Chapter 17 abruptly begins the third section of Judges with examples of Israelites doing what was right in their own eyes. There is no judge. No deliverer. No foreign enemy … just an enemy within named S-I-N! God used the thirteen judges to deliver Israel from her external enemies, but there was no savior to deliver Israel from itself. This problem characterized the whole 350 years of history recorded in the Book of Judges.

I. The People (Judg 17:1-2). Micah (meaning who compares to Yahweh?), stole 1,100 shekels from his mother. Ten shekels equaled a year of wages. Mother cursed the thief, son superstitiously fearful of the curse, returned the money. Rather than correcting her son, his mother blessed him in Yahweh’s name.
Everyone has a religion. It is innate (Rom 1:19-21) and either Biblical or otherwise.
Mother had dedicated (sanctified or set aside) the silver to turn it into an idol of Jehovah. He was on their lips but not in their hearts or lives. It was an empty profession. Israel had adopted a syncretistic religion, combining Biblical worship with paganism.

II. The Piety (Judg 17:3-5). Mother used 200 shekels to make 2 idols for Micah’s house. Both making and worshiping idols is forbidden by God (Ex 20:4-5; 34:17; Deut 5:8; 27:15). Idols of the invisible God reduce His infinity, shape Him in the image of man’s imagination, and allow Him to be moved, controlled, and displayed at the will of the worshiper. This is the heart of all idolatry—making God in the likeness of a created being to control the Sovereign by man’s whims and authority.
An idol is anything that takes God’s place in the heart and devotion of man. It can be a philosophy, science, object of God’s creation or man’s design. We create and worship idols of all kinds for the power and importance we give them.
Idols in themselves are nothing but man-made with neither life nor power, ability nor awareness. Every idol represents a demonic spirit of pagan worship (Lev 17:7; Deut 32:16-17; 1 Cor 10:20). Satan desires worship (Mt 4:9) and demons use false teaching to deceive people away from the One true God (1 Tim 4:1). Sexual sins, ungodly desires, and greed are idolatrous (Col 3:5). But Jesus’ power is greater than Satan and every demon (Mk 5:7-8), thus an idol is nothing to a Christ and demons have no power over a believer (1 Cor 8:4). Yet Christians must be careful to avoid the sin of idolatry (1 Jn 5:21).
Micah added the two new idols to the shrine in his home. A shrine is a place set aside for religious rituals or worship. The whole earth is the Lord’s (Ps 24:1; 1 Cor 10:26), but God demanded restricted worship only in the place and manner He permitted (Deut 12:1-14), and it was at the tabernacle in Shiloh at this time. And Micah made his son the priest, contrary to God’s restrictions (Num 3:10). Anyone who attempted to be a self-appointed priest was to be put to death.
Christian worship is not in a certain place, but through a certain Person: Jesus. The Father still directs the means and manner of our worship in Scripture, but it is always and only through Jesus in spirit and in truth (Jn 4:20-24; 14:6). All other worship is idolatry.

III. The Problem (Judg 17:6). Everyone did what was right in his own eyes because there was no godly king to direct worship to God and punish sin. Leadership and leaders matters! A king was needed. God was Israel’s king, but on rejecting Him, He ordained to give them a human king to represent Him. Judges points directly to David, and David points directly to Jesus, God in human flesh!.