March 18 / Judges 17-18

Judges 17-18

Are you beginning to get dizzy from the downward spiral? Do you smell the stench of decay? Do you see the pervasive perversion of worship?

About the only positive noble act in our entire reading today is Micah’s confession of having stolen his mother’s silver. (Jg. 17:2) After that, it is all down hill, and much — if not most — is done in the name of the LORD. What do I mean? Well, let’s see:

• Micah’s mother “blesses” him, saying, “I dedicate the silver to the LORD … to make a carved image and a metal image.” (Jg. 17:2-3)
  • In so doing, Micah’s mother simultaneously breaks two commandments, against graven images, and against taking the LORD’s name in vain.
  • Clearly, syncretism with Canaanite idolatry is so thorough that nobody sees the insanity of a graven image dedicated “to the LORD”.
• Micah sets up his own shrine with his own gods and ordains one of his own sons as a priest. (Jg. 17:5)
  • Again, Micah’s actions are clearly well outside the bounds of Torah.
• Micah then hires a Levite to serve as his priest, thinking this adds legitimacy to his shrine, and saying, “Now I know that the LORD will prosper me, because I have a Levite as priest.”
  • This is a complete misunderstanding of the role of the Levites.
  • Rather than accepting the position as priest, the Levite should be tearing the shrine down and pointing everyone back to Torah.
  • Instead, the Levite seems as ignorant of Torah as everyone else and elevates his own position.
• Then the Danite spies come along. They ask the Levite “priest” to “inquire of God”, and he tells them, “Go in peace. The journey on which you go is under the eye of the LORD.”
  • But this “priest” is fake. He may speak in the name of the LORD, but it’s a sham.
• The Danites return with an army and steal Micah’s idols and his Levite, taking his entire “worship center” by force.
  • The Danites aren’t tearing the shrine down out of devotion to the LORD. No, they just want Micah’s shrine and his Levite for themselves.
• The tribe of Dan, having failed to properly take full possession of the land allotted to them under Joshua (Joshua 19:40-48), come to Laish, to a people quiet and unsuspecting (Jg. 18:27). They attack and destroy Laish, renaming it Dan.
  • It may sound like the Danites are just continuing the God-ordained conquest of the land, but the LORD is not in this. This is not their land to take. This is outright murder.
• The Danites proceed to set up the carved image for themselves, and Jonathan the son of Gershom, son of Moses, and his sons [are] priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land. (Jg. 18:30)
  • That is, the Danites thoroughly divorce themselves from the proper worship of the LORD at the Tabernacle.
  • This false center of worship persists for centuries, right up until the Northern Kingdom is exiled by the Assyrians (which we will get to later).
  • Appallingly, it appears that the Levite “priest” is none other than Jonathan the son of Gershom, son of Moses!

All of that goes to illustrate that the use of “spiritual language” is no reliable indicator of truth. Talking about “God” or “the LORD”, or doing things “in the name of Christ” does not make one a follower of Christ. False teachers and false prophets abound. Just look around at our society today. Wide swaths of “mainline denominations” currently preach outright heresy — all in the name of Jesus. Best-selling authors, whose books appear in Christian bookstores, preach a false “prosperity gospel” — all in the name of Christ. So do not be fooled by “Christianese”. Pay attention to what people are really saying and check it out against Scripture. Does it line up or not? (And, by the way, that goes for what I say here with RTB as much as anyone else. Don’t just swallow what I say. Check it out! And if I am in error, please let me know!)

More than that, take a look at your own life and closely evaluate whether what you think, believe, and do is in line with the Lord. Consider all those ideas and practices that you “just grew up with”, all those things to which you are thoroughly accustomed and which you take for granted as “good and normal and right”. Are they, in fact, pleasing to the Lord? Does your notion of God line up with what Scripture says about Him? How about your version of Jesus? Or are you, instead, worshipping an idol, whom you happen to call Jesus?