Thoughts on Judges 18

Today's reading: Judges 18; Romans 1

I have two thoughts on Judges 18 today, one on chronology, and one on content.

Chronology of Judges

The thing I wanted to point out on chronology is that Judges 18 clues us into the fact that not all of Judges is chronological. Much of the book has been chronological, and the author has made this clear with explicit notes like, "after him came..." These notes allow us to track relative chronology between sections of the book, but other sections, like this section starting with Micah and his mother making an idol, are not linked with any such chronological markers.

Instead of these events following directly after the death of Samson, we are told that these events occurred when the tribe of Dan had not yet taken possession of their land. In Joshua 24 we are told that Dan was among the tribes that did not find their own inheritance and were instead assigned one by lot, so the five men we encounter in Judges 18 were not looking for land for Dan to claim, they were scoping out the land Dan was assigned. This most likely puts these events pretty early on in the period of the Judges, possibly even still during the life of Joshua or the elders leading Israel immediately after him.

Content

The note I wanted to make on content is the identity of the Levite that became Micah's priest. We were never given his name or clan in Judges 17, but we are told at the end of Judges 18 that he was descended from Moses, and I think the author is telling us this to help us realize just how far off Israel was spiritually already by this point.

Why does his identity as descended from Moses matter?

On the one hand, any Levite who was not descended directly from Aaron taking on a priestly role was a problem. The priesthood was not assigned to the Levites generally, but only to Aaron and his descendants. So a non-Aaronic Levite taking on this role for Micah and then for Dan already tells us they are veering off course.

But then on the other hand, a descendant of Moses should know better more than any other Levite. I mentioned yesterday that there is a lot of information, teaching, and understanding that the Israelites at this time would not have had about Yahweh. There is no means for broad dissemination of such materials, especially as Israel spreads out further in the land. However, who would have had more access to proper instruction than a descendant of Moses?? More than that, if this is taking place near the beginning of the period of the judges, that means that Jonathan (the Levite in question) was not very far removed from Moses himself and either was already born while Moses was still alive or grew up under parents/grandparents who were.

So I think the reason we are told that Jonathan and his descendants became priests for the tribe of Dan while the tabernacle was at Shiloh, is to clue us in to not only how far off-base Israel was spiritually at this point, but to show how pervasively this was the case. Even the people you would most expect to be holding the line for Yahweh are participants in these deviant systems.

This all prepares us with a proper context for just how important Samuel and the monarchy are for righting the ship and leading Israel back to faithfulness to Yahweh after we wrap up the book of Judges.