Judges 2024

Now a man named Micah from the hill country of ephraim said to his mother. The 1100 shekels of silver that were taken from you and about which I heard you utter a curse, I have that silver with me. I took it. Then his mother said, the lord bless you, my son.

When he returned the 1100 shekels of silver to his mother, she said, I solemnly consecrate my silver to the lord for my son to make an image overlaid with silver. I will give it back to you. So after he returned the silver to his mother, she took 200 shekels of silver and gave them to a Silver Smith who used them to make an idol. And it was put in Micah's house. Now this man Micah had a shrine, and he made an e fort and some household gods and installed 1 of his sons as his priest.

In those days, Israel had no king. Everyone did, they, as they saw fit. A young levite from Bethlehem in Judah who had been living within the clan of Judah left that town in search of some other place to stay. On his way, he came to Micah's house in the Hill Country of frame. Mike asked him, where are you from?

I'm a levite from Bethlehem in Judah, he said, and I'm looking for a place to stay. Then Micah said to him, live with me, and be my father and a priest. And I'll give you 10 shekels of silver a year, your clothes, and your food. So the Levi agreed to live with him, and the young man became like 1 of his sons to him. Then Micah installed the Leviites, and the young man became his priest.

And lived in his house. And Micah said, now I know that the lord will be good to me since this levite has become my priest. In those days, Israel had no king. And in those days, the tribe of the Danites was seeking a place of their own where they might settle because they had not yet come into inheritance among the tribes of Israel. So the Danites sent 5 of their leading men from Zorah and Ejstel to spy out the land and explore it.

These men represented all the Danites. They told them, go and explore the land. So they entered the hill country or V frame, and came to the house of Micah where they spent the night. When they were near Micah's house, they recognized the voice of the young levites so they turned in there and asked him, who brought you here? What are you doing in this place?

Why are you here? He told them what Micah had done for him and said, He has hired me and I'm his priest. Then they said to him, please inquire of god to learn whether our journey will be successful. The priest answered them, go in peace. Your journey has the law's approval.

So the 5 men left and came to Leish. Where they saw that the people were living in safety, like the Sidonians at peace and secure. And since their land lacked nothing, they were prosperous. Also, they lived a long way from the Sedonians and had no relationship with anyone else. When they returned to Zorah and Estel, their fellow day night asked them, how did you find things?

They answered, come on. Let's attack them. We have seen their land, and it is very good. Aren't you going to do something? Don't hesitate to go there and take it over.

When you get there, you will find an unsuspecting people and a spacious land that god has put into your hands, a land that lacks nothing, whatever. Then 600 men of the Danites armed for battle set out from Zorah and Echthale. On their way, they set up camp near Kerieth Jirim in Judah. This is why the place west of Kerriath Jirim is called Mahana Dan to this day. From there, they went on to the hill country of Ephraim and came to Micah's house.

Then the 5 men who had spied out the land of Leish said to their fellow Danites. Do you know that 1 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 levites at Micah's place and greeted him. The 600 Danites armed for battle stood at the entrance of the gate.

The 5 men who had spied out the land, went inside and took the idol, the ephod, and the household gods, while the priest and the 600 armed men stood at the entrance of the gates. When the 5 men went into Micah's house and took the idol, the e fod, 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 a clan in Israel as priest rather than just 1 man's household? The priest was very pleased. He took the ephod, the household gods, and the idol, and went along with the people. Putting their little children, their livestock, and their possessions in front of them.

They turned away and left. When they had gone some distance from Micah's house, the men who lived near Micah were called together and overtook the Danites. They shouted as they shouted after them, the Danites turned and said to Micah. What's the matter with you that you called out your men to fight? He replied, you took the gods I made and my priest and went away.

What else do I have? How can you ask what's the matter with you? The Danites answered. Don't argue with us, or some of the men may get angry and attack you, and you and your family will lose your lives. So the Danites went their way and Micah seeing that they were too strong for him turned around and went back home.

