When There is No King, Part 1 - Judges 17-18
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The music band Skillet is a Christian Rock band, I used to listen to them a lot during my teen and college days. The lead singer of the band’s name is John Cooper, and he once said “I'm amazed that so many Christians want the benefits of the kingdom of God, but with the caveat that they themselves be the king."
In so many ways, that sums up the book of Judges.
We have seen the cycles go around. We saw Othniel and Ehud and Shamgar. We saw Deborah and Barak. Gideon, Abimelech, Jepthah, and and several minor judges Tola, Jair, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon. Then finally we saw the life of Samson.
I hope as I read through that list of judges that you were able to bring some of the details of these judges to mind. I hope you were able to reflect on the lives of some of these individuals and how God used them mightily to being deliverance to Israel.
I hope you were also able to remember that the names at the beginning of that list acted much more noble than the individuals toward the end of the list. Men like Othniel, Ehud, Barak, and even the early part of Gideon’s life. These individuals were very concerned with the wellbeing of the people.
As the cycles wax on. however, we find that increasingly that the judges act more for their own interest than the for interest of the nation. This really began in a clear way with Gideon, as he went from fighting for the nation to enacting his own personal revenge and establishing himself in a kingly position while rejecting the title. Men like Abimelech and Jepthah only did things for other in so far as it served their own interest and established their own authority. By the time we get to Samson there is not even a pretense of seeking to serve the people, but rather their judge was entirely self-focused, self-guided, and ultimately ended in self-destruction.
There has been a clear trend, not only in the people, but in the leadership as well.
Samson is the last judge in the book of Judges. There will be one more judge in Isreal, and his name is Samuel, but within this book itself, Samson is the last one.
The author has taken us through this period of the nation of Israel's history and has skillfully illustrated the cyclical decline of the people as they have become increasingly Canaanized. As we arrive at the end of the book, the author gives us two concluding stories that each have a few episodes each.
The stories that remain are going to leave a bad taste in your mouth. They may even make you sick to your stomach. There are difficult things in these last few chapters, and that’s especially true in that last portion of the book, which we will examine in the next couple of weeks.
In many ways, these are some of the most difficult chapters of the old testament. I’ve had different people ask me over the years what the point of these stories is. how do we find benefit from them? What are we supposed to do?
As we prepare ourselves to read this, I need you to know that the sickening feeling that we are going to experience is a good thing. We aren’t supposed to look at these stories and gloss over the troubling details in search of typology or veiled analogies to Christ.
We’re supposed to sit and stare into the face of our own depravity and see how vile sin really is, and see what happens to a society that has turned its back on the King of kings. So don’t try to push the yucky feeling away. Embrace it for the gift that it is.
Where does a rejection of the King of kings and the subsequent increasing worldliness of a society including its rulers lead?
Today, we see that it inevitably leads to idolatry, and to a pursuit of selfish ambition.
Beginning with Idolatry
Inevitability of Idolatry
Inevitability of Idolatry
1 There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Micah. 2 And he said to his mother, “The 1,100 pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse, and also spoke it in my ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it.” And his mother said, “Blessed be my son by the Lord.” 3 And he restored the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother. And his mother said, “I dedicate the silver to the Lord from my hand for my son, to make a carved image and a metal image. Now therefore I will restore it to you.” 4 So when he restored the money to his mother, his mother took 200 pieces of silver and gave it to the silversmith, who made it into a carved image and a metal image. And it was in the house of Micah. 5 And the man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and household gods, and ordained one of his sons, who became his priest. 6 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
Here is a unique situation. A man comes clean to his mother about stealing her silver. It might be inferred from the text that he is coming clean because she uttered a curse and maybe some bad things were happening, so he confesses. He seems to link the curse to his confession.
She responds with several shocking actions. First he calls him blessed by the LORD, and she uses the covenant name of God, YAHWEH to issue a blessing to likely correct the curse that she had previously uttered.
But look at what she does with the money!
