Sunday message- Dan, not "the man"

Pro 16:1  The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD. 
Pro 16:2  All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the spirit. 
Pro 16:3  Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established. 

I start with these verses as a way of framing what I try to do here.  This week, I had put together ahead of time the Wednesday study on "D is for..." and Dan was one of the candidates, though I felt the Lord led me the other way.  However, I think there is a lesson here.  The problem for me being, I tend to let my curiosity go a little more on Wednesday than on Sunday; one I use for application, the other for learning.  And I have to question myself in whether there is a application message in what I learned about Dan.  There is a lot of curiosity in the story of Dan and the tribe that came from him, beginning in Revelation; for his is the one tribe not listed in the 144,000 who will stand for God against the Antichrist- in fact, some scholars thus believe that the "Lawless One" will BE a Danite.

But, that's not what we can APPLY from his story.  So let me parse out what we can apply out of all I learned about Dan.

WHAT WE LEARN FROM CHARACTER

Here we learn best from the two "blessings" on Dan:  The first is from Jacob on his deathbed, directly on his son; the other from Moses before he died, on the tribe.

Jacob's blessing:

Gen 49:16  "Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. 

Gen 49:17  Dan shall be a serpent in the way, a viper by the path, that bites the horse's heels so that his rider falls backward. 

Now, one commentator described this as vindicating the sons of Jacob's mistresses, as Dan was the firstborn, of Rachel's maid Bilhah- and indeed it plays on his name, as Rachel named him Dan "because the Lord has judged between my sister and I".  Dan here is made a legitimate heir of the tribes, and thus the others born to the two maids as well.  I muse to myself, though, that in a way this might mean that Dan will be a microcosm of the way Israel itself shall be- "As Dan goes, so goes..." etc.

What we do see, though, is that the tribe is linked to "a serpent" and that CAN'T be a good thing.  His treachery will make everyone "fall backwards", and indeed we will see that.

Moses's Blessing

Deu 33:22  And of Dan he said, "Dan is a lion's cub that leaps from Bashan." 

Here, some commentators waste time debating why Moses used Bashan, which Dan's ORIGINAL territory would be nowhere near.  But then, they go on to think Moses was praising Dan's courage, by comparing him to a "young lion"- but that is NOT what Moses does.  The definition of the word used here:

gûr  gûr

goor, goor

Perhaps from H1481; a cub (as still abiding in the lair), especially of the lion: - whelp, young one.

A cub, still living in the lair, who will play at attack, but run at the nearest sign of danger- which we learn Dan DOES.

And thus we have the first application- you lose your place with God being treacherous and cowardly.

THE FIRST FALL

Leviticus 24 tells us that the first man stoned by the Law was a Danite, for he "blasphemed the Name, and cursed. "  His lineage was not given, except his mother's name- by which he is referenced- and that his grandfather was Egyptian.  He dies for his crime, and neither he nor his father's name is ever known.   Application- you lose your place breaking the Third Commandment- you shall not take the Name of the Lord Your God in vain.

THE COWARDLY LION

Dan was the second-biggest tribe after Judah, and was honored with being the rearguard as they traveled through the desert.  Possibly not a smart play, but they hadn't earned their dishonor yet.  They did that after they got their allotment in the Promised Land.  They had a chunk on the seacoast just above the land of the Philistines- thus hemming their enemies in with the 2 strongest tribes to their north and east.  But the Danites weren't fighters- as we do a quick cameo on on the upcoming Wednesday Message, Deborah chides them in her song for not fighting:

Jdg 5:17  Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan; and Dan, why did he stay with the ships? Asher sat still at the coast of the sea, staying by his landings. 

Not only were they unwilling to fight Jabin of Hazor, or the Philistines, they wouldn't even fight the Amorites who "kept them pent up in the mountains"!  HOWever, they were awful brave later on, when they sent a 600-man "force" north to find easier pickings:

Jdg 18:27  But the people of Dan took what Micah had made, and the priest who belonged to him, and they came to Laish, to a people quiet and unsuspecting, and struck them with the edge of the sword and burned the city with fire. 

