Judges 17-18

Intro

The nation that once marched triumphantly through Canaan to the glory of God now disintegrates morally and politically and brings disgrace to His name.

But what else can you expect when there is “no king in Israel” and the people are flouting the laws of God?

Judges 17-18 present a detailed example of the spiritual confusion and sin in Israel during the days of the Judges.

These two chapters show us just how bad things were.

The events described in chapters 17–21 took place earlier in the period of the Judges, probably before the forty-year rule of the Philistines.

The movements of the tribe of Dan would have been difficult and the war against Benjamin impossible if the Philistines had been in charge at that time.

The writer departed from historical chronology and put these events together as an “appendix” to the book to show how wicked the people had become. In three major areas of life, things were falling apart: the home, the ministry, and society

God has established three institutions in society: the home, human government, and the worshiping community—

The first of these, in both time and significance, is the home, because the home is the basis for society.

When God wedded Adam to Eve in the garden, He laid the foundation for the social institutions humanity would build.

When that foundation crumbles, society begins to fall apart.

Psalm 11:3 ESV

if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

Read Judges 17:1-6

I. Confusion in the Home vs. 1-6

The name Micah means “Who is like Jehovah?” but the man certainly didn’t live to honor the Lord.

He had a family (Jdg. 17:5), although nothing is said about his wife; and we get the impression that his mother lived with him and that she was wealthy.

This account reveals a lot about the character of Micah, his mother, and the general spiritual state of Israel during this period.

Somebody stole 1,100 shekels of silver from Grandmother, and she pronounced a curse on the thief, not knowing that she was cursing her own son.

It was the fear of the curse, not the fear of the Lord, that motivated the son to confess his crime and restore the money

Judges 17:10 indicates that ten shekels a year was an adequate wage.

Therefore, 1,100 shekels was a great fortune.

It would be around $3 million in todays wages

It most likely represented the woman’s dowry, received at marriage, that was to provide support should she be widowed or abandoned.

It is also the amount paid to Delilah in 16:5 by the Philistine kings.

In gratitude for the return of her money, she dedicated part of the silver to the Lord and made an idol out of it.

Her son added the new idol to his “god collection” in his house, a “shrine” cared for by one of his sons whom Micah had consecrated as priest.

Archaeological excavations at sites throughout Palestine have uncovered house-shrines.

These private sanctuaries would have served the needs of households and perhaps extended families within a village

However, the biblical text makes a point that Micah’s shrine was not a proper center for Yahweh worship, and the inclusion of an idol graphically demonstrates the danger of unsupervised local worship

Have you ever seen a family more spiritually and morally confused than this one?

They managed to break almost all the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:1–17) and yet not feel the least bit guilty before the Lord!

In fact, they thought they were serving the Lord by the bizarre things they did!

Micah not only had a private shrine, but also he ordained his own son to serve as priest.

Certainly Micah knew that the Lord had appointed the family of Aaron to be the only priests in Israel; and if anybody outside Aaron’s family served as priests, they were to be killed

The ephod was part of the priestly garments to be worn exclusively by Aaron and other high priests

Micah’s ephod is designed to add legitimacy to his personal shrine, and the fact that it is listed in association with his idols suggests it was also an object of worship

Graven images of any sort are strictly forbidden by Exodus 20:4–6; 34:17.

Yet the existence of idols made of metal, wood and stone was a continual reality in ancient Israel

the official sanction given to them by the Levite raises the scandal of the lawless Judges period.

Because Micah and his family didn’t submit to the authority of God’s Word, their home was a place of religious and moral confusion.

But their home was a good deal like many homes today where money is the god the family worships, where children steal from their parents and lie about what they do, where family honor is unknown, and where the true God is unwanted.

Television provides all the “images” the family will ever want to “worship,” and few worry about “thus saith the Lord.”

Godly homes are the foundation for a just and happy society

II. Confusion in the Ministry vs. 7-12

Not only did God establish the home and instruct parents how to raise their children (Deut. 6), but also He instituted spiritual leadership in the worshiping community

Under the Old Covenant, the tabernacle and then the temple were the center of the community, and the Aaronic priesthood supervised both.

Under the New Covenant, the church of Jesus Christ is the temple of God; and the Holy Spirit calls and equips ministers to serve Him and His people

In His Word, God told the Old Testament priests what they were supposed to do; and in His Word today, the Holy Spirit guides His church and explains its order and its ministry.

Ephesians 4:11–13 ESV

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,

A young Levite named Jonathan had been living in Bethlehem of Judah, which was not one of the cities assigned to the priests and Levites

The Levites did not receive a specific territorial allotment because they were to serve all of the tribes as priests (Josh 18:7).

Thus it is not out of character in this period for a young Levite to go on a journey and seek employment in his profession.

There are some problems here with his association with Judah, but the historical context is uncertain.

Instead of seeking the mind of the Lord, Jonathan set out to find a place to live and work, even if it meant abandoning his calling as a servant of God.

The nation was at a low ebb spiritually and he could have done something to help bring the people back to God.

He was only one man, but that’s all God needs to begin a great work that can make a difference in the history of a nation.

Instead of being available to God, Jonathan was agreeable only to men; and he eventually found himself a comfortable home and job with Micah.

