Judges 17 · a question people ask
"Now I know that the LORD will do good to me, since I have a Levite as my priest" (17:13). What was Micah trusting?
Micah's house held "a carved image and a molten image" (17:4), "an ephod, and teraphim" (17:5), and his first priest was "one of his sons" (17:5). Then a Levite came, and Micah said, "Now I know that the LORD will do good to me, since I have a Levite as my priest" (17:13). The Law had given the priesthood to Aaron's line: "You shall appoint Aaron and his sons, and they shall keep their priesthood" (Numbers 3:10), and it gave the Levites "to Aaron and to his sons" (Numbers 3:9) "to do the service of the Tent of Meeting" (Numbers 18:6). The chapter records no word from the LORD to Micah, and it passes no verdict on what he said; the verse it sets in the middle is "Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes" (17:6). Christians read 17:13 in two main ways. Both agree the images went against the commandment, "You shall not make for yourselves an idol" (Exodus 20:4).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Trusting an arrangement to secure the LORD's favour
Those who hold this view hear Micah's "since" as the heart of it: the LORD's good is tied to having the right man in the right role. They set it beside the prophet's warning, "Don’t trust in lying words, saying, ‘The LORD’s temple, the LORD’s temple, the LORD’s temple, are these.’" (Jeremiah 7:4), and beside what the Law said of a Levite who came "with all the desire of his soul to the place which the LORD shall choose" (Deuteronomy 18:6): there "he shall minister in the name of the LORD his God" (Deuteronomy 18:7). Micah's house of images was not that place. They note that the Levite was hired, for "ten pieces of silver per year, a suit of clothing, and your food" (17:10).
Judges 17:10 · Judges 17:13 · Jeremiah 7:4 · Deuteronomy 18:6-7
Meaning to honour the LORD, without knowing his Law
Those who hold this view note how much in the chapter is done in the LORD's name: the mother's blessing, "May the LORD bless my son!" (17:2), the silver dedicated "to the LORD" (17:3), and a Levite sought as priest, from the tribe that "the LORD set apart" (Deuteronomy 10:8). They read Micah as wanting the LORD's good and not knowing what the LORD had commanded, and set it beside the book's own words about the time after Joshua: "another generation arose after them who didn’t know the LORD, nor the work which he had done for Israel" (2:10).
Judges 17:2-3 · Deuteronomy 10:8 · Judges 2:10
The verses
“When he restored the money to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver, and gave them to a silversmith, who made a carved image and a molten image out of it. It was in the house of Micah. The man Micah had a house of gods, and he made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest. In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes.”
“Then Micah said, “Now I know that the LORD will do good to me, since I have a Levite as my priest.””
“You shall give the Levites to Aaron and to his sons. They are wholly given to him on the behalf of the children of Israel. You shall appoint Aaron and his sons, and they shall keep their priesthood, but the stranger who comes near shall be put to death.””
“Behold, I myself have taken your brothers the Levites from among the children of Israel. They are a gift to you, dedicated to the LORD, to do the service of the Tent of Meeting.”