1 Samuel 9-10

1 Samuel 9-10

Scripture Thought (What I Learned):

Chapter 9: Saul to be King

                In the last chapter we learned that Israel wanted a King and even though Samuel was unhappy with their choice, the Lord gave his consent to their request. God goes in to see Samuel and tells him that he will be meeting the new King. The Lord tells him that at about the same day tomorrow he will send a man to cross his paths that will come from the land of Benjamin. The Lord tells Samuel to anoint him as the king and leader over his people. Telling Samuel that this man will deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines.

                Samuel begins to prepare a feast for this even and had a cook reserve a special piece of meat just for this new king that he will be meeting soon. The man who comes is named Saul and he is a Benjamite, who was a very impressive young man.

                Donkeys belonging to Saul's father get out a are lost, so Saul and as servant set out to look for them. They spend a very long time searching for them and they don't find any of them. Saul is ready to give up, because he is worried that his father will stop worrying about the donkeys and start to worry about him and the servant. But the servant convinces Saul to keep up the search and even decide to go see a "man of God" to see if he can help. This "man of God" is Samuel and it is interesting how the Lord works. He seems to be able to put two things together to make one thing happen.

                Saul and the servant get to the town and come across some girls who are drawing water for the well, they tell him where to find the "man of God" and that he must hurry to catch up to him before they have the big feast and sacrifice that was planned at the beginning of the chapter. Saul meets up with Samuel and finds out that Samuel is indeed the "man of God" or Seer and at the same time Samuel gets spiritual confirmation that he is speaking to Saul, the new king.

                Samuel invites Saul and his servant to the feast and Saul gets his special piece of meat and then him and Samuel speak on his roof all night.

Chapter 10: Saul Prophesies

                Samuel takes a vial of oil and pours it upon the head of Saul, anointing him as the captain of the Lord's inheritance.

                Saul is given another heart by God, or in other words he is "spiritually reborn". He prophesies among the prophets and is chosen as king over Mizpeh.

1 Samuel 7-8

1 Samuel 7-8

Scripture Thought (What I Learned):

Chapter 7: Put Away False gods

                So we know that the men took the Ark to Kirijath-jearim to be safe. The Ark rested there for a space of more than 25 years, before the people of Israel began to fall into darkness. Samuel goes before the people and exhorts them to return to the Lord and put away the false gods of Ashtaroth. So the children of Israel put away both Ashtaroth and Baalim the false gods and served only the Lord God.

                Samuel gathers all of Israel to Mizpeh where he prays to God on their behalf, while there in Mizpeh the children of Israel fast. The Philistines find out that Israel is gathered in Mizpeh and sends an army to destroy them. The Israelites see them approaching and get worried, so Samuel sacrifices a lamb unto God and God causes thundering to scare the Philistines away. Samuel becomes a judge over Israel.

Chapter 8: Evils of Kings

                Samuel's sons do evil and take bribes and pervert the Judgment in the land of Israel. Israel seeks a king to rule over them, Samuel tells Israel of the evils of having a king. How they can take power too far. But the Lord gives his consent to them having a king, if they really want one.

1 Samuel 5-6

1 Samuel 5-6

Scripture Thought (What I Learned):

Chapter 5: The Ark in the House of Dagon

                The Philistines took the Ark of the Covenant and placed it in the House of Dagon, who was their god, next to the statue of Dagon.

The next morning they come in to find that Dagon has fallen off its stand and is lying on the floor face first. So they place Dagon back and the next morning they again find the statue of Dagon out of place, but this time the palms of his hands were cut off and his head were cut off. Only a stump of Dagon was left. So they take the Ark of the Covenant away from Ashdod to Gath and then finally to Ekron, everywhere it went there was destruction and plagues.

Chapter 6: Don't Look into the Ark of God

                The Philistines decide it is time to get rid of the Ark of the Covenant, because it has caused nothing but trouble amongst them. They decide that even though this belongs to a "god" (The Lord God) that they don't believe in, they start to show a little respect for this "god" which is the Lord God, because of the great power God has. So they call all of their priests together and decide how to return the Ark properly.

