Judges 18 LIVING WITHOUT LAWS Seeking to live a normal life without unchanging standards to give guidelines to control a society, a family and a church leaves a vacuum and leads to chaos. Disrespect for each other, an ungodly pursuit of self- interest and hard-hearted demands instead of love ultimately makes life miserable for everyone. Self-interest leads to moral decline and depravity. Moral depravity leads to biting and devouring one another until we turn on our own people. "Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." At the end of such a downward cycle is regret, remorse and deep, deep sadness. The last part of the book of Judges demonstrates this fact.
The tribe of Dan had been designated land in Joshua's day and it was sufficient for them. However, they did not trust God to help them conquer the area He intended for them, so the Amorites drove them into the hills and kept the fertile valleys for themselves. Consequently, some men of Dan went north looking for a place they could take for themselves where they wouldn't meet with much resistance. Laish wasn't part of the land God promised but was an area the Danites thought they could easily conquer. The five men who stopped for the night at Micah's house recognized the accent of the young Levite who was the man-made priest. A child of God may get a long way from fellowship with God and His people where he pursues self-interest, but there are usually signs and words that he cannot hide even though he lives with a guilty conscience in his backslidden condition.
The young Levite "priest" was disobedient because God's laws are not changeable but he did things his way. He was carrying out priestly duties in a private house instead of at the tabernacle in a designated city. Father's need to realize they are the ones responsible for their families both temporally and spiritually. The priest was disobedient because there were idols, both carved and cast that were linked with his priestly service. There was an ephod that was there for him to put on that was made by a man's own imagination; a garment made of a glorious color and decked with all kinds of things of beauty. Idols may be impressive carved works like crosses, saints or other dead people, and the castings of metal may produce statues and images before which people are inclined to bow, but all of it is wrong. A man may do like the Levite who claimed to speak to God when he does not, and may get away without any immediate consequences. One has well said, "God does not always settle accounts in October."
People often attend church services as a place to interface with other people for a wide variety of reasons. Some "like the music" and the atmosphere of a church service is entertaining to them. Some go to relieve a sense of guilt for things done and hope by being there God will not make them reap what they have sown. Others go for business purposes so they can make connections to buy and sell. Others may go because they are lonely and want friends. Other go to churches to ask for money because Christians are usually willing to give some financial aid. Other people go to learn a language in its purest form. The Lord Jesus Christ told a woman that they "who worship the Father must worship Him in Spirit and in truth."
The ephod, the idols and the priest were all that Micah had. He was without God, without anything that spoke of Christ, without any hope of acceptance by God through the efforts he made. Neither he, the Levite- priest, nor the Danites took God into consideration. They just wanted God for selfish gains. Nothing the world has to offer of any kind: religious, business, social or entertainment will fill the spiritual void people have when God is left out. Micah's home life was without God. The Levites religious life had no regard for God's laws. The Danites quest for land was apart from divine guidance. Any of us can get very far away from God when we forget who we are and ignore the claims of God on us. God does not guide us to do wrong. Personal success, wealth, popularity and good health are not necessarily indications of God's blessing. The resemblance of worship by mans definition doesn't mean it is true worship. Godliness is not just a claim we make. It is seen in our motives as well as our actions.
The children of Dan chose the easy way and got so far away from Shiloh that it was easy for them to not go to the place where the Lord had placed His name. The people of God were to meet the Lord in the way He chose and the place of His choosing. There was no king in Israel, no recognized authority of men, and they had rejected God's provision by refusing to take it for themselves. So, the Danites on their own, butchered an unsuspecting people and changed Laish to Dan. On the way there earlier, the five spies who had passed Micah's house, told the six hundred soldiers with them of a ready-made ephod, carved and cast idols, and a priest who could be bought with money. Lawlessness has a tendency to blind us to our own faults and vulnerability, and will lead us to disregard others.
Disregard for others takes us farther away so that we may be willing to use spiritual talk to work a deal for our advantage. From there we will dismiss righteousness by justifying shady dealing as "good business." The results will probably be the destruction of personal testimony, despising of Christian testimony in general, and an on-going pattern of disobedience to God. What seems to us as harmless habits at first can soon dominate our values. Deteriorating values lead to wrong attitudes and practices in life until we find ourselves in bandage to what we knew was wrong. Living without laws and unchanging standards designated by a righteous, holy and just God. leave people without guidance in life and hope in the future.
"Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven." "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever."