1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,140 The eleven hundred pieces of silver which were taken from you, about which you uttered 2 00:00:08,140 --> 00:00:12,400 a curse in my hearing, behold the silver is with me, I took it." 3 00:00:12,400 --> 00:00:17,340 Now by this statement we're given a little background of what happened. 4 00:00:17,340 --> 00:00:21,380 His mother had some money laid aside. 5 00:00:21,380 --> 00:00:29,640 Now we learn from verse 10 that apparently about ten pieces of silver was a year's wage. 6 00:00:29,640 --> 00:00:37,300 So when you have eleven hundred pieces of silver you understand the value of this savings 7 00:00:37,300 --> 00:00:39,720 that she had. 8 00:00:39,720 --> 00:00:43,320 And it disappeared, someone stole it. 9 00:00:43,320 --> 00:00:49,200 In response to that she uttered a curse upon the person who took it. 10 00:00:49,200 --> 00:00:51,200 Now what is a curse? 11 00:00:51,200 --> 00:00:54,240 What would be your understanding of that? 12 00:00:54,240 --> 00:00:55,240 When she uttered a curse. 13 00:00:55,240 --> 00:01:03,400 She was born in the first year of college, she was born for separation from her mother 14 00:01:03,400 --> 00:01:04,400 in law. 15 00:01:04,400 --> 00:01:05,400 Alright. 16 00:01:05,400 --> 00:01:10,400 Asking God to bring down a punishment. 17 00:01:10,400 --> 00:01:11,400 Alright. 18 00:01:11,400 --> 00:01:19,680 It is exactly what you've described. 19 00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:28,520 It is a judgment that is wished upon the head of the one that you're after. 20 00:01:28,520 --> 00:01:33,420 I've been thinking about this because as you know in recent months we've had curses placed 21 00:01:33,420 --> 00:01:38,040 against our church by the Satanic coven. 22 00:01:38,040 --> 00:01:43,040 And so it's been interesting to study this word in light of that. 23 00:01:43,040 --> 00:01:53,240 It is a desire for judgment, for trouble, for punishment in the life of the person you 24 00:01:53,240 --> 00:01:54,840 place the curse against. 25 00:01:54,840 --> 00:01:57,120 Now the curses work. 26 00:01:57,120 --> 00:02:04,980 Well, often they are merely statements of emotional disgust or desire. 27 00:02:04,980 --> 00:02:09,880 We hear people damning others rather frequently. 28 00:02:09,880 --> 00:02:15,200 God is a curse by the way to dam someone. 29 00:02:15,200 --> 00:02:19,320 Curses however do have power. 30 00:02:19,320 --> 00:02:26,320 And especially when they are tied in to the dark side, to the power of Satan. 31 00:02:26,320 --> 00:02:30,960 They are able to bring about results. 32 00:02:30,960 --> 00:02:35,160 I don't know whether you've experienced those in the tribal setting Mary where you and Steve 33 00:02:35,160 --> 00:02:40,400 have worked but there are many missionaries in tribal settings who have experienced the 34 00:02:40,400 --> 00:02:46,260 power of the curses of witch doctors to actually kill people. 35 00:02:46,260 --> 00:03:01,000 And so here is a mother in Israel who pronounces a curse upon the person who took her money. 36 00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:07,080 And when her son, by the way let me just finish up on that a little bit, what is the opposite 37 00:03:07,080 --> 00:03:08,920 of a curse? 38 00:03:08,920 --> 00:03:09,920 A blessing. 39 00:03:09,920 --> 00:03:13,880 A curse is not always tied in with Satan. 40 00:03:13,880 --> 00:03:17,840 God pronounced curses or judgments upon those who disobey his law. 41 00:03:17,840 --> 00:03:22,840 You remember when the people of Israel got into the promised land, Joshua took them to 42 00:03:22,840 --> 00:03:27,520 Mount Ebal to Mount Gerizim and there on the two mountain sides they pronounced the curses 43 00:03:27,520 --> 00:03:31,160 and the blessings of the law on either side. 44 00:03:31,160 --> 00:03:39,960 We are commanded in the law not to curse God in Exodus chapter 22 nor any of his leaders. 45 00:03:39,960 --> 00:03:42,520 Now why does it say that? 46 00:03:42,520 --> 00:03:48,360 Well when one places a curse upon another one is placing himself in the place of judgment 47 00:03:48,360 --> 00:03:52,760 saying, I am the judge. 48 00:03:52,760 --> 00:03:57,200 And when one curses God he is saying, I am greater than God. 49 00:03:57,200 --> 00:04:01,880 I can curse God, which is a foolish thing to do. 50 00:04:01,880 --> 00:04:06,760 So the command in Exodus 22 is do not curse God. 51 00:04:06,760 --> 00:04:10,880 Well here we see this mother who did bring a curse upon whoever took her money. 52 00:04:10,880 --> 00:04:15,560 The son heard this statement, took it very seriously. 53 00:04:15,560 --> 00:04:19,880 And so he went to his mother and confessed that he was the one who took it. 54 00:04:19,880 --> 00:04:25,640 Now she turned right around and said, blessed be my son by the Lord. 55 00:04:25,640 --> 00:04:29,840 And so she was attempting to counteract this curse that she had uttered before by saying 56 00:04:29,840 --> 00:04:31,440 blessing. 57 00:04:31,440 --> 00:04:33,560 You see it is the opposite of the curse. 58 00:04:33,560 --> 00:04:34,560 May good come. 59 00:04:34,560 --> 00:04:37,080 She is speaking low on his behalf. 60 00:04:37,080 --> 00:04:40,200 Blessed be my son by the Lord. 61 00:04:40,200 --> 00:04:44,280 And he returned the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother. 62 00:04:44,280 --> 00:04:49,280 And lest you get too excited about the godliness of this woman, it says the mother said, I 63 00:04:49,280 --> 00:04:54,640 wholly dedicate the silver from my hand to the Lord for my son to make a graven image. 