AM Bible Study Group; October 14, 2015 from Judges 18:1-31
Theme: This chapter illustrates the social disorder that follows after a culture’s religious decline.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
The first few words of this chapter explain much of what is contained in it: “In those days there was no king in Israel.” It’s a chapter that describes the terrible civil unrest that characterized the Jewish people in the time of the judges. But the reason for this unrest is found earlier—in the words of Judges 17:6; “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” The breakdown of the religious life of the people in Chapter 17 because of their disobedience to the law of God led to the social and civil breakdown we find in Chapter 18.
It’s important to notice a clue to the possible time frame of this part of Israel’s history. The story involves the idolater Micah (that we met in the last chapter) and his unlawfully-appointed priest. At the end of Chapter 18, we discover that this priest is identified as “Jonathan the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh” (v. 30). “Manasseh”, in some texts, is found as “Moses”; and if this is the case, then this “priest” may be the grandson of Moses—putting the time frame quite early in the story of the judges. But it’s also possible that this is a way of expressing that this man was of the lineage of Moses; since “son” in some cases can mean “grandson” or “great-grandson”. In any case, the sorrowfulness of this man’s idolatry is highlighted by the fact that he is a descendent of the man through whom God gave the law forbidding idolatry. How sadly far the people of Israel had fallen!
Notice in this chapter how social disorder followed the religious decline of the people. We find the evidences in . . .
I. A TRIBE THAT WANDERED WITHOUT A HOME (vv. 1-2).
We’re told that the people of the tribe of Dan did not yet have an inheritance. We’re told in verse 12 that they lived in Kirjath Jearim, near Judah—a place called Mahaneh Dan (“Camp of Dan”). But as yet, they had not take hold of an inheritance; though God had commanded them to in the days of Joshua. Their struggles in taking an inheritance were even told to us back in Joshua 19:40-48. Their leaders decided to appoint five men to go out and spy the land and search for a new home. (Note that they were sent out from Zorah and Esthaol—the land in which Sampson grew up; see Judges 13:2, 25). When there is no spiritual restraint on the people through the law of God, then a group of people in need of a home becomes dangerous. And it’s not desperate straits of homelessness themselves that bring out the worst in a people; but rather the lack of a reverent obedience to God in the midst of those desperate straits that leads them to further wrongdoing.
II. A RELIGION THAT MERELY SANCTIONED HUMAN WILL (vv. 3-6).
It’s then that Micah from the previous chapter meets the Danites of this chapter. In their wanderings, they came upon the home of Micah. It appears that his home had grown into a cluster of homes; and perhaps his man-made religious system had become expressed in a sort of ‘retreat center’. While the Danites stayed at the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the Levite that had taken up with him. Perhaps the Levite—having come from the southern regions—had a bit of an accent that identified him; or perhaps he was well-known because of his famous family. When they found out that he was a “priest” to Micah, they asked him to inquire if their journey would be a successful one. Being the phoney priest that he was, he said, “The presence of the LORD be with you on your way” (v. 6)–even though their later actions show that they were not on God’s ‘way’ at all. He gave them the approval they wanted—just as the false priests did in the days of King Ahab (see 2 Chronicles 18:11). In a time of societal breakdown, those who are supposed to bear the word of God to the people, and serve as the conscience of the governing powers, no longer do so. Instead, religion simply becomes a ‘tool’ to the people; and the religious leaders simply become instruments by which wicked men are made to feel ‘approved of God’ in whatever things they choose to believe or do.
III. AN AGRESSION THAT WAS MOTIVATED BY MATERIAL GAIN (vv. 7-12).
As these five spies continued northward, they came upon a land formerly known as Laish—about 25 miles north of the Sea of Galilee, and nestled in a valley between the mountain ranges that isolated them and protected them. The New King James has it that that there were no rulers in the land ‘that might put them to shame for anything’; but as the New International Version has it, “their land lacked nothing, they were prosperous” (v. 7). In any case, it was a relatively peaceful people—unaided by anyone else, and largely ripe for the picking. The spies returned to their brethren in Zorah and Eshtaol, and said, “Arise, let us go up against them. For we have seen the land, and indeed it is very good. Would you do nothing? Do not hesitate to go, and enter to possess the land. When you go, you will come to a secure people and a large land. For God has given it into your hands, a place where there is no lack of anything that is on the earth.” And so, an army of six hundred (with their families) went up north to aggressively seize the land of Laish from its people. A culture without reverence toward God and an obedience to His law becomes a dangerous place to live. Innocent people are defenseless.
