[MUSIC PLAYING] Calvary Church is
dedicated to doctrine. And we want you to experience
the life change that comes from knowing God's Word
and applying it to your life. So we explain the
Bible verse by verse, every chapter, every book. This is "expound." We are in the last section
of the Book of Judges. Beginning in chapter 17,
all the way to the end, we have a final section,
which is different from what we have read. Think of this last
section, chapter 17 to 21, more as an appendix
than furthering the narrative of the story. In fact, it seems that 17 and
18 take place chronologically earlier in the book. That's what most
scholars will say. I don't need to go through
the reasons for that because I don't think they're
germane to the application of what we're doing. But just to let you
know that what we have, essentially, in this
appendix is a series of anecdotal evidences
of how bad things have gotten in the land of Israel. And there is a threefold
repetition of a phrase. It is a summary statement
that is mentioned in this appendix three times. And the summary statement
goes like this-- "There was no king in Israel. And everyone did what was
right in his own eyes." And so you'll find the author
summing up sections by saying, "There was no king in Israel." And everybody did
what he wanted to do. "Everyone did what was
right in his own eyes." So the last chapters of the
book, beginning in chapter 17, are little snippets
or examples of how this nation had sunk morally,
spiritually, politically. And we're just getting
little examples of how confused and
conflicted life was in the nation at that time. When we open up chapter 17,
in a geopolitical sense, we understand that
there is a group that has been making an incursion
on the children of Israel, especially the southern
tribes, over a series of years, that causes the movement
of one of its tribes. The incursion I am speaking
about is the Philistines. The Philistines have become a
real problem, a real presence in the southern tribes,
especially the tribe of Dan, the tribe of Benjamin,
and the tribe of Judah. Those three tribes are feeling
the pressure of the Philistine incursion. I've told you before
that the Philistines migrated from
islands in the west and made their
way to Phoenicia-- Tyre, and Sidon, et cetera--
and then moved down into Egypt, were defeated in Egypt. So they moved up
the coast and landed in what we would call
southern, central Israel. And the Philistines
become a problem. And we have already
dealt with them during the judgeship of Samson. But they're still
hanging around. And they hang around
for quite some time, even through the time of David. So we get into
chapter 17, verse 1. And here's the first example. "Now, there was a man from
the mountains of Ephraim." Ephraim is in the
central part of the land. It's where Shiloh is. Shiloh is where
the Tabernacle was. It's the center of the land. And it says, "His
name was Micah." Now, don't confuse this
Micah with the prophet Micah. You'll see, two different dudes. Micah is a great name. I've met a few Micahs. And the name means "who
is like the Lord" or "who is like Yahweh," to be
precise, "who is like Yahweh." Now, it's a great name. But this guy did not
live up to that name. He was quite unlike God. He was ungodlike, ungodly,
as we see in this story. So "There was a man from
the mountains of Ephraim, whose name was Micah,"
who is like the Lord. "And he said to his mother, 'The
1,100 shekels of silver that were taken from you, and
on which you put a curse, even saying in my ears, here is
the silver with me; I took it.' And his mother said, 'May you
be blessed by Yahweh, my son.'" Now, if that's not confusing,
I don't know what is. Here's a kid living with
his mom, an adult child because this guy has his
own son who is old enough to be a priest, as we will say. So we have an adult
living with his mother, stealing from his mother. Evidently, he heard his mother
give some kind of curse. Like, may all your grandchildren
have four ears, or something. I don't know, whatever
the curse was. But he heard it, was
superstitious enough to believe that perhaps
the curse she uttered could come true, so, in fear
of the curse, came to his mom, said Mom, you know the
money that was missing? Now, 1,100 shekels of silver
is about 28 pounds of silver. It was a fortune
in ancient Israel. He could have lived comfortably
the rest of his life. That's why he ripped her off. He thought, she's kicking
the bucket soon anyway. I'm going to steal it
from her, whatever, until he hears the curse. He's afraid of the curse. So he fesses up and
said, Mom, I stole it. And instead of reprimanding
him, she says, God, bless you-- [LAUGHTER] --and uses the name of Yahweh, a
blessing from Yahweh, to do it. "So when he had returned
the 1,100 shekels of silver to his mother, his mother
said, 'I had wholly dedicated the silver
from my hand to the Lord for my son to make a carved
image and a molded image. Now, therefore, I
return it to you.'" So we have a lot of problems
in these verses, right? We have a boy who's a thief. We have a woman who
had silver that she told God belongs wholly to him. But when she gets it back, she
doesn't give it wholly to him. She gives 200 shekels of it and
uses it to make idols for God. If you know anything about God,
he's not into idols, right? So you sort of have Ananias
and Sapphira set up. Acts chapter 5, Ananias and
Sapphira sold some land, said that we're going to
give it all to the Lord. They were lying to put
on a spiritual show. You know the story. They were killed in the