Then they took what Micah had made and his priest and went on to layish against the people at peace and secure. They attacked them with the sword and burned down their city. There was no 1 to rescue them because they lived a long way from sidon and had no relationship with anyone else. The city was in a valley near Beth Rayhold. The Danites rebuilt the city and settled there.

They named it Dan after their ancestor Dan, who was born to Israel. Though the city used to be called Leish. There, the Danites set up for themselves, the idol and Jonathan Son of Gershon, the son of Moses and his sons were priests for the tribe of Dan until the time of the captivity of the land. They continued to use the idol Micah had made all the time the house of god was in Shiloh. Great.

Thanks, Alex and Safran for a long reading. It's a big old passage, isn't it we'll look at tonight. So please keep it open in front of you. Actually, 1 of there was a couple of times when they were reading that where it reminded me when I was preparing this, I sometimes like to talk at the computer because my 1 finger typing is quite slow. And, it always came up as Mike's house.

Let's go down to Mike's house. I was going to change it all the time earlier. There we go. Okay. Let's pray, and then we'll look at this passage.

Father, thank you for your word. There is a enormous amount here for us to look at. We pray your take it, put it in our hearts, and our minds by your spirit, use it, to point out things that we need to accept about ourselves, things we need to change in ourselves, the way that we love you help us to do that, in our lives that we might see, what false religion is like and, seek to love the the true god, and help us this evening as as we look through these 2 chapters, to take that in and and leave here, wanting to be more faithful to Jesus. Oh, man. Well, let me have my welcome to you.

So I'm lovely to say everybody. My name's Philip Cooper, if you don't know me, I'm 1 of the elders of the church, welcome to those, on the live stream as well. Do you ever fall into the trap you know, in your life of thinking, you know, that when things are going well, it's because god's paying you back in some way for something you've done for him. You know, it's god's blessing on your life, if you like. You know, in the old testament, you will often see Israel associates individual prosperity and, wealth with basically those people receiving god's blessing.

You know, you're doing well in life. So you must be pleasing God is the way they thought. You must be getting your worship right. Everything's good. And even in even though in the new testament, we know that in many of Paul's letters, we're actually promised hardship and difficulties as a Christian.

And it bears no relation really, to whether god is blessing your life or not, or Certainly, it doesn't bear any relation to a level of obedience from us or performance by us. Don't we still, even though we know that? Quite often think what I call transactionally, that the outcome of things in our lives is directly linked to god blessing us because we've been obedient, or he owes us, really, is how we think, because we've pleased him. You know, I it's really just a bit like saying, you know, I've done my bit now. Come on god.

I think subconsciously, we don't we think to ourselves, you know, I I've been in I've been in the home home group the last 10 weeks. I've only missed 2 Sundays. And I'm on a rotor for something. So, god, I just wanted to keep that in mind, you know, for when I wanna move flat, or I need to get the kids into a school, then just remember that. Isn't that how we think?

And then, of course, the problem with that is we react badly when it doesn't work. So, you know, we might say, look, we were faith full before we got married. We kept ourselves pure, and now we can't have kids. You know, what's the deal with that god? Or I give money to the church every month, and I've been going to the prayer meeting since January, which is a lot more than most people all.

And I'm the 1 that's got made redundant. What's the deal with that? Isn't that how we think? You see, in this story in the book of judges that we look at tonight, we're going to see a whole series of decisions that are made by people where they think they can recruit god's help, or please him in some way when actually they're disobeying him, and they should know they are. But before we get to the detail of that, let's just remind ourselves of the context of where we are in the book and in the sermon series We finished, I think it was 3 weeks in Samsung last week.

We've moved on in the book of judges. We're in the last 5 chapters. And we're no longer any more in this series, talking really about the cycle of sin and suffering, and then finally salvation through a judge raised up by god in response to Israel crying out. Those stories have gone now. Those stories are faded away.

