The book of Judges is one of the saddest books in the Bible, and the concluding stories of Judges 17–21 are the saddest stories in the already sad book. The very last verse in Judges sums it up: “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit” (Judges 21:25). You may ask, “What is so sad about that? Everyone is doing exactly what they want.” This is indeed the mantra of our age—do what makes you happy! While “No Kings!” is a political statement directed at the President, it could aptly summarize our modern culture’s approach to all of life—no King, and we all do whatever we want.

Judges 17 tells the story of a man named Micah. He stole a large amount of money from his mother, but when he overheard his mother utter a curse, he became convicted and gave the money back to her. Micah appears to be a sincere guy with a tender conscience. He does what seems right.

His mother is so pleased by this that she consecrates the money to the Lord. But this story of mother and son united in worship takes a bizarre and unfortunate turn. The way she chose to honor the Lord was to make an idol out of the silver. Micah then added his own religious flair by adding some more idols and made his son a priest over his own little household shrine. Judges 17:6 summarizes this episode with the line, “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.”

The story gets more convoluted when a Levite who was looking for a new place to live dropped by. Remember that the Levites were to be dedicated to the right worship of God, caring for the Tabernacle and instructing the people on the right worship of God as described in the Torah, or the Law. But when this Levite was offered a job as Micah’s priest, overseeing this self-made shrine to Yahweh God, the Levite jumped at the opportunity and sanctioned what was forbidden by God.

What is so disturbing about this story is Micah’s response: “Now I know that the LORD will be good to me, since this Levite has become my priest” (17:13). Micah is genuine in his worship, Micah is sincere in his devotion, but Micah is genuinely and sincerely wrong. Later the Levite would be shown for the greedy charlatan that he was when some soldiers from the tribe of Dan gave him a better offer, and poor Micah was forced to watch as his idol and priest were taken away from him. Listen to his cry: “You took the gods I made, and my priest, and went away. What else do I have?” (18:24).

This story is a warning to us. We make horrible kings of our own lives. When we try to rule our lives apart from God, we will make a mess of things. We will hurt ourselves and others. Ignorance of God and his ways will not stand as a valid excuse. We must take Jesus’s warning in Matthew 7 seriously: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'”

Sincerity in our idolatry will not spare us from the heartache that comes from a life lived in rejection of God. We must be a people who not only acknowledge the Triune God as our King in word, but also in action. We must not be a people who do whatever we want, slap the name of the Lord on it, and call it good. We must be a people who diligently seek him (Hebrews 11:6).