"Stealing Gods”
Judges 18

August 27, 2006
by C.W. Powell

Now I have read the entire 18th chapter of Judges. Chapters 17 and 18 of Judges tell the story of the Idolatry of Dan, an Idolatry that existed in the heart of that tribe until the end of the nation. This particular god that was made by Micah did not continue, for Jeroboam made calves to put at Dan and Bethel when the ten tribes re-volted from the house of David and Solomon, but the spirit of idolatry existed to the end of the nation.

When Jacob had blessed his twelve sons before he died, he said of Dan (Gen. 49)

16 Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. 17 Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward. 18 I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.

Jacob forsaw that although a judge would come from Dan (Samson) yet Dan could not be trusted. Salvation would arise from some other quarter than the tribe of Dan. Here we have the sorry decline of the nation into Idolatry. But let us look at the Scripture:

I. The Scouting of the Land by Dan. Vs. 1-6

“1 In those days [there was] no king in Israel: and in those days the tribe of the Danites sought them an in-heritance to dwell in; for unto that day [all their] inheritance had not fallen unto them among the tribes of Israel. 2 And the children of Dan sent of their family five men from their coasts, men of valour, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land, and to search it; and they said unto them, Go, search the land: who when they came to mount Ephraim, to the house of Micah, they lodged there. 3 When they [were] by the house of Micah, they knew the voice of the young man the Levite: and they turned in thither, and said unto him, Who brought thee hither? and what makest thou in this [place]? and what hast thou here? 4 And he said unto them, Thus and thus dealeth Micah with me, and hath hired me, and I am his priest. 5 And they said unto him, Ask counsel, we pray thee, of God, that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous. 6 And the priest said unto them, Go in peace: before the LORD [is] your way wherein ye go.”

We note the following:

1. These events were probably in the generation following Joshua and the division of the land, but before the power of the Canaanites was broken in the days of Deborah and Barak. Dan had not received all their inheritance because the power of the Canaanites had forced them to the mountains.

2. What fear of the Lord could not persuade them to do, greed and discomfort did. They sent out five brave and strong men to look into the city of Laish, a prosperous town lying far to the north of Israel.

3. On the way to Laish, they came to the house of Micah. They recognized the voice of the young man who was Micah’s priest and asked what he was doing there. By the way, there are many vagabond preachers who wander around seeking advancement. He was straight with the men from Dan, how-ever, said he had been hired to be a priest over the house of gods that Micah had made, and that Mi-cah had been good at his word. “I am his priest’ says it all.

4. On their way to Micah’s house they must have passed near to Bethel, where the ark of the covenant and the tabernacle was, but there is no mention of any desire to ask counsel of the LORD, but they are perfectly willing to seek counsel of this vagabond priest, as Matthew Henry calls him.

5. When men depart from the fear of the Lord, they leave themselves open to every ambitious preacher who comes down the road, seeking his fortune.

6. Last week, we saw how Micah’s idolatry began with the greed of his mother and her desire to cover her coveteousness with pious pretenses of wanting to serve the Lord. Coveteous is always the root of idolatry, and so it was with Micah, his mother, and now this young Levite.

7. Alexander the Great, after the conquest of Persia and Egypt, traveled many miles across the desert to inquire of the priests of the Oasis of Siwah, where there was a great shrine to Zeus. His mother had told him that Zeus was his father, for Zeus had visited her during one of Philip’s absences from home. Alexander wanted to know the truth and the priests at Siwah confirmed the fact that he was indeed the son of Zeus. They were no fools.

8. This young man wasn’t a fool, either, and told the men of Dan that Jehovah was with them, and that they would prosper. He had a fifty/fifty chance of being right and he was right, and was rewarded greatly for it. Many men have wagered a great deal more on far worse odds.

II. The Excursion to Laish:

“7 Then the five men departed, and came to Laish, and saw the people that [were] therein, how they dwelt careless, after the manner of the Zidonians, quiet and secure; and [there was] no magistrate in the land, that might put [them] to shame in [any] thing; and they [were] far from the Zidonians, and had no business with [any] man. 8 And they came unto their brethren to Zorah and Eshtaol: and their brethren said unto them, What [say] ye? 9 And they said, Arise, that we may go up against them: for we have seen the land, and, behold, it [is] very good: and [are] ye still? be not slothful to go, [and] to enter to possess the land. 10 When ye go, ye shall come unto a people secure, and to a large land: for God hath given it into your hands; a place where [there is] no want of any thing that [is] in the earth. 11 And there went from thence of the family of the Danites, out of Zorah and out of Eshtaol, six hundred men appointed with weapons of war. 12 And they went up, and pitched in Kirjathjearim, in Judah: wherefore they called that place Mahanehdan unto this day: behold, [it is] behind Kirjathjearim. 13 And they passed thence unto mount Ephraim, and came unto the house of Micah.”

