Our text for this morning comes from Judges chapter 17 and 18. If you're using one of the Pew Bibles, you'll find that on page 194. Judges chapter 17 and 18. The theory of evolution is stupid. That's not shocking to hear a minister of the gospel say. There are lots of reasons why I say that, lots of arguments that I think are good arguments against the theory. One of those is, more narrowly speaking, it's a principle of thermodynamics. But more broadly, the principle of entropy means that things are continually devolving, continually sliding down into chaos and disorganization, the exact opposite of what we would need to be happening for macroevolution to be adding order and organization and information to the DNA of evolving organisms. In the text that we have before us this morning, we see what happens to the religious practice of a people without the presence of the Lord. And we will see the devolving, the sliding into chaos and disorganization that happens if God is not there to protect and guard us from the entropy of our own hearts. As we prepare to look at the Word of God together, let's first go to Him in prayer. Almighty and most merciful Heavenly Father, You have caused us to believe that this is your word to us, inspired by your Holy Spirit and given for our benefit. But we are weak and distracted by a great many things in our hearts and we will not attend to your word rightly in the hearing or in the application of it unless that same spirit by whom you authored the Word, takes it and makes use of it in our hearts and lives. Will you make us to understand with perfect purity your Word to us, and then conform our lives to what you teach us by it, that you might be glorified and honored and praised, and that we might know the good of conforming ever more closely to your character, to the character of Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. Judges chapter 17 and 18. There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Micah. And he said to his mother, the 1,100 pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse and also spoke it in my ears, behold, the silver is with me. I took it. And his mother said, Blessed be my son by the Lord. And he restored the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother. And his mother said, I dedicate the silver to the Lord from my hand for my son to make a carved image and a metal image. Now therefore, I will restore it to you. So when he restored the money to his mother, his mother took 200 pieces of silver and gave it to the silversmith, who made it into a carved image and a metal image, and it was in the house of Micah. And the man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and household gods and ordained one of his sons who became his priest. In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Now there was a young man of Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there. And the man departed from the town of Bethlehem in Judah to sojourn where he could find a place. And as he journeyed, he came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah. And Micah said to him, where do you come from? And he said to him, I am a Levite of Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to sojourn where I may find a place. And Micah said to him, Stay with me, and be to me a father and a priest, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year, and a suit of clothes, and your living. And the Levite went in. And the Levite was content to dwell with the man, and the young man became to him like one of his sons. And Micah ordained the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah. Then Micah said, Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, because I have a Levite as priest. In those days there was no king in Israel. And in those days the tribe of the people of Dan was seeking for itself an inheritance to dwell in, for until then no inheritance among the tribes of Israel had fallen to them. So the people of Dan sent five able men from the whole number of their tribe, from Zorah and from Eshtoel, to spy out the land and to explore it. And they said to them, Go and explore the land. And they came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there. When they were by the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young Levite. And they turned aside and said to him, Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What is your business here? And he said to them, This is how Micah dealt with me. He has hired me, and I have become his priest. And they said to him, Inquire of God, please, that we may know whether the journey on which we are setting out will succeed. And the priest said to them, Go in peace. The journey on which you go is under the eye of the Lord. Then the five men departed and came to Laish and saw the people who were there, how they lived in security after the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and unsuspecting, lacking nothing that is in the earth and possessing wealth, and how they were far from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone. And when they came to their brothers at Zorah and Eshtael, their brothers said to them, What do you report? They said, Arise, and let us go up against them. For we have seen the land, and behold, it is very good. And will you do nothing? Do not be slow to go, to enter in and possess the land. As soon as you go, you will come to an unsuspecting people. The land is spacious, for God has given it into your hands, a place where there is no lack of anything that is in the earth." So