When Idols Replace God

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we're going to be at Judges chapter 18, talking about Micah and this Levite dude. We're going to see that this pragmatism stuff caused a big old mess. What happens? We'll see in the chapter. Let's have some coffee.
We'll pray and we'll get in the God's Word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for Your word. We pray, Lord, that you would please help us. We pray that you would give us a heart of reflection, that we would look at these things and that we would be taught, that we would be reproved, that we would be corrected and that we would be trained. We pray that your spirit would teach us how we are to think and speak and live. We pray these things in Jesus's name. Amen. All right. Here we go. We are at Judges chapter 18. In those days, there was no king in Israel. And in those days, the tribe of the Danites was seeking an inheritance for itself to dwell in. For until that day, their inheritance among the tribes of Israel had not fallen to them.
So the children of Dan sent five men of their family from their territory, men of valor from Zorah and Eshduel, to spy out the land and 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. While they were at the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young Levite.
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, and he has hired me, and I have become his priest. So they said to him, Please inquire of God, that we may know whether the journey on which we go will be prosperous. And the priest said to them, Go in peace. The presence of Jehovah be with you and on your way.
So the five men departed and went to Laish. They saw the people who were there, 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.
Then the spies came back to their brethren at Zorah and Eshduul, 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 and enter to possess the land. When you go, you will come to a secure people in a large land, for God has given it into your hands, a place where there is no lack of anything that is on the earth.
And six hundred men of the family of the Danites went from there, from Zorah and Eshul, armed with weapons of war. Then they went up and encamped in Kirjath-Jerim in Judah. Therefore they call that place Ma'anei Dan to this day. There it was, west of Kirjath-Jerim. And they camped from there to the mountains of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah.
Then the five men who had gone to spy out the country of Laish answered and said to the brethren, Do you know that there are in these houses an Ifad, household idols, a carved image, and a molded image? Now therefore consider what you should do. So they turned aside there and came to the house of the young Levite man, to the house of Micah, and greeted him.
The 600 armed men with their weapons of war who were of the children of Dan stood by the entrance of the gate. Then the five men who had gone to spy out the land went up. Entering there, they took the carved image, the ephod, the household idols, and the molded image. The priest stood at the entrance of the gate with the 600 men who were armed with weapons of war.
When these went into Micah's house and took the carved image, the ephod, the household idols, and the molded image, the priest said to them, What are you doing? And they said to him, Be quiet. Put your hand over your mouth and come with us. Be a father and a priest to us. It is better for you to be a priest to the house of one man or that you be a priest to a tribe and a family in Israel. So the priest's heart was glad. And he took the ephod, the household idols, and the 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 house near Micah's house gathered together and overtook the children of Dan. And they called out to the children of Dan.
So they turned around and said to Micah, What ails you that you have gathered such a company? So he said, you have taken away my gods, which I made, and the priest, and you have gone away. Now what more do I have? How can you say to me, 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. And the children of Dan went their way.
And 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 Leish, took quiet people, people quiet and secure, and they struck them with the edge of the sword and burnt the city with fire.
There was no deliverer because it was far from Sidon. and they had no ties with anyone. 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 formerly was Laish. Then the children of Dan set up for themselves the carved image. And Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, and his sons, who were priests to the tribe of Dan, until the day of the captivity of the land. So they set up for themselves Micah's carved image, which he made, all the time of the house of God, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh. Well, we gotta ask ourselves our normal three questions. A, what's this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do? What's this about, right?
So Dan has a tribe, they need somewhere to go. And so they send out some spies up to the north, right? They're down in the south. We're probably, this is historical, right? We've kind of gone back in time, most likely. But Dan is sending out spies and there's these five guys from Dan, they go up. This is the first part here versus one, really one through about 10 or so. They go and they hear a voice and they recognize the voice.
Whoa, hold on. Doesn't that sound like that Levite we once knew? They go by Micah's house. Man, this is that Levite. So they're going to find out about him. What's going on? What are you doing here? Well, I'm a priest here, you know. Should we go up and find this? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Go in peace. Go in peace. The presence of the Lord be with you on your way. They go up.
But in Laotian, it's a nice city, it's secluded, far away from the powers that might come and try to harm them, and they think it's pretty good. So they go back, and as they go back, they tell the large group of the Danites, like, we gotta go up, man. And this is conquest, this is good stuff, right? So we're gonna go up and we're gonna do this.
But as I go, this is one of those interesting things where Micah's whole thing was to prosper him and his own family, right? This idolatrous pseudo Lord worship. But on their way, they stopped by Micah's house. And that's where verse 11 following goes, right? The five men, they're going up with these 600 armed men, and they pass by the house of Micah as they're going through the mountains of Ephraim. And they said to their brethren, hey, guys, this is the second half of verse 14. Do you know that there are in this house an ephod, household idols of carved image and a molded image?