1. The people of Laish were foolish. They did not provide for their defense, and they were too far from anyone to get help if needed. They had no civil government, which is against nature and against the law of God, for good government is the gift of God.

2. If men were angels, no government would be necessary, but there are very bad people around because of the curse of sin, and some of these people live and rule other countries, and some of them abide within our borders. It is necessary, therefore, to have both an internal police force and a military to defend the citizens from harm. Being hardworking, peaceful, and having good will is not enough, as the story of Laish reveals. They were very foolish people. I don’t know whether they played zithers or not, or whether they drank latte and ate quiche or wore sandals, but they were very foolish.

3. So the six hundred armed men were sent out from Dan, with designs upon Laish and the very fertile land. God had given them title to the land by the hand of Joshua.

III. Stolen Gods!

“14 Then answered the five men that went to spy out the country of Laish, and said unto their brethren, Do ye know that there is in these houses an ephod, and teraphim, and a graven image, and a molten image? now there-fore consider what ye have to do. 15 And they turned thitherward, and came to the house of the young man the Levite, [even] unto the house of Micah, and saluted him. 16 And the six hundred men appointed with their weapons of war, which [were] of the children of Dan, stood by the entering of the gate. 17 And the five men that went to spy out the land went up, [and] came in thither, [and] took the graven image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image: and the priest stood in the entering of the gate with the six hundred men [that were] appointed with weapons of war. 18 And these went into Micah’s house, and fetched the carved image, the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image. Then said the priest unto them, What do ye? 19 And they said unto him, Hold thy peace, lay thine hand upon thy mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest: [is it] better for thee to be a priest unto the house of one man, or that thou be a priest unto a tribe and a family in Israel? 20 And the priest’s heart was glad, and he took the ephod, and the teraphim, and the graven image, and went in the midst of the people. 21 So they turned and departed, and put the little ones and the cattle and the carriage before them. 22 [And] when they were a good way from the house of Micah, the men that [were] in the houses near to Micah’s house were gathered together, and overtook the children of Dan. 23 And they cried unto the children of Dan. And they turned their faces, and said unto Micah, What aileth thee, that thou comest with such a company? 24 And he said, Ye have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and ye are gone away: and what have I more? and what [is] this [that] ye say unto me, What aileth thee? 25 And the children of Dan said unto him, Let not thy voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows run upon thee, and thou lose thy life, with the lives of thy household. 26 And the children of Dan went their way: and when Micah saw that they [were] too strong for him, he turned and went back unto his house.”

1. On the way to Laish, the six hundred came to the house of Micah. The five scouts told them of the house of gods that Micah had. They saw this as an opportunity.

2. They stole the gods, the image, and the ephod, and took the priest with them also.

3. Idols are vain things, and nothing so indicates the blackness of men’s hearts than the tendency to-ward idolatry in all its forms:

a. What good are gods that can be stolen? How sad is the picture of Micah and his household chasing after the Danites, seeking to recover their stolen gods!!

b. The response of the men of Dan was the answer of the bully on the playground: “You want to make something out of it.”

c. Micah succumbs because he did not have enough men to fight the Danites. How blind are idolaters. Their gods have eyes but cannot see, ears that cannot hear….. Poor Micah lost his gods because he did not have enough men to keep them from being stolen. If these gods had cared a whit for Micah and could have done anything, they would have kept themselves from being carried off. What good are dead gods. Of course, there was the value of the sil-ver. We already know the coveteousness of Micah’s heart.

d. What good are hireling priests? The Levite that Micah thought would cause God’s favor had no love for Micah and no love for Micah’s people. He, himself, stole the images from the house of gods, and went joyfully with the Danites, for this was advancement for him. He would now be priest over a whole tribe and family in Israel. He was on his way up.