                The Priests decide that it should go back to the Israelites in the following way:

·         It should not come back empty. It needs to have a Trespass Offering with it

·         The Offering is to be sent with a set of golden tumours and rats, representing the plague that was sent among them.

·         Because the plagues hit the normal people of Philistines and the Leaders they send one golden tumour and rat for each leader (5 in all)

·         They load up all of this into a cart and yoke two cows to it. The two cows are to be set free; if the cows head to Israel then the Philistines will know that it was the Lord who did all of this, and if they don't head towards Israel the Philistines will know that it was all by chance that the Ark caused some much devastation.

                The cows, once set free go straight for Israel without turning right of left. When the cows come in among Israel they rejoice and chop up the cart and sacrifice the cows as burnt offerings. The Ark gets put up on top of a rock. 70 people however of the Israelites look into the Ark (which is forbidden) and are killed for disobeying. So the Israelites get nervous and ask God where to send it, they end up sending the Ark for Kiriath Jearim where it is put into the house of someone named Abinadab and a man name Eleazer is set over it, to guard it.

1 Samuel 3-4

1 Samuel 3-4

Scripture Thought (What I Learned):

Chapter 3: The Prophet Samuel

                Eli (the priest) begins to wax old and lies down on his death bed. While he is there, at night while Samuel was sleeping, he is called by who he thinks is Eli. So Samuel wakes up and goes to see Eli, who claims he did not call him. So Samuel goes back to bed, but again hears "Eli" calling him. So he wakes up and goes to him, and again Eli tells him that he did not call him. So Samuel goes back to sleep. This goes on 3 times before Eli realizes that it is actually the Lord calling him. So Eli instructs Samuel to go back to sleep and if he is called again, then he should arise and speak back to God saying; "...Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth..." (1 Samuel 3:9). Samuel goes back to sleep.

                Again Samuel is awakened by a voice calling him, so he wakes up and does as Eli had instructed him. In verse 10, it says that the Lord "stood" by him when he answered. I am going to take this that the Lord LITERALLY was standing next to his bedside, as he has done in the past and future with ALL PROPHETS that he has called. The Lord tells Samuel that he will do a thing in Israel that will cause all who hear it to tingle. Essentially he is going to destroy the wicked and a lot of people (mostly wicked people) are not going to like it. Samuel is recognized in all of Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba as an established prophets of the Lord God. The Lord appears again to Samuel in Shiloh.

Chapter 4: Eli Dies

                The Israelites are defeated by the Philistines, more than 30,000 soldiers of Israel are killed. The Israelites try to use the Ark of the Covenant to defeat the Philistines and it works for a moment, because they get scared, but ultimately they built up enough courage an essentially slaughter the Israelites and steal the Ark of the Covenant. Eli's sons are slain in battle and his daughter in law dies during childbirth. Eli at age 98 years old dies of an accident and breaks his neck. My guess is that he fell? Eli judged Israel for over forty years.

1 Samuel 1-2

1 Samuel 1-2

Scripture Thought (What I Learned):

Chapter 1: Hannah Bares Samuel

                There was a man who lived in Ramathaim-zophim of the mount Ephraim, his name was Elkanah and he was the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu who was the son of Zuph, who was an Ephrathite.

                Elanah has two wives; Peninnah and Hannah. Peninnah had children but Hannah had none. Elkanah still loved Hannah even though she could not have children, but Hannah was very upset about this. So Hannah starts to starve herself and gets very sad, her husband asks her why she won't eat, and tells her "...am I not better to thee than ten sons?" (1 Samuel 1:8). Hannah decides to go up to the priest in the temple and starts praying to God, except she made no noise, from what I can see is that she was saying a prayer in her heart. The priest tells her to go and to be no more sad, because the Lord would grant her petition.

