Dud gods (Part B)

They were just all by themselves. Sort of like the person that says, boy I wish I could just have 500 acres in Montana and just have a little Christian compound.

Well, eventually somebody's going to come mess with that compound. And that's not what we're called. We're not called to be hermits. Blessed are the hermits for what? There are no blessings with being an isolationist in Christ. There were no blessings for these people to be isolationists.

It's why they got picked off. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Judges.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Now here's Pastor Rick in Judges chapter 18 as he continues his message called, Dud Gods. Verse five, so they said to him, please inquire of God that we may know whether the journey on which we go will be prosperous. Well, they didn't have a problem with him being a chaplain for Micah and not being a Levite at Shiloh where the tabernacle was. That didn't bother them, no.

They only wanted a blessing. And not once do we find the question, what does the Lord want with us? No one in the last five chapters seems too interested in that.

We'll get to some of it in the next few, in the coming scenes, but not here. And God's morality, of course, would have been an issue for them. That will come out in the story because these men will steal the idols and the priest.

But many want a God lantern where God just exists to illuminate their glorious path while God does not rule over them. Verse six, and the priest said to them, go in peace the presence of Yahweh be with you on your way. So he pronounces a blessing on them.

The Lord bless you, my son. Who doesn't want to hear that? I mean, I had Chinese food for lunch and I got to my fortune cookie and I ate the cookie, but without a little fortune because we all know they're so accurate.

Anyway, mine says something good is going to happen to you in a moment. Well, who doesn't want to hear that? I mean, we would stop buying Chinese food if they told us the truth about things. So they just fed their carnality with his carnality. He worked for Micah and his idols, but not Yahweh, so he forfeited any right to speak on behalf of Yahweh, but he did not think so.

So telling them what they wanted to hear and they, of course, were happy with that. What if he would have rebuked them? Well, he couldn't. Later on when they steal the idols, what can he say? Thou shalt not steal. Well, they could counter with you shall not bow down to graven images.

So that's where his forfeiture lies. But, of course, that he tells them, God bless you, and they make it and eventually take the village of Laish or the city of, does not make him a prophet. Their victory was predictable.

They were spying out land that they could take. There was nothing spiritual about that, not in a righteous spiritual sense. If he was wrong and they died, they would have been too dead to complain.

So he was in a win-win spot. But even if it was prophetic, which it was not, and it came to pass, it would have been voided by God as being demonic because they broke with the Word of God. And that's all laid out in Deuteronomy 13 very clearly. God said, you're a prophet, and even if he tells you something and it happens, but he moves from the Word of God, then I'm testing you. I'm going to see what you do because I will honor my word over my name.

Pretty powerful. Verse 7, so the five men departed and went to Laish. They saw the people who were there, how they dwelt safely, and the manor of the Sidonians, quiet and secure. There were no rulers in the land who might put them to shame for anything. They were far from the Sidonians and they had no ties with anyone. Sounds like a hippie camp. Nobody was the boss. They would just live and not live.

And they really were just, everybody's happy. This is at close to the foot of the mountain Mount Hermon, the largest mountain over there and way north in Israel. It's in Naftali's allotment. So the tribe of Dan is moving into another tribe's territory. Naftali evidently did not get to it or bother with them. It's way north. At this time, it will be the northernmost settlement of the Jews.

Later on, Aijan will take that title, but for now, I know you needed to know that. Going home, you ponder it. But they saw the people who were there and how safe, how they dwelt safely. In other words, how careless they were.

The story brings that out. In the manner of the Sidonians, well they were likely a Sidonian colony that settled that area and they were probably lumberjacks. We get that from the days of Solomon where the Sidonians were especially skilled in harvesting timber. And so that's, we're not told outright what they were doing.

They had to do something and that may, that's some of the background from other parts of the scriptures that may help us or not. Quiet and secure. Secure, but not secured. I mean, I can take a valuable piece of artwork and I can put it in a chest on a ship and lock the chest and that piece of artwork is secure in that chest.

