So it says, 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, isn't it interesting that
all of a sudden now we get the name of the guy.
It's kind of weird to pull out this guy's name, you know, because it's just like the
young man, young man, young man, young guy, young guy, young guy, young guy.
And that's like, oh, by the way, Jonathan, 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.
Here's my theory, and this is just kind of a theory that I'll throw out there, but I
can't prove this or anything.
This is just something that is possible because it's kind of, you got to admit, it's kind
of weird that it's just young man, young man, young man, and then all of a sudden we find
out exactly who it is, Jonathan, the son of Gershom, son of Manasseh, very specific.
I think what is probably going on here is that it's intended for the reader to not know
who it is until the end.
Now, to us, this means nothing to us, Jonathan, the son of Gershom, we're just like, okay,
who's that?
But you got to remember, this book is written at a time a little bit closer to the events
themselves, right?
We're reading this thousands of years later.
So my theory about this would be that basically everybody knows that there's this idolatry
that's gone on in Dan for hundreds and hundreds of years because the Bible says that this
idolatry in Dan went all the way until what?
The captivity of the land.
This is when the Assyrians take the northern kingdom of Israel captive.
That's when this stops.
So that means this went on for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years.
So it's a well-known false religion up there.
So basically you're reading about this squirrely, rotten guy and this guy just, as soon as he
hears how we're going to rob Micah and you're going to get a bigger gig, he's just so happy
to betray, you know, just, I mean, this guy is a rotten guy and then it's like, oh, by
the way, this is where your phony religion comes from or this is where, you know, these
people and maybe even if it's not directed at anybody who'd ever followed this false
religion, because it was a false religion that went on in the northern kingdom for centuries.
It'd be kind of like if we told some wild story about some treasure hunter, some fraudulent
treasure hunter who's got magic rocks that he talks into a hat and all this stuff, and
they were like, oh, by the way, it's Joseph Smith, you know what I mean?
I think that's kind of what's going on here.
And even if we weren't talking to Mormons, that could still be an effective device in
a sermon or something, right?
Like, if I just started preaching against some false religion, it didn't tell you what
it was.
That way, you're open-minded.
You're judging it based on the fact, and then it's like, oh, by the way, here's who I'm
talking about.
And it's like, whoa.
So I think that that's what's going on because there's got to be some reason why the guy's
name isn't brought up until the story's completely over.
It's kind of like, oh, by the way, that's the guy who founded that false religion up
in northern Israel that we've been preaching against for years and telling you it was phony.
We've been telling you it was bogus.
Now they've been carried away captive into Assyria.
And by the way, that's the guy who founded it, this bozo, this horrible person.
So anyway, that's my theory about the ending there.
Obviously, there's no evidence for that, but it makes sense as an explanation for why it
is the way it is.
Anyway, let's fire it up and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for this great chapter, Lord, and even these obscure chapters
in the Bible that aren't necessarily popular.
They have so many truths in them, Lord.
Help us to learn these things and to be able to spot these attributes of a false prophet
or false religion.
And help us to take these characters as bad examples and not to be disloyal, not to be
greedy, not to preach what people want us to preach, but rather preach what you've told
us to preach in your Word.
In Jesus' name we pray.