                Hannah conceives a child and names him Samuel. Hannah waits until Samuel is weaned and is more of a child than a baby and takes him to the temple and their they make a sacrifice to God; with three bullocks, one ephah of flour and a bottle of wine (remember back to the previous books that talked about sacrifices).  Samuel shall be from here on out an instrument in the hands of God.

Chapter 2: Hannah has more Children

                Hannah rejoices in the Lord and his great Salvation. She is completely filled with joy!

In verse 3, I came across a very interesting verse;

                "Talk no more so exceeding proudly; let not arrogancy come out of your mouth: for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed" (1 Samuel 2:3)

                This verse hit me hard. For several reasons that are very specific to LDS (Mormon) doctrine. Joseph Smith once taught that men could not be saved by ignorance. By your ACTIONS God will essentially weigh your salvation. So when I hear people saying things like "accept Jesus into your heart and you are saved", it makes me very sad. Because is it really that simple? Absolutely not. Was it simple for Jesus to suffer in the Garden of Gethsemane? Bleed from every pore of his body? OR Die on the Cross for the sins of everyone? No, Absolutely not! So to say that you are saved for just accepting Jesus into your life is not enough. You have to live by his teachings and follow his commandments. That is why this verse struck me, because someone who is ignorant has an overbearing sense of pride with a superior manner towards people who are "less than themselves" or inferiors. So essentially those people who say "accept Jesus and be saved" and then openly make fun of people and other religions that teach and practice "good works" to be seems a bit ignorant to the actual truth of the matter, that you cannot be saved in ignorance, but your good works. It is kind of like the WWJD? (What Would Jesus Do?) bracelets that are usually worn by people who think that accepting Jesus is all we have to do. I wish it were so, but it is not.

                So let us remember that it is not by FAITH ALONE that we are saved. (See James 2:26)

                The chapter continues to say that the Lord by his power, is all powerful. He has the power to make someone rich or poor, he has the power to kill and make alive and to put those who were good upon thrones in the last day.

                Eli the priest blesses Elkhanah and Hannah, with this blessing Hannah bares 3 sons and 2 daughters, and Samuel grew up before the Lord. Samuel waxes strong with the Lord, while the other sons of Eli do evil in the sight of the Lord.

Summary of Ruth

Summary of Ruth

Scripture Thought (What I Learned):

Summary of Ruth:

Ruth 1-2: Ruth and Naomi/Ruth Collects in the Field

Ruth 3-4: Ruth Lies at the Feet of Boaz/Boaz Marries Ruth

                The Book of Ruth, having only 4 chapters is extremely short! The book itself probably should have been added to the Book of Judges, because it takes place during the same time frame.

                Ruth having lost her husband sticks alongside her mother-in-law Naomi. She takes initiative to provide for her late husband's mother and does so very well. Boaz sees her hard work and her good looks and goes out of his way to make the marriage happen.

Ruth 3-4

Ruth 3-4

Scripture Thought (What I Learned):

Chapter 3: Ruth Lies at the Feet of Boaz

                Naomi decides that it is time for Ruth to find her own home, where she can be provided for and not do the providing. Naomi decides that Boaz would be a good choice to marry Ruth. Naomi knows that Boaz will be eating and drinking on a specific night and tells Ruth to go in and uncover herself and lie down at his feet. So Ruth does this and in the middle of the night, Boaz is awoken by something and he discovers someone lying at his feet.

                Boaz asks Ruth who she is, and she responds by telling him that she is his servant. When Boaz hears this he is happy (because he is an older man and Ruth is much younger, he is thrilled she chose him). Even though Boaz is closely related to Naomi, another man is even closer and he must give him the first chance at marrying Ruth. This is part of the rules found in Deuteronomy 23:15-25:19.

                Boaz tells Ruth to stay there that night and in the morning to leave before anyone sees them together, but he gives her "six measures" of barley to take home. Ruth tells Naomi everything and Naomi tells Ruth to wait and see what happens.

