. So the lesson here is that we should not go down that same road. We need to do things the way God has prescribed, the way the Word tells us. And that is what was lacking in Judges 17.
In Acts 2:41-47, we are going to see five characteristics of a healthy child of God. We’ve seen in Judges 17 what an unhealthy child of God in his relationship to God looks like. Now we’re going to see what a healthy one looks like in Acts 2.
Those of you who have studied the book of Acts understand that Acts 2 is a monumental chapter. The Holy Spirit has come to the believers who were waiting for Him. At this point, Peter had just finished his sermon, and in verse 41, we see the Christians, the people of God, the children of God, in their infancy.
The first characteristic of a healthy child of God is their identity in Christ. They identified with Christ, verse 41. “Then those who gladly received his word…” that’s the Word that came from Peter “…were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.” Wow! The church grew by 3,000 people in one day! That’s a good problem to have.

And notice that they were being baptized. Being baptized is a wonderful thing. I was baptized many years ago in the San Diego waters at a church camp, Campland. Pastor Rojas took us out to the ocean and baptized us, including myself and my family. And we have baptisms at Revival at the Bishops’ house in their pool.

But you need to understand that at the time Acts 2 was being written, for many of them, it was a cutting off of their former life; they would be cut off because they were baptized. Baptism was for someone who had been proselytized from some other religion or godlessness into Judaism. But now they were being baptized and identified with this Messiah, Jesus Christ. As a result, many of them would lose family; they would be cut off. If I’m a Jewish seller of goods in the marketplace, and you come to me as a Christian, you can’t buy from me anymore. That would happen to so many of these converts; for many of them, they would lose everything. They would no longer be invited to the family get-togethers just because they identified with Christ.

So being identified with Christ is one of the characteristics of a healthy child of God. It’s someone who says, “I belong to Christ, and there is no changing that. I’m committed to that and proclaiming that. This is where I stand.”

The second characteristic is found in verse 42: their commitment. And it was a commitment to three different things. “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.” The first one was “the apostles’ doctrine.” It was the doctrine of the apostles, but the apostles got it from Jesus. A short time before this, they were disciples who spent three to three-and-a-half years with Jesus. They sat with Him and received Bible studies, learned them and took to preaching that, the words of Jesus, to these new Christians, to this new church. These people were committed to that.

The second thing they were committed to was fellowship and “the breaking of bread.” I call it “unity.” They were committed to the Word and to being unified. “The breaking of bread” means they ate together.

And the third thing they were committed to was prayer.

These are the things a healthy child of God does: being identified with Christ, committed to His Word, being unified in the church, and committed to prayer.

Our third characteristic is in verse 43, which is being Spirit-led. “Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through…” note that word “…the apostles.” It wasn’t that the apostles were coming up with incantations or dreaming up things to do or coming up with miraculous events; it was that the Spirit was free to work through those apostles and to perform miracles, such as signs and healings. They were Spirit-led because they were committed to the Holy Spirit. That’s another mark of a healthy child of God.

The fourth characteristic of a healthy child of God is found in verses 44-45. That characteristic is sacrificial love. “Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common…” What that means is told to us in verse 45 “…and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.” So if someone had a need, another believer in this brand-new church, having some possessions or goods, saw the need, sold their possessions, and sacrificially met the needs of their brother or sister in Christ. That’s the mark or characteristic of a healthy child of God.

Then the fifth characteristic is found in verse 46: humility. “So continuing daily with one accord in the temple…” they were going every day to the temple and worshipping and meeting “…and breaking bread from house to house…” which is fellowship “…they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart…” that’s humility. They did it with gladness, because they were with their church family.

Isn’t that the truth? We know about that at Revival. We know about eating. Isn’t it so sweet to sit down with other believers and have a meal? We can think back to a meal and say, “That was such a good meal. We should go back to that restaurant.” But when you go back to that restaurant, you say, “Well, that food wasn’t so good.” Why was that? It was because the first time you were with good company. It wasn’t about the food; it was about the great company. So this new church family was eating “their food with gladness and simplicity of heart,” which is humility.

So the five marks of a healthy Christian are identity with Christ, a commitment, being Spirit-led, a sacrificial love, and humility.

But how were these things accomplished? They happened naturally; we might say “supernaturally.” There are two references here in Acts that tell us how this happened to them. And how is it going to happen to us? Back in verse 41, it says, “Then those who gladly received his word.” When the people gladly received what Peter was preaching, then the direct correlation to that was “that day about three thousand souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine,” or in Jesus’ doctrine. The apostles adopted Jesus’ doctrine and were sharing the Word of God. That’s how it happens naturally or supernaturally.

When we submit ourselves to God, submit to His Word, what happens is that healthy sheep beget other healthy sheep. We are told twice in these verses that the people submitted themselves to the Word of God, and because of that, souls were added to the church, in verse 41; and again in verse 47, it says, “And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” It was because of a submission to the Word of God.

When you look back to the book of Judges, what you find with Mom and Micah is that there was no submission to the Word of God, and there was no healthy lifestyle, but rather chaos, because “everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

What a picture and an indictment of our own country and society, of our own community, of a world that is lost!

In Judges, they wanted a relationship with God, but they were dreaming that up on their own. But the problem today is not the world. The world is doing exactly what the world is supposed to do—be worldly. But Jesus said to His followers in the sermon on the mount, “You are the salt of the earth….You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:13-14). So the problem isn’t out there; the problem is inside, in the heart. The world is doing what it’s supposed to do, but we’re not doing what we’re supposed to do or what we’ve been tasked with.

We’ve got the Word, so we’ve got the truth. But often we’re keeping it “under a basket” (Matthew 5:15) and not sharing it and loving the world. They need to hear the message. That’s one of the jobs of the church: to proclaim the message. And another one of the jobs of the church is to live out the message. But we often find ourselves stumbling. So thank God for His mercies and His patience!

There is only one way we can be healthy children of God, and that is to submit to the Word of God. Aren’t we thankful to our pastor, who week after week and month after month and year after year steps into the pulpit and says, “Let’s open our Bibles to….”

So when we submit ourselves to the Word of God, that’s what will transform us, that’s what will make us healthy.