Latest / Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan / September 24, 2026 - Judges 18 & Proverbs 16:1-4

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September 24, 2026 - Judges 18 & Proverbs 16:1-4 · Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Lamp and Light By Reading Plan, where we are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, with God's word lighting the way.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Josiah Smith, joined by Tyler Sanborn.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: Today is Thursday, September 24th, 2026.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: Listen intently to God's written word.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: Judges 18.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: In those days there was no king in Israel, and in those days the tribe, the people of Dan was seeking for itself an inheritance to dwell in.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: For until then no inheritance among the tribes of Israel had fallen to them.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: So the people of Dan sent five able men from the whole number of their tribe, from Zarah and from Eshtoel, to spy out the land and to explore it.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: And they said to them, Go and explore the land.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: And they came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: 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?
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: What are you doing in this place?
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: What is your business here?
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: And he said to them, This is how Micah dealt with me.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: He has hired me, and I have become his priest.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: And they said to him, Enquire of God, please, that we may know whether the journey on which we are setting out will succeed.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: And the priest said to them, Go in peace, the journey on which you go was under the eye of the Lord.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: Then the five men departed and came to Laish, and saw the people who were there, how they lived in security, after the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and unsuspecting, lacking nothing that is in the earth and possessing wealth, and how they were far from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: And when they came to their brothers at Zarah and Eshel, their brothers said to them, What do you report?
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: They said, Arise and let us go up against them, for we have seen the land, and behold it is very good.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: And will you do nothing?
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: Do not be slow to go, to enter in and possess the land.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: As soon as you go, you will come to an unsuspecting people.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: The land is spacious, for God has given it into your hands, a place where there is no lack of anything that is in the earth.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: So six hundred men of the tribe of Dan, armed with the weapons of war, set out from Zarah and Eshel, and went up and encamped at Kiriath Jira Girium in Judah.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: On this account that place is called Mahana, Dan, to this day.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: Behold, it is west of Kiryath Jirium, and they passed on from there to the hill country of Ephraim, and came to the house of Micah.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: Then the five men who had gone to scout out the country of the Lyche said to their brothers, Do you know that in these houses there are an Ephod, household gods, a carved image, and a metal image?
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: Now therefore consider what you will do.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: And they turned aside there and came to the house of the young Levite, at the home of Micah, and asked him about his welfare.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: Now the six hundred men of the Danites, armed with their weapons of war, stood by the entrance of the gate.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: And the five men who had gone to scout out the land went up and entered and took the carved image, the ephod, the household gods, and the metal image, while the priest stood by the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men armed with weapons of war.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: And when these went into Micah's house and took the carved image, the Ephod, the household gods, and the metal image, the priest said to them, What are you doing?
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: And they said to him, Keep quiet, put your hand on your mouth and come with us, and be to us a father and a priest.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: Is it better for you to be priest to the house of one man or to be priest to a tribe and clan in Israel?
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: And the priest's heart was glad.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: He took the ephod and the household gods and the carved image and went along with the people.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: So they turned and departed, putting the little ones and the livestock and the goods in front of them.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: When they had gone a distance from that home of Micah, the men who were in the houses near Micah's house were called out, and they overtook the people of Dan.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: And they shouted to the people of Dan, who turned around and said to Micah, What is the matter with you that you come with such a company?
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, You take my gods that I made and the priest, and go away, and what have I left?
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: How then do you ask me, What is the matter with you?
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: And the people of Dan said to him, Do not let your voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows fall upon you, and you lose your life with the lives of your household.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: Then the people of Dan went their way, and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his home.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: But the people of Dan took what Micah had made, and the priest who belonged to him, and the king to Elaish, to a people quiet and unsuspecting, and struck them with the edge of the sword and burned the city with fire.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: And there was no deliverer because it was far from Sidon, and they had no dealings with anyone.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: It was in the valley that belongs to Beth Rehab.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: Then they rebuilt the city and lived in it, and they named the city Dan, after the name of Dan their ancestor, who was born to Israel.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: But the name of the city was Laisha at the first.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: And the people of Dan set up the carved image for themselves, and Jonathan, the son of Gersham, son of Moses, and his sons, were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: So they set up Micah's carved image that he made, as long as the house of God was at Shiloh.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Proverbs sixteen, verses one through four.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the Spirit.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Judges eighteen continues the downward spiral.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: So in Judges 17, we saw Micah just breaking every rule that he could think of, every law, uh the covenant itself, false priests, false idols, all kinds of stuff.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: And we see here in Judges 18 that there's actually kind of fighting and quarreling over that false graven image.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: There's this tribe of Dan, of course, that did not do their part in driving out the inhabitants of the land.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: So they're looking for some land, they're looking for an allotment, and they end up stumbling upon Micah's house.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: And they see the Levite, they see the priest, they end up just intimidating Micah because there were 500 men that were standing there at the gate.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: And essentially, in so many words, they said, What are you gonna do?