Chapter 4: Boaz Marries Ruth

                Boaz wants to solve the issue of being married or not to Ruth, so he waits at the town gate for the nearest kin to Naomi, so he can conduct some business. Boaz has the man sit down, alongside the town elders and explains to him that Naomi is selling a piece of land that had belonged to her late husband Elimelech. He tells the man that he has the right to claim it, but if he does not, then Boaz will claim it.  The man agrees to take the property, but Boaz tells him that when he acquires the land he also acquires the dead man's widow, in order to continue the line of Elimelech. When the man hears this he changes his mind and tells him that if he does this, it could endanger his own estate. So Boaz tells him that he will do it. They seal the deal by having the man take off his sandal and give it to Boaz. Boaz has acquired the land and has also acquired Mahlon's widow Ruth as his wife. This way Boaz can continue the family line of Mahlon.

                Boaz marries Ruth and the Lord gives he the ability to give birth to a son, that they name Obed. The end of the book tells us that Obed will father a son named Jesse and he is going to become the father of David

Ruth 1-2

Ruth 1-2

Scripture Thought (What I Learned):

Chapter 1: Ruth and Naomi

                The Book of Ruth opens up by introducing a woman named Naomi who lives in Bethlehem with her husband Elimelech and her sons Mahlon and Killion. During this time, there is a famine in Israel, so Elimelech and his family move to Moab. While they are there, Elimelech dies and his sons marry Moabite women, with the names of Orpah and Ruth. This family stays in Moab for about 10 years, but both Mahlon and Kilion die, leaving Naomi a widow and a mother without any living sons to care for her.

                After the death of the husband and her sons, Naomi hears that the famine in Israel has ended and decides with her two daughter-in-laws to head back to Israel. A little bit later Naomi changes her mind and tells her daughter-in-laws to go back to the homes of their fathers and not to do with her. But they insist on going with Naomi to Israel. So Naomi tries to convince them one more time. Naomi tells them that if they stick with her, that they will never be able to re-marry. This convinces Orpah to return home, but Ruth still decides to stay by the side of Naomi.

                Naomi tries to convince Ruth to go to, but Ruth tells her that she will go where she goes, and eventually die where she dies. Ruth is serious and Naomi stops convincing her to return home. So both Ruth and Naomi head to Israel, where they cause quite the stir among the people, they wonder if it could be Naomi, and Naomi tells them to call her Mara, because the Lord had made her life "bitter". Naomi means pleasant and Mara means bitter. So we can safely assume that Naomi went from pleasant to bitter. Naomi and Ruth return to Bethlehem, right as the harvest of Barley is beginning.

Chapter 2: Ruth Collects in the Field

                With only Naomi and Ruth together, and no husbands this makes them very poor. They decide to go to the fields and pick up what was left behind in the harvest. This is part of Ancient Laws regarding harvest, where whoever is harvesting must not be super thorough, so that they leave behind some of the harvest for poor people to come and eat. (See Leviticut 19 and Deuteronomy 23:15-25:19).

                Ruth ends up in a field that belongs to a man named Boaz, he goes to the field and sees Ruth and asks his men, who this woman was. His men tell him that she is from Moab and has been working all day without rest. Boaz approaches Ruth and tells her to continue gathering in his field and not go to any other field. He commands his men to not touch her and permits her to drink from their water jars.

                Ruth bows down to Boaz and asks him why he has found favor in her. He tells her that he has heard that she has done a lot for Naomi and wants to reward her for her good will. Boaz even invites Ruth to eat with him at meal time and gives her so much food that she has plenty of leftover food. Boaz orders his men to go in front of Ruth while she is collecting and leave behind some stalks of barley to make her harvest even better. Ruth threshes the barley she collected and comes up with 22 litres of barley, which is quite a lot of barley. Ruth brings this barley and the leftover food back to Naomi, who is thrilled to see all the food. Naomi asks Ruth where she had gathered this food and tells her, we then find out that Boaz is actually a relative of Naomi.