And instead, what we have are basically a couple of really depressing pictures of the depths of Israel's depravity. They aren't chronological. So we must remember that. The events we're looking at tonight, and I guess next week, happens sometime during the reign of the judges, but we're not told when. So I I would tend to think of them more as appendices rather if you like than a conclusion.

In other words, their pictures of what happens if you move away from the true god and instead do what you see fit. Which is what we saw, as you read it. Chapter 17 verse 6, in those days, Israel had no king. Everyone did as they saw fit. And the result here of everyone doing what they saw fit is these chapters, and and certainly the next weeks, are very dark.

There's very few feel good moments here. There's no real heroes. It is sort of lord of the fly stuff, if that means anything to you. And before we sit here, which is our tendency as well, I think, with a sort of critical eye thinking, dear, you mean, what a demise of a pagan culture. Remember it isn't.

This is god's people. It's shocking stuff, actually. And the first characteristic we're gonna see this evening is this, In our eyes, in our own eyes, man made religion feels good. We start in chapter 17 with Micah. Now he's from this hill country, a v frame, and it's not to be confused, or he's not be confused with a profit, Michael, they're different people.

As the story opens, don't you think though it feels like you came in halfway through? Now a man named Micah from the hill country of ephraim said to his mother, the 1100 shekels of silver that were taken from you and about which I've heard, and he's just started Now, it reminded me I've got to be very careful here because I'm going to head down gender and it's a bit tricky. So I'll try not to. You might find, let's say, you're sitting watching a TV and a series with your spouse or a flatmate or whoever it is, And 1 of them, not you, tends to do other things while they're watching, you know, is there on the computer or their messaging or they're doing their nails, although that might indicates agenda. Or, you know, getting a cup of tea or whatever.

And then a few of this, the person might say, Co, what happened to that guy in the white jacket? And he said, well, no, the 3 bullets to his head, 2 episodes ago. I think I think the people who who have a tendency to do other things when they're watching series might find their whole life is like opening this chapter. What has been going on? We don't know Do we, why 1100 shekels have gone missing?

We don't know about the curse. We have nothing more. When I first read it, I thought, I obviously missed it in 16. When bat, there's nothing there. So we have to work it out.

And all we all we really know is that micro stolen from his mother, 1100 shekels of silver. That is a fortune. If you remember later on in the passage, you see that the priest is paid 10 a year. So 1100 checkers of silver, he stolen. And verse 2, he suddenly owns up to having stolen it.

Now his motive for this newfound honesty appears to be that his mother's put a curse on the thief. No idea what that is. It's probably something like, may your ears drop off or something? I I don't know. But for whatever it is, he's panicked him.

He suddenly decides, okay. I'm gonna give the money back. But look at her reaction. Completely ridiculous. The lord bless you my son.

So she's saying basically bless you my little feet I mean, yeah, I don't know what to say about that really. But the point she's making is she's trying to counteract the curse she's just uttered. Okay. I've cursed it now but a blessing. That's what's going on.

But let's let's just have 1 application. This is a little aside. I'm going off the point. Never mind. It is terrible parenting.

You see, Micah's mother actually is an enabler. I would call her an enabler. That means someone who ends up promoting a type of bad behavior in her child by not tackling it. We might see that in various forms today, It may be addiction to screens, substance abuse. I don't know what laziness even, but it could just be a more innocent looking thing like family first attitude, you know, where your children never face the consequences of their actions because you circle the wagons.

So an example of that I was thinking of is where you storm into school. You storm into school to have a go at the teacher because little Johnny's been given a detention or a suspension. That's an enabler You're trying to prevent the child from suffering the consequences of their action. Now in this passage, she's doing exactly that. He's stolen the money.

She's blessing him. So he gives the 1100 shekels of silverback and and then this is the other amazing thing. She takes 200 shekels and then gives it she says she's giving it to god. She gives it to him, sorry, of Silver Smith, to make an image overlaid with silver. See that?

