Judges 17 & 18

Today I was reading though Judges 17 & 18. The first thing that stood out to me was that everyone was doing as they saw fit. There was no inquiry of the Lord, even the priest that Micah asked if he would be his father never made an inquiry of the Lord.

The first mentioned of Micah was in Judges 17. What little mention of his family life really tells a lot. There is no mention of whose son he is. That makes me wonder if either he grew up with no father or his father wasn’t worth mentioning either for the good or the bad. I lean more to thinking he doesn’t have a father in his life because a Levite comes into the picture in verse 5 and in verse 10 Micah was asking this Levite to be his father and his priest. He has such a deep desire for a paternal connection, that someone who he just met, he is asking them to fulfill that void in his life.

Then looking at his mother breaks my heart. Here is her son, I’m thinking he might be her only child since no other siblings are mentioned, and he’s stolen from her. At first she didn’t know it was him and he heard her utter a curse but then when he tells her that he’s the one who stole it, good grief, she then blesses him and makes him a carved image and idol.  It’s clear as to the direction this mom is leading her child but she is doing as she sees fit.

Where is God in this family’s life? They sound religious. They are doing religious things. They want the Lord’s blessings but it’s not to the Lord they are seeking direction or advice from.

Advice is so important. Proverbs 12:5, 12:15, 19:20, 20:18 all give warnings regarding advice and that advice can either lead us to false religion or to God.

Come

Psalm 95:1-7 “Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before Him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In His hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to Him. The sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land. Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for He is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under His care.”

Let us come before Him, the call to worship before Him, that call to bring myself before God, gives me shivers. I get to come before my Lord, my God. He is a great God. Because of His greatness I come before Him with thanksgiving. Because I know how great He is I can come before Him thankful for so much. Mostly because I am His. I am under His care.

I will willingly and obediently come before my Lord on bent knee, bowing low in worship because He is my maker, my creator. He is God.

Thanksgiving is just right around the corner. What a perfect time for me to bring myself back to a humble state of thanksgiving. Prayerfully this state of thanksgiving will stay with me throughout the year to come!

Jephthah

Jephthah, Judges 10 & 11. Jephthah was a mighty warrior but his mom was a prostitute, his brothers drove him away from his family. He knew they hated him but yet they used him because he had something to offer.

This man, this mighty warrior, he reminds me of my childhood growing up. I grew up feeling hated by some of my family members because of choices my mother had made when I was just an infant. I felt embarrassed around town because my mother was an addict. I felt shame in my family name. I was driven away from my family at a young age.

Jephthah didn’t let his family or his circumstances bring him down. He didn’t let any of this stop him from being who God wanted him to be.

Unfortunately I spent so many years not realizing that I too could be a mighty warrior. That God had better plan for me.  I let being a homeless teen, family circumstance, body image, hurt feelings… stop me from being who God wanted me to be.

And at the right time, just as it states in Romans 5:6, God knew the right time to bring me out of my sin, to raise me up and give me the confidence I needed to fight. To fight for who He made me. To fight for the life He wanted me to have. To leave my sin behind. To not be ashamed of who I was and everything I had experienced prior to Him. It is good to be reminded.

Praise be to God!