The Anatomy of Apostasy Text: Judges 18:27-31
Introduction: The Contagion of a Lie
The book of Judges is a hard book. It is a book of spirals, a downward descent into moral and spiritual chaos. And the refrain that brackets this whole sorry business is "In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes." Now, we must understand what this means. It does not mean there was no law. The law had been thundered from Sinai. It does not mean there was no God. His presence was in the tabernacle at Shiloh. What it means is that there was no central, recognized authority to enforce the law of God, and so every man became his own magisterium. Every man was his own pope. And when every man is his own pope, you do not get a thousand points of light. You get a thousand little tyrannies, each one devouring the other.
The story we have before us is the culmination of the previous chapter. A man named Micah, a syncretist of the first order, decided he could worship Jehovah with an idol, a graven image. He set up a little religious business in his house, complete with a hired Levite priest. It was a boutique religion, custom-made, convenient, and utterly corrupt. But what begins as a private, household apostasy never stays that way. A lie is a contagion. A spiritual cancer always metastasizes. In our text, Micah's personalized idolatry is stolen, nationalized, and institutionalized by an entire tribe of Israel. The tribe of Dan, failing to take the inheritance God had assigned them, decides to go find an easier conquest. They are pragmatists, not covenant keepers. And on their way, they steal Micah's gods and his priest, and establish a rival center of worship that will pollute Israel for centuries.
This is not just an interesting historical account of bad behavior. This is a biopsy of the human heart apart from grace. This is a diagnosis of what happens when men decide that God's Word is a set of suggestions, not commands. It is a picture of how pragmatism, violence, and false worship are all tangled up together. One sin begets another, and a stolen idol leads to a slaughtered city. This is the logic of lawlessness, and it is the same logic that governs our own godless age.
The Text
Now they took what Micah had made and the priest who had belonged to him, and they came to Laish, to a people quiet and secure, and struck them with the edge of the sword; and they burned the city with fire. And there was no one to deliver them because it was far from Sidon and they had no dealings with anyone, and it was in the valley which is near Beth-rehob. And they rebuilt the city and lived in it. And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father who was born in Israel; however, the name of the city formerly was Laish. Then the sons of Dan set up for themselves the graven image; and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the exile of the land. So they set up for themselves Micah’s graven image which he had made, all the time that the house of God was at Shiloh.
(Judges 18:27-31 LSB)
Might Makes Right (v. 27-28)
We begin with the brutal efficiency of the Danites.
"Now they took what Micah had made and the priest who had belonged to him, and they came to Laish, to a people quiet and secure, and struck them with the edge of the sword; and they burned the city with fire. And there was no one to deliver them because it was far from Sidon and they had no dealings with anyone, and it was in the valley which is near Beth-rehob." (Judges 18:27-28)
Notice the sequence. First, they take the false religion. Then, they go to Laish. The stolen idol is their talisman, their good luck charm for the slaughter to come. When you abandon the true God, you do not become a secular rationalist. You become superstitious. You trade the God of glory for a god you can carry, a god who serves your agenda. The Danites wanted a god who would rubber-stamp their land grab, and Micah's idol was perfectly suited for the job.
Their target is a people described as "quiet and secure." This is not a compliment. It means they were complacent, isolated, and unprepared. They were living in a fool's paradise. Their security was not in God, or in strong alliances, but in their isolation. They thought they were safe because they were out of the way. But there is no place that is "out of the way" for sin. When a people abandon God's law, the strong will always prey upon the weak. The Danites operate on the principle that might makes right. They have the swords, Laish does not, and so the matter is settled. This is the inevitable outworking of "every man did what was right in his own eyes." Your "right" ends where my sword begins.
They strike them with the edge of the sword and burn the city. This is not a righteous conquest commanded by God, like the taking of Jericho. This is a pirate raid. This is brigandage. And the text notes, with a certain coldness, that "there was no one to deliver them." Why? Because they were isolated. They had no covenant with anyone, no dealings with their neighbors in Sidon. This is a warning against a false sense of security. A people who are not in covenant with God will find that their covenants with men are worthless in the day of trouble. Their isolation was their doom.
Renaming and Rebuilding (v. 29)
After the destruction, the Danites begin their project of remaking the world in their own image.
"And they rebuilt the city and lived in it. And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father who was born in Israel; however, the name of the city formerly was Laish." (Judges 18:29 LSB)
Here we see the assertion of sovereignty. To name something is to claim ownership and authority over it. God named the Day and the Night in creation. Adam named the animals. And here, the Danites erase the history of Laish and stamp their own name upon it. They are not interested in inheriting God's promises in the place God appointed for them. They are interested in building their own legacy, on their own terms, in a place of their own choosing. This is the spirit of Cain, who went out from the presence of the Lord and built a city.
