Micah’s Priest

BY Natalie Runion

My family used to vacation in small mountain towns where we would move from shop to shop looking for souvenirs. Every year, without fail, my little sister asked if she could buy a lucky rabbit foot keychain dyed in the most delightful, little-girl colors. Every year the answer was the same. No.

In Judges 17 we meet Micah and his mother who had a complicated relationship living in a time without a king. Micah had stolen silver from his own mom, but fearful of his mother’s curses upon him, he confessed to stealing the silver. Together they agreed to make an idol out of it, introducing idolatry to their household. It was a direct revolt against God, “Do not bow in worship to them, and do not serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me” (Exodus 20:5).

In his own pride, Micah said, “Now I know that the LORD will be good to me” believing God would show him favor because Micah made his own son a priest over the idols (Judges 17:13). When a young Levite stumbled into Micah’s home and agreed to be Micah’s priest, Micah believed it was a blessing from God.  

Although rubbing a lucky rabbit foot snuck may seem like a silly superstition, we all have habits, ideas, and identities that need to be pried from our hands by our God who loves us too much to let us bow to anything or anyone other than Him.

Exodus 20:6 promises that God will show “faithful love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commands,” and you and I now benefit from that very love. God fulfilled His promise in bringing us a Savior in Jesus who would carry every weight of our sin and shame and take away the need of a substance, person, or object to provide for us.  

Thank you, God, for Your Word and for the book of Judges to remind us that we don’t need luck or good fortune when we have You. May we know, “we are God’s offspring, we shouldn’t think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image fashioned by human art and imagination” (Acts 17:29). We have a King, it is You.  

All Hail King Jesus.