Heroes Don't Necessarily Beget Heroes...

Judges 17-18; Psalm 104:1-23; Proverbs 14:20-21

 

… But God does.

 

Moses was pretty amazing, right? So you’d think that his children and grandchildren, at least, would be amazing, too. Wouldn’t they want to maintain the family reputation? Wouldn’t they understand that the only way to do that would be by staying faithful to the Lord?

 

Well, in Judges 17-18, there’s this convoluted story where certain Israelites begin to mix idol worship in with their supposed love for the Lord. And a certain young man, a Levite, comes into the story and gets hired as one man’s personal priest. He’s supposed to be a priest of the Lord, but he’s serving as a priest among idols, too. Eventually a group of warriors from the tribe of Dan comes along and recruits him to be their priest. So he goes with them to their new home in Laish and serves as their priest.

 

Here’s the shocker of the story:

There the Danites set up for themselves the idols, and Jonathan son of Gershom, the son of Moses, and his sons were priests for the tribe of Dan until the time of the captivity of the land. They continued to use the idols Micah had made, all the time the house of God was in Shiloh. – Judges 18:30-31

 

This young man was Moses’ grandson! And he was willing to serve both the Lord and idols! If Moses’ grandson can fall away from the faith, anyone can!

 

Father, protect us from such a twisted life. Protect us from thinking we can be unfaithful to You and get away with it. Protect us from being so foolish that we don’t see how good it is to be Your servant, Your friend, Your child – and Yours alone! Drive unfaithfulness out of our hearts, our children’s hearts, our grandchildren’s hearts, and our descendants’ hearts. Please. Please. Introduce Yourself to each of us so that we know You firsthand. We need You.