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: And they took uh the priest, so-called, and essentially were like, Hey, do you want you want something better?
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: You looking for an upgrade, you're looking for a promotion.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: Right now, you're a priest of one guy.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: You could be a priest of an entire clan of Israel, and the Levites, who at this point is just along for the ride, uh, he's just attaching himself to the most um lucrative opportunity that presents itself.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: And here, of course, the tribe of Dan is that very thing.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: So while uh while uh initially they are distracting the priest, they go in, they steal the the ephod and the false graven idol, and uh they take the priest and and they go and they conquer Lyish, which is uh you know a smaller town um that has at least a smaller company of people that are surrounded by a great the land is described as really good and plentiful, and you can imagine like this is what would be a great spot for them.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and so they they end up setting up shop right there in Laish, and they change the name, of course, to Dan.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: And what do they do?
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: They they resurrect uh this, I shouldn't say resurrect, but they put the graven image kind of at the center of what they do.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: They've got this false priest, they've got these false sacrifices.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, again, it's just they continue in a in a sort of moral degradation to reject God, to reject his commandments, to reject his covenant, they're doing their own thing.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I find it fascinating that as they go and talk to the Levite, the way that they respond, they ask him this question, right?
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: Of like, is this the journeys that we're gonna have essentially are they gonna be favorable?
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: Are we going to succeed in driving out these inhabitants?
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: And the answer that he gives is is technically not wrong.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um it says in verse 6, the priest said to them, Go in peace.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: The journey on which you go is under the eye of the Lord.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a sense in which that's that's vaguely specific.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know what it reminds me of?
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: This this is kind of off topic, but it reminds me of uh modern-day prophecies today, where it's like you say something that's kind of vaguely specific enough to be generally true in most circumstances, and it kind of feels like that's what's going on here.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: So it sounds like he just himself is saying, hey, go in peace.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: He's trying to encourage them.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: And this says something generally true that the journey in which you go is under the eye of the Lord, which implies, of course, that God's watching over them.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but he doesn't say God's watching over you, he doesn't say that God's approving of what you do.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: He seems to certainly be implying that by go in peace, but really he just states a general truism.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, the eye of the Lord is upon everything and everyone in that sense.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: We've been reading about that in the Proverbs.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: The eyes of the Lord are on the just and the unjust, the the wicked and the righteous, is what Proverbs tells us.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: So, in a sense, right, he's he's I don't know if he's intending to be crafty, I don't know if he's trying to be deceptful, deceitful, or whatever the case may be, but he does he says something generally vaguely true that seems to kind of scratch the itch of those those those guys that that wanted to know, are we going to succeed?
