Thursday
Evening Bible Study
December
1, 2011
Introduction
Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel
preached? Does it speak to the broken hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk
– Meat – Manna Preach for a decision
Between the time when Joshua conquered the Promised Land and the time of
the kings, there was a period of four hundred years where the people were led
by various people known as “Judges”.
Typically the people would have fallen away from God, and gotten themselves
into trouble. When they cried out to
God, God would raise up a man or woman to bring the nation back to God and
fight the battles for Israel.
Tonight’s story (Judges
17-18) along with the next (Judges 19-21) are like an appendix to the book of
Judges. They appear to take place at an
earlier time of history than that of Samson.
17:1-13 Micah’s Idolatry
:1 Now there was a man from the mountains of Ephraim, whose name was
Micah.
:2 And he said to his mother, “The eleven hundred shekels of silver
that were taken from you, and on which you put a curse, even saying it in my
ears—here is the silver with me; I took it.” And his mother said, “May
you be blessed by the Lord,
my son!”
:1 mountains of Ephraim
See map. The first part of our story is going to take
place somewhere in Ephraim, up in the hills north of Jerusalem.
:1 Micah
– “who is like God”
This is NOT the same man that wrote the book of Micah.
:2 eleven hundred shekels
of silver
Apparently the story starts with this son stealing a huge amount of silver
from his mother, and his mother put a “curse” on whoever stole the silver.
Micah comes forward and confesses his theft, and his mother “blesses” the
son.
Perhaps there’s a sense in which she is reversing the “curse”.
You’re going to
see a lot of stuff in this story that sounds kind of superstitious with this
family.
You’d be right in thinking this.
This is not a family that has a very correct theology about God.
:2 put a curse –‘alah
– to swear, curse
:3 So when he
had returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his
mother said, “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.”
:4 Thus he returned the silver to his mother. Then his mother took two
hundred shekels of silver and gave them to the silversmith, and he made
it into a carved image and a molded image; and they were in the house of Micah.
:4 made it into a
carved image
When Micah confesses his theft to his mom, she ends up giving the money
back to him, and says she wants
to have a little “god” made in honor of Yahweh.
She takes part of the money and has a little idol made, but keep in mind
they are thinking it is all about Yahweh.
Yet God said this was not how He wanted to be worshipped. The Second Commandments was:
(Ex
20:4–5 NKJV) —4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of
anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth
beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall
not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God…
You might say, “Well at least she wasn’t making an image of Dagon, Molech,
or Baal”.
That doesn’t make it right. She’s
still wrong.
:5 The man Micah
had a shrine, and made an ephod and household idols; and he consecrated one of
his sons, who became his priest.
:5 household idols – t@raphiym
– idolatry, idols, image(s), teraphim, family idol
:5 an ephod
Some sort of religious, priestly garment, like a robe.
It seems that an “ephod” is sometimes used in asking God questions and
getting answers. (1Sam. 23:9)
The Jewish high
priest wore an ephod that had gold, blue, purple, and scarlet threads in it. (Ex. 28:6)
Gideon had made an ephod with the gold he had taken from the Midianite
victory (Jud 8:7)
When Samuel was a boy, he wore a linen ephod (1Sam. 2:18).
David wore a linen ephod when he brought the Ark into Jerusalem (1Chr. 15:27)
:5 he consecrated
one of his sons
We are assuming that Micah is from the tribe of Ephraim, the wrong tribe
for a priest to be from. Priests were to be
descendants of Aaron, from the tribe of Levi.
:6 In those days
there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his
own eyes.
:6 right in his own
eyes
Lesson
What’s right?
These people might have good motives – they apparently want to be right
with God – but they are going about it the wrong way.
God had clearly given them laws to tell them how He was to be worshipped.
But they are either ignorant of those laws, or they are willfully choosing
to ignore those laws.
We are living in a society today that is very similar.
We have eliminated any sort of basis for what is right and wrong.
Our world’s philosophy is now – “If it feels good, do it”.
A young man and
woman become interested in each other, and they move in together. Why?
Because the world teaches that sex is okay as long as you “love” each
other. We have lost the concept of the
holiness of marriage.
We think that
homosexuality is okay because we’ve swallowed the idea that a person is “born”
that way. We believe that if a person
“feels” that they are homosexual, it must be true and good.
The “Occupy”
movement is angry with corporate greed, but what’s to tell us that greed is
wrong? Without a moral compass like
God’s Word, the greedy corporate executives can feel that they are just as
right.
