JUDGES 18
Corruption in the home will eventually spread to society; in this case, it spread to a whole tribe. False doctrine is like yeast: it grows quietly in secret and affects everything it touches (Gal. 5:7–9).
The Danites had claimed their inheritance (Josh. 19:40–48), but the enemy’s invasion had forced them to relocate. Had the tribes stayed true to God, the enemy would not have dispossessed them, and they could have enjoyed their inheritance.
What a way to find a new home! The Danites kidnapped the hireling priest of the false religion and stole the idols. Then they killed innocent people who were living in ignorant isolation, a dangerous thing in that day. The climax came when they set up their own center of idolatrous worship, in open disobedience to the Word of God.
They were living in a place where there was “no lack of anything that is on the earth” (v. 10); yet they lacked everything that God wanted to give them from heaven. Their false prosperity gave them false security that could not last.