The Pragmatism of Unbelief: When Men Seek Their Own Inheritance Text: Judges 18:1-10
Introduction: The Downward Spiral
The book of Judges is a record of a nation in a tailspin. It is a book of cycles, a repeating pattern of sin, oppression, repentance, and deliverance. But as the book progresses, the cycles get worse. The highs are not as high, and the lows are much, much lower. The final chapters, from seventeen to the end, are an appendix of spiritual and moral horror. They are case studies in what happens when a nation forgets its God. And the tagline, the recurring diagnosis for this disease, is stated plainly: "In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes."
This does not mean that if only they had a man with a crown, everything would have been fine. The problem was not primarily political; it was theological. Their true king, Yahweh, was treated as though He did not exist. And when the transcendent King is ignored, every man becomes his own king, his own lawgiver, and his own god. The result is not glorious, autonomous freedom. The result is chaos, depravity, and disintegration. It is a society devouring itself.
In the previous chapter, we were introduced to the religious climate of the day through the sorry tale of Micah and his homemade religion. He stole money from his mother, made an idol, and hired a wandering Levite to be his personal priest, thinking this religious adornment would guarantee God's blessing. It was a syncretistic mess, a blend of Yahweh-worship and pagan idolatry, driven by superstition and pragmatism. Micah wanted a god he could manage, a religion that would work for him.
Now, in chapter 18, we see this privatized, pragmatic religion go public. We see it adopted by an entire tribe. The sin of the individual becomes the sin of a nation. The story of the Danites is a story of covenant failure, of faithless pragmatism, and of seeking a worldly inheritance because they were unwilling to fight for the one God had promised them. They are a picture of the church when it loses its nerve, when it decides that the marching orders Christ has given are too difficult, and so it goes looking for an easier way, a more "successful" ministry model. This is not ancient, dusty history. This is the temptation of the church in every age, and particularly in our own.
The Text
In those days there was no king in Israel; and in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking an inheritance for themselves to live in, for until that day the land among the tribes of Israel had not fallen to them as an inheritance. So the sons of Dan sent from their family five men out of their whole number, men of valor 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. They were near the house of Micah, and they recognized the voice of the young man, the Levite. So they turned aside there and said to him, “Who brought you here? And what are you doing in this place? And what do you have here?” And he said to them, “Thus and so has Micah done to me, and he has hired me, and I have become his priest.” And they said to him, “Ask of God, please, that we may know whether our way on which we are going will be successful.” So the priest said to them, “Go in peace; your way in which you are going is before Yahweh.”
Then the five men went forth and came to Laish and saw the people who were in it living in security, after the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure; for there was no oppressive conqueror dishonoring them for anything in the land, and they were far from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone. So they came back to their brothers at Zorah and Eshtaol, and their brothers said to them, “What do you report?” And 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 be silent? Do not delay to go, to enter, to possess the land. When you enter, you will come to a secure people and a spacious land; for God has given it into your hand, a place where there is no lack of anything that is on the earth.”
(Judges 18:1-10 LSB)
Covenant Failure and Faithless Pragmatism (vv. 1-2)
We begin with the diagnosis and the mission.
"In those days there was no king in Israel; and in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking an inheritance for themselves to live in, for until that day the land among the tribes of Israel had not fallen to them as an inheritance." (Judges 18:1)
The verse begins with the familiar refrain, "no king in Israel," setting the stage for the lawlessness that follows. The specific problem introduced is that the tribe of Dan was looking for a place to live. Now, this should immediately set off alarm bells for anyone who has read the book of Joshua. God had already assigned an inheritance to the tribe of Dan (Joshua 19:40-48). The problem was not that God had failed to provide for them; the problem was that the Danites had failed to take possession of what God had given them. The Amorites had pushed them back into the hill country, and they lacked the faith and fortitude to drive them out (Judges 1:34).
So, what we have here is not a noble quest, but an act of covenantal unfaithfulness. They were abandoning the post God had assigned them. Instead of fighting the enemies God told them to fight, on the land God gave them, they went looking for an easier target. This is the essence of pragmatism in the church. We are given a commission to disciple the nations, to preach the gospel, to fight sin. But when the battle gets hard, when the enemy seems entrenched, the pragmatic thing to do is to redefine the mission. "Let's not try to take that fortified city; let's go find a quiet, sleepy village somewhere else and call that a victory."
Notice the language: "seeking an inheritance for themselves." God gives inheritances. When men seek inheritances for themselves, they are usurping God's role. They are acting as their own sovereign. This is the direct result of having no king. When Yahweh is not on the throne of your heart, you will be.
"So the sons of Dan sent from their family five men out of their whole number, men of valor 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." (Judges 18:2)
They send out five "men of valor." The text is likely being ironic. True valor would have been to stay and fight the Amorites. This is a counterfeit valor, a worldly competence divorced from godly obedience. They are looking for a path of least resistance, not the path of faithfulness. And where do they end up? In the hill country of Ephraim, at the house of Micah. This is no accident. Unbelief is drawn to idolatry like a moth to a flame. A faithless mission will inevitably seek out a faithless religion to bless it.
A Hired Priest for a Hired Mission (vv. 3-6)
The spies' encounter with Micah's priest reveals the rotten core of their respective endeavors.
