Judges 18:21–26

Then they turned and departed, and put the little ones, the livestock, and the goods in front of them. When they were a good way from the house of Micah, the men who were in the houses near Micah’s house gathered together and overtook the children of Dan. And they called out to the children of Dan. So they turned around and said to Micah, “What ails you, that you have gathered such a company?”

So he said, “You have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and you have gone away. Now what more do I have? How can you say to me, ‘What ails you?’”

And the children of Dan said to him, “Do not let your voice be heard among us, lest angry men fall upon you, and you lose your life, with the lives of your household!” Then the children of Dan went their way. And when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house.

Micah is totally wrong when he says, “You have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and you have gone away. Now what more do I have”

He needed to get rid of all that junk anyway. The household gods (which Matthew Henry calls “dunghill deities”) just take up shelf space. If he does anything with them, they’re even worse. Everything the Danites took is harmful. It’s like they stole something that’s radioactive. All it can do is harm them.

Meanwhile, the priest they removed was costing Micah ten shekels of silver per year. Now he isn’t.

That’s like getting out of a bad cell-phone contract without penalty.

But Micah can’t think straight, and so he chases down the Danites. It’s almost funny that Micah thinks he can reason with these clowns. Their response is totally predictable. If Micah wants to do something about it, he needs a bigger army.

So, Micah heads back home, where he and/or his mother still have ~900 shekels of silver. (The Danites didn’t know about that). That silver is the literal answer to the question, “Now what more do I have?”

Meanwhile, the priest (who was making ten shekels per year) thinks he’s gotten a promotion. Before, he was well paid but wasn’t famous. Now he gets to minister to a great many Danites. Surely those guys will appreciate his talents. They’re bound to give generously of their own wealth to support him, right?

Now that is funny.

As dumb as everyone seems in this passage, we’re just as bad. This is just the universal stupidity of sin. Our competitiveness locks us into the perspective of whatever we’re competing over.

The classic example of this is when competitive people lose track of the fact that “it’s only a game”. I’ve seen this effect play out quite embarrassingly in church-league softball.

Even a terrible call by the umpire isn’t worth getting all worked up over. (Except for that one time … !)

These Monday—Friday DEEPs are written by Mike Slay. The Weekend DEEPs are written by Matt Richardson. To subscribe to all the DEEPs click here:

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV stands for the English Standard Version. © Copyright 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved. NIV stands for The Holy Bible, New International Version®. © Copyright 1973 by International Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved. KJV stands for the King James Version.