This chapter begins with that statement from 17:6. The same phrase appears in 19:1 and 21:25. The implications are that there was no-one in control to be accountable to and that there would be no punishment for wrong doers for there was no-one to say to say what was wrong or right. Everyone pleased themselves – much like today!
We are reminded again of the Danites who were “Seeking an inheritance”, whatever for? They already had one! “For until that day their whole inheritance among the tribes of Israel had not yet fallen to them.” What were they waiting for? It appears that they were sitting back expecting it to come to them, whereas they had been instructed by God as to how they were to go about obtaining it. We read when looking at the life of Samson that the Danites had difficulty in taking their allotted portion. Moses had given them the Word of The LORD in Numbers 33:50-56 as to how they should go forward – drive them out, destroy their idols, dispossess them of the land and dwell in it. However, they seemed to have been expecting the dwelling without the drive, destroy and dispossession. The Danites were one of the largest tribes but the Amorites were restricting them as virtual prisoners in their own land. Rather than obey God they took things into their own hands and sent off a five-man spy group to check on spare land situation. If only they had been obedient, they would have had land on their own doorstep. Maybe it seemed easier to go for land which required least warfare. Their inheritance was promised upon their obedience, but they were afraid to take God at His word. Their attitude seemed to be ‘we can’t’ rather than ‘God can’. They were seeking an inheritance when God had already told them where it was. So often the grass is always greener in the next field.
We are just the same today when all we have is in Jesus, but we do not claim our inheritance, rather we go off elsewhere looking for satisfaction. God has said “Bring me, prove me and I will open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing….” (Malachi 3:10)
We often do not experience the fullness of the Christian life because of our disobedience and lack of faith. Little wonder we lack joy or satisfaction. It is apparently true but definitely untrue that it is easier and better to do our own thing. We must drive out sin, destroy it and dispossess, put God in control and then dwell.
The five-man team of spies travel to the mountains of Ephraim, probably among the Samarian hills, to the east of the territory assigned to Dan and on their travels they lodged in the house of Micah and whilst they were there they recognized the voice of the young Levite. They asked him what he was doing there and when he told them they asked him, “Please enquire of God that we may know if our journey will be prosperous.” He answered, “Go in peace, may the presence of The LORD be with you, your journey has The LORD’s approval.”
If he had been genuine in seeking The LORD for the answer to their question and if he had been honest, he would have told them that they didn’t need another inheritance. He knew little of God’s Word, otherwise he would have given them exhortation and encouragement that they already had the fullness of their inheritance from God. He was not a true priest despite being a Levite, he was only saying what his enquirers wanted to hear rather than God’s Word however unpalatable it would have been.
Paul reminds us in 2 Timothy 4:1-5 “I charge you therefore before God and the LORD Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom:Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry.”
It certainly happens today that people want to hear only what they want to hear or what tickles their ears. Some only listen to and are excited by what they want to hear. Often wanting something new because the old paths have become boring!
It was easier to run away than to drive out the enemy, destroy and dispossess. The wanted to ‘dwell’ without the work before it. The people in Laish, where they went to – “They saw the people who were there, how they dwelt safely, in the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure. There were no rulers in the land who might put them to shame for anything. They were far from the Sidonians, and they had no ties with anyone.” (v7).They were very secluded, following peaceful pursuits of agriculture, living in their fertile valley according to the Sidonian style of ease in security, happy amongst themselves and maintaining little or no contact with the rest of the world. A Seeming paradise! The Danites still had to go and conquer the land but it seemed easier prey than the land which God had allocated to them. It would be far simpler to overcome these easy-going pacifists.
How we think we know best! God’s way may seem hard and difficult at times, so we go on our own expeditions and there is no doubt that we may win, as they did, but they were still not living where God had planned for them. They settled in Laish which they renamed Dan and in it they set up an idolatrous form of worship (v30,31). Being far away from the rest of their tribe who stayed south in their allocated land, led to isolation and to idolatry.
We must be very careful not to isolate ourselves by dwelling quiet and secure – The Sidonians made that mistake and the Danites were far away from their own people, going to a land which had everything. (v10) Not only did they set up idolatrous form of worship, but they persuaded Micah’s priest to be their priest. On their way to the conquest, the five spies took time off from the 600 fighting men and called in to Micah’s house and stole his idols and here the priest shows his true colours. When he asked what they were doing in stealing the idols, they make him an offer he couldn’t refuse – Come and be priest to a tribe, rather than to one family (v19). Promotion – it was like promotion from a priest to a bishop! His heart was glad (v20) and he took the ephod, the idols and the carved image. He shows complete disloyalty to the one who had given him a home, a job and all that he needed. Not only leaving but taking Micah’s property with him.
I suggest that despite his good family upbringing (assumed, being a Levite) he was far away from being a godly man. This was evidenced by –
· His practicing idolatry
· His lack of contact with God
· His lack of knowledge of God’s Word to Israel
· His sin in theft of Micah’s property
· His ego in accepting the offer to be a priest to a tribe rather than one family
· His disloyalty to Micah
· His failure to speak up against wrong.
I’m not sure how long the priest lasted there because in v30 we read that after the Danites rebuilt the city of Laish, Jonathan the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh (or Moses) and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the captivity.
In 1 Kings 12:28-31 King Jeroboam – “…. made two calves of gold, and said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!” And he set up one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan. He made shrines on the high places, and made priests from every class of people, who were not of the sons of Levi.” Dan became quite a notable place for idolatry, and I guess the king would have no difficulty or opposition as Dan in the north had been founded on idolatrous worship.
