If you'd open your Bibles tonight to the 18th chapter of the book of Judges, Judges chapter 18. now these final chapters of the book of judges are wild dog chapters i have to tell you working through these final chapters it's it's uh... not easy i'm really wrestling with next sunday night that's a bizarre story there but we'll handle it in just the way that god reveals it as we will in tonight's text i know of a expositor whom i greatly admire who when he got done with the sampson story just stopped he said that's enough i'm not going on any further because these stories get so bizarre But tonight we're gonna look at the 18th chapter of Judges and we'll go through it and we'll read the text as we move through it. So before we begin, let's look to the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank you for the inspired scriptures. We realize that all scripture is inspired by you. Every word, every verb, every noun, every preposition, every adjective, adverb, they're all inspired by you. And we realize that you have made these scriptures available to us so that we may be profited in our spiritual life. We pray that this text tonight will minister to us in a profitable way, and we will thank you for that. In Jesus' name, amen. few weeks ago i was told a story by a man in our church who actually in a remote ways connected to the story he knows about it intricately there was a a man that he knew at a good job he had a good family seemingly a good life he was a religious man he was a man who went to church he never had gone to a casino before in his life but he decided because casinos are cropping up that he would go just one time and one time was all it took He seemed to have a little fun. He seemed to have a chance of winning some money. He seemed to enjoy himself. And frankly, over the next weeks, he became completely addicted. And in a matter of a few months, he lost his family, his house, his job, and his money. When the man from our church was talking with him, he was thinking of taking his own life. Everything he had lived for was gone. He threw it all away for a few hours of what he thought would be some pleasure in a gambling casino. Now when you come to Judges 18, you come to a tribe that throws their whole inheritance away. They throw their inheritance away for just a life of ease, and if that's not enough, they have a false minister telling them that's the right thing to do. They're not interested in obeying God, they're not interested in understanding the Word of God, and as a result of that, they're going to toss completely away their inheritance. They lose it all, and here's the story of how it all happened. When you look at this 18th chapter, what you see is when God's people begin to move away from the Word, and they do what's right in their own eyes, and they start doing what's wrong, life may seem to be good and successful for a while. But in the end, God's people will lose their inheritance. There are many churches right now who are breaking away from reverent worship. They're moving away from a clear, careful teaching of the scriptures. And many of these churches right now seem to be flourishing and prospering. In some instances, the numbers are huge and the budgets are big. But there will come a day when many of these churches will be spit out of the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they are going to lose everything, just like the tribe of Dan. What happens to the tribe of Dan is tragic. The same kind of thing can happen to a church and it can happen to an individual. When you live in a society in which everybody just does what they want to do and there's no authority base like the Word of God to be the authority base, proper problem-solving skills are lost. And when you come to verse 1 of the 18th chapter, here's what we read, in those days There was no king in Israel and in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking an inheritance for themselves to live in for until that day an inheritance had not been allotted to them as a possession among the tribes of Israel. When you come to verse 1 there are two problems that face this tribe of Dan. First of all we are introduced to the idea Israel has no king. And what that tells us is there was no solid leadership to guide Israel. The truth is they did have a king. They had God. They had the word of God. They had the greatest king. They had the king of kings. And they should have had the scriptures to be their guidebook. However, they didn't really care. They didn't really care about what God wanted. They didn't really care about what God's word said. No one was interested in scriptures. There's no one in this tribe that's interested in true worship, because they don't even go to Shiloh, where they could worship God honestly and accurately. Nobody cared here about the Word of God. Nobody's leading Israel to even think about God, His Word, and His promises. Any tribe of Israel in this book of Judges could have turned to the Lord and said, we've done wrong. We need to get back to the basics. We need to get back to a right relationship with God. But Israel was so far removed from that type of thinking, she wasn't about to do that. We're moving toward another political election year. that it made a difference whether a person believes in evolution or God created the world. He said, well, that doesn't make a difference. It's not relevant to turning the economy around. I disagree. If you're not going to think right about God, if you're