Daily Lesson for August 18, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Judges chapter 17 verses 1 through 13:

There was a man in the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah. 2He said to his mother, ‘The eleven hundred pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse, and even spoke it in my hearing—that silver is in my possession; I took it; but now I will return it to you.’* And his mother said, ‘May my son be blessed by the Lord!’ 3Then he returned the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother; and his mother said, ‘I consecrate the silver to the Lord from my hand for my son, to make an idol of cast metal.’ 4So when he returned the money to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver, and gave it to the silversmith, who made it into an idol of cast metal; and it was in the house of Micah.5This man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and teraphim, and installed one of his sons, who became his priest. 6In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes.

7 Now there was a young man of Bethlehem in Judah, of the clan of Judah. He was a Levite residing there. 8This man left the town of Bethlehem in Judah, to live wherever he could find a place. He came to the house of Micah in the hill country of Ephraim to carry on his work.* 9Micah said to him, ‘From where do you come?’ He replied, ‘I am a Levite of Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to live wherever I can find a place.’ 10Then 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, a set of clothes, and your living.’* 11The Levite agreed to stay with the man; and the young man became to him like one of his sons. 12So Micah installed the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah. 13Then Micah said, ‘Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, because the Levite has become my priest.’

Here we have a grave picture of the state of religion in a time of broader communal degeneration and corruption, summed up again and again in the book of Judges with a refrain which foreshadows an end and also a beginning:

“In those days there was no king; and everyone did as they saw fit in their own eyes.”

In other words, everyone just helped themselves.  And this man Micah reached hold of an unscrupulous priest to help him help himself. And then he had the gall to say it was the LORD who had prospered him. It wasn’t the LORD. It was larceny, and the lust for money and power. These were his real gods. 

This story comes as a warning. We live in a time when many are keen to do whatever they want in their own eyes.  And those with money enough can and surely do find priests who will bless anything for the right price. There’s always an Elmer Gantry just waiting to be ordained and ready to preach the Gospel of prosperity.

This story is indeed a warning. Religion for hire is willing to sell its own soul. Don’t buy it. And when you see it bought all throughout the country, from K Street to Main Street, and everyone is getting help from religion to simply help themselves, then know some kind of end is near.

That will be a good thing, scary and unsettling for us all, and also good — just like reform always is. 

May they who have ears let them hear.