Seeking an inheritance for themselves.

Judges 18:1-15, In those days there was no king of Israel; and in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking an inheritance for themselves to live in, for until that day an inheritance had not been allotted to them as a possession among the tribes of Israel. So the sons of Dan sent from their family five men out of their whole number, valiant men from Zorah and Eshtaol, to spy out the land and to search it; and they said to them, “Go, search the land.” And they came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there. When they were near the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young man, the Levite; and they turned aside there, and said to him, “Who brought you here? And what are you doing in this place? And what do you have here?” And he said to them, “Thus and so has Micah done to me, and he has hired me, and I have become his priest.” And they said to him, “Inquire of God, please, that we may know whether our way on which we are going will be prosperous.” And the priest said to them, “Go in peace; your way in which you are going has the Lord’s approval.” Then the five men departed and came to Laish and saw the people who were in it living in security, after the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure; for there was no ruler humiliating them for anything in the land, and they were far from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone. When they came back to their brothers at Zorah and Eshtaol, their brothers said to them, “What do you report?” And they said, “Arise, and let us go up against them; for we have seen the land, and behold, it is very good. And will you sit still? Do not delay to go, to enter, to possess the land. “When you enter, you shall come to a secure people with a spacious land; for God has given it into your hand, a place where there is no lack of anything that is on the earth.” Then from the family of the Danites, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, six hundred men armed with weapons of war set out. And they went up and camped at Kiriath-jearim in Judah. Therefore they called that place Mahaneh-dan to this day; behold, it is west of Kiriath-jearim. And they passed from there to the hill country of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah. Then the five men who went to spy out the country of Laish answered and said to their kinsmen, “Do you know that there are in these houses an ephod and household idols and a graven image and a molten image? Now therefore, consider what you should do.” And they turned aside there and came to the house of the young man, the Levite, to the house of Micah, and asked him of his welfare.

Instead of seeking God and His guidance, the Danites were “seeking an inheritance for themselves.” The Lord guided the nation’s entrance into the Promised; now we see men who are doing what is right in their own eyes.

We want Your guidance in all that we do, Lord; preserve us from doing what is right in our own eyes.