process, and life went on. So you have a boy who steals
from his mother, mother who has dedicated 1,100
shekels of silver to the Lord. Once she gets it back, gives
the Lord 200, keeps the rest. There's no problem with that. It's just that she
misrepresented, saying, it's all going to
be for God, so probably, like Ananias and
Sapphira to make others think that she was more
spiritual than she really was. Then you have the making
of an idol, not one idol, but two idols, "to make a
carved image and," verse 3, "a molded image." A carved image is
an image made out of stone or wood, usually
overlaid with silver, plated with silver. And then a molded image is where
you heat up the silver shekels, and you pour it into a mold,
and it becomes a little God. Sometimes, they
were kept in homes. Sometimes, they were
kept in shrines. If you go to some of the
museums in Megiddo today and in Jerusalem,
you can actually see these molded
images from this era that people had in their homes. Now, we know that to
be the sin of idolatry. We know our Bibles. We know Exodus chapter 20, verse
4, Second Commandment, where the Lord says, "You
shall make no graven, carved images of any
likeness of anything in Heaven or on Earth." The idea is for the
purpose of worship. So they're breaking
the Commandment of God. Now, this comes up
over and over again. God really gets ticked
off when his people get involved in idolatry. And yet, people, from
the beginning of history, have been making images
and using them for worship. It seems to be part of
human nature to do so. We have a problem in worshiping
just an invisible God. But as one scholar pointed
out, Judaism is, at its heart, what he would call an aniconic
religion, an aniconic religion. That is a religion without
any help visually at all. And the scholar says, Judaism
was a religion of the ear rather than a
religion of the eye. Paganism is a
religion of the eye. It's all about what you
see, visual stimulation. You see an image. The image reminds you of
something, some characteristic of the God you worship. And you worship
according to that image. But Judaism is a religion of
the ear, not the eye, which reminds us of a New Testament
principle, Romans chapter 10, verse 17, "Faith
comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God." Some people say, if I only
saw something, then I would-- my faith would grow deeper. Not necessarily, unless
you keep seeing things to refresh that experience. True faith comes by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of God. So the visual is secondary. Now, the reason I
believe that God said, don't make an image
in worshipping me, it was for a couple of reasons. Images obscure the glory of God. There is no image
anyone could ever make of God, at any
time, that would capture the essence of who he
is because once you cast an image in whatever
image that is, you have limited God
according to the likeness that you perceive. So you're obscuring all the
other characteristics of God. Also, images mislead
people because not only are you keeping
information from people in casting an image, you are
making an image according to some perception that
you have of that deity. And you are misleading people
down a very narrow path, disregarding the rest
of the revelation. But again, as time went on,
it was always a problem. You know, when Moses was in the
wilderness with the children of Israel, at one
point, the Lord said, I want you to make a serpent. Now, that's an image. And I want you to
put it on a pole. And I want you to lift it
up and tell all the people in the camp that are
dying of this plague just to look over here, look
at this serpent on the stick, on the pole, look at it. That look of faith
will save them. I'll cure them; I'll heal them. So that was a one-off. That was an exception
but not the rule. So he put the serpent on
the pole, raised it up, and it worked. Evidently, they hung on to
that brass serpent on the pole because later on in
Israel's history, under the reign
of King Hezekiah, the people started
worshipping that image. And King Hezekiah took
the image, and broke it, threw it down, and broke it,
and said, [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH],, which means a thing of brass. It's just a thing of brass. You are worshipping something,
probably because you have lost something. You've lost the nearness of God. And you're trying to
get it back desperately. You're thinking of that
time, that past event in your history. And you're going back
to that in your mind. But this is just
a thing of brass. And he would not let the
children of Israel worship it or use it in their worship. He broke it to pieces, calling
it nehushtan, a thing of brass. So here's part of the conflict
going on at the time of Judges, making a carved image,
two images, for worship. And verse 4 goes on, "Thus
he returned the silver to his mother." Here, Mom, this is the
money I ripped off from you. "And his mother took
200 shekels of silver, gave it to the
silversmith, made it into a carved image
and a molded image. And they were in
the house of Micah. The man Micah had a
shrine and made an ephod." That's a priestly
garment that the priests wore in the tabernacle. He made some similitude to that
for his own worship system. "He made an ephod
and household idols and consecrated one of his
sons who became his priest." So we have more confusion,
more tension, more conflict. And that is this Micah guy,
who stole from his mom, whose mom made idols, and who kept
