DIY Religion and its Discontents Text: Judges 17:1-6
Introduction: The Anarchy of the Heart
The book of Judges is a hard book. It is a book of spirals, a downward vortex of apostasy, violence, and confusion. And just when you think it cannot get any worse, you come to the final five chapters, which are a sort of appendix to the whole sorry affair. These chapters are not about a particular judge or a foreign oppression. They are an inside look at the spiritual rot that had set in within Israel itself. The refrain that brackets this section is our key: "In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes."
This is not a political commentary in the first instance. The problem was not primarily the lack of a human monarch. The problem was that Israel had rejected their true King, Yahweh Himself. And when the transcendent King is rejected, every man becomes his own king. Every man becomes his own pope. Every man becomes his own god, defining good and evil for himself. This is the very essence of the sin in the Garden. "You will be like God." The result is not liberation, but a slide into the most grotesque forms of bondage. When every man does what is right in his own eyes, the result is that everyone does what is wicked in God's eyes.
This story of Micah is a case study in this very principle. It is a story of domestic idolatry, of do-it-yourself religion. It is a picture of a family that has not abandoned the vocabulary of Yahweh, but has utterly abandoned His authority. They want a god, but they want one they can manage, one they can make, one they can hire, and one they can put in a shrine in their house. They are a perfect picture of what happens when the fear of God is replaced by a sentimental, self-serving piety. They are sincere, no doubt. But they are sincerely wrong. And in the spiritual realm, sincerity is no substitute for truth.
This is not some dusty, ancient history. We are swimming in the age of Micah. We live in a culture where people assemble their spirituality like a playlist, a little of this, a little of that, whatever "works for me." They want Jesus, but not the Lordship. They want the blessings of Yahweh, but on their own terms, through their own self-made idols and priests. This passage is a stark warning. It shows us that the road to full-blown apostasy is paved with what looks like piety. It begins not in a pagan temple, but in a religious home.
The Text
Now there was a man of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah. He said to his mother, "The 1,100 pieces of silver which were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse and spoke of it in my hearing, behold, the silver is with me; it was I who took it." And his mother said, "Blessed be my son by Yahweh." And he then returned the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, "I wholly set apart the silver from my hand as holy to Yahweh for my son to make a graven image and a molten image; so now I will return them to you." So he returned the silver to his mother, and his mother took 200 pieces of silver and gave them to the silversmith. And he made them into a graven image and a molten image, and they were in the house of Micah. And the man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and household idols and ordained one of his sons, and he became his priest. In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.
(Judges 17:1-6 LSB)
Theft, Curses, and Sentimental Blessings (v. 1-2)
The story begins with a domestic dispute that reveals a profound spiritual sickness.
"Now there was a man of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah. He said to his mother, 'The 1,100 pieces of silver which were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse and spoke of it in my hearing, behold, the silver is with me; it was I who took it.' And his mother said, 'Blessed be my son by Yahweh.'" (Judges 17:1-2)
We are introduced to Micah, a man from Ephraim. This is significant. Ephraim was a leading tribe, and Shiloh, where the Tabernacle of God stood, was in Ephraim. This family was not living in some remote, pagan backwater. They were living in the religious heartland of Israel. The light of God's revealed will was just down the road, but they preferred the darkness of their own home.
The first thing we learn about Micah is that he is a thief. He stole a massive sum of money from his own mother. The amount, 1,100 pieces of silver, is the same amount each Philistine lord offered Delilah to betray Samson. It is a fortune. But Micah is not motivated by repentance. He is motivated by fear. He heard his mother pronounce a curse on the thief. This is not the fear of God; it is raw superstition. He is afraid of the magical power of his mother's words, so he confesses. "It was I who took it."
And what is the mother's response? Does she rebuke him for breaking the eighth commandment? Does she call him to repentance? No. Her response is a nauseatingly sentimental piety. "Blessed be my son by Yahweh." The curse is instantly forgotten, the sin is papered over, and the name of Yahweh is invoked to bless the whole sordid affair. This is a family where sin is not dealt with; it is managed. The confession is not about cleansing the soul, but about dodging a curse. The blessing is not about reconciliation with God, but about restoring a comfortable family dynamic. They use God's name, but it is an empty incantation, stripped of all moral and theological weight.
Consecrated Idolatry (v. 3-4)
What happens next is even more revealing. The mother decides to put this ill-gotten money to religious use.