64 00:04:54,640 --> 00:04:59,200 So here is a mom who is pretty mixed up. 65 00:04:59,200 --> 00:05:06,040 And she has tied in somehow with the Canaanite religion and thus the curse that she had spoken 66 00:05:06,040 --> 00:05:14,120 was probably uttered with that kind of understanding, an idolatrous pagan understanding of what 67 00:05:14,120 --> 00:05:19,040 a curse is all about, even though she turns around and blesses in the name of Israel's 68 00:05:19,040 --> 00:05:20,040 god. 69 00:05:20,040 --> 00:05:26,160 But now she is so confused that she dedicates this silver to the Lord so that her son can 70 00:05:26,160 --> 00:05:28,840 make a graven image. 71 00:05:28,840 --> 00:05:32,640 Turn back to Deuteronomy 27 for just a minute and look what it says there. 72 00:05:32,640 --> 00:05:40,480 And she has just gotten rid of a curse, she thinks. 73 00:05:40,480 --> 00:05:47,000 And Deuteronomy 27, 15 says, cursed is the man who makes an idol or a molten image, an 74 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:49,920 abomination to the Lord. 75 00:05:49,920 --> 00:05:57,040 And so in doing what she did she brought curse again upon her son by saying that he could 76 00:05:57,040 --> 00:06:01,200 make this graven image and a molten image. 77 00:06:01,200 --> 00:06:05,040 Now therefore she says, I return them to you, that is the pieces of silver. 78 00:06:05,040 --> 00:06:10,320 So when he returned the silver to his mother, his mother took 200 pieces of silver and gave 79 00:06:10,320 --> 00:06:13,920 them to the silversmith who made them into a graven image and a molten image and they 80 00:06:13,920 --> 00:06:17,640 were in the house of Micah, her son. 81 00:06:17,640 --> 00:06:21,240 And the man Micah had a shrine. 82 00:06:21,240 --> 00:06:26,000 The word literally means a house of gods. 83 00:06:26,000 --> 00:06:34,160 And it says that he made an ephod, which is a priestly garment of some sort. 84 00:06:34,160 --> 00:06:39,360 And household idols, these are mentioned rather frequently in the Old Testament. 85 00:06:39,360 --> 00:06:41,120 The Canaanites had them. 86 00:06:41,120 --> 00:06:43,480 Archaeologists have dug them up. 87 00:06:43,480 --> 00:06:47,920 They vary in size from rather small to several inches high. 88 00:06:47,920 --> 00:06:53,440 These were gods that people made and put into their houses for their families. 89 00:06:53,440 --> 00:06:58,800 And he consecrated one of his sons that he might become his priest. 90 00:06:58,800 --> 00:07:01,520 So here's a guy who sets up his own religion. 91 00:07:01,520 --> 00:07:10,000 Now he does it in the name of Yahweh and yet he brings in all of this stuff from the Canaanites, 92 00:07:10,000 --> 00:07:11,800 the idolatry. 93 00:07:11,800 --> 00:07:15,280 He establishes his own priesthood using his son. 94 00:07:15,280 --> 00:07:20,680 And the writer says, in those days there was no king in Israel. 95 00:07:20,680 --> 00:07:26,000 Every man did that which was right in his own eyes. 96 00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:29,960 Now there was a young man, we're going to get another piece of the story here, from 97 00:07:29,960 --> 00:07:35,480 Bethlehem in Judah, in the family of Judah, who was a Levite. 98 00:07:35,480 --> 00:07:37,080 Now what about the Levites? 99 00:07:37,080 --> 00:07:39,200 What do you know about them? 100 00:07:39,200 --> 00:07:42,160 They were the priestly tribe, weren't they? 101 00:07:42,160 --> 00:07:47,920 They were for the service of the tabernacle. 102 00:07:47,920 --> 00:07:51,640 And this young man was staying there. 103 00:07:51,640 --> 00:07:57,360 Then the man departed from the city, from Bethlehem in Judah, to stay wherever he might find a 104 00:07:57,360 --> 00:08:02,800 place and as he made his journey northward, he came to the hill country of Ephraim to 105 00:08:02,800 --> 00:08:04,760 the house of Micah. 106 00:08:04,760 --> 00:08:06,280 Now there weren't holiday ends. 107 00:08:06,280 --> 00:08:10,000 People stayed with other people who had an extra room, kind of a bed and breakfast sort 108 00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:11,000 of situation. 109 00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:14,520 So he stayed there and Micah said to him, where do you come from? 110 00:08:14,520 --> 00:08:22,560 And he said, I'm a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah and I'm going to stay wherever I may 111 00:08:22,560 --> 00:08:23,560 find a place. 112 00:08:23,560 --> 00:08:29,200 Now we're just going to skip ahead for a moment, look in chapter 18 verse 30 for the name of 113 00:08:29,200 --> 00:08:30,200 this man. 114 00:08:30,200 --> 00:08:38,640 You see that his name is Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh. 115 00:08:38,640 --> 00:08:47,520 Now actually most scholars believe that this is a misreading here, that the Masoretts went 116 00:08:47,520 --> 00:08:55,280 to this word and in order to spare any association of idolatry with Moses, put an extra little 117 00:08:55,280 --> 00:09:02,720 mark there in the Hebrew text to make it Manasseh, pretty certainly what they ought to say is 118 00:09:02,720 --> 00:09:08,000 Jonathan the son of Gershom the son of Moses. 119 00:09:08,000 --> 00:09:13,040 So who is this young man who has come to stay with Micah? 120 00:09:13,040 --> 00:09:18,960 He is the grandson of Moses. 