Judges 18:1-31
1 In those days there was no king in Israel: and in those days the tribe of the Danites sought them an inheritance to dwell in; for unto that day all their inheritance had not fallen unto them among the tribes of Israel.
2 And the children of Dan sent of their family five men from their coasts, men of valour, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land, and to search it; and they said unto them, Go, search the land: who when they came to mount Ephraim, to the house of Micah, they lodged there.
3 When they were by the house of Micah, they knew the voice of the young man the Levite: and they turned in thither, and said unto him, Who brought thee hither? and what makest thou in this place? and what hast thou here?
4 And he said unto them, Thus and thus dealeth Micah with me, and hath hired me, and I am his priest.
5 And they said unto him, Ask counsel, we pray thee, of God, that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous.
6 And the priest said unto them, Go in peace: before the LORD is your way wherein ye go.
7 Then the five men departed, and came to Laish,a and saw the people that were therein, how they dwelt careless, after the manner of the Zidonians, quiet and secure; and there was no magistrate in the land, that might put them to shame in any thing; and they were far from the Zidonians, and had no business with any man.
8 And they came unto their brethren to Zorah and Eshtaol: and their brethren said unto them, What say ye?
9 And they said, Arise, that we may go up against them: for we have seen the land, and, behold, it is very good: and are ye still? be not slothful to go, and to enter to possess the land.
10 When ye go, ye shall come unto a people secure, and to a large land: for God hath given it into your hands; a place where there is no want of any thing that is in the earth.
11 And there went from thence of the family of the Danites, out of Zorah and out of Eshtaol, six hundred men appointedb with weapons of war.
12 And they went up, and pitched in Kirjathjearim, in Judah: wherefore they called that place Mahanehdan unto this day: behold, it is behind Kirjathjearim.
13 And they passed thence unto mount Ephraim, and came unto the house of Micah.
14 Then answered the five men that went to spy out the country of Laish, and said unto their brethren, Do ye know that there is in these houses an ephod, and teraphim, and a graven image, and a molten image? now therefore consider what ye have to do.
15 And they turned thitherward, and came to the house of the young man the Levite, even unto the house of Micah, and salutedc him.
16 And the six hundred men appointed with their weapons of war, which were of the children of Dan, stood by the entering of the gate.
17 And the five men that went to spy out the land went up, and came in thither, and took the graven image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image: and the priest stood in the entering of the gate with the six hundred men that were appointed with weapons of war.
18 And these went into Micah's house, and fetched the carved image, the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image. Then said the priest unto them, What do ye?
19 And they said unto him, Hold thy peace, lay thine hand upon thy mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest: is it better for thee to be a priest unto the house of one man, or that thou be a priest unto a tribe and a family in Israel?
20 And the priest's heart was glad, and he took the ephod, and the teraphim, and the graven image, and went in the midst of the people.
21 So they turned and departed, and put the little ones and the cattle and the carriage before them.
22 And when they were a good way from the house of Micah, the men that were in the houses near to Micah's house were gathered together, and overtook the children of Dan.
23 And they cried unto the children of Dan. And they turned their faces, and said unto Micah, What aileth thee, that thou comest with such a company?
24 And he said, Ye have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and ye are gone away: and what have I more? and what is this that ye say unto me, What aileth thee?
25 And the children of Dan said unto him, Let not thy voice be heard among us, lest angryd fellows run upon thee, and thou lose thy life, with the lives of thy household.
26 And the children of Dan went their way: and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back unto his house.
27 And they took the things which Micah had made, and the priest which he had, and came unto Laish, unto a people that were at quiet and secure: and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and burnt the city with fire.
28 And there was no deliverer, because it was far from Zidon, and they had no business with any man; and it was in the valley that lieth by Bethrehob. And they built a city, and dwelt therein.
29 And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born unto Israel: howbeit the name of the city was Laish at the first.
30 And the children of Dan set up the graven image: and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land.
31 And they set them up Micah's graven image, which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh.
Now that is setting the stage for the rest of this story. You got now this Levite, young kid from Bethlehem as a professional religious priest, personal priest of Micah in his house.
