God’s Place

Judges 17

“1 Now a man named Micah from the hill country of Ephraim 2 said to his mother, “The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you and about which I heard you utter a curse—I have that silver with me; I took it.” Then his mother said, “The Lord bless you, my son!” 3 When he returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, she said, “I solemnly consecrate my silver to the Lord for my son to make an image overlaid with silver. I will give it back to you.” 4 So after he returned the silver to his mother, she took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to a silversmith, who used them to make the idol. And it was put in Micah’s house. 5 Now this man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and some household gods and installed one of his sons as his priest. 6 In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.”

Micah stole money from his mother, then he returned it to her.  She took part of the silver Micah returned and had it melted down and shaped into an idol.  It was placed in Micah’s home where Micah had a shrine and other religious things.

The odd thing is that before the idol was made, Micah’s mother consecrated the silver to the Lord, as if this consecration made the idol acceptable to the one true God.

In the world today, there are still many idols, although we do not call them idols.  We worship money, material things, power, and authority, to name a few.  

We think we have worked out the perfect arrangement with God.  Our idols have their necessary places and God has His necessary place.  And this is how we justify putting God last. 

We have consecrated our silver, so to speak.

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)