121 00:09:18,960 --> 00:09:23,360 So this tells us this is early in the period of the judges when this young man would still 122 00:09:23,360 --> 00:09:26,520 have been alive. 123 00:09:26,520 --> 00:09:37,520 And it tells us that Moses' family, Gershom's son, had a problem as we're going to see. 124 00:09:37,520 --> 00:09:39,640 Let's go back now that we understand who he is. 125 00:09:39,640 --> 00:09:46,640 I just thought it might be interesting to bring that in at this point in the story. 126 00:09:46,640 --> 00:09:51,880 And he says, I'm going to stay wherever I may find a place and Micah then said to him, 127 00:09:51,880 --> 00:09:56,120 be well with me and be a father and a priest to me. 128 00:09:56,120 --> 00:09:59,840 The word father here is a title of honor. 129 00:09:59,840 --> 00:10:04,200 He is saying take an exalted place of honor and my household be a priest to me. 130 00:10:04,200 --> 00:10:10,280 You see he's established a priesthood already, a pseudo priesthood, using his son as priest 131 00:10:10,280 --> 00:10:12,480 but he's not satisfied with that. 132 00:10:12,480 --> 00:10:17,080 He decides he's able to get even better in his religion that he's creating. 133 00:10:17,080 --> 00:10:24,200 He's going to get a Levite now who's from the legitimate priestly tribe of Israel to 134 00:10:24,200 --> 00:10:26,920 fill that role. 135 00:10:26,920 --> 00:10:29,360 So he says, dwell with me, be a father and a priest to me. 136 00:10:29,360 --> 00:10:34,200 I will give you ten pieces of silver a year and a suit of clothes and your maintenance. 137 00:10:34,200 --> 00:10:37,320 And so the Levite went in. 138 00:10:37,320 --> 00:10:40,920 You see he found a job, that's what it was announced to. 139 00:10:40,920 --> 00:10:46,360 And the Levite agreed to live with the man and the young man became to him like one of 140 00:10:46,360 --> 00:10:51,720 his sons and Micah consecrated the Levite. 141 00:10:51,720 --> 00:10:52,720 He put his hands on him. 142 00:10:52,720 --> 00:10:56,960 He establishes him now as the priest of his religion. 143 00:10:56,960 --> 00:11:02,720 And the young man became his priest and lived in the house of Micah. 144 00:11:02,720 --> 00:11:10,320 And then Micah said, now I know that the Lord will prosper me seeing I have a Levite as 145 00:11:10,320 --> 00:11:11,320 a priest. 146 00:11:11,320 --> 00:11:15,960 And so he's still going back to Yahweh and to the God of Israel and yet he has created 147 00:11:15,960 --> 00:11:26,080 a synchrotistic religion which has embraced not only the idols of Canaan but also a priesthood 148 00:11:26,080 --> 00:11:28,240 that he himself has created. 149 00:11:28,240 --> 00:11:30,640 He is a mixed up man. 150 00:11:30,640 --> 00:11:32,800 So that gives us a little bit of background here. 151 00:11:32,800 --> 00:11:36,440 Now, it says in those days there was no king in Israel. 152 00:11:36,440 --> 00:11:38,680 Here's that statement again. 153 00:11:38,680 --> 00:11:44,800 And in those days the tribe of the Danites were seeking an inheritance for themselves 154 00:11:44,800 --> 00:11:50,280 to live in for until that day an inheritance had not been allotted to them as a possession 155 00:11:50,280 --> 00:11:52,520 among the tribes of Israel. 156 00:11:52,520 --> 00:12:02,040 Turn back with me to Joshua chapter 19 for a minute. 157 00:12:02,040 --> 00:12:08,920 Joshua chapter 19 and verse 40. 158 00:12:08,920 --> 00:12:16,280 The lots are being given for the land and it says the seventh lot fell to the tribe 159 00:12:16,280 --> 00:12:19,600 of the sons of Dan according to their families. 160 00:12:19,600 --> 00:12:21,040 And it gives the territory. 161 00:12:21,040 --> 00:12:24,880 Verse 47, the territory of the sons of Dan proceeded beyond them. 162 00:12:24,880 --> 00:12:28,600 For the sons of Dan went up and fought with Leshem and captured it. 163 00:12:28,600 --> 00:12:31,880 They struck it with the edge of the sword and possessed it and settled in it and they 164 00:12:31,880 --> 00:12:35,640 called Leshem Dan after the name of Dan their father. 165 00:12:35,640 --> 00:12:39,920 This was the inheritance of the tribe of the sons of Dan. 166 00:12:39,920 --> 00:12:44,720 But now we learn in Judges that they have no allotted possession. 167 00:12:44,720 --> 00:12:45,720 What's happened here? 168 00:12:45,720 --> 00:12:50,720 Well, I think we get a bit of the story if we look back in Judges now in chapter 1. 169 00:12:50,720 --> 00:12:55,920 We understand better what's happened to Dan, the people of Dan. 170 00:12:55,920 --> 00:12:58,600 Judges chapter 1 verse 34. 171 00:12:58,600 --> 00:13:05,160 Then the Amorites forced the sons of Dan into the hill country for they did not allow them 172 00:13:05,160 --> 00:13:06,760 to come down to the valley. 173 00:13:06,760 --> 00:13:11,800 Yet the Amorites persisted in living in Mount Haras and so on. 174 00:13:11,800 --> 00:13:15,920 So what that tells us is that although the tribe of Dan had been given this piece of 175 00:13:15,920 --> 00:13:23,520 land which is roughly down in the Geza Strip area, where some of the trouble is right now 176 00:13:23,520 --> 00:13:26,120 over in Israel. 177 00:13:26,120 --> 00:13:30,520 It's between Jerusalem and the Mediterranean Sea. 178 00:13:30,520 --> 00:13:34,560 If you have a map in the back of your Bible that talks about the days of Judges, you might 179 00:13:34,560 --> 00:13:45,160 even want to look back there and see where that tribe was located. 