Wednesday, November 10, 2004
The Great Martyr Orestes of Cappadocia
Kellia: Judges 17:1-13 Epistle: 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12 Gospel: St. Luke 11:42-46
Judges 17:1-13, especially vs. 6: "In those days there was no king in
Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes." The Book of Judges provides an historic
bridge between the Book of Joshua and the four Books of the Kings (so called in the LXX, but 1st
and 2nd Samuel and 1st and 2nd Kings in most English Bibles). God's great Prophet Moses gave
the nation of Israel firm leadership during the Exodus from Egypt and during the years in the
wilderness. Moses' divinely appointed successor, the Prophet Joshua, led the People of God into
the Promised Land. The Judges were leaders raised up by God to deliver His People in the Land
from repeated cycles of apostasy, defeat, and oppression by adversaries.
Rather than profit spiritually from the painful cycles of plundering and deliverance, generation
after generation became snared in the worship of false gods and "did not drop any of their
practices or their stubborn ways" (Jdg. 2:19). Naturally, society sank steadily into anomie, the
chaos of every man doing "what was right in his own eyes" (Jdg. 17:6). The last portion of
Judges delves deeply into the national anarchy that ended only when God raised up the Prophet
Samuel to anoint the first kings for God's People and usher in government by monarchy.
When a people submit themselves to God and His Law, only then do they become "one nation
under God" and escape the bitterness of anarchy and lawlessness. The social alternative to
anomie emerges only when each person does what is right in God's eyes, having taken refuge
under God; for the Lord alone removes delusion and fills men with the true faith, hope, and love
that exist only in Him. The present reading lays bare the real causes of social chaos through
concrete examples of individualism run rampant in family life, in religion, and in life purpose. It
is worthy of prayerful reading so that God may show us His path to social and personal blessings.
The family of the Ephraimite, Micah, was in disarray. Lacking a sense of God's design for
money, Micah unilaterally appropriated the family savings, not discussing his decision with his
mother. He only confessed his seizure of the silver out of fear when his mother cursed the
unknown person she presumed had stolen the family reserves (vs. 2). Where was Micah's respect
for the Commandment of God to "honor thy father and thy mother" (Ex. 20:12)? What
confusion and ignorance led his mother to bless Micah in idolatry rather than teach him the godly
way to "consecrate [wealth] to the Lord" (Jdg. 17:3). Clearly this was not a family that knew the
necessity of teaching the Commandments of God to children, "talking of them....that your days
and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land...." (Deut. 11:19, 21).
Thus, Micah assembled a private shrine with "a graven image," an offense to the Lord, not
knowing, respecting, nor having reference to the Divine Commandments (Ex. 20:4,5). Rather, he
mimicked the worship which the Lord had given His People through Moses but mingled it with
practices from the worship of idols. In further ignorance, he "installed one of his sons, who
became his priest"(vs. 5), vesting him in an ephod, a garment reserved for the priests, and
providing him with teraphim, objects used in divination, a practice forbidden in the Divine Law
(Deut. 18:10). Lacking instruction in the Holy Traditions of the Faith, he invented his own.
Then there came "a Levite of Bethlehem in Judah" (Jdg. 17:9) whom Micah invited to serve in
his "eclectic" shrine. Looking for a place to sojourn, the Levite accepted Micah's offer to fulfill a
priestly role - a position not sanctioned for Levites. Thus a completely apostate center for
worship was created. Brethren, let us "stand firm and hold to the traditions which [we] were
taught" (2 Thess. 2:15) by the Lord and His Apostles, not descending into chaos and anomie.
O Lord, Who blessest those who bless Thee, preserve the fulness of Thy Church.