Samuel may be considered the last judge, but in Judges itself, Samson is the end of the line.
Following Samson, who “judged Israel twenty years” (Jdg 16:31), we are introduced to Micah, whose name is a rhetorical question: Who is like Jah? Who indeed—certainly not idols! He lives in the mountains of Ephraim (17:1), not far from the altar at Shiloh, but Micah and his mother are drawn to idolatry. He had pilfered “eleven hundred shekels of silver” from her, and hearing her put a curse on the thief, decides to come clean. In a series of theological contortions, she says, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my son!…I had wholly dedicated the silver from my hand to the Lord for my son, to make a carved image and a molded image; now therefore, I will return it to you” (vv 2-3). What? The son is to be blessed by the Lord for returning the stolen goods which will be dedicated to the Lord for the son to make carved and molded images for pretended worship of the Lord? But it goes further. “Micah had a shrine, and made an ephod and household idols; and he consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest” (v 5). If men can make gods, I suppose they can make priests! Yet this is true of the sacerdotal systems of Christendom, too. But it gets worse. A Levite, from Bethlehem of all places, is traveling through, and Micah offers him a job. He takes it, settling for a wage, a wardrobe, and a meal ticket (v 10). Levites for hire! And Micah’s conclusion? “Now I know that the Lord will be good to me, since I have a Levite as priest!” (v 13). This conclusion of the religious is wrong. God is not good to us because we are good, but because He is good! No wonder the story is bracketed with the grim diagnosis of Israel’s spiritual disarray (see Jdg 17:6; 18:1). Sadly, this self-will could also be written over the lands of the West today.