blessings that we do have. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Man, Judges chapter number 17, we have this story that really drives in the point that's
made in verse number six where the Bible reads, in those days there was no king in
Israel but every man did that which was right in his own eyes. And I feel like
this story is especially relevant today because there is so much of this attitude
today in America of people just doing what's right in their own eyes, sort of
following their heart and standing in judgment in many cases of the Word of
God. And basically they decide what's right and wrong and you know let me see
what the Bible says, well that doesn't really seem right to me. You know they
do what seems right to them but the Bible says there is a way that
seemeth right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death. And so
this is a great example of a time and a group of people who are doing what
seems right to them. They're doing what's right in their own eyes but it's
all against the Bible and so of course it all ends badly. This is one
of those Bible stories where most churches you probably would never hear
this preached. I grew up my entire life in church and I'd never
heard of this story and I remember when I was 17 years old finishing up my
Bible reading for the first time I read this story and I loved it and I
remember just thinking like why have I never heard this story before because
no one ever talks about it because it's kind of a strange story but there's
so many great things we can learn from this. Let's start out there in
verse number one says there was a man of Mount Ephraim whose name was Micah
and he said unto his mother the eleven hundred shekels of silver that were
taken from thee about which thou cursed and spakest of in mine ears
behold the silver is with me I took it and his mother said blessed be thou of
the Lord my son and when he had restored the eleven hundred shekels of
silver to his mother his mother said I had only dedicated that silver unto
the Lord from my hand for my son to make a graven image and a molten
image now therefore I will restore it unto thee. Now right away in the story we
see that these people have no clue what the Bible says or what God
expects of them or how you're supposed to worship the Lord because if you
notice the word Lord there is in all capital letters this isn't just Lord as
in a generic word for God it's actually talking about Jehovah God
specifically the God of the Hebrews the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob the
God of the Covenant made with Moses I mean Jehovah that all capital Lord
tetragrammaton name that's the name that's revealed to Moses of the
burning bush and that's the name that she's using so she is specifically
talking about the Lord the God of the Bible and she says I am gonna make
a graven image for the Lord this is not what God wants because one of the
Ten Commandments is thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image so this
should be obvious to anyone who knows the least bit about worshiping the Lord
that we don't make molten images unto the Lord we don't make graven images of
the Lord so she's gonna make both okay so what happened in the story is
this woman had 1,100 pieces of silver which is obviously a lot of money it
doesn't matter what inflation is doing because gold and silver are
always pretty much worth the same amount no matter what happens to fake
paper money and so what's an ounce of silver worth right now about 20
bucks or something right just roughly ballpark you don't need to google it
right now okay but it's probably about 20 bucks an ounce I believe for silver
just only stop me if I'm way off and so if you think about it you know
if these pieces are about an ounce 1,100 I mean we're talking about right
a couple hundred grand or something we're talking about a lot of money we
don't know the exact measurement but you know we don't know how much
exactly a shekel is or I'm sure they're all kinds of historians who
have ideas but this is a really long time ago so could be a different shekel so
the point is this is a huge amount of money like maybe a couple hundred grand
or some and she has this money stolen from her and it's missing and
so she's cursing about it she's upset and then finally her son he
hears how upset she is and his conscience smites him and he goes to
his mom and says you know the 1,100 pieces of silver I'm the one who took
it I have it so she's obviously happy that he confesses and says son you
know that money was for you anyway because I was gonna make a graven image
unto the Lord for you son and then he gives it to her anyway because it
says in verse 4 yet he restored the money unto his mother so he's like no
no no because she's like you can go ahead and keep it because it was for
you anyway she said at the end of verse 3 now therefore I'll restore it
unto thee you stole it from me you're giving it back no no let me give it back
to you and then he gives it back to her so it goes back and forth a couple
times yet he restored the money unto his mother and his mother took 200
shekels of silver and gave them to the founder who made there of a graven
image and a molten image and they were in the house of Micah now on the
surface these seem like really nice people and it's kind of like the ending
of a sitcom or something you know they're all happy now they can all kind of
hug and and little Johnny learned his lesson and everybody's happy but the
thing about this is that first of all making a graven image to the Lord is is
totally against the commandments of God but not only that she said that she
had a holy w-h-o-l-l-y holy dedicated the silver unto the Lord to make a
graven image and a molten image and then it says in verse number four that
she took 200 shekels of silver and made thereof a graven image in a molten
image so again on the surface these people seem like they're serving God but
they're doing all the wrong things because not only are they committing the
sin of idolatry by making the graven in the molten image but she's also
breaking a vow to the Lord now because if you vow to give 1100 and
then you only give 200 you don't get credit for giving the 200 you get
credit for the 900 that you broke the vow about if you remember Ananias and
Sapphira pulled this where they claimed that they gave the whole price of the
land but then they kept back a little part of the price and God killed them
in Acts chapter 5 Ananias and Sapphira for lying about that and and
dedicating a certain amount and then keeping back part of it and Peter tells
them you know and I'm paraphrasing but he basically told them you you
didn't have to give anything to the Lord but if you're gonna give don't lie
about it don't keep back and hold back part of the price if you make a vow
unto the Lord you have to pay it but the Bible says it's okay to just not
make a vow and in the New Testament he explicitly tells us just don't make
vows but in the Old Testament he said it's better for you not to vow than
