Judges 17-18

"In Those Days There Was No King in Israel"

Sin has consequences.

There was once a man who stole a large amount of silver from his mother,

and the end result was that a whole tribe set up an idol.

If you don't repent of your sin, then it will only get worse,

and it can snowball into a problem of epic proportions.

On the surface, that appears to be the point of Judges 17-18.

It is certainly true.

But there is more to this story!

We have reached the final two stories in the book of Judges.

We have concluded the narrative of the various deliverers,

and we have come to two stories in which no judge is mentioned-

but which exemplify how far Israel had fallen

from their faithfulness in the days of Joshua.

In one sense our story tonight is pretty gloomy.

It is a story that only gets worse and worse.

Sin and apostasy is met with sin and apostasy.

There is no one who does good.

No one who understands.

No one who seeks after God.

They all have gone astray, each one to his own way.

1. Micah and His Mother (17:1-6)

You see this in Micah and his mother.

Micah means "Who is like Yahweh?"

The answer being-no one-especially no one in this story!

But Micah comes to his mother and says (v2)

1100 shekels of silver is a large amount,

and for those who are paying close attention,

it the same amount given by each Philistine lord to Delilah.

But notice why he comes to her.

He feared the curse of his mother,

and so he returns the silver in order to escape the curse,

and then his mother blesses him (to undo the curse).

And she consecrates the silver to Yahweh,

but rather than take all of it to the tabernacle at Shiloh,

she uses 200 shekels to make an image and an idol.

(this refers to the process: a piece of wood would be carved,

and then overlaid with silver)

And so Micah takes the image, puts it in his household shrine,

and consecrates one of his sons as a priest.

All of this is obviously in violation of what God commanded in Deuteronomy 12

about having one central place of worship!

Like Gideon he has established his own place of worship.

And so we hear that "in those days there was no king in Israel.

Everyone did what was right in his own eyes."

Samson was one who insisted on doing what was right in his eyes.

And now we see that all Israel is becoming what Samson was.

And even though this is a history book, it is also a sermon.

Verse 6 is not meant to be simply a description of the times,

it is also a reminder.

Too often, we are like the Israelites.

We run along on our own path, doing what is right in our own eyes.

We need a king.

We need a king who will do what is right in God's eyes.

But we need something more than that.

We need a king who will lead us to do what is right in God's eyes.

2. Micah and the Levite from Bethlehem in Judah (17:7-13)

Now there was a young man of Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah,

who was a Levite, and he sojourned there.

Notice how in three times in three verses the text emphasizes that he is

from "Bethlehem in Judah."

Both of the last stories in Judges have to do with Levites and Bethlehem in Judah

How can a man be both "of the family of Judah" and "a Levite"?

It is possible that he was from one of the Levitical families that settled in Judah

(remember that the descendants of Moses father-in-law settled in Judah),

or that his mother was a Judahite.

But however it may be, he is identified as both a Judahite and a Levite.

This sounds promising, because we have seen that God is with Judah,

and when Judah leads, good things happen-

though the people of Judah did not follow Samson,

but handed him over the Philistines.

One might almost think that this is a great possibility for a type of Christ-

the only character in the OT who combines Judahite and Levite descent!

But this Levite from Bethlehem in Judah comes to the hill country of Ephraim and meets Micah.

And when Micah discovers that he is looking for "a place"

he offers him the local priesthood.

So Micah ordains the Levite from Bethlehem in Judah as his priest, declaring,

"Now I know that the LORD will prosper me, because I have a Levite as priest."

Never mind that I stole from my mother.

Never mind that I made a graven image.

Never mind that I established a shrine besides the one that Yahweh appointed in Shiloh.

Now I know that Yahweh will prosper me, because I have a Levite as priest.

Beware of this sort of magical thinking.

"God will bless me because I read my Bible every morning"

-when you treat your co-workers like dirt...

"God will bless me because I have family worship every night"

-when you then ignore God for the rest of the day...

God will not be mocked.

Man judges the outward appearance, but the LORD judges the heart.

3. The Danites and the Levite from Bethlehem in Judah (18:1-20)

But in those days there was no king in Israel,

and in those days the people of Dan were seeking an inheritance.

What?

Hadn't God given them their inheritance?

Their lot was apportioned to the south and west, next to Judah.

But as the Samson narrative has shown us,

the Philistines ruled in that region,

and so the Danites were unable to take possession of their inheritance.

So, abandoning the inheritance promised by God,

the Danites decided to take matters into their own hands and find a new home.

They were not seeking a heavenly country (Heb 11) but an earthly one.

So they sent five "able men"

(lit. "sons of strength"-echoing the description of Gideon-the "mighty man")

in order to spy out the land (echoes of Caleb and Joshua)

But their spiritual discernment is far from that of Caleb and Joshua!

As they come to the hill country of Ephraim, they pass by Micah's house

and hear the voice of the Levite from Bethlehem in Judah.

How did they recognize it?

Either they knew him (since the Danites were living in the territory of Judah),

or else they recognized his accent.

But either way, they recognized his voice and asked him what he was doing.

He replied (in effect), "I'm a hired priest."

With a so-called priest of God before them, they immediately seek his guidance.

"Inquire of God, please" will we succeed?