these items in his house, now makes a whole
new worship system, with a whole new sanctuary. Why go to the Tabernacle? You have the convenience
of your own home. Stay at home and worship the
idols, and my own priesthood. I'll even use my son
to be the priest. Now, what's wrong with that? Well, the priesthood of
Israel came from what tribe? Levi, not Ephraim. Here's an Ephraimite who's
being ordained as a priest to a false system in
the name of Yahweh, in the name of God,
the only true God. Look at verse 6, here's
the summary statement. "In those days, there
was no king in Israel. And everyone did what was
right in his own eyes." You have, in that statement,
that very pregnant statement, the spiritual
condition of Israel during the time of Judges. That sums it up. It was syncretism mixed
with existentialism. Syncretism--
conflating the worship of Yahweh, the true God,
with other worship systems, blending them all, kind
of making your own. And existentialism-- I
do what I feel is right. I worship the God I
picture in my mind. My own existence is
the most important. And you worship
differently than I worship. And we all do our own thing. That's existentialism. So you have syncretism and
existentialism working, plummeting the nation downward. Now, it mentions there's
no king in Israel, meaning there's no
central authority. In Israel, the king was supposed
to be under the law of God. That's going to come up
later on under the monarchy. This is premonarchial
times, before the kingdom. There is no king in Israel. But let me tell you something. You don't need a leader,
you don't need a king to go into apostasy. Just let people go on
their own trajectory, without any intervention, and
they will end up like this. It's the tendency of
humanity, fallen humanity, to move away from God. So "every man did what was
right in his own eyes." Now, here is a shrine somewhere
in the mountains of Ephraim in this dude's house. Why is that? Why make an idol? Because is it that he is just
disobeying the law of God? I don't think so. I don't think it's necessarily
a flagrant disobedience. I'm going to get to
that in a minute. But what I want to
underscore, because I want to paint this
picture, is God had already established in the
law, whether they knew it or not, God had
already established in the law protocols for worship. And let me just read
something to you. This is Deuteronomy chapter 12. "These are the statutes
and the judgments," Moses saying to
the people, "which you shall be careful to observe
in the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving
you to possess all the days that you live on the Earth. You shall utterly
destroy all the places where the nations
which you dispossessed served their gods on the high
mountains, and on the hills, and under every green tree. And you shall
destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, burn
their wooden images with fire. You shall cut down the
carved images of their gods and destroy their
names from that place. You shall not worship the Lord
your God with such things. But you shall seek the place
where the Lord your God chooses out of all
your tribes to put his name for his habitation. And there you shall go." This is called the law
of the central sanctuary in ancient Israel. And where was the central
sanctuary at this time? It was at a place called Shiloh
in the center of the country, a few miles north of
the hills of Ephraim. Eventually, it's going to
be moved down to Jerusalem, the city of David. But right now, it's in Shiloh. Continuing on,
Deuteronomy chapter 12, "There you shall take your burnt
offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave
offering of your hand, your vowed offerings,
your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of
your herds and flocks. And there you shall eat
before the Lord your God. And you shall rejoice in all
to which you put your hand and your households in which the
Lord your God has blessed you. You shall not at all do as
we are doing here today, every man doing what is
right in his own eyes." This is Moses, years
before, telling people, you can't just do
whatever you want. Here's the rules. Here's the laws. Here's the God we serve. "For as yet, you have not come
to the rest and inheritance which the Lord your
God is giving you. But when you cross over
the Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord your
God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you
rest from all your enemies roundabout so that
you dwell in safety, then there will be the place
where the Lord your God chooses to make his name abide. There you shall bring
all that I command you, your burnt offerings,
your sacrifices, your tithes, heave offerings of your hand
and all your choice offerings which you vow to the Lord." OK, so back to that
question, why did Micah make images from his mother's
silver, put them in his house, make a shrine, get
his kid, his son-- presumably his
eldest son, that's how the priesthood would work-- to be the priest? Was it because he knew
better, and he was disobeying? I don't think so. I think he did it
out of ignorance. Doesn't excuse him,
but I think this is what happens when
people lose track of their spiritual history. Do you remember what Jesus
said to the Pharisees? They had a conversation. And Jesus put it
this way to them, "You are ignorant, not
knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God." Or another
translation, "You err, you are in error because you
don't know the scriptures nor the power of God." You see when you lose sight
