…Judges 18:7 Then the five men departed and came to Laish and saw the people who were there, how they lived in security, after the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and unsuspecting, lacking nothing that is in the earth and possessing wealth, and how they were far from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone.
The men of Dan came from central-southwest Israel, and wandered all the way to the northern tip, to the furthest point of the Jordan River Valley to Laish. And what they found pleased them. They found Sidonian people, in peace, secure, prosperous, and free from oppression. Certainly, this must be God’s will for them. This must be the peace and prosperity covenanted to Israel by God in the promised land. Right? Wrong.
This peace and prosperity is nothing more than the desires of the world all bound up in one place. Everything is wrong about this place. Everything that previously transpired to cause Dan to arrive here was wrong. Completely outside the will of God. But Dan misunderstood their subjective experience of peace and prosperity to be the will of God. God does grant a certain peace and prosperity to his people. But it’s a divine peace and prosperity. This, this, is nothing more than love for the world.
1 John 2:15-17 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world– the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life– is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
The world is attractive. It was attractive to Micah. It was attractive to the Levite. It was attractive to Dan. It is attractive to the church.
