JUDGES 18 – MICAH’S IDOLATRY AND THE MIGRATION OF THE TRIBE OF DAN

A. Dan spies out Laish.

1. (1-2) The tribe of Dan sends spies to look for land to take among the people of Israel.

Judges 18:1–2 NASB 95

In those days there was no king of Israel; and in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking an inheritance for themselves to live in, for until that day an inheritance had not been allotted to them as a possession among the tribes of Israel. So the sons of Dan sent from their family five men out of their whole number, valiant men from Zorah and Eshtaol, to spy out the land and to search it; and they said to them, “Go, search the land.” And they came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there.

a. For until that day their inheritance among the tribes of Israel had not fallen to them:

The tribe of Dan had land apportioned to them, but they found their own land too hard to conquer.

i. Judges 17 was the story of compromise and self-willed carnality in the lives of a few individuals. Judges 18 shows how these individual sins made entire tribes wicked and rebellious against God.

ii. Dan ment God is my Judge ironic that they are the first individual tribe that is talked about in the book of judges.

iii Dan is not talked about in the new testament. Keep that in mind as we go through this chapter.

b. So they went to the mountains of Ephraim:

Looking for easier land to conquer and make their own, the Danites came to the land of the tribe of Ephraim and the house of Micah.

Read James 4

James 4 NASB 95

What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”? But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you. Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor? Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.

2. (3-6) The Danites meet with Micah’s Levite.

Judges 18:3–6 NASB 95

When they were near the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young man, the Levite; and they turned aside there and said to him, “Who brought you here? And what are you doing in this place? And what do you have here?” He said to them, “Thus and so has Micah done to me, and he has hired me and I have become his priest.” They said to him, “Inquire of God, please, that we may know whether our way on which we are going will be prosperous.” The priest said to them, “Go in peace; your way in which you are going has the Lord’s approval.”

a. The recognized the voice of the young Levite:

It may be that the spies from the tribe of Dan knew the renegade Levite personally. It is also possible that they simply recognized his accent as being from the southern part of Judea.

b. Please inquire of God, that we may know whether the journey on which we go will be prosperous:

This shows what a spiritually confused time this was in Israel. These Danites on a sinful mission met with a sinful Levite and wanted to know from a righteous God if their mission would be successful. Then the sinful Levite sent the sinning men on their way with God’s blessing.

3. (7-10) The Danites choose a city for expansion: Laish.

Judges 18:7–10 NASB 95

Then the five men departed and came to Laish and saw the people who were in it living in security, after the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure; for there was no ruler humiliating them for anything in the land, and they were far from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone. When they came back to their brothers at Zorah and Eshtaol, their brothers said to them, “What do you report?” 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 sit still? Do not delay to go, to enter, to possess the land. When you enter, you will come to a secure people with a spacious land; for God has given it into your hand, a place where there is no lack of anything that is on the earth.”

a. They dwelt safely, in the manner of the Sidonians:

The Danites found a city nearby that was not occupied by Israelites, but by a colony of the Sidonians. This was a group that God told Israel to drive out of the land of Canaan (Joshua 13:4).

i. In his sermon titled The Danger of Carnal Security, Charles Spurgeon used the description of the Sidonians in Judges 18:7, 27-28 as a description of the false security of the carnal believer. They are, like the Sidonians:

· Free from all internal struggles or conflicts.

· Free from rulers such as the governor of conscience.

· Free from ties and concerns to other people.

· Free from the fear of invasion.

b. For we have seen the land, and indeed it is very good:

Seeing that the land was good, and the city was not heavily defended, the Danites believed this would be a good city to conquer and take as their own territory.

4. (11-13) They assemble an army of 600 to take possession of Laish.

Judges 18:11–13 NASB 95

Then from the family of the Danites, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, six hundred men armed with weapons of war set out. They went up and camped at Kiriath-jearim in Judah. Therefore they called that place Mahaneh-dan to this day; behold, it is west of Kiriath-jearim. They passed from there to the hill country of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah.

a. Six hundred men… armed with weapons of war:

Curiously, they assembled an army of 600 men to fight for the city of Laish in the land of the tribe of Ephraim; yet they could not fight for the land of their own tribal allotment. For some reason (to them and often to us) a distant battle seemed easier than a close battle.

B. The tribe of Dan adopts Micah’s idolatry.

1. (14-18a) On their way to Laish, the army of 600 men take Micah’s shrine for themselves.

Judges 18:14–18 NASB 95

Then the five men who went to spy out the country of Laish said to their kinsmen, “Do you know that there are in these houses an ephod and household idols and a graven image and a molten image? Now therefore, consider what you should do.” They turned aside there and came to the house of the young man, the Levite, to the house of Micah, and asked him of his welfare. The six hundred men armed with their weapons of war, who were of the sons of Dan, stood by the entrance of the gate. Now the five men who went to spy out the land went up and entered there, and took the graven image and the ephod and household idols and the molten image, while the priest stood by the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men armed with weapons of war. When these went into Micah’s house and took the graven image, the ephod and household idols and the molten image, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?”

a. Entering there, they took the carved image, the ephod, the household idols, and the molded image:

This was a strange combination of low morality and strong religious feeling. It was as if someone really wanted to study the Bible – therefore they stole several Bibles.

i. There are many examples in history of people satisfying a religious impulse in a completely immoral way. In Europe in the 14th century unemployed soldiers often became small armies of bandits and robbed and burned and killed and raped towns and villages all over Europe. These brutal criminals often negotiated with a town before attacking it. If the town agreed to give the brutes a large amount of money, the army left the city alone. If the town refused to give the money or could not give the money, they attacked. These were done with formal negotiations and contracts. They have discovered that when these horrible men came to a monastery, they insisted on money as well – but they also demanded that the priests of the monastery give them a written document saying that all their sins were forgiven.

b. Took the carved image, the ephod, the household idols, and the molded image:

They used violence and theft to supposedly advance a religious cause, and the priest allowed them by standing aside as they did so.

i. During the Los Angeles riots in the 1990’s, a reporter came across three looters leaving a store. He asked them what they took, and the first two told him off with profanity. But the third man said, “I got some gospel music. I love Jesus!”