                Ruth and Naomi decide to take the advice of Boaz and only work in his field, where they will be protected. Ruth continues to live with Naomi.

Summary of Judges

Summary of Judges

Scripture Thought (What I Learned):

Summary of Judges

Judges 1-2:  Judah, Simeon and Joseph Continue to Conquer the Canaanites!/Do Not Forsake God! 
Judges 3-4:   Worshiping False Gods/Deborah Prophetess 
Judges 5-6:   Song of Praise/Overthrowing the Altar of Baal 
Judges 7-8:   The Lord Chooses 300 by the Water/Gideon Frees Israel and Dies 

Judges 9-10:  Fable of Trees/False gods 
Judges 11-12:  Jephthah Captain of Israel/42,000 Ephraimites Die 
Judges 13-14:  Manoah's Son Samson/Samson Slays a Lion 
Judges 15-16:  Samson Slays 1,000 Men/Samson Kills 3,000 and Himself 
Judges 17-18:   Priesthood Authority/Idolatry 
Judges 19-21: Dividing in 12 Pieces/Benjamites Are Destroyed/Wives for the Benjamites

                The Book of Judges takes off where Joshua left off. The Israelites are in the promised land, but haven't completed the job of getting land for each of the 12 tribes.

                The Book of Judges is filled with famous stories of Gideon and the story of Samson and Delilah. But most of the book, to me represents the downfall of the Israelites. For example, chapters 19-21 are probably some of the most gruesome parts of the Old Testament and probably the whole Bible.

                After the death of Joshua it seems that the younger generations of Israel start to go away from God and start to do things that were contrary to the will of God. The younger Israelites intermarry with the Canaanite women and start to worship false gods. The Lord places a series of Judges to rule over the land as leaders for the people. Judges follows a pattern of Israel being evil and then when the Judge of the land die, they once again get evil, and more so.

                The last verse in the Book, really does sum up the Book of Judges; "...every man did that which was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25). Because of this we have mass corruption and evil invading the hearts of Israel.

Judges 19-21

Judges 19-21

Scripture Thought (What I Learned):

Chapter 19: Dividing in 12 Pieces

It is almost as if my truck bed, was designed to hold 4 rifle cases!

                I almost want to say, "viewer discretion is advised" on this passage! Seriously it is probably one of the more messed up stories of the Bible. So there is that warning, before you read.

                A Levite living in Ephraim gets a concubine (a mistress) from Bethlehem. She however is unfaithful to him and returns to her father's house in Bethlehem. Four month later the Levite man gets his servant and starts after her. When he arrives there the concubine brings him into her father's house and invites him to stay. The Levite man stays for 3 days and prepares to head back home, but the father insists that he stays for food and then he ends up staying until the fifth day, when he tries to convince him again, but after 5 days the Levite wants to leave, so he leaves with his servant and concubine.

                During their trip back they pass the city of Jebus (later Jebus gets conquered by the Israelites and is renamed "Jerusalem"), which has Jebusites living there. The Levite's servant suggests they stop for the night in Jebus, but the Levite refuses to stay in a city whose inhabitants aren't Israelites, so they push on to the city of Gibeah.

                At Gibeah, they go into the "down town" section and everyone refuses to take them in. In this time, it was custom for someone to offer a place to sleep at night. But no one seems to let them in, except an old man that comes in from among the fields. The old man asks him where he is from, and the Levite tells him and asks for just a place to stay for the night. The old man finds out that they are both from the hill country of Ephraim and offers to give him food as well. They arrive at the old man's home and get something to eat and wash their feet, all in all they were "enjoying themselves".

                Just then, the house gets surrounded by a bunch of wicked men of the city. They practically pound the door down and demand the old man to send out the Levite that is staying with him. The reason for this? They "wicked men" want to rape the Levite man. I told you this was a pretty graphic chapter. This part of the story is from (verses 22-30).

