BACK home now, Micah was left with nothing. He’d got no idol left with him. He’d got no oracle to consult in trouble.
He’d got no sorcerer on his side; no god protecting him from woes. Micah was left naked and vulnerable like the enemies of Dan.
But both the father and his son didn’t know that this, particularly, was Heaven’s device to rescue them.
So now, like a storm of dust settling down; like the sea waves falling flat, Micah’s heart crashed to nothingness.
All the hopes that he’d built in things of wood and silver became dust and nothing.
He ached; he cried. His longing soul screamed in silence; and his heart bled the tears.
The man felt vain and empty again. As his desperate hope in an immortal carving was shattered by mere mortals.
He felt defeated; felt hopeless. So he mourned and grieved the stolen god.
Dinuel came to comfort his father in the ash yard where he grieved. But Micah’s pain was more than what words could take away.
So the child only sat there and watch his father sink deeper into misery.
But after a long while of tears and silence, Dinuel parted his lips to speak. It was just a piece of thought occurring to him that he felt to share.
But the boy wouldn’t know that those words came from beyond here.
‘We are mere mortals: we do not last like the sun. Our life is like the season, it comes and go: we simply live and we die.
‘So, maybe because we are weak and vulnerable, we search for life in what is greater than us.
‘We seek the Lord, the Almighty; the giver of life, and the ender of it. We seek God, our life and breath.’
He paused a moment, then picked up afresh.
‘Sometimes we grope for God. We hunger to find Him; then when we finally see Him, we cling on to Him like we have never done to any man!
‘But God holds onto us, too. So that we don’t go back to that empty life of living without Him.’
Micah heaved a thoughtful breath, then his son went on.
‘God made us to seek and know Him. But could the One who made us truly be in the wood we make? Could He be in the stones we carve.
‘We are read in the Book of Moses that He created us in His image. Could the silvers that we spend be a perfect representation of His image?
‘He created us and we created idols. Then we call our creation the god keeping us. Does that make sense?
‘How can we claim to recreate the One who made us? How can we call a piece of craft, God?’
He faced his father. ‘Maybe we haven’t found Him all this while. Maybe our way of seeking Him was what kept Him away.
‘I feel sure now that God allowed our idols to be stolen, so that we can see how vulnerable we are without Him.
‘The idol couldn’t even secure itself, Father! How could it have secured us then? So now we must run to God Himself for our perfect shelter. For the perfect way of life!’
Micah let out a heavy sigh just then. It was as if a large scale had fallen off his eyes. He realized Dinuel’s words were true.
He knew this was his answer. The answer he’d being seeking elsewhere.
‘You are right, my son! I have always known that God’s tabernacle remained in Shiloh, where Israel converge annually in worship.
‘I knew that sanctuary of God still stands uncompromised, at least.
‘Yet I thought I could find God on my own terms. So, I began to devise my own pattern of religion. Till I completely forgot that God had been near.
‘Yes, I began to look for the Almighty in some idols. Then in one sorcerer pretending to be a priest of God.
‘I totally forgot that He isn’t far from me, if I genuinely seek Him out.’
Dinuel shook his head, pitying their story. Just now, he recalled everything that they’d gone through. Everything was for nothing at all.
He shook his head and sighed. But Micah hadn’t finished; he went on talking.
‘You know, son, no one’s asking me to move permanently to Shiloh. No one is saying I can’t continue to follow God from here.
‘After all, we only gather once a year for the Feast of the Lord there. So, it wasn’t demanding for me at all, nor for you my children.
‘But then, I wanted to have everything within my comfort zone. I wanted to have God’s presence at Shiloh here in my house.
‘But you know, that is not a problem at all. I know God wants to have His presence in my house. I know He is ready to abide in my home.
‘But then, I never knew this God, nor did I walked in His ways. I wasn’t even ready to part with my own ways, to begin with.
‘No, my isolation wasn’t the problem. God clearly commands that we have no dealings with compromisers and ungodly folks.
‘But then, this was the problem: I didn’t know God and have Him on my side, before I chose to stay apart from the world.
‘If I know God and know of His mighty power… if I have His presence with me, then it wouldn’t have been a problem staying apart.
‘It wouldn’t have meant danger, also.’
He looked at his son. ‘Dinuel,’ he called, ‘today I know that no one can stand alone without trusting in something.
‘I trusted in evil like others in the world, and my life was wasted like others. Now I want to trust in God alone and stand out for Him.
‘Like Lot in Sodom and Joseph in Egypt!’
Dinuel looked at his father. ‘So, what would we do now?’
‘Of course, we’ll seek God in Shiloh,’ replied Micah. ‘Where you and me can find Him.
‘So, come sunrise tomorrow, all of us will go up to Shiloh; and there at God’s sanctuary, we will pray and seek His face.’
Dinuel was pretty confused. ‘But it’s not the time of the yearly Feast. We might not get the priest’s attention as we needed.’
Micah had the answer ready. ‘Dinuel, this time round we won’t be using an intermediary to talk to God. We don’t need a go-between to pray.
‘This time, we’ll talk to God ourselves. We’ll lie on our faces and pour out our hearts till He hears us.
‘So far, we’ve spent money to find God, but that didn’t work. Now, son, let’s spend ourselves till He draws near!’
Thus, by sunrise Micah’s household set out for the tabernacle at Shiloh.
Then when they got there, they prayed and worshipped till the brazen sky shattered and poured down an answer.
God came to them and they knew it.
For they were never the same again.
Epilogue
THE war against the people of Laish wasn’t anything near a battle. There was no fight or combat; no bout or battle.
It was a ravaging slaughter. A huge massacre and bloodbath.
Laish was met unprepared. The Danite slayers pounced on that small city like a pack of hyenas would do their prey.
It was the mighty against the weak. The ruthless against the simple.
It was a pitiless overthrow by sword and fire. And the people fled and bled at the spreading waves of Dan’s fury.
Thus, everywhere in the city and the fields, blades swung and blood splattered. There were billows of smoke and blazes of fire.
Bodies piled into heaps; houses crumbled to dust. And in one night, Laish was razed to nothing.
Then, following that historic conquest of Laish, the people of Dan turned the ruins into a new home. And there, they built for themselves a permanent city which they named Dan.
But they also built a giant altar for the silver layered idol they stole from Micah. And Jonathan the son of Gershom, grandson of Moses, served as their priest for it.
Yes, Jonathan’s descendants also went on to serve as the idol’s priests for Dan.
And that continued through their generations. Till that latter age when Israel would be taken captive to the land of their exile.
However, Dan was just one people out of the many who claimed to know God in those days. Even so, there were still a few who truly knew Him.
For the sanctuary where God was worshipped remained in Shiloh. And those who sought Him found Him, when they sought with their whole heart.
Yet it was the Age of Darkness in the land of Israel, when men had no law or king to light their paths.
And in those darkest times like ours today, men made themselves good.
And made for themselves, god.
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