six hundred men of the tribe of Dan, armed with weapons of war, set out from Zorah and Eshter, and went up and encamped at Kiriath-Jirim in Judah. On this account that place is called Mahanadan to this day. Behold, it is west of Kiriath-Jirim. And they passed on from there to the hill country of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah. Then the five men who had gone to scout out the country of Laish said to their brothers, Do you know that in these houses there are an ephod, household gods, a carved image and a metal image? Now therefore consider what you will do. And they turned aside there and came to the house of the young Levite at the home of Micah and asked him about his welfare. Now the six hundred men of the Danites, armed with their weapons of war, stood by the entrance of the gate. And the five men who had gone to scout out the land went up and entered and took the carved image, the ephod, the household gods, and the metal image, while the priest stood by the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men armed with weapons of war. And when these went into Micah's house and took the carved image, the ephod, the household gods, and the metal image, the priest said to them, what are you doing? And they said to him, keep quiet, put your hand on your mouth and come with us and be to us a father and a priest. Is it better for you to be priest to the house of one man or to be priest to a tribe and clan in Israel? And the priest's heart was glad. He took the ephod and the household gods and the carved image and went along with the people. So they turned and departed, putting the little ones and the livestock and the goods in front of them. When they had gone a distance from the home of Micah, the men who were in the houses near Micah's house were called out, and they overtook the people of Dan. And they shouted to the people of Dan, who turned around and said to Micah, what is the matter with you, that you come with such a company? And he said, You take my gods that I made, and the priest, and go away, and what have I left? How then do you ask me what is the matter with you? And the people of Dan said to him, Do not let your voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows fall upon you, and you lose your life with the lives of your household. Then the people of Dan went their way, and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his home. But the people of Dan took what Micah had made, and the priest who belonged to him, and they came to Laish, to a people quiet and unsuspecting, and struck them with the edge of the sword and burned the city with fire. And there was no deliverer, because it was far from Sidon, and they had no dealings with anyone. It was in the valley that belonged to Beth Rehob. Then they rebuilt the city and lived in it. And they named the city Dan, after the name of Dan, their ancestor, who was born to Israel. But the name of the city was Laish at the first. And the people of Dan set up the carved image for themselves. And Jonathan, the son of Gershom, son of Moses, and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land. So they set up Micah's carved image that he made as long as the house of God was at Shiloh. Thus far, the reading of God's holy, inerrant, and life-giving word. We ask that he would add his blessing to the reading and to the preaching of it. As this passage opens, we meet this man Micah. Apparently an Ephraimite, he is living at least in the hill country of Ephraim, and we meet his mother. Micah is not a very admirable character. The first thing that we know about him is that he has stolen money from his own mother. Indeed, he's stolen a fortune from his mother. You notice what he has promised to give to this Levite later on in the passage? offered to give him room and board, and a new set of clothing every year, and 10 pieces of silver. And the Levite was pleased with these wages, 10 pieces of silver a year. Micah has stolen 1,100 pieces of silver from his mother. What is he, a drug addict or something? I mean, who steals from their mom? But he did. He knows that it is Levites who should be priests. In Matthew 17, verse 13, we see that he expects to be blessed by the Lord, because now he has a Levite as priest. So he knows that priests are supposed to be Levites, and yet he ordains his own son as priest instead. He will do, apparently, the best that he thinks he can do, whether it conforms to the law of God or not. And when he gets a Levite to be his priest, he values this Levite because he thinks that having a Levite for priest will bring him prosperity. Isn't that what he says? Now I know the Lord will prosper me. That's what he wants. He wants a gospel of prosperity. Surely his idolatry is but another example of an equally misguided attempt at the same prosperity. To serve God in some impressive way so that God will be happy with him and do what Micah wants him to do. Pastor Tim Keller says it like this, The purpose of Micah's religious efforts is to get access to God so that he can get God to do what he wants. But the goal of true faith is to give God access to your heart so that he can get you to do what he wants. See how radically different that is. Micah is seeking after prosperity rather than seeking after God. and his story is a tragedy. Our English translations do not reflect the fact that Micah is a nickname. That's not his whole full name. Twice in the Hebrew his full name is used, and translators by and large do not give us the whole name in those two instances. His full name is Micah