When there Is No King
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Context
Context
· We are entering the final section of Judges.
o The two conclusions are often overlooked in the study of the Old Testament narrative because there is little to find in it that is admirable or godly.
§ It’s uncomfortable for us to read a biblical narrative in which the full extent of sin is put on display, and it seems like God is nowhere to be found.
o The twin conclusions match and reflect the twin introductions in Judges 1-2:6 and 2:7-3:6.
§ If you remember all the way back in June, we saw that Israel, after Joshua’s death, experienced a progressive failure to drive out the inhabitants of the land.
§ This corresponded with a progressive failure to keep their covenant commitments and an embrace of idolatrous worship of the gods of their neighbors.
o Now we are going to see the result of these initial failures, and the fruit that they have borne after 400 years in the land.
§ The story of Micah and the Levite corresponds to Israel’s initial fall into idolatry and its generational effects on the people to a shocking extent.
o There is now no external enemy for Israel; the bad guys are all inside the house.
§ The besetting sin that they are struggling with is not going to be blatant paganism, but a kind of toxic mishmash of paganism and Israelite worship.
The Origins of False Worship (Judges 17:1-6)
The Origins of False Worship (Judges 17:1-6)
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.
· Micah is representative of Israel at this time, like the judges were before him.
· Micah has stolen a great deal of money from his own mother.
o His mother places a curse on the stolen money.
· Micah confesses, not because of guilt, but fear of the consequences.
o He does not ask for forgiveness.
· She confuses the meaning of his confession as a virtue in her son.
o She blesses him for a virtue that he does not possess and offers a blessing he does not deserve.
· They conspired together to take this stolen, cursed silver and make a carved image to the lord…hear me. Not a foreign god, to the lord.
o They decide the best thing to do with this profane thing is to give it to God for Micah’s benefit.
· In four short verses, so many commandments are broken.
o Idolatrous worship.
o Falsely calling on the name of the lord.
o Dishonoring parents
o Theft
o Covetousness
· Verse 6 serves as a summary assessment of this thing.
o Momentary relief from oppression gave Israel space to move further away from the lord. Denigration sets in.
§ No shame over theft
§ No understanding of covenant duty.
§ They worship and follow God on their own terms and expect God to bless their self-centered acts of worship.
· To offer false worship is high treason against a holy God, just ask Aaron’s sons.
o You can’t because they are dead for doing this very thing.
· All this is because there is no king in Israel.
o No one to lead Israel in obedience to the Law.
· Now, we come to see
· Selfish desires, Theological confusion, Lawlessness (Syncretism)
· Micah is a warning for all of us.
o Positions himself as a follower of God on his own terms, not God’s.
§ Yet everything he does projects a religiosity that is similar to the professing faith of many Christians.
· This is the sin of syncretism: when we confuse pagan worship (worship of our desires and passions) and legitimate worship of the lord.
o Syncretism is a desperate danger for the Christian.
o You see, we must examine ourselves before thinking that this can’t happen to us.
§ What motivates our worship? God’s glory, or our gain?
o So many professing Christians seek ways to serve and worship the lord according to their own desires, and towards their own ends.
§ In this, we are giving honor to the lord according to what seems right to us, not according to what He has commanded us to do.
o And so, we act in God’s name and expect His blessing upon our lip service to Him.
· God gives us a different command.
· Psalm 40:6–8 (ESV)
6 In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required.
7 Then I said, “Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me:
8 I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”
· God is holy, holy, holy.
o He alone is separated from creation as the Creator of all things.
o He is pure and good, separated from sin and all evil.
o He alone is worthy of worship.
· So, we must not think that we are permitted to offer to God whatever seems good to us to offer him.
· He commanded Israel regarding the way that He is to be worshiped.
The Spread of False Worship (Judges 17:7-13)
The Spread of False Worship (Judges 17:7-13)
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.
13 Then Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, because I have a Levite as priest.”
· We are now introduced to a new character, a young Levite who will become a false priest in Micah’s shrine.
o And he will make things unimaginably worse by becoming entangled in the idolatry of Micah.
· This Levite is introduced already seeking what no Levite should seek.
o Levites were set apart for service and were supported by the tithes and offerings of all Israel…God provided for their needs so that they had no need to “seek for a place” for themselves.
· Micah’s motivation is to manipulate God’s blessing by obeying a standard that he sets.
o God does not look kindly on such things, as we see when Saul acts similarly in 1 Samuel 15:
· 1 Samuel 15:22–23 (ESV)
22 And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.”
o How often do we engage in such presumption?
§ Validating our actions by attributing them to the service/worship of the lord.
One of the ways that this shows up the most is the way we view church attendance. Rationalizing away absence from the fellowship for all kinds of reasons.
· The Levite shows zero discernment; he accepts the job gladly and immediately.
· He serves himself, acting as a priest for personal gain.
· His service does direct harm to all those he comes in contact with.
o His sacrifices are profane and directly disobey the clear teaching of the law of Moses.
o He offers a false blessing, leading others to have a false confidence in God’s favor.
· He not only takes from them to enrich himself, leaving them materially poorer, but in his dishonest worship, he leaves his people spiritually destitute, even further separated from a holy God.
· Indeed, Micah and the Levite have a toxic effect on each other, stirring each other up to even greater sin.
· Selfish desires, Lawlessness, Theological confusion (Syncretism)
· Again, Micah is a warning for us.
o Using our means of worship rather than God-honoring means.
o Considering God to be some kind of cosmic wish-granting machine who blesses us based upon a system we set up.
· His folly is demonstrated in his extraordinarily arrogant statement in verse 13: Now I know that the lord will prosper me, because I have a Levite as priest.
o His statement is far more illustrative of what brings him under the judgment of God rather than His favor.
