Thursday, June 26th, 2025
Judges is one of those books that has some cool stories in it, but as I read it, I also find myself praying that I’m not suffering from some of what ailed the Israelites. There are quite a few stories that are difficult to read. Recently, I was reading in Judges 18 and verse 7 made me pause and do some reflecting. It says:
7 So the five men departed and went to Laish. They saw the people who were there, how they dwelt safely, in the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure. There were no rulers in the land who might put them to shame for anything. They were far from the Sidonians, and they had no ties with anyone.
Let’s step back a few verses so we have context. The tribe of Dan had not yet received (or pursued) their inheritance so they sent out five men to search a land they thought they might like. The ended up at the house of Micah. Now Micah had a Levite as his priest along with a shrine and some idols made from stolen silver. The five spies decided this Levite would be a good person to ask for a word from the Lord as to whether or not they should dwell in this land. He gave them an answer they were satisfied with and then we are at verse 7.
Their first mistake was trusting in someone’s title instead of the evidence of their work before the Lord. The Levite’s inability to decipher between righteousness and unrighteousness should’ve been their first clue that his ability to hear from the Lord was not pure. Their second mistake was looking for a place with no rulers who might put them to shame for what they did. In reality, they didn’t really consider these two things as mistakes. This was how far they had fallen. They wanted to be able to do whatever they pleased, and they figured if a Levite blessed them in their endeavors their consciences would be free.
Final Thoughts…
This is one of those stories that doesn’t leave a warm and fuzzy feeling. It humbles me and prompts me to pray. Lord, please don’t let me fall into either one of these traps. I don’t want to go looking for wisdom apart from you. Help me to never be deceived enough to think that life without Your precepts would be anything worth living. I need You to show me the way to go and how to get there. If left to my own I too would be dialing wrong numbers and looking for life without constraints. We don’t want to go to just any land, we want to go to our promised land. For here we know You will also be.