Seek First

DEVOTION

JUDGES

SEEK FIRST

Judged 18:1-6

18:1 In those days Israel had no king. And in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking a place of their own where they might settle, because they had not yet come into an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. 2 So the Danites sent five warriors from Zorah and Eshtaol to spy out the land and explore it. These men represented all their clans. They told them, "Go, explore the land." The men entered the hill country of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah, where they spent the night. 3 When they were near Micah's house, they recognized the voice of the young Levite; so they turned in there and asked him, "Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? Why are you here?" 4 He told them what Micah had done for him, and said, "He has hired me and I am his priest." 5 Then they said to him, "Please inquire of God to learn whether our journey will be successful." 6 The priest answered them, "Go in peace. Your journey has the LORD's approval."

NIV

Now the descendants of Dan needed their own place where they had not yet taken the territory assigned to them. As they approached the House of Micah, we don't know how they recognized the voice of the Levite priest. Perhaps the different tribes or sons of Jacob, as they took their inheritance, developed a certain dialect that may have been different than some of the other sons of Jacob and their dialect. In either case, they understood that he was a priest. However, I am not sure that Micah wanted him to be a priest for his idols or for the LORD. However, the Danites, when they asked the priest to inquire of God to learn whether their journey would be successful, the word used in Hebrew was Yahweh, not Elohiym. There is a major difference between those two names, as Yahweh means the existing one. The Danites wanted to know whether Yahweh would bless their journey. They were not interested in what the idols had to say. It is also interesting that the Levi priest, being from the tribe of Levi, knew the history of their tribe being the priests in the Tabernacle during their sojourning in the wilderness. Whenever Yahweh, as either the pillar of smoke or fire, moved, it was the Levites who disassembled the Tabernacle, packed it up, and carried it, reassembling it whenever Yahweh stopped moving in front of them. We take our lesson from the question the Danites inquired of the priest. “Please inquire of God to learn whether our journey will be successful.” Therefore, we should learn not to move by our own will for we do not know if we will fail or be successful however, the Lord God knows all good things and so we should always inquire of the Lord regarding anything that we do, whether that is where we live, where we work, and where we worship together in church. When we take the words of Jesus as he taught his disciples the pattern for prayer, he included, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” The “on earth’ phrase implies explicitly us, as we are on earth. It might be possible that we consider our will all too often by either forgetting or ignoring God's will. We are aware he has a plan for our lives, and the only way we can live according to his plan is to always inquire about what he wants us to do or not do. This is not to be confused with the list we generate about the do’s and don'ts, which usually differ depending on various denominational biases. The key we know this is our lists and not God's is that over time our lists change, and we know God never changes or does his will. We may even look back and laugh at some of the old hard lists the church tried to live by. Yes, it would be behoove us to always inquire of the Lord about anything, then we will know whether our journey will be successful. When we inquire of ourselves, we cannot be sure whether we will be successful or fail. Always seek first the Lord and his righteousness.