“Then Micah said to him, “Live with me and be my father and priest, and I’ll give you ten shekels of silver a year, your clothes and your food.”” (Judges 17:10)
This week in our nice little stroll through the book of Judges, we’ll meet Micah. He’s like a lot of American Christians. He loves God, but Micah decides how he will follow God. He has created what I call DIY Religion: He picks and chooses what he believes and doesn’t, what he obeys and won’t. He makes himself a silver idol and shrine and opens up shop.
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hen he hires himself a priest for 10 Shekels and a shirt. Micah then says to himself: “…Now I know that the Lord will be good to me, since this Levite has become my priest (Judges 17:13).”
This is beginning to look like a real American church, isn’t it? You’ve got a greedy, self-serving pastor who’s main goal is keeping the self-serving man with the checkbook happy! Their worship consists of God “being good” to them. “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear (2 Timothy 4:3).”
When our goal as Christians devolves to “the Lord will be good to me,” it is no longer true worship. We have become just as idolatrous as Micah and his priest. We have cast God in our image and are no longer worshiping a true representation of him.
Is that you? Here’s a quick test to see. Think about your relationship with God. If you and God never disagree, there’s a problem. You may be worshiping an idol created in your own image.
I hope you’ll join us Sunday for my message “A Nation in Free Fall” from Judges 17-18. See you then!