IV. Establishment at Dan

“27 And they took [the things] which Micah had made, and the priest which he had, and came unto Laish, unto a people [that were] at quiet and secure: and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and burnt the city with fire. 28 And [there was] no deliverer, because it [was] far from Zidon, and they had no business with [any] man; and it was in the valley that [lieth] by Bethrehob. And they built a city, and dwelt therein. 29 And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born unto Israel: howbeit the name of the city [was] Laish at the first. 30 And the children of Dan set up the graven image: and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land. 31 And they set them up Micah’s graven image, which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh.” (Judges 18:1-31 AV)

1. So the stolen gods come to Laish with the six hundred from Dan. The defenseless flower children of Laish are slaughtered and the city burnt with fire. The city was then rebuilt and called Dan, after their father.

2. They set up a place of worship, using the idols of Micah.

3. All the time the house of God was at Shiloh, and true worship was offered to God there, this idolatry existed at Dan. It is said that this priest, this hireling priest, was Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh. This is a strange thing, for we know of no Manasseh who had a son Gershom, but we know of Gershom, the son of Moses. The word translated son of Manasseh might mean the son of Moses, and the scribes say that Jonathan was indeed a foolish son of Moses and an old scribe prophetically doctored to account to indicate that he was more like Manasseh, the evil son of Heze-kiah. But this is idle and the speculation is vain. There are a lot of people referenced in the Bible only once. This is probably another family entirely in the tribe of Levi.

Application

1. We must always guard against idolatry. Even though Micah and his priest used the name Jehovah, this does not mean that they worshipped Jehovah. If you change the attributes you change the thing. Jeho-vah is a Spirit and must be worshipped in Spirit and in truth. When you conceive of Him as an image made of silver, then you have changed Him into something else—or rather, you have changed your idea of who God is. This is the reason that the catechism says:

Q94: What does God require in the first Commandment?
A94: That, on peril of my soul's salvation, I avoid and flee all idolatry, sorcery, en-chantments, invocation of saints or of other creatures; and that I rightly acknowl-edge the only true God, trust in Him alone, with all humility and patience expect all good from Him only, and love, fear and honor Him with my whole heart; so as rather to renounce all creatures than to do the least thing against His will.

Q95: What is idolatry?
A95: Idolatry is to conceive or have something else in which to place our trust instead of, or besides, the one true God who has revealed Himself in His Word.

Q96: What does God require in the second Commandment?
A96: That we in no way make any image of God, nor worship Him in any other way than He has commanded us in His Word.

2. You cannot steal the living God from His people. If someone can steal your God, then He is either not the living God, or you do not belong to Him.

a. I am not a Christian because I have the true God. I am a Christian because the true God has me. God is not a possession; He is the creator. This is my comfort in life and in death, as the cate-chism says: that in life and death, I belong to my faithful savior Jesus Christ. I am a Christian because He has laid hold on me, not because I have laid hold on him.

b. 25 Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me. 26 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and my Father are one. 31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. John 10

c. 19. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. I Cor. 6

d. 18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, 1 Peter 1

e. Romans 8: 31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. 34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or na-kedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

3. How can you steal the living God from his people? You cannot, because He is eternal in the heavens and has promised never to leave us or forsake us.

a. Think of Abraham: a stranger in Egypt. Afraid for his life, because his wife was beautiful, and he knew that the Egyptians cared for neither god nor man.

b. Think of Jacob, fleeing from his brother to Syria. Cheated by his father-in-law, etc.

c. Think of Moses; slew the Egyptians, fled for his life to the backside of the desert. Until he was eighty years old had done nothing of the things God had said to him.

d. Think of David. Fleeing from Saul, to the city of the Philistines, to Gath, where he pretended to be mad, let the spit run down over his beard, and scrabbled with this fingernails on the gates of the city. Psalm 94:12 Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law; 13 That thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked. 14 For the LORD will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance.

e. Think of Jonah. In the belly of the whale.

f. God will not forsake His people: You are not saved because of the strength of your commitment to Him, but because of the strength of His commitement to you. Faith, if it be saving faith, lays hold on the power of god, not on the power of the flesh. It does this because true faith is by the Holy Spirit, not by the strength of the flesh. There is nothing ordinary about faith for it is not the work of natural ability, but the work of the Holy Spirit. If you have this faith, God is your God and you are his child forever and ever.

g. Let us live in the power and comfort of this faith all the days of our lives. We are the children of God and we are to live our lives to His honor and His glory, not to please ourselves.

Amen and Amen. May God bless you.