2. (18b-21) The Levite goes with the army from the tribe of Dan.

Judges 18:18–21 NASB 95

When these went into Micah’s house and took the graven image, the ephod and household idols and the molten image, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?” They said to him, “Be silent, put your hand over your mouth and come with us, and be to us a father and a priest. Is it better for you to be a priest to the house of one man, or to be priest to a tribe and a family in Israel?” The priest’s heart was glad, and he took the ephod and household idols and the graven image and went among the people. Then they turned and departed, and put the little ones and the livestock and the valuables in front of them.

a. Put your hand over your mouth:

This was a threat. They commanded the Levite to stop objecting or be attacked.

b. So the priest’s heart was glad:

His heart was glad because he was filled with mercenary ambition. The Levite did not care about Micah, only for the pay and status that he might get by being the priest for a whole tribe instead of a mere family.

3. (22-24) Micah’s foolish idolatry comes to nothing.

Judges 18:22–24 NASB 95

When they had gone some distance from the house of Micah, the men who were in the houses near Micah’s house assembled and overtook the sons of Dan. They cried to the sons of Dan, who turned around and said to Micah, “What is the matter with you, that you have assembled together?” He said, “You have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and have gone away, and what do I have besides? So how can you say to me, ‘What is the matter with you?’ ”

a. You have taken away my gods which I made:

This is powerful irony. Micah had to rescue his own gods. Obviously, his gods should be able to care for themselves. We wonder if Micah saw the foolishness of this.

i. We each either worship a god of our own making or we worship the true God who made us. But the gods we make are always less than we are. Idol worship is just another way of worshipping self.

ii. And the priest:

Micah was foolish enough to have a priest who could be taken away, and it reminds us of how wonderful it is to have a High Priest who cannot change, and who can never be taken away from us. As F.B. Meyer wrote, “Whatever can be taken from us has the mark and signature of man upon it.” Yet Jesus Christ, our High Priest, can never change; will never leave us out of a concern for someone else; and our sins and failures cannot rob us of Him.

b. Now what more do I have:

This shows how empty Micah’s idolatry was. His false gods didn’t bring him any lasting good.

4. (25-26) The army of the tribe of Dan refuses to give Micah his god back, so Micah goes home empty handed.

Judges 18:25–26 NASB 95

The sons of Dan said to him, “Do not let your voice be heard among us, or else fierce men will fall upon you and you will lose your life, with the lives of your household.” So the sons of Dan went on their way; and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house.

a. Lest angry men fall upon you, and you lose your life:

This event and these words illustrate the general lawlessness in Israel during this long period of the Judges. The children of Dan stole Micah’s idol simply under the principle of “might makes right.”

b. When Micah saw that they were too strong for him:

They were too strong for both Micah and his gods. One should never have a god that needs protection.

5. (27-29) The army from the tribe of Dan conquers the city of Laish and rename it Dan.

Judges 18:27–29 NASB 95

Then they took what Micah had made and the priest who had belonged to him, and came to Laish, to a people quiet and secure, and struck them with the edge of the sword; and they burned the city with fire. And there was no one to deliver them, because it was far from Sidon and they had no dealings with anyone, and it was in the valley which is near Beth-rehob. And they rebuilt the city and lived in it. They called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father who was born in Israel; however, the name of the city formerly was Laish.

a. To Laish, to a people quiet and secure… There was no deliverer:

This is written in a way meant to make us at least a little sympathetic for the people of Laish. The people of Israel were instructed to take the land from the Canaanites, but this seemed like an unprincipled attack from wicked men of the tribe of Dan.

b. And they called the name of the city Dan:

The city of Dan will become the most prominent northern city in Israel. The phrase “from Dan to Beersheba” (Judges 20:1, 1 Samuel 3:20) will become an expression meaning, “from the north to the south of Israel” indicating all of Israel.

6. (30-31) The tribe of Dan officially adopts the idolatry that began with Micah.

Judges 18:30–31 NASB 95

The sons of Dan set up for themselves the graven image; and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land. So they set up for themselves Micah’s graven image which he had made, all the time that the house of God was at Shiloh.

a. The children of Dan set up for themselves the carved image:

This was the beginning of established idolatry in Israel in the Promised Land. There was individual idolatry in Israel long before this, but this is official idolatry.

i. Through a strange chain of events, this began with a son stealing 1,100 shekels from his mother (Judges 17:1-2). It ended with an entire tribe of Israel led into established idolatry.

b. So they set up for themselves Micah’s carved image:

We can suppose that Micah had no idea how far-reaching the effects of his sin would become. His personal idolatry became the idolatry of an entire tribe, setting up a rival center of worship to the house of God… in Shiloh.

i. “Whether intentionally on the part of the writer or no, there is a touch of satire in this declaration. There, at Shiloh, was the true centre of the national life, the house of God… Nevertheless, at Dan they gathered about the false, and rendered a worship which was destructive.” (Morgan)