All of us have had spiritual leaders we admired. We have all taken that admiration too far, developing blind spots. We don’t see their faults. If they taught something, and someone challenges that teaching, we have a natural tendency to reject what the other person says. 

If we hear something negative about the person we admire, we feel a duty to defend them. When we hear about a moral failure, our initial reaction, at least, is to not believe what we have heard. Unfortunately, the reports are oftentimes true. 

In Judges 17–18, we have an example of this. We are introduced to a Levite, a man who was supposed to be a spiritual leader in Israel (Judg 17:7) but wasn’t. He is a terrible human being. He sells himself out to the highest bidder. For money, he oversees a shrine full of idols. He becomes the priest for these idols. He is not faithful to the Lord. When a better offer comes along, he is more than willing to serve as an idolatrous priest for a larger group of people. The Scriptures say he was glad about the upturn in his fortunes (Judg 18:19-20). This new position would not only provide greater financial support but also increase the number of people who would honor him because of his exalted status. He could pass down these riches and fame to his descendants (Judg 18:30). His service as a false priest to the larger group would have a devastating impact on the nation as a whole. People reading Judges 17–18 would say this guy is despicable.  

The author of Judges (probably Samuel) does not name this Levite until the end of the discussion. We might think that he leaves the Levite anonymous until the very end because he doesn’t want to honor him in any way. When he does name him, there is a shocking revelation. The author gives his name as Jonathan. But then he lists his ancestors. Jonathan is the “son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh” (Judg 18:30).   

The name Manasseh is interesting. I am not an expert in OT textual criticism, but there is a textual problem with that name. It appears that originally, the name was Moses. Gershom was a son of Moses (Exod 2:22). Jewish rabbis added a “floating” Hebrew letter (n) above the word for Moses, and scribes took the added n and changed the name to Manasseh. If this is what happened, the scribes were indicating that this terrible human being, Jonathan, was not a descendant of Moses but of Manasseh. 

Why would they do that? The answer is obvious. The scribes and rabbis revered Moses. If Moses had a descendant as horrible as Jonathan, it would tarnish Moses’ image. They couldn’t believe Jonathan could have the blood of the great Moses in his veins. They thought the original writer of Judges was confused, or that perhaps an earlier scribe had misspelled the name. They would not allow their honored spiritual leader to be defamed in this way.  

When prominent Christian leaders fall, we often observe the same pattern. People deny it. When they can no longer deny it, they ignore it. They say the family needs privacy. They might even make excuses for the failure. They don’t want anybody to know what happened.  

Scripture does not do that. It tells us that Aaron made a golden calf for the people to worship. David committed adultery and murder. Solomon went off the deep end spiritually. Peter denied the Lord and refused to eat with Gentiles. Mark abandoned Paul on the first missionary journey. Demas, a former faithful disciple, quit serving the Lord because he loved the world. Samuel informs us that Moses had a descendant who was an absolute failure. 

When certain scribes came to Judges 18, they lied. Let’s not follow their example. Let’s speak the truth. The failures of esteemed religious leaders are a warning. We can all fail. But these failures also teach us a lesson. We might be indebted to our spiritual heroes, but ultimately, our focus should be on Christ, not them.