Lacking Leadership & Growing Idolatry

Intro

a) After a 3-month pause from our study of Judges, we’re going to pick back up where we left off. When we paused our study, we had just looked at the story of the final judge in this book: Samson. And chronologically speaking, the end of Samson’s story is the end of the book of Judges.

b) Samson’s death is the last chronological event that happened in this period of the Judges. The events recorded in Ch. 17–21 are widely believed to have taken place around or before Samson was born. So why does the author end Judges by looking back? Here’s why.

c) Judges began w/ a double prologue or introduction. Then in In Ch. 3-16 we saw Israel’s cycle of apostasy as they sinned & did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. As a result, God sent enemies to oppress them. But when they cried out to God, He graciously raised up a judge to deliver them.

d) Now as Judges ends, the author gives us a double epilogue or conclusion. The author places these events at the end of the book to zoom in & show us how wicked & sinful Israel was during this period. These final 5 chapters tell 2 stories to show us how Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord.

e) These final 5 Ch., especially the last 3, are so bleak they rarely, if ever, are preached. Today we’re going to look at the 1st of these stories in Judg. 17–18 & see corruption at home, in the priesthood, & an entire tribe of Israel. I’ve titled today’s sermon: “Lacking Leadership & Growing Idolatry.”

f) Let’s begin as always by hearing God’s holy word in our 1st section, Judg. 17, v1-6. Read & Pray

Here in our 1st section, we see lacking leadership & growing idolatry in the home.

a) Much of Ch. 17 revolves around Micah. v1 tells us he was: “a man of the hill country of Ephraim.” Now Micah’s name means “Who is like Jehovah?” But as we see here, & throughout this story, Micah certainly didn’t live a life honoring the Lord.

b) v2 says Micah stole 1,100 pieces of silver from his mother, so she was probably wealthy. But after hearing her utter a curse upon the thief, Micah confessed & returned the money. See, Micah didn’t have a guilty conscience, nor does he seem concerned about sinning against his mother & God.

c) Micah confesses b/c he’s worried about his mother’s curse. But also notice his mother’s actions. We’re not told when she lost the silver that she prayed or sought God, but only that she uttered a curse on the thief. And how did she respond in v2 when she found out her son was the thief?

d) She said in v2: “Blessed be my son by the Lord.” Notice, she never looked for or asked her son to repent. There is no reconciliation or restitution as the OT law required. She doesn’t bring any correction or punishment so Micah wouldn’t steal from anyone else or do something even worse.

e) Perhaps this is why Micah is the way he is. After blessing her son, she says in v3: “I dedicate the silver to the Lord…for my son to make a carved image & a metal image.” They blatantly disregard & disobey the 1st & 2nd command to only worship the Lord & not to make any image to worship.

f) See, no image can fully express God’s glory, so it dishonors God by making Him less than He is. Such idolatry misrepresents God b/c He is not like anything we can make w/ our minds or hands. Now today, most people don’t make idols w/ their hands. But how often do we hear someone say:

g) “I can’t believe in a God who…or I like to think of God as.” See we can break the 1st & 2nd C. w/o making physical images. What happened here w/ Micah & his mother still happens today in our culture & churches. People still make God into an image that better fits their desires.

h) Tim Keller says if you have a god who never contradicts you, says no to you, or makes demands of you, you’re probably worshiping a God of your own making & imagination. See, Micah & his mother appeared to be very religious, but they are blatantly & unremorsefully breaking God’s law.

i) Stealing. Coveting. Not honoring his mother. Making images to worship. Lying. Notice Micah’s mother says she was dedicating the silver to the Lord. But we don’t see her take the silver to the priests in Shiloh where Israel was to worship & meet w/ God & offer sacrifices to Him.

j) Instead, she gives the silver back to her son, but then using the silver to make a carved & metal image for them to worship. v5 says Micah made these idols or household gods & put them in a shrine & made an ephod & ordained 1 of his sons to serve as his priest.

k) Micah & his mother are not only worshipping God in a way the Lord had not commanded, but in a place God had not commanded, & also w/ a priest God had not ordained. God didn’t permit just any Israelite to serve as a priest. Priests were to come from the tribe of Levi.

l) But Micah blatantly ignored & broke that command as well. He turned 1 of his own sons into an idolatrous priest. Do you see the lacking leadership & growing idolatry in this Israelite home? Where is Micah’s father? Where’s the spiritual leadership in the home to stop such sin & idolatry?

m) Look at what the author says in v6. “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” Now we’re going to unpack that 1st part of v6 in a few weeks, but look at the end of v6. The author sees Micah & his mother’s actions as typical of everyone in Israel.

n) “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” This lack of leadership & growing idolatry started in the home. Let me ask you: who leads your home spiritually? Parents, think about Dt. 10:19. It doesn’t say, “Take your children to Sunday School so they can be taught about God & His ways.”

o) What does Dt. 10:19 tell parents about God’s law? “You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, & when you are walking by the way, & when you lie down, & when you rise.” In our 1st section we lacking leadership & growing idolatry in the home.

