“Then the five men who had spied out the land of Laish said to their fellow Danites, 'Do you know that one of these houses has an ephod, some household gods and an image overlaid with silver? Now you know what to do.' So they turned in there and went to the house of the young Levite at Micah’s place and greeted him. The six hundred Danites, armed for battle, stood at the entrance of the gate. The five men who had spied out the land went inside and took the idol, the ephod and the household gods while the priest and the six hundred armed men stood at the entrance of the gate.
When the five men went into Micah’s house and took the idol, the ephod and the household gods, the priest said to them, 'What are you doing?'
They answered him, 'Be quiet! Don’t say a word. Come with us, and be our father and priest. Isn’t it better that you serve a tribe and clan in Israel as priest rather than just one man’s household?' The priest was very pleased. He took the ephod, the household gods and the idol and went along with the people.” (Judges 18:14-21)
For the context of this story, check out last week’s post here. The Danite spies had found land they wanted to take for themselves, and they were about to capture it. They remembered Micah’s house, his shrine, and his ephod. They wanted to make further use of Micah and his possessions, so they robbed the house of the idol and the ephod. With 600 against 1 (or maybe a few if you consider the rest of Micah’s household), there wasn’t much Micah’s priest could do to stop this from happening.
At first the priest was annoyed with the theft, but then he gets invited to join the Danites in their quest. He is easily swayed by the promise of something better, so he gives up on his loyalty to Micah and goes for the better life with higher pay.
This story shows some of the bad things that we as humans do. The priest was fickle in his loyalties and got swept up by whatever good thing came along. That’s how he ended up in Micah’s house in the first place; Micah gave him an offer that was better than what he had. So when an apparently better offer came along, the priest took it.
The Danite spies stole from their fellow Israelites without even caring. This behavior was predicted back in Genesis 49:17 which says, “Dan will be a snake by the roadside, a viper along the path, that bites the horse’s heels so that its rider tumbles backward.” These spies from Dan caused Micah to lose both money and his live-in priest from their theft.
This situation reminds me of Psalm 1, where in verse 4 it says, “Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.” The wicked, or those who do not follow God with their lives, will get blown around by the wind. They don’t have the solid foundation of faith in God to be their roots, so they are swayed by whatever comes along and appears at the time to be better. This is also reminiscent of James 1:6: “But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.” The context of that passage is about having faith that God will provide what we ask for when we are following him, but one who doubts and isn’t following God will be like a wave in the sea, tossed about by the wind.
A person who stands for nothing falls for anything. Where are you at? Are you standing firm in God’s Word and in His plan for your life, even if it’s not exactly what you had hoped for? Or are you trying to do things your own way, then hoping that God will bless your decisions? Take a lesson from the people of Dan and Micah’s priest, that trusting in God and keeping your loyalty firmly rooted in Him is always the best way.
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