not going to honor God, he's not going to honor the individual or the nation. It makes a big difference as to what we think about God. But that's the kind of day we live in. We're living in a day just like judges. There doesn't seem to be anybody who really wants to turn this nation back to God and his word. Oh, somebody may say they're Christian, but they're not real serious about understanding the word. The second problem that appears to show up there in verse 1 is Dan had no inheritance. And this is what prompts them to go out and look for an inheritance. They want to get one on their own. But let me be very, very clear on this point. Dan did have an inheritance because God had given Dan one. He had given, in the book of Joshua, Dan an inheritance between Ephraim and Judah that stretched all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. But here's your problem. Dan refused to trust God, drive out the Amorites, and as a result, they buckled to the pressure. And you remember when we started this book of Judges, they moved up into the hills. They went running away from trouble because they didn't want to trust God and face anything. And because of the oppressions that had taken place between the Amorites and the Philistines, that tribe of Dan moved into an eastern direction, and they moved up into the territory that Benjamin had. And by the way, this may jog your memory a little bit, but you'll remember back in the days of Deborah and Barak, the Danites didn't lift one finger. to help Israel do anything. They just sat in their ships by the sea doing nothing as if life was just a life of ease. They didn't want any hassles. They didn't want to face anything. They didn't want to have to take a stand for what's right. They went along with the flow and they went on the run. They gave up their inheritance. But now things are a little different. They're a little cramped. I mean, we're coming off that Samson story, and Samson had been from their family line, and the Danites decide, well, we need more room to operate. We need some new territory. And coming off of the Samson momentum, where he killed some of the Philistines, the Amorites and Philistines had been routed. They decided, it's time for us to expand our land boundaries. So in all reality, Dan does have an inheritance, but what you'll see is Dan is not interested with what they have. They want something somebody else has. And it's that that's going to cost them their inheritance. So they came up with a three-fold plan, a three-fold solution. Verse 2 says, And what are you doing in this place? And what do you have here? He said to them, thus and so has Micah done to me. He's hired me and I've become his priest. They said to him, inquire of God, please, that we may know whether our way on which we are going will be prosperous. The priest said to them go in peace your way in which you are going has the Lord's approval Then the five men departed and came to Elish and saw the people who were in it living in security after the manner of the Sidonians quiet and secure for there was no ruler humiliating them for anything in the land and they were far from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone when they came back to their brothers at Zora and Eshtaol their brothers said to them What do you report they said arise? let us go up against them for we have seen the land and behold it's very good and will you sit still do not delay to go to enter to possess the land when you enter you will come to a secure people with a spacious land for God has given it into your hand a place where there is no lack of anything that is on the earth now this tribe of Dan is not interested in land that God has given them. So the first thing they do is they send these spies to go out to sea or to scout out some land that they can take. Now the tragedy of this is that Dan could have repented of their failure. They could have said, you know, God's given us a land. What we need to do is go back to the Lord. We need to go back and seek out his will. Let's go back to the basics. We ran away from the will of God. Let's go back to the land that God has given us and let's trust him to give us that land. But they didn't do that. They didn't want to go to work on getting their own land. That'd be too much work. Instead of doing that, they said, let's go on the prowl for some easy pickings. What they wanted to do was send out some spies to scout out some land that they could just take. And they just wanted to go, and they wanted to take it. And that's one of the real problems of a world in which people do that which is right in their own eyes. They just want what others have, and they'll do what they have to do to get it. If you don't believe that, just look at the protests that are taking place all over the world right now. A bunch of protests by a bunch of losers. And the protest is simple. We want to take what you have. We don't want to have to trust God for anything. We don't have to work for anything. We don't want to do that. What we want to do is God has seemingly blessed you and we want you to give it to us. Somebody said that basically there are three philosophies of life. What is mine is mine and I'll keep it. What's yours is mine, and I'll take it. Or what's mine is yours, and I'll share it. These Danites were going for philosophy number two. They decided, look, we're going to go out. We're going to find something somebody else has that's already in existence. We'll find some people that