Judges Chapters 17 & 18
“Then the five men departed and
came to Laish and saw the people who were in it living in security after the
manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure; for there was no ruler humiliating
them for anything in the land, and they were far from the Sidonians and had no
dealings with anyone. When they came back to their brothers at Zorah and
Eshtaol, their brothers said to them, What do you report? They said, Arise and
let us go up against them; for we have seen the land, and behold, it is very
good. And will you sit still? Do not delay to go, to enter, to possess the
land.” (Judges 18:7 – 9 NASB).
Consider the words, “And will you
sit still? Do not delay to go, to enter, to possess the land.” We could place an
exclamation point “!” at the end of this exhortation to emphasize what the five
spies were saying, their excitement at the land they saw, and their sense that their
tribe needed to move fast, to take advantage of the situation, for the people
of Laish were accustomed to living in peace, without conflict, and they were
unprepared for an attack.
Now here is a thing that we ought
not to lose sight of, while Laish (also known as Leshem in Joshua 19:47) was a
place of idol worship when the Sidonians lived there, it would remain a place
of idol worship when the Danites moved there, for the Danites would bring their
own idols with them, particularly the idols of Micah along with the priest of
Micah. That is, after the Danites destroyed the Sidonians living in Laish,
along with their Sidonian idols (I really don’t know whether we can assume they
destroyed the Sidonian idols), “The sons of Dan set up for themselves the
graven image; and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, he and his
sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of
the land. So they set up Micah’s graven image which he had made, all the time
that the house of God was at Shiloh” (Judges 18:30 – 31).
Note the comment, “…all the time
that the house of God was at Shiloh.” Yahweh had established His Tabernacle and
Testimony at Shiloh, Shiloh was to be the place where the People of God worshipped,
yet the Danites had established their own place of worship, and they turned
their inheritance from Yahweh into a center of idol worship. (We would never do
that…would we?)
The tribe of Dan had “exchanged
the glory of the incorruptible God for an image of corruptible man and of birds
and four-footed animals and crawling creatures” (Romans 1:23). The People of Yahweh
polluted the sacred ground of their inheritance, and this pollution would
continue “until the day of the captivity of the land.” Let us not be so foolish
as to ignore the warnings of the Risen Christ that He will remove candlesticks
(Rev. 2:5).
In years to come, the tribe of
Dan was a natural place for Jeroboam to set up one of the two golden calves
that he made for Israel to worship (1 Kings 12:25 – 33). When the Danites of
Judges 18 changed the name of Laish to Dan, in order to honor their ancestor,
the son of Jacob, that was hardly an honor – giving the name of their ancestor
Dan to a place that would be associated with idol worship until its destruction
in the judgment of Yahweh. What fools we can be as we glory in our idols!
Do we do the same things? Do we
honor those who have gone before us by bestowing their names on idolatrous
practices? What might Augustine, Calvin, Luther, Wesley, Hus, or Francis of
Assisi say were they to visit the places and peoples and practices upon which
we’ve bestowed their names? What about our recovery of Divine Truth in our
lives and “movements,” have we taken what was to have been a portion of our
inheritance and turned it into an idol, taking the place of our Lord Jesus
Christ?
Can we hear the disciples saying,
as the woman breaks the vessel filled with precious and costly ointment to anoint
Jesus Christ, “Why this waste?”? Can we hear Peter saying, “Let’s make three
tabernacles”? Can we see Jesus Christ among the candlesticks of Revelation
chapters 1 – 3? Do we see the distinction between the two women of Proverbs
Chapter 9? Do we see the difference between the Bride and the Whore of the book
of Revelation? Do we sense the concern of Paul when he writes:
“For such men are false apostles,
deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for
even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore, it is not
surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of
righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds” (2 Cor. 11:13 – 15)?
