Laish

(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
Sinking Sand
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Judges 18:27–31, “And they took the things which Micah had made, and the priest which he had, and came unto Laish, unto a people that were at quiet and secure: and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and burnt the city with fire. And there was no deliverer, because it was far from Zidon, and they had no business with any man; and it was in the valley that lieth by Bethrehob. And they built a city, and dwelt therein. And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born unto Israel: howbeit the name of the city was Laish at the first. And the children of Dan set up the graven image: and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land. And they set them up Micah’s graven image, which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh.”
The people from Dan went to the place that they had seen. They attacked a group of people who were living quietly without any provocation. These people were not sinning against the Lord more than any of the other people living in that region. The Amorites, whom the Lord condemned to destruction, had not helped Abraham when he was living as a homeless stranger in their land. They had hindered Abraham in his desire to serve the Lord and the Lord had promised Abraham, “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3) When Abraham built wells they filled the wells in and in many other ways had sought to curse him his desire to obey the Lord so they were cursed. On the other hand, these people had done nothing against Abraham or his descendants. In spite of this the people from Dan killed all these people and took their land from them. This episode is included in Israel’s history to show why Israel’s territory was expanded from the original land occupied by Joshua and his armies. Later the entire territory of Israel was defined by the expression “from Dan even to Beersheba” (see Judg 20:1). We should also note that, much later, Jeroboam, who divided the kingdom of Israel, place one of his idols in Dan. (1 Kings 12: 29) This was no problem for them because they were already used to corporately worshipping idols.