can't defend themselves. And we're going to go out and rout them and steal their land. And we'll end up with a good place to live. There are many people who will do just about anything except what is right before God. There are many people who aren't interested in God's word or will unless it's going to profit them. And we must make sure, ladies and gentlemen, that in our life we go after the right thing before God, not the easy thing. So there are seven Danite actions brought out in those verses. First of all, five spies are sent and they end up at Micah's house. That's what we learn at verse two. Five men spies, valiant warriors, they head out to spy out the land. They come to Micah's house and they decide to stay there for a night. I want you to notice they don't go to Shiloh. Shiloh's the place where they could really talk to real priests. Shiloh's the place where they could consult the Word of God. Shiloh's the place where they could have looked up in Scripture and found out where their land boundaries were, and then they could have asked the priest to pronounce a blessing on them in the will of God. They're not interested in the will of God, so they don't go anywhere near Shiloh. They go to Micah's house. The second action is these five spies hear and see the Levites staying at Micah's house. Verse 3 says, when they were near the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of a young man. Now, when the Hebrew text says they recognized the voice, there's an interesting Hebrew word used there for voice which would seem to indicate they detected some type of accent. As one commentator said, they probably heard him say, shalom, you all, or something like that. There was something that they recognized about this guy's voice. And they saw this young priest. And it baffled them because priests weren't supposed to be here. They were supposed to be ministering in Shiloh, or they were supposed to be in one of the Levitical cities. They were shocked to see him. They realized this isn't the place that he should be. Here's a Levitical priest, but he's way out of his realm. But it didn't bother them that he was out of the will of God. It didn't bother them that he wasn't interested in the word of God. And thirdly, the priest tells them how he's been hired by Micah. Notice verse 4, he said to them, thus and so Micah has done to me. He's hired me. I become his priest. Basically, he says, I'm a priest for hire and Micah has given me a good job. Notice who he says he is. I'm Micah's priest, not God's, and he isn't God's. He's not dealing with the word of God. He's not dealing with the will of God. He's been hired by Micah. You'd think he'd almost be embarrassed to even say that, but this is how corrupt these religious leaders had become. They were just involved in a job, and that's all it was. It was nothing more than a job to them, and they were working for hire. Dr. J. Verna McGee said, God have mercy on any church that hires a minister who will not preach and teach them the word of God. God have mercy on any church who will just hire somebody because he will tell them what they want to hear. Which brings us to the fourth fact, the spies asked the priest if God's going to prosper them. Notice verse 5 says, they said to him, inquire of God, please, that we may know whether our way on which we are going will be prosperous. Now this is what people out of touch with God focus on, prosperity. People who are out of touch with God aren't interested in the will of God, they're interested in prosperity. They don't say, what's God's will first for my life? Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. The first thing they want to know is, will we prosper? And I want you to understand what's happening here. God has already revealed in His Word what the will for Dan is. They're not interested in God's Word. They're not interested in God's will. So here's what they do. They ask a false religious leader to tell him something, and he's going to tell him something actually contrary to the Word of God. This priest is completely out of the will of God. He doesn't tell him that, which coincides with the will of God. If you and I do not use the word of God as our authority, we can end up making crazy decisions. We can end up thinking it's the will of God when it's just the opposite of the will of God. And I want to tell you there are truckloads of ministers who will tell you just the opposite of what God's word and will is. They'll tell you something that is actually wrong. And if you don't believe that, And you just look what happened on midnight September 21, 2011, when a Navy lieutenant married his homosexual partner because the Pentagon now allows chaplains in the military to perform same-sex marriages. Those chaplains in the military should be telling these homosexuals the truth. You're involved in something evil. You're involved in an abominable sin that's going to bring the wrath of God. They should be warning them. You're not on a path of blessing at all. But some of these chaplains are telling them, there's nothing wrong with you. There's nothing wrong with your lifestyle. In fact, they're marrying them. These are religious leaders in the military telling the world just the opposite of what the truth of God's word says. That is exactly what this priest does to the tribe of Dan. Which brings us to the fifth fact. The priest tells the spies they have God's blessing on them. Look at verse six. The priest said to them, go in peace, your