Judges 18.1-31 tells us that the Danites were overcrowded in their territory and looked to expand; the scouts they sent out returned and said Laish is a good spot and said they should go and possess it; the army stops at Micah’s house and takes away his priests a gods; after taking Laish, they set up Micah’s idols there.
v 1…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 all their inheritance had not fallen to them as a possession among the sons of Israel (they had an inheritance in Josh 19.40-48, but part of it did not come in to their possession and remained unsubdued because either the Amorites were too strong, or they were lazy or cowards, or no one would help them).
v 2…So the sons of dan sent from their family five men out of their whole number, valiant men from Zorah and Eshtaol (Samson’s territory), to spy out the land and search it (Like Moses and Joshua did); and they said to them, “Go, search the land.” And they came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there.
v 3…When they were near the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young man, the Levite (they heard him and knew he had been in their country and had been in his company; they knew he was from Bethlehem of Judah); and they turned aside there, and said to him, “Who brought you here (from Bethlehem)? And what are you doing in this place? And what do you have here?”
v 4…And he said to them, “Thus and so has Micah done to me (told them the whole story), and he has hired me, and I have become his priest (the Torah states he should have been at the Mishkan, not in his own “house of idols.” If we go to a congregation that God has not ordained, that does not teach a Torah-based faith in Yeshua, we are in the wrong place no matter what is going on there, what you like there, or participate in, or how you serve, it has nothing to do with it).
v 5…And they said to him, “Inquire of God, please, that we may know whether our way on which we are going will be prosperous (they should have rebuked him.”
v 6…And the priest said to them, “Go in peace; your way in which you are going has the Lord’s approval ( he told them what they wanted to hear like most preachers today who are involved in Replacement Theology).”
v 7…Then the five men departed and came to Laish (well-knit) 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 (to get any help from them) and had no dealings (alliances, treaties) with anyone (to go and help them).
v 8…When they came back to their brothers at Zorah and Eshtaol, their brothers said to them, “What do you report?”
v 9…And they said, “Arise, let us go up against them; for we have seen the land, and behold, it is very good. And will you sit still? Do not delay to go, to enter, to possess the land.
v 10…When you enter, you shall come to a secure people (and not on their guard) with a spacious land, a place where there is no lack of anything that is on the earth (Canaan).”
v 11…Then from the family of the Danites, from Zorah and Eshtaol, six hundred (number of man and sin) armed with weapons of war set out (to take Laish).
v 12…And they went up and camped at Kiriath-jearim (city of woods; 16 miles from Zorah and Eshtaol) in Judah . Therefore they called that place Mahaneh-dan (camp of Dan) to this day; behold, it is west of Kiriath-jearim (they camped near it in the fields).
v 13…ANd they passed from there to the hill country of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah (in this case this is unfruitful dead works, they should not have been there in the first place).
v 14…Then the five men who went to spy out the country of Laish answered and 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 (they not only had seen them, they consulted them-v 5)? Now therefore, consider what you should do (take them with us to consult for ourselves).”
v 15…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 (to bring them into his favor).
v 16…And the six hundred men armed with their weapons of war, who were of the sons of Dan, stood by the entrance of the gate (of the city where he lived).
v 17…Now the five men who went to spy out the land went up and entered there (Micah’s house), and took the graven image and the ephod and household idols and the molten image, while the priest stood by the entrance of the gate with six hundred men armed with weapons of war (talking with them while the five men went to MIcah’s house; but he had no loyalty to Micah because he was a typical hireling).
v 18…And when these (the five knew where they were) went into Micah’s house and took the graven image, the ephod and household idols and the molten image, the priest said to them, “What are you doing (not much of a protest)?”
v 19…And they said to him, “Be silent, put you hand over your mouth and come with us, and be to us a father (teacher) and a priest. It is better for you to be a priest to the house of one man, or to be a priest to a tribe and a family in Israel.”
v 20…And the priest’s heart was glad, and he took the ephod and household idols and the graven image and went among the people ( he cared about himself and his own “career” not sound doctrine).
v 21…Then they turned and departed and put the little ones and the livestock and the valuables in front of them (form any pursuer; fully assured that they would take Laish, their family, livestock, and valuables were brought with them).
v 22…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.
v 23…And 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 didn’t like what happened)?”
v 24…And he said, “You have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and have gone away, and what do I have besides (he cared more for his idolatry and false doctrine than his own family and goods; he would not be happy without his idols; this illustrates the contention between apostate Rabbinical judaism and apostate Replacement Theology Christianity) So how can you say to me, ‘What is the matter with you?’ “
v 25…And the sons of Dan said to him, “Do not let your voice be heard among us (be quiet), lest three men fall upon you and you lose your life, with the lives of your household.”
v 26…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 (Replacement Theology Christianity was too strong for the rabbis in Rabbinic Judaism in history, and they are desolate without the Messiah too)
v 27…Then they took what Micah had made and the priest who had belonged to him, and came to Laish, to a people quiet and secure (no sentries at a distance to give them warning, nor any watchmen on the walls; possibly the gates were open, etc), and struck them with the edge of the sword, and they burned the city with fire.
v 28…And there was no one deliver them because it was far from Sidon and they had ne dealings (no alliances) with anyone, and it was in the valley which is near Beth-rehob (house of the broad way; where sinners live-Matt 7.13). And they rebuilt the city and lived in it (to fit their needs).
v 29…And 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 formerly was Laish.
v 30…And the sons of Dan set up for themselves the graven image, and Jonathan the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh (in Hebrew the name Manasseh is “Moshe” with a suspended “Nun” to spare Moses shame because of their rebellion against his words; we know that Aaron’s grandson was alive at this time in Judges 20.28, so it is possible this Jonathan could be the grandson of Moses), he and his sons, were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land (not to the whole tribe of Dan, but to that part of it which lived in the city called Dan).
v 31…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 (360 years).
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