� Reading 4 - Judges 17-18

17 - Judges concludes with two appendices that are chronologically out of order (compare 18:12 and 13:25) but serve to underline Judges’ key theme: the people lack the leadership necessary to “hold them” to God’s Law and righteousness. The appendices also illustrate the moral decay that occurred in the period of the judges. These people lack the heart to obey God, and must be made to obey. Judges 17 tells the miserable story of Micah and his idols. He is a thief who took 1100 shekels (verse 2). As a yearly wage was 10 shekels (verse 10) this was a huge sum of money. The curse causes Micah to confess and return the money, and so his mother blesses him to reverse the threat of the curse (verse 2b). What happens next is syn- cretism, the combining of religions. The money is dedicated to Jehovah but made into an idol! They are worshiping Jehovah, but using an idol to do so. Verse 8 shows the Levites are not being well supported, a consistent problem for them. What a mess we have here. Note the departures from the Law: idols were not to be made to symbolize God, only Aaron’s sons to be priests (not Levites), and the Tabernacle was the center of worship, not every home. Everything is in confusion (verse 6).

18 - Chapter 18 finds the Danites having trouble taking their allotted territory, so they scout far in the north, as Laish is some 100 miles from their original territory (verse 7). The Danites steal Micah’s idols, priestly garment (the ephod), and his priest as they go by (verse 17)! They conquer Laish in verses 27-29, founding the most northern city in Israel. This gives rise to the common expression “from Dan to Beer sheba.”

Psalm 21

We always begin by asking “What kind of psalm is this?” Verses 1, 3 and 7 make it clear that this is a royal psalm, a psalm about King David. Yet it really focuses on the relationship of the king to God. All of this is based in the promises of 2 Samuel 7 to David and his house. God had cared for the king in the past (verses 1-6), was in relationship with the king in the present (verse 7), and would bless the king in the future (verses 8-13). Some see a connection in this psalm and Psalm 20 (note 20:4). That is a psalm praying for blessing and protection in battle, and this psalm may be the answer to that psalm, saying God did exactly that.

Introduction to Acts - Acts is the sequel to Luke. Its main purpose is to show that the work of God begun in Jesus is continued in Jesus’ followers, the New Testament church. It lets us watch disciples and di cipleship in action.

1 - Luke enjoys showing bad questions, as we see in verse 6. The disciples were still stuck thinking about a physical kingdom! On the Sabbath you could walk a little more than a half mile on the Sabbath without violating rabbinical tradition. This is the “Sabbath’s day journey” of verse 12.