way in which you are going has the Lord's approval. Now, here's the thing. None of this has God's approval. None of this has God's blessing. Yet when you initially look at this, It would appear as though this guy is a prophetic genius. When you look at what happens here in just a moment, you would think, well, wow, this priest must really be in tune with God. He's just making it up. He's not in tune with the word or will of God at all. He doesn't know the word of God. He doesn't know the will of God. Anything that he says here doesn't correspond to either one. He's telling the tribe of Dan just the opposite of what God wanted. I read an article about Jim Wallace, who runs that so-called Christian outfit, Sojourner, that is supposedly a Christian organization. Well, he just took a donation of $475,000 from George Soros, who is a pro-abortion atheist. And now he's going around defending the fact that he took the money. And he's basically saying, well, now I took his money because he gave it to me because he likes my politics. And when I read that, I said, what about 3 John 7? The Word of God that says, you don't take anything from lost Gentiles. You don't take a dime. He's trying to convince people that he's doing the will of God. This is the will of God, when in fact it is just the opposite. That is exactly what this priest was doing. Which brings us to the sixth fact, the spies come to Lysh and see some good land. Verse 7 says, then the five men departed and came to Lysh and saw the people who were living in it securely after the manner of the Sidonians. The land of Lysh was plush. It's about a hundred miles north of where Dan was camped. It's good land. It's located in the northern promised land of Palestine, about 25 miles north of the Sea of Galilee, about 27 miles east of Tyre in the Mediterranean Sea. This is good, fertile land. It would be easy to take. There were a few peaceful people living on the land, but there was not enough to intimidate this tribe. This would be an easy take. It would be an easy target for Dan to move in. It would be an easy score. They could go in there, and they could kill the people and take it. And by the way, that's what they're going to do. They're going to murder these people. If you look down to verse 27, "...then they took what Micah had made, and the priest who had belonged to him, and came to lyse to the people quiet and secure, and struck them with the edge of the sword, and they burned the city with fire, and there was no one to deliver them." They're out to murder them! And you want to know why they want to do it? Because that's the easy thing to do. We don't want to have to go face truth before God. We don't have to go, want to go back and clean up some of those Philistine areas. That's going to be tough. But it's just easy to go murder these innocent people. Ladies and gentlemen, there is no greater danger to the life of a Christian than the love of an easy life at the expense of a love of an obedient life. Someone has wisely said there's no greater danger faced by believers in the United States of America than the danger of ease. And if you give most people a choice between you choose the easy way or you choose the right way before God, watch what most people choose. They won't choose what's right before God, they'll take the easy way out. After all, why should we stand up and fight for God and his word when we can just get along with everybody without any hassles? Why should we purpose to sacrificially live when you can just settle down and enjoy life? But I love something Gary Enrig said in his commentary on Judges, no lover of the cross can retire from God's mission to the world. Which brings us to the seventh fact, the spies return home and they tell them they've found the perfect land for them to take, verses 8 to 10. The spies go back home and they said, let's go take the land. And when Moses sent out his spies to scout out the promised land, the two come back and said, this is God's will and we can do it. The rest of them said, we can't do it. Well, now they all come back and they say, this isn't God's will, but we can do it. We can take these people. This will be easy. Let's go do it. Ladies and gentlemen, this isn't God's will, but that's how people can become so distorted when they move away from the word. They can convince themselves that they are doing God's will when in fact they're doing just the opposite of God's will. I know of a man who left his wife and children for another woman, convinced that he was doing God's will. He somehow in his distorted brain convinced himself he's doing the will of God. It's not God's will. He has no biblical justification at all for this action, but that's what he decided to do. He tried to convince people that he was doing God's will. That's just like this tribe of Dan. Let's go. This is the will of God. Which brings us to the second solution. Dan decides to steal Micah's idols and priest. Notice verse 11. Then from the family of the Danites, from Zorah and from Eshtoel, 600 men armed with weapons of war set out. They went up and camped at Kiriath Jereim in Judah. Therefore, they called that place Manahadan. To this day, behold, it is west of Kiriath-Jerim. They passed from there to the hill country of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah. Then the five men who went to spy out the country of Lysh, said to their kinsmen, Do you know that there are in these houses an ephod and household idols and a graven image and