of the spiritual history of your nation as
well as personally, it's a very dangerous
place to be in. So I think they probably forgot
all about the golden calf. Maybe those stories
weren't being circulated when Micah grew up. The history hadn't been
recounted, recalled, retaught to the next generation. Maybe they didn't know about
Deuteronomy chapter 12. It seems to be more ignorance
than disobedience, either way, it's wrong. So biblical history
fosters obedience. That's why we keep going over
the principles of scripture. That's why I think
it's necessary for every congregation
to go through the Bible, the whole Bible,
nothing but the Bible because biblical history
fosters obedience, whereas biblical prophecy
fosters confidence. See, when I know my past,
when I know history, I don't want to repeat it. And I want to obey God. That's obedience. When I know the
future because it's in the prophetic word of God,
that gives me confidence. I don't freak out. I don't panic when
there's a pandemic. I don't have pandemic panic. I can walk circumspectly, and
responsibly, and lovingly, and with health consciousness. But I don't have to panic
because I know the future. I can walk with
confidence no matter what happens, no matter what comes. Yeah, but we didn't
see this one coming! I don't see much of
anything coming in life. It's come; let's get through it. Amen. So biblical history
and biblical prophecy, two very important things, so
that's what I think happened. So back to Judges chapter
17, you're already there. I kind of moved away. "In those days, there
was no king in Israel. Everyone did what is
right in his own eyes." And here's another story. There was a young man
from Bethlehem in Judah, not far away, 30 miles away. It's about five miles from
Bethlehem to Jerusalem. It's about another 25 miles up
to the mountains of Ephraim. So about 30 miles away,
he's wandering around, moseying around. And it says, "to sojourn
wherever he could find a place. Then he came to the mountains of
Ephraim, to the House of Micah as he journeyed. And Micah said to him,
'Where do you come from?' So he said, 'I'm a Levite
from Bethlehem in Judah. And I am on my way to
find a place to sojourn.'" I have struck out on my own. I just want to find a
place to hang my hat. Now, he already had a place. The place the
Levite should be is helping at the Central
Sanctuary, which was a few miles north in Shiloh. If you remember
your Bible, you know that the priesthood belonged
to Aaron, and his sons, and his son's sons, et cetera. It was passed on
through that lineage. That was the priesthood. The entire tribe
of Levi, however, were helpers to help
the priesthood officiate for the nation. Now, they were scattered
because they were not given any portion of land. The Levites were given no land. They were given the ability
to minister to the Lord. But they were given 48
Levitical cities, 6 of which were cities of refuge
if you remember from our previous studies, who
knows how many years ago they were. So that's why I'm repeating
it, reminding you. So they were in 48 cities. But they all took
their turn serving in the Central Sanctuary. Here's a guy just
out on his own, forget the Central
Sanctuary, forget helping out the priesthood. I want to find my way, man. I want to find out
who I am in life. Well, he's about to find out. "Micah said to him,
'Dwell with me, and be a father and a priest to me. And I will give you 10
shekels of silver per year, a suit of clothes,
and your sustenance." So the Levite went, and
he was offered a job. Hey, I've got a false pagan
worship system right here in my house. You're a Levite. You're obviously not going
to the Central Sanctuary. I could use a Levite. I mean, that's closer to
a priesthood than my boy. So I'll give you room and board. You're hired. So the Levite went in. "Then the Levite was content
to dwell with the man. And the young man became
like one of his sons to him." Now, what the Levite should
have done when Micah offered him the job is go into the
house, look at the shrine, see the idols, turned around,
looked Micah in the eyes, and rebuked him
flat out, and said, you know, this is paganism. This is idolatry. This is forbidden. I know that because
I'm a Levite, hello. I've been taught that. But he takes advantage
of the situation purely for monetary
gain, it would seem. "So Micah consecrated
the Levite. And the young man
became his priest and lived in the house of Micah. And Micah said, 'Now, I know
that Yahweh way will bless me or be good to me since I
have a Levite as a priest.'" Can you see the confusion
in this chapter? This is pure superstition. God's going to bless me because
I have a Levite in my pagan religion, you know,
the one that I stole from my mom, and the one
that she made the graven images with that God
forbid in Exodus 20, all of this conflict
and confusion spiritually, ethically, morally. Now, it says, "In those days,
there was no king in Israel." There's that mention again. "And in those days, the
tribe of the Danites was seeking an inheritance
for itself to dwell in. For until that day,
their whole inheritance among the tribes of Israel
had not yet fallen to them." Now, we do have to
analyze that a little bit. The tribe of Dan had been
given a land allotment. We know that from
the Book of Joshua. They were given the land. But they didn't occupy the land. They didn't take the land. The Philistines were hassling
them and pushing them hard. Now, the allotment
for the tribe of Dan, without putting a map up
and making it too complex, it was a little area. But really, in my