"They were near the house of Micah, and they recognized the voice of the young man, the Levite... 'Who brought you here? And what are you doing in this place? And what do you have here?' And he said to them, 'Thus and so has Micah done to me, and he has hired me, and I have become his priest.'" (Judges 18:3-4)
The Danites recognize the Levite's accent. Their questions are pointed: "Who brought you here? What are you doing? What do you have?" These are questions of authority and purpose. The Levite's answer is pathetic. He doesn't say, "God brought me here. I am serving Him. I have His Word." He says, in essence, "Micah brought me here. I'm working for him. I have a job." His entire identity is defined by his employer. He is a hireling. His priesthood is a commodity, a service for sale. He is not a minister of God; he is an employee of Micah.
This is what happens when the ministry becomes a career instead of a calling. When a man's allegiance is to his paycheck, his denominational pension, or his popularity, rather than to the God who called him, he becomes a spiritual hireling. And hirelings will always tell the people what they want to hear, especially when those people are "men of valor" with swords.
"And they said to him, 'Ask of God, please, that we may know whether our way on which we are going will be successful.' So the priest said to them, 'Go in peace; your way in which you are going is before Yahweh.'" (Judges 18:5-6)
The Danites' request is pure pragmatism. They don't ask, "Is this way righteous? Is this what God commanded?" They ask, "Will it be successful?" This is the prayer of the pragmatist. Success has become the standard of truth. They want divine sanction for their disobedient mission. They want the Levite to baptize their faithlessness.
And the hireling priest obliges. He gives them a pious-sounding, but utterly ambiguous, answer: "Go in peace; your way in which you are going is before Yahweh." This could mean anything. It could mean God approves of it, or it could simply mean God sees what you are doing. It is the perfect non-answer, designed to please the client without taking any personal risk. It is a fortune cookie oracle. He gives them the religious platitude they need to soothe their consciences and proceed with their plan. This is the service that false religion always provides to unbelief: it gives a spiritual justification for doing whatever you wanted to do anyway.
The World's Definition of "Good" (vv. 7-10)
The spies find exactly what they were looking for: an easy target.
"Then the five men went forth and came to Laish and saw the people who were in it living in security, after the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure; for there was no oppressive conqueror dishonoring them for anything in the land, and they were far from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone." (Judges 18:7)
Laish is the perfect victim. They are quiet, secure, isolated, and defenseless. There is "no oppressive conqueror" there, which means there is no one in charge, no one to put up a fight. This is the world's idea of a golden opportunity. It is a situation ripe for exploitation. Notice the contrast: the Danites are fleeing a fight God commanded against a strong enemy, in order to pick a fight they can easily win against a weak and unsuspecting people.
This is what happens when the church adopts the world's metrics for success. We look for the easiest mission field, the demographic most receptive to a watered-down message, the path of least cultural resistance. We avoid the hard places, the fortified cities of unbelief, because the cost is too high and the "results" are too slow. We would rather conquer a defenseless Laish and boast of our numbers than faithfully lay siege to the strongholds of the Amorites for generations.
"And they said, 'Arise, and let us go up against them; for we have seen the land, and behold, it is very good... God has given it into your hand, a place where there is no lack of anything that is on the earth.'" (Judges 18:9-10)
The spies' report is full of carnal enthusiasm. The land is "very good." Why is it good? Because it is easy to take and materially prosperous. This is the world's definition of "good." Their confidence is not in God's promise, but in the enemy's weakness. And then comes the blasphemy. They attribute their faithless, opportunistic plan to God: "God has given it into your hand."
This is a constant temptation. When our pragmatic plans appear to be working, when the path of compromise leads to apparent success, it is very easy to slap a "God's will" sticker on it. We see the church growing, the budget increasing, the world applauding, and we conclude that God must be blessing our methods, even if our methods involved abandoning the inheritance He gave us. But success is not a sign of God's blessing if it is achieved through disobedience. A "very good" land taken in rebellion is a cursed land. A ministry that "works" but compromises the truth is a faithless ministry. God is not honored by pragmatic results born of covenantal failure.
Conclusion: Faithfulness Over "Success"
The story of the Danites is a cautionary tale. It shows us the anatomy of apostasy, and it begins with a simple, pragmatic calculation: "This is too hard. Let's find an easier way." They exchanged the difficult inheritance of God for the easy conquest of the world. They traded the calling of faithfulness for the allure of success.
We are called to take our inheritance. And that inheritance is the whole world, for our King. "Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance" (Psalm 2:8). Our commission is to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything Christ commanded. This is not Laish. This is a world full of Amorites, full of fortified cities and giants. The battle is real, and it is hard.
The temptation is always to be like the Danites. To look at the state of our culture, at the hardness of hearts, and to say, "This is too difficult. Let's redefine the mission. Let's just build a comfortable Christian subculture over here. Let's find our own quiet little Laish and call it the kingdom." The temptation is to hire priests who will tell us our way will be "successful," who will bless our compromises and tell us that our path of least resistance is "before the Lord."
But our King has not called us to be successful; He has called us to be faithful. Our job is not to find an easy inheritance, but to fight for the one He has already given us by His blood and resurrection. We are not to be men of counterfeit valor, but soldiers of the cross. We are not to be pragmatists, measuring truth by results. We are to be men of faith, measuring results by the standard of God's unshakeable Word.
When there is no king in a man's heart, he will always do what is right in his own eyes. He will always choose Laish over the land of promise. But we have a King. His name is Jesus. And He did not shrink from the fight. He set His face like flint toward Jerusalem, toward the fortified city of sin and death, and He conquered it not with worldly might, but through faithful obedience, even to death on a cross. He is our King, and we must not do what is right in our own eyes, but what is right in His.