Here’s our 2nd section in v7-12: lacking leadership & growing idolatry in the priesthood

a) In v7-13 we meet another man, this time a young Levite from Bethlehem in Judah. Now the tribe of Levi wasn’t given their own land. They were assigned 48 cities to live in amongst the other tribes of Israel. But, Bethlehem in Judah was not 1 of those Levitical cities.

b) So why was this young Levite living in Bethlehem? Why was he sojourning to find a place to live? v9 says while he was sojourning, he met Micah. And Micah saw an opportunity to make his idol worship more acceptable to God, so in v10 Micah offered the Levite a job to serve as his priest.

c) Micah offered him 10 pieces of silver/year, clothes & lodging, which the Levite gladly accepted.

d) But v13 reveals to us Micah’s true motivation for worship. Micah said: “Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, b/c I have a Levite as priest.” Notice, Micah knew that only Levites could serve as priests. But also notice, Micah didn’t worship b/c of who God is or what God had done.

e) Micah worshiped to get from God. His aim wasn’t to know God’s will & glorify Him, but for God to glorify Micah & to do his will. Micah wanted God to make him prosper. But in these verses we also see lacking leadership & growing idolatry in the priesthood.

f) If this Levite is typical of God’s servants in this period of history, it’s no wonder Israel was so sinful & corrupt & constantly doing evil in the sight of the Lord. This Levite was called as a minister & servant of God to assist the priests at the tabernacle & to teach the people God’s Law.

g) But this Levite is more worried about his own will, not God’s will. This Levite is not living where he should, nor doing what he should. This Levite seems more worried about his own glory, not God’s glory. This Levite seems more worried about his salary, than teaching or obeying God’s law.

h) The author’s showing us that even Israel’s priests had become corrupt. This Levite is simply a peddler of God’s word. Paul says in 2 Cor. 2:17: “For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commission by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.”

i) See, many of Paul’s opponents demanded money for their ministry. They “served” to line their pockets. That’s why Peter exhorts elders in 1 Pet. 5 to shepherd the flock & exercise oversight: “not under compulsion but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly.”

j) But Paul says: “we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word.” See, peddlers promise peace & prosperity. 2 Tim. 4:3 says they tell people what their itching ears want to hear. Jer. 6:14 says they heal the wound of my people lightly saying: “Peace, peace when there is no peace.”

k) God’s people need faithful shepherds who work for the Lord, not their own personal gain. God’s people need leaders who feed & protect the flock w/ God’s words, not their own. True shepherds receive their ministry & calling from God, not people. They serve God, not people or their idols.

l) How it must grieve the Lord in our day as false teachers lead people astray declaring peace when there is no peace. Rom. 1:32: “Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them.”

m) True shepherds call out & confront sin, they don’t approve of it. They don’t seek to enrich themselves, but the sheep. Here at the end of Ch. 17 we see lacking leadership & growing idolatry in the priesthood. And God will not bless such idolatry, which Micah discovers in Ch. 18.

That leads to our 3rd section in Ch. 18: lacking leadership & growing idolatry w/ an entire tribe

a) Ch. 18 seems to begin like a completely unrelated story. But the stories connect by a phrase we read back in 17:6, “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” To show this, the author now turns our attention to the tribe of Dan.

b) v2 says they were seeking a land to dwell in. And why?

c) B/c while all the other tribes partially fulfilled God’s command to drive out the Canaanites & dwell in the land God gave them, Judg. 1:34 says the Danites were “confined to the hill country.” The tribe of Dan never even made it to their allotted land, but lived like nomads in the mountains.

d) But now we’re told they decided to search for a land to call their own. Now at 1st glance that might seem ok. But they too, like Micah & his mother & the wayward Levite, didn’t obey God. They shouldn’t be searching for a land, b/c God gave them (like every other tribe) a territory to dwell in.

e) But rather than obeying God, they decided to seek a different place to dwell in. “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” Micah. His mother. This young Levite. And now a whole tribe is less driven by what is right in God’s eyes, than what is right in their own eyes.

f) In v2-3 we’re told the tribe of Dan sent 5 spies to explore the land. And these 5 spies came to the hill country of Ephraim. And just like the Levite, they came to Micah’s house. Now these men from the tribe of Dan didn’t seem bothered by this idolatrous priest & worship.