180 00:13:45,160 --> 00:13:50,040 What this tells us is that the Amorites, and we know from other places, that the Philistines 181 00:13:50,040 --> 00:13:54,560 who lived in that area as well, put pressure on the people of Dan so that they never did 182 00:13:54,560 --> 00:13:58,640 really possess what was given to them. 183 00:13:58,640 --> 00:14:02,560 They fought initially for part of it, but they didn't persist. 184 00:14:02,560 --> 00:14:06,640 They were not bold and strong in their faith. 185 00:14:06,640 --> 00:14:11,040 They did not follow through with what God had given them, and the result of that was 186 00:14:11,040 --> 00:14:14,320 they were rather dispossessed. 187 00:14:14,320 --> 00:14:17,560 They were homeless people, so to speak. 188 00:14:17,560 --> 00:14:20,280 And now they are migrating. 189 00:14:20,280 --> 00:14:27,360 And what this chapter 18 tells us is that they were migrating to the north and looking 190 00:14:27,360 --> 00:14:29,840 for a place where they might settle. 191 00:14:29,840 --> 00:14:37,080 Now eventually they end up way up north, as we're going to see, but right now they are 192 00:14:37,080 --> 00:14:42,080 coming up through the middle of Palestine in their migration. 193 00:14:42,080 --> 00:14:48,560 So going back now to Judges 18, 2, it says, the sons of Dan sent from their family five 194 00:14:48,560 --> 00:14:54,240 men out of their whole number, valiant men, from Zoha and Eshtiol. 195 00:14:54,240 --> 00:15:00,880 That's the area where Samson later would come to power. 196 00:15:00,880 --> 00:15:05,760 They sent them out to spy out the land and to search it. 197 00:15:05,760 --> 00:15:08,360 This kind of reminds you of another period, doesn't it? 198 00:15:08,360 --> 00:15:14,440 When the people of Israel were down in Kadesh Barnea, and God told them to go into the land. 199 00:15:14,440 --> 00:15:17,720 They said, well, we're going to send spies in, we'll search it out. 200 00:15:17,720 --> 00:15:22,640 And in that case, the majority of the report was, we can't do it, it's too great. 201 00:15:22,640 --> 00:15:24,640 And so they went into the wilderness. 202 00:15:24,640 --> 00:15:34,560 Here we see five spies sent out among their own people to find a place. 203 00:15:34,560 --> 00:15:36,560 And they said, go and search the land. 204 00:15:36,560 --> 00:15:41,920 They came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and they lodged there. 205 00:15:41,920 --> 00:15:46,480 When they were near the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young man. 206 00:15:46,480 --> 00:15:49,520 Now this is Jonathan, Moses' grandson. 207 00:15:49,520 --> 00:15:54,600 Now when it says they recognized his voice, it doesn't necessarily mean that they had 208 00:15:54,600 --> 00:15:58,720 known him before and said, oh, I know that guy. 209 00:15:58,720 --> 00:16:05,880 What it probably means is that they recognized his accent, a Judean accent, which was different 210 00:16:05,880 --> 00:16:11,760 than most of the people who lived in the hill country of Ephraim. 211 00:16:11,760 --> 00:16:15,200 And they turned aside there and said to him, who brought you here? 212 00:16:15,200 --> 00:16:17,920 And what are you doing in this place? 213 00:16:17,920 --> 00:16:19,760 And what do you have here? 214 00:16:19,760 --> 00:16:23,080 Oh, they're kind of nosy, aren't they? 215 00:16:23,080 --> 00:16:28,480 And he said to them, thus and so has Micah done to me, and he has hired me, and I have 216 00:16:28,480 --> 00:16:30,480 become his priest. 217 00:16:30,480 --> 00:16:38,160 And he said, inquire of God, please, that we may know whether our way on which we are 218 00:16:38,160 --> 00:16:39,160 going will be prosperous. 219 00:16:39,160 --> 00:16:43,160 And so they said, hey, you're a priest, let us know what's in the future for us. 220 00:16:43,160 --> 00:16:50,440 Well, this is not probably a genuine asking of what God wants, but it's more of a superstitious 221 00:16:50,440 --> 00:16:51,440 thing. 222 00:16:51,440 --> 00:16:56,760 And the priest said to them, go in peace, shalom. 223 00:16:56,760 --> 00:16:59,520 Your way in which you're going has the Lord's approval. 224 00:16:59,520 --> 00:17:06,400 Well, we have no record here that this man ever searched the mind of God for this answer. 225 00:17:06,400 --> 00:17:12,000 He just seems to have immediately responded in the way that he did. 226 00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:16,620 And he was undoubtedly incorrect. 227 00:17:16,620 --> 00:17:22,720 They didn't have the Lord's approval because they were not going to God's assigned place 228 00:17:22,720 --> 00:17:28,000 for them, which we've already noted was down toward the Mediterranean Sea. 229 00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:33,560 They did not take what God had given to them. 230 00:17:33,560 --> 00:17:38,320 And the place where they are going and will eventually establish themselves is a place 231 00:17:38,320 --> 00:17:45,320 that becomes a center of idolatry in Israel for generations to come. 232 00:17:45,320 --> 00:17:50,560 So the journey thereon does not in fact have the Lord's approval, although this young 233 00:17:50,560 --> 00:17:53,320 man said it did. 234 00:17:53,320 --> 00:18:01,280 Well, the five men departed and came to Laish and saw the people who were in it living in 235 00:18:01,280 --> 00:18:04,800 security after the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure. 236 00:18:04,800 --> 00:18:08,720 There was no human ruler humiliating them for anything in the land. 237 00:18:08,720 --> 00:18:13,520 And they were far from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone. 238 00:18:13,520 --> 00:18:19,920 And just a small marked difference in this text would say, and had no dealings with Syria. 