What should we learn from the tribe of Dan?

In Jacob's prophecy (Gen. 49) we read in connection with Dan of Satanic character, the power of evil in manifestation. This can only be met and overcome by Jehovah's salvation, and for this Jacob expresses earnest desire. But despite Dan's evil character the prophetic assurance that he shall judge his people points to restoration and the realization of self-government, as far as the nation is concerned, when the day of the lawless one, the false Messiah, is over — a personage linked with Dan it would seem from this very prophecy. So in Dan's blessing as pronounced by Moses we have suggested the power that overcomes the enemy. His name means "judge," or "judging," and he stands for the spirit of rule which must necessarily be realized through the lesson of self-rule, self-judgment, self-government, and this means the truth applied to the whole man. Little does Dan's history express this, rather is it entirely in contrast to what his character should be. It is this which makes what Jacob yearns for in speaking of him such a necessity — Jehovah's salvation. This alone can meet the condition in which man is found, unable to rule himself (or the creation over which he was set as head at the first), dominated by the evil of his own heart, carried about by every wind of Satanic influence, he shows a character and power like that of the serpent. Self-judgment, self-government alone become possible through submission to another will and power, that of God revealed in Christ. Thus man comes into his true place and dignity — the enemy overcome, mastery through grace secured, the dominion of sin broken as made free by the Son. This is the first step in the cycle of divine blessing and perfection.

Dan. — No matter how low the people of God may sink in failure, His purposes will not be set aside: even as the apostle Paul wrote to the saints at Rome. "The gifts and calling of God are without repentance." Therefore Dan's place in ultimate blessing is assured in the words, "Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel." Jacob is about to tell of Dan's terrible future as an instrument of Satan, but he can find comfort in the sure knowledge that blessing will come for Dan in the end. From Revelation 7, where Dan is omitted in the sealing from the tribes, it would seem that God has come in in government for the part played by Dan at that time; but in the last chapter of Ezekiel we have confirmation of Jacob's confidence in God, for Dan's portion in the land, in the coming day, is clearly reserved for him. Dan's portion is the first mentioned, chiefly perhaps because he occupies the most northerly part of the land. But if Dan's portion is assured, it is in spite of his part in the dread troubles of Israel, after the church is gone; for this appears to be the part of Israel's history represented by him. Poor Israel has yet to pass through its worst troubles and distresses, when under Antichrist, the instrument of Satan, the state of things delineated in verse 17 comes to pass. "Dan shall be a serpent in the way, an adder in the path, that bitten the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward." Does not this speak of a diabolical and treacherous part played by the tribe of Dan? Idolatry was connected with Dan very early: when Jeroboam set up his golden calves at Dan and Bethel. Therefore it would appear that Dan prophetically points to the time of the end, when Satan's power is manifest in the land, when the abomination of desolation is set up in the temple, which causes the fierce judgment of God to be poured out upon the apostate people. With the light of this before him, Jacob, in the spirit of the godly remnant of that time says. "I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord." That salvation will surely come, even if it means through judgment: "Unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation."

When Jacob blessed his sons he said, "Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward." Gen. 49:16-17. This tribe was guilty of setting up very early in the land the idolatry, which continued until the people were carried into captivity. Judges 18:30-31. One naturally associates 'the adder that biteth the heels' with the serpent that would bruise the heel of the seed of the woman. Gen. 3:15. It seems to suggest that the Antichrist will arise out of the tribe of Dan, and this indeed has been the judgement of Christians from the earliest times. Moses said, "Dan is a lion's whelp: he shall leap from Bashan," Deut. 33:22, which may be a prophecy that Dan would do the work of Satan: cf. Ps. 22:12-13. This thought is confirmed by Dan's name being absent from 1 Chr. 2 - 8 (the book that records much of grace and blessing), and being omitted also from the list of tribes from each of which twelve thousand will be sealed in a future day. Rev. 7:3-8. Still God's promises to the twelve tribes will be kept, and the tribe of Dan will have its portion in the land as prophesied in Ezek. 48:1-2, 32.

The portion of land that fell to Dan being found too small, a party of them went far north unto Leshem or Laish, which they took, and destroyed; they built a city there and called it after their father Dan. Joshua 19:47. This is often named as the north border of Palestine; 'from Dan to Beersheba' implying the whole land. It was here that open idolatry was early set up. The city is identified with a few ruins at Tell el Kady, 33 15' N, 35 39' E. The place is visited because one of the sources of the Jordan issues from a spring near by.

The inheritance of Dan was near to the sea-coast, west of Ephraim and Benjamin, and north of Judah. But later, in Judges 18:1 we learn that Dan had not possessed what he was entitled to, so that, after sending spies to the north of the land, who found the Sidonians living in peace without fortifications or armaments, six hundred men from Dan journeyed there and attacked the inhabitants, killing them and burning their city Laish (Judg.18:27-29), then rebuilding the city for themselves, calling it Dan. Thus the tribe of Dan is thereafter referred to as at the extreme north of the land. Laish is the same as Leshem, noted in verse 47, this verse referring to the conquest of Judges 18. Though the area described in verses 41-46 was Dan's proper inheritance, it seems that they retained little possession of this.