to make a vow and then not pay it so again the world would look at these
people and say oh they're religious they're so dedicated to the Lord they're
putting all this money into this wonderful artwork and this beautiful
molten image this beautiful graven image oh isn't it so nice that the Sun gave
back the money that he stole oh isn't it so generous to give 200 no because
she said she was gonna give 1100 and it was all for an idolatrous
purpose there's just so many wrong things going on just in the first few
verses alone this story is just already way off the track of what it should be
it says in verse number five and the man Micah made an house of gods okay so
now we see here that he doesn't even seem to necessarily be only worshipping
one God because he's making a house of gods plural and he made an ephod and
terra-fem these are just sort of religious accoutrements and consecrated
one of his sons who became his priest okay so now he just ordains one of his
sons to be a priest now this is not of God because God specifically chose
the tribe of Levi he specifically chose Aaron and his sons to be the
priest you can't just randomly just pick one of your sons and consecrate
him but like who are you to consecrate him like what gives you
that authority to ordain him when you're just a random dude and you're just
ordaining your son but that's what he did he consecrated one of his sons who
became his priest in those days there was no king in Israel but every man did
that which was right in his own eyes so verse six is our clue hint hint
everything in this story isn't right it's just being given as an example of
why they ultimately needed to have a king in Israel because this is the
kind of squirrely stuff that was going on under God's original plan
which was the system of the judges the system of the judge is a great system
but it didn't work because human beings are the way they are and they all
did what was right in their own eyes and it became a mess look at verse 7
there was a young man out of Bethlehem Judah of the family of Judah who was
a Levite and he sojourned there and the man departed out of the city
from Bethlehem Judah to sojourn where he could find a place this guy's just a
Levi he's kind of a drifter he's got nothing going for him he's just kind of
floating around and it says he came to Mount Ephraim to the house of Micah as
he journeyed Micah is the guy with the mom and the money and Micah said
unto him whence comest thou and he said unto him I'm a Levite of
Bethlehem Judah and I go to sojourn where I may find a place and Micah said
unto him dwell with me and be unto me a father and a priest and I will
give thee ten shekels of silver by the year and a suit of apparel and thy
vittles so the Levite went in now here's the thing about this a Levite
is not enough to make you a priest because a Levite that's the whole
tribe of Levi whereas the priests are only supposed to be the sons of Aaron
specifically the rest of the Levites work in the house of God but not as
priests they did a lot of just manual labor and a lot of just menial tasks
they served the priests but they're not the priests but this guy just thinks oh
Levite I mean we're in the ballpark right I mean that's sort of like a
priest and so he offers to hire this guy to be his priest I love what
he says be to me a father and a priest some random drifter young person
will you be my dad this makes no sense folks but you know what else
doesn't make any sense it makes no sense to go down to the Roman Catholic
Church and call some dude father when Jesus specifically said in Matthew 23
9 and call no man your father upon the earth for one is your father which is
in heaven be not called rabbi be not called master call no man father these
are titles that we're not supposed to have as religious leaders we're
supposed to be called a pastor a bishop an elder but we're not to be
called rabbi or father or master and yet you have these so-called messianic
rabbis I saw the name of a guy today he said he was a messianic rabbi well did
you hear what the Messiah said about be not he called rabbi because there's
one rabbi and it saves Jesus I hate this thing of well Jesus was a rabbi
no Jesus wasn't a rabbi he was the only legitimate rabbi to ever exist
because you know he's the master that's what rabbi means my master and so Jesus
said don't be called rabbi so anybody who says they're a messianic rabbi
just take it to the bank they're not they're an unbelieving Christ rejecting
Jew pretending to be a Christian let me say that again they're an
unbelieving Christ rejecting Jew pretending to be a Christian okay
100% of the time show me one messianic rabbi who believes that salvation is by
faith in Christ alone with no works required not of works lest any man
should boast but to him that worketh not but believeth on him that
justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness even as David
also describe it the blessedness of the man unto God impudeth righteousness
without works show me one messianic rabbi who teaches that and I was I'm
just quoting the Bible I was just a quotation of scripture show me a
messianic rabbi that teaches that show me a messianic rabbi that teaches
that you can't lose your salvation okay every single messianic Jew that I've
come across as believed in a workspace salvation and believe that you can lose
your salvation but even if supposedly he gave lip service to the right gospel I
still wouldn't believe that he's following Jesus because why would he
call himself rabbi when Jesus just flat-out black and white explicitly
said be not ye called rabbi Asia arms you call myself rabbi anyway what
are you gonna do about it Jesus I mean that's pretty brazen isn't it
well I want that title oh you're you think you're the only master Jesus well
guess what I'm the master too I'm father too I'm rabbi too I'm gonna call
myself a rabbi folks this is not a gray area Jesus just flat-out said to
his disciples don't be called rabbi these messianic Jews they're not saved
they're not even a Christian they're a fake Christian because they're Jews
that are infiltrating Christianity and their goal is to Judaize and they are
false brethren crept in unawares and folks you know there are a lot of
these people out there that creep in Jesus said that they will creep in
among you and in second Peter it said there will be false prophets and false
teachers that will creep in among you unawares Jude talked about all
throughout the New Testament we have these warnings about people creeping in
and especially those of the circumcision especially the Judaizers and the crypto
Jews and so you know just if somebody says they're a messianic rabbi
just run screaming in the other direct in the other direction because that
person is not of God okay but this guy you know it's just it's kind of
funny how he says to this guy you know be to me a father what is this guy
know the Bible does this guy know the Word of God is this I mean what does
he know about this guy here's what he knows about the guy the guy just
drifted into town he's a hobo right he just kind of drifts into town just
