downgrade to false security

And they said to him, “Keep quiet; put your hand on your mouth and come with us and be to us a father and a priest. Is it better for you to be priest to the house of one man, or to be priest to a tribe and clan in Israel?” And the priest's heart was glad. He took the ephod and the household gods and the carved image and went along with the people.

Judges 18:19-20

Anytime we add something to what God has promised, we take away from the truth. Anytime we trust a human achievement over God’s provisions our hearts grow colder and stray from the worship of the Lord. 

The book of Judges ends with cautionary cultural tales. In chapters 17 and 18 we have the story of how northern Israel was associated with a corrupt, idolatrous perversion of the worship of the Lord. It began here and lasted for hundreds of years. First, a man from Ephraim named Micah admits to his mother that he had stolen a small fortune in silver from her. She is so “happy” with him for giving back what was hers in the first place that she instructs Micah to make an idol from it. (By the way, this sounds like a cover story). He promptly does so, then Micah recruits a less then noble Levite to come to his home and serve as a priest in his own custom made, probably quite profitable, family religion. It’s like a roadside attraction “See Micah’s Shrine!” on every billboard for miles before Micah’s home. And they all wildly believe that Yahweh will prosper this idolatrous perversion of Jewish faith (Judges 17:13).

And then we get to scene two of this idolatrous story. Some Danites who are pretty late to the party of settling Canaan come looking for a place to conquer as their family inheritance. They eventually make it to Micah’s little attraction for lodging. They ask of the priest there what will become of their quest. He blesses their journey. They then go on to gain new territory through “aggressive negotiations” and on their way back with six hundred armed men in a war party, they basically decided to circle back to Micah’s little tourist haven and steal the entire religious system set up there. The Danites end up with a turn-key apostasy complete with a priesthood, priestly garments, false idols, and eventually a center of worship that they set up in their new forcefully acquired real-estate venture.

A theme in Judges is that people did “what was right in their own eyes”. Micah followed this theme by stealing from his own mother. He continued doing it by crafting his own religion. The Danites did so by trusting a false priest (who is explained to be the grandson of Moses in the shocking reveal - see Judges 18:30), and stealing a religion for themselves. Straying from the truth just a little will lead to a great mess. It will pull away hearts from worship. It leads to a false sense of security and to generations of unbelief. This is why today I must always guard the gospel, rehearse it in my heart daily, and stay focused on the truth that only Jesus can save me.