239 00:18:19,920 --> 00:18:25,600 So that's probably the better rendering of the Hebrew text here. 240 00:18:25,600 --> 00:18:32,160 The one word means Adam, had no dealings with any man, Adam. 241 00:18:32,160 --> 00:18:36,960 And just a slightest remark makes it Aram, which is Syria. 242 00:18:36,960 --> 00:18:41,680 So what these men found out in Laish is that they were in a very secure area. 243 00:18:41,680 --> 00:18:45,160 They were tucked up into a valley with mountains on either side of them. 244 00:18:45,160 --> 00:18:50,760 On the one side the Sidonians didn't bother them, Sidonians over next to the Mediterranean 245 00:18:50,760 --> 00:18:51,760 Sea. 246 00:18:51,760 --> 00:18:56,320 On the other side the Syrians didn't bother them because of Mount Hermon. 247 00:18:56,320 --> 00:18:59,040 They were in a very pleasant situation in that valley. 248 00:18:59,040 --> 00:19:05,200 And if you want to look again at your map in the back of the Bible, you will see that 249 00:19:05,200 --> 00:19:11,000 what I, look at map four, do you have that? 250 00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:15,480 If you have a map that says Canaan as divided among the twelve tribes or something like 251 00:19:15,480 --> 00:19:20,600 that, you may notice, you notice the dead sea there toward the bottom of the page and 252 00:19:20,600 --> 00:19:23,240 the Sea of Galilee up from it, up the Jordan River. 253 00:19:23,240 --> 00:19:29,440 You just keep going straight north from the Sea of Galilee and you come to an area that 254 00:19:29,440 --> 00:19:36,400 may be titled Dan in your Bible and there is the city of Dan, or maybe it even says 255 00:19:36,400 --> 00:19:39,080 Laish, which mine does. 256 00:19:39,080 --> 00:19:40,880 That's the city. 257 00:19:40,880 --> 00:19:47,720 And if you have any kind of markings in your Bible for mountains, you may even be able 258 00:19:47,720 --> 00:19:53,040 to see the mountains on either side of this very pleasant area. 259 00:19:53,040 --> 00:19:55,320 So that's what they spied out. 260 00:19:55,320 --> 00:20:00,400 That's the land these five spies said, hey, this is for us. 261 00:20:00,400 --> 00:20:06,960 And so they came back to their brothers at Zora, it's not Zoro, you know, it's Zora 262 00:20:06,960 --> 00:20:07,960 and Eshtiol. 263 00:20:07,960 --> 00:20:10,280 Their brother said to them, what do you report? 264 00:20:10,280 --> 00:20:12,480 They said, rise, let's go up against them. 265 00:20:12,480 --> 00:20:14,400 We've seen the land, it's very good. 266 00:20:14,400 --> 00:20:15,400 And will you sit still? 267 00:20:15,400 --> 00:20:18,520 Do not delay to go, to enter, to possess the land. 268 00:20:18,520 --> 00:20:23,880 When you enter, you shall come to secure people with a spacious land for God has given it 269 00:20:23,880 --> 00:20:24,880 into your hand. 270 00:20:24,880 --> 00:20:28,640 I don't know where they got that idea. 271 00:20:28,640 --> 00:20:33,600 A place where there is no lack of anything that is on earth. 272 00:20:33,600 --> 00:20:39,120 So the family of the Danites from Zora and from Eshtiol, 600 men armed with weapons of 273 00:20:39,120 --> 00:20:40,400 war set out. 274 00:20:40,400 --> 00:20:46,720 So this is the advanced party going before the rest of these migrants. 275 00:20:46,720 --> 00:20:52,120 600 warriors are going and you can tell from the number that they didn't expect a huge 276 00:20:52,120 --> 00:20:56,000 battle when they got there. 277 00:20:56,000 --> 00:20:59,480 Now they went up and camped at Kiriath Jireem in Judah. 278 00:20:59,480 --> 00:21:02,160 That wasn't very far away from where they had started. 279 00:21:02,160 --> 00:21:07,760 It seems to be the gathering point where they came together before they started this march. 280 00:21:07,760 --> 00:21:14,200 And the writer here notes that this is to that very day when he was living, 300 or so 281 00:21:14,200 --> 00:21:17,560 years later, still called the Camp of Dan. 282 00:21:17,560 --> 00:21:19,600 That was the name of it. 283 00:21:19,600 --> 00:21:23,360 It's west of Kiriath Jireem he says. 284 00:21:23,360 --> 00:21:27,360 And they passed from there to the hill country of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah. 285 00:21:27,360 --> 00:21:30,720 So now we come back to Micah. 286 00:21:30,720 --> 00:21:37,000 And it says that the five men who went to spy out the country of Lesh answered and said 287 00:21:37,000 --> 00:21:43,120 to their kinsmen, do you know that there are in these houses an Ephraim and household idols 288 00:21:43,120 --> 00:21:44,880 and a graven image and a molten image? 289 00:21:44,880 --> 00:21:47,360 Now therefore consider what you should do. 290 00:21:47,360 --> 00:21:53,280 And they turned aside there and came to the house of the young men, the Levite, to the 291 00:21:53,280 --> 00:21:57,240 house of Micah and asked him of his welfare. 292 00:21:57,240 --> 00:22:01,080 And the 600 men armed with their weapons of war who were with the sons of Dan stood by 293 00:22:01,080 --> 00:22:02,760 the entrance of the gate. 294 00:22:02,760 --> 00:22:09,200 Now the five men who went to spy out the land went up and entered there and they took the 295 00:22:09,200 --> 00:22:13,880 graven image and the ephod and the household idols and the molten image while the priest 296 00:22:13,880 --> 00:22:20,960 stood by the entrance of the gate with these 600 soldiers. 