Judges 18:14-31. \u00a0A couple of days ago we met a guy named Micah. \u00a0He set up a shrine in his home and hired a wandering Levite to be his personal priest. \u00a0Yesterday we were introduced the Danites, the tribe of Samson. \u00a0They decided that they needed more that just the couple of cities that they were living in. \u00a0If course God had assigned much more land to them they just hadn’t taken it over. \u00a0They sent out spies and it looked at first as if the spies were going to do a little recon on their territory. \u00a0They wound up going all the way to northern Israel and checking out some land that belonged to Naphtali instead. \u00a0Along the way the spies stopped by Micah’s house and spoke to the priest. \u00a0Then they went home and convinced the tribe to sent out a group of soldiers to take over the land up north. \u00a0At the end of yesterdays reading they came to Micah’s house.<\/p>\n
In today’s reading as they approach Micah’s place the spies inform the soldiers of the idols that he has. \u00a0Then they ask the soldiers to think about what they should do. \u00a0In Deuteronomy 5:8 God told the Israelites that they were not to have idols; no likeness of what is in heaven, or on the earth, or in the sea. \u00a0In Leviticus 26:1 He told the Israelites that they were not to make idols. \u00a0In Exodus 34:17 God told the Israelites that they were not to make “molten gods” (See Judges 17:4). \u00a0In Deuteronomy 13:6-17 the most severe punishment is laid out for encouraging people to have and follow false gods, death and total destruction. \u00a0Proper worship of God does not involve images or idols (See Deuteronomy 4:15-19). \u00a0Although Judges 3:17 looks like the mother is creating the images to worship the LORD (See 1\/14\/12<\/a> post for an explanation of the all capital spelling) it is clear that they are not. \u00a0These were not representing the LORD at all but were false gods (Judges 18:24). \u00a0And even if she were trying to actually worship the LORD it had to be done God’s way not her’s.So what should the soldiers have done? \u00a0According to the Law they should have stoned Micah, his mother, and the Levite to death. \u00a0You my think that that is pretty harsh, and it is. \u00a0But it is less harsh than eternity in hell. \u00a0The Israelites were supposed to be helping the world find it’s way to God. \u00a0Jesus said that he was the only way to God \u00a0so it was very serious for the Israelites to imply by their actions that other gods were OK or even that honoring God in their own way was OK. \u00a0Honoring God must be done the way he says (John 14:6). \u00a0That kind of bad example \u00a0has serious eternal consequences and that is why the punishment was so harsh (Matthew 23:15, Luke 17:2; for more check out “The Old Testament Connection”<\/a>).<\/p>\n Instead the soldiers took the idols and talked the priest into going with them. \u00a0They told him it was better for him to be priest to a whole tribe rather than just one household. \u00a0They then went on to Laish and destroyed the city and it’s inhabitants. \u00a0After they conquered the city they rebuilt it, set up “what Micah had made” in the city, \u00a0and put the “priest who had belonged to Micah” in charge of them. \u00a0He and his descendants maintained the idol worship for the next three hundred years in that city. \u00a0Based on Deuteronomy 13:12-17 what they had done to Laish should have been done to them. And based on \u00a0Luke 17:2 the Levite and his children were in big trouble, they hadn’t made one follower of the false gods but many, over several generations. \u00a0The Danites whole city should have been destroyed.<\/p>\n A couple of interesting things about this story. \u00a0The name of the city was Laish which means lion. \u00a0But the word has an interesting background, it comes from the word “kneed”, lke making dough. \u00a0Some say the link is the idea of crushing. \u00a0It’s funny to me though that cats, at least house cats, will often “kneed” an object before they lie down to rest. \u00a0Lhere seems to be some implication that Laish was a secure restful place. \u00a0We do not need to just assume this from the name though because those are the kinds of words used to describe it in Judges 18:7. A couple of other parts of that description are interesting too. \u00a0We are told that they lived like Sidonians. \u00a0Sidon was the first son of Canaan according to Genesis 10:15 so that would make Sidonians Canaanites. \u00a0the people of Laish were probably Canaanites. \u00a0If they were not they at least lived like them. \u00a0They probably were not Israelites. \u00a0Their land provided all that they needed, they had no king pushing them around, and they lived far enough away from every one that no body bothered them and they bothered nobody. \u00a0One of the Hebrew words that describes this peaceful life is “shaqat”. \u00a0It is also used in Judges 3:11′ 30; 5:31; 8:28; 18:27. \u00a0It is the word that describes life in Israel after the different Judges overcame the invaders, up until the story of Gideon. \u00a0After that there is no rest or peace in the land. \u00a0Except here in this Canaanite city in the far north. \u00a0And that peace is destroyed by the Danite invasion. \u00a0Two last things. In Joshua 19:47 this story is told but they call the town Leshem. \u00a0It is not unusual for people and places to have more than one name in the Bible. \u00a0Often the names meaning is important to the story (see “What in a Name?”