Half Faith is No Faith (Judges 17-18)

"Judges For You" (by Tim Keller) has helped me share gospel lessons from the book:

• Faithful But Flawed (Judg 1:1-2:5),
• Gideon (Judg 6:1-8:35), who starts well and ends badly, and
• Samson (Judg 13:1-16:31), the womanizer and sex addict whom God choose from birth.

They teach us:

• how compromise always devastates us,
  
• how success often leads to pride and makes us worse, and
  
• how God bears with our fallen humanity and depravity---only by his grace.

The last 5 chapters are particularly graphically brutal, violent and bleak---so much so that they are hardly ever taught in church or preached on. It shows the reality of a life without God, even though the people act and behave religiously, and even call on God's name. But it is everyone doing "as they saw fit" (Judg 17:6; 21:25).

Homemade Religion (Judg 17:1-13)

1. After Micah stole money from his mother, what prompted him to confess to the theft and return the money (Judg 17:1-3a)? Why was he neither very good or very bad?
   
2. What does his mother's blessing of him tell us about her (Judg 17:2b)? Is there anything wrong with this?
3. What is startling about her making an image and an idol (Judg 17:3b; Ex 20:4-5; Dt 4:15-17)? How does this shape and revise God to my liking and comfort level? How was she dishonest (Judg 17:4)? How might Christians be un-Christian in certain areas of their life (Gal 2:14)?
4. What is wrong with Micah's homemade religion (Judg 17:5-6, 7-12; Ex 25:1-19; Prov 14:12; 15:25; 12:15)? Is your purpose to get God to serve you (Judg 17:13; cf. Jn 6:67-69; 14:15, 21, 23)?

Benefit Seeking Religion (Judg 18:1-31)

1. Why were the Danites still homeless (Judg 18:1; 1:34)? What is wrong with their approach to God (Judg 18:2-12; 17:6; 21:25)?
2. How did the Levite respond to the Danites taking Micah's household gods (Judg 18:13-21)? How was this to his advantage (Judg 17:10-12; 18:19-20; cf. Rom 2:6-9)?
3. How and why did Micah respond to his gods being taken (Judg 18:22-24)? Why did he back off (Judg 18:25-26)? What is the result of worshiping idols (Ps 115:4-8; Isa 44:17-20)?
4. What did the Danites do (Judg 18:27-28)? Though they named their conquered city Dan (Judg 18:29), where they God's people (Rev 7:5-8)?
5. Why is it shocking that the Levite serving the Danites was a descendant of Moses (Judg 18:30)? What do we learn here (Jn 1:13; 2 Tim 2:2)? What should they have done (Judg 18:31)?