IV. A PRIEST THAT COULD EASILY BE BOUGHT (vv. 13-21).
In the course of their travels, they came again to Micah’s complex of homes—and particularly to his house and to the “priest” who lived there. The spies pointed out to the rest that in the houses were “an ephod, household idols, a carved image, and a molded image” (v. 14)—all of which would have been of significant value. “Now therefor”, they said to the rest, “consider what you should do.” As the Levite who now lived Micah’s house stood at the gate with them, they went in to rob Micah of these valuable but idolatrous items. When the Levite asked about it, they told him, “Be quiet, put your hand over your mouth, and come with us; be a father and a priest to us. Is it better for you to be a priest to the household of one man, or that you be a priest to a tribe and a family in Israel?” (v. 19). We’re told that his ‘heart was glad”; and he then joined them in their theft. Off they all went together to conquer Laish. This ‘priest’ wasn’t so devoted to Micah after all! He had all the personal commitment of a stray cat—always on the lookout for the better deal. But then, no one in that time—it seems—was really characterized by much devotion anyway.
V. A THIEVERY THAT COULD NOT BE RESTRAINED (vv. 22-26).
Naturally, Micah sought to stop this theft. He gathered together a group of men from the surrounding houses to go after these Danites and his runaway priest. When they met up, and the Danites asked what ailed him; he said that they had taken his gods which he had made, and his priest, and have gone away. His words “Now what more do I have?” constitute a sad commentary to the emptiness of his idolatry. If they were truly “gods”, then they were useless in that anyone could walk up and take them. And once they were taken from Micah, he was left with nothing. How empty his idolatry proved to be to him! They told him, “Do not let your voice be heard among us, lest angry men fall upon you, and you lose your life, with the lives of your household!” (v. 25). There was little Micah could do. He had stolen from his mother (17:2); and now, he was being robbed of what he had made from his theft. No one was in the land that could come to his defense. There were no police to call—no governmental authority to appeal to. He was helpless in a dangerous society that was in moral decline where everyone did whatever they wanted—and where no one could stop them.
VI. A BRUTALITY THAT VICTIMIZED THE INNOCENT (vv. 27-29).
The story that follows is horrifying. The people of Laish were “quiet and secure”; but the Danites came upon them and struck them with the sword, burned down their city, and rebuilt it for themselves. No one was able to deliver them. They called the name of the place “Dan” after their patriarch. But what an example they forever became of a land without rule!
VII. A PAGANISM THAT BECOMES ENGRAINED IN THE LAND (vv. 30-31).
Having now stolen Micah’s idols and his “priest”, and having taken a land from an innocent and helpless people—and all on the supposed basis of the approval of the God of Israel (see v. 6)—they then rejected God and set up for themselves the religion that Micah had made up. They worshiped his carved images, and were served by their phoney priest “until the day of the captivity of the land” (v. 30). This “captivity” may most likely be speaking of the oppression from the Philistines that characterized the land up to the time of Samuel (see 1 Samuel 4). The idolatry of the people of Dan eventuated in the official idolatry that King Jereboam later imposed on the northern tribes in the time of the divided kingdom (see 1 Kings 12:25-33).
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Though it may be a misguided enterprise to try to find a point-by-point example of these things in our own land, there’s no question that many of the problems we face in our own times have their root in turning away from our God, His good commandments, and the Savior He has displayed to the world. And that being the case, there is yet hope for our nation through repentance and revival. It is as true for our own times as it was for Israel of old . . .
The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;
He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect.
The counsel of the Lord stands forever,
The plans of His heart to all generations.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,
The people He has chosen as His own inheritance (Psalm 33:10-12).