King James Version, with Nii Okai's journal notes · 2 notes
1And there was a man of mount Ephraim, whose name was Micah.
2And he said unto his mother, The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from thee, about which thou cursedst, and spakest of also in mine ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it. And his mother said, Blessed be thou of the LORD, my son.
3And when he had restored the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, I had wholly dedicated the silver unto the LORD from my hand for my son, to make a graven image and a molten image: now therefore I will restore it unto thee.
4Yet he restored the money unto his mother; and his mother took two hundred shekels of silver, and gave them to the founder, who made thereof a graven image and a molten image: and they were in the house of Micah.
5And the man Micah had an house of gods, and made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.
6In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
Is the purpose of this story to show the state of Israel at this time without a king 👑?
It means Israel did better with a king 👑.
Why then did God not set up a system of continuity, since he did not set up kingship for Israel?
I always wondered why after the death of Moses and Joshua there was no one whom Joshua handed over to, so no one does what he wants as in this case.
But indeed God did set up a system.
A system where he was king 👑 and they were his priests, so he could commune directly with them, but they refused.
So he set up the Levitical priesthood. So he as king 👑 would govern through his priests and prophets.
But that system was collapsed by the people themselves.
One generation held on to God's system and won wars and received directions from God.
Till another generation arose that went into idol worship 🛐
Thus tarnishing the system of God and leading to such chaos where everyone did as he saw fit.
But God had done well to give them the law in written format.
There were priests and tribe heads, but they could not hold the system God had created in place.
Finally God gave them a human lineage, i.e. kingship 👑.
But as we see later, this system is plagued with a lot of flaws.
And barely lasted two generations till chaos broke out.
Indeed the first king, Saul, had no continuity to his throne.
The 2nd, David, had his kingdom divided by the third generation, and even lasted that long because God oversaw its survival.
But in the coming kingdom 👑,
The king 👑 fuses these two systems, where he reigns as king and also through his human representative, but the twist being his human rep is himself a God man — Jesus. 👑.
Thus benefiting from the advantages of both systems without the disadvantages.
No wonder God allowed Israel to have a king despite its being in rebellion to him.
He knew it had some advantages and benefits to it. And he intended to harness it in the times to come.
And we await that time. Oh, what a moment of glory that will be.
When we all see Jesus... Our King, our God and God's man 👨...
😇
Can't wait.
In continuity to the notes on this topic about why God let the system run amok. I think God could have selected leaders like he did Moses and his successor Joshua, who would rise up and take care of his people so they do not go astray.
But even as I type this, I realised God did. All through the book of Judges God personally selected men to lead Israel at various points in time.
But the same thing kept happening, i.e. as soon as the leader or judge died, the next generation, who saw not the acts of the Lord, went a-whoring after other gods, and the cycle continues.
Until the people themselves recognise their need for God, he let them suffer under their enemies. There was no way the people would accept God's man unless they were in pain and suffering.
Mostly slavery and abuse, just like in Egypt. So Egypt had to keep repeating itself in Israel until the people cried out, then God raised them up a leader.
The next question and challenge is, how many MOSESES are there in a generation, how many Joshuas and how many Calebs?
We see that even in the Judges he raised, many had flaws. Many flaws, but God's love for his people made him use them anyways.
He continued this way until the people asked for a king, which ensured there was no break in leadership upon the death of the leader. His son naturally took over.
Which in itself was a flaw in the system.
Because not all natural descendants follow after their fathers' godliness.
In the judge system, there was a problem of continuity, because not every generation will have God's man to lead, and in the kings not every heir is godly, though it ensured continuity.
7And there was a young man out of Beth-lehem-judah of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there.
8And the man departed out of the city from Beth-lehem-judah to sojourn where he could find a place: and he came to mount Ephraim to the house of Micah, as he journeyed.
9And Micah said unto him, Whence comest thou? And he said unto him, I am a Levite of Beth-lehem-judah, and I go to sojourn where I may find a place.
10And Micah said unto him, Dwell with me, and be unto me a father and a priest, and I will give thee ten shekels of silver by the year, and a suit of apparel, and thy victuals. So the Levite went in.
11And the Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man was unto him as one of his sons.
12And Micah consecrated the Levite; and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.
13Then said Micah, Now know I that the LORD will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest.