1/5/13. Judges 18:1-31. ISRAEL HAD NO KING-my devotional

Key Verse: 18:1a                                                                                      Kevin Jesmer NIU UBF

“In those days Israel had no king.”

 Dear Lord, Jesus Christ. I pray for peace of heart and a heart to love and serve others. I pray for the ability to encourage others to believe in Jesus. I pray for my family to be a place where disciples of Jesus can grow and mature in faith. I pray that you may dwell among us so that we may all know you more and love you more. Please bless the meeting with Janice today. Please comfort her whole family. Bless the meeting with the Toh’s. May we co-work in the future together. Help me to accept one word of God to hold onto. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen!

Part 1: The Danites Steal Micah’s Idol and Priest (1-26).

In these 26 verses we can see how screwed up the people could get, even on a national level without the proper leadership. I left the whole 26 verses because many people would be surprised that they are actually in the Bible. And so here is how the story goes.

Verses 1-26 reads, “In those days Israel had no king. And in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking a place of their own where they might settle, because they had not yet come into an inheritance among the tribes of Israel….. (for the rest of the verses see the bottom of this devotional)

Israel had no king and was a loose collection of tribes with no central law or justice in the land. In this national condition, the Danites had no word of God and no godly leadership. Their spies, with the help of Micah’s priest, located an isolated Canaanite city to capture and possess.  They were superstitious in that they felt they needed am ephod and a priest and an idol to be successful. Since they had not claimed an inheritance, they were desperately looking for a place to settle. On the way, their band of warriors robbed Micah’s house of his idol, ephod, and gods and hired his priest.

Some may argue that they should not have taken out the peaceful and prosperous Canaanite village. Nowadays…no way! But this is still in the Old Testament era. This was before Saul and David, three centuries after Joshua’s conquest of the land and a century before Saul. In 1 Samuel, it was still part of God’s plan to eradicate whole Canaanite villages. Why did this have to happen? There are many reasons that I don’t want to get into now. But I must emphasize that was then, (1300 BC) and not now. Now we are in the age of grace where we must even love our enemies.

I can see that they are very superstitious. They did not need all of the things that they felt they needed. If it was the will of God that they were setting out to do, then they needed to pray. They could have garnished the prayer support of godly people back home. They could have asked the local priest to pray for them. They could be had deep self reflection and committed their task to God, that God may have been glorified through it. We, as Christians, do not need “good luck charms”. We don’t need to clutch our Bibles as if clutching an idol. We don’t even need to have a priest in our presence as we follow through on a mission. We need to learn to pray and trust God and obey the word of God. God is living. He is guiding. We need to simply live in faith and obedience and trust.

This Levitical priest, in this passage, was very self centered and self preserving. He was delighted to move on to a better position. He did not pray about it. He did not consult to God. He was looking for more benefit and glory for himself. He was just out for himself. This is another symptom of a society where everyone does as he sees fit. We need servants of God who remain true to God’s calling and leading in their lives. We need servants of God who are willing to lay down their lives for the sheep, just as Jesus did for us. (Jn 10:10) Such servants of God are able to reveal God’s will for all priests of all times, to reveal Jesus to the people of the world.

I ask myself, am I a self serving servant of God? Am I aligning myself with KBC because I could get more recognition and more glory in this life, from the community church? Is it about recognition? Is about personal meaning? Is there a self preserving element to what I am doing? I don’t think so. God , himself worked in my life, to the point where my whole family needed to make a change. We could not continue on the path we were on. It would have led to my depression and despair becoming deeply entrenched. Ad so we changed our situation. God has blessed us and has been healing our hearts. We are finding out how to serve God together as a family. If there are self promoting and self preserving elements to the decisions I have made, I pray that God may purge them from my heart.

Our worship and service to God must be according to the word of God in the Bible, or we will surely go astray. The Danites let their suspicious faith dominate their hearts. When Micah tried to retrieve them, the Danites threatened to kill him and his family.  They were full of a desire to kill others. They were ready to kill a whole family of their own people. They revealed the grip false religion has on people’s hearts. They fiercely wanted a religion to follow and a priest to bless them, but they neither knew God nor understood his ways and as a result, they as a group of people, were dragged away by unholy desires.  This shows the dangers of misguided, idol worship. It can distort us on the inside. Lord, lead my heart into true and sincere worship of you according to your word.

Part 2: The Danites’ Idol Worship (27-31).

Verses 27-31, “Then they took what Micah had made, and his priest, and went on to Laish, against a people at peace and secure. They attacked them with the sword and burned down their city. ²⁸ There was no one to rescue them because they lived a long way from Sidon and had no relationship with anyone else. The city was in a valley near Beth Rehob. The Danites rebuilt the city and settled there. ²⁹ They named it Dan after their ancestor Dan, who was born to Israel—though the city used to be called Laish. ³⁰ There the Danites set up for themselves the idol, and Jonathan son of Gershom, the son of Moses, and his sons were priests for the tribe of Dan until the time of the captivity of the land. ³¹ They continued to use the idol Micah had made, all the time the house of God was in Shiloh.”

After succeeding in their conquest, the Danites claimed Laish as their inheritance. They worshiped Micah’s idol and installed the Levite and his descendants as their tribal priests. This idolatry lasted throughout Northern Israel’s history and ultimately caused their destruction. They had the wrong foundations. They held onto the wrong foundations. No wonder the Northern tribes became lost and became Samaria! We must hold onto genuine Gospel faith or the foundations of our lives will crumble also.

Prayer: Lord, help me to submit to you and worship you aright. Please raise spiritual leaders to lead this generation to Jesus as their King.

One Word: Israel had no king

Verses 1-26 reads, “In those days Israel had no king. And in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking a place of their own where they might settle, because they had not yet come into an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. ² So the Danites sent five of their leading men from Zorah and Eshtaol to spy out the land and explore it. These men represented all the Danites. They told them, “Go, explore the land.” So they entered the hill country of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah, where they spent the night. ³ When they were near Micah’s house, they recognized the voice of the young Levite; so they turned in there and asked him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? Why are you here?” ⁴ He told them what Micah had done for him, and said, “He has hired me and I am his priest.” ⁵ Then they said to him, “Please inquire of God to learn whether our journey will be successful.” ⁶ The priest answered them, “Go in peace. Your journey has the Lord’s approval.”

 ⁷ So the five men left and came to Laish, where they saw that the people were living in safety, like the Sidonians, at peace and secure. And since their land lacked nothing, they were prosperous.Also, they lived a long way from the Sidonians and had no relationship with anyone else.⁸ When they returned to Zorah and Eshtaol, their fellow Danites asked them, “How did you find things?” ⁹ They answered, “Come on, let’s attack them! We have seen the land, and it is very good. Aren’t you going to do something? Don’t hesitate to go there and take it over. ¹⁰ When you get there, you will find an unsuspecting people and a spacious land that God has put into your hands, a land that lacks nothing whatever.” ¹¹ Then six hundred men of the Danites, armed for battle, set out from Zorah and Eshtaol. ¹² On their way they set up camp near Kiriath Jearim in Judah. This is why the place west of Kiriath Jearim is called Mahaneh Danto this day. ¹³ From there they went on to the hill country of Ephraim and came to Micah’s house. ¹⁴ Then the five men who had spied out the land of Laish said to their fellow Danites, “Do you know that one of these houses has an ephod, some household gods and an image overlaid with silver? Now you know what to do.” ¹⁵ So they turned in there and went to the house of the young Levite at Micah’s place and greeted him. ¹⁶ The six hundred Danites, armed for battle, stood at the entrance of the gate. ¹⁷ The five men who had spied out the land went inside and took the idol, the ephod and the household gods while the priest and the six hundred armed men stood at the entrance of the gate. ¹⁸ When the five men went into Micah’s house and took the idol, the ephod and the household gods, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?” ¹⁹ They answered him, “Be quiet! Don’t say a word. Come with us, and be our father and priest. Isn’t it better that you serve a tribe and clan in Israel as priest rather than just one man’s household?” ²⁰ The priest was very pleased. He took the ephod, the household gods and the idol and went along with the people. ²¹ Putting their little children, their livestock and their possessions in front of them, they turned away and left.

 ²² When they had gone some distance from Micah’s house, the men who lived near Micah were called together and overtook the Danites. ²³ As they shouted after them, the Danites turned and said to Micah, “What’s the matter with you that you called out your men to fight?” ²⁴ He replied, “You took the gods I made, and my priest, and went away. What else do I have? How can you ask, ‘What’s the matter with you?’” ²⁵ The Danites answered, “Don’t argue with us, or some of the men may get angry and attack you, and you and your family will lose your lives.” ²⁶ So the Danites went their way, and Micah, seeing that they were too strong for him, turned around and went back home.”