She dedicates it to YAHWEH....but then makes an idol out of a portion of the money!
It’s bad enough that she creates an idol, which is expressly forbidden by God.
God has made it clear that He is the one true God. There are none other. To make an idol and worship the created thing over the creator is the most arrogant and despicable act any human can do.
Rom 1 speaks to this.
She only adds to the egregiousness of the sin by having the audacity to say “this is YAHWEH! As if one could capture the likeness of God with a metal carving, as if someone could contain the immensity and splendor and beauty of the LORD in pieces of silver, as if anyone could ever express the glory of God in such an image as that.
This calls to mind the Israelites at Mt Sinai, when Moses was on the mountain and the people clamored out to Aaron, make us an image, we don’t know what has become of Moses. Aaron collected gold and made the infamous golden calf, but had the audacity to say “This is YAHWEH your god who brought you out of Egypt!”
God went to great lengths to teach the people that there is but one true God and no one can capture him in some carved image.
But those lessons seem to be long forgotten, as Micah’s mother commissions this idol.
Micah’s response is to not only worship the image, but turn his household into a shrine, complete with priestly garments and then he makes his son a priest. This is a further violation of the Law of Moses. Of course only Levites could be priests. This only demonstrates the continued Canaanization of the people, as it was common for the Canaanites for their households to make their sons priests over their household shrines.
To a later Israelite who might have been further trained in the law, these are shocking developments. These things ought not to be!
The narrator helps us out with verse 6.
There was no king. There was no one to be the firm leader that the people needed. They had rejected the LORD as king and none of the judges were providing the leadership they so desperately needed, case in point, the last judge Samson.
Samson was the one who pursued the Philistine woman because she was, in his own words “right in my eyes”
So now all the people are doing the same.
And why not? If you cast of the rule of the LORD, what’s left to follow? Whatever seems good to you the result.
When people detach themselves from the guidance of the Lord, they do whatever is right in their own sinful eyes, and so often that leads to aimless wandering and restless searching for something. As we read on we find a few wandering individuals and groups, who seem to be motivated by their own selfish ambition.
Inevitability of Selfish Ambition
Inevitability of Selfish Ambition
7 Now there was a young man of Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there. 8 And the man departed from the town of Bethlehem in Judah to sojourn where he could find a place. And as he journeyed, he came to the hill country of Ephraim to the house of Micah. 9 And Micah said to him, “Where do you come from?” And he said to him, “I am a Levite of Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to sojourn where I may find a place.” 10 And Micah said to him, “Stay with me, and be to me a father and a priest, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year and a suit of clothes and your living.” And the Levite went in. 11 And the Levite was content to dwell with the man, and the young man became to him like one of his sons. 12 And Micah ordained the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.
So now a Levite enters the story. The test says twice that the man is “looking for a place.”
There is ambiguity in the language there, so its not entirely clear what it is that he’s looking for. It may be a home. A new job. A place to call his own. A new area to put down roots.
From the context I think we can surmise that he was seeking to find a place for himself that might benefit him in some way.
Already we have another issue. The Levites were not supposed to seek out land or a portion. God had said in his Law that He was their portion and that they were to be content serving the Lord though the tabernacle and temple ministries. The Levites aren’t supposed to be seeking to make anything for themselves but relying upon God’s provision.
The fact that he is wandering could be indicative of at least two things. 1. The people of the land are failing to provide for the Levites as God commanded in His Law. 2. The Levites are failing to trust God’s provision and are selfishly looking to establish themselves by wandering around looking for a place. With what we know about the land at the time, it’s likely a sad combination of the two.
I any case, he shows up, happens to run into Micah, and Micah offers him a job as his personal household priest, and the text says that the Levite was “content to dwell with him”
But notice also the motivation for Micah in verse 13:
Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, because I have a Levite as a priest”
For all his failures, for all his violations, Micah thinks he can curry the Lord’s favor simply by giving a token nod toward what he seems to know is good and proper.
