
Strong Back, Weak Mind
Once upon a time a little boy was sent out to watch the sheep. After a while he felt bored and lonely, so he called out “wolf!” The men of the town rushed out to protect the sheep, but the boy said “I was just joking.” The frustrated townspeople told the boy not to tell lies, and went back to work. A little later, the boy felt bored and lonely again so a second time he cried out “wolf!” Again, the people of the town rushed to help and were again unhappy with the little boy for lying.
A third time, the little boy was alone with the sheep. And then he actually did see a real wolf slinking around the edges of the flock. “Wolf, wolf!” he called out, but of course nobody believed him this time. So as the townspeople went about their business, ignoring the calls for help, the wolf ate some of the sheep, and then finally turned on the powerless boy and ate him, too. The end.
For those who have never heard that before, that’s the story of the boy who cried wolf. It’s a story with no heroes and no happy ending, but it’s an important story because it communicates the important truth that nobody believes a liar, even when they are telling the truth.
And I’m sure we could come up with a decent list of stories like this. The brothers Grimm and Shakespeare would probably have a few titles on the list. I can think of some excellent movies I’ve seen like this. And of course many tales from actual history where there are no good guys, no happy ending, but a story that communicates an important truth so effectively that we pay attention.
The book of Judges concludes with two accounts like this. Just like Judges opened up with a double introduction, so it wraps up with this double conclusion of two stories that don’t actually involve any of the judges or carry forward the narrative that’s been left dangling. Samson started a war with the Philistines that doesn’t get picked up until 1 Samuel where we read about a prophet and a king named Saul and a young boy who defeats the Philistine champion in single combat. That’s a continuation of the conflict that Samson started that we heard about in the previous weeks.
But as the book of Judges concludes, it steps back from that narrative and and gives us these two slice-of-life accounts that are designed to show us what Israel had become in the days of the judges. There’s no good guys in these stories, and there’s no happy ending. But that’s actually the whole point. The author of Judges is very deliberately showing us just how far Israel had wandered in these years. This week’s passage focuses on their religious breakdown. And next week’s passage focuses on their moral and even national breakdown.
And these narratives aren’t just moral propaganda. They are also literary masterpieces. They way they are told is beautiful and well-crafted and I’m going to do my best to help us grasp some of that craftsmanship as we walk through them together.
1. Stolen Goods, New Gods (17:1-6)
I see seven main movements to the story, so let’s begin with the first one: stolen goods and new gods. And right away we’re thrust into the middle of an account where a bit of dialogue gives us all of the backstory we need to know.
This man named Micah from the hill country of Ephraim opens the story by saying to his mother, “The 1,100 pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse, and also spoke it in my ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it” (Judges 17:2).
The backstory here is an act of theft. This guy stole 1,100 pieces of silver—which is a lot. That’s the amount of silver that the Philistine lords each offered Delilah for the life of Samson. Given that later on in the story Micah offers to pay the priest 10 pieces of silver a year, I estimate this to be worth about one to two million dollars worth of silver.
And Micah stole this huge amount from his own mom. Apparently his mom hadn’t taught him the fifth commandment, “Honour your father and your mother,” or the eighth commandment, “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:12, 15). Or if he knew them, he didn’t care. And in response to having her silver stolen, his mom uttered a curse, which might have gone along the lines of “cursed is the one who stole my silver.” Maybe her language was more colourful than that—we don’t know. What we do know is that Micah heard the curse, and it seems to have rattled him because now he’s fessing up.
Let’s just recognize that we’re into some pretty dysfunctional territory right off the bat.
Now look at how Micah’s mom responds: “Blessed be my son by the Lord” (v. 2a). Instead of a curse, she’s now uttering a blessing on her son in the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel. That sounds pretty good. And then he does the right thing in verse 3 by giving the silver back to his mom. Okay, this seems positive. If Micah was following God’s instructions in the law, he would have gone to the tabernacle to confess his sin and offer a sacrifice, but at least he’s giving the silver back.
But keep reading in verse 3: “And his mother said, ‘I dedicate the silver to the Lord from my hand for my son, to make a carved image and a metal image. Now therefore I will restore it to you.”
Do you remember the second commandment? “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or 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. You shall not bow down to them or serve them” (Exodus 20:4–5). But here is this lady blessing her son in the name of the Lord, dedicating this silver to the Lord, and then doing something with it that the Lord specifically prohibited the people from doing.