Yehu. I think maybe you hear the name of God in that. It's because you do. His name means, who is like the Lord? Reminds me of the Song of Moses. When God, by Moses' hand, has led the people across the Red Sea, then in Exodus 15 we have the Song of Moses where he praises God. And one of the lines in that song is, Who is like Yahweh? That's Micah's name. And the one whose name is Who is like Yahweh has reduced him to idols that his own hand has made. in his pursuit of prosperity. And his pursuit ends in the loss of everything. That's the testimony of his own lips. When Dan comes and takes away the ephod and the priest and the household gods and these metal images that he has made, Micah chases after them. They ask him, what's wrong with you? He says, how can you ask that? You took everything from me. I have nothing left. Isn't that sad? That when what a silversmith can make for 200 shekels of silver is taken away from him, that's everything. Life is over. Just kill him now, because everything is gone. I mean, in a subtle way, the text mocks such gods. 600 people with spears can pick up your god and take him away? That's a funny God. That's a tragic God. We can identify the idols of our own hearts by asking ourselves a diagnostic question related to Micah's loss. What is it that if someone were to take it away from me, if I didn't have the love of my family, the respect of my peers, the security of my portfolio, the health that I enjoy? What is it? What is it that if I did not have it anymore, if somebody took it away from me, that would just be the end? I have nothing left. Life is over for me. Because you took everything. What is that thing? Because whatever that thing is, that's what you're worshiping. That's what we're trusting in. That's what we're hoping in. This text provides us with a verbal connection to a curse from Deuteronomy 27.15. In the two words that are used by Micah's mother when she orders these two things from the silversmith, however your translation happens to have them, the ESV calls them a carved image and a metal image. And then again, the text tells us that these two things were made. Those two Hebrew words bring us back to Deuteronomy 27.15, where Moses wrote, Cursed is anyone who makes. And it's these two words. a carved image or a metal image. Cursed is anyone who makes these things. Let me submit to you that the curse that Moses issues there in Deuteronomy does not mean if you make these things then you will be cursed because you made them. I don't think that's what it means. There might be a legitimate application of it, but I think he means something more profound. I think the text means the one who makes these things thereby shows that he is cursed, because he is someone who does not know God, who has abandoned God. No one else would make such a thing but such a cursed person. I think Moses means such a person was cursed already. having abandoned the true and living God, our only true and lasting treasure, and has sought to make for himself a treasure in its place, and one that cannot last and that cannot save. My people have committed two evils, the Lord said through the prophet Jeremiah. They have abandoned me, the fountain of living waters, and they have dug for themselves cisterns that cannot hold water. And in chapter 18 we meet with Dan. Micah is seeking prosperity rather than God. What is Dan seeking? We meet with Dan in verse 1 of chapter 18. In those days when there was no king in Israel, the tribe of the people of Dan was seeking for itself an inheritance. Now that catches the Hebrew reader up. because inheritance is a centrally important concept with respect to the covenant that God had made with their father Abraham. The land was to be their inheritance. Indeed, God himself is to be their inheritance. They are to be God's people in God's place, living under God's rule. That's who they are as a people. And so the idea of inheritance, having a place in the land, is important. But what are we told about Dan? Dan is seeking for itself an inheritance. Because to that point, no inheritance had fallen to it. Joshua chapter 19 tells us about the allotment of the land that went to Dan. It's one of those passages that we find tedious, because there's all these geographical details, and we can't paint the map in our mind. It's hard for us to care. From this city we've never heard of over to this river you don't know where it is, down that river to this other place that you don't know anything about, over to here that archaeologists don't even know where that is, and then back up to here. That's where Dan is supposed to live. And we say, could you just tell us they got a place? Could this be shorter? But there it is. They were given a place. This is the part of the land that God promised that is supposed to be Dan's, and they were commanded to go and take it. Judges 1, verse 34. Remember when we started in Judges? We were told the Amorites would not allow Dan to live there. Dan prefers attractive ease outside of God's revealed will to challenging obedience. They were told what land is theirs. The Amorites made it very difficult for them to live there, so they're touring around looking for easier pickings. They send out these five spies, and the report that these spies bring back is deliberately written in such a way as to parallel the language of the ten spies that brought back a bad report of the land to Moses, recorded in Numbers 13. You know, one of those ten spies was a Danite. That one spy from Dan said to Moses that the land they had spied out was