Judges 17 Micah’s idols

An Ephraimite named Micah steals 28 pounds of silver from his mother.  Frightened when he overhears her curse the thief, he returns it.  The mother dedicates the silver “to the Lord” to be made into an idol!

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. 5 The man Micah had a shrine, and made an ephod and household idols; and he consecrated 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.

Micah sets up the idol in the family shrine, and makes one of his sons a priest.  Later he enlists a young Levite as priest, thrilled because he thinks “the Lord will be good to me, since this Levite has become my priest.”

So Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and lived in the house of Micah. 13 Then Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will be good to me, since I have a Levite as priest!”

The story illustrates the utter corruption of Israel’s faith by the religious views of the Canaanites.  Under the law 1) idols were forbidden, 2) only the family of Aaron was to serve in the priesthood, 3) sacrifices could be made only at the tabernacle, 4) the Levites were to teach the law, not violate it, and 5) blessing comes from obedience, not ritual observance.