Now, therefore, consider what you should do. Hey, dudes, you know what you should do. So what do they do? They take all the stuff. They take the images, they take all the stuff. And the priest comes out and he's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what are you guys doing? And they essentially, shut up, man. What's better for you? To be the priest of one guy in his family or to be a father and a priest to a whole tribe?
They're kind of puffing up his pride, aren't they? So he goes with him. He's happy. Man, this is good stuff. She's got a big promotion, right? He went from the little little church in the hills to be the pastor of a mega church. Right now he's the bishop of a whole tribe. And so Micah finds out about it and he goes out.
And notice immorality provokes immorality. What's what's going on here? Well, sadly, very sadly. Dan goes out. You've taken away my gods, which I made, and the priests, and you've gone away. Now what more do I have? How can you say to me what ails you?
I noticed the, it's almost like mafia type talk here. Don't let your voice be heard among us. Less angry men fall upon you and you lose your life and the life of your household. These are violent men of war now. You better watch your tongue, man. You wouldn't want something bad to happen, right? You love your wife, right? You should probably just let it go. It feels way sad. Everything he had pinned his hopes on, everything he had found security in, all of his idolatry, all of his gods, right? It's come to nothing. Sadly, what happens? They go up to the north. They go up to Dan. They conquer. They rename Laish to Dan. Struck him with the edge of the sword. They burn it with fire. They rebuild the city. And They set up for themselves, verse 30, and the children of Dan set up for themselves the carved image.
And Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of captivity to the land. Nathan and I talked yesterday about who wrote Judges. Either this is a prophetic insight into what's going to happen, or maybe there's an editor like Ezra or Nehemiah or someone who's able to pin here yeah yeah that was going on in Dan the entire time until the captivity with the Assyrians and what we would find is when you would finally get a king you would have Saul and David and Solomon but then you have the kingdom splitting between Jeroboam and Rehoboam and the king of the Israelites in the north sets up two rival worship sites One in Bethel, right on the border with Judah. And one way up in the north, in the city of Dan. This is this precursor, this long-standing precursor of idolatry. That's what's going on in Dan. That's what's going on in the hearts of the people. But the last sentence, so the last verse of this chapter is telling all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh.
You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourselves a carved image. You shall not bow down to them nor worship them. The Lord your God is a jealous God. They're provoking God here. There's no king. There's a tabernacle. The tent is at Shiloh.
Jehovah is still their covenant God and they're turning their back on him going away from him whole tribe It's gonna lead Generations of people away from God So what's the best verse to summarize this well That's a little bit difficult, but I have verse 30 and 31 underlined in my Bible. Maybe you underline something else That'd be fine. But that's what I have underlying my Bible. It's the best verse to summarize these What are we called to do?
My heart is driven to idolatry. Calvin would write that our hearts are a factory of idols. Paul would say that our covetousness is idolatry. As we want the world, as we want our pragmatic ways, as we want our own desires, every time, whether it's a fruitful harvest, a healthy family, Any good thing, we turn into an idol as we want it more than God. I mean, there's a critique, right? I recently saw somebody critiquing evangelicalism and reformed Christianity in general, right? And any good thing, right? A pastor just said, well, that could be an idol of the heart, right? And they were saying that like their critique was sometimes it's okay just to have a burger because it's a good burger.
And that's true. God gives us good gifts to enjoy those good gifts. But if you're like me, God gives, I am convinced that God gave coffee and God gave ice cream. And they are good gifts. But I can abuse those good gifts. Turn something good into an idol. That's the point here. God gave them the land, it was theirs. God gave them the Levites to be priests.
But then they take it and they twist it. People filled with pride, puffed up with violence. It's like this cancer going on and on and on. People are walking away, more and more away from the Lord. It's a sad, it's a sad story. It's one that would repeat itself again and again and again. The downward degeneracy happens regularly.
So I need to be watching that in my own heart, looking into Christ. This is why we do devotions. This is why we go to God's word because we need taught. We need corrected. We need rebuked. We need trained. We need to be honest with ourselves where these things are true about us. Let's pray.
Father, we pray that you would please fix our eyes upon Jesus Christ, the only exact image of your being. Your icon, Lord, is your son. And so, Father, we pray that we would look unto him, not some Jesus we make up in our imagination who we want him to be, but the Jesus who you have shown was and is and is to come. Lord, we pray that we would follow after him, walking in his footsteps.
Lord, we pray that we would desire to do your will. Lord, keep us from the ways of violent men. Keep us from our own pride. Protect us, God, from going the way of our own hearts. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Well, may you walk in sobriety, knowing that your God knows you, and may you listen to him. As that great shepherd of the sheep, may you follow him all your life. And may you have great success as you seek him and love him. I'll see you next time. Bye.