April 29, 2025 • 19 mins
# 138 - Micah & The Levite - In this episode of The Chosen People with Yael Eckstein, we see how, when Israel had no king, everyone did what was right in their own eyes—and chaos followed. This episode explores how one man’s idol and one Levite’s compromise reveal the danger of self-made faith and the desperate need for true surrender.
Episode 138 of The Chosen People with Yael Eckstein is inspired by the Book of Joshua.
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For more information about Yael Eckstein and IFCJ visit https://www.ifcj.org/
Today's opening prayer is inspired by Proverbs 11:3, “The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.”
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Show Notes:
(01:24) Intro with Yael Eckstein
(02:26) Micah & The Levite
(12:25) Reflection with Yael Eckstein
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
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.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Crad we strength, Lord mole.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Blood made die with the plastic.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
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
(00:51):
of God. You have done this to yourselves.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
I gave you the land, I made your people, but
you made covenant with my enemies.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
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.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
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,
(01:50):
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
(02:15):
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.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
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
(02:50):
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
(03:11):
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
(03:32):
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.
(03:54):
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
(04:15):
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
(04:37):
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
(04:58):
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.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
No, No, it's gone, my silver, all that your father
left me, taken by a thief.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
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.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
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.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
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
(06:10):
his face pale with guilt.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Mother, here is our silver. I took it. I heard
your curse, and I my feet take take it back.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
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.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
You took it. The Lord bless you for your honesty.
Let us make something worthy of him from this silver.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
What shall we make? Her eyes gleamed, fever bright, an image.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
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.
Speaker 6 (07:07):
You.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Will be the guardian of this altar. Micah, you will
lead the people in their devotion.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
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
(07:35):
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
(07:57):
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
(08:18):
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
(08:41):
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,
(09:03):
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
(09:25):
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,
(09:47):
and he greeted him with an eager wave.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
Good morning, traveler. What brings you to this part of
the hill country?
Speaker 1 (09:55):
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
(10:16):
had taught him to smother such feelings quickly.
Speaker 6 (10:19):
Lord bless you. I am Chagier at once him now
the wanderer seeking work. Tell me her friend, does this
place meet a priest?
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Micah's face lit up with childlike excitement. He dropped the
trinkets and clasped the levite's hands.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
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.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
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.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Oh you honor me with your offer, But surely I
am needed elsewhere. I'm not sure.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
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.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
If the people truly need the priest, then I suppose
I must think so. For the Lord.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
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
(12:16):
cry from what Moses had commanded. It was a hollow,
lewde and self serving practice.
Speaker 5 (12:27):
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,
(12:49):
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
(13:11):
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
(13:32):
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
(13:56):
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
(14:18):
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
(14:40):
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
(15:01):
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
(15:24):
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?
Speaker 4 (15:36):
Or?
Speaker 5 (15:37):
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
(15:58):
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
(16:20):
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
(16:41):
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
(17:02):
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
(17:24):
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
(17:47):
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
(18:10):
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.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
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(18:52):
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(19:12):
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(19:32):
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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.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Crad we strength, Lord mole.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Blood made die with the plastic.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
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
(00:51):
of God. You have done this to yourselves.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
I gave you the land, I made your people, but
you made covenant with my enemies.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
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.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
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,
(01:50):
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
(02:15):
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.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
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
(02:50):
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
(03:11):
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
(03:32):
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.
(03:54):
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
(04:15):
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
(04:37):
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
(04:58):
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.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
No, No, it's gone, my silver, all that your father
left me, taken by a thief.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
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.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
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.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
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
(06:10):
his face pale with guilt.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Mother, here is our silver. I took it. I heard
your curse, and I my feet take take it back.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
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.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
You took it. The Lord bless you for your honesty.
Let us make something worthy of him from this silver.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
What shall we make? Her eyes gleamed, fever bright, an image.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
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.
Speaker 6 (07:07):
You.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Will be the guardian of this altar. Micah, you will
lead the people in their devotion.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
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
(07:35):
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
(07:57):
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
(08:18):
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
(08:41):
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,
(09:03):
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
(09:25):
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,
(09:47):
and he greeted him with an eager wave.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
Good morning, traveler. What brings you to this part of
the hill country?
Speaker 1 (09:55):
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
(10:16):
had taught him to smother such feelings quickly.
Speaker 6 (10:19):
Lord bless you. I am Chagier at once him now
the wanderer seeking work. Tell me her friend, does this
place meet a priest?
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Micah's face lit up with childlike excitement. He dropped the
trinkets and clasped the levite's hands.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
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.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
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.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Oh you honor me with your offer, But surely I
am needed elsewhere. I'm not sure.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
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.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
If the people truly need the priest, then I suppose
I must think so. For the Lord.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
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
(12:16):
cry from what Moses had commanded. It was a hollow,
lewde and self serving practice.
Speaker 5 (12:27):
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,
(12:49):
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
(13:11):
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
(13:32):
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
(13:56):
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
(14:18):
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
(14:40):
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
(15:01):
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
(15:24):
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?
Speaker 4 (15:36):
Or?
Speaker 5 (15:37):
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
(15:58):
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
(16:20):
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
(16:41):
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
(17:02):
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
(17:24):
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
(17:47):
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
(18:10):
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.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
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
(18:52):
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
(19:12):
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
(19:32):
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.
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