ONE can hardly read the account given us in these chapters, of the movements of the tribe of Dan and of the conduct of the man of mount Ephraim, Micah, without being arrested by the way in which the Holy Spirit describes the whole proceedings. In the book of Judges we read twice, “In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (17:6; 21:25), and again, twice, “In those days there was no king in Israel” (18:1; 19:1). Were not these days to be deplored? And are not the events here recorded written for our learning, that we may be saved from motives of lawlessness? For “lawlessness” is sin, and, “sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4)—this being, what grammarians call, a reciprocal proposition, both clauses being convertible. What can one think of a man stealing eleven hundred shekels of silver from his mother, and she cursing about it? but when the son owns to the theft, the mother, instead of rebuking him for what he had done, unconcernedly saying, “Blessed be thou of Jehovah, my son.”
Had she forgotten, “Thou shalt not take the name of Jehovah thy God in vain” (Exodus 20:7)? Blessing her boy for thieving! And then again, on his restoring the money to his mother, she further says, “I had wholly dedicated the silver unto Jehovah, from my hand, for my son, to make a graven image and a molten image,” in direct contravention of the command, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” Can we in any way imagine God accepting aught offered in contravention of His will and word? Yet here we have His name on the lip, and things dedicated to Him for uses which are an abomination in His eyes.
Further, the mother takes two hundred of the silver shekels, and gives “them to the founder, who made thereof a graven image, and a molten image; and they were in the house of Micah. And the man Micah had an house of gods, and made an ephod, and teraphim” —quite a pantheon in its way— “and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.” In process of time, however, “a young man out of Bethlehem-judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite,” comes to Micah's house. In verse 30 (chap. 18.) we read, “Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan,” etc., but if we follow the Revisers (who, supported by Jewish authority, believe the text as we have it here to have been corrupted) we shall read, “Moses,” in place of “Manasseh.” From this it would appear that Jonathan was Moses' grandson, and if so, it marks the conduct of Jonathan in becoming a priest to such a man as Micah all the more sad and reprehensible, for Moses was no idolater, even if Aaron his brother fell into the snare and sin of making the golden calf in the wilderness. This Jonathan then, the grandson of Moses, Micah engages to be to him—for the yearly salary of ten shekels of silver, a suit of apparel, and victuals—a father and a priest, and he consecrates him, saying, “Now know I that Jehovah will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest.”
What is the sequel? The Danites are seeking an inheritance to dwell in, and send from their family five mighty men to spy out the land, who come to mount Ephraim, to Micah's house. They recognize the voice of the young man the Levite, and learn all about his relations with Micah, and end by requesting him to ask counsel of God, “that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous.” It is not recorded whether he did ask counsel, but that he said unto them, “Go in peace; before Jehovah is your way wherein ye go.”
The five men come back and tell the Danites about the people of Laish, and their habits; six hundred girded men go forth to take the place, and on their way they call at the house of Micah. It is instructive to note what they say to their brethren, “Do ye know that there is in these houses an ephod, and teraphim, and a graven image, and a molten image?” —evidently things right in their eyes, and to be desired— “now, therefore, consider what ye have to do.” The result of their deliberations was, that despite Micah's remonstrance, they forthwith appropriate all these things, with the young man the Levite, who acquiesces in it all, thinking it better to be a priest unto a family and tribe in Israel than to be so to only one man.
Then they “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” (18:27, 28). A similar description is given in ver. 7 of the same chapter. Do we note what we may reverently call the pitying way in which the Holy Spirit describes this transaction? and have we any such compassionate record of the taking of Jericho and Ai, when Jehovah's commandments were being carried out in the destruction of the inhabitants of these two cities?
Note further, “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.” Why are we told this? Not indeed because we do not know it well. Are we anywhere else told about the doings of any other of Jacob's offspring in a similar manner? There is then a reason for this remark. And may it not be this—that we could hardly have believed (without the Holy Spirit's assertion) that the descendants of one of Israel's sons could have done such things—things “right in their own eyes”? But what may not a believer do when not following the Lord? “He that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins” (2 Peter 1:9). Yes, it may even come to that!
How refreshing to turn to Him who could say, “He wakeneth morning by morning. He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned” (Isaiah 1:4); again, “Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? Who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as Jehovah's servant” (42:19)? And, further, speaking of the Rod out of Jesse's stem, of the Branch out of his roots, and the Spirit of Jehovah resting upon Him, it is written, “And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of Jehovah, and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears” (11:3). We read of the Lord's own words as to His Father, “I do always those things that please him” (John 8:29); also of the Holy Spirit's testimony regarding Jesus, “For even Christ pleased not himself, but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me” (Romans 15:3). And for us it is written, “He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12).
May we have grace so to follow Him, for His name's sake! Then we shall neither be found doing, nor shall we want to do, what “is right in our own eyes,” as if we had neither guide nor authority. We have both—the guidance of His Spirit and the authority of His word—for both individual and corporate walk and testimony till Christ comes for His own. “Behold I come quickly, hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” “Yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully.” “So run, that ye may obtain.”
W. N. T.
“Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.”
“Now the God of peace... make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ.”