297 00:22:20,960 --> 00:22:26,480 And when these went into Micah's house and took the image, the ephod, the household idols, 298 00:22:26,480 --> 00:22:30,520 the molten image, the priest said to them, what are you doing? 299 00:22:30,520 --> 00:22:35,560 And they said to him, be silent, put your hand over your mouth, which is a way of just 300 00:22:35,560 --> 00:22:41,160 kind of reinforcing, don't say a lot of words here, and come with us. 301 00:22:41,160 --> 00:22:46,240 And be to us a father and a priest. 302 00:22:46,240 --> 00:22:51,880 So they make a proposition to them, here you are, we're taking away the instruments of 303 00:22:51,880 --> 00:22:52,880 your religion. 304 00:22:52,880 --> 00:22:53,880 You're going to be out of a job, fella. 305 00:22:53,880 --> 00:22:57,760 You're going to be on unemployment real soon. 306 00:22:57,760 --> 00:23:01,200 So why don't you come with us? 307 00:23:01,200 --> 00:23:06,000 And is it better for you, they say, to be a priest to the house of one man or to be 308 00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:09,920 a priest to a tribe, to a family? 309 00:23:09,920 --> 00:23:13,040 We've got a promotion for you too, if you'll take us up on it. 310 00:23:13,040 --> 00:23:15,360 You'll have a whole, you'll have a big place. 311 00:23:15,360 --> 00:23:18,720 You'll have a lot of people who'll look up to you. 312 00:23:18,720 --> 00:23:22,320 And the priest's heart was glad, didn't yours? 313 00:23:22,320 --> 00:23:26,640 I mean you get a promotion here, right? 314 00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:31,800 What's an offer in your career that you just couldn't refuse? 315 00:23:31,800 --> 00:23:32,800 This is what this fella had. 316 00:23:32,800 --> 00:23:36,800 He may not have been able to refuse it for a couple of reasons. 317 00:23:36,800 --> 00:23:40,040 But one of them was that it was a big opportunity. 318 00:23:40,040 --> 00:23:43,480 His heart was glad he took the ephedra, the household isles, the graven image, and went 319 00:23:43,480 --> 00:23:46,480 among the people. 320 00:23:46,480 --> 00:23:50,280 And it says, then they turned and departed and put the little ones and the livestock 321 00:23:50,280 --> 00:23:54,520 and the valuables in front of them. 322 00:23:54,520 --> 00:23:57,560 What they're doing here is they're turning around. 323 00:23:57,560 --> 00:24:01,320 Before the soldiers seemed to have been going first. 324 00:24:01,320 --> 00:24:02,320 And now they've turned around. 325 00:24:02,320 --> 00:24:08,640 Most of the migrants, the families with their livestock, they put first. 326 00:24:08,640 --> 00:24:11,640 And the soldiers are coming behind. 327 00:24:11,640 --> 00:24:14,120 Why? 328 00:24:14,120 --> 00:24:15,840 They're expecting to be chased. 329 00:24:15,840 --> 00:24:18,440 They're anticipating what does happen. 330 00:24:18,440 --> 00:24:22,360 It says, when they had gone some distance from the house of Micah, the men who were 331 00:24:22,360 --> 00:24:27,280 in the houses near Micah's house assembled and overtook the sons of Dan. 332 00:24:27,280 --> 00:24:28,560 So this alarm went out. 333 00:24:28,560 --> 00:24:30,600 They said, hey, we've been robbed. 334 00:24:30,600 --> 00:24:35,960 And so they took off after this migrating tribe. 335 00:24:35,960 --> 00:24:42,080 And they cried to the sons of Dan, who turned around and said to Micah, what is the matter 336 00:24:42,080 --> 00:24:43,880 with you that you've assembled together? 337 00:24:43,880 --> 00:24:45,560 As though they didn't know. 338 00:24:45,560 --> 00:24:52,560 And he said, you have taken away my gods, which I made. 339 00:24:52,560 --> 00:24:54,160 Isn't that an ironic phrase? 340 00:24:54,160 --> 00:24:58,280 I mean, you're in bad shape and you've got to make a god. 341 00:24:58,280 --> 00:25:05,160 And yet isn't that the heart of man to create his own religion? 342 00:25:05,160 --> 00:25:07,360 To create god in his image? 343 00:25:07,360 --> 00:25:12,640 He said, you've taken away the priest. 344 00:25:12,640 --> 00:25:15,920 And they've gone away, and what do I have besides? 345 00:25:15,920 --> 00:25:19,760 It shows the poverty of his life. 346 00:25:19,760 --> 00:25:24,920 They took everything he counted worthwhile when they took away his religion. 347 00:25:24,920 --> 00:25:27,840 So how can you say to me what is the matter with you? 348 00:25:27,840 --> 00:25:32,920 And the sons of Dan said, do not let your voice be heard among us. 349 00:25:32,920 --> 00:25:40,960 He says, you better talk quieter, lest fierce men fall upon you and you lose your life with 350 00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:42,800 the lives of your household. 351 00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:46,440 Do you see any threat there in that verse? 352 00:25:46,440 --> 00:25:48,120 I think so. 353 00:25:48,120 --> 00:25:51,720 So the sons of Dan went on their way, and when Micah saw that they were too strong for 354 00:25:51,720 --> 00:25:54,960 him, he turned and went back to his house. 355 00:25:54,960 --> 00:25:56,960 He had no choice. 356 00:25:56,960 --> 00:26:04,040 Then they took what Micah had made and the priest who had belonged to him and came to 357 00:26:04,040 --> 00:26:05,040 Laish. 358 00:26:05,040 --> 00:26:07,240 So now they're continuing on north. 