March 24

Here are my thoughts on today’s reading:

Read Judges ch 17 - 18

The bible has if not all, then a lot of the issues/temptation that people face in everyday life. In some instances, it has more than we can imagine. Some of the stories might be a little hard to grasp, yet they always have reasons and purpose for being there. The bible is not a book of mistakes and myths, but rather truth and light. The book of Judges is filled with ‘hard to understand’ stories. So when you don’t understand, don’t quit; rather, pray and seek answers.

For those people who love being in the water and swimming, this story is like open water swimming. If you swim when the current is heavy and strong, you are more than likely going to get pushed around involuntarily. If we don’t follow God and allow him to be our foundation, we are probably going to get knocked around by the world.

The world and society have a strong influence on us, whether we like it or not. From the things we see, to the things we hear, the world always tends to rub off on us. The worst part is, we mostly only take the bad qualities rather than the good.

In today’s reading, we meet Micah. Micah lived in a kingless world. Since Israel had no king or Godly leader, they did as they thought felt right. Micah thought it would be a great idea to own an idol, and attempt to find favor in god by hiring a young levite as his priest. At this point you don’t know whom to slap first, the levite for accepting Micah offer and ignoring his idol, or Micah for thinking he would find favor with God by only hiring a levite priest rather than following his ways.

There were a lot of things that shouldn’t have been done, here’s a few examples:

1) Micah used an ephod, household gods, a carved image and a metal images for idolatry vs 17:3-5

2) Lures a Levite into serving him as his private priest. Priests were meant for public service instead of private service.

3) He appointed his own son as a priest. His son was neither a descendant of Aaron OR a Levite, as they were supposed to be.

4) Jonathan (the Levite priest) gets bribed by the Danites and without hesitation accepts. He was not focused on God, but rather on himself.

5) No leadership in all of Israel. Bad qualities easily catch on, but good qualities take time to develop. Israel easily fell in the pit of bad qualities.

6) The Danites go and attack Ephraim. In another words, a civil war broke out within Israel due to lack of leadership and Godlessness within people.

That is just a handful examples of the SIN that manifested in Israel. Now take into consideration the influence that Micah sin had on the Danites. If they had any Godly influence, it went out the window due to the domino effect of Micah sin.

Doesn’t this happen on a daily basis? Do you realize that you influence people on a daily basis? EVERY movement, act and even what you say is observed. From the toddlers around the house to your co-workers, everyone and anyone can be influenced by what you do. The worst part is, when we actually realize that we are being observed, we tend to justify by saying things like: “God won’t be mad, I went to church” or “I do good things, what’s one bad thing gonna do?” or “isn’t God all holy and stuff, he’ll forgive me”. Those excuses will get you nowhere.

As Israel had no king or foundation, we must learn from Israel’s mistakes. We don’t necessarily need the type of king they needed, but we do need God to be the foundation in our lives. Much like the swimmer I spoke about earlier who has no foundation or anything under him/her to keep him steady and on course, neither did Israel. Do you? Are you confident that you have a steady foundation holding you up? Or are you swimming in strong current water w/ no lifesaver, making impulsive decisions and influencing the world? Our simple everyday life decisions and actions can influence others beyond our imagination. It happened to Micah, will it happen to you?

Hope my thoughts were of some benefit to you.