                So the old man responds to the wicked men:

                "...I pray you, do not so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into mine house... here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now... and do with them what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not vile a thing." (Judges 19:23-24)

                The men refuse to listen, so the Levite sends out his concubine...

                "...and they knew her, and abused her all night until the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her go" (Judges 19:25)

                She returns to the house, after a whole night of being gang raped. She falls down to the ground in front of the house where she remains unto daylight. The Levite then wakes up and comes outside to find her by the front door on the threshold. He tells her to get up, that they must be going now. She doesn't respond, so he picks her up and puts her on his donkey and returns home. The chapter or verse does not mention anything about the state of the concubine, but from the looks of it, it appears she is dead when he loads her onto the donkey. So she was raped to death. I told you that I should put a "viewer/reader discretion is advised" on the first of this blog!

                When the Levite returns home, he takes the concubine and cuts her body into 12 pieces and sends a piece to each tribe of Israel. When the Israelites find this, they respond with rage; "... there was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt..." (Judges 19:30)

Chapter 20: Benjamites Are Destroyed

                So the story from the last passage carries on... A woman was gang raped to death and it seemed no one cared. But in this chapter we find out who did this horrible crime. So we know that the woman was cut up into 12 pieces and sent to every tribe of Israel, well they are horrified. At least someone cares now, right? Well we find out that it was the Benjamites that committed the crime. The other 11 tribes of Israel gather before the Lord at Mizpah to find out what happened.  

  

                The Levite explains the situation to the eleven tribes. He says that his concubine and him went to Gibeah to spend the night, during their visit the men in Gibeah intended to come after him but instead he handed over his concubine. She was killed like we read in the last chapter and then the Levite cut her into pieces and sent them to each region of Israel, because the crime was committed in Israel.

                The 11 tribes of Israel unanimously decide that they are going to give the Gibeanites what they deserve for their heinous crime. So they go to the tribe of Benjamin and demand that they hand over the men from Gibeah who committed the crime. The Benjamites decide not to hand over the men, and instead prepare for war against the rest of Israel.

                The Benjamites organize and have 26,000 swordsmen and 700 chosen men from Gibeah. The 700 chosen men were all left-handed and could sling a rock at a hair and not miss. Essentially these men were great warriors!

                So to respond to this great number, the Israelites (the other 11 tribes) muster up 400,000 swordsmen and they gather at Bethel to inquire of the Lord who (of each tribe) should go to battle first. The Lord tells them that Judah should go first and they are practically wiped out. They lose 22,000 men! The Israelites then spend the day weeping, and encouraging each other to go back to battle. They ask God if they should go to battle again, and the Lord responds with a positive! The Israelites go to battle again and they lose another 18,000 men in battle! So they come back and weep and fast. They then ask God again, if they should go. They seem to be a bit disheartened, and the Lord tells them to go back to battle and this time the Benjamites would be delivered into their hands!

                So the 11 tribes of Israel go up against the Benjamites again, this time with more strategy. They lose 30 men, but as the Israelites retreat, the Benjamites are struck from behind. They retreat, but the city of Gibeah is burned down. So the Benjamites retreat into the desert, and are followed and hunted down, the Benjamites lose 18,000 men and try to retreat another direction, where they are met by more of Israel. This time they lose another 5,000 men and then again another 2,000 men. All in all only 600 of the original 26,700 men escape and live in the desert for 4 months. While the 600 men escape and are in hiding the Israelites finish off killing ALL of the Benjamites, burning their cities and killing even their animals!

Chapter 21: Wives for the Benjamites

                With only 600 Benjamite men in hiding, the rest of Israel gathers at Bethel to mourn the almost extinction of one of the tribes of Israel. The 11 tribes of Israel promise to not give any of their women to the Benjamites to marry. So now the tribe of Benjamin has no hope of continuing on, seeing as the only Bnjamites left are 600 men. All of the women and children have been wiped out.

