Judges 17:7–13

Now there was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah; he was a Levite, and was staying there. The man departed from the city of Bethlehem in Judah to stay wherever he could find a place. Then he came to the mountains of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, as he journeyed. And Micah said to him, “Where do you come from?”

So he said to him, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am on my way to find a place to stay.”

Micah said to him, “Dwell with me, and be a father and a priest to me, and I will give you ten shekels of silver per year, a suit of clothes, and your sustenance.” So the Levite went in. Then the Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man became like one of his sons to him. So Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and lived in the house of Micah. Then Micah said, “Now I know that the LORD will be good to me, since I have a Levite as priest!”

Recall that Micah had ordained one of his sons as a priest. That was awful as his son isn’t a Levite. Now he encounters a Levite and “improves” his situation by replacing his non-Levite priest with a Levite one.

This is the kind of error that happens when everyone does what is right in his own eyes. Micah thinks his recruiting a personal Levitical priest improves his situation from “good” to “better.”

In reality, it only reduces the number of crimes he’s currently committing from four to three (household gods, homemade ephod, personal priest).

He’s still an outlaw.

This is like a driver who slams into a telephone pole but thinks he’s still pretty good because of all the ones he missed. The idea that you’re expected to miss all the telephone poles seems to him to be insanely strict. “Nobody’s perfect!” That sounds good, but it makes no sense it this case.

Without an absolute standard of reference, anything can be right in one’s own eyes. Is stealing wrong? (It’s not in the animal world.) Is making a “rolling stop” at a stop sign wrong? Is fishing without a license wrong? Is hunting deer out of season wrong? Is eating animals wrong? Is eating a bald eagle wrong?

Our civilization depends on a common understanding of the answers to zillions of questions like this, and on the enforcement of that understanding. We love to debate these things, but the enforceable laws are only those that have been properly enacted by a duly elected representative legislature.

All of this ultimately traces back to a foundational ethical standard. For our civilization, that’s the Bible. We value human life above animal life because humans are created in God’s image. We build upon this foundation (e.g., protecting bald eagles) but it’s still rooted in scripture.

Recent attempts at abandoning this structure (e.g., “occupy” and the CHOP/CHAZ district in Seattle) were disasters. They did what is right in their own eyes, and their total failure was obvious to all.

These Monday—Friday DEEPs are written by Mike Slay. The Weekend DEEPs are written by Matt Richardson. To subscribe to all the DEEPs click here:

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV stands for the English Standard Version. © Copyright 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved. NIV stands for The Holy Bible, New International Version®. © Copyright 1973 by International Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved. KJV stands for the King James Version.