· We can most often find ourselves in this situation when we attempt to put a “Christian” spin on the things we do in an effort to validate not doing what God has commanded us.
· It’s tempting to look outside for characters like the Levite.
o After all, there are so many accounts of pastors or churches that enrich themselves at the cost of their people.
§ I can’t understate the destruction that has been done in these cases.
· But often, we can find such people in the mirror.
o This character shows when we find ourselves serving in church or ministry, with a focus on serving our own needs.
§ Expanding our brand/influence/reach.
§ When we do this, we find that not only are we dishonoring the God we claim to serve, but we also don’t love others.
· We take advantage of others for our benefit…we might find that, in the process, we destroy others.
The Corruption of False Worship (Judges 18:1-31)
The Corruption of False Worship (Judges 18:1-31)
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.
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.”
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.”
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.
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.
· What becomes of our characters? Chapter 18 shows us.
o Their corruption spreads.
· Dan enters the scene, still suffering the consequences of their earlier failure in Judges 1:34.
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.
o They compound their failure by looking for territory that is not meant for them.
§ They are a predatory and selfish force in the story.
· The Levite becomes a corrupting effect on the Danites now.
o He assures the Danite scouts of the lord’s pleasure.
§ He gives them the same false confidence that he has been providing to the house of Micah and invites them into Micah’s delusion.
· After all, that’s been his job, for which he is handsomely rewarded.
o And when he is offered a job as priest to the tribe of Dan, he happily leaves Micah for a bigger, wealthier congregation.
§ Now, his poisonous influence is allowed to spread to infect an entire tribe of Israel.
· Micah ends up suffering the ultimate consequence of his folly.
o The gods he made, the shrine he filled, and the priest he bought were taken from him, and he was left with nothing.
§ This is what comes from serving false gods, they can’t save us when the Danites show up at the front door.
o In this, Moses’s prophecy in Deuteronomy is fulfilled.
· Deuteronomy 31:29 (ESV)
29 For I know that after my death you will surely act corruptly and turn aside from the way that I have commanded you. And in the days to come evil will befall you, because you will do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger through the work of your hands.”
· The end of chapter 18 is shocking,
o Dan conquers the city of Laish (renaming it Dan).
§ The young Levite comes to serve in a new shrine there along with the stolen idols from Micah’s “house of gods.”
o We come to find out the identity of this man. Jonathan, son of Gershom, son of Moses.
§ Judges reveals to us the full extent of the spiritual corruption of Israel.
· Even the legacy of Moses has been tainted.
· The idolatry of Dan will endure all the way until the exile.
o The site of one of Jeroboam’s high places.
· Micah’s folly drags the entire nation into idolatry.
o Sadly, this continues to be the case for Israel all the way until the days of Isaiah.
· Isaiah 2:8 (ESV)
8 Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made.
· Syncretism still corrupts the church today in the form of palatable Christianity.
o Church that is built to be comfortable, inoffensive, entertaining, or prosperous.
o The substance of this error is that we come to worship thing things we make with our hands; things which have now power to save.
· Psalm 115:5–8 (ESV)
5 They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see.
6 They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell.
7 They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat.
8 Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.
o The folly of idolatry is in its impotence.
· Micah’s path has the appearance of power and prosperity for a time, but without any security.
· God calls us to return to pure worship. To trust in Him alone and obey Him.
o And what we find when we do that is something wonderful.
· Psalm 16:11 (ESV)
11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
o By God’s grace, we receive the great gifts of eternal life and fullness of joy.
Conclusion
Conclusion
· Micah is living proof that it is possible to be a religiously active person and to have a measure of external success, yet to be under the curse of God’s judgment.
· The answer to this desperate danger is that we need a king to lead us.
o God is good to His church in that he has raised godly leaders to provide guidance and discipline to His people, so that they may walk in joyful obedience.
§ We saw this when Paul commanded the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:28-31:
28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.
29 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock;
30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.
31 Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears.
· That they would keep watch over God’s church to keep them from falling into error.
o Two errors that often arise.
§ Sacramentalism: The belief that external conformity to religious practices ensures God’s approval.
· This is Micah.
§ Subjectivism: Religion of convenience. What pleases man is elevated above what pleases God.
· Contemporary American church culture is full of examples of this kind of religion.
o God becomes the one who serves and worships us rather than the other way around.
· But we should be after worship that seeks to please and serve the God we claim to worship as our Creator and Savior.
· We arrive at the Psalm 16 life through serving and worshiping the true God, and His true image, our Lord Jesus Christ.
· Jesus frees us from needing to pursue our feelings, passions, or cravings.’
o He calls us in his words to the Samaritan woman at the well.
· John 4:23–24 (ESV)
23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.
24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
o We are called to engage our minds with the Word.
· Jesus frees us from needing to pursue pragmatism, silliness, or manipulation in our worship.
o Such things aren’t aimed at pleasing God but entertaining ourselves and others.
· Jess has given us an example to follow and proved his Word to direct our worship.
o As Paul encouraged his protégé Timothy, as he stepped into ministry leadership in Ephesus.
· 1 Timothy 4:7–16 (ESV)
7 Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness;
8 for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
9 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance.
10 For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.
11 Command and teach these things.
12 Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.
13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.
14 Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you.
15 Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress.
16 Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.
· What we do in worship should be derived from God’s clear commands rather than our innovation.
o That’s how we have fellowship with Him and enjoy His pleasure.
· 1 John 2:24 (ESV)
24 Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father.
o The Lord has not left us unequipped. We don’t just have His Word, but His Spirit to help us walk in obedience.
· 1 John 3:24 (ESV)
24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
