And these came into Micah's house, and took the carved image, the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image. And the priest said to them, What do ye?
Six hundred armed men of Dan stop at Micah's house on their way north. While they wait at the gate, the raiders strip the shrine bare, and the priest hired to mind it manages only one question: "What are you doing?"
The four objects listed in this verse did not appear all at once. One commentator traces how each piece called for the next:
The details of the development are very simple. In the fifth verse we find that he has an image, so he must have a house to put his image in. Then, as he has a house, there must also be an ephod, or priestly garment, and teraphim, minor images, as you might say, connected with it; and over all these there must be a priest to preside.
Another commentator turns that growth into a warning about small beginnings:
Yet there is development: the thing is a living seed that grows. All this was still "right" in Micah's eyes. Once we are committed to the guidance of our own minds, we can easily build up a whole system. The further we go, the more completely we go astray. How careful we need to be about beginnings!
The five men told their company what was in the house. Their interest was not in exposing Micah's idolatry but in owning it:
The five men knew the place was a house of idol worship. Instead of avoiding it, they told their company what was in that house: an ephod, household idols, a carved image and a moulded image — in other words, all they needed to have a well-rounded religion! (v. 14). So Micah was not the only one who had given in to the idolatry of the Canaanite nations. In this case all 600 men of Dan had given in too, and they were willing to rob Micah openly so that they themselves could be religious! What a condition was this, so soon after Israel's entering into the land as recorded in the Book of Joshua!
His protest lasts one sentence. What silences it is not an argument but an offer:
The consecrated Levite asked them what they were doing. They told him to keep quiet and go with the 600 men. For they asked him if it was not better for him to be a priest to a tribe of Israel than only of one man (vv. 18-19). When he heard this the pseudo-priest was glad. It meant nothing to him to steal from the man who had consecrated him, or to leave his job for a better paid one! (v. 20). But mere religion can make one a robber without conscience!
One writer notes what never came up in the discussion at all:
They dangled the promotion in front of him in the most dazzling way. He got a call to a more influential and better paid position. As to the will of God in the matter, that never entered the mind of the priest.
Nobody in the scene sees a clash between worship and robbery. That, one commentator argues, is the real exposure here:
The hired priest shows himself to be nothing more than a hired hand. A greater personal advantage to himself outweighs at once all obligations to his employer, and he is "glad" of the robbery by which he is to benefit. For the Danites, as for others today who rely on a priestly class, there is no need to respect the man whose office is supposed to give him the ear of God. Once again, morality is separated from religion, and those who draw near to Him dishonour Him instead of glorifying Him.
One commentator sums up the whole raid in a single line:
The gainers have lost; the loser, if he knows it, has gained.
What Dan carried home stayed there:
Micah resists, but it comes to nothing. He finds that the tribe is stronger than he is, and that their offer is stronger than anything he can hold out. So the Levite goes off into his larger field with great gladness. He moves his idolatry — his image, his ephod and all the equipment he had — up into Dan. There this subtle form of idolatry rules the tribe of Dan until the captivity of the land — significant words. It lasts until God comes in with judgment and the ark is taken away from Shiloh.
- Grown — the image needed a shrine, the shrine a garment, the garment a priest. Each step seemed right in Micah's own eyes, and a whole system grew from a small start.
- Carried — gods you can lift are gods that thieves can lift from you. Dan wanted all four items, because they made a religion look complete.
- Bought — the priest's one question dies the moment Dan offers him a bigger post. God's will never entered his decision.
- Divorced — here religion sits beside theft without a protest, and the man who should speak for God dishonours Him instead.
- Lost — the thieves carried off what could only harm them, and the robbed man was better off empty. What they gained stayed in Dan until judgment fell.
And they said to him, Hold thy peace, lay thy hand upon thy mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest. Is it better for thee to be a priest for the house of one man, or to be priest for a tribe and a family in Israel?
Six hundred men from the tribe of Dan have just stripped Micah's house of its idols. Now they turn to the Levite who served there, and their few words work as a warning, a bribe and a job offer at once.
Before the men mention promotion, they tell the Levite to be quiet. He had asked what they were doing. Their answer was a hand over his mouth. One commentator links that silence to what he was willing to walk away with:
The consecrated Levite asked them what they were doing and was told to keep quiet, and go with the 600 men. When he heard their offer the false priest was glad. It meant nothing to him to steal the property of the man who had consecrated him and to leave his employment for a more lucrative job! But mere religion can make one a robber without conscience!
The men dangle a bigger job: one household against a whole tribe. Nobody mentions God at all:
They set the promotion before him in the most dazzling way: "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?" He got a call to a more influential and better-paid position. As for the will of God in the matter, that never entered the priest's mind. His "heart was glad" when they called him away to a new post. He took "the ephod and the household gods and the carved image" and went along with the people.
The move can sound respectable. A man leaves a small work for a large one and calls it the Lord's leading:
So the Levite expects such advancement and is quite glad. He now considers it a clear leading of the Lord that he should enter this larger field of usefulness. In other words, he gets a call to a place of more service, of wider usefulness, and he thinks he is led to go. I am not saying a single word against true, godly, devoted service to Christ, whatever name it goes by. I am speaking of that state of things which makes it possible for a man to push himself into the priesthood.
The same writer warns that a strong impression is not God's guidance:
God does not act by providence only. He certainly does not guide His people by impressions that His word does not support. You might say the Lord led me to do this or that. But if it has not been His holy word that led you, if it has not been His Holy Spirit that led you through that word, be careful. It may only be your own inclination leading you.