So not only is she breaking the second commandment, she’s breaking the third commandment by using God’s name in vain. She’s using God’s name like a religious trinket to splash around without any concern for the actual personhood and character and commands of God.
But on they go. In verse 4 Micah gives the silver back to his mom who only takes 200 pieces and gives it to the silversmith who makes the carved image. Notice how she dedicates the whole amount to the Lord, but only uses 200 for the image? It seems like she’s now broken the ninth commandment by lying.
And the silversmith makes the image. There’s some question whether “carved image and metal image” means one image, or rather a carved image that is overlaid with metal. Either way, by the end of verse 4 Micah has this idol in his house.
Why do you think his mom gave him this idol? Was it just a random gift? No. In verse 5 we discover something important about Micah:“And the man Micah had a shrine.” Shrine is literally “Bet Elohim,” house of God. Micah had his own little personal temple. Isn’t that cute.
And the sense of the Hebrew here is not that Micah set up this shrine for his new idol, but rather, like most English translations indicate, he already had this shrine. This new idol from his mom is just the latest item in his collection, in addition to an ephod—a priestly garment—and household gods. “Household gods” are often associated with divination or seeing into the future. Don’t miss how Micah has now broken the first commandment, by having other gods before Yahweh.
And there’s his son, serving as his personal priest in his do-it-yourself temple. Not only have we seen here a total disregard for the Ten Commandments, but we’re also seeing a total disregard for the instructions God gave His people in Deuteronomy 12 where he told his people to destroy all of the places on the hills where the Cannanites worshipped their gods, to cut down their idols, and to worship God in the one central location where the Levites would serve his sanctuary. At this point, that was in Shiloh. That’s the place where God was to be worshipped.
Here, in the hill country of Ephraim, Micah—whose name means “Who is like Yahweh?”—sets up a shrine, builds idols, and establishes a competing place of worship. Deuteronomy 12:8 told the people, “You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes.” But that’s exactly what’s happening here, isn’t it? Without a king to lead them, the people are doing whatever it is they want to do. Verse 6: “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”
And notice how this is a criticism. Today, being able to do whatever seems right in your own eyes is sold as freedom. That’s the goal: freedom from any authority so that you can be whoever you want to be and do whatever you want to do. But the book of Judges, and especially these last chapters, will make us question whether that’s really a good goal as it shows us just how messed up people become when they embrace this kind of “freedom.”
2. Priest for Hire (17:7-13)
Let’s not get too sidetracked, though, because the story keeps trucking along. In verse 7 we’re introduced to a new character, “a young man of Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there. And the man departed from the town of Bethlehem in Judah to sojourn where he could find a place” (vv. 7-8a.)
There’s some really important information given about this man. First, he’s introduced as a “young man.” Levites weren’t permitted to serve in the sanctuary until they were 25 or 30, so this guy is probably younger than that.
Second, he’s from “Bethlehem in Judah.” That’s interesting, because the Levites had specific cities and towns designated for them, and Bethlehem wasn’t one of them. Verse 7 goes on to say that “he sojourned there,” meaning that he was a temporary resident. His roots didn’t go deep. The Levites were to be supported by the people of Israel as they lived throughout the land and took turns serving in the central sanctuary. But for whatever reason, this young man has become a wanderer, travelling from one place to the next. Further evidence that Israel is not doing what they were told.
Verse 7 also introduces him as both “of the family of Judah” and “a Levite.” Either his father and mother were from different tribes, or “of the family of Judah” is talking about Bethlehem, not the Levite. Either way, his identity as a Levite is repeatedly stressed throughout the story.
In verse 8 he leaves Bethlehem to find some other place to stay in for a little while. And he ends up in the house of Micah. Israel didn’t have hotels in those days—the expectation was that a stranger would be welcomed into somebody’s home.
So he and Micah are chatting it up in verse 8 and 9, and Micah finds out this guy is a Levite with no fixed address. Bingo! You can almost see Micah’s eyes getting wide. What better way to make his DIY temple legit than to have a legit Levite working there for him! So, verse 10: “And Micah said to him, ‘Stay with me, and be to me a father and a priest, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year and a suit of clothes and your living.’”
“Be to me a father” is a bit of a joke, because this Levite is a young man. Micah is probably flattering him, because sure enough we find out in verse 11 that he becomes like one of Micah’s sons. Nevertheless, our unnamed Levite sees this as a really great opportunity to have a stable income and place to live, so he goes for it and becomes Micah’s personal priest.
