Sermon Tone Analysis

Text:

Creating God in Your Own Image

Text:

Theme: These chapters tell us the story of men who want to worship God on their own terms

Theme: These chapters tell us the story of men who want to worship God on their own terms

In some ways, the end of Samson is the end of the Judges story.

He is the last judge, and his death appears to be the last chronological event in the book.

But there are four more chapters at the end of Judges!

These last chapters of Judges are a departure from the earlier narrative structure.

The earlier passages give us a bird’s-eye view of things, only saying that the people “did evil in the eyes of the LORD.”

These next chapters give us a ground-level, detailed view of what life was like in Israel during those times, and consists of two episodes: Micah and the Danites (chpt.

17-18), and Israel’s war against the Tribe of Benjamin (chpt.

19-21).

Chapters 1-16 showed us how God rescued Israel, but in these last four chapters we are given two case studies of the kind of spiritual condition he rescued them from.

It’s not pretty.

They show us just how far men can sink into depravity when left to their own resources.

This view of humanity without God is so bleak that these passages are almost never preached upon or even studied.

In some ways, the end of Samson is the end of the Judges story.

He is the last judge, and his death appears to be the last chronological event in the book.

But there are four more chapters at the end of Judges!

These last chapters of Judges are a departure from the earlier narrative structure.

The earlier passages give us a bird’s-eye view of things, only saying that the people “did evil in the eyes of the LORD.”

These next chapters give us a ground-level, detailed view of what life was like in Israel during those times, and consists of two episodes: Micah and the Danites (chpt.

17-18), and Israel’s war against the Tribe of Benjamin (chpt.

19-21).

Chapters 1-16 showed us how God rescued Israel, but in these last four chapters we are given two case studies of the kind of spiritual condition he rescued them from.

It’s not pretty.

They show us just how far men can sink into depravity when left to their own resources.

This view of humanity without God is so bleak that these passages are almost never preached upon or even studied.

Our focus for this evening is on the sad story of Creating God in Our Own Image.

This has been the great temptation since the Garden of Eden.

God, Creator of the Universe, has revealed Himself in the pages of Scriptures, yet, for some reason, men give only lip-service to Him, and choose to re-fashion God into a deity of their liking.

This is why, centuries later, Jesus would tell a woman he meets at Jacob’s Well, “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.”

(, NIV84).

The kind of worshipers God seeks are those who will worship the Father as He has revealed himself, and not for as we would like Him to be.

First Micah, then Jonathan, son of Gershom, then the Danites all worship a God of their own ultimate creation.

The outline of the text is pretty obvious ...

The Failure of a Family (17:1-6)

• The Perversion of the Priesthood (17:7-13)

The Perversion of the Priesthood (17:7-13)

• The Corruption of the Clan of Dan (18:1-31)

The Corruption of the Clan of Dan (18:1-31)

I. THE FAILURE OF A FAMILY

“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 a carved image and a cast idol.

I will give it back to you.” 4 So he returned the silver to his mother, and she took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to a silversmith, who made them into the image and the idol.

And they were put in Micah’s house.

5 Now this man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and some idols and installed one of his sons as his priest.

6 In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.” (, NIV84)

1. much of chapters 17 and 18 revolves around Micah, a man “from the hill country of Ephraim” (17:1)

Ephraim” (17:1)

a. the hill country of Ephraim is the mountainous area of central Israel

1) in the time of the Judges the hills were densely wooded, and were intersected by well-watered, fertile valleys

well-watered, fertile valleys

2) the area would have been similar to our own Missouri Ozarks

2. chapter 17 begins with the theft of 1,100 shekels of silver by Micah from his mother

a. that’s almost thirty pounds of silver and was the proverbial “small fortune”

1) though it’s hard to know for sure, this amount would have equaled virtually a life’s savings

life’s savings

b. it implies that this family was rather well off

c. it also tells us something about Micah’s character — every culture in the world would consider stealing your own mother’s life-savings pretty low-down

would consider stealing your own mother’s life-savings pretty low-down

3. we enter the story in mid-confession of the thief

a. having heard his mother call down a curse on the robber, Micah confessed the theft (v 2) and returned the money (v 3)

(v 2) and returned the money (v 3)

b.

Micah is neither a very good, nor a very bad, person

1) if he were thoroughly evil, he would not have given the money back

2) but, of course, if he were a good person, he wouldn’t have taken it!

a) and what seems to have prompted him to return the money is that he “heard [his mother] utter a curse” rather than feeling any pangs of conscience

[his mother] utter a curse” rather than feeling any pangs of conscience

c. we have pictured for us a person of very weak character, with no principles

1) he is hollow — a man without very much substance within

4. his mother’s response is rather astonishing

a. her son’s confession to the theft led his mother to switch from a curse to a blessing, which she followed up with a pious intention: “I solemnly consecrate my silver to the LORD for my son to make a carved image and a cast idol.”

(v.

3).

which she followed up with a pious intention: “I solemnly consecrate my silver to the LORD for my son to make a carved image and a cast idol.”

(v.

3).

A. A HOME FULL OF SPIRITUAL CONFUSION

A. A HOME FULL OF SPIRITUAL CONFUSION

1. Micah’s mother is very orthodox in invoking the LORD’s name to consecrate her wealth to the Lord (v 2) (would that all true believers do so!)

wealth to the Lord (v 2) (would that all true believers do so!)

a. this family does not worship Dagon, the Baals, the Ashtoreths and so on

b. they are worshiping the LORD in name

2. Micah's mother is very idolatrous in instructing her son to make an image overlaid with silver (v. 3)

silver (v. 3)

a. this is startling; it shows a blatant disregard for the second commandment (Exodus 20:4–5), where God says no one should make an image of him

20:4–5), where God says no one should make an image of him

b.

He must not be worshiped in a form created and shaped by man

3. Micah goes to the local silversmith and has him fashion an idol out of the silver, and then creates a shrine in his home for the idol

then creates a shrine in his home for the idol

ILLUS.

Archaeologists have found these kinds of house-hold shrines in several digs throughout the nation of Israel.

The shrines are generally made out of clay.

There are box-shaped with a facade that looks like the entrance to a temple.

The idols are generally carved from wood and then overlaid with precious metal, and are in the form of a calf, (does that sound all too familiar?)