359 00:26:07,240 --> 00:26:14,200 Micah's out of the picture now, but they have his religious items and they have his 360 00:26:14,200 --> 00:26:18,880 priest and they journey on, they migrate on to the north, and they come to this city that 361 00:26:18,880 --> 00:26:23,680 they had spied out to a people quiet and secure and struck them with the edge of the sword. 362 00:26:23,680 --> 00:26:28,200 And they burned the city with fire. 363 00:26:28,200 --> 00:26:36,500 Now this is what God told them to do in Joshua when they went into the land. 364 00:26:36,500 --> 00:26:41,720 And so they may have felt that they should do this in order to comply with what God had 365 00:26:41,720 --> 00:26:47,400 ordered years before as the people went into the land of Canaan. 366 00:26:47,400 --> 00:26:52,280 It was a slaughter is what it was. 367 00:26:52,280 --> 00:26:55,760 And they burned the city and there was no one to deliver them because it was far from 368 00:26:55,760 --> 00:26:57,960 sight and they had no dealings with any man. 369 00:26:57,960 --> 00:27:00,160 Again, I say it's probably Syria. 370 00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:08,280 And it was in the valley which is near Bethlehem and they rebuilt the city and lived in it. 371 00:27:08,280 --> 00:27:14,280 So the Danites then built a new city on the ashes of the old one and they called the name 372 00:27:14,280 --> 00:27:15,280 of the city Dan. 373 00:27:15,280 --> 00:27:19,280 Not too surprising, that's the name of the father of their tribe. 374 00:27:19,280 --> 00:27:25,280 However, the name of the city formerly was Laish and the sons of Dan set up for themselves 375 00:27:25,280 --> 00:27:28,420 the graven image. 376 00:27:28,420 --> 00:27:35,120 And Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, he and his sons were priests to 377 00:27:35,120 --> 00:27:41,640 the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land. 378 00:27:41,640 --> 00:27:47,440 Now the question arises at this point, what is this captivity that is spoken about? 379 00:27:47,440 --> 00:27:52,280 There are several suggestions and I'm not sure it's real clear as to which one is in 380 00:27:52,280 --> 00:27:53,280 view. 381 00:27:53,280 --> 00:27:56,760 If it were, then there wouldn't be several suggestions I suppose. 382 00:27:56,760 --> 00:28:02,440 One possibility is that it is talking about the time when Tiglath-Palazer of Assyria came 383 00:28:02,440 --> 00:28:08,800 about 732 and attacked northern Israel, took some people away. 384 00:28:08,800 --> 00:28:14,360 Others say no, it was ten years later when the Assyrians took away the northern kingdom 385 00:28:14,360 --> 00:28:18,160 altogether, shut it down under the judgment of God. 386 00:28:18,160 --> 00:28:27,800 There are others who believe that it may be some lesser captivity when the Philistines 387 00:28:27,800 --> 00:28:31,800 perhaps attacked Israel. 388 00:28:31,800 --> 00:28:39,480 In fact, in 1 Samuel chapter 4 and verse 11 you see the Philistines attacking even that 389 00:28:39,480 --> 00:28:44,400 far north and they took the Ark of God, do you remember that? 390 00:28:44,400 --> 00:28:48,320 And it could be that that is the occasion that is spoken about here. 391 00:28:48,320 --> 00:28:53,720 But the point that I want to make is that when they got to this place they established 392 00:28:53,720 --> 00:28:58,440 this apostate religion that Micah had created. 393 00:28:58,440 --> 00:29:05,720 And they adopted it, adopted it I should say, and established it then in that city of Dan. 394 00:29:05,720 --> 00:29:10,880 And so they set up for themselves Micah's graven image which he had made all the time 395 00:29:10,880 --> 00:29:14,520 that the house of God was at Shiloh. 396 00:29:14,520 --> 00:29:21,960 Now that's an interesting phrase or idea there because it gives us a little piece of information. 397 00:29:21,960 --> 00:29:30,120 Shiloh is about 20 miles north of Jerusalem and it is the place where Joshua had the tabernacle, 398 00:29:30,120 --> 00:29:36,680 the house of God established after the people entered the land. 399 00:29:36,680 --> 00:29:47,720 Later on Dan became a site, a shrine for the worship of the people of Israel. 400 00:29:47,720 --> 00:29:58,280 You recall that the Kingdom of Israel once unified under Saul and David and Solomon, 401 00:29:58,280 --> 00:30:01,200 split didn't it? 402 00:30:01,200 --> 00:30:05,920 The nation divided into the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom. 403 00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:13,960 The Southern Kingdom followed the descendants of Solomon and his son Rehoboam. 404 00:30:13,960 --> 00:30:19,600 The Rehoboam was not a very nice king, he was a very wicked king in fact. 405 00:30:19,600 --> 00:30:23,480 And the Northern Kingdom rebelled against him and they followed another bohem, what 406 00:30:23,480 --> 00:30:25,480 was his name? 407 00:30:25,480 --> 00:30:27,240 Jeroboam. 408 00:30:27,240 --> 00:30:36,280 And Jeroboam, because he had no access to Jerusalem and to the worship there, Jeroboam 409 00:30:36,280 --> 00:30:41,000 established idolatry in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. 410 00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:46,160 Now he did that for practical reasons among others because religion is a very powerful 411 00:30:46,160 --> 00:30:50,680 unifying force among the people. 412 00:30:50,680 --> 00:30:53,800 Now they were cut off from Jerusalem that belonged down here to the Southern Kingdom 413 00:30:53,800 --> 00:30:59,240 so he had to do something to create religion up here in the North to unify his people. 