a molten image? Now therefore consider what you should do. And they turned aside there and came to the house of the young man, the Levite, to the house of Micah, and asked him of his welfare, the six hundred men armed with their weapons of war, who were the sons of Dan, stood by the entrance of the gate. Now five men, who went to spy out the land, went up and entered there, and took the graven image, and the ephod, and the household idols, and the molten image, while the priests stood by the entrance of the gate with six hundred men armed with weapons of war. When these went into Micah's house, and took the graven image, the ephod, and the household idols, and the molten image, the priests said to them, What are you doing? And they said to him, Be silent, put your hand over your mouth, and come with us, and be to us a father and a priest. Is it better for you to be a priest to the house of one man, or to be a priest to the tribe and a family in Israel? The priest's heart was glad, and he took the ephod, and the household idols, and the graven image, and went among the people. Then they turned and departed, and put the little ones, and the livestock, and the valuables in front of them. When they had gone some distance from the house of Micah, the men who were in the houses near Micah's house assembled and overtook the sons of Dan. They cried to the sons of Dan, who turned around and said to Micah, What is the matter with you? that you have assembled together he said you've taken away my gods which I made and the priest and have gone away and what do I have besides so how can you say to me what is the matter with you the sons of Dan said to him do not let your voice be heard among us or else fierce men will fall upon you and you'll lose your life with the lives of your household so the sons of Dan went on their way and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him he turned and went back to his house According to verses 11 to 13, 600 men with weapons of war took off for Lysh, and they first camped at Kiriath Jerim in Judah. That's a campsite that they named Mananat Dan, which means Camp of Dan. They broke the camp, and they went to the hill country of Ephraim, and they come right to the house of Micah. And while they are at Micah's house, according to verses 14 and 15, the five spies inform the other warriors, you know, Micah is a guy who has his own priest. He has his own shrine. In fact, he has his own idols. And he tells that to those 600 warriors. And so they decided to stand by the entrance of the gate and the five spies went into the shrine and they took the idols. And when the priest saw that they were stealing the idols, he confronts them and he says, what are you doing? And the warrior said to them, well, you shut your mouth and what we're going to do is offer you a job. I mean, after all, having more people call you father and having more people look to you as a religious leader is a lot better than just working for one family. And all of a sudden the priest who's confronting the Danites now is offered a job and notice what the text says in verse 20, his heart was glad. That's what you have in religion. That's what you have in this religious leader. That's what he'd been looking for. He's always been looking for a high-paying job. He wants a job promotion. He wants more money in ministry. This priest has never been interested in doing God's will one time in his life. To him, as we saw last time, it's all about him having a job. So he decided he would accept the offer and go with them, and the Danites liked this priest because he told them what they wanted to hear, even though he didn't know beans about the Word of God and will of God. But this minister fit their mold. He's the kind of guy that would tell them the things they want to hear. And so this was a nice promotion for him. So now he's got more people. He's got a bigger place of worship. He's got more pay. And all of this is evil religion. None of this is sanctioned by God. Not one bit of it. If you're a fake minister, you can probably land yourself a really good paying job. if you'll tell people what they want to hear. Look at Rob Bell, the heretic from hell. He's now leaving Grand Rapids to move to Los Angeles to work on a television drama. He'll tell you he's following the leading of the Lord. He never has followed the leading of the Lord. He never has accurately expounded the scriptures, but he's generated some pretty big numbers. When we were on vacation, we stumbled on an ad for ministry opportunities in the South. You should have seen this stuff. I wish I would have had a printer. I'd have printed it off and brought it back here. There is not one emphasis at all on a need for a minister to carefully expound the scriptures. But there were all kinds of job openings. If you're willing to promote a liberal agenda, one of them said, if you're a CEO manager type and you know how to run a church corporation, we'll offer you a big package. The fact is, it's still true today. What happened here? If you tell religious people God loves them, and tell religious people that God likes them just the way they are, and you put on a show that'll entertain them, and you tell them God'll prosper them, He'll give them a job, and if you're likable, and you tell them God wants them happy, and God wants them wealthy, and God wants them never to be hurting, and God won't ever judge them, you'll do just fine. But I tell you the moment That you begin to expound the scriptures