No King in Israel (40)

Others have noted Judges does not recount certain events in chronological order. The story in chapters 17 and 18 appears to have taken place after the death of Samson during a period in which Israel had no named judge, maintaining a more-or-less linear march through time to this point in the book. However, it’s evident the final three chapters (19-21) actually took place quite a bit earlier and probably find their place at the end of the book for theological, dramatic and/or thematic reasons.

Historically speaking, chapter 18 concludes Judges.

As with many of the other stories in the book, the Spirit of God has not elected to editorialize a great deal in this one. For the most part, we are getting a straightforward historical retelling with little spiritual commentary. If we want to moralize, we will have to compare what people actually did with what Moses had commanded them.

From beginning to end, we will see that they fell sadly short.

III. Two Historical Vignettes from the Period (continued)

a. Micah and the Danites (continued)

Judges 18:1-7 — A Scouting Party

“In those days there was no king in Israel. And in those days the tribe of the people of Dan was seeking for itself an inheritance to dwell in, for until then no inheritance among the tribes of Israel had fallen to them. So the people of Dan sent five able men from the whole number of their tribe, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land and to explore it. And they said to them, ‘Go and explore the land.’ And they came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there. When they were by the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young Levite. And they turned aside and said to him, ‘Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What is your business here?’ And he said to them, ‘This is how Micah dealt with me: he has hired me, and I have become his priest.’ And they said to him, ‘Inquire of God, please, that we may know whether the journey on which we are setting out will succeed.’ And the priest said to them, ‘Go in peace. The journey on which you go is under the eye of the Lord.’

Then the five men departed and came to Laish and saw the people who were there, how they lived in security, after the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and unsuspecting, lacking nothing that is in the earth and possessing wealth, and how they were far from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone.”

The closest we come to commentary with spiritual implications is this repeated statement that “there was no king in Israel”. The point is that God’s people were out of control, lacking moral direction or any consistent enforcement of the law with which Moses had entrusted them. This is where Dan’s story begins, and we need to read it with that in mind.

No Inheritance Had Fallen

The tribe of Dan was seeking an inheritance. When it says, “no inheritance among the tribes of Israel had fallen to them”, we ought not to think that Joshua had somehow overlooked Dan when dividing the conquered territory in Canaan. That is not what happened. In fact, Dan got the seventh lot cast for territory and received its inheritance bordering Judah on the south, including the cities of Zorah and Eshtaol mentioned in this chapter, the area from which Samson hailed.

Dan’s problem was that they failed to hold their assigned territory, as recorded in the first chapter of Judges: “The Amorites pressed the people of Dan back into the hill country, for they did not allow them to come down to the plain.” Again, Joshua says, “the territory of the people of Dan was lost to them”. This must have taken place post-Samson, and it presented a crisis for the tribe.

So then, Dan’s problem was not God’s lack of provision but their own failure to execute the mission they had received. Like other tribes, but perhaps even more so, the people of Dan simply failed to deliver.

Easier Pickings

Having given up on occupying the territory assigned to them, the tribe of Dan decided to look for easier pickings. They sent out five men to find them a suitable place to relocate. Those men traveled north through the territory of Ephraim. Verse 7 tells us they found their objective in Laish, a city the book of Joshua calls Leshem.

Laish was well north of then-current Israelite tribal settlements. By the time of 2 Samuel, the valley in which it lay was actually Syrian territory. Laish was not part of Israel’s conquest mandate from God, and certainly no part of Dan’s. The land where this city was situated was isolated and desirable, and the men of Laish lacked allies. It’s handy to find a people who have no dealings with anyone else. Not only are they not likely to get any help defending themselves from attackers, but they will also have nobody interested in avenging them after they’re gone. Singling out Laish was a cowardly move, vindicating Jacob’s dying assessment of Dan as “a viper by the path”, one who takes his enemies by treachery.

They Recognized the Voice

On the way to Laish, the five Danite scouts stopped and lodged at the house of Micah. The text says they recognized the voice of the young Levite. It’s not immediately apparent how, since the Levite came from Bethlehem in Judah, not Dan, though the two regions are no more than a day’s walk or so apart. It’s possible (though awfully coincidental) that the Danites had actually encountered this young man previously. More likely, they simply noticed he lacked the distinctive Ephraimite accent mentioned in the story of Jephthah, and recognized him as a man out of place.

The Eyes Have It

Acknowledging he was a priest, they asked him to inquire of God on their behalf, and he told them something pious and reassuring that was really no more than a generic bromide. In reality, everyone everywhere is under the eye of the Lord, as Proverbs teaches. Scripture says there is nothing God does not see, whether it’s the evil of Ahab or the righteousness of Asa. Whether the Lord approves of your actions and blesses them is rather a different story. That, of course, was the issue in this case.

Judges 18:8-10 — The Report

“And when they came to their brothers at Zorah and Eshtaol, their brothers said to them, ‘What do you report?’ They said, ‘Arise, and let us go up against them, for we have seen the land, and behold, it is very good. And will you do nothing? Do not be slow to go, to enter in and possess the land. As soon as you go, you will come to an unsuspecting people. The land is spacious, for God has given it into your hands, a place where there is no lack of anything that is in the earth.’ ”

The five scouts (or spies, if we are going to be frank) then returned to the cities of their tribe with the good news that they had found a suitable spot to relocate. The claim “God has given it into your hands” sounds like a convenient way of whitewashing consciences that might be troubled by words like “murderous assault” or “invasion”. If God is with you, you don’t need to creep up on people unsuspecting. The appeal of Laish was that its people were quiet, wealthy, unaided and, well, easy to kill. The motive was no godlier than that.

Laish was also not the territory God gave Dan. It was a shortcut to minimal success for a tribe that had done nothing to merit it. God gave Dan more than seventeen cities in the middle of their Israelite brethren, closer than most to the eventual home of the temple in Jerusalem. Instead, they went almost sixty miles north to take a single city and its surrounding land.

Judges 18:11-13 — An Action Plan

“So 600 men of the tribe of Dan, armed with weapons of war, set out from Zorah and Eshtaol, and went up and encamped at Kiriath-jearim in Judah. On this account that place is called Mahaneh-dan to this day; behold, it is west of Kiriath-jearim. And they passed on from there to the hill country of Ephraim, and came to the house of Micah.”

Six hundred armed men from Dan now traveled north with conquest on their minds. The disruption as they passed through Judah was evidently sufficient that the area where they camped received a name reflecting the event. (Mahaneh-dan means “camp of Dan”.) When the writer says the place they stayed was called Mahaneh-dan to this day, “this day” means hundreds of years later when the book of Judges was finalized. The relocation of Dan to the north had a permanent impact on Israel’s history, not to mention Dan’s.

From Judah, the Danite army traveled north to Ephraim, where Micah’s house provided a convenient place for a brief stop. From there, the story turns uglier still.