Saturday, February 20: Judges 18-An avalanche of sin

 

Chapter 18 begins, At that time the Israelites did not have a king.. I thought, but God was to be their king. As Israel’s tribes scattered to take their allotment of land, the people of God disintegrated into separated islands. In the last chapter we read that, “everyone did as he saw fit” (17:6). What a sad state of affairs. God is displaced from His rightful place as Lord and King. God’s word is forgotten, so people do what they “think” is right, just and fair. BIG PROBLEMS.

Today’s account is like watching the birth of an avalanche. Last chapter,like the loud band or the slipping of the first boulder, snow begins to rumble down a mountainside slope.  A man makes an idol, an ephod and hires a Levite to be his personal priest. It is bad that one family is so lost but in a land of hundreds of thousands of families, it is not a big deal, or is it?

In chapter 18 the small snow tumbling turns into a full-fledged avalanche careening down the mountain. An entire tribe steals the idol, ephod and priest and makes it their God!  One family has mushroomed into 1/12 of the nation!

I know enough OT history to know that this sin will haunt Dan and Israel for the rest of their existence.

As I thought about this, God began to impress within me the problem of allowing a known sin (or sin pattern), no matter how seemingly small and insignificant it may appear, to go unchecked in my life. Why? Because it just might start gaining momentum and before I know it … you get the idea. This thought then led to a time of soul searching and prayer…

Psalm 139:23-24 came to mind and became my morning prayer: Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Amen.