Then said Micah, now know I, &c.— What a strange infatuation! Micah is at the summit of his wishes because the Levite has accepted his offers, and because he sees his chapel consecrated, and a priest of the sacerdotal line minister of the new religion planned out by his mother.
Micah had rendered himself capitally guilty in making a common Levite a priest. See Numbers 3:10 and Witsii Egypt. Psalms 133.—Idols, teraphim, a prophane altar, an intruded minister,—what noble grounds for self-approbation! The crime of Micah is strongly set forth by Calmet. "He persuades himself," says he, "that the people, seeing his chapel served by a man of the family of Levi, will come thither with greater confidence, and that this concourse, together with the offerings to be brought, will procure him considerable gain. It is evidently this gain, that he here calls the blessings of God. How just a representation is this of those superstitiously covetous persons who would connect religion with the love of riches, and who, as St. Paul expresses it, fancy that piety should serve as a means of enriching themselves!"
REFLECTIONS.—Micah had probably been content with his son's service, if an accident had not brought him a more acceptable chaplain in a Levite of Bethlehem-judah, who was by his mother's side of the tribe of Judah, and had resided at Bethlehem; either, through the neglect of God's worship which now began to take place, he could no longer gain a maintenance from the ministry, and was forced to seek a livelihood; or, perhaps, being of a rambling disposition, unsettled, and uneasy at being confined at home: it may be also, hearing of Micah's house of gods, and hoping for better preferment in his service, abominable as it was, than at the altar of God. Note; (1.) They must be bad times indeed when God's ministers want a maintenance. (2.) The priest who sets out with an eye to preferment is certainly in the high road to perdition. (3.) The ministry is the best calling, but the worst trade in the world.
Micah having inquired whence he came, and learning his profession, invites him in; offers, if he will officiate for him, to treat him with respect as a father, and to provide for him. The Levite consents, the bargain is concluded; and as he found it a good house, though the work was scandalous and the wages mean, he thought himself well settled. Note; (1.) They, whose office and duty it is to rebuke sin, are often, for the sake of their belly and a good table, wicked and mean enough to sit by and countenance it. (2.) They, who choose their own delusions, would fain flatter themselves that God approves of them. (3.) More, like Micah, derive their hopes from the priest and the altar, their worship, and external devotions, than from spirituality of temper and real purity of heart. (4.) The deeds that the self-righteous boast of, as commending them to God's favour, are those which God most abhors, and which most effectually seal them up under wrath.