(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
Judges 18:14–26, “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. And they turned thitherward, and came to the house of the young man the Levite, even unto the house of Micah, and saluted him. 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. 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. 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? 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? 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. So they turned and departed, and put the little ones and the cattle and the carriage before them. 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. 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? 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? And the children of Dan said unto him, Let not thy voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows run upon thee, and thou lose thy life, with the lives of thy household. 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.”
The invading party from the tribe of Dan came past Micah’s house and the spies told them that there was a priest and all the other necessary to run a proper place of worship. The men from Dan should have been trusting the Lord and seeking to obey the Lord but they had absorbed many of the pagan practices of the Canaanites and believed that they needed their own god and manner of worship. The went to Micah’s house and took all the items that he was using to worship in his home. They offered the priest, that is the man who was a Levite and not a priest in Israel’s hierarchy, a job as priest for a whole tribe rather than being the priest for one man. This would have represented a considerable promotion for the Levites. The priest was happy to take the better position and went with the soldiers from Dan. Micah was upset and came out to protest with the priest and the soldiers. The soldiers told Micah that they were happy to kill him if he didn’t stop bothering him. Micah understood that there was no national standard of law in Israel in those days and decided that he would like to live so he let them go with his priest and all the other items of worship.
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