Verse 13: “Then Micah said, ‘Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, because I have a Levite as priest.’” This guy it totally clueless, imagining that having a Levite will be like a good luck charm for his self-made religion. And this priest is clueless. He either doesn’t know, or doesn’t care, that his place of ministry is with his brethren, serving the sanctuary at Shiloh, not up here at some self-made temple. And a word could probably be said for his youth and the temptation of a steady job in uncertain times. But regardless, he becomes an accomplice to Micah’s idolatry.
And what’s so sad about all of this is that the Levites were first chosen to serve in the sanctuary because they stood with Moses against the idolatry of the golden calf. And a part of their job was to teach Israel the law of God, like Malachi 2:6-7 tells us. But our portable priest here is totally ignorant of the word of God and the instruction he’s been given and ends up going with the flow of whatever our religiously enterprising Micah suggests.
3. Along Came some Danites (18:1-6)
As the story goes on, chapter 18 opens up with another reminder: “In those days there was no king in Israel.” And in verses 1-6 we’re introduced to another set of characters, the tribe of Dan. Dan had been given territory, but had been pushed back by the Amorites, like we heard back in chapter 4. The Danites also had pressure from the Philistines, as we’ve heard in recent weeks about a prominent Danite known as Samson.
So, rather than trusting God and finishing the job He gave them, they set out on their own to find some other, easier place to live. Trying to mimic the twelve spies sent out by Moses, they send five men north to find a spot for their tribe.
And on the way, they pass through the hill country of Ephraim and end up staying the night, guess where? In the home of Micah. Suddenly we have all of our characters in one spot. And what’s interesting is that these Danites recognize the voice of our young Levite. Either they recognized an accent, or perhaps he stayed with them the way north.
So, in verse 3 they ask him some questions about how he ended up there, and he tells them. And, verse 5, “they said to him, ‘Inqure of God, please, that we may know whether the journey on which we are setting out will succeed.’” Do your priest thing and tell us what God thinks about our journey.
If they wanted to know what God thought about this journey, all they needed to do was read the Torah and see what God had commanded them through Moses and Joshua. But like so many people today, they go chasing for a fresh “word from the Lord” because they aren’t paying attention to the Word He’s already given them.
The Levite gives them the thumbs up, taking God’s name in vain as He promises Yahweh’s protection on their self-made plan. “Go in peace. The journey on which you go is under the eye of the Lord” (v. 6).
4. Dan with a Plan (18:7-13)
So, off go the five men, and in verse 7 they come to Laish, which is way north. North, beyond the borders of Israel. North, beyond the land God promised to give to His people. The inhabitants of Laish were not among those God had told his people to conquer. They were not like the peoples we read about in Joshua, who knew Israel was headed their way and steadfastly refused to surrender to the God of Israel.
Instead, these were neighbours minding their own business, living “in security…quiet and unsuspecting” as verse 7 says. They were also wealthy, and isolated. Easy pickings, in other words. Dan has a plan.
And so the five men go back to their brothers, give a gushing report, and once again attach God’s name to this: “God has given it into your hands” (v. 10). So 600 armed men marched out from Dan’s two major cities, on their way to claim this new land for themselves. And along the way, verse 13 says that they make a stop at what has become the anchor point for this whole story: the house of Micah.
5. Stolen Opportunity (18:14-20)
“Then the five men who had gone to scout out the country of Laish said to their brothers, ‘Do you know that in these houses there are an ephod, household gods, a carved image, and a metal image? Now therefore consider what you will do’” (Judges 18:14).
“Hey guys, there’s a whole little temple in here. And we have 600 armed men. Are you putting two and two together?” Dan wants to take all of this expensive religious paraphernalia for themselves on their way north, and there’s nobody who can stop them.
So, verse 15, “they turned aside there and came to the house of the young Levite, at the home of Micah, and asked him about his welfare” (Judges 18:15). “Hey, Levite, what’s up?”
And then, in verse 17, they proceed to plunder this little temple and take all of the stuff for themselves while their army stands wait. In verse 18, the priest says to them, “What are you doing?” Fair question. Especially for him. This is his livelihood. He doesn’t have a job without all of these expensive trinkets.
But maybe he does. In verse 19 the men of Dan make him a job offer. “And they said to him, ‘Keep quiet; put your hand on your mouth and come with us and be to us a father and a priest. Is it better for you to be priest to the house of one man, or to be priest to a tribe and clan in Israel?” (Judges 18:19).
