Today’s passage is Judges 17. Micah steals silver and then returns it to his mother who gives it back to him to make idols, which he does, adding them to the ephod and other idols he has in his own shrine, which he told one of his sons to be priest of until a wandering Levite showed up and accepted the position.
Why does Micah steal from his mother?
Why does he make his own shrine full of idols?
Why does the Levite leave Bethlehem?
In today’s passage we see the moral meandering of Micah, doing what he saw fit because he’d lost his way.
He worshipped the Lord but he also worshipped idols of his own making from silver he’d stolen from his mother.
He had a real priest from the tribe of Levi, but the priest himself is not attached to a temple and performs rites to Micah’s idols.
Micah thinks God will be good to him because he’s got his own Levite.
What a muddle!
During this weekend, my wife and I have been able to spend time together and we found ourselves reflecting on our past lives where we mostly did as we saw fit, wasting a lot of energy in pursuing personal agendas that ended in emptiness and unhappiness until God sent us to Wooridle Church.
During my high school days and early university days, I did as I saw fit, saving money to go wandering like the Levite.
I hitchhiked around Europe after high school graduation.
I thought I’d like to be a poet and live a bohemian life.
In Europe I was invited by a couple to do exactly that, to live in Greece and make leather crafts to sell to the tourists while writing lots of poetry.
I didn’t go because I wanted to go back to my girlfriend.
Two years later I was back in Europe, this time with my girlfriend and a motorcycle and the same big plan of leading a bohemian life.
It didn’t work. We went back to Canada and broke up.
Doing as I saw fit meant a lot of wasted energy and money for a lot of nothing.
I was blessed with having everything taken away from me in my 50s and then reduced to poor paying jobs that severely limited what I could do.
I couldn’t take trips to Europe anymore.
Within those limits I still did what I saw fit, however.
I used my free time the way I wanted.
I chose the books I wanted to read.
I chose what to drink and what to eat.
From the vantage point of a busy Wooridle worship life, I saw the reason for my wasted, unhappy life, even after I met Jesus.
The reason was simple:
I did what I saw fit instead of asking God what I ought to be doing. I didn’t ask God.
I just asked myself.
My life lens was so out of focus that I couldn’t see beyond my own desire.
God made me for a purpose, but I didn’t sincerely ask him and keep on asking until I had a clear direction. I did as I saw fit.
God made the universe, the world and everything in it as a sign pointing to him.
All of creation has the purpose of pointing to God and the eternal world beyond this limited one.
I thought my deep longings for friendship, community, beauty and truth were for me to do as I saw fit instead of seeing them as God’s voice in me, calling me to him in order to do as he saw fit.
I recognize Micah as myself.
He knows who God is but he still wants to make his own little church and put his idols there beside the ephod, the emblem of service to God.
I know who God is#8212;my sovereign Lord and my savior#8212;but I still want to do as I see fit too often.
I don’t ask God sincerely for his will to be done in my life often enough.
Without QT, I don’t know if I’d do it at all.
When I do ask and hear what he wants, I still resist doing it.
Every day I make a to-do list. If I don’t, then my day is a mess.
But how many of the items on the list are me doing what I see fit?
If God was truly the King of my life, wouldn’t I pray before I made the to-do list, sincerely seeking the inspiration of his Spirit so that my day’s activities would fulfill his will not mine?
Application: to pray for God’s inspiration and guidance in planning my day, not doing as I see fit, either as my own desire or the reaction to others’ demands.
Lord, let me remember that you are my king and my life is yours to command, not mine to do as I see fit.