"And he then returned the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, 'I wholly set apart the silver from my hand as holy to Yahweh for my son to make a graven image and a molten image; so now I will return them to you.' So he returned the silver to his mother, and his mother took 200 pieces of silver and gave them to the silversmith. And he made them into a graven image and a molten image, and they were in the house of Micah." (Judges 17:3-4 LSB)
This is syncretism of the highest order. She dedicates the silver to Yahweh in order to break the second commandment. It is like saying, "I dedicate this adultery to the Lord to celebrate the sanctity of marriage." It is a complete contradiction. She uses the language of holiness, "set apart," "holy to Yahweh," but the purpose is profane. She wants to worship Yahweh through an image, which is precisely what God forbade at Sinai. This is the sin of the golden calf all over again, but this time it is not a national apostasy at the foot of the mountain, but a quiet, domestic one in the hill country.
She claims to dedicate the whole amount, 1,100 pieces, but then only gives 200 to the silversmith. This is the way of all cheap religion. It makes grand pronouncements but cuts corners in the execution. And the result is a set of man-made gods. A graven image and a molten image. These are not rivals to Yahweh in their minds; they are aids to worshipping Yahweh. They think they are honoring God, but they are insulting Him. They are reducing the transcendent, invisible Creator to a lump of metal they can control, a god they can see and touch and keep in the house. God commanded that He be worshipped in the way He prescribed. Any other form of worship is idolatry, no matter how sincerely it is offered.
The Homebrewed Priesthood (v. 5)
Having made his gods, Micah now needs a place and a person to officiate over them.
"And the man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and household idols and ordained one of his sons, and he became his priest." (Judges 17:5 LSB)
The apostasy deepens. First, he builds a "shrine," a "house of gods." He is establishing a rival worship center to the one God established at Shiloh. This is an act of high rebellion. Then he furnishes it. He makes an ephod. The ephod was a specific, holy garment worn by the high priest when inquiring of the Lord. Micah makes his own, turning a sacred vestment into a prop for his idolatrous worship. He also makes "household idols," or teraphim, which were used for divination. He is not just violating the second commandment now; he is dabbling in pagan sorcery.
And finally, the crowning absurdity: he ordains his own son as a priest. The priesthood was established by God, restricted to the tribe of Levi and the line of Aaron. For an Ephraimite to declare his son a priest was a sacrilegious outrage. It was a complete usurpation of God's authority. Micah has now created a full-service religious system of his own making. He has his own gods, his own temple, his own religious paraphernalia, and his own priesthood. It is a religion of convenience, tailored to his own preferences. He has become the founder and sole proprietor of the "Church of What's Happening Now."
The Root of the Rot (v. 6)
The inspired author concludes this section with a divine diagnosis of the problem.
"In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes." (Judges 17:6 LSB)
This is the key that unlocks the entire narrative. The chaos we see in Micah's house is a direct result of a theological and political reality. Israel had rejected God as their king. When the ultimate authority is dethroned, all lesser authorities become unstable. The result is not true freedom, but radical, self-destructive autonomy. Every man becomes his own legislator, his own judge, his own king.
Notice the connection. When there is no king, every man does what is right in his own eyes. And what does that look like? It looks like Micah. It looks like a man who thinks stealing from his mother can be fixed with a superstitious blessing. It looks like a woman who thinks you can honor God by making an idol. It looks like a family that thinks they can invent their own priesthood. This is what happens when objective, revealed truth is abandoned for subjective, personal feeling. It is the enthronement of the self.
This verse is not a nostalgic call for a human monarchy. The book of Samuel will show us that getting a human king was no magic bullet. The problem is deeper. The problem is the rejection of the Divine King. When a people cast off the lordship of Jesus Christ, the inevitable result is anarchy. It may be a polite, suburban anarchy like Micah's, or it may be the brutal, violent anarchy we will see later in Judges, but it is anarchy nonetheless. When God's law is not the standard, then every man's opinion becomes the standard, which is to say, there is no standard at all.
Conclusion: The Only True King
The story of Micah is a pathetic and tragic story. But it is our story. We are all born with a little shrine in our hearts, and we are constantly tempted to furnish it with idols of our own making. We want a manageable god, a comfortable religion, a spirituality that makes us feel good but makes no demands on us. We want to do what is right in our own eyes.
But there is a King in Israel. His name is Jesus. He is the one to whom all authority in heaven and on earth has been given. He does not call us to invent our own worship, but to submit to His Word. He does not call us to ordain our own priests, because He is our great High Priest, once for all. He does not call us to make our own gods, because He is the perfect image of the invisible God.
The story of Micah shows us the dead end of all man-made religion. It is a religion that starts with theft and ends in chaos. It is a religion that blesses sin and consecrates idolatry. It is a religion where every man is his own king, and therefore every man is his own slave.
The gospel is the announcement that the true King has come. He did not come to bless our sentimental pieties, but to shatter our idols. He came to dethrone the king of Self that reigns in every human heart. He did this by becoming a curse for us on the cross, taking the penalty for our idolatry and our rebellion. He calls us to turn from doing what is right in our own eyes and to joyfully submit to what is right in His eyes. For in His kingdom, and only in His kingdom, is there true liberty.