Now, in those days there was no king in Israel: and the tribe of the Danites sought an inheritance to dwell in (Judges 18:1);
For they were unable to drive the Philistines out of that territory of Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gaza and that beautiful valley area. And they were only, at this point, occupied a small little territory, oh, twenty miles from Jerusalem, fifteen miles from Jerusalem towards Tel Aviv, the little valley of Eshcol. But this whole territory was still occupied by the Philistines and they couldn't drive them out and so they were beginning to look for another place to live. And so they sent out six men to sort of look out over the whole country to see if there isn't another place that they might move that the tribe of Dan might inhabit in order that they can have more territory for farming and all because that area that they had taken just wasn't sufficient for their needs.
And so these men started north and they came to Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and they stayed there. And when they were by thou house of Micah, they knew the voice of the young man the Levite: and so they turned in, they said unto him, What brought you here? And how much are you making in this place? And what are you doing? And he said unto them, Well, I came to Micah, and he needed a priest, so he hired me [and he gives me ten shekels of silver a year, a new suit, all my food], and I'm his priest. And they said, Well ask counsel of God, for us, that we might know whether we're gonna be prosperous in our search. And so the priest said unto them, Go in peace: before the LORD is our way wherein you go (Judges 18:2-6).
In other words, go in peace God is going before you and He's gonna prosper you in your way.
So the five men departed, and they came to Laish, and they saw the people that were there, how they dwelt carelessly, after the manner of the Zidonians, they were quiet and they were secure; and there was no magistrate in the land, that might put them to shame for any thing; and they were far from the Zidonians, and had no business with any man (Judges 18:7).
So they found the city of people there in Laish and the people were just really living very carelessly. They didn't have business or trade with anybody else. They were a long way from Zidon, actually, they were clear over the Lebanese mountain range from Zidon and they were isolated and really they looked to be an easy prey.
Now they dwelt in a beautiful section of land. Right past the city there flowed the Jordan River and it was near the headwaters of Jordan. So there was no water pollution, the water was clear; it's great and there's good farming territory around there and it's just a beautiful valley, fertile valley.
And they said, "Wow, look at this, you know, be nice to live up here." So they came back to their tribe and they described the place that they had found; it's beauty and its advantages. Ah, there's plenty of water, good area to live and all and it's beautiful, and it really is. It's one of the most beautiful places in Israel.
And so they sent back an army of six hundred men in order to take this city. And so when they came back to the mount of Ephraim, they came back again to this priest. And these fellows went in and they said, "Hey fellow, look we need a priest, our tribe. Wouldn't it be better for you to be a priest over a whole tribe than a priest in just one family? We'd give you a better salary."
So the young man went with them but he ripped off the little idols and all that were there and took them with him. And so when Micah came home he found that the idols had been ripped off, the priest was gone, and so some of his neighbors gathered together and they were having big conflict and said, "Well they went that direction." And so Micah went chasing after them. And these guys are six hundred tough guys heading off for war.
And Micah came up, said, "Hey, what's the big idea ripping me off, taking away my priest and taking away my silver idols?" and so forth and he was really laying it on them.
And they said, "Hey man, looking for trouble? You might as well, you better go home, there's no sense getting hurt." And so he looked around and saw all these guys with their swords and everything else and so he decided to go home. Wisdom the better part of valor.
And so they went up with this young man and they came to Laish and they captured it. They destroyed the inhabitants and the tribe of Dan, a good portion of them, moved on up and inhabited the upper part of this Hula Valley where the headwaters of the Jordan River come out from Mount Hermon. And thus, that became the territory of the tribe of Dan and the city was called Dan, and the river itself was named Jordan or "out of Dan," because there is the headwaters of the Jordan River and it comes out of Dan. And so that river became named Jordan, "out of Dan."
So that is just one of the little stories that is told here. And the second story that gives us an insight to the confusion that existed, both civil and religious, during this particular time has to do with a story of a man who was a Levite. "