g) Instead, they asked the priest in v5 to inquire of God if their journey would succeed. And the priest tells them in v6: “Go in peace. The journey on which you go is under the eye of the Lord.” Now remember what peddlers of God’s word tell people: “peace, peace when there is no peace.”

h) But also notice what the Levite says to them: “The journey on which you go is under the eye of the Lord.” See, the tribe of Dan’s actions are truly seen by God, but that doesn’t mean they are approved by God. The Danites refused to trust the Lord, but now the trust this idolatrous priest.

i) And when they came to the town of Laish, they found a quiet, unsuspecting people living securely & lacking nothing. The land was isolated, the people were defenseless & easy pickings. So, the Danites dispatched a force of 600 armed men to go & take the land in v11–12.

j) And on their way, they came to Micah’s house & stole his shrine & gods & priest. And notice how easy it was for them to convince the Levite to go w/ them in v19: “Is it better for you to be priest to 1 man or to a whole tribe?” v20 says the Levite gladly went w/ the Danites toward Laish.

k) Then in v24 when Micah discovered they stole his priest & gods, Micah came to the 600 men & said: “You took the gods I made & my priest…what else do I have?” See friends, if your hope is in created things, & not the Creator, then everything you have can & will be taken away from you.

l) Micah had built his life around these idols. They were his source of hope & blessing. But now, all that he had trusted in was gone. But the Danites & their new priest continued on their journey toward Laish. They attacked the city & burned it down & rebuilt the city & renamed it Dan.

m) And look at v30: “And the people of Dan set up the carved image for themselves.” Lacking leadership & growing idolatry started in a home. Then it spread to the priesthood. And now it has infected an entire tribe of Israel who set up this carved image & bowed down & worshipped it.

n) Unfortunately, what Jacob prophesied about the tribe of Dan had come true. He said in Gen. 49:17: “Dan shall be a serpent in the way, a viper by the path, that bites the horse’s heels so that his rider falls backward.” Dan’s snakelike behavior came out in assaulting the unsuspecting people of Laish

o) Interestingly, the tribe of Dan isn’t listed among the tribes of Israel in Rev. 7:5–8. But there is 1 last twist to this story. Thus far, we weren’t told the name of the young Levite who served Micah as a priest. But v30 tells us it was: “Jonathan the son of Gershom, son of Moses.”

p) Now Gershom was Moses’ oldest son. And the term used here in the Hebrew we translate as son also means descendant. So this doesn’t mean Jonathan was the literal grandson of Moses, & likely wasn’t given the time difference, but he was a direct descendant of Moses & his son Gershom.

q) And v30 says Jonathon & his sons served as idolatrous priests for the Danites. And this same town, Laish or Dan, would once again become the site of gross idol-worship in 1 Ki. 12 when the N. tribes broke away & formed a separate kingdom under King Jeroboam.

r) At this same site, Jeroboam set up a golden calf for the people to worship. But notice what the end of v30 tells us. This idolatry in the Promised Land would not go on forever. It says Jonathan & his sons served as priests to the tribe of Dan: “until the time of the captivity of the land.” Just as they took the idols from Micah, so 1 day God would take them out of the land.

Everyone did what was right in in his own eyes.

a) Micah stole his mother’s silver. Micah & his mother use the silver to make gods to worship. A Levite rejects His calling & becomes an idolatrous priest for silver. A whole tribe rejects God’s will of where they should dwell & seeks out a better land, killing an unsuspecting people.

b) The tribe of Dan stole from Micah just as he stole from his mother. And an entire tribe setup those false gods & worshipped them & polluted the land. God’s people, who were called to devote to destruction those who were doing such abominations, have now become an abomination.

c) What we see here is the wickedness of the human heart & the hopelessness of human society w/o God. This is what happens when everyone does what is right in their own eyes. We might look nice, but inside everyone is selfish & trying to get ahead. We continually just step on each other.

d) The end of Judges is going to show us what happens when God is not at the center of our lives & there is no moral standard beyond what’s right in everyone’s own eyes. But the end of Judges also holds out great hope. “In those days there was no king in Israel.”

e) What remedy is there for such perversion? The hint our text gives us is that a king is needed. And that king wouldn’t be King David, nor his son Solomon. Although the people & nation flourished under their leadership, the problem at the heart of humanity’s ills wasn’t dealt w/: our sin.

f) God Himself was to be Israel’s king. And the way out of idolatry was always open to His people if only recognize His authority & obey His law. But a mere human king would not & could not change their situation. Something more was needed. Someone more was needed.

g) And we know the solution came w/ the incarnation of the Son of God, who lived & died for us our sin. Who was raised to new life so we might walk in the newness of life now & forever. What was & is needed to change our world is the King of Kings, & the Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ. He is our hope.