We no longer
have a moral compass to tell us what’s right.
Our moral
compass should be God’s Word.
Some might say, “Well at least they are worshipping Yahweh”.
God doesn’t want us worshipping Him “in our own way”.
:7 Now there
was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah; he was
a Levite, and was staying there.
:7 Bethlehem
– “house of bread”
We often only think of Bethlehem in terms of Christmas, but Bethlehem
actually plays a role in many stories.
Jacob’s wife
Rachel died and was buried near Bethlehem.
The story of
Ruth takes place in Bethlehem. The
Moabite gal ends up marrying Boaz, who was from Bethlehem. They were the great grandparents of King
David.
David was from
Bethlehem.
Jesus was born
in Bethlehem.
This young Levite was from Bethlehem.
One of the interesting things we learned in Israel this year was the
geography related to the name “Bethlehem”.
Show satellite
pic
Bethlehem is on the border of the barren Judean wilderness. South of Bethlehem is a city known as the
“House of Rock”. As you look across the
hills, you can see where the barren wilderness changes into land that has
vegetation – it takes place at Bethelehm, the “house of bread”, where crops
like wheat and barley can be planted.
Play “House of
Rock House of Bread” clip
:7 young man
This man was living in the land allotted to the tribe of Judah, but he is from the tribe
of Levi.
The Levites were the tribe from which the priests came.
The Levites didn’t have a specific area of land given to them, instead they
were sprinkled throughout the land as a way of putting priestly type people
throughout all twelve tribes.
Spoiler alert! We’re going to see
that this man was possibly a descendant of Moses.
:8 The man departed
from the city of Bethlehem in Judah to stay wherever he could find a place.
Then he came to the mountains of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, as he
journeyed.
:9 And Micah said to him, “Where do you come from?” So he said to him, “I am
a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am on my way to find a place to
stay.”
:10 Micah said to him, “Dwell with me, and be a father and a priest to me,
and I will give you ten shekels of silver per year, a suit of clothes,
and your sustenance.” So the Levite went in.
:11 Then the Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man
became like one of his sons to him.
:12 So Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest,
and lived in the house of Micah.
:13 Then Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord
will be good to me, since I have a Levite as priest!”
:13 I have a Levite
You really can’t say that Micah doesn’t know right from wrong.
He knows that a priest ought to be a Levite.
Now he feels
he’ll be “lucky” because he’s doing good.
In actuality, he’s got another problem – his “idol”.
18:1-26 Dan’s
Idolatry
:1 In those days there was no king in Israel. And in those days the
tribe of the Danites was seeking an inheritance for itself to dwell in; for
until that day their inheritance among the tribes of Israel had not
fallen to them.
:1 seeking an
inheritance
The book of Joshua tells us that the tribe of Dan had been given a
territory of land already.
(Jos
19:40 NKJV) The seventh lot came out for the tribe of the children of Dan
according to their families.
See Tribe map
Their territory included cities like Zorah and Eshtaol, places where Samson
used to hang out.
The Danites had problems though. The
Amorites had forced them to live only up in the hills, and they didn’t think
that was enough room for them. (Jdg.
1:34)
(Jdg 1:34 NKJV) And the Amorites
forced the children of Dan into the mountains, for they would not allow them to
come down to the valley;
:2 So the children
of Dan sent five men of their family from their territory, men of valor from
Zorah and Eshtaol, to spy out the land and search it. They said to them, “Go,
search the land.” So they went to the mountains of Ephraim, to the house of
Micah, and lodged there.
See Zorah map
These five spies head north
into the mountains of Ephraim, where Micah was living.
:3 While they were
at the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young Levite. They
turned aside and said to him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in this
place? What do you have here?”
:3 they recognized
the voice
I find it fascinating that they knew this fellow enough to recognize his
voice.
It might be that they just recognized his “Judean” accent.
:4 He said to them,
“Thus and so Micah did for me. He has hired me, and I have become his priest.”
:5 So they said to him, “Please inquire of God, that we may know whether
the journey on which we go will be prosperous.”
:6 And the priest said to them, “Go in peace. The presence of the Lord be with you on your way.”
:5 Please inquire
of God
Because the Levite has an “ephod”, he is able to seek God for answers.
Some suggest that the priest is simply telling them what they want to hear.
:7 So the five men
departed and went to Laish. They saw the people who were there, how they
dwelt safely, in the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure. There were
no rulers in the land who might put them to shame for anything. They were
far from the Sidonians, and they had no ties with anyone.