that says, do what's right before the Lord. And you need to repent of sin. And you need to turn to the things of the Lord. In many instances, you'll find yourself out of a job. And I know of what I speak. Because years ago, I experienced that myself in Pocatello, Idaho. It's interesting because 18 years ago, Friday, was my first elk hunt and I shot my first bull. I'll tell you, I have wonderful memories of the Elkhunts when I lived in the West. I have lousy memories of the church. I accepted a call of God to go there and teach the word. And I started systematically teaching the word four times a week. And there were people in leadership that hated it. Ask Dennis and Sherry. They'll tell you. They'll back this up. They hated it because it stepped on their toes. They didn't want to come to hear the Word of God. In fact, one of the leaders said to me, I don't want to come to learn the Bible at a deep level. They hated any mention of rewards. They hated any mention of loss of rewards. And they spearheaded a movement to try to get us out of there, which didn't work. Well, I tell you, this Mamby Pamby minister and judges, he'd have done real well in Pocatello, Idaho. According to verse 21, the Danites must have thought that Micah's family may come after them because they stole their idols and they put their women and their children and livestock up in front and they kept the distance between them and Micah. And when Micah found out they've taken my idols and they've taken my priest, he gathered together some of his men and he went after them. But when they got into the earshot of the Danites, the Danites turned to him and said, Micah, what are you doing tracking us? Micah said, hey, you stole my priest. You stole my idols. And they said, you better turn around and go home or we'll kill you. I find that interesting because it's so ironic Micah has stolen money from his mother. You remember in chapter 17. And now this comes full circle. His mother made the idol and the Danites come and they steal that from him. What goes around comes around. which brings us to the third solution. Dan takes Lysh and sets up a place for idol worship. Notice verse 27, then they took what Micah had made and the priest who had belonged to him and they came to Lysh to a people quiet and secure and struck them with the edge of the sword and they burned the city with fire and there was no one to deliver them because it was far from Sidon and they had no dealings with anyone and it was in the valley which is near Beth Rehob and they rebuilt the city and lived in it they called the name of the city Dan after the name of Dan their father who was born in Israel however the name of the city formally was Lysh the sons of Dan set up for themselves the graven image and Jonathan the son of Gershom and the son of Manasseh and if you have a good English translation here there ought to be a footnote that says that should read the son of Moses he and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land so they set up for themselves Micah's graven image which he had made all the time that the house of God was at Shiloh now I want you to understand something. Just because people appear to be successful in religion doesn't mean it is truly righteous. Success in this world, even in church, in anything, doesn't prove anything. Just because you seem to accomplish something doesn't mean one's doing what's right before the Lord. This tribe, when you look at this, appears to be successful in what they're doing. I mean, the sons of Dan, they took the idol, they take the priest, they go to Lyce, they kill the people, they burn down the city, they rebuild the city. This is cold-blooded murder done in the name of God. And then they decide this is a nice place for us to live and they set up a city and they called it home. They named the city Dan. They set up their idol. They made Jonathan their priest. He's got a good job. There's religion here. There's seemingly prosperity here. When you look at this, you would think, my goodness, God has blessed them. We're right with God. But the fact is, To be right with God, they would have traveled about 19 miles to Shiloh and gone 19 miles north of Jerusalem because that's where God could be found. That's where the Word of God could be found. But they're not interested in doing that. They made up their own religious worship system and they had their own pet priest. Verse 30 is an interesting verse because it says that this Jonathan, who was this priest, is the son of Gershom, the son of Moses. But you'll notice that some use the word Manasseh. And I'm convinced the original Hebrew does read son of Moses. And the reason why I say that is, if you could see this in the Hebrew text, To make this as simple as I can in English, Moses, Moshe, is M-S-H. But in Hebrew, in the Masoretic text, in which they vowel point the text for pronunciation purposes, there's M-S-H, but just above the letter M is a little letter N. which there's one letter difference between Moses and Manasseh and most believe that the reason why the scribes added that is because they were so ashamed of the fact that a guy related to Moses could actually have been so involved in such corrupt religion that the Mazarites added this little N above the word Moses so that they wouldn't even have to pronounce it. How in the world do you reach such a level? How does a grandson of Moses end up being such a loser? All you have to do is drift away from the word. Start doing that which is