Chronologically, Samson was the end of the judge-narrative until we get to the opening of 1 Samuel. Let’s mentally put a bookmark in the story. We’ll pick it up in about a week.
Chapters 17-21 of Judges and the book of Ruth overlap previous events. So we’re going back in time nearly 300 years to around the period of Othniel and Ehud, the first 2 judges of Israel. That’s when the story of Micah and the Danites takes place.
We’ve been hearing bits about the Danites and their efforts to settle for a while now. Judges 1:34 tells us how the Amorites forced them up into the mountains and kept them from settling the farmable land. Joshua 19:47 told how they captured a city; which is called “Leshem” in Joshua but in the account in Judges 18 is called “Laish” and they changed the name of the city to Dan. Since there is only one city of Dan, I take it this is one and the same location. This story in Judges 17-18 is THAT story.
🪙🪙🪙 A guy who would steal 1100 shekels (about 28 pounds or 12.5 kilos) of silver from his own mama, has, shall we say, very flexible morals.
Micah’s mom is so impressed that he would confess his crime and return the money that she sets aside 200 coins to dedicate to Yahweh to be made into 2 kinds of idols.
🤔 Wait. What? Don’t they know they’re not supposed to make idols? That’s the 2nd commandment! It’s not like it’s buried near the bottom of the list.
🤓 The idea that Yahweh could be present without a physical representation was a VERY difficult concept for them to grasp.
🤔 Why? Isn’t the idea of God that He’s a being you can’t see?
🤓 Well, that’s the idea NOW. That was NOT the idea then. At this period of history, gods have to have an image in order to be represented. No image, no representation.
🤔 But Yahweh didn’t want images of Himself.
🤓 Right. He already has them.
🤔 Excuse me?
🤓 Yahweh already has images of Himself. Humans.
🤔 Humans? Are images?
🤓 Yes. Living images. God made man in His image, to be His “imager.” He doesn’t need carved images. God actually carved His own image from clay. He made man to be His representation on earth.
🤔 But that got messed up in the fall right?
🤓 Well, marred, yes. But not lost. Redemption brings humans into Christ who is the “exact representation” of God according to Hebrews 1:3. Redemption restores the tarnished image of God in humanity.
🤔 That’s cool. But I still don’t understand why Micah’s mom would be honoring Yahweh in one breath and the next making an idol.
🤓 She thinks she IS honoring Yahweh by making an idol. In her mind, this is fine. When you take human ideas of worship and mash them up with bits of God’s Word, you get “syncretism.” We have it in the church today, it’s just not as obvious as a silver idol. The problem of an idol in honor of Yahweh wasn’t obvious to Micah’s mom either.
🤔 Kinda like the frog in the kettle?
🤓 Yes. The water that gradually boils the frog is syncretism – mixing “good” ideas with God ideas a little at a time. A small compromise here and a trend there until people are living in open perversion and calling themselves “Christians.”
So Micah – whose name (ironically) means “Who is like Yah?” sets up a little chapel for his silver idols and added a few teraphim for good measure. You may recall the teraphim from Rachel’s story back in Genesis. They were household gods. They represented one’s dead ancestors as well as guardian spirits. 🗿🗿🗿
Micah wants to be legit so he has a priestly garment made – an ephod – and he even snags a real live Levite to be a priest. Micah has got it goin’ on. Then 5 guys from Dan’s Elite Forces unit stop by.
“And they said to him, “Inquire of God, please, that we may know whether the journey on which we are setting out will succeed.” And the priest said to them, “Go in peace. The journey on which you go is under the eye of the Lord.”
Judges 18:5-6 ESV
Exactly how this unnamed Levite “inquires of God” is not explained but it’s possible that the ephod contained its own knock-off version of the urim and thummim. He could’ve “rolled the dice” and gotten something he interpreted as a good omen. Or, he could’ve just made something up. Who knows.
The warriors check out Laish and on the way to bring the whole tribe there to take over the place and settle, they stop back by Micah’s place to… swipe his whole mini-temple and priest? 🎪👳🏽♀️
I suspect that they looked upon the phony Levite “priest” and his magical ephod and the idols to Yahweh as a package of good luck. 🍀 For all their mistaken ideas, the Israelites were very aware that in their history, when Yahweh was with them in battle, they won. And since taking the Ark itself isn’t an option, Micah’s little off-brand setup is a good substitute.
Micah looses his good luck charm and the tribe of Dan is the first in Israel to completely peel off into idolatry. They will not be the last.
If the Johnathan named in verse 30 was the same guy as the Levite hired by Micah, then he was descended from Moses himself (who would be spinning in his divinely-dug grave).
Dan sets up their own system of worship before Gideon ever blows a trumpet. And, as a tribe, they never return to Yahweh.
To The Reader 