The children of Israel failed to possess the land of their inheritance and now God raises up men to help them as they live under oppression. Samson is born and raised a Nazirite of God, yet no one knows the secret of his strength. But the Philistines use the women in Samson’s life by threat and by bribe to find his secret and they finally take him and blind him. After Samson’s death we find Micah, who makes for himself a shrine and hires a Levite as his priest. But the tribe of Dan leaves their inheritance because they have not been able to remove the Amorites. As they go looking for a new land, they loot Micah’s home and steal his idol and his priest. Dan has become the oppressor themselves in Judges 18:27 “And they took what Micah had made, and his priest, and they came to Laish, to a quiet and unsuspecting people, and they put them to the sword and burned the city with fire”. And this is the beginning of the end for the Northern tribes as they will dwell there only, in Judges 18:30 until the time of the captivity of the land.
He Has Confided in Me
Judges 16:18–27
After Samson’s wife had been killed he was a judge in Israel for twenty years until “he fell in love with a woman … Delilah” in Judges 16:4. And again the Philistines came to use her against Samson in
Judges 16:5 And the rulers of the Philistines came up to her and said, “Entice him and find out what makes his strength so great, and how we can overpower him, so that we may bind him up in order to subdue him; each of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.
and as it had been with his wife, Delilah seeks to find the secret of Samson’s strength in
Judges 16:6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me what makes your strength so great, and with what can you be tied up to subdue you?”
and as it happened with his wife before, Samson grew weary of her nagging him in
Judges 16:16 And because she nagged him day after day with her words, and pestered him, his soul grew impatient to the point of death.
so he confided in her, it was his hair in Judges 16:16 and she called the rulers of the Philistines in Judges 16:17 who seized him and gouged out his eyes in Judges 16:21.
My Lord Yahweh Remember Me!
Each One Did What Was Right In His Own Eyes
Judges 17:1–13
After the time of Samson, the young man Micah robs his mother of eleven hundred pieces of silver, oddly it is the same amount each of the Philistine Lords had offered Delilah so there is likely some significance lost on us. However, Micah hears his mothers cry, the curse she pronounces, and returns the silver to her in
Judges 17:2–3 And he said to his mother, “The eleven hundred pieces of silver that were taken from you, and about which you also pronounced a curse in my hearing, are with me; I took it.” And his mother said, “Blessed be my son by Yahweh.” 3 He returned the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother thought, “I will certainly consecrate to Yahweh the pieces of silver from my hand for my son to make an idol of cast metal; now then, I will return them to you.”
but this only underscores how far they have fallen from following the Law of Moses as they were not to have any graven images. This also shows something of their belief system and they are far from trusting God as they are bound by superstition as if this small statue could have any power to bless their lives. During this time, “In the popular mind, the effectiveness of a curse was real and could be counteracted only by a blessing from the person who uttered the curse. The incident displays a blending of Yahwistic ideas with idolatrous superstition. Micah is superstitiously fearful of a curse, but not attuned to true godliness. His mother is marked by the same decadent syncretism; she disobeys God and makes an idol in gratitude to him … These religious wrongs are explicitly related to the absence of a king and the resulting anarchy (v. 6).”1 However it was not that they needed a king, The Lord was their King. They needed the Priests and the Levites to teach them but they had not eliminated the pagan beliefs from the land. They had not fully possessed the land.
Inquire of God
Judges 18:1–10
The tribe of Dan is looking for a place where they can live free of the influence of the Amorites they had not driven from their land and the Philistines also had a strong presence in Judah as Samson describes. So, “The wording here does not mean that Dan had not received an inheritance, only that Dan had not secured their inheritance. Joshua 19:40–48 describes the inheritance of Dan, Josh 19:47 notes that they had lost this inheritance. Judges 1:34 indicates that the Danites were unable to defeat the Amorites. The story of Samson also indicates the Philistines had a strong presence in the region in the city of Timnah (14:1). Consequently, the tribe of Dan decided to leave the territory it was allotted and migrate north.”2
Six Hundred Men Armed With Their Weapons
You Took Away My Gods That I Had Made
Judges 18:21–31
The tribe of Dan has left their inheritance as being too difficult for them to possess and now come as an armed band and loot Micah’s home. As they are departing, Micah follows and calls out to them in
Judges 18:24 He said, “You took away my gods that I had made, and the priest, and then you go away. What is now left for me? How can you say to me, ‘What is the matter?’ ”
Micah speaks the truth here, it is a shrine that he has made with no connection to the Lord. But “the descendants of Dan” are just as superstitious as Micah as they steal his idol and his paid priest for themselves. And what is even worse, they have become like the people God wanted them to remove, they are now a lawless band of raiding looters taking whatever they want which is clear in their response to Micah in
Judges 18:25 And the descendants of Dan said to him, “You should not let your voice be heard among us, so that ill-tempered men will not attack you, and take your life and the lives of your household.”
and as Dan moved on, they came across “a quiet and unsuspecting people” in
Judges 18:27 And they took what Micah had made, and his priest, and they came to Laish, to a quiet and unsuspecting people, and they put them to the sword and burned the city with fire.
Dan made this their home and set up their idols in
Judges 18:30 And the descendants of Dan set up for themselves the carved divine image, and Jonathan son of Gershom, son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests for the tribe of the Danites until the time of the captivity of the land.
Note the last statement, “until the time of the captivity of the land”. They had become the oppressors and were now subject to the same judgment that God had intended for them to bring against the Amorites and the Philistines.
A Levite Dwelled As A Foreigner
Judges 19:1–10
Study Verses
- Judges 16:18–27 He Has Confided in Me
- Judges 17:1–13 Each One Did What Was Right In His Own Eyes
- Judges 18:21–31 You Took Away My Gods That I Had Made
Today’s Reading
- Judges 16:18-31
- Judges 17:1-13
- Judges 18:1-31
- Judges 19:1-10
References
- 1. Bowling, A. C. (1995). Judges. In Evangelical Commentary on the Bible (Vol. 3, p. 174). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.
- 2. Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., … Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (Jdg 18:1). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.