A MOTHER'S MISTAKE

PROCLAMATION

“And there was a man of Mount Ephraim, whose name was Micah.  And he said unto his mother, ‘The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from thee … behold, the silver is with me; I took it.’  And his mother said, ‘Blessed be thou of The Lord, my son.’ … his mother said, I had wholly dedicated the silver unto The Lord … and his mother took two hundred shekels of silver, and gave them to the founder, who made thereof a graven image … and they were in the house of Micah.”  Judges 17:1-4 (KJV)

 

EXPLANATION

These are the words of God which were written under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God by the Prophet Samuel.  Micah stole eleven hundred pieces of silver from his mother.  After she noticed that the silver was missing, she was upset and pronounced a curse on the thief.  Then Micah told her that he had taken the silver and he gave it back to her.  Instead of punishing him for stealing, she blessed him for returning the silver.  She took the silver to a silversmith and he made an image and overlaid it with molten silver.  This idol was placed in Micah’s house along with the other idols that he had and worshiped. (Judges 17:1-5)  At that time there was not king in Israel and the people did whatever they thought was right in their own eyes. (Judges 17:6)  Then a young Levite from Bethlehem in Judah came to town searching for a place to stay and Micah invited him the live with them.  Micah offered to pay him and to give him clothes and food.  The young Levite agreed and Micah made him his priest thinking that this would please The Lord. (Judges 17:7-13)

 

APPLICATION

There are people today who believe that punishing a child who does wrong is wrong.  However, praising a child who did wrong is never a good idea.  We should not be so in love with our children or grandchildren that we praise them for doing wrong.  This mother complicated the situation by making a graven image out of the silver, basically commemorating the bad act by making an idol to be worshiped.  The Bible says, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image …” (Exodus 20:4)  We are not to worship or place anything before The Lord God. (Exodus 20:3)  That includes any possession, family members or loved ones.  We may not “worship” them, but if we put them before God then we are wrong.  We are to love The Lord God with all of our heart, soul, might, and mind. (Deuteronomy 6:5, Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, and Luke 10:27)  Nothing should be more important to us than The Lord God.