The Sin of Samaria

They that swear by the sin of Samaria and say, ‘Thy god o Dan liveth.’ … even they shall fall and never rise up again. (Amos 8:14 )

As the nation of Israel hurtled towards their final days, one of their last prophets, Amos, would deliver a fiery message in yet another attempt to turn them back. Amongst the coming judgement was the fall and ruin of those who swore by the sin of Samaria. What is the sin of Samaria?

There is a hint to help us following directly afterwards with the oath: ‘Thy god, o Dan liveth.’ The sin of Samaria has something to do with Dan.

In the passage of Judges 17 & 18, a story unfolds in which a man of Ephraim, Micah, has a collection of ‘gods’ in his house. A Levite who was sojourning in Judah came in his travels to Micah, who persuaded him to become a priest in his house for a yearly salary. An unknown amount of time passes during which the tribe of Dan needed to expand, not having enough space (Josh 19:40-48). They go on a war to take the town of Laish. In this process, the Danites come across the Levite turned priest who they happened to know and convince him to come with them. He would function as a priest for them, along with the images and priestly garb that Micah had owned. This Levite’s family would function as priests to the tribe of Dan all the way till the captivity of the land. (There is some debate as to whether the word for ‘land’ is better read as ‘ark’ which would change the time span considerably. For our discussion, it is irrelevent as to which it was, for the core elements of the sin of Micah will continue in Dan through the erecting of one of the golden calves by Jeroboam)

In this event we find the seeds of the sin of Samaria – centered around Dan.  There are a few points that are important to observe before we move to the second key event that defines the sin of Samaria.

1. At no point in the text is it indicated that Micah, the Levite, and the Danites are worshipping gods other than Jehovah. While the translation may appear to give room for other gods, we can see that they are still ‘worshipping’ Jehovah through the idols in the following examples:
   1. No mention is made of any of the gods of Canaan
   1. Micah’s mother has ‘dedicated’ the silver to Jehovah (the actual name of God, not a title) Judges 17:3
   1. Micah will himself invoke the name of Jehovah in Judges 17:13, specifically with blessing because he had a Levite as a priest. This indicates an effort of some sort to align with the Law of Moses. Sort of because we will soon see this wasn’t what God had requested.
   1. Finally, in Judges 18:6, the priest when enquiring of God, specifically uses the name Jehovah.
2. There is a general neglect of following the law of God which had made it very clear that NO graven images were to be made (Ex 20:4, Lev 26:1, Deu 4:25). All the mentioned verses Micah and the tribe of Dan would have had access to, having been written before their time.  Yet another principle of the law is broken in making priests. The sin of Korah included an attempt to take the priesthood – Korah was a Levite (Num 16:10). Only Aaron and his descendents could be priests (Ex 29:9). Again, these stories were available to Micah at this time. Finally, the place of sacrifice was not chosen by God, again, breaking the law of God (Deu 12:11-18)
3. The worship of Micah’s images is reminiscient of the golden calf in Ex 32:4, where Aaron made a golden calf per the people’s request, yet this was not a ‘different’ god to Jehovah, but rather, an image to represent Jehovah. Note the words of Aaron: This is your God, O Israel, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Most translations will have gods in place of god. This is incorrect, for only one calf is made. The use of Elohim here is not to denote plural gods but rather the majestic plural attributed to the god of gods.

The key takeaway here is that we have worship of Jehovah through improper means by improper people in improper places.

The importance of this event can be seen when related to the other event in Judges that follows it, where a civil war breaks out between the tribe of Benjamin and the other tribes. Again, a Levite is involved and the theme is: every man did what was right in his own eyes. This event is referenced by Hoshea in Hos 10:9. Both these events were recorded to indicate the moral state of Israel. On one hand, a complete moral degeneracy. And on the other, idolatry, yet one of subtilty in that they still ‘worshipped’ Jehovah.

