Now the five men who went to spy out the land went up and entered there, and took the graven image and the ephod and household idols and the molten image, while the priest stood by the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men armed with weapons of war. The six hundred men armed with their weapons of war, who were of the sons of Dan, stood by the entrance of the gate. They turned aside there and came to the house of the young man, the Levite, to the house of Micah, and asked him of his welfare. Then the five men who went to spy out the country of Laish said to their kinsmen, ``Do you know that there are in these houses an ephod and household idols and a graven image and a molten image? Now therefore, consider what you should do." They passed from there to the hill country of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah. Therefore they called that place Mahaneh-dan to this day behold, it is west of Kiriath-jearim. They went up and camped at Kiriath-jearim in Judah. Then from the family of the Danites, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, six hundred men armed with weapons of war set out. ``When you enter, you will come to a secure people with a spacious land for God has given it into your hand, a place where there is no lack of anything that is on the earth." And will you sit still? Do not delay to go, to enter, to possess the land. They said, ``Arise, and let us go up against them for we have seen the land, and behold, it is very good. When they came back to their brothers at Zorah and Eshtaol, their brothers said to them, ``What do you report? " Then the five men departed and came to Laish and saw the people who were in it living in security, after the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure for there was no ruler humiliating them for anything in the land, and they were far from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone. The priest said to them, ``Go in peace your way in which you are going has the LORD'S approval." They said to him, ``Inquire of God, please, that we may know whether our way on which we are going will be prosperous." He said to them, ``Thus and so has Micah done to me, and he has hired me and I have become his priest." When they were near the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young man, the Levite and they turned aside there and said to him, ``Who brought you here? And what are you doing in this place? And what do you have here?" So the sons of Dan sent from their family five men out of their whole number, valiant men from Zorah and Eshtaol, to spy out the land and to search it and they said to them, ``Go, search the land." And they came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there. In those days there was no king of Israel and in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking an inheritance for themselves to live in, for until that day an inheritance had not been allotted to them as a possession among the tribes of Israel. You can never out-give your loving heavenly Father. Remember, Jesus is a giver who gave His life for our salvation. Doing so with a generous and willing heart displays the character of Christ in our life and is a way to worship and honor Him. The Lord doesn’t need our money, but He knows that we need to give. And keeping that portion for oneself, according to the book of Malachi, was equivalent to robbing the almighty God of what rightly belongs to Him (Mal. Believers in the Old Testament set aside a tithe-10%-of all that the Lord generously gave. In offering the first of our earnings, we acknowledge that God is the source of everything and we are completely dependent upon Him. Like all good financial advisors, God has a plan for our money, but His plan is superior to any man-made one: “You shall bring the choice first fruits of your soil into the house of the Lord” (Ex. And according to the prophet Malachi, we do have one-almighty God. Most of us would love our own personal financial advisor to help us navigate unexpected expenses and economic turns.
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