<\/a>). \u00a0Leshem was the name of one of the precious stones on the coat worn by the hight priest when he would make offerings (Exodus 28:19). \u00a0This precious stone would be taken by force. \u00a0And finally at the very end of the chapter we are told that their idol worship continued at the same time that true worship of God was going on in a town called Shiloh. \u00a0That is where all of the stuff God told them to make and use in honoring Him was set up when the Israelites entered the land.<\/p>\n It’s sad that a people who should have been living at peace in their land and with the creator God of the universe were living such uptight lives. \u00a0They had no peace in their work, in their relationships with each other, with outsiders, or with God. \u00a0Everything was a fight. \u00a0What is even sadder is that idol worshipping Canaanite had all the worldly peace and security that should have belonged to the Israelites. \u00a0Saddest of all is that the Israelites destroyed the Canaanite’s peace for no real purpose. \u00a0They were lazy physically and spiritually. \u00a0They should have taken control of the land given to them in the south. \u00a0But from a human point of view that would have been too hard. \u00a0On the spiritual front there was no battle here either. \u00a0Destruction of the inhabitants was to keep the Israelites from following them in false worship. \u00a0In todays story the Israelites brought their false worship with them and even caused it to become kind of permanent. \u00a0Instead of being a light to the world they spread darkness to their own people. \u00a0And there is even some question about whether or not Laish was actually part of the original promised land. \u00a0So that city possibly could have been left alone without disobeying God’s command to push the inhabitants of the land out (Exodus 33:52).<\/p>\n There is a verse in the New Testament that tells us that we need to be ready to explain to others when they ask us why we have hope in our lives (1 Peter 3:15). \u00a0That verse bothers me for two reasons. \u00a0First I have only been asked a question like that once or twice in my life. \u00a0The second probably explains the first. \u00a0I can often feel hopeless about life. \u00a0Like the Danites I often don’t live a life that says much about God to the people around me. \u00a0I get so caught up in finding the easy way through life and avoiding the battles God wants me to fight. \u00a0The answer is in the first part of that verse in 1 Peter. \u00a0“Sanctify Christ as lord of your life.” \u00a0Make Jesus the king and ruler in your life. \u00a0The Danites did not know Jesus as Jesus, but they knew Jesus as Jehovah (LORD, Yahweh) or as the promised seed of Abraham, or as the Messiah. \u00a0they needed to make God the lord of their existence and we do too. \u00a0That is the only way for us to have peace in life and in eternity and that is the only way to help others have it too. \u00a0Blessed are the peace makers for they will be called sons of God (Matthew 5:9). \u00a0God help me make you the king and ruler in my life. \u00a0Let me bring real peace to myself, my family, and to my neighbors by following you. \u00a0I know there will be messy battles but life is full of that anyway. \u00a0The question is will the battles be worth it 10,000,000,000 years from now? \u00a0The only way to be sure is to let you direct them. \u00a0Thank you for being willing to live in and through me. \u00a0Help me have a vision of forever. \u00a0Help me Lord. \u00a0Let me be a true peacemaker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Judges 18:14-31. \u00a0A couple of days ago we met a guy named Micah. \u00a0He set up a shrine in his home and hired a wandering Levite to be his personal priest. \u00a0Yesterday we were introduced the Danites, the tribe of Samson. \u00a0They decided that they needed more that just the couple of cities that they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=360"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":374,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360\/revisions\/374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}