Judges 18:6-10: a reflection

6The priest said to them, “Go in peace. Your way in which you go is before the LORD.” 7Then the five men departed and came to Laish and saw the people who were there, how they lived in safety, in the way of the Sidonians, quiet and secure; for there was no one in the land possessing authority, that might put them to shame in anything, and they were far from the Sidonians, and had no dealings with anyone else. 8They came to their brothers at Zorah and Eshtaol; and their brothers asked them, “What do you say?” 9They said, “Arise, and let’s go up against them; for we have seen the land, and behold, it is very good. Do you stand still? Don’t be slothful to go and to enter in to possess the land. 10When you go, you will come to an unsuspecting people, and the land is large; for God has given it into your hand, a place where there is no lack of anything that is on the earth.”

The tribe of Dan sends spies to find land to seize, and they come to Laish, a quiet, peaceful, unsuspecting people. Returning to their tribe, they urge an attack, and they wrap their aggression in religious language: Arise, let us go up against them, for we have seen the land, and it is very good. God has given it into your hands, they say, a place where there is no lack of anything. They claim God's blessing on a self-serving conquest, invoking his name to justify what they had already decided to do.

Notice how easily God's name is pressed into the service of human agendas. The Danites wanted the land; it looked good and its people were vulnerable; and they cloaked their desire in the language of God's giving, God has given it into your hands. Whether or not that was truly God's will, the words came suspiciously easily, a religious justification for what they wanted anyway. It is a subtle and common move: to baptize our own desires and decisions with God's approval, to claim he is behind what we had already chosen for our own reasons.

That is a temptation worth watching. We too can invoke God's name, God's will, God's leading, to justify what we want to do, dressing our own desires and agendas in religious language to give them divine sanction. It is a way of using God rather than seeking him. Be honest with yourself about when you are truly discerning God's will and when you are simply claiming his approval for what you have already decided to want. Do not baptize your own agenda with God's name. Seek his actual will, rather than pressing his name into the service of your own desires.

Lord, the Danites cloaked their self-serving conquest in the language of your giving, invoking your name to justify what they had already decided to do. Guard me from that subtle move: baptizing my own desires and agendas with your approval, claiming you are behind what I have chosen for my own reasons. Help me be honest about when I am truly seeking your will and when I am merely claiming your sanction for what I already want. Keep me from using your name to justify my agenda, and help me genuinely seek and follow your actual will.