Weak Character
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Have you ever noticed it’s much easier to grow weeds than flowers and vegetables?
I don’t have a green thumb. You could give me a healthy, strong flower and it wouldn’t survive my care for very long.
But I can grow weeds like no other. I can grow weeds without even giving much effort at all. I don’t even have to plant them. They just pop up and spread all on their own.
It takes a lot of work and dedicated time to keep a nice garden. You have to spend time getting rid of the weeds. Making sure the plants are getting the right amount of water.
Paying attention to the plants and if they look sickly figuring out what needs to be done to nurse them back to health. Removing and controlling insects that will damage the plants.
It’s hard work right? For some people it brings enjoyment and fulfillment. For others like me, it’s a monotonous, arduous task that takes up way too much of my valuable time.
Sure, I really desire the outcome of a beautiful garden and reaping the harvest. But, the effort and time it takes to grow and maintain it is more than I’m willing to put forth.
Sin is the weed of our spiritual life. If time and effort aren’t taken to manage every aspect of our spiritual life, then the weed will spread rapidly throughout our entire spiritual life.
This is the state that Israel found itself. I believe there’s a huge parallel between Israel at this time and the church today.
We’re going to continue our series on Judges with chapters 17 and 18 today. We’re going to look at the parallels between Israel here and the church today.
The complete lack of discipleship, the lack of teaching the future generations how to experience God the Father, allows the weeds to grow in their spiritual lives.
We immediately see the weeds and the lack of removing the weeds. When sin pervades our lives we become people of weak character.
1 There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Micah.
2 And he said to his mother, “The 1,100 pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse, and also spoke it in my ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it.” And his mother said, “Blessed be my son by the Lord.”
3 And he restored the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother. And his mother said, “I dedicate the silver to the Lord from my hand for my son, to make a carved image and a metal image. Now therefore I will restore it to you.”
4 So when he restored the money to his mother, his mother took 200 pieces of silver and gave it to the silversmith, who made it into a carved image and a metal image. And it was in the house of Micah.
5 And the man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and household gods, and ordained one of his sons, who became his priest.
6 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
How many laws are broken in these few passages? It’s a lot but we have four that should jump out almost immediately.
Micah is a thief, thou shalt not steal. Micah isn’t just a thief he’s so morally corrupt that he steals from his own mother. Honor your father and your mother.
We also see the lack of discipling that happens as well. The mother says a curse over whoever stole the money within earshot of her son.
It begs the question: Was it intentional that Micah hear the curse? Did she know Micah was the thief?
Even if that weren’t the case instead of disciplining Micah for stealing the silver she blesses him and has an idol made for him out of the money he stole.
What’s worse is she dedicates all 1,100 pieces of silver to the Lord. But only gives 200 pieces of silver. She is literally stealing from God.
She puts wealth before God. You shall have no other gods before me.
She has an idol made for her son to worship God. Ex 20:4
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,
We have similar issues going on today. Children aren’t disciplined, they aren’t taught how to experience God, and so they do not honor their fathers and mothers.
Tim Keller says,
Judges for You Judges 17:1–18:31
So worshiping God with images reveals an inward spirit which does not want to submit to God as he is, but which wants to pick and choose attributes in order to create a God who is palatable to us.
We may not have statues that we bow down to and worship, but we definitely have our human made ideologies that we try to fit God into.
How often do we hear someone comment on particular passages of Scripture with something like: “Well that was a different time and culture?”
We formulate God’s character to represent what we feel it should be. Isn’t that the exact opposite of us being transformed into the likeness of God?
And it even gets worse. Micah has a shrine in his house and he ordains on of his own sons to be priest.
The first problem is God set the tribe of Levi apart for priesthood. They weren’t even Levites. And if we think logically about ordination. Who actually ordains Levite priests?
Yes, only God can truly ordain a priest to oversee the sacrifices and ceremonies to honor Him. And that is leaving God’s objective morality for our own relative morality.
6 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
This can’t be a matter of fact statement. I’m not sure if the author didn’t have some intentional irony here. It was definitely a malicious comment.
You see, Israel did have a divine King. God was their King. They didn’t like all of God’s character so they chose to worship the parts they did like.
