The opening words of the passage (Judges 17:1) recall some of the opening lines of the Samson narrative: There was a certain man… (Judges 13:2). This is not just a coincidence. We are hereby being invited to make a connection between the two accounts, and compare them. With the former narrative, the focus turned at the start to a woman, Manoah's barren wife, who was told she would bring forth a son who will begin to deliver Israel. Now, the focus turns immediately to Micah’s mother, who will bring forth not a child but an idol. She will be a source not of redemption but of corruption and apostasy…. And however ineffective a Savior Samson may prove to be, the contrast between a flawed Savior and a silver idol is a difference between day and night; it prepares us for what is to come.¹