right in your own eyes, and that's the path you're on. J. Vernon McGee told a story of something that affected him in the late 1930s. He was studying for ministry. He said, I was greatly impressed with the life and the ministry of D.L. Moody. D.L. Moody died in 1899, and in the 1930s, Dr. McGee was preparing for ministry, and he said, I consider D.L. Moody to be a tremendous man of God. He was used by God all over the world. He said, one time I was talking with a man who actually knew D.L. Moody, and he actually knew his family. And he said, this man told me, told Dr. McGee, that one of D.L. Moody's sons held an office in one of the most liberal organizations in the United States. And Dr. McGee said, I was shocked. He said, I couldn't understand how could such a son of such a wonderful man of God, how could a son of a man who's committed to the scriptures do such a terrible thing? Well, it's just like here in the book of Judges. His son was just like this priest. He wanted a job. He didn't care whether or not it was the will of God or whether or not it was in agreement with the Word of God. As long as he got his paycheck, he wanted a job and he took it. And when you read chapter 18, you think, man, this worked out great for Dan. I mean, they go in there, they've got their priest, they kill those people, they've got their land. It's like happy life. But I want to tell you, they pay a big price. First of all, they're not where they're supposed to be. They're not where God wanted them to be. They aren't in the land God had given them to live in. This isn't the land God gave to Dan. And so you'll never really be happy if you're doing something out of the will of God. Oh, for a moment you may appear to have happiness, but I tell you in the end there'll be some real lonely times because you won't be doing the will of God and you won't be in tune with God. Secondly, in the list of tribes, in the inheritance that is listed in 1st Chronicles, Dan is missing. The fact is, Dan is not going to be blessed by God. They made a decision not to obey God, they're going to pay the consequences. Thirdly, when you read the book of Revelation, and you read Revelation chapter 7, and there are those tribes that are so honored in that seventh chapter of Revelation, the tribe of Dan is missing. You see, they chose to do what's wrong before God, and they threw away their inheritance. They chose the easy way. They chose the plush life. They chose the peaceful way. They had their religion. They had their temple. They had their priest. And they lost it all. Now I want to take you tonight to two passages of scripture. One of them is in Ephesians because I'm preparing to do a study of Ephesians. I'd like you to go to Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5. And I want to draw your attention to verses 3 to 5 of Ephesians chapter 5. But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you as is proper among the saints. And there must be no filthiness and silly talk or coarse jesting which are not fitting but rather giving thanks. For this you know with certainty that no immoral or impure person or covetous man who is an idolater has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. I want you to flip over to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 15. We read in Hebrews 12, 15, See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God, and that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled. That there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. For he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears. You can throw away your inherit. just like the tribe of Dan. You can, as a believer, say, you know what? I'm not going to discipline myself to obey God. I'm going to live my life my way. I'm going to do what feels right to me. I'm not going to, in any way, govern myself by the scriptures. And you can toss away your inheritance. Now, here's the thing. Had anybody at this tribe or in that tribe said, you know, We're messing up here. Maybe we ought to go to Shiloh. Maybe we ought to talk to a real priest who knows the scriptures. Maybe we ought to go to where we know God's presence is. And maybe we should discuss the will of God. And maybe we as a tribe should turn back to the Lord. They could have found the grace of God. They could have found the forgiveness of God. They could have found the blessing of God. But they never did that. Dan was a true tribe of Israel and Dan was a tribe that threw away their inheritance just because it was pleasurable and easy. Don't ever you make the same mistake. We need to be people of God who are interested in carefully understanding the scriptures. We need to be people of God who are carefully interested in obeying the scriptures, even when it isn't easy. We need to be people of God who decide no matter what, I'll obey God's word because in the end, it's those who honor God whom God honors. May we pray. Our Father, we thank you tonight for the word of God. We realize, Lord, that this tribe that had so much potential threw it all away. for just some momentary gratification. How stupid. But I pray that stupidity would never hit any of us. I pray, Lord, that we would not be people who would throw our inheritance away. I pray we would be focused on knowing you through the scriptures. I pray we'd be focused on knowing your word and doing your will. If you have accomplished that in any way, shape, or form here tonight, in anyone, we will thank you for that. In Jesus' name, amen.