We don't know what she does with the other 900. I think she's probably dedicated that to her own savings. But she's fooled herself into thinking she's kept her promise. Look at verse 3. I solemnly consecrate my silver, she's talking about all of it, to the lord for my son to make an image overlaid with silver, I will give it back to you.

She's talking to God. I will give it back to you, and then she gives a little bit of So with 4 verses in, we've seen theft, a lie, a curse, bad parenting, a vow to god that isn't kept and idolatry now. So I think those 2 Mica and his mother have broken at least 4 of the 10 commandments that they're meant to be following, numbers 1, 2, 5, and 8, if you're interested. But look at verse 5. Now this man Micah had a shrine, and he made an efod and some household gods.

It's interesting when Tom read the the it was chapter 7 of Micah a year earlier. It started with, something which is basically the meaning of Micah's name. Who is like god. That's what Micah means, or who resembles god. And of course, The whole purpose of that name with Israel is for them to say or conclude no 1.

No one's like god. But in Micah's head, I think the answer is who is like god? I am, he says. Cause I'm gonna create my own little worship thing going on at home. In those days, the tabernacle resided at Shiloh, god's people were to go there to worship god.

And if you look at a map, It wasn't very far from where Micah lived. But I think what's going on here is is is almost as if he said, look, it's too much faff. Too much faster go all that way. I'll just have my own little religion going on in in in the front room. And it did make me wonder, are we not heading in the same way sometimes?

You know, what about if you sat at home and it gets to, I don't know, whatever time it is 6 o'clock on a Sunday evening, you think, oh, it's raining. It's too much faff to go and meet with god's people. I'll just watch online. Now you might think that's an exaggeration, and yes, of course, there are people who watch online who've got hip replacements. Which I understand, just to cover myself.

But the, But the trend across the country in the church is that worship is being increasingly viewed as a personal thing. Not a collective thing like it should be, but an individual thing. It's it's in individualism again. And that is wrong. We're saved to be part of god's family.

We too, just like Micah, want to worship our way. And if it suits us to do it at home online, that's what we do. Micah here has really got into his little religion. He acquires an ephod. I had to look that up.

I've heard it before, but I still had to look it up. It's a sort of garment that the high priest wore apparently in Daniel, it's the breastplate, but in others, it's the the longer guy garman. It's got lots of little jewels on it. So I was thinking like Michael Jackson's jacket, that sort of thing that might help you or not. But he gets 1 of these random little high priest outfits and, household gods.

And this is classic, installs his son as the priest. Now that would have caused gasps from any Israelite listening to this. You cannot choose who your priest is gonna be. The priests were from the tribe of the levites, and Micah just appoint his own son. Who is god?

Clearly in Micah's head, it's him. So how do we do this? How do we have a little bit of homemade religion? Well, we'd I think we do what Micah does. We take bits of true worship, bits of the Bible or or bits of the nature of god that we like, and then we add stuff.

So the whole thing feels better in our own eyes. All seems much more palatable if you get rid of the bits you don't like and add some stuff. You know, then we can say, oh, yeah, the lord is with us. Terrific. You know, he won't mind if we add in These beards, he loves us.

Ever heard something like this from friends? I've prayed about it. I've prayed about it and and the lord's given me a real peace in my heart, so we're gonna move in together. Or I don't know if I can believe in a god that does that. That's not the god I worship.

Or god is loving, and he's kind, and he's merciful, and Jesus is amazing. But I think some of the stuff Paul writes on the role of men and women and gender and purity. Well, that just for the days it was written in. Don't you recognize something in those examples? We're creating our own religion by a blend of the Bible and what feels right in our own eyes, and it feels good.

But actually feels better than good because it fits in more with the culture. I came across this quote. This is a random quote for a, a black civil rights leader called Booker Washington. I don't really know anything about him. I don't even know if he's a Christian, but he was a great quote, so I'll give him the credit.

