Micah & The Levite

00:00:00 Speaker 1: Previously on the chosen people. The Philistine scrambled for the exits, but the temple was too crowded, the doors too narrow. Panic consumed them as the roof carved in, crushing the nobles beneath its weight. 00:00:15 Speaker 2: Crad we strength, Lord mole. 00:00:23 Speaker 3: Blood made die with the plastic. 00:00:30 Speaker 1: Yet Samson's legacy was a somber one, a reminder of strength squandered, pride indulged, and the cost of redemption. He had died a miserable man, his life a mirror of his people, wayward, broken, yet held in the merciful hands of God. You have done this to yourselves. 00:00:55 Speaker 4: I gave you the land, I made your people, but you made covenant with my enemies. 00:01:01 Speaker 1: You lay with them. Now they shall be thorns in your side. The judges of Israel grew darker and more twisted with each passing generation. Heroes became villains, and villains left Israel bound in sin. Yet the God of Israel would not leave his people forever. 00:01:26 Speaker 5: What happens when we mold the eternal into an image of the temporary Shelloh, my friends, from here in the Holy Land of Israel. I'm L Extein with International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, and welcome to the Chosen People. In the days when there was no king in Israel, chaos reigned. The hills were alive with ambition, with rebellion, and with broken covenants. The people, the very people chosen by God, wandered through the land of Promise, as though lost in a wilderness of their own making. Judges seventeen begins with a tail that feels both ancient and modern. A man stands at a crossroads, wrestling not with enemies from without, but with idols of his own design. This is not just a story of an individual, but a nation searching for meaning in the absence of a king. And ultimately, yes, it's about each one of us. 00:02:28 Speaker 1: The wind carried the dying breath of autumn, its touch both sharp and listless, as it swept across the hills of Ephraim. The green fields that once shimmered like emeralds had gone brown, and the wild flowers had folded themselves into the earth, awaiting the rains of spring. There was a haze over the land, a lifeless pall that clung to the horizon like an old grief. It mirrored the hollow hearts of his Wadal's people, a nation dried up and adrift without its God. There were no more heroes, there were no more foes. Samson was gone, and with him the Philistines. But this peace was no reprieve, only a void. Israel had no foe to fight but itself. In the shadow of Ephraim's hills lived a man named Micah. He was peculiar and obsessive. His neighbors often muttered of his odd ways and strange ambitions. It was on one moonlit night, as the winds howled softly through the barren trees, that Micah crept into his mother's chamber. He knelt before a heavy chest at the foot of her bed. The chest opened with a groan, revealing an olive wood box within. Micah's breath hitched as he lifted the box. He slipped away with it into the night, his moodmans hurried yet careful, in the dim light of the woods. Micah opened the box. Eleven hundred shekels of silver gleamed back at him, their cold light dazzling against his hungry gaze. His hands trembled as he ran his fingers through the coins. This was wealth beyond his dreams, wealth that could by respect, power and a name. But wealth is a fire and greed its fuel. Micah's mind churned with plans as he buried the box beneath a tree. That night, as he lay in bed, his thoughts churned heavier stones. A gnawing unease curled in his gut. But Micah, a man of strange vexations and shallow convictions, did not recognize it for what it was. If he had even a flicker of true reverence for the God of Israel, he might have known it as conviction. Instead, he twisted and turned, his dreams filled with the clinking of coins and the weight of buried silver. By dawn, the quiet of Micah's theft shattered. His mother's anguished cries filled the house. 00:05:18 Speaker 2: No, No, it's gone, my silver, all that your father left me, taken by a thief. 00:05:24 Speaker 1: Micah watched her, feigning ignorance as she searched the house in vain. Her grief curdled into rage, and with trembling hands, she lifted her eyes to heaven at. 00:05:36 Speaker 2: Tersey upon the thief. May the Lord himself judge him, May his days be filled with sorrow, his works come to nothing, and his house fall to ruin. 00:05:47 Speaker 1: MICA's blood turned to ice. Her words struck him like arrows, each one a reminder that he was the very worm she cursed. Fear took hold of him. Micah slipped away and darted to the woods. He dug up the box with frantic hands and retrieved the coins. By the time he returned home, the box was smeared with dirt, and his face pale with guilt. 00:06:12 Speaker 4: Mother, here is our silver. I took it. I heard your curse, and I my feet take take it back. 00:06:24 Speaker 1: For a moment, his mother stared at the box in stunned silence. Then she threw her head back and laughed. The sound was high and wild, the laughter of a woman teetering on the edge of sanity. She seized the box and stroked it in her hands. 00:06:40 Speaker 2: You took it. The Lord bless you for your honesty. Let us make something worthy of him from this silver. 