"So when he [Micah] had returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, 'I had wholly dedicated the silver from my hand to the LORD for my son, to make a carved image and a mold-
ed image; now therefore, I will return it to you.' "
Now, here is theological confusion at its worst. Micah's mother thinks she is doing God a service, by asking her son to make a carved image, (something explicitly prohibited in the 2nd Commandment). On top of this, Micah gets a priest from Bethlehem to be his own "home priest," and expects that God will be pleased with this(!), (see v. 13).
Why all this sad confusion? Because "everyone did what was right in his own eyes," (v. 6b). This was because there was no king. With no good clergy in the church, the same thing happens today.
[Puritan quote of the day: "Conscience is like a bee: If a man does well, it gives honey; if ill, it puts forth a sting." --Thomas Watson, in his sermon, "A Plea for the Godly"]