But if I don't secure it to the deck, as the roll and pitch of the ship take place, it may go overboard because I didn't secure it. And I hope you appreciate that. That was my first try too. I was, I'm not very creative in that department, those illustrations, but that one was pretty good I thought. And because I have humility I'd never tell you that. But anyway, all right, humor section of the sermon or attempts at it are over.

Back to business. They were secure in their thinking. A fool's paradise is what it was. They did not factor in sins of others coming and doing evil things. No rulers in the land, it says, who might put them to shame. Because they were isolationists, they had no relationships with other municipalities or other governments. They didn't, they couldn't, you know, call for help or anything. They were just all by themselves. Sort of like the person that says, boy I wish I could just have 500 acres in Montana and just have a little Christian compound.

Well eventually somebody's going to come mess with that compound. And just, and that's not what we're called, we're not called to be hermits. Blessed are the hermits for, for what? There are no blessings with being an isolationist in Christ. There were no blessings for these people to be isolationists.

It's why they got picked off. So it says here no rulers, they were far from the Sidonians and they had no ties with anyone. All alone way up north at the headwaters of the Jordan. This is one of the stops on a tour in Israel. This Danite settlement.

And it's very nice. It's a lush area to the north in Israel. As you go south it turns desert eventually. But the city is still there. Well the skeleton of it is still there. You can walk around it and the city gate is still there and little benches where they would sit. Still there to this day.

It's very, it's one of my favorite spots. And there was this pizza parlor in Jerusalem that I just love so much. But that's another story. Anyhow we move on to verse 8. Then the spies came back to their brethren at Zorah, Estol. And their brethren said to them, what is your report? So they said, arise, let us go up against them for we have seen the land and indeed it is very good. Would you do nothing? Do not hesitate to go and enter to possess the land. So they come back with their report and the elders say, well what happened? Jackpot! We found a place about 100 miles from here.

Not waterfront, but it's Mount Hermon view, you know, it's like the Grand Tetons out there. So when he says, would you do nothing? I said, come on, you sent us up there to spy out this land? Let's take it. Don't waste any time.

Now is the time to strike. We can understand Dan's failure to subdue their territory. We cannot understand their refusal to seek Yahweh and giving up on Yahweh like they did. Verse 10, when you go you will come to a secure people and a large land for God has given it into your hands, a place where there is no lack of anything that is on earth. Well they're pouring it on thick, they're just selling it. Instead of saying there are no Philistines and Amorites there and we can make a living, they're like, there's no place like this on earth. That's a bit much.

It's nice up there, but you know, it's not Maui. Anyway, verse 11, and 600 men of the family of the Danites went from there from Zorah, Estol, armed with weapons of war. So these boys mean business. Verse 10 sounds like the spies were saying, okay, you guys go get it.

We did our job. But no, they're in the group, the 600. This is about the size of two rifle companies.

It's not a big force. Two infantry rifle companies, and so not an invasion force. Verse 12, then they went up and encamped at Kirjathjirim in Judah. Therefore they call that place Mahanei Dan to this day.

There it is, west of Kirjathjirim. They were fond of naming places after events all over Israel. So these thousand people or so, as they're making their way from Dan's territory, they're going through, cutting through Judah's territory. And so they camp for a few days as they've got women and children and livestock. And they evidently stayed there long enough to become a landmark of sorts. And this also indicates that it took place before Samson's day because the name comes up as though it had been around already when we were reading the story of Samson. Verse 13, and they passed from there to the mountains of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah. Now again, these five spies, they've been here before. Verse 14, then the five men who had gone to spy out the country of Laish answered and said to their brethren, do you know that there are in these houses an ephod, household idols, a carved image, a molded image? Now therefore consider what you should do.

So they're little instigators. We've spied out the land of Laish but we also spied out Micah's place. And let me tell you what's in it.

