The book of Judges mostly contains the history of fourteen judges who were sent by God at different times to the disobedient nation of Israel (Judges 3:7-16:31). Each time Israel disobeyed the Lord, He would send judgment upon them by allowing their enemies to conquer them and when their enemies had victory over them, Israel would cry out to the Lord for deliverance. Throughout the time of the judges (1383-1043 BC), God’s deliverance often arrived for Israel whenever He would send judges to be victorious over their enemies and call the people to repent and return to the Lord. Israel’s relationship with God during this time is best described as unstable. Disobedience led to oppression. Oppression led to Israel crying out to God for help. A cry for help led to God sending a judge to deliver Israel from oppression. Israel would experience a time of peace until they fell back into disobedience. The cycle would begin again.
In the final chapters of Judges (17-21), various stories of Israel’s disobedience are documented in order to communicate the extreme apostasy and immorality that characterized this time in the history of Israel. Two major stories make up the conclusion of the book of Judges: Micah and the Danites’ idolatry (Judges 17-18) as well as immoral actions of a priest and certain men of Gibeah (Judges 19-21). The first story is focused on a man named Micah who stole 1,100 shekels of silver from his mother (17:1-2). When Micah found out that his mother had pronounced a curse on the one who stole the silver, he confessed his wrongdoing to her and she surprisingly blessed him (17:2). After Micah had returned the money to his mother she said to him, “I had wholly dedicated the silver from my hand to the Lord for my son, to make a carved image and a molded image; now therefore, I will return it to you” (17:3). She then paid a silversmith who made two different idols for Micah to place in his home (17:4). The actions of Micah and his mother were strictly forbidden according to God’s law, which prohibited anyone from creating a carved image for worship (Exodus 20:2). In addition to having a shrine and household idols, Micah consecrated his son as his own personal priest (17:5). Setting up his own priest was also forbidden since priests were only permitted of the tribe of Levi (Leviticus 13). Even though this was only one example of what was taking place in the nation of Israel, it seems like everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes (17:6). To make matters worse, a man of the tribe of Levi was searching for a place to stay when he came to the mountains of Ephraim and took up residence in the house of Micah (17:7-8). Whenever Micah found out that the wandering man was a Levite, Micah asked him to stay in his home and become his priest (17:9-10). The man agreed and Micah decided to pay the Levite ten shekels of silver a year and also provide food as well as clothing (17:10-11). ”So Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and lived in the house of Micah. Then Micah said, ‘Now I know that the Lord will be good to me, since I have a Levite as priest!’” (17:12-13). The actions of Micah and the Levite were serious sins and reflected an overall lack of obedience throughout the nation of Israel.
After the Levite had settled into Micah’s home as his personal priest, the tribe of Dan was searching for a land to dwell since they had not yet settled in the land that had been designated to them (18:1). The Danites sent five men to spy out a land and as they journeyed through the mountains of Ephraim, they lodged with Micah (18:2). While they were dwelling at Micah’s house, they recognized the voice of the young Levite and inquired about why he was staying with Micah (18:3). The Levite revealed to them that he had been hired by Micah to be his personal priest and the men then asked him if the journey that they were on would be prosperous (18:4-5). The priest told them that the presence of the Lord would be with them (18:6) so the men continued to Laish and returned to their people with a good report (18:7-10). Upon hearing the report of the spies, they sent 600 Danites on a journey to overtake Laish (18:11); however, on their journey to Laish, the five spies had them stop into the house of Micah once again and they persuaded the young Levite to become a priest over their tribe (18:12-19). The priest willingly agreed to a priest over the Danites so he took the idols and departed with them to Laish (18:20-26). Upon their arrival in Laish, they struck the people with the edge of the sword, burned the city, and then rebuilt it (18:27-29). Unfortunately, they continued in their sinful ways by setting up for themselves Micah’s carved image and consecrating unqualified priests to lead them (18:30-31). The tribe of Dan’s disobedience would negatively influence many generations to come.
Dear God, may I worship You alone.
