Judges Chapter 17-18.
We now come to the third section of the Book of Judges. The first section in Judges 1 to Judges 2 was introductory to the activity taking place in Canaan after the time of Joshua and described the decline and fall of Israel in relation to the covenant, followed by the statement that God raised up Judges to deliver His people, only for them to decline again. The second section in Judges 3 to Judges 16 described the rise of twelve judges whom God raised up to deliver Israel, the successes and failures of some of them, but the continued ultimate failure of Israel to be faithful to the covenant.
This third section in Judges 17-21 will now use two incidents in order to demonstrate the parlous state of Israel during this time. Its theme is ‘in those days there was no king in Israel' (Judges 17:6; Judges 18:1; Judges 19:1; Judges 21:25). This is not to be taken pedantically. It does not just mean that this was before the time when there was a king in Israel, it also makes clear that the situations came about because they ignored Yahweh their true King. They had neither the one nor the other. They ignored and refused to acknowledge He Who was King over them and that was why in the end Yahweh would reluctantly give them an earthly king.
But they had been warned through the examples of Gideon and Abimelech what that would mean for them. The giving of this king was in itself an indication of their failure. God's ideal for them was that He should be King, and this principle continued and was recognised for some time in that the first kings were called ‘nagid' (war leader). Thus the writer supported the kingship, but only on the basis that because of the failure of Israel to fully respond to their King they had to make do with second best. It was not God's ideal. It resulted from men's faithlessness. Judges was thus an apology for kings in both senses of the word.
This rejection of Yahweh as King is made very apparent in this third section. The two incidents described emphasise that Yahweh's commandments were being spurned and ignored. The first majors on the breaking of the sixth and ninth commandments, ‘you shall not steal' and ‘you shall not covet', the second on the seventh and eighth commandments ‘you shall not murder' and ‘you shall not commit adultery'. Furthermore in the first incident the apostasy of Israel is emphasised in the setting up of a rival Sanctuary at Laish by the half-tribe of Dan, and that by a direct descendant of Moses!
Chapter 18. The Sanctuary of Dan.
This chapter describes how the Danites, being unsuccessful in their allotted inheritance, sent out spies to search the land, and discover if they could find a better place to settle and expand. These spies returned and reported that Laish was such, and encouraged the Danites to go with them and possess it. For that purpose they sent six hundred men to capture it, who on their way called at the house of Micah, and stole his priests and his gods. Having captured Laish, they set up Micah's graven image there.