:7 Laish
– “lion”
This is one of the most beautiful, green areas of Israel.
There is a huge spring there that gets its water from the snows of Mount
Hermon.
This is one of the three main tributaries to the Jordan River. The “Jordan” gets its name from “Dan”
Play “Dan1”
video clip.
The area was
also known as “Leshem” (Jos.
19:47)
(Jos 19:47 NKJV) —47 And the
border of the children of Dan went beyond these, because the children of Dan
went up to fight against Leshem and took it; and they struck it with the edge
of the sword, took possession of it, and dwelt in it. They called Leshem, Dan,
after the name of Dan their father.
It was around way back in the days of Abraham. When Abraham chased the kings of the east to rescue his nephew
Lot, he traveled as far north as this area known as Dan.
The excavations
at Tel Dan have found the ancient gate of the city made out of mud brick, dating
back to the time of Abraham.
Play Dan2 video
clip
This place was lush, green, and had everything the tribe would ever need.
:8 Then the spies
came back to their brethren at Zorah and Eshtaol, and their brethren said to
them, “What is your report?”
:9 So they said, “Arise, let us go up against them. For we have seen the
land, and indeed it is very good. Would you do nothing? Do
not hesitate to go, and enter to possess the land.
:10 When you go, you will come to a secure people and a large land. For God
has given it into your hands, a place where there is no lack of anything
that is on the earth.”
:11 And six hundred men of the family of the Danites went from there, from
Zorah and Eshtaol, armed with weapons of war.
:12 Then they went up and encamped in Kirjath Jearim in Judah. (Therefore
they call that place Mahaneh Dan to this day. There it is, west of
Kirjath Jearim.)
:12 Kirjath Jearim
See map. This is up in the hills about six miles east
of Eshtaol.
:12 Mahaneh Dan
– “Camp of Dan”
:13 And they passed
from there to the mountains of Ephraim, and came to the house of Micah.
:14 Then the five men who had gone to spy out the country of Laish answered
and said to their brethren, “Do you know that there are in these houses an
ephod, household idols, a carved image, and a molded image? Now therefore,
consider what you should do.”
:15 So they turned aside there, and came to the house of the young Levite
man—to the house of Micah—and greeted him.
:16 The six hundred men armed with their weapons of war, who were of
the children of Dan, stood by the entrance of the gate.
:17 Then the five men who had gone to spy out the land went up. Entering
there, they took the carved image, the ephod, the household idols, and the
molded image. The priest stood at the entrance of the gate with the six hundred
men who were armed with weapons of war.
:18 When these went into Micah’s house and took the carved image, the
ephod, the household idols, and the molded image, the priest said to them,
“What are you doing?”
:19 And they said to him, “Be quiet, put your hand over your mouth, and
come with us; be a father and a priest to us. Is it better for you to be
a priest to the household of one man, or that you be a priest to a tribe and a
family in Israel?”
:20 So the priest’s heart was glad; and he took the ephod, the household
idols, and the carved image, and took his place among the people.
They have stolen Micah’s “god” and his priest.
It shows you where the priest’s heart is.
He is a “hireling”. He’s looking
for the next “big thing”.
:21 Then they turned and departed, and put the little ones, the livestock,
and the goods in front of them.
:21 put the little
ones
The Danites had brought
their families and livestock with them.
It wasn’t just the warriors.
They put the warriors in the rear to guard against an attack from Micah.
:22 When they
were a good way from the house of Micah, the men who were in the houses
near Micah’s house gathered together and overtook the children of Dan.
:23 And they called out to the children of Dan. So they turned around and
said to Micah, “What ails you, that you have gathered such a company?”
:24 So he said, “You have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest,
and you have gone away. Now what more do I have? How can you say to me, ‘What
ails you?’ ”
:24 You have taken away my gods
It’s pretty bad when someone can steal your god.
:25 And the children of Dan said to him, “Do not let your voice be heard
among us, lest angry men fall upon you, and you lose your life, with the lives
of your household!”
:26 Then the children of Dan went their way. And when Micah saw that they were
too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house.
“Might makes right”. The Danites are
just big bullies.
18:27-31 Dan
Conquers Laish
:27 So they took the things Micah had made, and the priest who had
belonged to him, and went to Laish, to a people quiet and secure; and they
struck them with the edge of the sword and burned the city with fire.
:27 they struck
them with the edge of the sword
Though we might be tempted to think that these Danites were doing a
barbaric thing, they are actually fulfilling God’s plan for Israel to conquer
and possess the land.