It's got this list. He pulls out a list like, and there's a lot of goodies in here. There's 30 pieces of silver, what was it, 200 pieces of silver I think went into making his main idol, his principal idol. And so he's saying to them, what are you going to do with knowing all of this? Micah does not know that they're always after his lucky charms. But verse 15, so, so they turned aside there and came to the house of the young Levite man to the house of Micah and greeted him. If God exists, of course, to serve your purposes, then you have de-emphasized God's morality, his law, because God serves you now. And at best, you know, the prosperity movement for instance, if you want God to bless you materialistically, then you have to love somebody, you have to love people. That's why you obey any of the Bible, so God can give you stuff. And this kind of mad thinking belonged to these folks also. Verse 16, the 600 men armed with weapons of war, who were of the children of Dan, stood by the entrance of the gate. Then the five men who had gone to spy out the land, verse 17 went up, entering there, they took the carved image, the ephod, the household idols, and the molded image, the priest stood at the entrance of the gate with the 600 men who were armed with weapons of war. I mean, you can't read the molded image without saying to yourself, I wouldn't want to touch that one, it was molded.

All right, well. So they steal the religious items to declare that they themselves are religious. This is madness, this is that deranged spirituality, it just keeps going. It's more important to lay possession of spiritual things than it is to obey them. Obedience is not as important, it's more important to know the Bible than to heed the Bible.

That's the kind of thinking these guys are guilty of. Holiness and righteousness meant nothing to them. What mattered was man's will, God was reduced to their mascot. And sin via superstition and twisted reason just simply worked to justify what they were doing and you just look at the story and say, I mean, how do you do this? How do you steal a Bible and go read it and singing praises to the Lord? Years ago in the Calvary Movement there were, there were these folks that were very much involved with smuggling Bibles into China, communist China. And they would tell stories of the pastors bowing to pray and then when they looked up their Bible was gone. Someone stole it because they were so desperate for the word of God.

Well, that doesn't justify it. That's not how you do it. Well, we have the luxury of the scripture and all of this. I don't know whatever happened if a person gets converted and said, now I got to return the Bible to the guy. And then it would happen again.

I don't know. But it just made me think of that. And in those days when I heard the story about the people stealing Bibles, what do you do with that?

Well, you put yourself in their place to start and not be so judgmental. But also not excusing the sin. Anyway, entering there, they took the carved image, the ephod, the household idols, and that moldy image.

No fear of consequence for stealing again. You know, what could anybody say in the land? What could Micah? Micah couldn't even say, hey, thou shalt not steal because thou shalt not make these graven images either. So if all this religious gear could not protect Micah from this band of temple raiders, what would make the temple raiders think that all this religious gear would protect them on the battlefield or anywhere else? So the madness of it all, the spiritual derangement since the days of Cain.

And it will be that way till the end of the millennial age when God wipes out those who dare to join against his people. A man without God. Here seeking damaged gods, damaged goods to pay for what? I mean, why? Where's the logic in it?

It is none. And that's what sin does. Sin steals logic from us. It stops us from making sense.

We get in the fog. Verse 18, when these went into Micah's house and took the carved image, the ephod, the household idols, and the moldy image. I'm going to say it that way because that's what it is. The priest said to them, what are you doing?

Well, the obvious answer is we're ripping you off. I mean, that's just saying, where's your discernment now? Nothing noble in his challenge.

No rebuke. He knew what they were doing. That's, you know, but anyway, he's compromised. And the prophets deal with this throughout. Isaiah hammers this. The Psalms go at it, stealing gods that cannot keep themselves from being stolen from idol nappers. And that's what they are. They napped their idols.

Not nap, but napped. Verse 19, and they said to him, be quiet. Put your hand over your mouth and come with us. Be a father and a priest to us.

Is it better for you to be a priest to the household of one man or that you be a priest to a tribe and a family in Israel? Well, there's a lot of, it's almost comical. They said to him, be quiet and put your hand over your mouth. And then they asked him a question to which he has to go, because then nobody can hear. So, rather forceful, an unfortunate outcome. This is what God, how God told the priest Ezekiel to deal with mean people. Ezekiel chapter 3, verse 9, behold, I have made your face strong against their faces and your forehead strong against their foreheads.

