the Fourth Week after Easter
Click here to join the effort!
Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 2 of 5
Judges 17:1-13
Here we meet a sad family, very different from Manoah’s. The son steals, the mother swears with curses, then with the same mouth (see James 3:10) she blesses her son instead of making him realise the seriousness of his offence. Finally she has graven images made for him. The law which forbade these practices is thus completely disregarded although the name of the LORD is among this woman’s words. "This people . . . honoureth me with their lips," the Lord Jesus said, "but their heart is far from me" (Matthew 15:8; Isaiah 29:13; Isaiah 46:6). What a warning this is for each one of us! Naming the name of the LORD requires us to depart from evil (2 Timothy 2:19). Calling Jesus our Lord means that we recognise His authority. Here, on the contrary, everyone does what is good in his own eyes. This is so with Micah, his mother and also this young Levite from Bethlehem, whom Micah sets up as a priest, consecrating him when he had no right so to do. Alas! this young man is even a descendant of Moses (Judges 18:30). Moses was the one who had brought in the law, destroyed the golden calf and taught the people the wonderful song in Deuteronomy 32. What would he have thought if he had seen his own grandson becoming the priest of a graven image?