:28 There was no deliverer, because it was far from Sidon, and they
had no ties with anyone. It was in the valley that belongs to Beth Rehob. So
they rebuilt the city and dwelt there.
:28 Sidon
Play Sidon Map
video.
Even though the people may have been a sort of colony from the city of
Sidon, there is 25 miles and a lot of hills between them and Sidon. They had no allies to rescue them from the
Danites.
:29 And they
called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was
born to Israel. However, the name of the city formerly was Laish.
:29 Dan
– Show map.
Dan becomes the
northernmost point in the land of Israel.
There will
be a phrase that comes up from time to time, “from Dan to Beer-sheba”,
referring partly to this.
:30 Then the children
of Dan set up for themselves the carved image; and Jonathan the son of Gershom,
the son of Manasseh, and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the
day of the captivity of the land.
:30 Jonathan
Some manuscripts have this “the son of Moses” instead of “Manasseh”, making this Levite a
descendant of Moses, perhaps even his grandson.
If Jonathan was the grandson of Moses, then he not a descendant of Aaron. This means that he could have functioned as a
Levite, but not as a
priest. The priests were to be
descendants of Aaron.
These people are making up their own rules.
God said that only the descendants of Aaron could be priests. These people think, “Hey, this guy’s the
grandson of Moses, how good can it get?”
If this is Moses’ grandson, and he’s a “young man”, this would indicate
that this whole story took place very early during the time of the judges.
:31 So they set
up for themselves Micah’s carved image which he made, all the time that the
house of God was in Shiloh.
:31 Shiloh
See map. Shiloh was a city in Ephraim. It was where the Tabernacle had been set up at this time.
:31 Micah’s carved
image
Lesson
Don’t be a Dan Fool
The Law of the Central
Sanctuary
Before Israel crossed the Jordan and conquered their Promised Land, God
gave a command to Israel that they were to be sure to worship at the place that
God set up for worship.
(Dt
12:5–8 NKJV) —5 “But you shall seek the place where the Lord your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His
name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go. 6 There you shall
take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of
your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of
your herds and flocks. 7 And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice in
all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which the Lord your God has blessed you. 8 “You shall not at
all do as we are doing here today— every man doing whatever is right in
his own eyes—
Does anything sound familiar? “Every man doing whatever is right in his own
eyes…”?
When Israel
first settled into the Promised Land, the “sanctuary” was in Shiloh.
Except for the
tribe of Dan.
They did their own thing.
When they saw a chance to take a “god” with them up north, they snatched
Micah’s idol.
Later, after David
established the kingdom of Israel and Solomon built the first Temple, it was
clear that that the “Central Sanctuary” was in Jerusalem.
Except for the
tribe of Dan (and others at Bethel)
When Solomon’s son Rehoboam took the throne, the northern tribes rebelled
against Rehoboam, and Jeroboam set up some alternate worship sites, including
one in Dan.
Dan is an example of man wanting to “worship”, but wanting to do it on his
own terms, in his own way.
The “Location” of worship has changed again. Listen to Jesus and the woman at the well.
(Jn
4:19–26 NKJV) —19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this
mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought
to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will
neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 You worship what you
do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour is
coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit
and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and
those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah
is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.”
26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
Worship in
spirit
Man likes the idea of going to a place to worship, and leaving God in that
place.
Jesus said that worship takes place inside you, in your spirit, and that
goes wherever you are.
Man likes the idea of his “worship” consisting of doing things with his
body – sitting in a pew, maybe even kneeling, repeating words that don’t mean
anything.
If worship takes place in your “spirit”, then it must go deeper than your
outer shell, your body, it affects your heart.
Worship in
truth
There is specific
truth about God that He has revealed to us.
Part of what “truth” is about is the fact that Jesus is the only way to
God:
(Jn 14:6 NKJV) Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one
comes to the Father except through Me.
You can’t fudge on what you believe about God. You can’t cut and paste what you like or
don’t like in the Bible. It is all about
Jesus.
Part of what
“truth” is about is the truth about you.
The Greek word for truth (aletheia) comes from combining two words – “not” + “hidden” (a+lanthano).
In our self-will, we like to pretend that certain things
aren’t a part of our life. We cover them
up. We pretend to be nice people when
inside our heart is something that is putrid.
We need to learn to deal with truth.
Don’t be a “Dan Fool”.
Worship Him in
your spirit.
Deal with Truth