                The 11 tribes of Israel made an oath about not marrying any of their women to the Benjamites, and they all made a promise that if someone did not come to this meeting that they would be put to death. While mourning the tribes of Israel realize that the people of Jabesh Gilead are not there at Mizpah mourning with them. They decide they will be the solution to the problem. They have to put the people of Jabesh Gilead to death anyways because they broke the oath. So they decide to kill all of them and only spare the virgin woman and give those women to the tribe of Benjamin. The problem is that there are only four hundred women. But they bring these women to the tribe of Benjamin as a peace offering.

                The tribe of Israel mourns some more, because there are still 200 men without wives, but they remember that there is an annual festival that happens at Shiloh. So they instruct the Benjamites to go an hide in the vineyards of Shiloh and when the girls come out to dance, they can snatch them up and take them as wives. If their fathers or brothers have a problem with this, the Israelites will calm them down, and ask them to do this favor so the Benjamites can have wives.

                That is what happened and the Benjamites can continue on... the chapter ends.

Judges 17-18

Judges 17-18

This year, I plan on reading the Old Testament of the Bible within the 2012 calendar year. Follow me on this journey!

Scripture Thought (What I Learned):

Chapter 17: Priesthood Authority

                There was a man who lived near the mount of Ephraim, his name was Micah. He tells his mother about 1,100 shekels of silver that were taken from her and that she had cursed. Well that same 1,100 shekels he tells his mother, he took and has it. His mother responds with blessings on his head. Micah's mother takes the silver back and says she will consecrate it unto the Lord.

                So Micah's mother takes the silver t an idol maker, to have it made into an idol to place in his house. So Micah has a shrine made and consecrates one of his sons to be a priest. Micah's shrine is the "house of gods" It says that this was done, because Israel had no king, and everyone "...did that which was right in his own eyes." (Judges 17:6). So it seems like there was a lack of order.

                A Levite happens to wonder by and Micah asks him to stay and be a priest, the Levite agrees and is paid room and board, food and a salary of 110 grams of silver per year. Micah thinks that the Lord will be pleased with him, because he is worshiping him and he has a Levite as one of his priests. We learned earlier in the Bible that the Levites (one of the twelve tribes of Israel) were given charge of the ordinances and rituals of the temple. In other words the Levites had the priesthood authority.

Chapter 18: Idolatry

                As the tribe of Dan wanders looking for a place to settle in the Promised Land, they send some spies to check out the land and find a good place to settle. During this search they come across the Levite that is living in Micah's house (from the last chapter). They ask this Levite to inquire of the Lord and find out if their trip will be successful, the Levite sends them on their way in peace, that the Lord was with them.

                These men of Dan leave and go to a place called Laish were they find some very desirable land that was a little quiet. The spies decide that this land would be suitable and go back to the tribe of Dan to tell them the good news.

                The spies return to their brothers in Zorah and Eshtaol and tell them to "...Arise, that we may go up against them: for we have seen the land, and, behold it is very good... be not slothful to god, and to enter to possess the land." (Judges 18:9).

                They get the people pumped for war, and the Danites get ready for battle with 600 of their men. The 600 warriors start their journey to the land of Laish. On their journey they pass by the house of Micah and the 5 spies that had been there previously get an idea. Their idea is simple, rob Micah and convince the Levite priest to come with them. As they enter into the house of Micah, the priest asks them what they are doing, they tell him the obvious and then convince the Levite that it would be better that he put his priesthood to good use among a whole tribe and not in just one man's house. He agrees and goes with them.

                As the Danites are leaving, Micah gets angered and chases after them with some men. The Danites ask him what his problem is, Micah says basically "are you kidding me? You stole everything from me, and you are asking me why I am mad?" (this of course is a paraphrase of what he really said. But Micah realizes that the Danites are too massive and powerful for him and his men, and decides to back off. The Danites arrive in the land of Laish and conquer the region.

                The people living there were unable to do something, because they lived very far from anyone else and they had no relationship with anyone else. Once they conquer the land, they set up the idols of Micah and they will continue to serve those idols until they are captured.