opinion, I'd live there. I mean, it was between Zorah and
Eshtaol, the area where Samson came from in the
hills of Judah, close to the airport in
Tel Aviv today, all the way to the coast. It included Joppa, Tel
Aviv, that whole part, lower coastal plain. Listen, that's some nice beach. And there's some good waves. I've surfed right along
that little strip before. And it's like, I
could hang here. So the Danites were given
this great little piece of the southern topography,
including beachfront property. But they didn't take the land. God gave it to them. But they didn't occupy the land. So verse 2, "The children of Dan
sent five men of their family from their territory, men of
valor from Zorah and Eshtaol to spy out the land
and to search it." This is the area
where Samson grew up. "--to spy out the
land and to search it. They said to them,
'Go search the land.' So they went to the mountains
of Ephraim to the house of Micah and lodged there." In the 16th Psalm,
written by King David, is one of my favorite
little verses tucked away in
Psalm 16, verse 6, where David says, "The
boundary lines have fallen in pleasant places for me. And my inheritance is good." Like, Lord, you've just
been so good to me. The boundary lines
of what I occupy, what you have foreordained
that I have, it's just-- you've been good. And I feel that way. I feel like God has been
so good, so good to me. But the Danites
obviously didn't feel that the boundary lines fell
to them in pleasant places. They wanted something different. They wanted new land
because they didn't occupy what God told them to occupy. So they send out a party to
scout some new place to live, similar to Moses sending out
the 12 spies at Kadesh Barnea into the Promised Land. The difference is God
was giving the Promised Land to the tribes. God didn't intend Dan to get a
different place other than what he had already given to them. That's the difference. One is motivated by
God in the spirit. The other is motivated
by the flesh. That's the Danites. So it says, "While they
were in the house," verse 3, "the house of Micah,
they recognized the voice of the young Levite." Maybe he was saying
his pagan prayers. "And they turned aside and said
to him, 'Who brought you here? What are you doing
in this place? What do you have here?' He said to them, 'Thus
and so Micah did for me. He hired me, and I've
become his priest.' So they said to him, 'Please
inquire of God that we may know whether the journey on
which we go is prosperous.'" Now, I've already said
this, but let me remind you, the Tabernacle of God,
the legitimate sanctuary, is just a few miles
north of here. That's where they should
go to inquire of God. That's the place God
said, you have a question, you want to inquire, go there. But they think, yeah, but this
is so convenient, you know? The guy has it all
set up in his home. So find out if God is
going to be with us or not. So being a typical religious
charlatan, verse 6, "The priest said to
them, 'Go in peace. May the presence of the Lord,'"
and there's the word Yahweh, the covenant God of Israel. "May the presence of Yahweh
be with you on your way." Yes, the Lord's in this. Go your way. God bless you. "So the five men departed
and went to Laish. They saw the people
were there and how they dwelt safely in the
manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure. There were no rulers in
the land who might put them to shame for anything. They were far from
the Sidonians. And they had no
ties with anyone." If you were to get a map
and look at where they went, where they ended up,
they went from the south. They moved a little
bit east, this party. And then they went
north about 95 miles, so about 100-plus miles
away from where they originally were. They journeyed up to the
furthest part of the north to a very quiet
place called Laish. It is called, in Joshua
chapter 19, Leshem. It is an ancient city. In fact, we take
people there today. It will be called Dan
because the Danites are going to take it over. I'll get more of that
depending on the time. My mind starts going places. And I realize I
better button this up so we can make it
through this chapter. Let's keep going. [LAUGHTER] "The spies came back to their
brethren at Zorah and Eshtaol. And their brethren said to
them, 'What is your report?' So they said, 'Arise, let
us go up against them, for we have seen the land. And indeed, it is very good. Would you do nothing? Do not hesitate to go that
you may enter to possess the land.'" Now,
I will say this, the area they're speaking about
is one of the prettiest places I've ever been to. The northern part of Israel
with its hill country, its mountain, at the
northernmost tip of the Hula Valley, is gorgeous. When we do our tours,
we take an entire day and take the people up to
that northern country because of the biblical history. And we always end
up in this area. And when I say beautiful, I
mean there are springs of water that come out of the ground. In fact, the headwaters of the
Jordan River come from there. The headwaters of
the Jordan River come from three places, the
Banias the Hasbani and the Dan River. And these three streams converge
and form the Jordan River. In fact, Jordan
is Yar Dan, which means coming out from Dan. The tribe of Dan relocated
and the headwaters come from the tribe of Dan,
Jordan, flowing from Dan. That's where the
river gets its name. So the spies come back and
say, you got to see this place. I mean, it's awesome;