But he said this, a lie doesn't become truth. A wrong doesn't become right, evil doesn't become good just because it's accepted by the majority. I thought that was really good. I don't think most of the church of England believe that. But the reality is when we create our own religion, we've stopped listening to god.

Perhaps we are listening to culture, but we're definitely making up the rules. And it's not a small thing. It's not a little adjustment because what it means is we're no longer in relationship with god. We're not listening to him. Can you imagine what your wife would say or your husband would have to go through all the list again?

What somebody, you know, you really valued would say, if you said to them, just imagine if you're saying to your wife, look, Darling, I think you're lovely, and you're beautiful, but I really don't like the sound of your voice. And I wish you just wouldn't speak. How do you think that conversation's gonna go? But isn't it what we say to god? You're so amazing.

You're so beautiful. We love you, but please stop speaking. We don't want to hear that. Your word is too hard for us. We have our own ideas, and it is much nicer.

So in our own eyes, homemade religions good. Secondly, in our own eyes, a pastor in your pocket feels good. Verse 7, a young levite from Bethlehem in Judah who'd been living within the clan of Judah left that town in search of some other place to say to stay. On his way, he came to Mike, Micah's house in the hill country of a frame. Micah asked him, where are you from?

I'm a levite from Bethlehem, in Judah, he said, and I'm looking for a place to stay. See, basically then Micah invites him in and replaces fairly ruthless that it seems, replaces his son and makes this guy the family priest. Verse 12, Micah installed the Levi and the young man became his priest. Now there's a few things we just need to understand to realize how bad this is. The priesthood for Israel were to reside in specified pounds.

Joshua 21, the book before judges. Verse 3, it says this. So as the lord had commanded, the israelites gave the levites the following towns and pasture lands out of their own inheritance. And then it lists 48 towns where the levites were to live. Okay?

So the other tribes are giving them land and places to live so that they could be the priests. Now do you know which town was not on that list? Bethlehem, where this guy comes from. So immediately, you see there's a problem. He's already left the towns he's supposed to be living in, and he's gone to Bethlehem, and now he's moved on and he's at Micah's house.

We don't know why. Doesn't tell us. He might have just had some wanderlust in him, but I think more likely it's possible that the priest were struggling financially, and he had to leave in order to survive is how he felt. That shouldn't have been the case. In numbers 18 verse 21, the lord says, the lord says, I give to the levites all the tides in Israel as their inheritance.

In return for the work they do while serving at the tent of meeting. So he was supposed to be looked after by the other tribes, Now if that support was no longer forthcoming, then I guess if you're a Levi, you might think, well, why would I stay in this town? If I'm gonna starve, basically, so you set out to find another place. But again, can't you see immediately applications for us this time for the church. Our pastors are similarly not supposed to be career people.

You know, they're not building their CV. Being a pastor isn't a rung on a ladder. You do 3 years or 6 years, and then you move on to some better role. See, perhaps here in judges, the levites were suffering, but it's no excuse to stop trusting god. And firstly moved to Bethlehem home and then on to Micah's house.

If the nation of Israel was at a very low Ebb spiritually, Instead of moving on, he should have been part of solution. He should have been available, shouldn't he, to be used by god to bring them back. Not someone who escapes to have an easier life somewhere else. 1 commentator writes, and I had to look this word up because I it's obviously an old old word, I think. Save the church from hirelings.

Hirelings seem to be or mean people who, do something for money. So it means, save the church from pastors who don't see it as a calling, but as a career. The church needs true and faithful shepherds, that's pastors who work for the lord rather than for personal gain. Who will stay with the flock to feed and protect them even in difficult times, pastors who will preach the truth even when it's hard. And you see, it might not have been this priest's fault, all of it that he had to move.