kind of just looking for whatever the gig but it's like you're a Levite be my
father it's absurd isn't it it's crazy and this guy is like cool
because I have nothing going for me I'm a hobo so yeah this sounds great I
mean I'm gonna get ten shekels of silver a year I'm gonna get a suit of
apparel I'm gonna get three hots and a cot this is great so the Levi went in
and the Levi was content to dwell with the man and the young man was
unto him as one of his sons now hold on a second I thought he was gonna be
the dad this family can't figure out who's who he's like he's like one of
this guy's sons but then he said but but the guy said to him you're gonna be
like a father to me and then what actually happened is he ends up being
like one of his sons okay now this is the kind of religious leader that
people are looking for they're looking for a leader that does what
they tell them to do so it's like hey you're gonna be a father unto me
alright kids you know and basically what's going on is that people want a
pastor that they can control that will preach what they want to preach and a
lot of pastors are more than willing to do that a lot of preachers are more
than willing to do that as long as they get the ten shekels of silver as
long as they get the suit of apparel they're willing to tell people what
they want to hear and that's the kind of religious leadership that this
guy wants and you know he doesn't want to travel to go worship the Lord
at the Lord's tabernacle where they're actually real priests and and and
real teaching of God's Word is going on and the Ark of the Covenant is there
and you're making actual sacrifice to the Lord without idolatry at the
tabernacle he doesn't want to make the trip he wants to have it at his house
and he wants to have his own little house of gods and then he wants to
hire a guy to be a father unto him I mean what does what does that even
mean to be a father unto him I mean to me a father would be somebody who's
like leading you guiding you teaching you like an authority over you but then
the guy ends up being as one of his sons meaning that this guy is like
under Micah's authority which is how a lot of preachers are today where
they're under the authority of the congregation in the sense that they
take orders from the people like what do you want me to preach what do you
you know what do you want me to say what do you want to sample and they
will scratch those itching ears and basically the Bible says that in the
last days people would heap to themselves teachers having itching ears so
they will be the ones in control instead of a man of God standing up and
saying hey this is what the Bible says this is what God has led me to
preach this is what the Holy Spirit is leading me to preach this is what
you need to hear from God from the Bible it becomes well no no we're
gonna pick a guy who will preach to us stuff that we like he'll condone of
our graven image he'll condone of our molten image he'll condone of us doing
church at the house instead of actually going to the real church down at the
tabernacle because there was a real house of God at this time and folks
Israel isn't that big it's not that big like this guy could get to church
if he needed to because the entire length from Dan to Beersheba is 144
miles and these people are not at extremes here this guy is at Mount
Ephraim the house of God is probably somewhere fairly close to there at that
time you know it moved around right but let's say it's in Shiloh let's say it's
you know at Bethel I mean any of those places are pretty close you know
like you could walk there and you know might be a long walk but you
could you could walk it if you cared enough to walk it or you could just set
up your own little hope your own little house church or whatever instead
of actually going to the real thing so the the Levi was content to dwell
with the man and the young man was unto him as one of his sons and Micah
consecrated the Levite he's just consecrating people all over the place
and the young man became his priest and was in the house of Micah
and I just verse 13 is my favorite part then said Micah now I know that
the Lord will do me good seeing I have a Levite to my priest like boy is
this fate or what I mean this guy just happened to come along and he just
happened to be of the tribe of Levi of course the chance of a random hobo in
this period being from the tribe of Levi is like a 1 in 10 chance since
there's only like 12 tribes and Levi's one of the bigger tribes and
some of them are smaller so it's not really that big of a deal that this
guy's a Levite you know what why are you so excited about this oh wow you're
a Levite it's like there's only 12 tribes but now I know that the Lord
will do me good seeing I have a Levi to my priests like like things are
gonna start happening for me now and of course his life is not gonna go the
way he wants it to in the next chapter you know this is a great ending
for chapter 17 but in chapter 18 yeah this is not the blessing of God on his
life but this is how a lot of people operate you know basically they're
they're disobeying God's Word they're doing everything their own way
instead of what the Bible says and then things go good for them in the
short term and then they say well God must be blessing me because look how
good things are going in the short term but what you don't understand is
that you reap what you sow but sometimes it takes a long time for you to
reap what you sow so you can't go by short term oh things are going good I
must be right with God or oh things are going bad I must be not right with God
because you have to look at more the long term God's gonna bless you in the
long term if you do what's right you're gonna crash and burn in the
long run if you're doing wrong but in the short term you can't use that as a
judgment look at verse 1 of chapter 18 in those days there was no king in
Israel and in those days the tribe of the Danites sought them an
inheritance to dwell in front of that day all their inheritance had not fallen
unto them among the tribes of Israel and the children of Dan sent of their
family five men from their coasts men of valor from Zorah and from Eshtaal to
spy out the land and to search it and they said unto them go search the
land who when they came to Mount Ephraim to the house of Micah they
lodged there so back in those days you didn't typically stay at hotels you
typically would stay at someone's house so people who had money in the
area they might offer hospitality and lodging to strangers and so they're
taking advantage of Micah's hospitality and it says in verse 3
when they were by the house of Micah they knew the voice of the young man
the Levite it's kind of small world in ancient Israel right it's not that
big of a place there aren't that many people you know a couple million
people total and so you're gonna run into some of the same people so they
hear the guy's voice and he sounds familiar and they turned in thither
verse 3 and said unto him who brought thee hither and what makest thou in