00:06:50 Speaker 1: What shall we make? Her eyes gleamed, fever bright, an image. 00:06:57 Speaker 2: A great and shining image, overlaid with silver, to honor the Lord. It will stand in a shrine, and people will come from far and wide to worship. 00:07:07 Speaker 6: You. 00:07:08 Speaker 2: Will be the guardian of this altar. Micah, you will lead the people in their devotion. 00:07:15 Speaker 1: Her words filled Micah with a strange and hollow elation. He had no love for the true God of Israel, no understanding of his ways, but the idea of being a man revered, a man whose name was known thrilled him to his core. That day, the silver was carried to a smith, and by fire and hammer, an idol was born. It was a figure of polished arrogance, a false god wrought in the image of Micah's ambitions. Micah built a shrine around it, adorning it with stones and wood, filling its crevices with melted gold and jewels. He consecrated the place with candles and incense, and for himself he crafted an ephod To his sons, he gave the mantle of priests. The people of the hill country came, travelers and herders alike, bowing before the shrine in hollow reverence. But the altar was a monument to Israel's decay, not its devotion. Micah's shrine was a mirror of the nation's heart, selfish, wicked, fractured, and blind. It was a kingdom of dust, waiting for the winds of judgment to come. Dawn broke over the hills of Ephraim, the sky streaked with pale light and the lingering gray of fog. The cawing of crows broke the silence as a lone figure emerged from the mist. His staff tapped the earth in a slow, steady rhythm. He was a Levite from Bethlehem, a man who had once been set apart for the service of God, but now worn the land as a cell sword of the spirit, offering his priestly skills to the highest bidder. His eyes fell upon Micah's shrine as he traveled, and he paused. The stone archway loomed above the road, Adorned with candles and gold. The polished silver idole gleamed faintly, its features cast an eerie perfection. Once such a sight would have repelled him, filled him with righteous fury, but years of compromise had dulled his senses. He saw not a blasphemy, but an opportunity. Micah emerged from his house carrying a bundle of trinkets small household gods he intended to sell to travelers. When he saw the Levite, his step quickened, and he greeted him with an eager wave. 00:09:50 Speaker 4: Good morning, traveler. What brings you to this part of the hill country? 00:09:55 Speaker 1: Are you here to admire my shrine? The Levi hesitated, his gaze, lingering on the idol. He could feel the weight of his staff in his hand, the carved wood a reminder of the calling he had abandoned for a moment. He felt the faintest flicker of shame, but the years had taught him to smother such feelings quickly. 00:10:19 Speaker 6: Lord bless you. I am Chagier at once him now the wanderer seeking work. Tell me her friend, does this place meet a priest? 00:10:35 Speaker 1: Micah's face lit up with childlike excitement. He dropped the trinkets and clasped the levite's hands. 00:10:43 Speaker 4: A true levite. The Lord has sent you to me. I am certain of it. Stay here, live among us. I will give you silver five shekels a year, along with food and fine clothes. You will oversee my shrine and serve as a priest in my household. 00:11:02 Speaker 1: Shagear's lips curled into a smile. He could see the desperation in Micah's eyes, the hunger for validation, for significance. It was a hunger he knew, well. 00:11:14 Speaker 3: Oh you honor me with your offer, But surely I am needed elsewhere. I'm not sure. 00:11:28 Speaker 4: Ten ten shechkels a year, then please, Having a levite serf here would would be perfect. Oh, the people would flock to this place, no worship, they'll they'll make offerings, they'll even bring wine and women. 00:11:43 Speaker 3: If the people truly need the priest, then I suppose I must think so. For the Lord. 00:11:55 Speaker 1: Shagear felt no pride in this charade, no conviction in the words he spoke. But the silver weighed heavy in his mind, and that was enough. He took his place at the shrine. The polished epod glinting in the firelight as Micah's strange congregation gathered. Their worship was a far cry from what Moses had commanded. It was a hollow, lewde and self serving practice. 00:12:27 Speaker 5: The story asks a question we're often too afraid to ask. What happens when worship goes wrong. Here's a man who thinks he's doing the right thing. He melts down his mother's silver and turns it into an idol, and then he calls it holy. He even hires a levite, a man of the priestly tribe. Surely that will make it okay, right, But intentions mean nothing when they're untethered from the truth of God's word. The Levites compromise is particularly haunting. In the Torah, the Levites were set apart to serve God, to dwell in his holiness. Yet this man abandons his calling for comfort, for status, and for a paycheck. And isn't that the same human failing that we've seen again and again as we've studied these Bible stories, people who trade the eternal for the immediate. There's a detail that we might miss if we're not paying attention the name Micah. Some suggest that the name Micah could mean who is like the Lord