But in the end, look what happens. He ends up as a sort of domestic priest in charge of idols. He's so compromised. Then look at the impact on Micah's thinking verse 13. And Micah said, now I know that the lord will be good to me.

Since this levite has become my priest. Micah sees what he's doing, not as wrong but is restoring this levi into priesthood. And therefore, gotta be pleased with him. And it that links right back to where we started. I'm doing my bit, says my company and this priest back in.

And you can see actually in this passage why he might think god's keeping his side of the deal too. Don't you think it's a bit weird? I thought it was a bit weird that everybody passing by seems to end up at his house. And the neighbors who are basically silent in 17 by 18 are ready to fight and just to help him out and get the idols back, and I wondered whether perhaps Mike has been making money out of his little worship room. You know, with people visiting and others thinking to themselves, why flog over to Shylark and just go around to Micah?

He's such a lovely guy, Micah, believes in the lord, got his own priest. So he probably did no harm to his status in the community either. Guy's got his own priest. Wouldn't we want our own priest? When I wrote that, I thought, no, I don't think we do.

And then I thought, well, perhaps, you know, what about those of us that, you know, you give money to the church? The church employs a pastor. He studies the Bible on our behalf, produces those neat little summaries called sermons, casionally, we listen to them. So it saves a lot of time for us, and we can have a relationship we've got just through him. We don't have to bother ourselves.

Why wouldn't we want that? Micah has a priest in his pocket. That's the reality. And in his eyes, that's great. Of course, what he's really done is he's turned the levite into an idolater.

But the whole thing is so wrapped up in a sort of spiritual language that Mike has probably convinced himself it was a sign from god. It was a sign from god because I wasn't looking for it, but he came and knocked on my door. He shouldn't have even been in this town. How wonderful the providences of god are thinks Micah. He sent me this guy, and I've restored him to the priesthood.

God is a wonderful sovereign god. He's convinced himself he's done the right thing, yet he's seeking to worship god the way he wants to worship him. Not the way god has commanded. And did you notice when we had the reading? At no point in either of these chapters, does god speak at all?

Every word is from other people, mainly impostors, speaking as if they know what god wants. It's worth remembering corrupt worship because it's just because it's offered sincerely is still wrong. Worshiping Jesus partially is completely wrong. In this instance, Micah wants to worship god, but he does it with idols, he corrupts a priest, and the result is so far away from what god wants and Micah doesn't see it at all. The all the author actually really brings this to life.

If you if you got your bibles open, just, look at these 3 verses. Chapter 18 verse 24. This is what he says. You took the gods I made and my priest and went away. Verse 27, then they took what Micah had made and his priest.

Verse 31, they continued to use the idol Micah had made. Do you see there's no true worship here of god? He's got a homemade religion, and he's got a priest in his pocket, and it seems very good to him. Thirdly, and we're focusing on chapter 18 now. In their own eyes, the Danites succeed, and it feels good.

See, what we see in 18 is how we go from 1 life going off track. Then the corruption of the priest to now a corruption of a whole people, a whole tribe of Israel. We see further idolatry, and, of course, we see the slaughter of, many people. The tribe of Dan, 1 of the tribes of Israel, had been given land in the book of Joshua, but instead of trusting god to deliver the land, they sort of thought this is all looking quite hard work. Let's find our own.

So they've got these spies who spent the night again at Micah's house because everyone goes there. And they recognized, don't they the voice of Jonathan, the young Levi, Now I don't know. It doesn't say whether that means they recognize his voice or his accent, if you like, and and could tell that he was a levite. But they asked the question, what are you doing in this place? Why are you here?

It's a very fair question. He's supposed to be in 1 of those cities, and here he is somewhere else. But when he explains to them that he's a priest and why he's there, look at what they say immediately. Okay. Please inquire of god to learn whether our journey will be successful.

Extraordinary. They're on their way. They haven't asked god at all. We know they're doing the wrong thing, but let's ask god now because we've got a priest in front of us. Is this gonna work out?