Before we move to the climatic event, we want to quickly establish what Samaria represents. Samaria is the capital of the kindom of the ten tribes of Israel after they split from the unified kingdom of Solomon. The initial capital was NOT Samaria as Samaria was built in the days of Omri, the 6^th king of Israel. (1Ki 16:24) Samaria would remain the captial of the nation until its exile by the Assyrians. Throughout prophecy, Samaria would come to represent the northern kingdom of Israel as a whole.

This link is important, for the origin of the sin of Samaria is not found in the city itself, but in the nation and its founding – which being called Samaria as a whole for identification.

For the climatic event in which we find the sin of Samaria, we must go to 1 Kings 12:26-33. Jeroboam has taken the throne of the northern kingdom after the tribes split from Rehoboam. In fear that the people would turn back to following Rehoboam, Jeroboam makes two golden calves, one is placed in Bethel, the other in Dan. He makes a declaration to the people that copies almost word for word the words of Aaron from Exodus when he made the golden calf: behold your god, o Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt. (it is unlikely that the plural ‘gods’ should be used here, as it’s clear from the text that worship was made to Jehovah – one god. Instead, it should be understood in the majestic plural)

This act of Jeroboams would bear many similarities to Micah’s story

• Both make images to ‘facilitate’ the worship of Jehovah in contravention of God’s law
• Both make priests from common people unqualified to be priests in contravention of God’s law
• Both will find their work located in Dan as a centre of worship

While its not mentioned directly in the text, there is the possibility that the reason for one of Jeroboam’s golden calves being placed in Dan could be the continuing worship there at the shrine made by Micah. This reading fits with the wording of Judges when it speaks of the continuance of the worship in Dan until the captivity, for the golden calves would endure till the captivity.

No king of Israel would remove the golden calves – even Jehu, with his crusade against Baal, would stop short of removing the calves. As such, almost every king of Israel is concluded with the statement: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin. The exceptions are a couple of kings with very short reigns – and even they are insinuated to be doing the same as all the other kings.

Herein is the sin of Samaria. It has many applications for the church today.

There was never a point in time that Jeroboam’s calves were acceptable before God. Neither was there a point in time that Micah’s idolatry was acceptable. Yet both proclaimed the worship of Jehovah.

To worship the God of the Bible means nothing if we do it in a way that offends God. Not all that is proclaimed to be of God is God. A group’s proclamation that they are worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ means nothing if the approach is wrong.

The length of time that the centre of unacceptable worship towards Jehovah existed in Dan, from the early days of the judges all the way through to the exile is a staggering period spanning hundreds of years.

Appeals to church history/the past outside of the Word of God does not make something right. We must return to the word of God – the whole word of God. Many a false doctrine finds its roots in a verse or two. It fails however when lined up against the whole of Scripture. Consider the use of Scripture by the devil when tempting Jesus. The presence of Scripture does not automatically make it right. Despite verses indicating potential ‘predestination of the individual’ in some of Paul’s writings, we can clearly understand by going back through the whole text of the Bible that teaching that individuals have no free will is plainly false.

God is concerned with us keeping His Word accurately. The argument that one is being too dogmatic with doctrine is not something found in Scripture. Some would go to the Pharisees as an example of people who are too concerned with the letter of the law and not the spirit of the law, yet even that is not true, for the Law of Moses commanded mercy. If they were truly faithful to the letter of the Law, they would achieve the spirit of the Law. It mattered not that the people thought they were worshipping Jehovah, or that the rulers declared it as such. The worship of the calves and Micah’s image were all idolatry – even if directed towards Jehovah. It was unacceptable and did not save but rather damned all who participated.

The idea that we can continue to serve God but by the precepts of men and traditions of men and it will not be of consequence before the thrice holy God who judged the Israelites for their idolatry is one which we ought to abandon promptly.  The judgement pronounced by God upon Israel was all that swear by the means of worship in Dan, be it the image of Micah or the golden calf, if they did not repent, they would fall and never rise again. Such judgement is looming for those who in the age of the Church refuse the voice of Him that speaks from heaven, preferring instead to hold to traditions and teachings of men.