“For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken. How long will all of you attack a man to batter him, like a leaning wall, a tottering fence? They only plan to thrust him down from his high position. They take pleasure in falsehood. They bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse. Selah” (Psalm 62:1-4 ESV, continued next week)
Saint-Michel d’Aiguilhe chapel
Le Puy-en-Velay, France
Le Puy-en-Velay, France
Judges 17
There was no King in Israel
*The remaining chapters of the book of Judges are an appendix of the kinds of things that were going on in Israel during this time
period.
*The basic theme is that the patriarchs & prophets (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and Joshua) were no longer in control and without a central leader figure (i.e. a king) the Israelites were left to do whatever they wanted.
*The stories that appear in this appendix are not necessarily in chronological order. Remember- they only wanted to set the tone of the time period by providing examples of the people’s wickedness and how everyone basically had free rein to do whatever they wanted.
*There was a woman from Ephraim who had silver stolen from her (1,100 pieces of silver). She places a curse on the thief of the money and tells her son Micah about the curse.
*Micah decides that he doesn’t want to incur the wrath of the curse so he tells his mother that he was the one who took the silver from her.
*Micah’s mother takes the news particularly well and blesses her son instead of holding him accountable for the curse.
*She takes the money that her son gives back to her and instructs that 2 idols be made out of the silver: a carved image (an image made out of wood, overlaid with silver) and a metal image (cast entirely out of silver).
*To go along with the two idols, Micah has a shrine made for the idols, an ephod made, and turns his son into a priest of Micah’s homemade religion.
*It just so happened that one of the grandsons of Moses (Jonathan) who lived in Bethlehem traveled through Ephraim and ran into Micah.
*Micah sees an opportunity and turns Jonathan into his household priest, gives him the ephod, and ordains him.
*Micah’s reasoning is, because Jonathan is a Levite he’s supposed to be priestly anyway so making him a priest will bring a blessing on Micah.
*The remaining chapters of the book of Judges are an appendix of the kinds of things that were going on in Israel during this time
period.
*The basic theme is that the patriarchs & prophets (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and Joshua) were no longer in control and without a central leader figure (i.e. a king) the Israelites were left to do whatever they wanted.
*The stories that appear in this appendix are not necessarily in chronological order. Remember- they only wanted to set the tone of the time period by providing examples of the people’s wickedness and how everyone basically had free rein to do whatever they wanted.
*There was a woman from Ephraim who had silver stolen from her (1,100 pieces of silver). She places a curse on the thief of the money and tells her son Micah about the curse.
*Micah decides that he doesn’t want to incur the wrath of the curse so he tells his mother that he was the one who took the silver from her.
*Micah’s mother takes the news particularly well and blesses her son instead of holding him accountable for the curse.
*She takes the money that her son gives back to her and instructs that 2 idols be made out of the silver: a carved image (an image made out of wood, overlaid with silver) and a metal image (cast entirely out of silver).
*To go along with the two idols, Micah has a shrine made for the idols, an ephod made, and turns his son into a priest of Micah’s homemade religion.
*It just so happened that one of the grandsons of Moses (Jonathan) who lived in Bethlehem traveled through Ephraim and ran into Micah.
*Micah sees an opportunity and turns Jonathan into his household priest, gives him the ephod, and ordains him.
*Micah’s reasoning is, because Jonathan is a Levite he’s supposed to be priestly anyway so making him a priest will bring a blessing on Micah.
Judges 18
Everyone Did What was Right in his own Eyes
*At the beginning of the book of Judges we talked about the tribes that were failures because they weren’t able to take control of the territory that was allotted to them. The tribe of Dan was one of these tribal failures.
*Just as the nation of Israel had done while they were still in the wilderness with no land of their own, the tribe of Dan sends spies (5 of them) to spy out a location for their new homeland.
*On their travels, the five spies come to the house of Micah and encounter the shrine, the 2 idols, the priest complete with his own ephod etc. They ask Jonathan if they’re supposed to continue the way they were heading and Jonathan tells them that their journey is under the eye of the Lord.
*Little did the 5 spies know that their journey truly was under the watchful eye of Almighty God.
*The spies arrived in a land that was peaceful and isolated and the people did not meddle in the affairs of anyone else. They promptly returned home to report their find.
*Once back, after giving their report, the tribal leaders of Dan send 600 armed warriors with the 5 spies and tell them to go and take the land from the unsuspecting people in order to claim it as their new homeland.
*At the beginning of the book of Judges we talked about the tribes that were failures because they weren’t able to take control of the territory that was allotted to them. The tribe of Dan was one of these tribal failures.
*Just as the nation of Israel had done while they were still in the wilderness with no land of their own, the tribe of Dan sends spies (5 of them) to spy out a location for their new homeland.
*On their travels, the five spies come to the house of Micah and encounter the shrine, the 2 idols, the priest complete with his own ephod etc. They ask Jonathan if they’re supposed to continue the way they were heading and Jonathan tells them that their journey is under the eye of the Lord.
*Little did the 5 spies know that their journey truly was under the watchful eye of Almighty God.
*The spies arrived in a land that was peaceful and isolated and the people did not meddle in the affairs of anyone else. They promptly returned home to report their find.
*Once back, after giving their report, the tribal leaders of Dan send 600 armed warriors with the 5 spies and tell them to go and take the land from the unsuspecting people in order to claim it as their new homeland.
Everyone Did What was Right in his own Eyes Finale
*The spies and warrior detachment leave on their way for their new land stop near the home of Micah to camp.*The 5 spies tell the warrior detachment about the shrine, idols, ephod, and household priest of Micah and they decide that they could use the wealth.
*While the 600 warriors chat it up with Jonathan the priest, the 5 spies sneak in the house and steal everything.
*As they’re taking off with everything the warriors well Jonathan to shut up about it and then offer him to be the tribal priest of Dan.
*When Micah tries to catch up to the warriors he does, but they are too much for him. He heads for home with no idols, no ephod, no shrine, and no more priest. These events are summed up by, “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (Jdg17:6 ESV)