They are building a monument to their own rebellion. The city of Dan will become infamous in Israel's history. It will be the northernmost point of the kingdom, and the phrase "from Dan to Beersheba" will come to define the boundaries of the land. But it will also be one of the two centers of calf worship that Jeroboam establishes to keep the northern kingdom from going to Jerusalem to worship. This sin, born here in the chaos of the Judges, will have long and terrible consequences. Sins, like men, have children.
An Apostate Priesthood (v. 30)
Now we come to one of the most shocking verses in the entire book.
"Then the sons of Dan set up for themselves the graven image; and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the exile of the land." (Genesis 18:30 LSB)
The hireling priest from the previous chapter is now given a name: Jonathan. And his lineage is given: son of Gershom, the son of Moses. Let that sink in. The grandson of the great lawgiver, the man who saw God face to face, is now the high priest of an idolatrous cult. The Hebrew scribes were so scandalized by this that in the Masoretic text, they inserted a suspended letter 'nun' over the name of Moses (Moshe), changing it to Manasseh, to try and obscure this shameful fact. But the truth is unavoidable. This is the grandson of Moses.
This is a devastating commentary on the nature of sin and the necessity of grace. Covenant faithfulness is not passed down through the blood. A godly heritage is a great blessing, but it is not a guarantee. Piety is not genetic. Each generation must lay hold of the covenant for itself. Moses' own grandson became an apostate priest-for-hire. If this can happen to the family of Moses, it can happen to any of our families. It should drive us to our knees in constant, humble dependence on the grace of God to preserve our children and our children's children.
And notice the persistence of this sin. Jonathan and his sons served as priests "until the day of the exile of the land." This idolatrous priesthood, established in lawlessness, had a run of several hundred years. This was not a passing fad. It was an institution of rebellion. A lie, once it takes root, is a stubborn weed to pull.
A Rival House of God (v. 31)
The final verse draws a sharp and damning contrast.
"So they set up for themselves Micah’s graven image which he had made, all the time that the house of God was at Shiloh." (Judges 18:31 LSB)
This is the heart of the matter. This was not an innocent mistake made in a time of ignorance. This was a deliberate act of schism. While the true tabernacle, the house of God, with the ark of the covenant and the Levitical priesthood established by God Himself, was at Shiloh, the tribe of Dan set up a rival worship center. They had a rival god (an image), a rival priesthood (the grandson of Moses), and a rival location (Dan).
This is the essence of all false religion. It is man's attempt to get the benefits of God without submitting to the authority of God. They wanted a religion that was closer, more convenient, and more in line with their own desires than the one God had commanded. Shiloh was the place God had chosen to put His name. But the Danites preferred a place of their own choosing. God had commanded worship without images. The Danites preferred a god they could see. God had established the priesthood of Aaron. The Danites preferred a priest they could hire.
This is a picture of will-worship. It is the worship of the god of self. And it was happening "all the time that the house of God was at Shiloh." The light was shining, but they loved the darkness. The true worship was available, but they preferred the counterfeit. This is a profound indictment, not just of Dan, but of all who would seek to worship God on their own terms.
Conclusion: The King We Need
The story of the Danites is a story of covenant failure on every level. They failed to take their God-given inheritance. They failed to obey God's law concerning idolatry. They failed to respect the property of their kinsman Micah, even though he was a fellow idolater. They committed murder and theft to establish their city. And they established a false religion that lasted for generations. And why did all this happen? "In those days there was no king in Israel."
The book of Judges is creating a profound longing in the heart of the reader. It is showing, in grim detail, the bloody chaos that results when men are left to their own devices. The book screams for a king. Not just any king, because Saul will be a man-pleaser and David will have his own terrible failures. The book is screaming for a perfect king, a righteous king, a king who will not just rule Israel, but will rule the human heart.
This entire narrative is a backdrop for the gospel. We are the Danites. We have all rejected our inheritance in God to carve out our own little kingdoms. We have all set up idols in our hearts. We have all done what is right in our own eyes. And the result is the same: violence, chaos, and death. We are like the people of Laish, quiet and secure in our sins, unaware of the judgment that is coming.
But God, in His mercy, did not leave us without a deliverer. He did not leave us without a king. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true King who has come. Unlike the Danites, He did not come to steal, kill, and destroy. He came that we might have life, and have it abundantly. He did not come with a stolen idol; He is the perfect image of the invisible God. He did not establish a rival priesthood; He is the great High Priest, who offered Himself once for all. He did not burn a city with fire; He absorbed the fire of God's wrath for us on the cross.
The choice before us is the same choice that was before Israel. Will we continue to do what is right in our own eyes, and live in the chaotic city of Dan? Or will we bend the knee to the true King in the true city of God, the heavenly Jerusalem? Will we worship at the counterfeit altar of self, or at the true tabernacle, which is the body of Christ? The house of God is no longer at Shiloh. The house of God is wherever two or three are gathered in the name of the King, Jesus Christ. Let us abandon our idols and flee to Him.