this place and what hast thou here they're like what what what are you
doing and he said unto them thus and thus deal with Micah with me and hath
hired me and I'm his priest now notice the way this guy talks it's not like
hey I just I really love the Lord so I decided to go into the ministry
you know I've always actually been really spiritual it's like well no let
me tell you about this gig that Micah offered me and let me tell you how
he pays me and so you know I'm his priest so I'm a priest now you know
what you you're a priest out yeah you know I'm a priest well I mean
here's what I'm getting paid he hired me oh well okay and they're like
okay father whatever ask counsel we pray thee of God that we may know whether
our way which we go shall be prosperous and the priest said to them
go in peace before the Lord is your way where you go it's like great he
didn't even have to ask God anything he didn't have to pray or ask God
it's just he's just like he's ready to just you guys are good to go you
know this guy's kind of just a yes man you pay this guy and he tells you what
you want to hear it's a lot of preachers like that then the five men
departed and came to Laish and saw the people that were there in how they
dwelt careless after the manner of the Zydonians quiet and secure and
there was no magistrate in the land they might that might put them to shame
in anything they were far from the Zydonians and had no business with any
man and they came under their brethren to Zorah and Ashtiel and and their
brethren said to them what say ye and they said arise that we may go up
against them for we've seen the land and behold is very good and are you
still be not slothful to go and to enter to possess the land when you go
you should come unto a people secure into a large land for God had given it
into your hands a place where there's no want of anything that is in the
earth so a lot of spiritual language God's giving us this land it's gonna be
great let's go possess this land and there went out from thence of the family
of the Danites out of Zorah and out of Ashtiel 600 men appointed with
weapons of war and they went up and pitched in Kirjethjirim and Judah
wherefore they call that place Mahanadun unto this day behold it is
behind Kirjethjirim and that word there that ends in Dan just means like
the encampment of Dan or the host of Dan and they passed thence unto Mount
Ephraim and came unto the house of Micah then answered the five men that
went to spy out the country of Laish and said unto their brother do you
know that there is in these houses an ephod and terrafilm and a graven image
and a molten image now therefore consider what you have to do you know I mean
there's some religious gear in this house my friends you figure out what to
do with that information I mean consider what you have to do say what and
they turned thitherward and came to the house of the young man the Levite
even of the house of Micah and saluted him and the 600 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
terrafilm and the molten image and the priest stood in the entering of the
gate with the 600 men that were appointed with weapons of war so
basically these guys you know the five men who spied it out and got the
little blessing from their old buddy they're like man in this house there's a
goal there's a molten image there's a graven image there's a terrafilm
there's an ephod you figure out what to do with this information so then you
know as the reader you're kind of thinking like oh they're gonna go do
what those five guys did this little song and dance where we gonna ask
counsel of the Lord and then he gives us this little blessing but instead they
just start loading up all the gear and just stealing it all right they're
just stealing the stuff they're just they're just they just take they don't
even talk to the the priest they just grab the image they grab the molten
image they just start grabbing they just start emptying out this guy's little
house of gods and they're just loading it up and then the the the priest is
standing in the gate kind of like what's going on here and it says at
the end of verse 18 then said the priest unto them what do ye like what
are you guys doing and they said unto him shut up they said unto him hold thy
peace lay thine hand upon thy mouth and go with us so basically they're
saying like shut they're saying shut up in two different ways like hold thy
peace and while you're at it lay your hand upon your mouth and come with
us so it's like shut up shut up a second time and then go with us and
be to us a father and a priest it's better for thee to be a priest unto the
house of one man or that thou be priest unto a tribe and a family in Israel
okay so basically the guys again being told you shut up but be our father
you know it's like it's sort of like with Micah like you know you're
gonna be a father unto me but actually you're more like my son
because I'm the boss around here and you're gonna kind of do what I say okay
so again this is the kind of religious leadership that people are looking
for they want a guy who has the funny hat who knows how to say the right
blessings and pray and sound spiritual but they want him to obey them and
follow them and when they tell them to shut up they want him to shut up and
they don't want him to say things that they don't want to hear they
don't want to be told that they're stealing they don't want to be told
that it's idolatry they don't want to hear preaching against drinking or
drugs or fornication or divorce or adultery it's just no no just shut up
and be our father and be our priest okay and that's what we see here in this
passage as well and then they make in this this offer they say look you
really just want to be a priest of one guy when you could be a priest of
an entire tribe you're gonna be the priest of the tribe of Dan like we're
starting this new community in Laish and it's gonna be called Dan and
you're gonna be able to be a priest for a whole family a whole tribe in Israel
instead of just one guy you know we're upgrading you this is your big break
okay and the priest's heart was glad it says in verse 20 and he took the
ephod and the teraphim and the graven image and went in the midst
of the people so he basically just he's so happy he said here let me help you
load up the stuff you're stealing so what does this tell you about how he
feels about Micah I mean Micah is the guy who took him from being a hobo to
be in a priest and is paying him and taking care of him and and be nice to
him treating him like one of his family and it just took this long for
him to just switch from having loyalty to Micah to just saying like
cool let's steal all of Micah's stuff and I'm just gonna go be a priest
somewhere else why because this guy doesn't care about anything except just
money and his own gig he doesn't care about the people he's ministering
to right because this kind of a preacher who is just paid to say what
people want him to say he doesn't really love the people that he's
ministering to because to love someone is to tell them the truth even when
