How many ways can you violate the Bible while claiming to worship Yahweh?

S: Judges 17-18

O: The story of Micah of Ephraim, Jonathan the grandson of Moses, and the tribe of Dan seems like an exercise in “How many ways can you violate the Bible while claiming to worship Yahweh?”

Micah steals silver from his mother. His mother curses the thief. Micah gives his mother back the money to avoid the curse. His mother says “May Yahweh bless my son” to break the curse, then proceeds to make the silver into an idol while saying she’s dedicating the silver to Yahweh! (Yahweh had explicitly said not to make idols!)

Then Micah made illegitimate priestly garments and other idols to go with it, made his son a priest, until Jonathan, a grandson of Moses, came along and he made him a priest instead, thinking that “Now I know that Yahweh will do good to me, since I have a Levite as my priest” as if that’s a lucky charm!

Then the Danites show up. They had not obeyed God to claim their territory, and their scouts took advantage of Micah’s hospitality. They even consulted Jonathan the priest and Jonathan said “Go in peace. Your way in which you go is before Yahweh.” Except it wasn’t. Instead of conquering the Canaanites God had told them to conquer, they went and attacked the peaceful city of Laish, simply because they were defenceless! They killed everyone there, and then invited Jonathan to come along and be their priest, stealing Micah’s idols, and threatening Micah when he tried to stop them. Sheer banditry, justified in the name of Yahweh!

As a result, Dan became an idolatrous province of Israel, all sanctioned by Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses! Even the lineage of Moses did not save them from this depravity.

A: I have to beware that I do not cloak my own selfish plans and actions with the cross of Jesus. Just like how the Crusaders justified their rape, pillage, and murder in the Middle East by cloaking atrocities with the name of Christ, we today might try to justify our own desires in the name of Christ.

If Micah, Jonathan, and Dan had merely consulted the Law of Moses, which was the part of the Bible they already had at that time, it would have been clear that what they were doing was wrong.

So it’s very important for us to keep studying the scriptures and bringing our minds into conformity with Christ. “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” – Romans 12:2

P: Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. In Jesus’ name, Amen.