micah's false confidence.
Judg. xvii. 13. Then said Micah, Now knoio I that the Lord ivill do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest.
IN the history before us we see the commencement of that defection to idolatry, which at no distant period prevailed throughout all the tribes of Israel. The account in point of time precedes the reign of the Judges; for it occurred whilst Phinehas, the grand- son of Aaron, was the high-priest, and consequently soon after the death of Joshua ^ And, as being the first step of Israel's departure from God, it is related more circumstantially than its intrinsic importance seems otherwise to have deserved.
Micah was of the tribe of Ephraim. He had stolen from his mother a large sum of money which she had amassed : but from a dread of the curses which she had imprecated on the head of the guilty person, he had confessed his crime, and restored the money. She, pleased with the repentance of her son, would have given him the money: but he persisting in the refusal of it, she gave two hundred shekels of silver out of the eleven hundred which she had recovered, to form a graven image and a molten image ; which she gave to her son, that he might have them to consult on all occasions. He on his part appropriated to them an apartment of his house for a temple, and consecrated his son to be a priest, to officiate before them with an ephod, which was made for his use^ But a Levite, who wanted employment, coming that way, Micah engaged him to minister before the idols ; and concluded, that now he could not fail of being happy, since he had a duly authorized person for his priest.
Just at that time the Danites, who had not yet gained possession of all the land that had been as signed them, determined to go up to Laish, and seize it for their inheritance. But previous to their attack upon the inhabitants, they sent forth spies to search out the state of the people, in order that they might the better judge what force to send against them, and what prospect there was of ultimate success. These spies coming to Mount Ephraim, where Micah lived, desired him to consult God through the medium
" Judc;. XX. 28. ^ ver. 2 — 5.
276.1 micah's false confidence. 79
of his idols ; and received from him an encouraging reply. The report of the spies being favourable, six hundred Danites went forth upon the expedition; and coming to the house of Micah in their way, robbed him of his idols, and bribed his priest to accompany them, and to minister to them, as he had done to Micah. After they had succeeded in destroying the inhabitants of Laish, and in taking possession of their land, they set up these idols for their gods, and thus estabhshed idolatry, which in process of time spread over the whole land.
But it is not of idolatry in general that we propose to speak, but only of that particular modification of it which Micah estabhshed, and of the confidence which he expressed, when his newly-invented religion was made to bear some faint resemblance to the Mosaic ritual. This so exactly represents the false confidences to which ungodly men of every age resort, that we shall find it a very profitable subject for our present consideration.
We take occasion then from our text to notice,
I. The false confidences of ungodly men —
The worship established by Micah was a mixture of heathenism and of the Jewish ritual : it was heathenism, as far as it had respect to idols; and it was Judaism, as far as the use of an ephod and the ministration of a Levite were concerned. But, faint as its resemblance was to any thing authorized by God, it was sufficient in Micah's judgment to justify a most assured confidence in the divine favour.