it's beautiful; it's good. Let's go in and take it. And there's no rulers around us. They're quiet. They're secure. It would seem that this area
did not have walled cities like the rest of the land. They were just living rurally. And they were about 27
miles from Tyre and Sidon. They were inland a little bit. Hill country, so it's
protected, but we have an army. They're not expecting it. Let's just go in. They're quiet and secure. We'll wipe them out. Now, hold that thought
because what they're doing, even though God
gave the land of Canaan to the Israelites, he
didn't give this part of the land of Canaan to them. And there's an indication
in the prophet Ezekiel that for you to go into a
land where people are dwelling quietly and securely, and
just for the sake of you want a land grab, that
it's an evil deed. Now, I'm going to read
you a text of Scripture in the Old Testament. You don't have to turn there. It's in Ezekiel,
and it's Ezekiel 38. And what's interesting
about Ezekiel 38 is it's predicting a future war
of the leaders of Gog and Magog against Israel. Actually, it's an
interesting thing that never could have
happened until modern times. We are living in a day and
age when the war of Ezekiel 38 and 39 can happen
because it predicts an alliance between
Russia, Iran, Libya, Ethiopia against Israel. And we know that Russia and Iran
have military supplies right now in Syria and have made
threats against Israel. So we're set up for
an endtime scenario. But that aside, here's the
principle I wanted to get at. In Ezekiel 38, verse 10,
"Thus says the Lord God, 'On that day, it shall
come to pass that thoughts will arise in your mind. And you will make an evil plan. You will say, "I will
go up against a land of unwalled villages. I will go to a peaceful
people who dwell safely, all of them dwelling
without walls, having neither bars nor gates,
to take plunder, to take booty, to stretch out your hand against
the waste places that are again inhabited, and against a people
gathered from the nations who have acquired
livestock and goods, who dwell in the midst
of the land."'" That, which is Ezekiel predicting a
future war that will happen, that's what rulers will
say in these countries-- Turkey, Iran, Russia--
against Israel. That'll be their mentality. That was the mentality of
the Danites, that God says, by principle, is an evil plan. Here's what's ironic. Do you know what
the name Dan means? It means judge. Daniel, God is my judge. The tribe of Dan is
the tribe of justice. And so that's what's ironic is
here's the tribe of justice. And what they're doing to
this people living up north was a miscarriage of justice. Again, God was not
directing them to do this. But they did it. They went in to take it. So verse 10, chapter
18, "'When you go, you will come to a secure
people in a large land, for God has given into your
hands a place where there is no lack of anything that
is on the Earth.' And 600 men of the
family of the Danites went from there, from
Zorah and Eshtaol, armed with weapons of war. Then they went up and encamped
in Kirjath Jearim in Judah. Therefore they call that
place Mahaneh Dan to this day. There it is, west
of Kirjath Jearim. And they passed from there
to the mountains of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah. Then the five men who had gone
to spy the country of Laish answered and said
to their brethren, 'Do you know that there
are in these houses an ephod, household
idols, a carved image and a molded image? Now, therefore, consider
what you should do.'" What should they have done? If they were abiding by
the covenant of Yahweh, what should they have done? Destroyed that house, man. That's Deuteronomy 13. We don't have time
to get-- but you can look at that on your own. "So they turned aside there and
came to the house of the young Levite man-- that is
to the house of Micah-- and greeted him. The 600 men, armed
with their weapons of war, who were
children of Dan, stood by the
entrance of the gate. Then the five men who
had gone to spy the land went up, entering there,
and took the carved image, the ephod, the household
gods, and the molded image." So they're just
ripping them off. They're just-- let's
just take these things. "The priest stood at
the entrance of the gate with the 600 men who were
armed with weapons of war. And when these went into Micah's
house and took the graven image, the ephod, the household
idols, the molded image, the priest said to them,
'Hey, what are you doing?' And they said to him, 'Be quiet,
put your hand over your mouth. Come with us, and be a father
and a priest to us.'" Shut up, and by the way, you want a job? [LAUGHTER] Hey, here you are, a
priest in this house. We'll make you the chaplain
of the whole tribe. We'll give you a promotion, man. You can have advancement. "Be a priest to us
and a father to us. It is better for you to be
a priest to the household-- is it better for you to be the
priest of a household of one man or that you be a priest of
a tribe and a family in Israel? So the priest's heart was glad." Hey, I just got promoted. I got a raise. "And he took the ephod,
and household idols, and carved image and took
his place among the people. Then they turned
and departed and put the little ones, the livestock,
and the goods in front of them. When they were a good way
from the house of Micah, the men who were in the
houses near Micah's house gathered together and
overtook the children of Dan." So they went out after them. "And they called out
to the children of Dan. And so they turned
around and said to Micah, 'What ails you?'"
