While we are not told how the young Levite rationalizes his betrayal of his calling as Levite, the feelings of Micah are writ large in the narrative. He is bursting with joy over what has happened. Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, because I have a Levite as priest.
Micah, in his thinking, has capped off his successes of getting his shrine, ephod, household gods, the carved and metal images, with a real live Levitical priest. He is thinking, Now I have ticked all the boxes. How can God give me anything but the best of fortune?
He believes that with this latest development, now his worship has legitimacy. Surely this Levite’s presence will guarantee divine blessing upon Micah’s house.
Tragically, neither Micah nor the Levite is aware of the fact that this really has nothing to do with worshipping as the Lord commanded. Instead, pure worship is seen as the accumulation of religion- or God-related things. His mother’s curse threw him into a panic; now, finally, he is assured of blessing instead. And yet it is all a mirage. He wants to serve the Lord, but the beating heart of his religion is thoroughly Canaanite. Micah’s motivation for worship was materialistic, which was basically no different from what motivated Baal worship. Baal was thought to provide rain, and therefore fertility, and thus he was worshipped in an effort to bring success to the crops. Micah was no different, except that he worshipped the Lord, in effect regarding him as Baal! The Levite is nothing more than his good-luck charm.1 He is using religion for personal gain. On this there can be no blessing.
13 Then Micah said, “Now I know that the LORD will prosper me, because I have a Levite as priest.”