Judges 18:14 - Meaning and Application

The Danites had sent out spies to look for land for themselves, and they had done well in that search. But now, when they came to this place, they made another discovery for their brothers, one they had not even mentioned before. They could tell them where there were gods: “Here, in these houses, there is an ephod, teraphim, and many fine things for worship, things we do not have in our own country. So now think about what you should do” (Judges 18:14).

They had asked these images for guidance and had gotten what they thought was a good answer. So they reasoned that these gods were worth having, even worth stealing if needed. If they could only make themselves masters of these gods, they hoped they could also take Laish. They were right about one thing, that it is good to have God’s presence with them, but they were badly mistaken when they took these images, which were fit more for a puppet show than for worship, as signs of God’s presence.

They thought an oracle would make a useful companion in their campaign, like a standing council for every problem. And because the place they were going to live was far from Shiloh, they thought they needed a house of gods among themselves more than Micah, the man who owned the shrine, did near Shiloh. They could have made their own ephod and teraphim just as easily, and those would have worked just as well for their purpose.

But the reputation these objects already had, even though it was only recent, misled them into a strange respect for this house of gods. If they had stopped to ask where it came from, and whether there was anything truly from God in its making, they would have seen through it. Still, they had decided to take these gods with them, so we are told how they stole the images, won over the priest, and scared Micah away when he tried to get them back.

First, the five men who knew the house and the paths to it, especially the chapel, went in and carried out the images, along with the ephod, teraphim, and everything else, while the 600 men kept the priest busy at the gate (Judges 18:16-18). See how little care this poor priest took of his gods. While he was lingering at the gate and staring at the strangers, his treasure, such as it was, was already gone. See also how powerless these gods were, since they could not even keep themselves from being stolen.

Scripture treats idols with scorn for this very reason, saying they themselves went into captivity (Isaiah 46:2). What foolishness in these Danites. How could they think gods would protect them when they could not protect themselves? Yet because these objects were called gods, as if it were not enough that they had the living, invisible God with them, and visible signs of his presence at the tabernacle, nothing would satisfy them unless they had gods of their own. They were not of their own making, but that was almost as bad, since they were of their own stealing.

Their idolatry began with theft, which was a fitting opening for such a crime. To break the second commandment, they first broke the eighth and took their neighbor’s property to make it into their gods. The holy God hates robbery used for burnt offerings, but the devil loves it. If these Danites had seized the images to destroy them, and the priest to punish him, they would have acted like true Israelites and shown zeal for God, as their fathers once had (Joshua 22:16). But to take them for their own use showed that they neither feared God nor respected people. They were fully lost in both godliness and honesty.

Second, they approached the priest and flattered him into a good mood, so that he would not only let the gods go, but also go with them himself. Without him, they did not know how to use the gods well enough. They tempted him by promising better pay and greater honor with them (Judges 18:19). He would be more honored and better rewarded as chaplain to a whole company, for they were no more than that, though they called themselves a tribe, than as a private chaplain in one house.

If he went with them, he would have more people depending on him, more sacrifices brought to his altar, and more money from consulting his teraphim than he had there. And they won him easily. “His heart was glad” (Judges 18:20). The offer fit his wandering mind, which never liked to stay long in one place, and it fed his greed and ambition. He had no reason to complain about Micah. Micah had not cheated him or cut his pay.

He was not driven by any guilty conscience over serving a carved image. If he had gone to Shiloh to serve the Lord’s priests, as a Levite should have done, he could have been welcome there (Deuteronomy 18:6), and his move would have been good. Instead, he took the images with him and carried the poison of idolatry into an entire city. It would have been bad enough to leave Micah, but to take the images too was a far greater wrong, since he knew how much Micah valued them. Yet nothing better could be expected from a faithless Levite. What house can trust a man who has left the house of the Lord? What friend will he stay true to if he has been false to his God?

He could not say he was forced, because he was glad to go in his heart. If ten shekels could win him, as Bishop Hall says, then eleven could lose him, for what can hold a man who has wrecked a good conscience? The hired servant runs away because he is hired. The priest and his gods went in the middle of the people. They put him there so he could not turn back if he changed his mind, and so Micah could not easily recover him. Or perhaps they placed him there in imitation of Israel’s march through the wilderness, where the ark and the priests went in the middle of the camp.

Third, they frightened Micah back when he pursued them to recover his gods. As soon as he saw that his chapel had been robbed and his priest had run off, he gathered all the help he could and chased after the robbers (Judges 18:22). His neighbors, and perhaps tenants who had joined him in his worship, were ready to help. They came together and pursued the robbers, who had their children and cattle ahead of them (Judges 18:21), so they could not move very fast. This allowed Micah’s men to catch up with them, hoping to recover what had been stolen by reason and appeal, since they were too few to hope to get it back by force.

The pursuers called after them, wanting to speak with them. Those in the rear, where it seems they had placed the strongest and bravest men, turned back and asked Micah what was wrong and what he wanted (Judges 18:23). Micah argued with them and claimed what he thought was his right. They answered by relying on force, and in the end, force won, because it is often true that power overrules justice.

Micah first pressed the wrong they had clearly done to him (Judges 18:24). “You have taken my gods and my images,” he said, “the things I made and therefore, in my mind, had a clear right to. I am so attached to them that I am ruined if I lose them. What else do I have that can help me if these are gone?” This shows how foolish idol worship is, and how much power Satan has over people through it. It was foolish for Micah to call things “gods” that he had made himself, since only the one who made us is to be worshiped as God.

This also shows our own spiritual idolatry, which means giving something a place in our hearts that belongs to God alone. Any creature we place our happiness in, love too much, and cannot bear to lose becomes an idol to us. It takes God’s place and acts like a false ruler over us when we treat it as if our life, comfort, hope, and happiness are all tied to it. But if other people will cling so tightly to their false gods, should we not be even more deeply affected toward our true God? Having God and communion with him is the richest portion a person can have, and losing his favor is the worst loss.

Micah also faced the danger they were ready to bring on him if he kept pressing his claim. They would not listen to reason or do what was right. They did not even offer to pay him for the cost of making the images, much less return what they had taken after using it for their own purposes. They showed no pity for a loss he felt so deeply. Instead, they threatened him with violence if he did not stop demanding what was his, and they were ready to excuse robbery with murder (Judges 18:25). They were saying, in effect, “Be careful, or angry men will come down on you, and you will lose your life, which is worse than losing your gods.”

Wicked and unreasonable people often think it is a serious offense to be asked to do what is right. They use power to defend themselves against justice and common sense. Micah had only asked for what belonged to him, yet even that put his life and his family’s lives in danger. He did not have enough courage to risk his life to recover his gods, which shows how little confidence he really had in their ability to protect him. So he gave them up and went back home (Judges 18:26). If losing his idols had shown him their emptiness and his own foolishness in loving them, and had turned him back to the true God he had left, then the man who lost them would have gained far more than the men who stole them.

If the loss of our idols cures us of loving them, and leads us to say, “What do we have to do with idols anymore?” then that loss is really great gain. See Isaiah 2:20; Isaiah 30:22.