We do the same thing. We have churches that are even ordaining their own Pastors, Bishops, and Leaders. They ordain people who fit their own relative moralistic ideologies.
It might be extremely one way with gay or lesbian pastors and leaders. It may be extreme the other way with fully legalistic pastors and leaders.
It is also found everywhere in between where people ordain pastors and leaders who will tell them what they want to hear. Instead we should be looking for leaders and pastors who are truly called by God to speak His truth and only His truth.
It’s not always so easy to tell though is it? We find someone who interviews well. Preaches great sermons and maybe even starts off well. Then they go off the rails in any plethora of directions.
Some pastors are even willing to compromise their morals just to get hired or get experience. We see just that sort of Levite.
7 Now there was a young man of Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there.
8 And the man departed from the town of Bethlehem in Judah to sojourn where he could find a place. And as he journeyed, he came to the hill country of Ephraim to the house of Micah.
9 And Micah said to him, “Where do you come from?” And he said to him, “I am a Levite of Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to sojourn where I may find a place.”
10 And Micah said to him, “Stay with me, and be to me a father and a priest, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year and a suit of clothes and your living.” And the Levite went in.
11 And the Levite was content to dwell with the man, and the young man became to him like one of his sons.
12 And Micah ordained the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.
13 Then Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, because I have a Levite as priest.”
The Levite was a young man. By their traditions and God’s standards, he was too young to be ordained as a priest. He still needed a lot of spiritual growth before he was ready for ordination.
He was impatient and sought to be a levite wherever he could find work. He compromises objective morals in three ways when he accepts Micah’s offer.
First, he accepts 10 silver pieces a year to be Micah’s priest. Levites were not supposed to draw wages. They were supposed to survive off of the food offerings brought by those presenting sacrifices at their temple.
Second, he embraces idol worship instead of being the spiritual leader and rebuking Micah for idol worship.
Third, he accepts the ordination given by Micah. It was God who through the Levite tribe ordained Levite priests.
We see the same thing happening today in the church. How many pastors, especially young pastors who will accept a job anywhere just so they are working?
They will even discard objective morals for relative morals so they have a paycheck coming in. They will accept ordination from spiritually immature people instead of seeking out mature leaders to ensure their calling and their readiness.
The lack of discipleship caused Israel to not only embrace relative morals, but it also caused them to be a divided nation.
In chapter 18 we see an entire tribe of Israel that had lost itself and it’s way. The tribe of Dan.
1 In those days there was no king in Israel. And in those days the tribe of the people of Dan was seeking for itself an inheritance to dwell in, for until then no inheritance among the tribes of Israel had fallen to them.
2 So the people of Dan sent five able men from the whole number of their tribe, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land and to explore it. And they said to them, “Go and explore the land.” And they came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there.
Israel was so divided that the other tribes wouldn’t even help Dan conquer their inheritance. They were desperate for a place and desperate to receive God’s blessings.
Do you think we might have some churches today who have lost their way?
Some who are desperate to receive God’s blessings?
Dan wanted God’s blessings, but they were going about it all wrong. And the rest of Israel were so morally bankrupt they either refused to help or couldn’t help.
I think in many ways the entire church is in the same boat Israel was in. We all have our own places where we don’t want to accept God’s moral character.
We all have places where we choose to improvise with our own relative morality. We all look at places in Scripture and give well thought out, man made doctrinal reasons why that Scripture isn’t relevant for the church today.
And then there’s greed in Israel as well. We can especially see that in the tribe of Dan. After staying at Micah’s house they went to Laish and saw a very rich land and very rich people.
Not only were they and their land rich, they were all alone and very naive to any threat of being attacked. They urged the rest of their tribe to send an army to take their land and wealth.
But, taking the land and wealth from the people that wasn’t enough. On the way to Laish the 5 who stayed with Micah wanted to take Micah’s Idols and his Levite priest.
We’ll pick up in verse 14.
14 Then the five men who had gone to scout out the country of Laish said to their brothers, “Do you know that in these houses there are an ephod, household gods, a carved image, and a metal image? Now therefore consider what you will do.”
