Going A Step Farther

Israel had occupied the land of Canaan for over four hundred years, and their population had grown tremendously, and part of the land was still occupied by descendants of the original inhabitants resulting in a sense of overcrowding in the small allotment belonging to the tribe of Dan.  They began to look for other land they could get to expand, as Judges 18:1-2 describes.  “In those days there was no king in Israel: and in those days the tribe of the Danites sought them an inheritance to dwell in; for unto that day all their inheritance had not fallen unto them among the tribes of Israel.  And the children of Dan sent of their family five men from their coasts, men of valour, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land, and to search it; and they said unto them, Go, search the land: who when they came to mount Ephraim, to the house of Micah, they lodged there.

They sent out five men to try to find a place they could get.  In their exploration, the five men came to Micah’s home and spent the night.  They recognized his Levite priest and asked how he came to be there, in Judges 18:3-6.  “When they were by the house of Micah, they knew the voice of the young man the Levite: and they turned in thither, and said unto him, Who brought thee hither? and what makest thou in this place? and what hast thou here?

And he said unto them, Thus and thus dealeth Micah with me, and hath hired me, and I am his priest.

And they said unto him, Ask counsel, we pray thee, of God, that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous.

And the priest said unto them, Go in peace: before the LORD is your way wherein ye go.”

Continuing their quest, the five men went north along the Jordan and its tributaries untol they came to the Zidonian city of Laish.  It was a rural village quite a ways from Tyre and Zidon and relatively unprotected.   The emissaries from Dan figured it would be relatively easy to take and recommended it as their target.  They assembled a force of six hundred men to make the attack.  On their way to Laish, the force camped out near Micah’s home and the emissaries suggested they take Micah’s idols, in Judges 18:14-21.  “Then answered the five men that went to spy out the country of Laish, and said unto their brethren, Do ye know that there is in these houses an ephod, and teraphim, and a graven image, and a molten image? now therefore consider what ye have to do.   And they turned thitherward, and came to the house of the young man the Levite, even unto the house of Micah, and saluted him.  And the six hundred men appointed with their weapons of war, which were of the children of Dan, stood by the entering of the gate.

And the five men that went to spy out the land went up, and came in thither, and took the graven image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image: and the priest stood in the entering of the gate with the six hundred men that were appointed with weapons of war.  And these went into Micah's house, and fetched the carved image, the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image. Then said the priest unto them, What do ye?

And they said unto him, Hold thy peace, lay thine hand upon thy mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest: is it better for thee to be a priest unto the house of one man, or that thou be a priest unto a tribe and a family in Israel?

And the priest's heart was glad, and he took the ephod, and the teraphim, and the graven image, and went in the midst of the people.  So they turned and departed, and put the little ones and the cattle and the carriage before them.

Naturally, Micah objected about having his things stolen, but there were six hundred of them, and when they threatened to murder him if he complained, he backed off, and went on their way to Laish, according to Judges 18:26-29, defeating it easily.  “And the children of Dan went their way: and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back unto his house.  And they took the things which Micah had made, and the priest which he had, and came unto Laish, unto a people that were at quiet and secure: and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and burnt the city with fire.  And there was no deliverer, because it was far from Zidon, and they had no business with any man; and it was in the valley that lieth by Bethrehob. And they built a city, and dwelt therein.  And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born unto Israel: howbeit the name of the city was Laish at the first.” 

Israel had turned quite a way from following god that Micah had begun to make and worship idols and had established his own priesthood, believing that God would bless him even though he was disobeying his commands.  No longer following God’s commands about worship, the Danites lowered their moral standards as well, stealing the idols, and threatening to murder Micah.  The inhabitants of Dan would worship Micah’s idols until David moved the Tabernacle from Shiloh to Jerusalem, over a hundred fifty years later, and would keep the Levite and hs family as their special priests until they were conquered by the Assyriand five hundred years later, according to Judges 18:30-31.  “And the children of Dan set up the graven image: and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land.  And they set them up Micah's graven image, which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh.”

After Israel split, Jeroboam would make Dan the center of his idolatrous religion, building on their past idolatry and placing a golden calf there as a god, in I Kings 12:28-30.  “Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.  And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan.  And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.” 

Once a person stops worshipping as God instructs, it is easy to ignore his standards in other areas as well, and go further into sin.