Micah offers him a yearly salary of 10 shekels

There is no provision in the law for a priest to receive a salary

the offering of a specific amount of precious metal as wages functions more as a bribe or retainer for a prized employee.

Jonathan’s ministry, however, wasn’t a spiritual ministry at all.

To begin with, he was a hireling and not a true shepherd

He didn’t serve the true and living God; he worked for Micah and his idols.

Jonathan wasn’t a spokesperson for the Lord; he gave people just the message they wanted to hear

III. Looking for Land vs. 1-13

God should have been the king in Israel and His Word the law that governed society, but the people preferred to “do their own thing.”

If the people had forsaken their idols, and if the elders of Israel had consulted God’s Law and obeyed it for God’s glory, Israel could have been governed successfully.

Instead, “Every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (21:25), and the result was a society filled with competition and confusion.

Judges 21:25 ESV

In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

The tribe of Dan descended from Jacob’s fifth son, born of Rachel’s handmaid Bilhah (Gen. 30:1–6).

Though not a large tribe (Num. 1:39), it was given choice territory when the tribal boundaries were assigned

The allotment assigned to the tribe of Dan was between that of Ephraim and Benjamin along the coastal plain

The Danites, however, weren’t able to defeat and dispossess the enemy (Jdg. 1:34), thus they decided to go north and relocate.

They would have been closest to and most immediately affected by the Philistines (see Samson’s exploits in Judges 13–16) and may have eventually felt that they would never be able to effectively compete with this much stronger people.

Most of the other tribes were able to conquer the enemy, dispossessed them, and claim their land, but the Danites coveted somebody else’s land instead and took it in a violent manner.

God put each tribe just where He wanted it.

For the tribe of Dan to reject God’s assigned territory and covet another place was to oppose His divine will.

Dan suffered from covetousness

But isn’t that what causes most of the trouble in our society today?

Instead of submitting to God’s will, people want what somebody else has; and they’ll do almost anything to get it

people go out and spend money they don’t have on things they don’t need to impress people who don’t really care

Laish. Located at the foot of Mount Hermon in the extreme northern portion of Israelite territory (also known as Leshem in Josh 19:47), the city was about one hundred miles from Dan’s assigned territory. Laish was conquered by the Danites and renamed Dan.

vs. 3-6 Ungodly counsel

It was Jonathan’s dialect that attracted the attention of the five spies, because he didn’t speak quite like a man from Ephraim.

When they asked what a levitical priest was doing in a private home in Ephraim—a very good question, by the way (1 Kings 19:9, 13)—he told them the truth: He was hired to do the job!

Since somebody else was paying the bill, the spies thought it was permissible to get “spiritual counsel” from Jonathan, and he told them what they wanted to hear.

IV. Breaking and Entering vs. 14-26

On their way to capture Laish, the people of Dan paused at Micah’s house in Ephraim.

The spies told the men that Micah had a wonderful collection of gods, hinting, of course, that the collection would be valuable to them as they traveled, warred, and established their new home.

While the armed men stood at the gate of the city, the five spies, who knew Jonathan, invaded the shrine and stole the gods.

pillaging the shrine. The practice of attacking and looting shrines and temples was simply part of warfare in the ancient world.

Since these places were often storehouses of grain and other commodities and contained valuable objects made of precious metals, they were a natural target.

The collecting of sacred images as “hostages” was also common

The Danites put the women and children in the front since that was the safest place, because any attacks would come from the rear.

By the time the Danites had traveled some distance away, Micah discovered that his shrine was out of business, having neither gods nor priest; so he called his neighbors together, and they pursued the invaders.

After all, a man must protect his gods!

Since the Danites outnumbered him and were too strong for him, Micah and his neighbors had to turn around and go home defeated.

Micah’s sad question “What else do I have?” (v. 24, NIV) reveals the folly and the tragedy of religion without the true and living God.

Idolaters worship gods they can carry, but Christians worship a God who carries them. Wiersbe

V. A New Home vs. 27-31

The five spies had traveled 100 miles north from their encampment at Zorah to Laish (“Leshem,” Josh. 19:47), a town inhabited by the Sidonians, about thirty miles east of the Mediterranean Sea.

Tel Dan (Tell el Qadi) is located at the foot of Mount Hermon and is watered by a number of springs which serve as one of the sources of the Jordan River.

Its identification has been proven by the discovery of an inscription which invokes “the god of Dan.” However, its original name was Laish

These were a peaceful people who minded their own business and had no treaties with anybody.

They were “unsuspecting and secure” and “prosperous” (v. 7, NIV), an isolated people, who were a perfect target for the warlike tribe of Dan.

With 600 armed men, plus their women and children (Jdg. 18:21), they marched north and captured Laish, killing all the inhabitants and burning the city.

Then they rebuilt it and proudly called it Dan, after the name of the founder of their tribe.

Unfortunately, what Jacob prophesied about the tribe of Dan came true

Genesis 49:17 ESV

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.

Someone has said that there are only three philosophies of life in today’s world: (1) “What’s mine is mine, I’ll keep it”; (2) “What’s yours is mine, I’ll take it”; and (3) “What’s mine is yours, I’ll share it.”

The tribe of Dan was the first tribe in Israel to officially adopt an idolatrous system of religion.

The shrine at Shiloh operated as a cultic center during the Judges period (Judg 21:19) and in the time of Samuel