Jonathan’s sons were priests for the people of Dan until the captivity of the land. That is more than 450 years yet. Does this not suggest that idolatry really paid off for the Levite? He founded a dynasty of false priests, who have work for centuries to come. But, at what cost? Each decision takes him further from the Lord. He started in Bethlehem of Judah, the foremost tribe. He moved on to Ephraim and an idolatrous shrine. He ends up in Laish, outside the Promised Land. Oh, he gets to run the worship for an entire tribe of God’s people. Yet this worship is hollow; it knows only the god of self-promotion. Jonathan’s success is actually a failure.
It is the same for the Danites. They gain a parcel of land that is actually much better than the land God had promised them. Laish is spacious, fertile, safe, and secure. Their stealing and killing in order to find their inheritance are crowned with victory. They were successful idolaters. But not for long. Their shrine would become a thorn in Israel’s side for years to come. This northern spot for false worship was the precursor to the sanctuary Jeroboam later established there. Micah’s idol was replaced by a golden calf that Jeroboam made, which became a sin
because the Israelites went there to bow down to it (1 Kings 12:1–33), until the destruction of the northern kingdom by the Assyrians! So Micah’s idolatry became something that infected not just a single tribe in the long run but the whole nation, and eventually led to its downfall! Does idolatry lead to success? Long-term, it only achieves failure.
29 And they named the city Dan, after the name of Dan their ancestor, who was born to Israel; but the name of the city was Laish at the first.