the truth hurts even when it offends them you know if you love someone you
you're gonna be truthful you're gonna be honest faithful are the wounds of a
friend but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful open rebuke is better than
secret love the Bible says and so this guy it's not like he looks and
says well there's 600 guys and they have weapons so I better just do what
they say there's 600 of them and I better just shut up and do as I'm told
no no it says he's glad in his heart he's like this is great this is the big
break I've been looking for ever since I got into the ministry you know
now instead of being a pastor of a local church I can be a president of a
Bible College you know I can be on the board of this great ministry I can
become a televangelist or what you know I'm getting upgraded from local
church pastor to the big leagues and so he's glad in his heart when this
happens and he starts helping them steal and it says in verse 21 so they turn
and departed and put the little ones on the cattle and the carriage before them
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 so Micah gets his neighbors together to help him recover
the stolen stuff and they cried unto the children of Dan and they turned
their faces and said unto Micah what aleth be that thou comest with such a
company what why do you have all the neighbors and why do you guys all
have pitchforks and torches and you're all mad what ails you what's your
problem and he said you've taken away my gods which I made think about how
many things are wrong with that sentence right there my gods which I
made basically this goes to show that polytheistic people idolatrous people
it's like they believe that the idol really is God like even that the
statue itself is God not just that it represents God but they think it
literally is God you took away my gods that I made and the priest and you're
gone away and what have I more you've taken everything from me what
is this that you say to me what aleth thee and the children of Dan said
and him what not thy voice be heard among us less angry fellows run among
run upon thee and thou lose thy life with the lives of thy household now
this is a pretty funny statement too because it's funny how it's like this
indirect threat like hey you better just cool pipe down buddy because I'd
kind of hate for anything to happen to you you know what I mean because
some of these guys that we ride with you know they get a little angry and we
can't really control them and somebody might just kind of blow their
top and just hurt you you know I'm not gonna hurt you but you know one of
these armed dudes is likely to hurt you guys so they kind of catch his
drift and the children of Dan went their way verse 26 and when Micah saw
that they were too strong for him he turned and went back to that you know
he's looking at the neighbors that the HOA just doesn't have the same military
force that the tribe of Dan has you know they've got like their rent a cops
and everything and they got like their golf carts and they've got their
nightsticks and everything and it's and then it's like you got 600 armed
guys and they're just like sorry Micah we're gonna have to stand down and
they took the things which Micah had made and the priest which he had which
he had and came unto Laish unto a people that were quiet and secure 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 Zidane and they had no
business with any man it was in the valley that lieth by Beth Rehob and
they built the city in dwelt there and they called the name of the city
after the name of Dan their father who was born unto Israel how be it 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 under 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 now now think about this all the
sudden we get this guy's name in verse 30 because so far the guy's been totally
unnamed we know Micah's name Micah's the guy whose mom had the money and
he stole it and then she gave it back and then he gave it back and
then she spent part of it on idolatry we know Micah's name but so far the
priest has just been called the young man and it's just not telling us
who it is the young man the young man the young man isn't that kind of odd
that the author of Scripture knew the guy's name because it gives us his name at the end
so why didn't the author start out the way he normally would and say like well
you know there's this certain guy named Jonathan and you know that's how
stories usually start am I right introducing the characters by name
because that's how it started with respect to Micah you know where it just
gives his name chapter 17 verse 1 there was a man of Mount Ephraim whose name
was Micah that's how the Bible typically introduces characters but
interestingly this young man's name is withheld all throughout chapter 17 and
all throughout chapter 18 and then all of a sudden it's brought out at the
end 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 now
when is the day of the captivity of the land what are when are we talking about
here that's one possibility you said the Assyrian captivity right which
would mean that the book of Judges or at least this portion of the book of
Judges is written after the Assyrian captivity which you know very likely but
you know I would I would tend to agree with that that that's probably what
it's referring to otherwise you know it yeah it's kind of hard to come up with
another theory that really holds water so that that basically shows that the book
of Judges probably written after the Assyrians go into captivity or excuse
me after the Assyrians take the Israelites into captivity to be able to
reference that event that's different than the Babylonian captivity because
this happens about a hundred years before the Babylonian captivity but why
withhold the guy's name until the end because then it becomes like a
punch line okay now to us this name doesn't really mean anything like when
we hear this name Jonathan the son of Gershom we're like okay but I believe
that this was probably a guy that was well known to them back then because if
you think about it this is the founder of this idolatrous religion in
Dan okay and we do know that this idolatry in Dan did continue all the
way to the Assyrian captivity where they have the golden calf that's
eventually set up in the days of Jeroboam you have one of the calves at
Dan and the other ones at Bethel and these two are the main sources of
idolatry in the northern kingdom for hundreds of years but if you think about
it why did Jeroboam choose to put one of them in Bethel and one of them
in Dan because Dan was already an idolatrous tribe because this is in the
book of Judges when most of the tribes are not necessarily indulging in
idolatry yet but Dan seems to become the first tribe that installs permanent
idolatry other tribes you know they'll worship false gods and God
punishes them and then they get rid of their false gods and they go back
to worship the Lord but this is if you think about it an idol being set