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, of course, the eyes of the Lord are are on everything.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: There's nothing outside of his watchful gaze.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I just see that as a further instance of there, there's this guy, this Levite, this so-called priest who seems to be just standing in the place even of a prophet uh at times, speaking on behalf of the Lord, things that the Lord does not put in his mouth, and just a lot of things going on here in uh Judges 18 that just continue to show the need for Israel ultimately to be brought back to the covenant.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: Ultimately, this is all kind of setting up the story of David, the king uh of Israel that would reign, and of course the covenant with David and things like that that are coming in the future.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but right now we're just seeing they're just in chaos, they're they're swimming in all kinds of different directions, and they're uh creating these false graven image images, they're violating God's clear uh laws, they have uh been unfaithful to the covenant that God made with them.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, that's what we see here uh again in Judges 18.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as we look over to our Proverbs section today, we are going to be getting uh a new chapter, chapter 16.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: And as you look through this chapter, as you read through, you're going to see uh some common uh common words that'll be repeated and some ideas and truths that will be reiterated, and it has to do with plans, the heart, and and God's uh God's will, God's uh God's plan that He will accomplish.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: And we can we can look to our our lives and the plans that we have made, and we can see a whole host of plans where uh we decided uh to to go to uh to uh a trip or go to the store.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've ever been in an accident or if you've ever had uh a traffic jam or a detour, uh you you've been right in the middle of that.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: You've you've set a timeline for yourself, and and plans don't always go how we want them to.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: So we look to the Proverbs and see who it is that is over over all things, and it is the Lord.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: In verse 2, all the ways of man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I I just challenge as I look at these two these two verses to begin chapter 16 and and think about the the plans in the past that I have that have made that that weren't honoring to the Lord and and how God even still, even despite my my my desires came came good and he corrected me, and God uh God has a way to um to bring that about and he's faithful to do that, faithful to form and and mold and and discipline uh his children.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just reminded of that today.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: The the Lord's answer is not always aligned with with my desire or your desire, but we can seek to to fall in line with his plan.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: We can seek to follow him in obedience.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: We can seek to to follow and obey uh and and seek the Lord and ask him for for his will to be done and and not our own.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: On Sunday mornings, we we often pray that God would establish the work of our hands as we're setting up at 7 a.m.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: and we have a handful of guys that show up to to Cuna High School and we put up the pipe and drape and set up the classrooms for the for the kids and uh set up the stage and all the tech equipment.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: And unless the Lord is is gonna have his way, all that is for nothing.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's for it's in vain if God doesn't uh establish the work that that we set out to do.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: So as we seek to worship him on a Sunday or or any other day, uh a great encouragement for us today as we look to this opening uh section of verses is to seek the Lord and to seek to please him and and leave um leave our plans with an open hand, trusting that the Lord can uh can have his way in in whatever circumstance that we find ourselves.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and really all four of these verses speak to the reality of God's sovereignty.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: So even in verse one, the plans of the heart belong to a man.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: We make our plans, we have our thoughts, our aspirations, our goals.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: But the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: So the one who actually can determine, the one who gives a response even to the quiet desires of our hearts is the Lord Himself.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: In verse 2, all the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: The Lord is the one that determines what is pure and what perhaps is a wrong motivation or a wrong way, as it says here in verse 2.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: The Lord knows, and he can sift through those things, even with with, of course, greater clarity, with precise clarity, uh, unlike we can.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: The heart of a man is is deep waters, and we can sometimes think wrongly, we can sometimes be unaware of what's going on in our hearts.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: But the Lord always knows, and he's the one that weighs the spirit.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, verse three, commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: This isn't a promise that everything that you do, if you just say, Lord, this is for you, that suddenly that it's gonna be the you know the thing that that accelerates your your progress or your goals or something like that.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: But generally speaking, if you're doing the right things for the right reasons with the right kind of dependence on the Lord, you can have confidence that the Lord will bless it, that the Lord will bless and establish the work of your hands.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so there's again that sovereignty aspect of the Proverbs here, where God has the authority, He has the ability, the power to establish the work of your hands and to establish your plans.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: Your plans will be established, and who's the one establishing them?
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's the Lord.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: So even as we think about Compass Bible Church South Valley, and we're still in the early days of being a church and a church plant, we want this to be true of us.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: We want to commit our work to the Lord, everything that we're doing, and we want to trust that he will establish our plans and things that we are doing that do not honor him, perhaps, or things that we might in the future seek to engage in, if they are not according to his purpose, according to his plan, honoring him and glorifying him.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: We don't want those things to be established.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: And we can trust even that God, of course, will establish the plans that honor him, that maximize his glory and uh even that maximize our good uh and our growth in the Lord.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: And the the the fourth verse here, the Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble, again signifies the sovereignty of God.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: God has a purpose, an intention, a design over all things.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: And so all four of these verses show that we make plans, sure.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: The Lord directs our steps.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: He's the one that actually answers.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: We have desires and ways that we might consider one thing, but God, of course, has the right perspective and outlook.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: The Lord weighs the spirit.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: We have work that we want to seek to accomplish, but ultimately it's the Lord who establishes our plans.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: And the Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: So the Lord is in control of all things, He is sovereign over all things.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: And the Proverbs, we've already seen this, um, continues to kind of draw our attention to that reality.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you so much for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Podcast.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compass Bible SV.org.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: Keep reading, keep growing.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.