And Micah said, “Now I know that the LORD will be good to me, since this Levite has become my priest.” – Judges 17:13

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 14, 2012): Judges 17

I used to have a lucky shirt. It was an oversized hockey jersey in the colors of the Boston Bruins, but with no logo on it. And for a number of years it was simply my go to shirt. No matter what it was that I was doing, if it was important, I knew the shirt that I wanted to wear. The last time I saw the shirt was probably more than twenty years ago in the laundry basket. By that time it was full of tears and holes, but I still loved the shirt. But one day it just vanished (my wife probably had something to do with mystery disappearance.)

Probably comfort more than luck was the reason why I wore the shirt so often, but sometimes when you are comfortable, things just seem to go better. There is no real reason why they should, but they do. Micah wanted the blessing of God. Unfortunately he did not seem to have any idea of the things that would be God honoring. First, he makes idols for the house, breaking one of the Ten Commandments. But his folly does not end there. Micah builds a chapel in his house and then installs his son as the priest of the house. But Micah and his son were of the tribe of Ephraim and a priest was mandated to be from the tribe of Levi.

But as the story continues we see that Micah is at least a little uncomfortable about the decisions that he has made – and recognizes that he may have made himself an enemy of God. So when a Levite comes along, he engages in a business transaction with him, hiring him to be his private priest. The problem was that neither of the sides of the transaction had the legal right to enter into the contract. Micah had no right to engage a priest and the Levite had no right to accept the engagement. So the reality is that nothing had changed in the house Micah.

As a result of all of this, Micah’s statement becomes a statement more about luck than assurance. The reality is that the presence of the Levite in the house of Micah was more about the priest acting as a lucky shirt for Micah than it was about inviting the presence of God into the house. But Micah did not really want God’s presence – he did not want to be about the things God – all he wanted was for God to be about the things of Micah.

Often, that is all we want as well. We want to know the words to pray, or the rituals that we can complete so that God will be about things that we are about. But, while that might be our purpose, it has never been God’s. God’s purpose has always been that we would be about the things that he is about.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Judges 18