Since I like to finish things, we need to bring our meditations on Judges to a close. We left off with Samson last week. He’s the last judge, but there are five chapters left, and they are not pleasant reading.

First, I have confirmed something I was told a few years ago: the two events in this section (Judges 17 – 18 and Judges 19 – 21) actually occurred BEFORE any of the other events of Judges. How do we know? Because the grandsons of Moses and Aaron are involved:

Jonathan son of Gershom, the son of Moses…(Judges 18.30, MSG)

Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, as the ministering priest…. (Judges 20.28, MSG)

Why are these stories included? Apparently to illustrate the truth of the well-known verse in Judges, which comes from these sections:

In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. (Judges 17.6, Judges 21.25, ESV)

And what did they do? In chapters 17 and 18, we have a man, Micah, and later an entire tribe, Dan, making an idol and establishing an ongoing religion with a succession of priests.

First, a man steals silver from his mother:

There was a man from the hill country of Ephraim named Micah. He said to his mother, “Remember that 1,100 pieces of silver that were taken from you? I overheard you when you pronounced your curse. Well, I have the money; I stole it. But now I’ve brought it back to you.” His mother said, “GOD bless you, my son!” (Judges 17.1, 2, MSG)

Then they both make it into an idol:

As he returned the 1,100 silver pieces to his mother, she said, “I had totally consecrated this money to GOD for my son to make a statue, a cast god.” Then she took 200 pieces of the silver and gave it to a sculptor and he cast them into the form of a god. This man, Micah, had a private chapel. He had made an ephod and some teraphim-idols and had ordained one of his sons to be his priest. (Judges 17.3 – 5)

Then Micah got a Levite to be his priest (nothing like making things feel more spiritual than with “ordained clergy”).

Micah said, “Now I know that GOD will make things go well for me—why, I’ve got a Levite for a priest!” (judges 17.13, MSG)

Then men from the tribe of Dan take the idol and the priest for themselves.

The five men who earlier had explored the country of Laish told their companions, “Did you know there’s an ephod, teraphim-idols, and a cast god-sculpture in these buildings? What do you think? Do you want to do something about it?”… They said to [the Levite], “Hush! Don’t make a sound. Come with us. Be our father and priest. Which is more important, that you be a priest to one man or that you become priest to a whole tribe and clan in Israel?” The priest jumped at the chance. He took the ephod, the teraphim-idols, and the idol and fell in with the troops. (Judges 18.14, 19 – 20, MSG)

And just as sometimes happens today, the priest is delighted to be “called to a larger congregation”!

And here’s something I saw for the first time. This is not a one-off incident in the time of the Judges:

The Danites set up the god-figure for themselves. Jonathan son of Gershom, the son of Moses, and his descendants were priests to the tribe of Dan down to the time of the land’s captivity. All during the time that there was a sanctuary of God in Shiloh, they kept for their private use the god-figure that Micah had made. (Judges 18.30, MSG, emphasis mine)

This went on “down to the time of the land’s captivity…” as long as there “was a sanctuary of God in Shiloh…” I don’t know if this practice kept up until the temple was built in the days of Solomon or until the Assyrian conquering of the northern tribes (which would include Dan) but either way, a long time. Actions have consequences – this chain started by one guy and his mother.

In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria, and he carried the Israelites away to Assyria and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods and walked in the customs of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel, and in the customs that the kings of Israel had practiced. And the people of Israel did secretly against the LORD their God things that were not right. They built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city. (2 Kings 17.6 – 9, ESV)

I had planned to write the follow-on blog on the events of Judges 19 – 21, but this is a G-rated blog, and the text is nearly R-rated. Suffice it to say that it’s ugly, a picture of what happens when…

Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

And there’s no question that we’re living in such an age now. An X-rated age if you look hard enough. The Internet, built for scientific collaboration, has become, by any measure, a vast storehouse of readily available pornography, and that’s not counting how accessible it’s made gambling.

God includes five ugly chapters in the sacred text to remind us of the folly of doing what is right in our own eyes. We need to reject today’s common “follow your heart” mantra – the same thing.