Idolatry is often attractive and
seductive. We might even apply the foolish question heard in popular songs, “How
can this be wrong, when it feels so right?” Let’s not forget, Micah and his
family, as well as the Danites, were not far removed from Moses or from Joshua;
they were not far removed from people who actually saw the plagues of Egypt,
the parting of the Red Sea, the wonders of manna, the judgments and miracles of
the Wilderness, the parting of the Jordan, the victory at Jericho.
Let us not forget that the
letters of the Apostles reflect our tendency and predisposition to leave the
simplicity of a monogamous relationship with Jesus Christ and fall into myriad
forms of false teaching and idolatry, nor let us be so foolish as to think that
the warnings of Revelation chapters 2 and 3 are not for us.
I know of no remedy for this, or
protection, than to love, and abide in, the Person of Jesus Christ in
fellowship with one another and in faithfulness to His Word as it has been
confessed through the ages, and as it is embodied in the Nicene Creed. Dear
friends, there is no book in any bookstore, nor available in electronic form,
as pertinent to our lives and times as the Bible, and within it, the strange
and not so strange chapters of Judges 17 and 18. These chapters do not portray
some weird thing than happened in centuries long past, they paint of picture of
the way we are today, a day in which idols proliferate both within and without
the professing church.
We ask, “Will this be successful?”
Instead of, “What is Jesus saying about this?” We ask, “Will this work? Will
this pay for itself? Will we have a return on our investment?” Instead of
asking “Where is the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ in this?”
We ask, “Will this offend anyone?
Will this advance my ministry? Our ministry?” Rather than, “Where is the call
of God in Christ?”
We ask, “Will people be
comfortable with this?” Rather than, “Are we willing to die to our agendas, our
preferences, our comfort, so that others may live in Jesus Christ?”
May I say, “I love Jesus Christ,
and I pray that I will love Him with all that I have and all that I am.”
However, having said this, I cannot say that I have never bowed to idols, nor
can I say that I have never propagated idols. I found the temptation to idolatry
much stronger in vocational ministry than in business, much, much stronger.
For you see, in business you can often see idols for what they are, seductive
enticements to put yourself first, to accumulate honor and material things. O
but in ministry the idols are religious, they look so reasonable and good –
what can be wrong with the accolades of peers? Of church growth? Of well –
planned and seamless worship services? Of increased offerings? Of music on a professional
level? Of excited congregations? Of meeting the felt needs of others? What can
be wrong with substituting dumbed – down curricula for the Bible?
Don’t get me wrong, I think we
owe our Lord Jesus and others our best; but I am also aware of how easily I can
substitute the expectations and standards of this world, including the
religious world, for the Word of God and the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
As a pastor I recall the
realization that I was so well – trained in preaching that I could construct a
sermon without relying on the Holy Spirit. Not only that, but it occurred to me
that in my preaching classes we never once, as far as I recall, talked about dependence
on the Holy Spirit, nor about guarding against self – reliance when preparing
sermons. Once again, don’t misunderstand me, my preaching classes have been
very helpful to me in proclaiming and teaching God’s Word, but I would be a
fool not to ask Jesus to save me from myself. My point is that well – prepared sermons
can become a religious idol.
(This is not an argument
against theological education, nor is it an endorsement of ad-hoc preaching, or
preaching without preparation – though we ought to be ready to witness and
preach at anytime…to be sure…I am simply trying to illustrate how easy it is to
follow after religious idols).
Again, as a pastor, how many
times did I look at congregations and compare us to what the church world
expected of us; rather than view my congregations as an organic people in Jesus
Christ, with Jesus Christ as the Head? How often did I substitute the standards
and paradigms of the church world for the Bible? I am simply trying to demonstrate
how insidious false images can be and how they can infiltrate our lives and
ministries and congregations.
Well, I’ll conclude this now
because I may be rambling, and we’ll return to Judges 17 and 18 in another
post. Please don’t miss the point that Judges 17 and 18 may seem a strange
story at first, but maybe it isn’t all that strange…not really.
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