Week 13

Here we are ending week 13. I sincerely hope to get back on track of posting at the beginning of the weeks rather than the ending of them. As has been common for the last several weeks, life has been quite busy as well as dealing with spiritual battles.


Topic of Interest

* Last week we saw that Rahab, the Canaanite prostitute, was in the lineage of Jesus. Salmon married Rahab and gave birth to Boaz. The same Boaz that we see marry Ruth, the Moabitess in this week's passage. Ruth is the great-grandmother of King David.

* We also see mention of Tamar in Ruth 4:12. We encountered Tamar in Genesis 38. Judah's two sons married her and died, and he withheld his third son from her. She in turn pretended to be a shrine prostitute and conceived a child by Judah, her father in law. Tamar is the another woman listed in the lineage of Jesus in Matthew 1, and ancestor of King David.


Point to consider:


There was SO much in this weeks passage to be able to write about, it was hard to decide and settle on one thing, particularly in the limited time I had. But I chose to write a quick piece regarding Micah of the mountains of Ephraim.

We have read often that during this time, there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. God intended for Himself to lead the nation. He would be God to them, and they would be His people. But we've seen how quickly the Israelites turned away to follow their own desires. Micah was no different.

So I ask the question: Is believing there is a God enough?

The story begins with Micah confessing to his mother that he took a large sum of money from her. He stole it in fact.

# Micah sinned in coveting what his mother owned
# Micah sinned by stealing from her.

His mother had issued a curse on the person who took it, not knowing it was her own son. Upon his confession, she then attempted to bless him, a thief, in the Lord's name. So, we see from this that they believed in God - in His existence. We can also see they did not follow Him.

As a reward to Micah for his bringing her money back to her, she gave him a large portion of it to make idols: one carved overlaid with silver, one molded of solid silver. He then made a shrine, an ephod, and consecrated one of his sons to be a priest for the idols.

# Micah sinned in creating idols to serve.
# Micah sinned in creating a shrine to worship a god instead of Worshipping THE God where God designated.
# Micah sinned in creating a priestly role that was not a Levite descendent of Aaron.

Then one day, a young Levite comes by and Micah entices him with food, shelter, and salary to be a priest for his idols. Though a Levite, he was not a descendent of Aaron and therefore ineligable to be a priest by God's law. The Levite hired himself out to Micah, and Micah then believed God would bless him because he had a Levite for a priest for his idols.

Later the five Danites spies encountered the Levite with the idols. They asked him to inquire of God as to the properity of their journey. Obviously, any god was as good as any other to them with the idols being venerated and asking for the will of God too. They even attributed what they believed as good fortune as being a blessing of God.

Later still, the Danite warriors came and took the ephod, the idols, and convinced the Levite to come and be their priest for the idols. They then established their own priesthood for the idols which lasted until the northern kingdom was conquered.

So we see from these people that they were creating God as they wanted Him to be - not how He is.

God foretold that the people would turn away from Him and worship the gods of the Canaanites and as punishment that they would be driven from their land and scattered around the nations. That is exactly what happened here.

We must know God from His word, not from our own assumptions and not from popular belief. Otherwise, we too create God as we want Him to be - not how He is.