His answer is just as fascinating because it's immediate for 6 Go in peace, he says your journey has the lord's approval. Extraordinary, not just because the journey almost certainly doesn't have the lord's approval, But because he doesn't even ask god, they say inquire. Please inquire of god. He doesn't bother. He just hands out.

Now god's blessing is himself. Who is like god? Well, Micah thinks he is. Now he looks like the priest thinks he is. Anyway, the result is the spies see the land, light the look of it, return to the Danites and say it's absolutely fantastic less attack.

First 10, when you get there, you will find an unsuspecting people and a spacious land. But then look at the next bit because it's exactly what we've been talking about all the way through this chapter. When you get there, you will find an unsuspecting people in a spacious land that god has put into your hands. A land that lacks nothing whatever. That god hasn't put it in their hands.

It's not what they're supposed to be doing. Let's throw in some god language, and it's all good. It's their idea, but crediting god means it feels good to them. So the 600 strong Danite army attack on the way past. Oh, let's pop into my case, the whole army, with the spies.

And they they go and they meet the Levi priest, and basically then they steal. I'm cutting it short because I've got a lot of time. They steal from the house. The silver rivals, the e the Michael Jackson jacket, and all that stuff, and the priest wants to know what they're doing. First 19, they answered him, be quiet.

Don't say a word, come with us and be our father and priest. You see, what are they doing? They're saying to a pastor, why have a church of 6 when you can have a church of 600? That's what they're doing. Come with us to a bigger job.

And that's quite a convincing argument, isn't it? You can imagine what's going on in his head or or what they're saying to him. Look, Why waste your time preaching to this tiny handful of people? You're more talented than this. God wants to bless your ministry.

You deserve to be in charge of a bigger church. And, of course, we know because he's already got a track record of doing this, When a job comes along that has better pay, Mike, the priest moves on. First 20, the priest was very pleased. He took the e for the household guards and the idler went along with the people. He's probably thinking, and this is how people justify it.

This is exactly what we do. I can do great things for god in this new role, but he's basically just a gun for hire. So the Danites move forward. They take the land. They slaughter thousands of peace loving defenseless people, and they're disobeying god as they do it.

So why do they do it? Why do they do that? The answer is because they can. Because you see in 17 verse 6 and 18 verse 1, it says, in those days, there was no king in Israel, and people did as they saw fit. And that's what the Danites thought was good.

They felt blessed by god. They'd conquered a lamb to live in. God had given them success, but it wasn't what they'd been told to do. And you know, when they pass through e frame and they pick up, the priest and the, little worship room contents, They became the first tribe in Israel to adopt wholesale idolatry to set up an alternative if you like in shiloh 2 shiloh. In 18, the the very the very last verse, actually, first 31, they continued to use the idol Micah had made all the time the house of god was in shiloh.

And they don't see the consequences at first. We don't see it in this passage. Doesn't say In fact, it looks like it ends with success for the Danites. But if you look at Revelation chapter 7 and you look at the 12 tribes, as they're listed there, you'll notice that Dan is gone. Dan is missing from those.

It's been extinguished. So there are consequences to what the Danites do here. They misread it completely. They think god's giving them success. There's no reason to think that.

They just like throwing the language in. But what of Micah? You see, you may have noticed that I missed out a little bit in this story, and that's our fourth point. In your own eyes, it feels bad when your false guard abandons you. You see, where the priest when the priest goes with the household idles and joins the Danites, we're told that Mike and his neighbors are distraught, and they get together and they chase after them.

And when they catch up with the army, they want the stuff back. But basically, the Danites laugh at them and say, you know, you and whose army are gonna take this. Go back home and shut up, or you'll die, and Micah and his neighbors outgund withdrawal. But look at how devastated Micah is in verse 24 of 18. He replied, you took the guards I made and my priest and went away.

What else do I have? In other translations, it says, I have nothing left. What else do I have? I have nothing left. How sad is that?

