OUR MANMADE RELIGION DOES NOT PLEASE GOD
What a convoluted story this is! It begins with Micah’s confession that he had taken 1,100 shekels of silver from his mother, who had consequently put a curse on whomever had stolen it. When his mother heard his confession, she blessed him, and told him that she had dedicated it to the Lord for her son all along to make for him a carved image. So they used part of the money to make a carved image and to make a priestly ephod and set up a shrine. Micah even set apart one of his own sons as priest of his shrine.
Then one day, a Levite came passing through, Micah offered him room and board with an annual salary to replace his son as his priest. And the Levite agreed to the arrangement. So, Micah exclaimed, “Now I know that the Lord will be good to me!”
Why? Because he knew that the Levites had been chosen by God to be His priestly tribe. Micah had broken nearly every law concerning worship given to Israel in the making of his own carved images and shrine, yet he thought putting a Levite priest over his manmade religion would please God. No wonder the writer of the book of Judges remarked, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6).
As strange as this story is, we can recognize our own tendency to do the same as Micah. For we seek to earn God’s approval with our own homemade religion, thinking we are doing right. But the Bible warns us, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death” (Prov. 16:25).
We think we can please God following our own way, but there is only one way and that is Jesus. For as Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
PRAYER: Dear Father, forgive us for striving in our own way and thinking that our self-effort will please You. For faith alone pleases You. We therefore repent and turn to follow Your Son Jesus in all things. No longer following our own way, but following Him. Help us to hear His voice and follow His lead today. In Jesus’ name, amen.