In 2 Chronicles 30 King Hezekiah sent word to all the tribes to come and celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem. The proclamation went to Dan (v5) but whilst people of Asher and Naphtali, Dan’s northern neighbours attended we do not read that Dan’s people did. The others “…. humbled themselves and went” (v11). It would appear that maybe Dan’s idolatry became such that they were no longer interested in remembering the truth, the Passover, the truth about The God who brought them up out of Egypt and the blood covering them guaranteeing their rescue from the angel of death.
We must be very careful as we can be led astray from the truth even by religion. There are many false teachers around. Jesus said that in the last days there would be. The problem is that many who are peddling their false teaching profess to be born again believers who are teaching and practising error. We may not always have a monopoly of the truth, but whatever we hear and are persuaded to follow, MUST be checked out against the Word of God and not just taken out of context, or seemingly good, pleasant, harmless and exciting.
We must have a full balanced understanding of The Scriptures. Everything must be tested. The Bible says, “We must test the spirits whether they be of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (1 John4:1) and 1 Timothy 4:1,2 says, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron.” Whilst that maybe a general statement, the context is deceitful teaching regarding cohabitation without marriage and abstaining from certain foods.
There are many who say that by putting on restrictions in what we do In our churches we are quenching The Holy Spirit and becoming chained and in bondage to legalism. Following The Word of God is not legalism but obedience and can only be for our good. The Pharisees were legalistic in that they went further than the law of God and added rules which even some of them did not keep. Jesus called them ‘hypocrites – whited sepulchres full of dead men’s bones. ‘One writer has referred to them as ‘the Royal Order of backstabbers’. Let us be careful that we do not misuse the word ‘freedom’ and use our so-called newfound freedom as licence to do as we please. The opposite of legalism is not doing ‘what you like, when you like, how you like’ or ‘going where you like, when you like, or how you like and with whom you like’. When that is the situation we are really no different to the people in the days of the judges when in their absence ‘everyone did that which was right in their own eyes’. There must be some sort of control and level of standards and the Apostle Paul says, “Everything should be done decently and in order” (1 Corinthians 14:40). These words are directed specifically to order in the churches.
We are set free from the law of sin and death, which is the practice and punishment of evil. We are not set free from holiness and purity of life, witness and worship.
Those who teach the false freedom of doing as you please, or to use their term, ‘as the spirit leads’ though one must sometimes question which spirit?’ They are misleading in the extreme. As those who have no restraints find that they come into a bondage far worse than the one they preach against. Oswald Chambers said, “Be careful that what appears to be a key turns out to be a lock” and another has said to be careful that a seeming liberty can become a burden.. e.g. The discovery of Nuclear Energy was thought to signal great liberty, but the increasing knowledge has become a burden. Rather than liberating people it has put people in bondage and created greater fear. Sometimes the error is obvious, but often it is not quite so clear and we must use The Word of God not just as a textbook, but by prayer, meditation and study seek God’s will, and never be afraid to seek wise counsel.
We should not be moving around here and there and everywhere trying to find something that suits our own wishes. What someone has described as ‘butterfly Christians’. Let us work where God has placed us for we are not here by mistake. All this moving around from church to church and following modern day so-called prophet/teacher or another is dishonouring to The LORD and not for our benefit or that of others and certainly not for The Glory of God. The world laughs at us and thinks that we don’t know what we are doing – that we cannot agree with one another and consequently we ‘take our bat and ball elsewhere’.
Some spend their time judging others but never think that they themselves are guilty of the same or similar sins. Paul says in Romans 2:1 “Therefore you are inexcusable O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practise the same things.” Tough and pointed words!
The LORD hates Pharisaism for God looks on the heart not the outward appearance. However, that does not mean that we can forget about the outward appearance; seems to me that what God is saying really is make sure your outward appearance matches your inward state. Remember Jesus’ longest sermon was against Pharisaism. Paul writing to Timothy (quoted earlier) said that he was to be watchful in all things, so, if we say we can do anything why is there a need to be watchful? It is clear that God expects us to weigh carefully what we hear, against His revelation to test the reality of it. Experiences can mislead us however good they may appear. Never forget that Satan can appear as an angel of light as well as a roaring lion. If he always manifested himself as a rampant beast we would usually steer clear and walk warily; but we can so easily be taken in by the beautiful light of an angel.
Sadly, many who lead others astray are extremely uncaring of their followers. The Levite had no real care for Micah and his family and his property for that matter. Micah’s religion was so shallow, look at his response, “You have taken away my gods and my priest what more do I have?” (v24) And “When he saw that the men of Dan were stronger than himself, he went back home” (v26) He had nothing left. His religion was purely a form and certainly was not life changing. It didn’t mean very much to him. The words of Paul written many years later did not apply to his religion – ‘Endure afflictions for it.’
We have our dependence upon Almighty God, who, though we may fall, will, if we are humble before Him and seek His face and turn from our wicked ways in true repentance, yes, He will forgive and restore us. He will never leave us, and no-one can steal Him from us. “….a good man, though he fall, he will not be utterly cast down.” (Psalm 37:23,24) Our salvation is eternal, Praise God! It is due entirely to Him and not me. Let us possess our inheritance and not strive for things that are simply seen and visible but exercise true faith and trust in Him.
And one other lesson – the five spies had been to Micah’s house before (v14). They led the 600 warriors there and carelessly went there again. They knew of the idolatrous worship there – their own words indicate that, but they still went. We must be careful where we go and often take others with us! Especially to places which we know are not spiritually beneficial. Often we may be encouraged to go out of excitement, thinking that we will be able to withstand any temptation. It is foolishness in the extreme. The same applies to what is available to read, watch or listen to.
The house of God was in Shiloh some 80 miles away. They did not take it with them or set up another there. That seems to indicate that true worship was not an important part of their lives. It had become ‘Out of sight, out of mind!’
