Judges 18:1-31 Part 2

     The Central Idea of the Text is that the tribe of Dan desired land beyond what God had allotted to them, and by force stole Micah’s idols and priest, and violently attacked the people of Laish and renamed their city Dan. 

     The tribe of Dan sent five spies to search for new territory (Judg. 18:1-2) beyond the choice land allotted to them (Josh. 19:40-48) because they had failed to drive out the Amorites who lived there (Judg. 1:34).  The spies encountered Micah’s Levite-priest and asked for divine guidance and received a false blessing (Judg. 18:3-6).  The five men came to the peaceful town of Laish and saw they were ungoverned and unprotected (Judg. 8:7).  After returning home they informed their brethren about their findings and counseled them to attack the city and take possession of the land (Judg. 18:8-12).  Six hundred Danites marched toward Laish, stopping at Micah’s house along the way and stealing his idols (Judg. 18:13-18), and convincing his priest to serve the tribe of Dan (Judg. 18:19-21).  Micah pursued them in protest, but abandoned his efforts when they threatened his life (Judg. 18:22-26).  The six hundred Danite warriors killed the people of Laish and renamed the city Dan (Judg. 18:27-29).  The Danites then set up Micah’s idol and appointed Jonathan as their priest; and so the Danites continued in idolatry until the time of their captivity (Judg. 18:30-31).

     Moses had led Israel into a covenant relationship with God which included promised blessing for obedience.  However, Moses’ grandson—Jonathan—led many away from God and into empty idolatry.  Idolatry is the sin of substitution in which we devote ourselves to something or someone in place of God.  Biblically, there is only one God, and He demands that His people worship Him (Ex. 20:3-4).  The exclusive worship of God is for His glory and our benefit.  A physical idol is merely the work of a craftsman (see Isa. 44:9-20).  There is no life in it (Ps. 115:1-8; Jer. 51:17; Hab. 2:18-20), nor can it deliver in times of trouble (Isa. 46:5-7).  From the human perspective, ancient people did not necessarily see the idol as the god itself, but rather as a representation of the god who might reside in, or become attached to the idol.  Micah’s gods were vulnerable to attack and could not protect him (Judg. 18:17-26); later, those same gods would fail the Danites (Judg. 18:30).  From the divine perspective, the worship of idols is the worship of demons (Deut. 32:17), and Israelites who led others into idolatry were to be stoned because they promoted spiritual rebellion among God’s people (Deut. 13:6-11).  “The Danites were the first tribe to establish idolatry publicly in Israel. Perhaps this is why their tribe does not appear in the list of 12 tribes that will each produce 12,000 godly Israelite witnesses during the tribulation period (Rev. 7:5–8).”[1]

 

[1] Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Jdg 18:27.