Micah's little household god operation didn't stay little for long. As it turns out, the tribe of Dan caught wind of his personal religion and, when they felt it was worth something to them, took it for their own and made it the center of their tribal faith!
What happened was this: while a small group of Danites were on a military reconnaissance mission, they stopped over at the home of Micah where they asked Micah's Levite-priest to inquire for them of Micah's idol-god. When they received a good answer, they were pleased and went on their way.
Later, when the men return, this time with the Danite army, they decide that taking the idol - and Micah's personal priest, the Levite - would be in their best interest. Outright stealing from Micah (who had blithely assumed that he would prosper for his "faithfulness"), they abscond with idol and priest. Because their force is stronger than Micah's, there is nothing he can do about it.
When the Danites establish their own territory, the Levite receives quite a promotion. He goes from being Micah's hired religious lackey to being the leader of the faith of a whole tribe of Israel. As the Bible says, "He accepted the offer" (vs. 20).
Why did this happen? With no king in Israel, there is no central authority to enforce the Law among all the people. Everyone simply did what was right in his own eyes. While that may sound very democratic and desirable, when people do what is right in their own eyes, they tend to justify all sorts of horrible behavior. We will see stark evidence of this in Judges' concluding chapters.
No comments:
Post a Comment