bad. saying, the land through which we have gone to spy it out is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. We seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them. And now five Danites are sent to spy out this other land, and they have brought back this report that it is a good land. And why is it a good land? Because the people there are peaceful and unsuspecting. We can take it. When they come across the house of Micah, they come across this priest of Micah, this Levite, They find out that he is a Levite and that this man Micah has made him to be priest in this place. And so they ask him, would you please consult of God for us as to whether or not the venture that we have been sent on will be successful. That's what Dan wants. Dan wants success from the Lord. Like Micah wanted prosperity, Dan wants success And it seems to them like this Levite speaks the truth from God. This Levite they have met says, Go, for the eyes of the Lord are upon your venture. He smiles upon you. He is going to give you success. And when they have spied out the land, they think that looks true. We can take this land. No wonder they take this Levite with them and the whole cult which he serves. They think that they have found someone to minister the Lord's blessing to them. Just what Micah thought he had. But what's the result of their pursuit? They're seeking for themselves an inheritance rather than laying hold of the inheritance that God gave. The result of their success, and they surely saw it as a success when they took Laish, renamed it Dan, rebuilt it, and lived there. What does their success mean? It means exile. The text doesn't tell us, but the original audience would have known that this Laish, it's not in the Promised Land. They've left the land in order to find for themselves an inheritance. They're exiled, like Adam and Eve were cast out of the presence of God and out of the place of God. And they have exiled themselves from the land of promise, which is just a precursor of the exile that is coming many generations later. Indeed, some later editor has referenced that for us. In verse 30, the people of Dan set up the carved image for themselves, and this Levite they had found and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land. Until the day when the Lord removed the ten northern tribes from the land for, among other things, sins just like the sins of idolatry that they are now committing here. The northern tribes were exiled from the land because of Jeroboam's sin, that he made Israel to sin. You remember that? The first king of the northern tribes, when God took ten of the tribes out of the hand of the line of David? out of the hands of David's grandson Rehoboam and gave it to someone else. That someone else was Jeroboam I. And he was concerned that if people went to Jerusalem to worship God like they were supposed to, they would eventually defect from him back to the house of David. And he did not want that to happen. So he made two golden bulls and told the people, here are your gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt. You don't need to go to Jerusalem to worship, you can worship here and he put one in Bethel, the house of God, and he put the other one in Dan. Did the descendants of this Levite serve also the cult of Jeroboam's bull? They exile themselves in this generation. It is a precursor of the exile that is to come many generations later. And then when we get all the way to Revelation chapter 7, we find there the record of the 144,000 that are sealed to God. I'm not going to get into the whole interpretation of all of that, but it's this large symbolic number. 12,000 persons from each of the 12 tribes is 144,000 persons who are sealed to God. I said it's 12 tribes. But as often happens when the tribes are listed, Joseph gets listed twice. Talked about that in Sunday school this morning. In this list, Joseph is actually listed by his own name, Joseph. But so is one of his sons, Manasseh. There's 12,000 from Joseph and there's 12,000 from Manasseh, but we still only have 12 listed. And that's because Dan is missing. Micah seeks after prosperity and Dan is seeking after success in finding for themselves an inheritance. And right in the middle of all this mess, we find this Levite, the identity of whom the author keeps from us. He's just a young man, a young Levite, a Levite from Bethlehem who's sojourning up until we get to the very end when we're told who he is. He's Jonathan. a descendant of Gershom, a descendant of Moses. How could things be so bad that a descendant of Moses himself would be found ministering in an unauthorized location by means of idolatry? He, somewhat like the Danites, is seeking a place, a place to live, A place to prosper, a place to minister, but not a place to obey. Like Micah, he's attracted to prosperity. The text tells us in chapter 17, verse 11, that he is content with his wages. He's content to live with Micah for that reason. Like Dan, he seems successful. Here's someone who's wandering around looking for a place to be, looking for a way to make his living. And he is content with his wages in Micah's home. And then along comes a whole tribe and makes it even better. Surely, the Lord is smiling upon him. As a Levite, he finds a place to serve, to minister, to use the gifts that God has given him. And then along comes a more exalted and more prestigious place. He gets a call from a larger church. And he feels called. What's the result of this man's wandering and disobedience? He's seeking after a place for himself. He shares