As we finish up the book of Judges we will continue to see the
bizarre behavior sin brings into the minds of those that follow it. Many miss
the incredible lessons at the end of this book. However, I have found it to be
quite a schooling on the way sin perverts our thoughts…not only trying to
rationalize what we know is wrong, but justify our actions.
Just to review, in Chapter 17 we have the story of Micah, his
idolatry and the story of how he “hired” a Levite to be his personal priest!
Sounds like a Jewish fable, because any God fearing Jew would never justify
such behavior. Sadly, this is where sin had taken the nation of Israel. Now a
whole tribe is going to get into this mix and we can learn many lessons if we
are open to them.
Judges 18:1-2 In
those days there was no king of Israel; and in those days the tribe of the
Danites was seeking an inheritance for themselves to live in, for until that
day an inheritance had not been allotted to them as a possession among the
tribes of Israel. So the sons of Dan sent from their family five men out of
their whole number, valiant men from Zorah and Eshtaol, to spy out the land and
to search it; and they said to them, “Go, search the land.” And they came to
the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there.
In this small section of Scripture a great lesson about faith
is seen. Scripture states that the Danites were still “seeking”
their inheritance. For some reason this tribe had not understood that God never
said that any of Israel had to seek or earn their inheritance. This is a real
problem for we fallen humans. I heard a man say recently, “we
spend too much time living in the wilderness, instead of enjoying our
inheritance!”
I understand that life will include trials and troubles, but
his point is a well founded one. Whatever God has promised we need to by faith
live in that promise. First, let’s understand Dan’s dilemma then we will
look at possible applications for ourselves. Two Scriptures shed a good deal of
light on this matter.
Joshua 19:40–47 The
seventh allotment of land went to the clans of the tribe of Dan. The land
allocated as their homeland included the following towns: Zorah, Eshtaol,
Ir-shemesh, Shaalabbin, Aijalon, Ithlah, Elon, Timnah,
Ekron, Eltekeh, Gibbethon, Baalath, Jehud, Bene-berak, Gath-rimmon, Me-jarkon,
Rakkon, and the territory across from Joppa. But the tribe of Dan had trouble
taking possession of their land, so they attacked the town of Laish. They
captured it, slaughtered its people, and settled there. They renamed the town
Dan after their ancestor.
It is important to remember several issues here: First, God made it clear
that He was using Israel to judge the countries in this region that did all
kinds of unspeakable evil. Second, God gave them the land, He told them it was
theirs and to just go get it. He did not say it would be without effort. However, it belonged to Israel!
Why
did Dan have trouble? I don’t know, perhaps God was trying to produce
perseverance of Character, or maybe Dan continued to live in sin, which impacts
our faith. The point here is that instead of believing and trusting in God’s
word for the land He gave them, they quit and took over a land that was not
their inheritance. Also from another Scripture we see this:
Judges 1:34 The Amorites confined the Danites to the hill country, not
allowing them to come down into the plain.
God stated emphatically that if Israel would just trust Him no army
would be able to stand against them. However in Judges 1 we see a list of
tribes that failed to obey all the way, one of those was the Tribe of Dan. A
very important component of faith is obedience. What we see in Judges 1 is the
end of their faith…which results in “no power.”
It gets worse as we will see and we dig deeper into this
chapter, but let’s stop here and consider our own walk. God has promised all
those that enter into a relationship with Him many things, but I wonder how
many enjoy that inheritance or how many find themselves constantly in the
wilderness?
For example: God has promised that in the end we will
experience victory, and that He will work everything in our life for good. Yet,
so many children of God fret over so many things in this life. From not having
the latest technology, to worrying about money, future job, family, etc.
I have
met so many that are so anxious about health insurance that they insure
themselves of bad health! Yes, our journey will require faith and dealing with
the unknown, but when we know in the end we will all be with God, the enemy
will be gone and time won’t matter anymore because we have moved
into eternity, that reality should always bring the balance of our inheritance
into the wilderness we are in at the moment.
Meditation: Is the majority of your life full of the joy of
having God’s peace and the assurance of His presence, or are
you drowning in fear over finances, medical concerns, political upheavals,
etc.? Learn to rest in Him, He wants you to enjoy your journey to Him!