Though Dan's place among the tribes as referring to judgment is an honourable one, yet his after history was contrary to the truth of his position. Dan was the first to introduce idolatry publicly in their tribe (Judg.18:30-31). How solemnly this teaches us that, when we are privileged to be in the place of judging for God, we may so assume such authority for ourselves that it amounts to idolatry!

Jonathan forsook the God of his grandfather, the leader and lawgiver of Israel, and encouraged the worship of idols. Prompted apparently by avarice and ambition, he originated and established that succession of idolatrous priesthood which continued in the tribe of Dan through many centuries "until the day of the captivity of the land" (Judges 18:30), that is, until the ten northern tribes, some six centuries later, were carried away by the Assyrians (2 Kings 17). It will be remembered that when the usurper, Jeroboam, set up the two calves of gold to be the gods of Israel, he placed one in Dan and one in Bethel (1 Kings 12:28-30). The subtle, poisonous, Satanic influence of Dan upon his fellow-tribes seems to be implied in dying Jacob's prophecy (Gen. 49:17), describing Dan as "a serpent on the way, a horned snake on the path." This pernicious influence is first indicated historically by the installation of Micah's graven image in the city of Dan (Judges 18:29-31). The corruption was increased under the successive kings of Israel, until Amos, before the Assyrian captivity, prophesied of the judgment that should fall upon those "that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, As thy god, O Dan, lives" (Amos 8:14). The serpent's venom had then spread from Dan throughout the whole land, and was beyond cure. But at the beginning a Levite, the grandson of Moses, was the chief organiser of this idolatry!

This chapter shows us the connection of one of the tribes with the religious system which we have seen set up in Judges 17. Dan had proved himself to be the weakest of the tribes of Israel. Forced into the mountains by the Amorites (Judges 1: 34), and lacking the faith to take possession of his inheritance, he sent out five men to reconnoitre, in order to search the portion he still lacked. Laish, a quiet and prosperous town, was situated at the northern extremity of Canaan, far from the Zidonians to whom it belonged, and did no business with any one. This city afforded Dan an opportunity for an inglorious conquest, but presented besides everything that the natural heart could desire. "A place," said the messengers, "where there is no want of anything that is in the earth" (v. 10). Apart from its wickedness, Laish, like Sodom before its destruction, was like a garden of the Lord; a conquest worthy of a Lot but not of an Abraham, but which was a temptation to the tribe of Dan in their enfeebled and lax state. Dan had a battle to fight, a victory to gain in his own boundaries, over the Amorites of the valley; but this combat would have cost him too much; he preferred a conquest without danger, won at the extremity of the land far from the eyes of Jehovah's witnesses and from the place where his real enemy was, who was left without a word in possession of Dan's true inheritance.

The history of this chapter is closely linked with the preceding. The tribe of Dan had failed to take the God-given inheritance (Josh. 19:40-46). "The Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountain: for they would not suffer them to come down to the valley" (Judges 1:34). Then in self-will, entirely disregarding the will of God, they sent out spies to seek another inheritance. They meet Micah's priest, the hireling. Micah's idolatrous outfit including the hired priest are taken by the invaders. The hireling sees an advantage for himself, his "usefulness" is enlarged for filthy lucre's sake. Then they killed the people of Laish and set their city on fire. The whole tribe of Dan becomes idolatrous. We have in all a picture of complete apostasy.

(2.) And the evil does not stop with this. We are now to see how the private sin becomes a public sin, and roots itself in a tribe of Israel. The tribe of Dan we have seen long since as linked in Jacob's prophecy with apostasy. Dan is the typical judge, and it is here the failure begins, and is so disastrous. With Samson's failure the book ends; but here we see the Danite, from the first and all through, a failure. No tribe so signally fails to lay hold on its inheritance; and this is the only way in which we can understand that their lot had not fallen to them. They had suffered the Philistines to regain the cities upon the sea-coast, and the Amorites had forced them into the mountains. This loss of what is our own, and should be made our own, is often the reason of much restless activity among the people of God, and of much that looks like success in other directions. Their history, as far as their original possession is concerned, clings around Zorah and Eshtaol, significant names when cut off from the rest that God had allotted them. They are here seen forced by their own slothfulness or timidity to seek an inheritance elsewhere; and were then as violent and rapacious as before they were indolent. Human nature in fallen man commonly shows itself in extremes of this kind.

In Dan we see that through this tribe the nation would fall, like a rider falling backwards. Dan is an instrument of Satan's power, bringing about the apostasy of the nation. But at the darkest moment of their history — when the mass fall under the power of Satan — there will be a remnant who look to the Lord and wait for His salvation (verses 16-18).

Dan was the first son of Rachel's maid Bilhah. “Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.” Prophetically this brings us to the time when self-government is resumed in Israel. To some degree this has been true since 1948. But it is added that “Dan shall be a serpent by the way, a viper by the path, that bites the horse's heels so that its rider shall fall backward” (v. 17). This prophecy specifically refers to the tribulation period when satanic activity rises to a dreadful height in the proud, deceitful reign of the antichrist in Israel. When we compare this verse with Revelation 7, it seems likely the antichrist will come from the tribe of Dan, for in Revelation 7 Dan is omitted from the 144,000. Well may Jacob add here, “I have waited for Your salvation, O Lord!” Yet even though Dan is missing from the 144,000 sealed in Revelation 7, he will have his place in the blessing of the millennium, for it is plainly declared that he will judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.