Like, dude, what's up? What's wrong with you, "that you
have gathered such a company." Now listen to his response. To me, it's comical. "So he said, 'You've taken
away my gods, which I made, and the priest. And you've gone away. Now, what more do I have? How can you say to me, "what
ails you?"'" Listen to this sniveler. Listen, you really are
bad off when you have gods that can get ripped off. [LAUGHTER] You've stolen my
gods, which I made. Oh, that's the problem. Here is man, made
in the image of God, who makes gods to
be in his image. How ludicrous! You have a god that gets
captured because you made him. You are therefore more
powerful than what you have made because you made it. And yet, you worship it? You worship that? It has no power. That was the point of Psalm 115,
the false idols of the nations. "Eyes they have,
but they cannot see. Ears have they, but
they cannot hear. They have hands,
they cannot handle. Feet they have, but
they cannot walk." They're powerless. "I made them." And the sadness of idolatry
is summed up in that verse. "What more do I have?" Man, that's sad, that's empty. I mean, your whole life is
in that little stupid shrine. "'How can you say, "what ails
you?"' And the children of Dan said to him, 'Do not let
your voice be heard among us, lest angry men fall upon
you and you lose your life, with the lives of
your household.' Then the children of
Dan went their way." Godless, right,
without their gods. "When Micah saw that they
were too strong for him, he turned and went
back to his house. So they took the
things Micah had made and the priest who had belonged
to him and went to Laish, to a people who were
quiet and secure. And they struck them with
the edge of the sword, burned the city with fire. And there was no deliverer
because it was far from Sidon." As I said, 27 miles
inland from Sidon, there were no rulers up there to
oversee that they had to pay-- to oversee them coming in. So they didn't have to be
accountable to anybody. And they had no ties with
anyone, no alliances. "It was in the valley that
belongs to Beth Rehob. So they rebuilt the
city and dwelt there and they called the name of the
city Dan after the name of Dan their Father, who
was born to Israel. However, the name of the
city was formerly Laish." So it was Dan. Before that, it was Laish. And before that, it
was Leshem if you're a reader of the Book of Joshua. "Then the children of
Dan set up for themselves the carved image. And Jonathan, the
son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh--"
it's the first time that this priest is identified. And he's identified by name. And we have a little bit
of where he comes from. He is the son of Gershom. Gershom was a
descendant of Moses. And it says here,
"the son of Manasseh." It is believed that the
original Hebrew translation is the son of Moses. They put Manasseh because
of the embarrassment that this idolater was
in the lineage of Moses. But the best
translation will have a footnote that
says probably, it should be translated Moses
because he is in that lineage. That is where he came from. So "Jonathan, the son of
Gershom, the son of Moses or the descendant of
Moses," and again, how ironic that one of
Moses own offspring would be guilty of leading a
tribe of Israel into idolatry, maintaining that
idolatry, "and his sons were priests to the tribe
of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land." That was 722 BC, the
Assyrian captivity. So for many years the Danites
were involved in idolatry. Hold that thought. We'll finish it up. "So they set up for themselves
Micah's carved image which he made, all the
time that the House of God was in Shiloh." Now, what we just
read about setting up this household image
and this shrine and this priesthood in the
northern part of Israel, Dan, is a little example
of fulfilled prophecy. Now, since we have
a few minutes left, I'm going to look at Genesis 49. You could turn there too since
we're done with this book. Just turn to Genesis 49. There's a prophecy
about the tribe of Dan. I want you to see it. Genesis 49, first
book in the Bible, 49th chapter, almost
the last chapter. If you get to chapter
50, turn left one block. There it is, 49. Here, you have Jacob going
through all of his sons, all of the 12 boys, and giving
utterances over them, blessings, cursings, et cetera. We get to verse 16. He gets to his son Dan. Look what he says about Dan. "Dan shall judge his people." The name Dan means
judge or justice. And Samson was a
judge for that tribe. He kept the Philistines at
bay for a number of years during his judgeship. "Dan shall judge his people as
one of the tribes of Israel." Now, watch this. "Dan shall be a serpent
by the way, a viper by the path that bites the
horse's heels so that its rider shall fall backward." A couple of ways
to interpret that-- you could interpret
it positively, that he was the
tribe, through Samson, that bit at the heels
of the Philistines and kept the incursion
at bay for a while, or, and is probably
believed by most scholars, it is believed by most
scholars to be negative. "It's like a serpent that
bites at the heels, that causes the rider to fall." The first tribe to
