Jan 13 Home Made Sin

Jan 13

Home Made Sin

Judges 17:1-6

Judges 17:6 In those days there was no king in Israel:

every man did that which was right in his own eyes

He came from somewhere deep in the mountains of Tennessee. I met him while in the Army. His dog tags said his first name was Smokey. His speech reflected the common sense wisdom of mountain folks and their way of speaking. When confronted with an especially stubborn person Smokey would say “He’s so stubborn he would argue with a sign post”.  The mental image of a guy arguing with a curve sign while  pointing in the opposite direction always made me smile.

One night the guys in the barracks asked him “How was your blind date, Smokey” his response has always amused me. He said “Man, she was uglier than homemade sin!”  Now I don’t know exactly what homemade sin is, but I understood what he meant.

Our verse for today is a little like Smokey’s answer. “Every man did that which was right in his own eyes”.  That sounds like a good definition of “homemade sin” and an explanation of what is wrong with Christianity today.

The structure of our verse is itself instructive. Of the 11 words in the phrase we are considering, 8 of them are very positive and only 3 are somewhat negative. “Every man did that which was right in” is a wonderful statement. But the addition of  “his own eyes” turns the entire phrase into a recipe for disaster. So while the parts of the phase are 80% good the whole phase is 100% bad.

That may be an explanation of what has happened to our Bible believing New Testament churches in the United States. In their parts they are 80% or more good. But churches who do what is right in their own eyes or more correctly, what is right in the eyes of our modern culture may have good intentions but they have a bad foundation. It is easy and popular to say our church is a Bible based New Testament church. But talking and walking are two different things and may explain why the church is having a minimal impact on our culture.

That is what was happening in the book of Judges. When Joshua and his generation died a new generation rose up and began to do evil.

Jg 2:12 And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers…

Surrounding nations began to invade and conquer the tribes of Israel who eventually would cry unto the Lord for deliverance. God would send a judge to deliver them, but once delivered they would go back to idolatry and forget what God had done and would be enslaved again by other nations. It didn’t happen overnight, but over the years they repeated that same pattern. Sin, servitude, suffering, supplication and restoration. Often the good times lasted until the judge died, and then they would leave serving God and return to the idols of other nations. According to Leon Wood in “Distressing days of the Judges” the time of the Judges lasted about 340 years, roughly from Joshua to David. It is the dual story of men’s hearts being evil and God being faithful and patient.

The last chapters of Judges are a good example of how deeply the culture was saturated with ungodly thinking. For today we will meditate on Judges 17:1-6. Here we find an abundance of “Homemade sin.”

A man named Micah stole silver from his mother. She put a curse on whoever took it, which must have bothered Micah, because he returned the silver and admitted he had taken it. Instead of anger she blessed him. She was so happy with her good son she took about 20% of the silver, gave it to a the local foundry man, who melted it and made idols for her. She gave the idols to her son’s collection of idols in his home made “House of gods”. He made his son a priest to serve in his house of gods. Here is a fine example of homemade religion and homemade sin.

This family violated several of the ten commandments as well as other prohibitions from scripture. He coveted his mother’s silver. (#10 Thou shalt not covet) He stole the silver. (#7 Thou shalt not steal) Thus Micah did not honor his mother. (#4 Honor your father and mother)  He would have lied to his mother about who took the silver. (#8 Thou shalt not bear false witness) . He only admitted his crime when she placed a curse on the thief. His mother had graven images made from the silver she had dedicated to the LORD

Jdges 17:3…his mother said, I had wholly dedicated

the silver unto the LORD from my hand for my son,

to make a graven image …

Her idea of worship was so messed up I don’t know what to say!

 He had an idol filled little ”home shrine”. But the proper place of worship should have been in Shiloh, where God had established His tabernacle. Needless to say it should not have been filled with idols.

Jg 18:31 And they set them up Micah's graven image, which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh.

Micah ordained his own son to be a priest.  But neither he nor his son were Levites. Micah was an Ephraimite.

Jg 17:1 ¶ And there was a man of

mount Ephraim, whose name was Micah.

   Warren Wiersbe commented on all their sins by saying “Breaking 7 of the 10 commandments without leaving home is quite an accomplishment.” Indeed this was homemade sin.

But the greatest evil they committed was mingling ungodly worship with their view of Jehovah. The mother’s response to learning her son was a thief was to bless him.

And his mother said, Blessed be thou of the LORD, my son.

Micah's kind of home made religion was as messed up as his mother's. Micah hired a real Levite (Judges 17:10) to serve as priest in his homemade shrine and thought he had done Jehovah a favor. 

Jg 17:13 Then said Micah, Now know I that the LORD will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest.

For our meditation let us consider if the sins of that time are being repeated in our Christian homes.

In Micah’s family the child stole from parents, lied about it, when caught was not punished but blessed. His mother encouraged his idolatry by buying him expensive toys (idols). She was probably proud of her grandson when he was made a priest in their little home chapel. And all the time they expected God would bless them for their faithfulness.

It is obvious to us that Micah’s family had a corrupted, ungodly and wholly unacceptable form of worship. It is not so obvious to us today when we use worldly methods and ungodly philosophy in our worship and expect God to bless us. May God help us see ourselves as He sees us!

Jos 1:8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

 

Jos 1:8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.