mee kahshem is the way that you say that in Hebrew. And yet the story shows us a man who has forgotten the Lord entirely. His very name Mika, which is very similar to meek Kihashim, who is like the Lord, cries out the question that his life denies. After all of the horrible things we find in this story, perhaps the most horrible is that afterwards Micah actually thanks God for helping everything work out well for him. How could this possibly happen? We have to ask? Well. Verse six explains it to us. This is what it reads. In those days, Israel had no king. Everyone did as they saw fit. The Bible, my friends, is telling us that when there's no strong moral figure to correct horrible actions, when there's no king of Israel, then people rationalize whatever they feel like doing. Isn't that an important lesson for us today? We must learn from this story and so many others to choose leaders who have moral fiber and who don't hesitate to tell us when we've strayed. They know what's right and wrong, and they don't get it confused. Of course, God tells us through the Bible what we should be doing, but we need a flesh and blood human. We need a leader to encourage us and motivate us to do the right thing. But how do we know what the right thing to do is? Especially in our busy, noisy world. Some might decide what's right by what they see on TV or on the line, and they might listen to celebrities or best selling authors or even politicians, and they really are hoping that they will find the right way to act. And with all of these competing voices and opinions, it can be confusic. Who do I listen to. Do I listen to the news? Do I listen to the scriptures? Do I listen to my mentor do I listen to my past? 00:15:36 Speaker 4: Or? 00:15:37 Speaker 5: Sometimes all those people could be conflicting and what they're telling us to do, and it can make us just want to throw up our hands, might excess want and just give up. Some people might even suggest that everyone should just do whatever they want, that we should just do what we feel is right and hope for the best. And that is exactly the kind of moment that we find ourselves right now. In our story of the Chosen People, the land of Israel had fallen into chaos. It was besieged by enemies to the right and to the left, and no two Israelites could agree on how to act or what the right thing to do was. No leader stood up for what was right in God's eyes, and no one it all stopped for even a moment to consider the ramifications of their own actions. And because of this, the Chosen People began to forget how to live together. People stop speaking peacefully with one another, and society began to descend into anarchy. And as we'll see, this situation persists to one degree or another throughout the duration of the Book of Judges, only with the rise of the prophet Samuel and eventually King David, with healthy relationships among the Chosen people return. So what does this story mean for us today? Idols don't look like statues anymore, at least not in our modern world. But they show up, Oh, yes, they show up in more subtle ways, definitely, But they're there in idle Is anything that we all evade above God? Maybe our careers, maybe our comfort, maybe our relationships, maybe our self image, maybe our telephone, maybe politics. Maybe it's the shiny new phone we can't put down, the paycheck that we're clinging to for security, the curated image of perfection that we post on social media. God's command against idolatry isn't just about his holiness. Rather, it's about our freedom. Micah's idolatry didn't start with molten silver. It started with his heart, and so to ours. But my friends, there's definitely hope because our God is a god of tshuva, of repentance. The Hebrew word for repentance is tshuva, and it literally translates says to return. You see, it's not just about turning away from sin, but it's about turning back to God. To Shuva, a repentance is about returning to Him. Mike as story might leave us feeling uneasy, but it also leaves us with the choice. Will we keep building idols or will we return to God? Cello, my friends, me, you, and all of us hear God's voice calling us back. 00:18:30 Speaker 1: Today you can listen to The Chosen People with Isle Eckstein ad free by downloading and subscribing to the Prey dot Com app today. This Prey dot Com production is only made possible by our dedicated team of creative talents. Steve Gattina, Max Bard, Zach Shellavaga and Ben Gammon are the executive producers of the Chosen People with Yile Eckstein, Edited by Alberto Avilla, narrated by Paul Coltefianu. Characters are voiced by Jonathan Gotten, Aaron Salvado, Sarah Seltz, Mike Reagan, Stephen Ringwald, Sylvia Zaradoc, Thomas Copeland, Junior, Rosanna Pilcher, and the opening prayer is voiced by John Moore. Music by Andrew Morgan Smith, written by Aaron Salvato, bre Rosalie and Chris Baig. Special thanks to Bishop Paulinier, Robin van Ettin, Cayleb Burrows, Jocelyn Fuller, and the team at International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. You can hear more Prey dot com productions on the Prey dot com app, available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. If you enjoyed The Chosen People with Yeile Eckstein, please rate and leave a review.