Micah had put this Levite on a salary. The moment a better salary appeared, the arrangement showed what it was worth:
The hired priest shows himself to be nothing but a hired man. A greater personal advantage to himself at once outweighs all his obligations to his employer. He is "glad" of the robbery he is going to profit from. The Danites saw no need to respect the man who, because of his office, was supposed to have the ear of God. Others who hold to a priestly class do the same today. Once again morality is divorced from religion.
He took the offer at once. Its effects outlasted him by centuries:
Driven by greed and ambition, it seems, he began and established that line of idolatrous priesthood. It continued in the tribe of Dan for many centuries, "until the day of the captivity of the land." That is, it lasted until the Assyrians carried away the ten northern tribes some six centuries later. Remember that when Jeroboam set up the two golden calves to be the gods of Israel, he placed one in Dan and one in Bethel. But at the beginning a Levite, the grandson of Moses, was the chief organiser of this idolatry!
One commentator draws a line from this scene to any arrangement that puts a man between God and His people:
Some men have ability as servants of God and can preach. They have been given the place of spiritual go-betweens between the people and God. Some denominations even call them "priests" — that is, priests as distinct from the common people. They may be called "priest" or "reverend" or given some other special title. Either way, this is contrary to the truth of Christianity. It has an element of idolatry in it, because it really takes God's place in people's thoughts.
- Bigger, not better. The Danites argue only from size — one house against a whole tribe — and the Levite never asks what God wants.
- Bigger silences. The offer comes with a hand over his mouth. A man moving up stops asking what the men are carrying off.
- Bigger pays. A hired priest acts like a hired man. A better offer outweighs every obligation.
- Bigger feels like guidance. A wider field of work can look like the Lord's leading. Only His word can tell you if it is.
- Bigger lasts. One glad "yes" set up a line of idol priests in Dan. It lasted for centuries, until the land went into captivity.
Then the priest's heart was glad, and he took the ephod, and the teraphim, and the graven image, and went in the midst of the people.
Six hundred armed men of Dan have stripped Micah's shrine, and they invite its young Levite priest to come and serve their whole tribe. The shock is not the theft but the priest's reaction: his heart was glad, and he carried the stolen images out himself.
The one question never asked in this verse is whether God wanted any of it. Rossier sets out the offer the Danites make, and what the priest never asks:
They made the promotion sound as dazzling as they could: "Is it better for you to be priest to the house of one man, or to be priest to a tribe and a family in Israel?" So he got a call to a more influential and better-paid position. As to the will of God in the matter, that never entered the priest's mind. His "heart was glad" at the call to a new post. He took the ephod, the household gods and the carved image, and went along with the people.
The man does not weigh the offer. He just likes it.
Gladness looks like confirmation. The offer is bigger, so the Levite treats its size as proof that God is behind the move:
So the Levite expects this advancement and is quite glad. He now treats it as a clear leading of the Lord that he should enter this larger field of usefulness. In other words, he gets a call to a place of more service, of wider usefulness, and he thinks the Lord is leading him to go.
Ridout adds a caution. He is not speaking against true, devoted service to Christ. He is speaking about a man who pushes himself into a priesthood that was never his.
Micah had hired this Levite and paid him. A better offer now shows what a hired man really is:
The hired priest shows himself to be nothing but a hired man. A greater personal advantage to himself at once outweighs every obligation to his employer. He is "glad" of the robbery he is going to profit from. The Danites feel no need to respect the man whose office is supposed to give him God's ear. Others today who hold to a priestly class are no different. Once again morality is divorced from religion. God is not glorified but dishonoured in those who draw near to Him.
He walks away from the man who fed him, carrying that man's property, and feels nothing.
Up to this verse the idols belonged to one household. Once the priest carries them into the middle of a marching tribe, they belong to a nation. One writer follows the images from Micah's house into Dan's long history:
Micah resists, but it comes to nothing. He finds that the tribe is stronger than he is, and that their offers are better than any he can make. So the Levite goes off to his larger field with great gladness. He moves his idolatry, his image, his ephod and all his equipment up into Dan. There this subtle form of idolatry continues in the tribe of Dan. It lasts until the captivity of the land (significant words) — until God steps in with judgment and the ark is taken away from Shiloh. It leavens the whole nation. I have no doubt it also makes possible that deeper form of idolatry which grows out of it: the two calves that Jeroboam the son of Nebat set up. He put one in Ephraim, where the idolatry began, and the other in Dan, where it reached its height.
Rossier puts it in one line. With this man, whom the Danites call "their priest," idolatry in Dan became official.
This did not die with Dan. Ridout names what a man displaces when he takes a priestly place among God's people:
If there is anything we should resist and hate with all the energy of our souls, it is this. It contradicts the presence of the Holy Spirit in every believer. It contradicts the absolute and sole priesthood of Christ on high. And it contradicts the precious fact that every believer has access into the holiest place by the blood of Jesus.
- Glad, not guided. The priest's heart was glad — and that gladness replaced any question about what God wanted. A glad heart is not the same as God's guidance.
- Glad at a promotion. A bigger sphere, a better wage and a wider influence were enough to convince him the Lord was in it.
- Glad at a robbery. A hired man serves whoever pays more. Personal advantage cancelled every obligation to the man who had kept him.
- Glad, and the nation paid. One household's idolatry became a tribe's official religion. It spread through the whole nation and lasted until God's judgment took the land away.
- Glad in a place that was never his. The warning lasts: one man stands where Christ alone stands as priest. Yet the Holy Spirit lives in every believer, and every believer already has access to God.