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.

DON'T BE A FOOLISH OLD MAN

PROCLAMATION

“As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to The Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been.”  1 Kings 11:4 (NIV)

EXPLANATION

For as wise as King Solomon was as a young man, his wisdom began to fail him as an old man, or maybe it was just his weakness for women.  Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines, many of whom were from foreign nations which The Lord God had told the Israelites not to marry. (1 Kings 11:1-3)  Solomon did evil in the sight of The Lord and worshiped the idol gods of his wives. (1 Kings 11:5-8)  He would still go through the motions of worshiping The Lord God, but he was not fully and completely into it.

APPLICATION

It does not matter how wise, or smart, or educated, or intelligent we are, if we cannot control our behavior.  The uncontrolled worldly sinful lust has caused many great men, and also many average men, to fall and to lose their influence.  There are countless examples of men who did a lot of good as leaders, but they are now remembered for their shameful downfall.  As we age and get older, we should also get wiser and benefit from our years of experience.  Some of us get so caught up in ourselves and our desires, and we make even bigger mistakes in our old age.  The dictionary defines foolish as “lacking in sense, judgment, or discretion.”  There is a saying, “There is no fool like and old fool.”  As the number of days in front of us gets much smaller than the number of days behind us, let us reflect on our past and see where The Lord God has brought us from and all that He has brought us through.  Let us thank Him and praise Him for all that He has done, let us draw closer to Him in our old age instead of drifting away from Him and making foolish mistakes.