God is not looking for a “Tip!”

Wow! What a ride those 16 chapters of Judges were. They show an endless cycle of apostasy, invasion, and delivery…only to see Israel start the whole cycle over again as they return to Idolatry! The remaining chapters, many believe did not occur chronologically at the end of the period of Judges, instead happened during this time and bring a more detailed description of the lifestyle. It is possible that these events take place during Othniel, the first judge because of the presence of Jonathan, Moses grandson, Judges18:30, Phinehas, son of Eleazer - Judges 20:28. We will deal with that when we get to those passages. What we are about to discover is the terrible idolatry that was going on during the time of the judges. 

Judges 17:1-6 Now there was a man of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah. He said to his mother, “The eleven hundred pieces of silver which were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse in my hearing, behold, the silver is with me; I took it.” And his mother said, “Blessed be my son by the Lord.” He then returned the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, “I wholly dedicate the silver from my hand to the Lord for my son to make a graven image and a molten image; now therefore, I will return them to you.” So when he returned the silver to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver and gave them to the silversmith who made them into a graven image and a molten image, and they were in the house of Micah. And the man Micah had a shrine and he made an ephod and household idols and consecrated one of his sons, that he might become his priest. In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.

Summery: A young man stole money from his mother, gives it back because he heard the curse she made, she blesses him in God’s name and then makes an idol for him!

Obviously some messed up stuff is happening here!  We have a son that steals money from his mother, but when he hears the curse she utters, he gives back the money. That can happen in any family, because we are all sinners, and at first glance it would make us glad that the young man seems to have repented. However, the actions that follow shed a disturbing light on the conditions of this society during this time. First, the mother claims a blessing from the Lord on her son, but there is a clear absence of her helping him deal with the “wrong” he did.

Here is an important lesson we must get. Whenever we drop standards, one of the consequences is no personal responsibility! We see it in the world today in our legal system. When you consider that a very high percentage of crimes are committed by repeat offenders, we must face the fact that the reason these criminals keep repeating their crimes is because they never have to really take responsibility and reap the punishment of their crime. I worked in a prison for 2 years with a Bible ministry. It is there I learned a dominant human trait…,which I call “inmate repentance.” This is when a person is not sorry for what they have done or the pain they have caused, therefore are willing to take responsibility and pay their debt to the victim. Instead, although they say over and over they are sorry, what they are sorry about is that they were caught! I cannot speak for others, but I know this trait lives in me. My flesh is sorry when it knows that what it has done may bring trouble, but only when I allow the Holy Spirit to illuminate me to the reality of my sin do I see the damage it causes, and that produces in me a regret for my actions and a desire to change direction (repentance). I also find that I humbly accept the spanking I may receive from the Lord or the reaping of consequences my action has brought forth. 

In this account, I must wonder what in her mind was the “blessing” considering she had just “cursed” the person that had taken the money. Her actions concerning idols will help us understand more. Before that though, we see another pitfall that we sinners walk into. Notice what she said after her son returned the money:

“I wholly dedicate the silver from my hand to the Lord…So when he returned the silver to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver.”

What she used the money for is another issue we will get to, but look at her statement. The “wholly” would mean “all!” She had 1,100, pieces of silver, yet she gave only 200. It amazes me how we mess around with the truth when it comes to money! We are not “tipping” God, we are joining in His work by offering some back from what He supplied to begin with. I hear people say, “I give to the Lord.” Then someone else asks the question, “before or after taxes?” Where does this thinking come from? How many times as a Pastor have I heard someone promise a gift to the Lord based on an expected “bonus’ or “gift” coming to them, but when it comes the amount is larger then they expected, and now they desire to change their commitment…by the way, 99% of the time it is to a lesser percentage. This is not what God teaches from His Word about these kinds of commitments.

There’s a story of a new believer that went to his Pastor and told him he wanted to give to the Lord. He had just started a business and it was only clearing about $100 a week. The Pastor said we are free to do what we want, but that a good Biblical percentage was 10%. The man said that sounded great! Months later the man saw the Pastor again and asked if he could get out of his commitment. He said, “I am now making $5,000 a week so I am giving $500 a week to the Lord!” The Pastor smiled and said that of course he could have the Lord change his commitment, just ask the Lord to allow his business to make only $100 a week, then he would be back to giving $10!

We really miss the point on this, and I will spend the next few Devos discussing what God teaches about money, but want to finish with a clear thought from God that should challenge us concerning our view.

In Acts 5 we have the story of a couple that played games with God about money. Sadly, far too many teachers focus only on the fact that they lied about it. That is the most important truth in that passage, however, there is also a very important truth that is ignored and should not be. I will quote the Scripture; I want to share it from two translations:

Acts 5:3–4 (NASB95) But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? “While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.”

Acts 5:3–4 (NLT) Then Peter said, “Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself. The property was yours to sell or not sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was also yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this? You weren’t lying to us but to God!”

It needs to be pointed out that Peter, a spokesman for the Lord as an Apostle, states that the property and the money were both totally under Ananias’s control! There is no mention of what God expected! This is because we have some clear principles from Scripture about our money from God and we will look at that in our next Devo. The issue that we need to see is that when we possess things or money, what we do is our choice, but God will not honor us if we try and manipulate the truth with Him. We need to live with the freedom God has given, while we still remember the responsibility for our “vows” and our actions!

Let me close with a personal story. When I was a Pastor in Roanoke I was invited to teach a weekly interdenominational Bible Study. I taught it for 6 ½ years and loved it. I never thought I would be given money for teaching it. After the first month the class gave me a love offering. I was blown away! I went to my wife and shared the news and asked her if we could do something special with this gift. After prayer we decided to give 50% of every gift that came from that class to the some special need the Lord showed us. Then Christmas came, and the love gift was much bigger than I ever thought I would get. 

Suddenly I felt this great temptation to adjust the figure, because 50% was a lot. As I thought about it, the Holy Spirit convicted my heart. God had never demanded anything from me; it was my desire to use this extra money for eternity. So my wife and I followed through on our commitment. I had a friend in the Pastorate that was under great financial duress. I was able to get him the money anonymously. Two days later I received a call from him, overjoyed he shared how God had supplied his needs and how this had raised his spirits and reconfirmed God’s faithfulness. I had no idea that his spirit was so low, and I would have missed the blessing of seeing God use this gift from a class…that I never expected to receive in the first place…to encourage my friend in his ministry! God freed me from allowing greed to dictate my actions! A lesson I have ever forgotten.

Meditation: Just one question: Do you possess money…or does it possess you?