up in Dan and an alternate priesthood being set up in Dan that's not the tribe
of Levi that's not Aaron specifically from the tribe of Levi that's not the
tabernacle it's not the Ark of the Covenant it's like this separate
priesthood that's going on and it lasts for hundreds of years so it's a
permanent base of idolatry in Israel in the city of Dan all the way
until the captivity of the land and so the founder of this his name is
probably known in the country like yeah Jonathan the son of Gershom is the
founder of that priesthood up there it's not Aaron you know the priesthood
down here is Aaron the priesthood up there up north that's the priesthood of
Jonathan the son of Gershom obviously this is an extremely unflattering story
because this story makes Jonathan the son of Gershom look like total trash
who's willing to just be a priest for anyone who writes a check he'll just be
anybody's priest so basically the purpose of this being withheld until
the end is that he sort of wants to get the reader thinking this guy is a
real piece of work and then you get the idea is they oh by the way this is
the founder of that bogus false religion up in Dan you know it'd be sort
of like if you told some really wild and crazy story about some treasure
hunter in New York and you're talking about this con man and he's in New York
and he's got his little seer stones and he's putting them in a hat and you
tell about how he's ripping people off all the swindling and you go into all
this detail and then you say oh by the way his name is Joseph Smith and he
went on later to write the Book of Mormon and he's the founder of the
Latter-day Saints and then you're like oh wow that's Joe that's how Joseph Smith
started out as a treasure hunter as a con man charlatan mystic that had
little stones and a stick to tell him where treasure is but folks I have a
book in my office that's written by actually I don't because I loaned it
to you but I have a book that's written by a devout Mormon and I bought it at
the Mormon Deseret bookstore and it's a life story of Joseph Smith and it goes
into all the treasure hunting and treasure seeking you know tries to
smooth it all over it doesn't tell it the way this story is told but you
kind of get the idea of what kind of an effect that would have right you
tell some really wild crazy story and then you tell people oh by the way the
name of the guy and the story that I just told guess what you know it's
what's that what's that it's L Ron Hubbard you know and then you're like oh
man that explains a lot so that's the idea of withholding the name until the
end it becomes like an origin story for this wrong priesthood this
idolatrous country of Dan and it explains why Jeroboam chose Dan to be a
place to install the second cap it makes sense that he put it in Bethel
because Bethel means house of God in Hebrew so you know it was easy to trick
people into saying you know hey Bethel house of God what do you what's this
Jerusalem business but God chose Jerusalem to put his name there just
because it's got house of God in the name doesn't make it the house of God
just because it's got Baptist in the name doesn't necessarily mean it's a
it's a righteous house of God just because it says house of God on the
sign just because it says the Lord in all caps just because it says Jesus
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that doesn't mean it's of God it
doesn't mean it's of Christ and so just because it's called Bethel
doesn't mean it's the house of God it's not the house of God is in
Jerusalem Jesus was very clear on this when the woman at the well challenged
him and said well you know our fathers worship God in this mountain
but you you say that Jerusalem is a place where men ought to worship and and
Jesus said well yeah and guess what we're right and you're wrong then
again that's a paraphrase but that's basically what he told the woman at
the well in John chapter 4 he said it's Jerusalem that's the place where
God chose to put his name there he chose David to be the king and he
chose Jerusalem and they're supposed to go to the house of God ultimately
now at this time Jerusalem isn't a thing yet but I'm talking about
Jeroboam when Jeroboam said oh do it in Bethel instead do it in Dan
don't go to Jerusalem Jerusalem's too far away why Dan Bethel's an obvious
choice because it's got house of God in the name he chose Dan because these
people had already been used to being idolaters for hundreds of years
so it was an easy sell to them to just get a new idol and you know
Jonathan the son of Gershom's descendant is just like cool we got upgraded to a
bigger shinier idol because like father like son and so they were priests to
the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land they set them up
Mike as graven image which he made all the time that the house of God was
in Shiloh and so if you go with the theory that the captivity of the
land is the Assyrians which I think is probably true then what you would do
with this second statement of saying all the time the house of God was in
Shiloh is that basically this particular idol is what they're
worshipping all the time that the house of God is in Shiloh which is
much shorter than until the captivity of the land and that until the
captivity of the land is how long this fake priesthood continued Jonathan the
son of Gershom and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the
day of the captivity of the land okay and so what do we what do we learn
from this and then of course in chapter 19 he rolls into a totally
different story but illustrating the same thing came to pass in those days
when there was no king in Israel dot dot dot and then it gets into an even
weirder story an even wilder turn of events that is for another sermon at
another time but here's what we learn from all this everything that says Jesus
in the name is not of God everybody who says I'm a Christian is not
actually a Christian everybody who says I believe in Jesus doesn't
actually believe in Jesus every pastor that gets up and opens a Bible is not
necessarily preaching the Word of God and preaching the truth there are many
false prophets that have gone out into the world there are gonna be crypto
Jews other kinds of false teachers and false prophets out there we need to
beware and at the end of the day the Word of God is the is the test for
everything I mean without the Word of God we don't know who to believe we
don't know what to believe right one guy preaches this one guy preaches
this and a lot of people say well I'm just gonna follow my heart you know
the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it
and there's a way that seems right to a man but the end there are the ways
of death so something seeming right or feeling right or our heart telling us
that that religion is right this is not the right way to decide this is what
the Mormons will tell you you know hey read the Book of Mormon read
whatever the Malacaca whatever book chapter 10 verse 4 I don't remember
which book it's called I don't think it has caca in the name but it should