He ignores everything God says in his word, but then when he has the opportunity to hire a Levite, he has the audacity to think that alone will bring blessing, despite his ongoing disobedience to what God has clearly said.
Church, we need to be careful. It’s easy for us to sit and look at what these characters are doing and shake our heads. But so often we are prone to the same thing. How often do we think we can perform our token actions while ignoring other things God has said. We think we can trade obedience in one area for blessing and license to be disobedient in other areas. If we are approaching any area of our life this way, there is one thing to do: Repent, and seek the Lord with your whole heart. Rend your hearts and not your garments, as the Lord says through the prophet Joel.
As it turns out, the Levite wasn’t the only one wandering around looking for a place. Let’s begin moving through chapter 18.
1 In those days there was no king in Israel. And in those days the tribe of the people of Dan was seeking for itself an inheritance to dwell in, for until then no inheritance among the tribes of Israel had fallen to them.
Once again, the narrator feels the need to remind us that there was no king in Israel. There was no one to direct the people. There was no one to be God’s appointed leader so the people could direct their steps accordingly.
There is a passage in Proverbs that often get abused, but it is applicable here.
Its Prov 29:18
18 Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint,
but blessed is he who keeps the law.
In the traditional KJV the text says “where there is no vision, the people perish”
But the word for vision speaks of a prophetic word, or a word of revelation. It’s not talking about vision casting for an organization, but when the Word of God is neglected the people cast off restraint, they run amok, they are out of control.
There is nothing to restrain them, there is nothing to guide them. Because Israel has neglected the word of God, this is what is happening to them.
The Danites are looking for their own place. There actually was an area of land that was alloted to them in Joshua 19:40ff. But if you recall, all the way back in Judges 1:34-35, we find that the Danites were unable to take possession of the land alloted to them.
34 The Amorites pressed the people of Dan back into the hill country, for they did not allow them to come down to the plain. 35 The Amorites persisted in dwelling in Mount Heres, in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim, but the hand of the house of Joseph rested heavily on them, and they became subject to forced labor.
So they are still a tribe looking to be more settled.
Read on.
2 So the people of Dan sent five able men from the whole number of their tribe, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land and to explore it. And they said to them, “Go and explore the land.” And they came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there. 3 When they were by the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young Levite. And they turned aside and said to him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What is your business here?” 4 And he said to them, “This is how Micah dealt with me: he has hired me, and I have become his priest.” 5 And they said to him, “Inquire of God, please, that we may know whether the journey on which we are setting out will succeed.” 6 And the priest said to them, “Go in peace. The journey on which you go is under the eye of the Lord.”
It’s rather pretentious of this Levite to declare God’s blessing on an activity He did not sanction, but they’re breaking every other rule in the book, so why not? Make false promises for the sake of making them at ease. The result is that the Danites are going to go on their own conquest and destroy a city.
7 Then the five men departed and came to Laish and saw the people who were there, how they lived in security, after the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and unsuspecting, lacking nothing that is in the earth and possessing wealth, and how they were far from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone. 8 And when they came to their brothers at Zorah and Eshtaol, their brothers said to them, “What do you report?” 9 They said, “Arise, and let us go up against them, for we have seen the land, and behold, it is very good. And will you do nothing? Do not be slow to go, to enter in and possess the land. 10 As soon as you go, you will come to an unsuspecting people. The land is spacious, for God has given it into your hands, a place where there is no lack of anything that is in the earth.”
They offer a good report on their mission, they note how the place is rather isolated and that they are an unsuspecting people. It will be an easy victory. So they pursue it!
11 So 600 men of the tribe of Dan, armed with weapons of war, set out from Zorah and Eshtaol, 12 and went up and encamped at Kiriath-jearim in Judah. On this account that place is called Mahaneh-dan to this day; behold, it is west of Kiriath-jearim. 13 And they passed on from there to the hill country of Ephraim, and came to the house of Micah.
