In those days there was no king in Israel. And in those days the tribe of the people of Dan was seeking for itself an inheritance to dwell in, for until then no inheritance among the tribes of Israel had fallen to them. 2 So the people of Dan sent five able men from the whole number of their tribe, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land and to explore it. And they said to them, “Go and explore the land.” And they came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there. 3 When they were by the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young Levite. And they turned aside and said to him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What is your business here?” 4 And he said to them, “This is how Micah dealt with me: he has hired me, and I have become his priest.” 5 And they said to him, “Inquire of God, please, that we may know whether the journey on which we are setting out will succeed.” 6 And the priest said to them, “Go in peace. The journey on which you go is under the eye of the Lord.”
This was a time of apostasy in Israel. Unhappy with the life the Lord had given to the Danites, they wen’t out to explore their options. They were surprised to find a Levite in a house of idolatry “what are you doing here?!” His response was telling “a man’s gotta eat, I’m a religious leader here in this pagan place, they pay me…” So they asked for him to seek “God” and they used the generic name, not the name of the Lord. It’s always obvious when people are trying to pretend like they know of the things of God. Micah didn’t take the time to actually seek God, he just immediately replied with what the people wanted to hear. When being God’s man is just a job, then you do your best to say what the people paying you want to hear. When preaching God’s Word is a vocation, most of the people who hear it won’t like it, only those in tune with the Lord will receive it.