but anyway you know it turned Malabala chapter 10 verse 4 and they say read
it and pray about it and then you know you get the burning in the bosom
right and and if you if you read it's it's that's their little
superstitious hocus-pocus whatever because the and and then you'll you'll
show them in the Bible where their religion is completely contrary to
scripture and they'll just tell you well I know what I felt I know what I
felt in my heart and they won't listen to reason here's the thing at
the end of the day the Word of God is the final authority the Bible is
the final authority I mean honestly if you don't think that the Bible is the
final authority and the final test you're honestly in the wrong church
like like you're confused about what this religion is here because we are as
Mohammed would call us people of the book okay we are all about the Bible
this is I mean what is our what is our faith in our faiths in the Word of
God I mean this is the rock upon which we stand I know I'm going to
heaven because these things are written unto those of us who believe on the
name of the Son of God that we may know we have eternal life that's how I
know I'm saved is because it's written the Bible is our final authority you
say well you got follow the Holy Spirit amen but here's the difference
between the Holy Spirit's leading and the burning in the bosom here's the
difference between following the Holy Spirit and following your heart here's
the difference between following the Holy Spirit and it don't feel right
here's the difference the Holy Spirit lines up with God's Word and actually
uses God's Word to lead you okay so yes I'm 100% for following the
leading of the Holy Spirit and that will the Bible says the Holy Spirit
will guide us into all truth but the difference between that and what the
Mormons are talking about is that the Holy Spirit will not speak of himself
but he will take of mind Christ said and will show it unto you and so the
way that the Holy Spirit leads us is by bringing the Word of God to our mind
bringing scripture to our mind so basically here's the Holy Spirit's
leading hi my name is rabbi so-and-so I'm a messianic rabbi and then it's
like calm you know be not ye called rabbi that's the Holy Spirit because
that's a Bible verse that God is reminding you of and he's using that to
guide you so look the voice of the Holy Spirit is always gonna line up with
scripture he's not gonna tell you something that contradicts the Bible
the Holy Spirit's not gonna come along and just tell you you know what just
go ahead and and you know baptize that baby and just you know drink you
know drink the booze and just go you know and just go ahead it's just all
these I don't know what you want to do or something that you just well you
know I asked God about it and this is what God's leading me to do God's
leading me to go to this church over here where they're you know you know
preaching out of the NIV or something and it's just it's just the Holy
Spirit's leading me there well that's funny because the Bible because the
Bible says that every jot and every tittle of God's Word would be
preserved and the NIV is not a preserved jot and tittle Bible because it
doesn't translate 100% from the Hebrew in the Old Testament because it because
the editors of the NIV believe that the Old Testament Hebrew is corrupt so
sometimes they decide to go with the Septuagint instead so you know I don't
believe that the Holy Spirit would ever lead anyone to a corrupt Bible
when we have the right Bible right here you know why would the Holy
Spirit lead you to a Bible that's not even fully translated from the
original Hebrew in the Old Testament when Jesus said every jot and every
tittle would be preserved of the Old Testament Scripture well guess what this
is the Bible that translates from the original Hebrew 100% of the time in
the Old Testament every single time and it doesn't it doesn't say oh well
we're gonna go with the Greek this time no no it's 100% Hebrew in the Old
Testament 100% Greek in the New Testament you know don't you know my
dad's pastor back when he was a kid the pastor who won my dad to the Lord and
won my mom to the Lord both back in the 1960s you know he was issued the
New American Standard when it came out and he you know started using the New
American Standard he didn't really know better or revised standard version
or whatever it was back then one of these wrong Bibles and you know
somebody asked him about it and he didn't really know what the right
answer was he didn't know is it you know should I do King James or should I
be on the new Bible and I mean he just he just got on his knees and just
prayed and asked God to show him which one was the right one and he
looked at both of them and you know he walked away obviously embracing the
King James Bible I think anyone who sincerely seeks the truth is going to
find it okay the Holy Spirit is gonna lead you to a church where salvation
is preached it's by faith not of works you know the Holy Spirit's gonna lead
you to the preserved jot and tittle Bible not the Bible that says well you
know the manuscripts are so corrupt we're gonna sometimes translate something
else other than the Hebrew Bible we're gonna translate something else
sometimes okay God's not gonna lead you to that and God's sure not gonna
lead you to follow the the cult leader weirdo Joseph Smith and Brigham
Young and his followers okay and so that's the difference with the leading
of the Holy Spirit the leading of the Holy Spirit jives with God's Word so
he's bringing verses to your mind like heaven and earth shall pass away
but my word shall not pass away he's bringing verses to your mind like call
no man father be not ye called rabbi he's bringing verses to your mind that
are leading you and guiding you into all truth he's not just giving you some
feeling that leads you away to something else and so at the end of
the day there are a lot of things that seem right sound right feel right
maybe they have the right names maybe they're called the Lord and Bethel and
whatever but a Levite but at the end of the day though if it doesn't match
scripture then reject it okay this is the standard to the law and to the
testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no
light in them Isaiah chapter 8 verse 20 I believe so you know you've got to
make sure it drives distributed you'll notice that there's no mention of
scripture here where is scripture ever mentioned in Judges 17 and 18 it isn't
scriptures not on these people's minds okay they're just they're just
freestyling it and we as Christians we don't want to freestyle through our
faith freestyle Church freestyle through the Christian life we need to
search the scriptures daily and figure out whether these things are so and you
know what be careful young people too because you know when I was a teenager
before I went out soul winning because going out so winning knocking doors you
really learn a lot about religion but before I started soul winning man I
just thought everybody who said they were a Christian was saved pretty