Verse 20: “And the priest’s heart was glad.” No doubt. He’s climbing up the ladder here. Being a personal priest to Micah was fun and all, but the prestige and pay check with a priest to the whole tribe of Dan is an offer he can’t resist. So, in verse 21, he joins in the pillaging, clearing out his desk before he goes along with the men of Dan.
6. Clash of Clans (18:21-26)
Now of course, Micah finds out before long what happened. And in verses 21-26 we read what I think is just a hilarious discussion. Micah and some of his neighbours come out and chase after the Danites, and when they find them, the Danites shout to him, verse 23, “What is the matter with you, that you come with such a company?” (Judges 18:23).
“And he said, ‘You take my gods that I made and the priest, and go away, and what have I left? How then do you ask me, ‘What is the matter with you?’ ”” (Judges 18:24).
You can just hear the exasperation in his voice as he asked the obvious question. “What do you mean, what’s my problem? What’s your problem?”
And here’s how Dan responds. “Do not let your voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows fall upon you, and you lose your life with the lives of your household’” (Judges 18:25).
Translation: “Shut up or we’ll kill you.” And Micah knows they’re right. They’re too strong for him. So Micah turns around and goes home empty-handed. The man who stole from his mother now has everything stolen from him. No more priest, no more temple.
7. Apostasy Ever After (18:27-31)
Meanwhile, the people of Dan take his stuff and his priest and make it to Laish, a people quiet and unsuspecting as verse 27 reminds us, and with brutal efficiency, they destroy the city. Everybody is killed, the city is burned with fire, and nobody is around to save them. And after a long meeting pondering the options, Dan decides to rename the city “Dan,” and one of the first things they do it set up all of their stolen goods from Micah’s house with our Levite as their priest.
And here in verse 30, in a stunning reveal, the author of Judges finally tells us the name of our friend from Bethlehem. Up until how he’s just been “the priest” or “the young Levite.” We might have thought that’s because his name doesn’t matter. And it’s the opposite. The author has been saving his name because it’s a punchline to this whole story.
And this punchline feels like a literal punch. Verse 30: “And the people of Dan set up the carved image for themselves, and Jonathan the son of Gershom, son of Moses, and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land” (Judges 18:30).
This “Levite from Bethlehem” is Moses’ grandson. With a name that means “Yahweh-given.”
Now, in Hebrew the word “son” can be used for “descendant.” So there could have been a few generations between Moses to his wandering, enterprising, priest-for-hire descendant. But Judges 2 told us that it only took a generation for the people to wander from the Lord. There’s some other clues throughout Judges that point in the direction that this may be an early story, and that yes, within a generation Moses’ own grandson had wandered off into apostasy ever after.
And this account ends by telling us that Jonathan’s sons were priests to Dan up until the captivity, which probably means the exile. And verse 31 concludes by telling us how this shrine of theirs carried on in direct opposition to the true house of God in Shiloh.
Reign in Us: Glad Submission to Our King
And that’s the story. The end.
Kind of depressing, isn’t it? There’s no good guys here, no happily ever after.
But that’s the point. This is a downer and it’s supposed to be. Because the story of Micah and Jonathan is kind of a case study for the wider nation: if Moses’ own family line could wander so far, who was safe? Without a king, Israel was totally messed up, all the way up to the most revered family in the nation.
Now we know how the story continues. Even when they got a king, it barely helped, because instead of doing what was right in their own eyes, they did what was right in the king’s eyes, which most of the time wasn’t that great. The kings just led Israel and Judah into worse and worse sin, all the way to the captivity mentioned here in verse 30. For 400 years after that they struggled in various forms of exile until the arrival of the real king who seeks and saves his sheep from wandering and holds on to them fast so that no one can snatch them out of his Hand.
In other words, this is a story that points straight to Jesus as it describes for us just how desperately we need Him to reign over us.
And, at the same time, there are lessons for us to be learned from the story itself. 1 Corinthians 10:6 says about Israel’s story that “these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.”
And so, without taking our eyes off of Jesus, we can also hear in this passage a stark warning about the danger of DIY religion. Of DIY ministry. The danger of doing something that seems right in our eyes and slapping God’s name on it, instead of listening to God’s word to hear what He has already told us to do and then obeying Him.
Do you think this kind of thing still happens today? Do you think that house-of-Micah style ministry is a clear and present danger today?