414 00:30:59,240 --> 00:31:04,760 And so he established Dan as one of two sites where they would worship. 415 00:31:04,760 --> 00:31:12,360 And there in the city of Dan, for generations to come, they went to worship the idols, probably 416 00:31:12,360 --> 00:31:15,600 some of these very same idols of Micah. 417 00:31:15,600 --> 00:31:22,240 And so it was an abomination in Israel, this apostate religion hung around for generations 418 00:31:22,240 --> 00:31:29,680 and generations and ultimately it brought the destruction of the Northern Kingdom that 419 00:31:29,680 --> 00:31:32,360 was named Israel or Samaria. 420 00:31:32,360 --> 00:31:41,560 Well we meet some interesting characters in this story. 421 00:31:41,560 --> 00:31:46,600 On the scum chart, who do you think ranks worse? 422 00:31:46,600 --> 00:31:48,080 Micah? 423 00:31:48,080 --> 00:31:49,480 Jonathan? 424 00:31:49,480 --> 00:31:52,400 Or the Danites? 425 00:31:52,400 --> 00:31:57,000 What do you think? 426 00:31:57,000 --> 00:32:09,000 Why would you say the grandson of Moses, Paul? 427 00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:13,240 He forsook his ancestry, didn't he, too. 428 00:32:13,240 --> 00:32:16,520 Any other thoughts? 429 00:32:16,520 --> 00:32:26,480 Had he been faithful to God, he could have put Micah in his place and that would have 430 00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:32,000 then changed the whole story if he had been willing to do that. 431 00:32:32,000 --> 00:32:37,720 I would tend to agree with you, I think he's on the scum list the worst. 432 00:32:37,720 --> 00:32:46,800 What does those days in Israel tell us about these days? 433 00:32:46,800 --> 00:32:49,600 Pardon? 434 00:32:49,600 --> 00:32:53,720 Deja vu. 435 00:32:53,720 --> 00:33:06,560 When everyone did that, which was right in their own eyes, it was a culture of relativism 436 00:33:06,560 --> 00:33:12,440 like ours today, people making their own religions. 437 00:33:12,440 --> 00:33:16,160 Secularism hasn't worked in our culture. 438 00:33:16,160 --> 00:33:18,200 Secularism and humanism basically have failed. 439 00:33:18,200 --> 00:33:23,720 They're still out there, they're still enemies of the truth, but they've failed. 440 00:33:23,720 --> 00:33:27,680 People are not turning back to religion but not to the truth. 441 00:33:27,680 --> 00:33:34,040 They're turning back to a syncretistic kind of religion and there are churches that have 442 00:33:34,040 --> 00:33:41,160 the name Christian on them, but they've adopted also New Age ideas, some of the philosophies 443 00:33:41,160 --> 00:33:49,360 of the East, demonic teachings, and so they're creating religion. 444 00:33:49,360 --> 00:33:55,980 I think it might be argued that we are becoming more religious in the day in which we're living 445 00:33:55,980 --> 00:33:59,880 in this nation because irreligion hasn't worked. 446 00:33:59,880 --> 00:34:04,320 It has led to despair. 447 00:34:04,320 --> 00:34:06,680 It has led to an age of despair. 448 00:34:06,680 --> 00:34:08,640 So people are seeking reality elsewhere. 449 00:34:08,640 --> 00:34:12,040 The problem is that they're being deceived. 450 00:34:12,040 --> 00:34:19,120 Doesn't this fit in well with what Paul said the last days would be like with the doctrines 451 00:34:19,120 --> 00:34:27,440 of demons and people turning away from the truth, the adoption of rigid external rules 452 00:34:27,440 --> 00:34:32,280 even perhaps, forbidding to marry, to eat certain foods and so on? 453 00:34:32,280 --> 00:34:40,960 That is creating religion, creating a fleshly kind of religion that appeals to humanity 454 00:34:40,960 --> 00:34:45,280 and says that humanity is wonderful and doesn't need God. 455 00:34:45,280 --> 00:34:52,760 Find religion in yourself, in your own consciousness, and then you just create. 456 00:34:52,760 --> 00:35:04,120 They had idols of wood and molten metals, but today people have idols that are of their 457 00:35:04,120 --> 00:35:05,120 own hearts. 458 00:35:05,120 --> 00:35:12,320 It's just as false and it leads to disaster, just like the idolatry did then. 459 00:35:12,320 --> 00:35:15,040 Some lessons we can learn from the days of judges. 460 00:35:15,040 --> 00:35:18,400 Well, thanks for being here tonight in our study. 461 00:35:18,400 --> 00:35:23,600 It's not exactly an exciting, wonderful study that sends you away just feeling great, does 462 00:35:23,600 --> 00:35:24,600 it? 463 00:35:24,600 --> 00:35:31,280 I mean, you study this and say, oh my goodness, these people really got screwed up, and they 464 00:35:31,280 --> 00:35:32,280 did. 465 00:35:32,280 --> 00:35:33,280 They messed up bad. 466 00:35:33,280 --> 00:35:39,360 The only way we can stay straight is to stick to the book, the book of God. 467 00:35:39,360 --> 00:35:41,600 Let's pray together. 468 00:35:41,600 --> 00:35:47,760 Father, I pray that that will be what we do. 469 00:35:47,760 --> 00:35:55,320 Find in some arrogant way that we can boast about, knowing some narrow way in which we 470 00:35:55,320 --> 00:35:57,600 prove our points by proof texting. 471 00:35:57,600 --> 00:36:04,600 For rather, may we truly search out the truth and follow it faithfully. 472 00:36:04,600 --> 00:36:13,080 And in this day, like that of the judges, this day of apostasy among those who name 473 00:36:13,080 --> 00:36:19,760 God, may we stand true and faithful. 474 00:36:19,760 --> 00:36:25,360 In Jesus' name, amen. 475 00:36:25,360 --> 00:36:26,360 God bless you. 476 00:36:26,360 --> 00:36:43,640 Have a good week.