More details on the anatomy of idolatry.
Some Canaanites remain
Judges 1:27-36
Israel’s backsliding
Judges 2:10-15, 20
Some nations left
Judges 2:21-23, 3:1-4, 11
Second apostasy and servitude (Moab)
Judges 3:12-14
Death of Eleazar
Joshua 24:33
Second Judge, Ehud, delivers Israel
Judges 3:15-30
Micah and his mother
Judges 17:1-6
Micah hires a Levite to be his priest
Judges 17:7-13
The Danites seek to enlarge their inheritance
Judges 18:1-15
The basic problem is that the next generation do not remember the commitments made by their parents. They have to learn the lesson again that obedience = peace, idolatry = defeat.
Judges is a book with heroic deeds interspersed with disappointing lapses. So, left-handed Ehud dispatched evil King Eglon in a bloodthirsty way, and “the land had peace for 80 years.” (3:30)
Number one in Judges' list of unusual deaths.
Then there is the strange story of Micah. It begins halfway through, it seems - with a conversation between Micah and his mother, which had me searching back to see if I’d missed a bit. At this point I found the chronological reading irritating - why have we jumped 14 chapters? - and this story seems totally disconnected from what has gone before. The themes, however, are familiar - a man seeking to make himself safe from misfortune by privatising religion - installing his own gods, and hiring a priest for himself. Funny to hear him say at the end, “Now I know that the LORD will be good to me, since this Levite has become my priest.” (17:13) it just shows how people can happily hold contradictory ideas in their head - how can the LORD be good to him, since he’s set himself up with his own idols? Hasn’t he heard anything that Moses and Joshua said?
Some Canaanites remain
Judges 1:27-36
Israel’s backsliding
Judges 2:10-15, 20
Some nations left
Judges 2:21-23, 3:1-4, 11
Second apostasy and servitude (Moab)
Judges 3:12-14
Death of Eleazar
Joshua 24:33
Second Judge, Ehud, delivers Israel
Judges 3:15-30
Micah and his mother
Judges 17:1-6
Micah hires a Levite to be his priest
Judges 17:7-13
The Danites seek to enlarge their inheritance
Judges 18:1-15
The basic problem is that the next generation do not remember the commitments made by their parents. They have to learn the lesson again that obedience = peace, idolatry = defeat.
Judges is a book with heroic deeds interspersed with disappointing lapses. So, left-handed Ehud dispatched evil King Eglon in a bloodthirsty way, and “the land had peace for 80 years.” (3:30)
Number one in Judges' list of unusual deaths.
Then there is the strange story of Micah. It begins halfway through, it seems - with a conversation between Micah and his mother, which had me searching back to see if I’d missed a bit. At this point I found the chronological reading irritating - why have we jumped 14 chapters? - and this story seems totally disconnected from what has gone before. The themes, however, are familiar - a man seeking to make himself safe from misfortune by privatising religion - installing his own gods, and hiring a priest for himself. Funny to hear him say at the end, “Now I know that the LORD will be good to me, since this Levite has become my priest.” (17:13) it just shows how people can happily hold contradictory ideas in their head - how can the LORD be good to him, since he’s set himself up with his own idols? Hasn’t he heard anything that Moses and Joshua said?
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