14 Then the five men who had gone to scout out the country of Laish said to their brothers, “Do you know that in these houses there are an ephod, household gods, a carved image, and a metal image? Now therefore consider what you will do.” 15 And they turned aside there and came to the house of the young Levite, at the home of Micah, and asked him about his welfare. 16 Now the 600 men of the Danites, armed with their weapons of war, stood by the entrance of the gate. 17 And the five men who had gone to scout out the land went up and entered and took the carved image, the ephod, the household gods, and the metal image, while the priest stood by the entrance of the gate with the 600 men armed with weapons of war. 18 And when these went into Micah’s house and took the carved image, the ephod, the household gods, and the metal image, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?” 19 And they said to him, “Keep quiet; put your hand on your mouth and come with us and be to us a father and a priest. Is it better for you to be priest to the house of one man, or to be priest to a tribe and clan in Israel?” 20 And the priest’s heart was glad. He took the ephod and the household gods and the carved image and went along with the people.
These Danites seem to be rather opportunistic. They see an opportunity. The Levite gave them a blessing before, so now they invite him to be their priest over their whole clan instead of just one household. The Levite jumps at the opportunity.
So much for being content and being like a father to Micah. He is just as opportunistic as the Danites.
Let’s conclude the chapter. We will see a confrontation between Micah and the Danites, and then the conquest of the Danites.
21 So they turned and departed, putting the little ones and the livestock and the goods in front of them. 22 When they had gone a distance from the home of Micah, the men who were in the houses near Micah’s house were called out, and they overtook the people of Dan. 23 And they shouted to the people of Dan, who turned around and said to Micah, “What is the matter with you, that you come with such a company?” 24 And he said, “You take my gods that I made and the priest, and go away, and what have I left? How then do you ask me, ‘What is the matter with you?’ ” 25 And the people of Dan said to him, “Do not let your voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows fall upon you, and you lose your life with the lives of your household.” 26 Then the people of Dan went their way. And when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his home.
27 But the people of Dan took what Micah had made, and the priest who belonged to him, and they came to Laish, to a people quiet and unsuspecting, and struck them with the edge of the sword and burned the city with fire. 28 And there was no deliverer because it was far from Sidon, and they had no dealings with anyone. It was in the valley that belongs to Beth-rehob. Then they rebuilt the city and lived in it. 29 And they named the city Dan, after the name of Dan their ancestor, who was born to Israel; but the name of the city was Laish at the first. 30 And the people of Dan set up the carved image for themselves, and Jonathan the son of Gershom, son of Moses, and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land. 31 So they set up Micah’s carved image that he made, as long as the house of God was at Shiloh.
The Danites took Micah’s idols and priest by force. They took the land by force. They settled in the city and they set up that idol to worship in the place of Yahweh.
When there is no King. Idolatry is rampant. I keep saying when there is no king.
The reality is, there is a King! But Israel has rejected his rule and thus are reaping the consequences.
We see this in our own society don’t we? When we cast off the rulership of the King of kings, one of the reformation theologians once said that our heart is an idol factorty. To worship is human. The question becomes, what will you worship?
If you worship the one true God, you find life!
But if we reject his rule over our lives, the only end to that is death.
When we reject his rule, the question becomes, to what will we submit ourselves? The answer is always ourselves or whatever seems right to us in our own eyes.
And so we pursue our own selfish ambition. The Lord warns us:
12 There is a way that seems right to a man,
but its end is the way to death.
The only antidote to this is to forsake our own way in favor of the way of the Lord.
6 “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near;
7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
Micah, the Levite, the Danites. They all did what was right in their own eyes, and it was wickedness all the way around. Micah thought he could earn the Lord’s favor by token religious nods. We are so prone to that kind of thing ourselves.
We’re about to close with Come Thou Fount in a moment.
Verse three carries these lyrics:
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave I God I love
And it begs for God’s hand of protentction:
Here’s my heart, Lord take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above.
May that be our prayer as we contemplate these things.