Judges 18 - The Exploits of Dan

Micah's farcical religion doesn't last long.  In Judges 18 we see a powerful army put together by the tribe of Dan march through Bethel, enter Micah's house, steal both his priest and his idol, and continue on their way.  Micah's left with nothing, but his false god lives on among the Danites when they establish their new community far to the north.  Which brings me to the main events of Judges 18 -- the exploits of the tribe of Dan.  It seems a little ambiguous as to whether or not Dan's maneuvers are warranted.  The tribe was given land along the coast, west of Ephraim and Benjamin, but it also bordered the Philistines, who we know from Samson's saga were subjugating the Danites.  So it makes sense that they would be seeking out a more peaceful territory.  But the tribal allotments were pretty firmly established, and the Danites took it upon themselves to go and take over a foreign community -- a community that was peacefully minding its own business.  Micah's priest does tell the Danites that "the Lord" approves of their mission, but is this the Lord?  Or is it a devil?  Or is it simply a false priest saying false things?  The Danites then go and allow graven idols to be worshiped in their new community.  Of course all this is going on during a very lawless period in the history of the Israelites, which is essentially the point.  As the people drift from God, their doings become much more self-involved, and their religious practices become what they want them to be rather than what was ordained by God.

There is a flip-side to the story in Judges 18, and that is what we ought to make of the people the Danites conquered.  The people of Laish, positioned in an isolated valley, had little contact with outsiders and thus had little to fear.  They were "secure," a word specifically used in the text:  "... they saw how the people dwelt therein without any fear, according to the custom of the Sidonians, secure and easy, having no man at all to oppose them, being very rich, and living separated..." (Judges 18:7).  We may also learn a lesson, a cautionary one, from the people of Laish, that when we are "secure" and "rich" and things are "easy," that's when we should be most on our guard.  The Danites quite easily defeated Laish because they weren't prepared for an enemy.  When we become thus lazy and secure, we will just as easily be overcome by the enemy.  We see such a dilemma today as many of us want security and safety above all things, but what's never considered is how a people so lulled by those things is a people completely defenseless against threats both physical and supernatural.  "No one is sooner overcome than the man who has no fear; and security is generally the forerunner of ruin." -- Velleius