15 And they turned aside there and came to the house of the young Levite, at the home of Micah, and asked him about his welfare.
16 Now the 600 men of the Danites, armed with their weapons of war, stood by the entrance of the gate.
17 And the five men who had gone to scout out the land went up and entered and took the carved image, the ephod, the household gods, and the metal image, while the priest stood by the entrance of the gate with the 600 men armed with weapons of war.
18 And when these went into Micah’s house and took the carved image, the ephod, the household gods, and the metal image, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?”
19 And they said to him, “Keep quiet; put your hand on your mouth and come with us and be to us a father and a priest. Is it better for you to be priest to the house of one man, or to be priest to a tribe and clan in Israel?”
20 And the priest’s heart was glad. He took the ephod and the household gods and the carved image and went along with the people.
The Danites wanted to strengthen their relative moral religious beliefs and coveted Micah’s priest and idols. The Levite priest was more about fame and fortune than a true moral compass.
I’m sure none of us could possibly think of any “pastors” who might care more about fame and fortune than objective moral truth. Or Churches that care more about money and fame than objective truth. Or even their members for that matter.
The church today has far too many places of relative morality. Just like Israel going after other nations idols and gods, the church is letting societies ideological gods infiltrate the church.
This all stems from a severe lack of discipleship in the church. Just like Israel failed to teach their future generations how to experience God. The church has failed to teach it’s future generations how to experience God.
This is a primary reason where the division comes from in Israel and the church. Look at verses 22-26
22 When they had gone a distance from the home of Micah, the men who were in the houses near Micah’s house were called out, and they overtook the people of Dan.
23 And they shouted to the people of Dan, who turned around and said to Micah, “What is the matter with you, that you come with such a company?”
24 And he said, “You take my gods that I made and the priest, and go away, and what have I left? How then do you ask me, ‘What is the matter with you?’ ”
25 And the people of Dan said to him, “Do not let your voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows fall upon you, and you lose your life with the lives of your household.”
26 Then the people of Dan went their way. And when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his home.
They were so divided that they were actually ready to destroy each other. And over what?
It wasn’t true faith in God. It was relative truth. It was pride, greed, envy, and wrath that drove the divide.
Is the church any better?
We have a lot of pride, greed, envy, and wrath within the church today. The exact opposite of the fruit of the Spirit, right?
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
We point fingers. We blame the other churches who are allowing LGBTQ leadership. Who are preaching a prosperity gospel.
Who definitely are outside the will of God.
But what about the Pentecostal churches?
What about the Evangelical churches?
What about other Protestant churches that teach different than us?
What about other churches who have bigger attendance?
Are we prideful that we are teaching and preaching more objective truth?
Are we angry they teach things we don’t agree with?
Are we envious of the church that has more attendance, more money?
Do we covet what they have?
Are we greedy enough to try and proselytize other churches?
None of us can say we don’t at least feel some of these things.
Why are we any of these anyway?
We shouldn’t be angry at the churches who are allowing LGBTQ as leaders.
Before you get out the tar and feathers hear me out. Because they are not and will not bear any fruit. Anyone who is truly seeking will not stay in any of those churches.
We should be grateful they are attracting so many trouble makers away from our churches.
We shouldn’t be angry with other churches who teach differently than we do. Look carefully at the different ministries of the different churches.
You will notice their ministries each coincide with specific gifts of the Spirit from Corinthians.
We shouldn’t be envious about bigger churches or greedily try to Proselytize other churches.
We should all find a way to work together in ministry and find a way to use all of the gifts of the Spirit together in one big branching ministry.
We can only accomplish that if we can begin to actually disciple in a way that teaches how to experience God the Father.
Disciple through relationship and in ministry is how we begin to truly experience God the Father. When we fed more people than we had food for, did you experience God’s miraculous work through you?
It’s in those moments that the Holy Spirit prepares our souls for transformation. We grow in our faith and we begin to see God more clearly.
My prayer is that we will be able to work with all of the churches in combined ministry. Use all of the gifts of the Spirit together the way it was designed from the beginning.
Can you imagine the revival we could see?
Would you like to be a part of that?
