The Story of Micah’s Idols

In this chapter, the story moves from the various judges of Israel to an anecdote that illustrates the overall worsening spiritual situation in the land. The people turn from the Lord and do more and more wrong among themselves. The last verse of the book of Judges is very telling, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in their own eyes.” The same words come in the present chapter, in Judges 17:6.

In this story, a man named Micah (not to be confused with the prophet Micah) took a lot of silver money from his mother. He confesses that he did this, and returns the money to her. She says, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my son!” She finds a silversmith to melt down the silver money to make an idol which gets set up in their house. One of Micah’s sons is then appointed as the priest to serve this idol.

The spiritual meaning of this is that an idol of any kind is a falsifying of our own worship and sense of the Lord. An idol is a ‘thing’ in a ‘place’, vested with power, whereas our worship and sense of the Lord is that he is fully everywhere and in everything. (Arcana Caelestia 3479, 3732) The essence of idolatry is that it emphasises external forms with no attention to the place and purpose of internal forms and realities. Our ‘idols’ can be whatever we love or desire or feel is important to us, over and above the Lord.

The story then shifts to a wandering Levite, a priest of Israel, who came from Bethlehem in Judah, and is looking for any place to stay. Israel had appointed six cities for Levites to live in, but this Levite is a wanderer. He eventually meets Micah, who takes him into his house and makes him a paid priest. Micah feels important because of this development.

This part of the story depicts the decline of Israel from its worship of the Lord to a state of allowing anything to be done if it seems right in someone’s eyes. The Levite is a trained priest, trained in the law of Moses, someone who should know the commandments of the Lord and also their prohibitions. This Levite is ‘looking for a place to go to’ which describes his apparent falling away from true priesthood. (See the description in Apocalypse Explained 444, about the Levites, and in Doctrine of Life 39 about priests.)

As well as indicating the extent of the spiritual fall of Israel into idolatry and wrong practices, this chapter representatively describes our own scope for moving away from a genuine worship of the Lord into a worship of ourselves and of the world, and the change that comes within us in doing this. It often changes very gradually and inexorably so that it is imperceptible even to ourselves. This is a danger, and the reason for our self-examination and vigilant care.

The name Micah means, “Who is like Jehovah God?” which is an ironical name for someone who turns away from God to substitute an idol made from silver money, in a completely false worship. In genuine repentance, we may ask, “Who is like Jehovah God?” implying that no one is like God, including ourselves, because we are all involved in wrong feelings, thinking and actions, and we know our need of and dependence on the Lord. (Apocalypse Revealed 531)

It is important to note the mother’s first words, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my son!” saying this for his confession and return of the money. She begins her part in the story with the truest of statements, i.e. that the Lord wants to bless us, even while she may just be glad to have all her money back.

“Silver” in the Word can mean truths, truths of faith and truth of good, but in an opposite sense, when used dishonestly, it means falsities. (Arcana Caelestia 1551)

5397. Genesis 42

1. And Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt; and Jacob said to his sons, Why do you look at one another?

2. And he said, Behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt; go down there, and buy for us from there, and let us live and not die.

3. And Joseph's ten brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt.

4. And Benjamin, Joseph's brother, Jacob did not send with his brothers, for he said, Perhaps harm may come to him.

5. And the sons of Israel came to buy in the midst of others who came; for the famine was in the land of Canaan.

6. And Joseph, he was the governor over the land, he was selling to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brothers came and bowed down to him, faces to the earth.

7. And Joseph saw his brothers, and recognized them; and he acted as a stranger to them, and spoke hard words to them, and said to them, Where have you come from? And they said, From the land of Canaan, to buy food.

8. And Joseph recognized his brothers, and they did not recognize him.

9. And Joseph remembered the dreams which he had dreamed involving them; and he said to them, You are spies; you have come to see the nakedness of the land.

10. And they said to him, No, my lord; and your servants come to buy food.

11. All we, the sons of one man are we. We are upright men; your servants are not spies.

12. And he said to them, No, but the nakedness of the land you have come to see.

13. And they said, Twelve are your servants, brothers are we, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and behold, the youngest is with our father today, and one is not.

14. And Joseph said to them, It is as I spoke to you, saying, You are spies.

15. In this manner you will be tested: As sure as Pharaoh lives, ¹ you shall not go out of here unless your youngest brother comes here.

16. Send one of you and let him fetch your brother; and you will be in bonds, and your words will be tested, whether the truth is with you. And if not, as sure as Pharaoh lives, ¹ you are spies.

17. And he shut them up in custody for three days.

18. And Joseph said to them on the third day, Do this and you will live, [for] I fear God:

19. If you are upright men, let one brother among you be in bonds in the house of your custody, and you, go, take corn for the famine of your houses.

20. And bring your youngest brother to me, and your words will be verified, and you will not die. And they did so.

21. And they said, a man to his brother, Assuredly we are guilty concerning our brother, whose anguish of soul we saw when he pleaded with us and we did not hear; therefore this anguish has come to us.

22. And Reuben answered them, saying, Did I not say to you, saying, Do not sin against the boy - and you did not listen? And also, his blood; behold, it is required.

23. And they did not know that Joseph was hearing, because the interpreter was between them.

24. And he turned away from them and wept; and he came back to them and spoke to them; and he took Simeon from them, and bound him before their eyes.

25. And Joseph gave the command to fill ² their vessels with grain, and to restore their silver, each man's in his sack, and to give them provision for the way; and thus he did for them.

26. And they loaded their corn onto their asses, and went from there.

27. And one opened his sack to give fodder to his ass, in a lodging-place, and he saw his silver, and behold, it was in the mouth of his pouch.

28. And he said to his brothers, My silver has been restored, and also behold, it is in my pouch. And their heart went out of them, and they trembled [turning] a man to his brother, saying, What is this that God has done to us?

29. And they came to Jacob their father, to the land of Canaan; and they pointed out to him all that was happening to them, saying,

30. The man, the lord of the land, spoke hard words to us, and took us for men spying out the land.

31. And we said to him, We are upright men; we are not spies.

32. Twelve are we, brothers, the sons of our father; one is not, and the youngest is today with our father in the land of Canaan.

33. And the man, the lord of the land, said to us, By this I shall know that you are upright men: Cause one brother among you to remain with me, and take [food for] the famine of your houses, and go.

34. And bring your youngest brother to me, and I shall know that you are not spies, that you are upright men; I will give you your brother, and you will wander through the land, trading.

35. And so it was, as they were emptying their sacks, that behold, each man's bundle of silver was in his sack; and they saw their bundles of silver, they and their father, and they were afraid.

36. And Jacob their father said to them, You have bereaved me [of my children]; Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and you take Benjamin. All these things will be upon me.

37. And Reuben said to his father - he said, Make my two sons die if I do not bring him back to you; give him into my hand, and I will bring him back to you.

38. And he said, My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he, he alone, is left. And should harm happen to him on the road on which you go, you will cause my grey hair to go down in sorrow to the grave.

CONTENTS

³ The subject at the end of the previous chapter was the influx of the celestial of the spiritual into the known facts present in the natural and the joining of it to these. Now the subject is the influx of the celestial of the spiritual into the truths of faith there which are known to the Church and the joining of it to those truths. Dealt with first is the attempt to gain possession of these truths through the facts known to the Church, which are 'Egypt', and to do so without the intermediary, which is 'Benjamin', along with truth from the Divine, which is 'Joseph'. But this was a failure, and therefore they were returned to where they came from, together with a measure of the good of natural truth freely given.

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