wholesale get into idolatry was the tribe of Dan. Later on, there's
going to be a kingdom. The first king is
going to be Saul. Second King is
going to be David. The third thing is
going to be Solomon. After Solomon, the
kingdom splits. And Rehoboam, the
son of Solomon, takes the southern part. Jeroboam, the son of Nebat,
takes the 10 northern tribes. Remember that? We'll get to it if
you don't remember that in First Kings chapter 12. So the kingdom is
going to split. Jeroboam, because idolatry
is already prevalent in Dan, makes two golden calves-- one he sets up in the center
of the country, Bethel, mountains of Ephraim, and the
other, it says, he put in Dan. So calf worship in
both of these places, but Dan was the vanguard. He's the guy who brought
idolatry into the country. When we take-- this is amazing. When we take groups to Israel-- at least we used to do this. Sometimes, the
groups are so big, we don't have time to go
through the whole area. We take them to an
area called Tel Dan, T-E-L. That's a mountain that
has several civilizations. And we go all the way
back to the ancient city. We have remains of Laish. In fact, if you come, we'll show
you, made out of clay, made out of adobe bricks,
still preserved, is a gate that dates
to the time of Abraham. In fact, to stand in front
of the gate of Abraham, to the city of
Laish, and to read in the scripture in
Genesis where it says, "Abraham went into the city of
Laish," you have to presume, he went through that gate. It's amazing to look
at a gate still intact that Abraham went through. And now, we're dealing
with history here, in Judges, much later, when
Dan overtook it, destroyed it by fire, made it Dan, but
Jeroboam set up two calves-- one in Bethel, one in Dan. They have discovered-- they've
done extensive archaeology of that area. And they have even uncovered a
large stone base with seating on every side,
which archaeologists believe is the pedestal upon
which the golden calf at Dan stood. And you can see it with your
own eyes to this very day. It's just amazing to
see biblical history in front of you. You set there and go, this
is where this happened. OK, why am I telling
you all this about Dan? Because when we get
to First Chronicles-- I know I'm putting a lot
of stuff together here-- we get a listing of the tribes
of Israel and their families. Dan is only mentioned as
a geographical location, but the families
are not even listed. Fast forward to the
tribulation period, to the Book of
Revelation, in chapter 7, there are 12,000 of the tribe
of Israel who are sealed. Oh, I'm sorry, 12
tribes, 144,000-- [BUZZ]-- numbers-- 144,000 are sealed from the
12 tribes of Israel, right? The tribes are mentioned, except
one, all 12 tribes except one, the tribe of-- Dan. Dan is omitted from
being even present and to be protected by God. You say, well,
there's not 12 tribes. Yes there are. There's always 12 tribes. But if you know anything
about the 12 tribes of Israel, it's really a
baker's dozen, right? There's 13 because there's
the tribe of Joseph. And the tribe of Joseph
had Ephraim and Manasseh. So you can include both of
them, which they are included. Or you can omit one and just
have the tribe of Joseph that includes both. So there's a lot of ways to
configure the baker's dozen to have 12 tribes. So Dan is omitted from
Revelation, from the future. And I believe it's because
a couple of things. They could have intermarried
so many different people groups from the
Philistines and the people up north that they just went
into oblivion by the time after the captivity. And so they're not
mentioning in Chronicles. But more than that, it's
as if God takes note of it, and they're not mentioned
in the eternal annals in the future of the
tribulation, the tribe that took the rest of the
nation into idolatry. Make sense? OK, enough lesson
for tonight, let's close our Bibles and pray. Father, we thank you that
we have the opportunity to spend an hour just going
through, putting things in the future,
things in the past together, knowing that right
now as we're praying and reading this ancient document
that there is, on the other side of
the world from us, actual remains of these places
intact that can be seen. So Father, we thank you that
the spade of the archaeologists simply affirms the
text of Scripture over and over and over again. [MUSIC PLAYING] Thank you, Lord, for this
way that science says yes and Amen to the life of
faith and the Word of God. Father, I pray for
your people, those who have come, those
who are enjoying this over a variety
of different media. Protect their families. Give them wisdom. Give them peace
during this time. Shower them with your grace. And may they know your presence,
and your power, your joy. And may they, like
David, be able to say, "my lines, my boundary
lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. I have a good inheritance
from the Lord." We thank you, Lord, for the
victory that is ours in Christ, for it's in His name we pray. And everybody who agreed said-- Amen. Amen. Shall we stand? For more resources from Calvary
Church and Skip Heitzig, visit calvarynm.church. Thank you for joining
us during this teaching in our "expound" series.
