Christ Covenant Church

Right interpretation requires recognizing ellipsis (“shorthand” understood by prior context) (18:1a and 19:1a w/17:6 and 21:25). Other ways people prove they do not have God as their king (besides 17:6-13 = starting your own church) is they: 1) refuse to do the hard work necessary to be successful (18:1b w/1:34-35), 2) look to leach off of or benefit from what belongs to others (18:2 w/7 w/1Ch 5:23 = The location of Laish was just below Mt. Hermon in the territory of Manasseh); (18:3-6 w/13-20, 30-31 = The Danite tribe took Micah’s religion and priest for themselves), 3) will fight to possess what is not theirs (18:21-26), 4) are only interested in or pursue those things that can be easily acquired (18:8-12, 27-29), 5) are selfish in their pursuit of justice (19:1-2 [“was unfaithful” = Committed adultery ] w/3 [“to speak kindly to her and bring her back” = The Levite is not outraged/not pursuing justice -i.e. the death penalty for what she had done, bc she was still valuable to him] w/19:22-20:10, 5-6 [“they