the exile and the judgment of Dan. Off he goes with them, outside of the promise of God. outside of the command of God, there to minister in, again, in an unauthorized place where God did not put his name, where God did not tell them to worship, and to worship in ways that God had forbidden, and in a sense condemns his sons for generations, for they ministered, we're told, to the tribe of Dan in this way until the time of the exile. Why tell us this story? Why is this in the Bible? Just to depress us? Just to leave us wondering how God's people could be so ignorant and foolish? The point of telling us this story is in the subtle explanation for how could God's people be so ignorant and foolish? Twice we're told there was no king in Israel. There was no king in Israel. If there had been a king in Israel, it is insinuated, then such things would not happen. So it's not just if there were a king, any king, just someone to call ruler in Israel. No, not that. But if there were the right king, if there were a godly king, if there were a king in Israel who served according to God's design, who did what the king in Israel was supposed to do, namely maintain a copy of God's law and have it read to him, on a consistent basis so that he knew the will of God? If we had a king like that, if we had a king who supported purity of worship, who made sure that the way Moses had set things up for the Levites, so that they had places to live and a way to make a living, so that they were supported by the worship of God's people at the tabernacle, so that they could live scattered throughout all Israel in order to read to the people the law of God and to explain it to them, then these kinds of things would not happen. It argues for David, the shepherd of God's people, the man after God's own heart, who did guard and support and pursue purity of worship, who loved the law of God and sought to encourage his legitimate lawful worship among all of God's people. The text argues for David, looks forward to David, whose rule did not last. Not even two generations. His own son married foreign women and worshipped other gods. And the kingdom was divided under his son. There are few godly kings to follow in the line of David, and none of them is so good as to have removed the high places where people worshipped God in unauthorized locations, even in Judah. And so that makes us look to King Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, the one who rules well, who teaches us, who guides us, who equips us for right worship. The answer to the Westminster Larger Catechism number 45 tells us that Christ executes the office of a king in calling out of the world a people to himself and giving them officers, laws, and censures by which he visibly governs them. The answer goes on, it's not even half of it, but it goes on to talk about moral issues, which is the disaster we have for us next week. Here, the religious disaster. Next week, the moral disaster. And King Jesus rules over us morally as well. But the Westminster Divines chose to open this answer with, he is king in that he calls us out of the world as a people to himself and gives to his people officers, laws, and censures by which he visibly governs them. by which he guards and protects us from such destructive and chaotic worship that we invent for ourselves. We are far too prone to trust our own religious sensibilities. It seems good and honoring to God to me, well then he'll be pleased as punch with it. Chapter 17 and 18 show us the religious chaos and the destructive superstition that we will descend into if we are left to ourselves. But King Jesus gives to us his word. Indeed, he is the word of God. He places us in his fold, numbers us among his sheep, whom he will take care of, he will guide and teach. He cares for us through the gifts that he gives to each of us, caring for us through the ministry of one another. and most especially through his under shepherds who teach and preach and counsel according to his word, who administer his sacraments and who exercise discipline. And he sends his Holy Spirit into our hearts to teach us his truth and by his truth to sanctify us. For a long time, our nation has had a saying. Indeed, it comes from the founding of our nation. I happen to notice the one time, well I think I've been in twice, but one of the times I was in Deli Dave's down here on McCulloch. I used the men's room and I happen to notice there's a large plaque, I don't know, piece of art, on the wall of the restroom that has this saying on it. We serve no sovereign here. That had better not be true in the church. There is a king in Israel. And if we see the destructive chaos that happens when there is no King in Israel, then we recognize we owe to our King, Jesus, our allegiance and our gratitude. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that there is a King in Christ's church, that he exercises the office of King as he rules and defends us. as He teaches us, as He guides us, as He shepherds us. Will you make us to trust in Him, to trust in His wisdom, to trust in His love for us, to trust in His law. Make us to love His law in the way that your servant David loved your law, so that we rejoice to be equipped to submit to your law, knowing that left to ourselves we will destroy ourselves and serve what are not gods that can easily be taken from us. Make us to know you in spirit and in truth, to worship you in spirit and in truth, and to know the joy that comes from communion with you in Christ, in whose name we also pray all these things. Amen.