NOTES for Jdg 18:1-31
Micah’s makeshift priesthood did him no good: the hired priest betrayed him. Yet the Danites, who took the “objects of worship” by force, also behave like pagans; their attitude toward worship resembles idolatry all too closely. In the Danites’ attitude toward God there is no longer any desire to learn and do His will; what they want is practical benefit.
Apparently it is no accident that the biblical narrator notes that the inhabitants of the places conquered by Dan were peaceful and unsuspecting people: the war against them bears no resemblance to the struggle against the fearsome and dangerous pagans of earlier days. In this war the Danites are ordinary invaders, not fighters for a just cause.
One can trample faith by one’s deeds while continuing in words to regard oneself as its champion, but reality will not correspond to that claim. While worshiping the One God, one can turn worship itself into something resembling a pagan cult; but such false piety may be far worse than open paganism.