And this quasi-priest of an idolatrous and apostate household declares a blessing:

"Shalom" go in peace.

"The journey on which you go is under the eye of Yahweh."

They take this as God's blessing on their journey-they go and spy out the valley of Laish,

and they return home giving the report of Caleb and Joshua:

"God has given it into your hands,

a place where there is no lack of anything that is in the earth."

So 600 men from Dan set out to attack Laish.

Notice how Laish is portrayed in the account:

"Quiet and unsuspecting" (18:7, 27) with "no deliverer" (18:28) because the Sidonians

were far away and apparently uninterested in this remote outpost.

The people of Laish are the most sympathetic characters in the story.

Why is the narrator sympathetic to Laish?

They are Canaanites!

According to the command of God, they were to be destroyed!

But Israel is worse.

The Danites are living in rebellion against God,

refusing to be content with their own inheritance,

and turning to idolatry, they are now worse than the Canaanites!

And so the Canaanite city of Laish becomes the "good guy" in the story!

But before coming to Laish,

the 600 men stop at Micah's house and take the Levite with them (verses 14-20).

(Read verses 18-19)

In effect, which would you rather be, the pastor of a small family, or a megachurch?

4. Micah and the Danites (18:21-31)

When Micah discovers this, he pursued the 600 Danites with a company of neighbors.

In response the Danites asked (v23)

Micah's response is pathetic:

"You take my gods that I made and the priest, and go away, and what have I left?"

This is utter stupidity.

You would think that Micah could figure it out for himself!

But that is what idolatry does-

it turns us into fools.

Any time you find yourself turning to idols-making something else more important

than the living God,

ask yourself, "what lie am I believing?"

Because every sin is based on a lie.

But the Danites do not respond in a godly fashion either.

They threaten him with death and move on.

Then 600 troops from Zorah and Eshtaol (Samson's home turf) are able to take the city of Laish,

when the entire tribe had been unable to take the smaller towns in their proper territory

This would appear to be God's blessing upon Dan.

After all, throughout Judges whenever the people sin,

disaster comes upon them.

Here, the people sin, and God blesses them!

Why would God bless an apostate and rebellious tribe?

These last two stories in the book of Judges

are focused around characters from Bethlehem in Judah.

Even in the midst of apostasy and idolatry,

God's blessing is on Bethlehem in Judah.

There is something about Bethlehem in Judah that should cause you to take notice.

In those days there was no king in Israel.

We need a king-we need a king from Bethlehem in Judah.

Because even when everything else is going wrong,

God's blessing remains upon the man from Bethlehem.

And did you notice who this Levite from Bethlehem in Judah is?

He is Jonathan the son of Gershom the son of Moses.

Many of the rabbis couldn't accept the idea that it could be the grandson of Moses,

so they added a "nun" and called him "Manasseh."

But there is little doubt that it is indeed Moses who is referred to.

Even the sons of Moses have become corrupt.

There is none righteous-not even one!

This is also a good place to point out that God's blessing

often still attends the ministry of apostate preachers.

It is not a man's personal character that determines whether God will use him.

God had called Jonathan to be his servant,

and even though Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses

was an idolatrous priest,

he was still God's servant, and God's blessing came through his mouth.

Those who minister in the name of the King from Bethlehem in Judah

are used by God regardless of their personal character.

But that does not mean that their wickedness is shorn of consequences.

Grievous evil comes to Dan and all Israel because of the sin of Micah and Jonathan.

The carved image was set up at Dan,

and Jonathan's heirs were priests in Dan until the captivity of the land.

Some have thought that this refers to 2 Kings 15:29,

when Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria took Dan captive in 734 BC

(Because this phrase usually refers to deporting a population,

not just foreign occupation).

Certainly the shrine in Dan will play an important role in Jeroboam's day (1 Kings 12:25-33),

but verse 30 should be read in connection with verse 31.

The captivity of the land seems to be connected with the location of the house of God at Shiloh.

This could refer at least in part to what happened in 1 Samuel 4-5,

when the ark was taken from Shiloh by the Philistines,

nevermore to return to Shiloh.

While in the light of the Exile of Israel in the 8^th century,

this was only a minor event,

if Judges was written prior to the 8^th century,

then the captivity of the ark was the most traumatic event in history.

Consider Jeremiah 7:12-15

"Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. And now, because you have done all these things, declares the LORD, and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of Ephraim."

Jeremiah compares the Exile of Israel to the Exile of the Ark from Shiloh.

What I did to Shiloh, I will do to you.

Idolatry and apostasy results in judgment.

An apostate church will not stand.

God may temporarily bless and provide apparent success,

but in the end, God will judge the wicked church and bring it to destruction.

This is why we need King Jesus.

Jesus Christ alone is Lord and head of the church.

Where now are the grandsons of John Calvin?

Where now are the heirs of Martin Luther?

Rome has tried to guarantee fidelity through an unbroken succession of bishops,

but no earthly line, no merely human order,

can withstand the cycle of the book of Judges.

We need a King who will not only do what is right in God's eyes,

we need a King who will lead us to do what is right in God's eyes as well.

Judges tells us to look for that King in Bethlehem of Judah,

for there God's blessing will come upon a weak and sinful race,

when God raises up a man after his own heart.