Churches
My experience tells me “absolutely.” I’ve been in dozens of churches in my life, and talked to dozens of pastors, and I’m concerned for how many churches operate basically like Micah and Jonathan. Pastors work for the highest bidder, talk the talk, sign off on the most solid statements of faith, but when it comes down to actually doing the work of ministry, their basic operating principle is “do what works.” And if “doing what works” bumps up against “do what God’s word says,” guess which one wins?
I remember talking to one pastor about the way his church did something, and gently suggesting that Jesus had actually told us to do the exact opposite, and his words to me were literally, “Go ahead Chris, give that a try and see how well that works out for you.” And this was in a “strong” church with a reputation for standing on the word of God.
I remember a conversation with another group of pastors, and I very literally quoted the words of Jesus to them, and one of them responded “Yeah, but, if we do that, then people will start to…” and he went on from there about all the reasons we shouldn’t do what Jesus said to do.
I’m convinced that A.W. Tozer was right—that many churches today say that Jesus is Lord, but when it comes down to how they actually operate, Jesus has very little functional authority. Because we’re not actually listening to what He’s told us to do.
Ministries
So this passage has a lot to say about churches today.
There’s a second layer here. This “house of God” set up in Micah’s house, in direct competition to the one “house of God” where God told His people to worship him, also makes me think about the many so-called “ministries” in our land that compete with the local church.
Let me explain for a minute. Everywhere you go in the New Testament, you see Christians gather in local churches. Most of the time, the word “church” in the New Testament does not mean “all Christians everywhere” but a specific group of believers in a specific place who gather together regularly and who have agreed to be the body of Christ together.
And throughout history, and in our own day, there have been numbers of good ministries—missions agencies, Bible colleges, summer camps—that understand the Biblical priority of the local church, and understand their role is to support and strengthen and submit to local churches. That’s the literal meaning of “para-church ministry”: a ministry that comes alongside of the local church. We get to support a number of good ministries like that here in our local church.
And yet, on the other hand, how many so-called ministries have been established that end up competing with the local church? Instead of funnelling people and passion towards local churches, coming alongside of local churches to help them fulfill their God-given mission, they end up siphoning people and passion away from local churches, demanding that churches come alongside of them to help them fulfill their self-directed mission?
Like the house of Micah, some of these ministries might use all the right language and look great on the surface. But if you look a little deeper you realize that they’ve failed to acknowledge the priority of the local church in the mission of God, and as a result they might even be even working against God’s stated plans in the world. So we need to be discerning, and pay attention to the priorities God has given us in His word.
Individuals
And it would be awfully easy to end the sermon right there, pointing one finger at all of the bad examples out there while using our other hand to pat ourselves on the back.
But what about us, right here at Emmanuel? Do we ever feel the temptation to substitute our opinions for the authority of King Jesus? To slap God’s name on our own initiatives? To embrace our own good ideas without stopping to check what God has already told us?To loudly proclaim our own opinions and preferences instead of humbly seeking the will of God with one another?
Here in the western world, with churches and ministries and opportunity everywhere, we’ve got so much freedom to do whatever we want. To be like Micah or Jonathan, playing around with DIY religion, following where opportunity knocks. To do whatever seems right in our own eyes.
And the summons for us in our passage today us to recognize that we aren’t back in the time of the judges. We don’t actually have the freedom to do what’s right in our own eyes. We have a king, named Jesus, and He told us: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:18–20).
That’s our mission, people. That’s why as a church we pour so much effort and resources into training people through Bible studies and classes and workshops and what have you. This is us doing our best to fulfill the mission Jesus left us with.
But let’s make it personal this week. Do you know Jesus as not just saviour, not just friend, but king? Do you know the things He’s commanded you? I hope you know where to find them. And this very week, are you going to live in submission to His commands?
Not because you’re trying to earn anything from Him, but because He’s already earned everything for you. And because He’s died for all of your sins, and risen again to give you new life, we get to live, empowered by His Spirit, hope set on His promises, in submission to His Word.
This week that might look like some effort from you to actually spend time in His word so that you know what it says. Maybe you don’t read the Bible regularly, and you need to start with one of the gospels, determined to simply do what Jesus tells you. It might mean investing in some tools, like a study Bible, so that you might better understand what it means. It might mean repenting and seeking forgiveness for some area in your life where you know full well what He’s told us but you’ve been following your own heart instead. It might mean a fresh surrender to say “Lord, your will and not mine. By your word and Spirit, come, King Jesus, and reign in me.”
Would you take a few moments in the quiet to ask for His help to do this, before we rise and seek Him together?