See, his whole world now is coming crashing down because of the loss of his little silver statues. He can't see any purpose to life any way forward. So 1 of the ways we can test ourselves, you know, to see if we have idols in our life, whether it's success or wealth or family or education or health or outlook whatever it is. If they were removed, would we fall apart? If they were removed, would we be saying, what else do I have left?

It seems so stupid to us when we read this that on the face of it, something which is, you know, a tiny little silver thing and can be picked up and stolen is a god to believe in. That seems ludicrous. But Mike has built his whole life around these little lucky charms. And in his head, he's done all these things for god, he's loved god, but god now isn't doing his thing. It's been taken from him and it's a disaster.

Micah the day night, even his mother, Jonathan, the priest. It wasn't that they were doing wrong in their own eyes. They were convinced what they were doing was right. But you see, we saw earlier. Being sincerely wrong isn't okay.

To love god means finding out what he wants, not doing what we want and asking him to bless it. I remember, I can't I can't remember this, who told me to this illustration, but somebody I remember saying that, you know, it's like when somebody comes up to you perhaps after the service or some time and says, do you want a cup of coffee? Would you can I get you a cup of coffee? And you say, yeah, that that would be nice. Perhaps you were at the door saying goodbye to people or whatever.

And, they sound you take it and you say black no sugar. And then they bring it back white and 6 sugars. You see, that's not love. It feels like it is. Oh, I I've got him a coffee.

But you're you're not bothering to find out, how, you know, how you like your coffee, are you? We can't do that with god. We don't we don't we don't not listen and then say, well, we'll just worship him our way. He'll be fine with it. He likes 6 sugars when he says no sugar.

True faith is built on the cross of Christ. It's built on a relationship with a living god not on idols. When we put our faith in idols, in false gods, we will find that they will let us down. We will find that they will abandon us we will find that the lucky charm element doesn't work anymore, and it won't feel good. But a face in Jesus Christ and his death on a cross.

Taking the punishment for our sin, well, that is permanent. That lasts forever. That takes us to an eternity in heaven. Rescuing us from our sin, that's real power. It may not give us a comfortable life now.

In fact, as we've been looking all the way through, in our own eyes, our lives might not seem that good now. But we have eyes for another country. We have eyes for another kingdom. Which we're gonna which we guaranteed that we're gonna be in when we die. And that feels better than good, doesn't it?

A false religion, a homemade religion like Micah's. What it says is, look, I do my bit. I build a shrine. I make an idol. I come to church, you know, I stack chairs.

I do my bit and you god do yours. But the gospel says, we do our bit, and that is sin. And Jesus does everything else. Idles, false gods will abandon you. Jesus Christ will never let you go.

If we like homemade religion, if we want a priest in our pocket, if we want blessings from god, then underneath it all, What we're doing is trying to get access to god to get what we want. That's what false teachers, that's what false gods tap into in our nature all the time. Believe in me, they say, and you'll get what you want. But if you follow the god of the Bible, then you want access to god not to get what you want but so you can find out what he wants. Let's pray.

Further thank you that you are the 1 true god, help us prevent us from following idols from wanting a homemade religion that is a blend of you know, some Christianity and lots of other stuff that we put in. Prevent us from wanting a priest in our pocket, help us to learn to worship in the true way help us to listen to you that we will hear, your word, spoken truthfully and clearly that we won't seek to, blend in things that make, culturally, our religion more acceptable. Lord, we want to be, followers of you, We thank you that, through Jesus' death on the cross, our sin is forgiven, our sin is dealt with, We thank you that that's forever. We thank you that you don't need us to do things. To, achieve that that Jesus did it all.

Jesus, we praise you for that. Help us to be people who love you more, seek you more, follow you more, and, help us to put aside influences that even where we think, you know, sincerely this would be good. If it isn't a view, keep it from us. In Jesus' name, amen.