A Self Styled Faith

INTRO:

Judges will be a book that shows us many times what happens when one does not follow God. Every Church, every nation, every family, is one generation away from failure. This is the warning and the main premise of the Book of Judges.

PLEASE STAND FOR THE READING OF GOD’S WORD

The New King James Version Chapter 17

17 Now there was a man from the mountains of Ephraim, whose name was

PRAY!

The key verse in this passage is v.6

If your reading along in your bibles highlight verse 6

Judges 17:6 “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

The Israelites had fallen into a predictable pattern:

F.O.R.D Cycle

Basic pattern of Judges starts in 3:7-11

FORD cycle Forsake God The people turn away from God

Oppress God’s anger leads them to be oppressed by an enemy

Repent The Israelites cry to God

Deliver God raises up someone to deliver the Israelites

I want to set up the scene here.

We have a grown man, Micah who lives with his mom and at least 1 of his sons, also lives there. Micah had stolen a significant amount of silver from his mom, 1100 shekels of silver was about 3.5 months of worth of employment pay.

Watch how fast corruption and Godlessness occurs:

Judges 2:10 “When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel.”

1 Generation, just 1. That’s all it took for them to forget about their true God that their fathers served.

Judges 2:11–12 “Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals; and they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked the Lord to anger.”

Lessons from Micah:

Kids watch their parents

Just know this one thing Mom and Dad… Your kids are watching you and picking up stuff like a sponge

The belief systems of Micah’s mom spilled over to Micah. She was trying to mix two completely different religions, Idol worship (demonic) and worship of Yahweh the true God of Israel

The uttered curse:

Judges 17:1–2 “Now there was a man from the mountains of Ephraim, whose name was Micah. And he said to his mother, “The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you, and on which you put a curse, even saying it in my ears—here is the silver with me; I took it.” And his mother said, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my son!”

Micah was afraid of the “uttered” curse of his mother and traded that curse to a curse from God

Look at this:

Deuteronomy 27:15 “Cursed is the one who makes a carved or molded image, an abomination to the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.”

Oh Micah! Talk about jumping from the frying pan to the fire.

Micah and his mother were both guilty of the first 2 of the 10 commandments right off the bat

Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.”

Exodus 20:4 ““You shall not make for yourself a carved image—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;”

Exodus 20:23 “You shall not make anything to be with Me—gods of silver or gods of gold you shall not make for yourselves.”

2. Nothing Good Happens When Left To Our Own Devices

Judges 17:6 “In those days, everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

God help us, when we think we know what’s best for ourselves we will mess it up.

Proverbs 3:5–6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.”

God always wanted the Israelites to follow Him and put their trust in Him alone and He would be their God

That was the original covenant He made with Abraham back in Genesis:

Genesis 17:7 “And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.”

Jeremiah 7:23 “But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.’”

3. Don’t Let Idols Into Your House

Judges 17:4 “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.”

Dear Lord, be careful of what you allow into your house!

Anything that you put before God is an Idol

Kids? spouse? boyfriends/girlfriends? drugs or alcohol ? social media? Tv? Take inventory and give an honest look at your household.

Anything in our lives that takes the place of God and commands the sacrifice and devotion that belong only to Him, is an idol and must be cast out. Idols in the heart are far more dangerous than idols in the temple.

Warren W. Wiersbe

4. Don’t Try To Legitimize And Justify Your Sin

The Israelites had not abandoned worship of God for idols. They had combined the worship of God with idols.

Judges 17:13 “Then Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will be good to me, since I have a Levite as priest!”

See what Micah is doing here? He thinks that because he made a levite his personal priest surely God would be ok with all this

The Levite...

Several significant biblical figures were from the Tribe of Levi, including:

Moses: The leader of the Israelites during the Exodus.

Aaron: The first High Priest of Israel.

Samuel: A prophet and judge of Israel.

In the Book of Numbers the Levites were charged with ministering and keeping watch over the Tabernacle, they were the custodians of the Tabernacle and later the Temple, they were central to the worship and religious instruction of the nation

Kind of like when you go to church on Sunday morning, God will surely be ok with what were doing Monday - Saturday. That is twisted.

Enter the entire tribe of Dan

Now you’ll see an entire tribe of Israel get caught up in the idol worship that started with 1 man and his mama

The Danites..

Judges 18:1 “In those days there was no king in Israel. And in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking an inheritance for itself to dwell in; for until that day their inheritance among the tribes of Israel had not fallen to them.”

They gave up.. They didn’t have faith in what that God would Himself help them to be able to lay claim of their portion of Canaan. They didn’t believe they could conquer the inhabitants.

The Danites had already been given land from God Himself

The tribe of Dan was allocated a portion of land in the southwestern part of Canaan, bordering the Philistine territory (Joshua 19:40-48). 

Judges 18:11 “And six hundred men of the family of the Danites went from there, from Zorah and Eshtaol, armed with weapons of war.”

Skip to verse 13.

Judges 18:13 “And they passed from there to the mountains of Ephraim, and came to the house of Micah.”

oh boy..

The New King James Version Chapter 18

16 The six hundred men armed with their weapons of war, who were of the children of Dan, stood by the entrance of the gate. 17 Then the five men who had gone to spy out the land went up. Entering there, they took the carved image, the ephod, the household idols, and the molded image.

Even Micah’s priest jumped ship when they offered him a better deal

Judges 18:19–20 “And they said to him, “Be quiet, put your hand over your mouth, and come with us; be a father and a priest to us. Is it better for you to be a priest to the household of one man, or that you be a priest to a tribe and a family in Israel?” So the priest’s heart was glad; and he took the ephod, the household idols, and the carved image, and took his place among the people.”

So there it is, from Micah to an entire people group. It spread like a wildfire. Acceptance and tolerance of sin will cause it to spread like a wildfire

Later in the chapter were told the Danites went to a place called Laish and attacked a peaceful people and stole their land for their own, in total disregard for Yaweh who had already given them their allotment of Canaan

They renamed Laish to the city of Dan and it became a center for idol worship, particularly during the reign of Jeroboam I, who set up a golden calf there (1 Kings 12:28-30).

What a shame.

 None of the characters of the story was honorable. Micah was a thief. The Levite was greedy. The Danites were freebooters.

 Additionally, the tribe is notably absent from the list of the 144,000 sealed from the tribes of Israel in Revelation 7

Our last lesson is this:

5. It Always Starts With Just A Small Compromise

One man’s sin affected many people for many generations. Sin is like a leaven. “A little leaven leavens the whole lump” (Galatians 5:9).

Galatians 5:9 “A little leaven leavens the whole lump.”

Proverbs 16:25 “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.”

CALL UP WORSHIP!

IN CLOSING:

We Are Doing The Same Thing In 2025

Society in 2025 Is Doing The Exact Same Thing Micah Was Doing Thousands Of Years Ago

We’re trying to add and subtract to make a faith that fits what we want.

I want to ask you just 1 question before we leave today..

What’s In Your House?

PRAY!