God says they want to butt heads with you, they're going to lose. Like Adam and Stone, harder than flint. And incidentally, Ezekiel, your head's pretty hard.

That's me. Like Adam and Stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead. Do not be afraid of them, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house. You see that when he adds that though they are a rebellious house, he's saying these people aren't, they're mean. They're nasty people.

They can hurt you. But I've got you here. And we get none of that from this Levite, because he's totally sold out a long time ago. Had he been a man of God in Israel at this time, been like Elijah. If I'm a man of God, let fire come from heaven.

And you had singed britches all over the place. He says then come with us and be a father and a priest to us. So shut up and come be our spiritual leader. It's just madness. Now they're going to actually reason through this madness. Better for you to be a priest to the household of one man, or that you be a priest to a tribe and a family in Israel.

That's their logic. Anyway, verse 20. So the priest's heart was glad. And he took the ephod, the household idols, the carved images, and took his, well they left out the moldy thing. But anyway, and took his place amongst the people. So whoever witnessed this or preserved it, the priest said you know this is a good deal. And because they had already peeped him out that he was for sale, they bought him.

And it's amazing how easily we can do wrong when we have no allegiance, when we're not loyal. He wasn't loyal to God. He took the ephod, it said, the household idols, the carved images, etc.

Yep, he did. He was the one carrying these idols. Man carrying and protecting their appointed gods rather than God carrying them, protecting them. Micah, many centuries later, comes along and he has to deal with the corrupted priest. And he writes this in the second chapter of his book. For the lips of a priest should keep knowledge.

The people should seek law from his mouth. For he is the messenger of Yahweh of hosts. Now remember, we're a royal priesthood. That applies to us.

It should keep knowledge. He's a messenger for Yahweh of hosts, not this guy. He is an idol tier. It's like a puppeteer, not a musketeer, but he's an idol tier.

He's just, you know, into idols. As a witch would wave her wand, he would go to his little figurines. Sad story. Verse 21.

Well, let me pause. You know, we see, we see some today in the garb of holiness, the robes, the sashes, the hats, the necklaces, medallions, and they don't care anything about God's word. People kiss their hands and send them money and come to them and tell them what their sins are. But the Bible, the word of God, is nowhere to be found.

Not seriously. Verse 21. Then they turned and departed and put the little ones in livestock and the goods in front of them. Well, why did they do that?

Well, because Micah finds his idols are gone, he's going to rally the village people. And they're going to chase them. And so rather than having the, you know, the people in the rear picked off, they're going to be back there waiting for them because they're anticipating this.

And that is exactly what happened. So they're the rear guard. They did not know. They weren't that large of a force anyway. They didn't know what Micah would bring at them. So they decided they were going to be in force in the rear. Verse 22.

It doesn't tell you. I'm going to pause here. I've envisioned them on horses. I just can't see walking all over the place, all those hills in Israel, all the time, you know. And camels, as silly looking as they are. Maybe some of you think camels are cute.

But, you know, they're hard to ride. Just watching. Have you ever seen Lawrence of Arabia? I mean, I don't want one.

So I don't know. I just envision them on horses with six guns. Verse 22. When they were a good way from the house Micah, from the house of Micah, the men who were in the houses near Micah's house gathered together and overtook the children of Dan. See, I just can't see them running and catching them.

They had to be on horses. I just wish the Bible would tell us more like that. Not a complaint. So it catches up to those who stole his gods. Idle hands are the tools of the devil.

Not idle, but idle. Thanks for tuning in to Cross-Reference Radio for this study in the book of Judges. Cross-Reference Radio is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia. If you'd like more information about this ministry, we invite you to visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. You'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick available there and we encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. By doing so, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross-Reference Radio. You can search for Cross-Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app or just follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. That's all the time we have for today. Join us next time to continue learning more from the book of Judges right here on Cross-Reference Radio.