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There was once a man named Micah, who lived in the hill country of Ephraim.
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He told his mother, "When someone stole those eleven hundred pieces of silver from you, you put a curse on the robber. I heard you do it. Look, I have the money. I am the one who took it." His mother said, "May the LORD bless you, my son!"
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He gave the money back to his mother, and she said, "To keep the curse from falling on my son, I myself am solemnly dedicating the silver to the LORD. It will be used to make a wooden idol covered with silver. So now I will give the pieces of silver back to you."
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Then he gave them back to his mother. She took two hundred of the pieces of silver and gave them to a metalworker, who made an idol, carving it from wood and covering it with the silver. It was placed in Micah's house.
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This man Micah had his own place of worship. He made some idols and an ephod, and appointed one of his sons as his priest.
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There was no king in Israel at that time; everyone did whatever they wanted.
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At that same time there was a young Levite who had been living in the town of Bethlehem in Judah.
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He left Bethlehem to find another place to live. While he was traveling, he came to Micah's house in the hill country of Ephraim.
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Micah asked him, "Where do you come from?" He answered, "I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah. I am looking for a place to live."
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Micah said, "Stay with me. Be my adviser and priest, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year, some clothes, and your food."
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The young Levite agreed to stay with Micah and became like a son to him.
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Micah appointed him as his priest, and he lived in Micah's home.
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Micah said, "Now that I have a Levite as my priest, I know that the LORD will make things go well for me."
1
There was no king in Israel at that time. In those days the tribe of Dan was looking for territory to claim and settle in because they had not yet received any land of their own among the tribes of Israel.
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So the people of Dan chose five qualified men out of all the families in the tribe and sent them from the towns of Zorah and Eshtaol with instructions to explore the land and spy on it. When they arrived in the hill country of Ephraim, they stayed at Micah's house.
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While they were there, they recognized the accent of the young Levite, so they went up to him and asked, "What are you doing here? Who brought you here?"
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He answered, "I have an arrangement with Micah, who pays me to serve as his priest."
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They said to him, "Please ask God if we are going to be successful on our trip."
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The priest answered, "You have nothing to worry about. The LORD is taking care of you on this trip."
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So the five men left and went to the town of Laish. They saw how the people there lived in security like the Sidonians. They were a peaceful, quiet people, with no argument with anyone; they had all they needed. They lived far away from the Sidonians and had no dealings with any other people.
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When the five men returned to Zorah and Eshtaol, the people asked them what they had found out.
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"Come on," they replied. "Let's attack Laish. We saw the land, and it's very good. Don't stay here doing nothing; hurry! Go on in and take it over!
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When you get there, you will find that the people don't suspect a thing. It is a big country; it has everything a person could want, and God has given it to you."
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So six hundred men from the tribe of Dan left Zorah and Eshtaol, ready for battle.
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They went up and camped west of Kiriath Jearim in Judah. That is why the place is still called Camp of Dan.
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They went on from there and came to Micah's house in the hill country of Ephraim.
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Then the five men who had gone to spy on the country around Laish said to their companions, "Did you know that here in one of these houses there is a wooden idol covered with silver? There are also other idols and an ephod. What do you think we should do?"
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So they went into Micah's house, where the young Levite lived, and asked the Levite how he was getting along.
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Meanwhile the six hundred Danite soldiers, ready for battle, were standing at the gate.
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The five spies went straight on into the house and took the wooden idol covered with silver, the other idols, and the ephod, while the priest stayed at the gate with the six hundred armed men.
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When the men went into Micah's house and took the sacred objects, the priest asked them, "What are you doing?"
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They told him, "Keep quiet. Don't say a word. Come with us and be our priest and adviser. Wouldn't you rather be a priest for a whole Israelite tribe than for the family of one man?"
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This made the priest very happy, so he took the sacred objects and went along with them.
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They turned around and started off, with their children, their livestock, and their belongings going ahead.
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They had traveled a good distance from the house when Micah called his neighbors out for battle. They caught up with the Danites
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and shouted at them. The Danites turned around and asked Micah, "What's the matter? Why all this mob?"
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Micah answered, "What do you mean, 'What's the matter?' You take my priest and the gods that I made, and walk off ! What have I got left?"
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The Danites told him, "You had better not say anything else unless you want these men to get angry and attack you. You and your whole family would die."
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Then the Danites went on. Micah saw that they were too strong for him, so he turned and went back home.
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After the Danites had taken the priest and the things that Micah had made, they went and attacked Laish, that town of peaceful, quiet people which was in the same valley as Bethrehob. They killed the inhabitants and burned the town. There was no one to save them, because Laish was a long way from Sidon, and they had no dealings with any other people. The Danites rebuilt the town and settled down there.
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They changed its name from Laish to Dan, after their ancestor Dan, the son of Jacob.
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The Danites set up the idol to be worshiped, and Jonathan, the son of Gershom and grandson of Moses, served as a priest for the Danites, and his descendants served as their priests until the people were taken away into exile.
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Micah's idol remained there as long as the Tent where God was worshiped remained at Shiloh.
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O LORD, I will always sing of your constant love; I will proclaim your faithfulness forever.
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I know that your love will last for all time, that your faithfulness is as permanent as the sky.
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You said, "I have made a covenant with the man I chose; I have promised my servant David,
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'A descendant of yours will always be king; I will preserve your dynasty forever.' "
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The heavens sing of the wonderful things you do; the holy ones sing of your faithfulness, LORD.
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No one in heaven is like you, LORD; none of the heavenly beings is your equal.
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You are feared in the council of the holy ones; they all stand in awe of you.
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LORD God Almighty, none is as mighty as you; in all things you are faithful, O LORD.
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You rule over the powerful sea; you calm its angry waves.
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You crushed the monster Rahab and killed it; with your mighty strength you defeated your enemies.
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Heaven is yours, the earth also; you made the world and everything in it.
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You created the north and the south; Mount Tabor and Mount Hermon sing to you for joy.
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How powerful you are! How great is your strength!
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Your kingdom is founded on righteousness and justice; love and faithfulness are shown in all you do.
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How happy are the people who worship you with songs, who live in the light of your kindness!
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Because of you they rejoice all day long, and they praise you for your goodness.
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You give us great victories; in your love you make us triumphant.
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You, O LORD, chose our protector; you, the Holy God of Israel, gave us our king.
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In a vision long ago you said to your faithful servants, "I have given help to a famous soldier; I have given the throne to one I chose from the people.
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I have made my servant David king by anointing him with holy oil.
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My strength will always be with him, my power will make him strong.
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His enemies will never succeed against him; the wicked will not defeat him.
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I will crush his foes and kill everyone who hates him.
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I will love him and be loyal to him; I will make him always victorious.
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I will extend his kingdom from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates River.
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He will say to me, 'You are my father and my God; you are my protector and savior.'
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I will make him my first-born son, the greatest of all kings.
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I will always keep my promise to him, and my covenant with him will last forever.
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His dynasty will be as permanent as the sky; a descendant of his will always be king.
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"But if his descendants disobey my law and do not live according to my commands,
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if they disregard my instructions and do not keep my commandments,
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then I will punish them for their sins; I will make them suffer for their wrongs.
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But I will not stop loving David or fail to keep my promise to him.
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I will not break my covenant with him or take back even one promise I made him.
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"Once and for all I have promised by my holy name: I will never lie to David.
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He will always have descendants, and I will watch over his kingdom as long as the sun shines.
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It will be as permanent as the moon, that faithful witness in the sky."
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But you are angry with your chosen king; you have deserted and rejected him.
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You have broken your covenant with your servant and thrown his crown in the dirt.
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You have torn down the walls of his city and left his forts in ruins.
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All who pass by steal his belongings; all his neighbors laugh at him.
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You have given the victory to his enemies; you have made them all happy.
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You have made his weapons useless and let him be defeated in battle.
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You have taken away his royal scepter and knocked his throne to the ground.
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You have made him old before his time and covered him with disgrace.
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LORD, will you hide yourself forever? How long will your anger burn like fire?
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Remember how short my life is; remember that you created all of us mortal!
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Who can live and never die? How can we humans keep ourselves from the grave?
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Lord, where are the former proofs of your love? Where are the promises you made to David?
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Don't forget how I, your servant, am insulted, how I endure all the curses of the heathen.
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Your enemies insult your chosen king, O LORD! They insult him wherever he goes.
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Praise the LORD forever! Amen! Amen!
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Does this sound as if we were again boasting about ourselves? Could it be that, like some other people, we need letters of recommendation to you or from you?
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You yourselves are the letter we have, written on our hearts for everyone to know and read.
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It is clear that Christ himself wrote this letter and sent it by us. It is written, not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, and not on stone tablets but on human hearts.
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We say this because we have confidence in God through Christ.
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There is nothing in us that allows us to claim that we are capable of doing this work. The capacity we have comes from God;
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it is he who made us capable of serving the new covenant, which consists not of a written law but of the Spirit. The written law brings death, but the Spirit gives life.
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The Law was carved in letters on stone tablets, and God's glory appeared when it was given. Even though the brightness on Moses' face was fading, it was so strong that the people of Israel could not keep their eyes fixed on him. If the Law, which brings death when it is in force, came with such glory,
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how much greater is the glory that belongs to the activity of the Spirit!
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The system which brings condemnation was glorious; how much more glorious is the activity which brings salvation!
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We may say that because of the far brighter glory now the glory that was so bright in the past is gone.
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For if there was glory in that which lasted for a while, how much more glory is there in that which lasts forever!
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Because we have this hope, we are very bold.
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We are not like Moses, who had to put a veil over his face so that the people of Israel would not see the brightness fade and disappear.
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Their minds, indeed, were closed; and to this very day their minds are covered with the same veil as they read the books of the old covenant. The veil is removed only when a person is joined to Christ.
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Even today, whenever they read the Law of Moses, the veil still covers their minds.
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But it can be removed, as the scripture says about Moses: "His veil was removed when he turned to the Lord."
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Now, "the Lord" in this passage is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is present, there is freedom.
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All of us, then, reflect the glory of the Lord with uncovered faces; and that same glory, coming from the Lord, who is the Spirit, transforms us into his likeness in an ever greater degree of glory.
