No Sense of God

This is the Bible study page for the Thursday Night Bible Study Group meeting December 28 to study Judges 17 and possibly 18.  There are two separate accounts in these final chapters of Judges. I always put them together, and while they do seem to work together, they are not the same characters.  This first account is the migration of the tribe of Dan.

Read through the two chapters together, 17 and 18.  There are plenty of distractions along the way, with funky things people say and do.  My recommendation is to make lots of notes, because you'll get bogged down in the surprises if you don't.

You should have lots of questions.  Make sure you write them down.  Then, with your notes and questions, go to commentaries.  You can revise your notes accordingly, but be sure to look at more than one commentary.  They do not all agree on these chapters.  This is confusing for everyone.

After you have gone through your own study and commentaries, go back through with the questions below:

• The events of chapter 17 happen in the "hill country of Ephraim".  They happen around a man who has a righteous name based on Yahweh.  Why do you think these details might be important, keeping in mind how often they are repeated?
• Micah (Mikayehu in the Hebrew of the first part of the chapter) has stolen silver from his mother, silver which she then cursed in his hearing.  Why do you think Micah stole the money but didn't spend any?
• He confesses to his mother, and she "blesses him to Yahweh". When he returns the money she "consecrates" it (makes it holy) to Yahweh, but, holy to make an idol and a "cast image".  How does something holy to Yahweh then be used to make something He has forbidden?  Why do you think these children of Israel didn't know that was wrong?
• So, of the 1,100 silver, she gives him 200 to make the idol and cast image.  Perhaps a "tithe" of it was for the image (110 silver), and the other 90 for the smithy?  So, do these sound like two images, or one image made of two processes?  Look at several translations, why do you think they have so much trouble understanding what Micah did?
• Micah then makes a "house of God", ephod, teraphim (household gods), and sets one of his sons as a priest.  Sin is "missing", iniquity is "twisting", and transgression is "rebelling".  In your opinion, which one has Micah and his family done here?
• In verse 6, we have the author's explanation of how things got this bad, "In those days, there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in their own eyes."  But there was worship happening in Shiloh (see 18:31).  So, why do you think a king is such an important detail here for this author?
• Enter the young itinerant Levite from Bethlehem.  He wanders to the hill country of Ephraim and happens upon Micah and his house of God.  What you would you expect the young Levite to think of Micah's setup there in his house?
• Micah offers him room, board, a stipend, and clothes to be his priest in his idolatrous "house of God".  Why do you think the Levite would consent to such an arrangement?
• Micah consecrates the Levite in verse 12.  Then in verse 13, he says he now knows he has found favor with Yahweh.  So, what have Micah (and, most likely, everyone living around him) believed about Yahweh at this point in Israel's history?
• The first verse of chapter 18 probably belongs to chapter 17 as the final say, "In those days, there was no king in Israel..."  That verse also sets us up for the events of chapter 18.  Read both chapters together.  Why do you think they've been separated?

What should be most disturbing about this chapter is the way Micah and his people/family consider themselves devoted to Yahweh, yet worship Him in a Canaanite way.  They have set aside His rules for how to relate to Him for the culture of the displaced people of the land.  In what ways do we endanger ourselves in the same way in this culture?  What steps can we take to make sure we don't fall into the same trap?

Serious Holiness

This is the study page for the Thursday Night Study group meeting June 13 to study 1 Samuel 5 & 6.  These chapters reveal a lot about how God views His ark.  The themes of holiness and sovereignty are pretty clear, but grace is also visible with careful looking.

Read through these chapters several times.  They go together very well.  And chapter six could either end at verse 18 or 7:1 (I prefer 7:1).  The paragraph breaks in Hebrew make little sense actually, so much of the break and rests seem more visually inspired rather than prompted by the narrative.

But there are peculiarities throughout, some of which I will bring out in my questions, but others you have hopefully already found reading these chapters through this past week.  As you read through, look for where God shows grace to the Philistines, then grace to Israel.  Look also for where He demonstrates His holiness before the Philistines, and then to Israel.  Lastly, look for examples of God demonstrating His sovereignty over Philistines and Israelis.

Finally read through again using the questions below.  Be sure to find and write down your own as well.

• Where did the Philistines put the Ark in Ashdod?  Why there?
• What happened to Dagon overnight?
• What is different the next day?  Why the threshold?  Why the head and hands?
• What else did God do to the people of Ashdod?
• What is their answer to the problem of God's "heavy hand"?
• Where does it go next?
• What is different about what happens in Gath?
• Where does it go from there?
• What happened in Ekron different from the other cities?
• How long had the Ark been with the Philistines?
• Who do they ask for a solution?  Why them?
• Why the "mice"?  What would a plague of mice look like?
• In verse 5, what will they do in addition to giving the gold items?
• What warning and who's example do the priests and diviners include in their suggestion?
• How will they return the Ark?  Why a "new" cart?  What is key about the "milch cows"?
• Once the cart is sent away, what are the people watching for?
• What do the cows do once hitched to the cart with the Ark and box and released?
• What happens when the people of Beth-Shemesh see the Ark coming?
• Who "took down the Ark"?  Where did they come from? (read Joshua 21)
• What did the Philistines do when they saw what happened?
• What did God do to the people of Beth Shemesh?  Why?  What did they do?
• What do the people of Beth Shemesh do in response to the "slaughter"?
• Why send it there? What's different about Kiriath Jearim?  Is it in Joshua 21?
• What is it about God and the Ark that is so difficult for the people of Beth Shemesh?
• What do they request the people of Kiriath Jearim do?  Why is that peculiar?

That should get us started in our study.  There's a lot more than this in there, and I hope you've been digging for it all week.  Bring your questions Thursday!