much and so looking back I actually dated several girls that weren't saved
now I never knowingly dated anyone who was unsaved because you know I knew
that that was a bad thing to do and we're not to be unequally yoked
together with unbelievers and you know you don't want to date someone who's not
saved because then you can end up marrying someone who's not saved which
is a big no-no but I did accidentally date a few girls that were
not saved in my naivety okay and so here's some advice for you young people
you know before you get romantically involved with someone you should check
their salvation yourself and not just say oh they're Baptist saved
Presbyterian saved Calvary Chapel saved you know just yeah I mean check
their salvation yourself and don't be naive like I was because I literally
just thought that the girls at the Presbyterian Church were saved that the
girls of the Baptist Church were saved the girls at the non-denom church
as long as it wasn't a tongue-talking place long as it wasn't one of these
charismatic lose your salvation churches I just assumed they were all
saved but then once I actually started sowing I started actually talking
to my friends about the gospel I started realizing that a lot of them
weren't even saved and they would say like I remember sitting in the car
talking to this girl one time this is a girl that I dated and she was
talking about how oh she's really backslidden back then and she's like I was so
backslidden I feel like if I would have died at that time I don't think I
would have gone to heaven because I was because I was sinning a lot I was
like what what did you just say like what just what just came out of your
mouth like what you don't think you would have gone to heaven because you
weren't living right just total wrong salvation right this this girl had
no clue about the gospel and so before you ever get romantically
involved with anyone you know what check their salvation and don't just assume
and just be dating for weeks and months and just well they're Baptist you
know you should actually talk about that and figure that out and by the way
that's the most important thing you know I don't care how many points of
compatibility you're out there that's the number one compatibility
point that's a deal breaker and and look this has nothing to do with the
sermon but since I'm on the subject don't ever marry someone who isn't saved
now if you're married to someone who's not saved you you you know you need to
stay married and just make the best of it and it is what it is at this
point right it's too late for you hopefully your spouse will get saved
otherwise you just need to just make the best of the situation but but
let me say this if you Christian young people in this room if you go
out and marry an unsaved person you are a complete idiot if you do that
okay because let me tell you something unsaved people are way more messed up
than you think I mean unsaved people's hearts are corrupt like like even us
that are saved we have a corrupt nature don't we as far as the old man
we have the flesh we have the simple man and so we have the
capability to be rotten as well but let me tell you so at least we have
the Holy Spirit at least we have the new man you know we have Jesus Christ
within us the hope of glory I mean that's a big difference my friend
having Jesus in your heart makes a lot of difference people out there they
might look good on the outside they might seem super nice super cool if they
don't have Jesus though it's corruption my friend and and you say well not so
so he's different you know I'll get him saved later if he won't get saved
before you're even married he's not gonna get saved after you're married
chances are you know again if you're already married to someone that's
that's unsaved yeah let's try to get them saved and let's pray and talk
to them and and do our best and yeah great but do not marry an unsaved
person okay because here's let me just see if I can really scare you
because unsaved people have the potential to become a reprobate now a
saved person can never become a reprobate but an unsaved person no
matter how nice they are right now no matter how cool they are right now 10
years from now 20 years from now they might become a rapper what's to
stop them from becoming a reprobate can you really guarantee you know at least
if they're saved you know that no matter how bad things get they're never
gonna be a reprobate no matter how backslidden they get they're not gonna
become a reprobate if you don't know what a reprobate is well you need
to hear some of my preaching on that subject just go to our church website
and just look up the word reprobate on that sermon page fight control F
find on page reprobate and grab some popcorn and take a few hours and
yeah do it if you don't know what that word means if you do know what that word
means then you would agree that you'd be an idiot to marry an unsaved
person because we're living in a day where people are married for 10 years
20 years 30 years and then all of a sudden what does their spouse come
out with oh by the way I'm a faggot now and I know people personally
where their parents did that and it broke their hearts it was it was
just a shock to the fan it just destroyed their family made their lives
miserable you know I have one friend in particular who that's her situation
her dad just after like 20 some years of marriage just decided to become a
homo and he's living the homo lifestyle which involves not what you
see on TV it involves just yeah yeah listen to those sermons I recommended
but anyway and but but and basically my friend's mom just continues to live
with him because it's like they're old they're older and she you know this
is like this is her breadwinner you know it's like she she's she doesn't
have her own career she's living at home she's you know she she just has her
own room doing her own thing but you know that's not nice that's not a happy
story is it don't be an idiot okay it's you know marriage is hard enough
when you're both saved why you want to make it harder on yourself why
do you want to torture yourself why do you hate yourself do not marry an
unsaved person test everything with the Word of God and make sure that the
person that you marry is actually saved let's borrow doesn't have word of
prayer father we thank you so much for this story Lord and and the things that
we can learn from it and I pray that you would just help all of us to
always make sure that when we follow your leading that that that we always
know that it's your leading and not our imagination and the way that we
know that is by checking it with Scripture and Lord God I pray that
every young person that's in the room today Lord I pray that they would grow
up and marry a godly Christian Lord I pray that you would provide godly
Christian spouses for the young people in this room and Lord please protect
them as you protected me from accidentally or purposely marrying an
unsaved person Lord please protect us in our in our families our children
from that fate and in Jesus name we pray amen