Jdg 18:28  And there was no deliverer because it was far from Sidon, and they had no dealings with anyone. It was in the valley that belongs to Beth-rehob. Then they rebuilt the city and lived in it. 

Jdg 18:29  And they named the city Dan, after the name of Dan their ancestor, who was born to Israel; but the name of the city was Laish at the first. 

You might be asking what it was they took from Micah, and who was he anyway.  It's coming next, be patient.  Before that, I should mention that Laish/Dan is in the very far north of Israel, and much closer to Bashan, thus fulfilling Moses' prophecy.

Application here:It is much easier going for cowards OUTSIDE of the Lord's will.  Because of their cowardice, how many lives were lost to the Philistines they were supposed to be hemming in?

THE MICAH STORY

This has a slew of unsavory characters, braced on either side by that Magical phrase so popular in Judges:

Jdg 17:6  In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. 

And apparently, that's how it was that, at some point, this Ephraimite named Micah had secretly pilfered 1,100 silver pieces from his Mom.  She cursed him ( apparently not knowing HE was the thief) in his hearing, and so he decided to come clean.  Now she had supposedly dedicated the money to the Lord (unclear whether this was before or after it was stolen), and so when he gave it back, she took 200 pieces (again, unclear whether this was the extra 1/5th the Law required Micah to restore or part of the 1,100) and had a silversmith make 'representations of God' (thus breaking the Second Commandment), that Micah then used to make his own worship center, complete with his own ephod and his son as "interim priest".

Shortly thereafter, 5 spies from the aforementioned 600 men met up with a Levite that Micah later hired to run his private church, who "inquired of God" that they would be successful beating up defenseless Laish.  So they went back, got the others, and took Levite, ephod, and idols with them.  Of course, Micah whined and complained, and for his trouble was told:

Jdg 18:25  And the people of Dan said to him, "Do not let your voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows fall upon you, and you lose your life with the lives of your household." 

How very Cain-like.  And so brave, 600 to 1.  But here's the thing:  When the Levite came to Micah and Micah hired him, he thought he was on easy street:

Jdg 17:13  Then Micah said, "Now I know that the LORD will prosper me, because I have a Levite as priest." 

Not mentioning that he kicked his OWN son out of the job to get that blessing.  But Micah was far from the only one playing "do religion for fun and profit", for when the 600 took the "Church of Micah" with them, they told the Levite:

Jdg 18:19  And they said to him, "Keep quiet; put your hand on your mouth and come with us and be to us a father and a priest. Is it better for you to be priest to the house of one man, or to be priest to a tribe and clan in Israel?" 

Jdg 18:20  And the priest's heart was glad. He took the ephod and the household gods and the carved image and went along with the people. 

So you see, what we have here is one big conglomeration of people who decided to practice religion "for what it gets me".  Micah and Mommy got their comeuppance early on; the Danites and Levite would get theirs later.  Somehow or another, Micah gets to be the only one whose name is saved for posterity;  though he might wish he hadn't.

AND THE FINAL CURTAIN

So now, Dan sets up the new city of Dan, complete with the stolen idols, and it stays in place for a long, long time.  In fact, until it got an upgrade.

You see, after Solomon, his son Rehoboam was about to go on a "tax till you drop" program, and a former exile named Jereboam came out of Egypt to contest the kingship.  The nation was split into Judah (and Benjamin) and Israel (everyone else, including Dan).  By this time the center of worship was in Jerusalem at the Temple, so Jereboam needed to set up something else.  He had two golden calves made.  One was put in Bethel, near the border with Judah; the other, you guessed it, in Dan, who already had a couple-hundred year head start on idolatry thanks to the 600 men and their pet Levite.  In fact, the one in Dan became SO popular:

1Ki 12:28  So the king took counsel and made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, "You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt." 

1Ki 12:29  And he set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. 

1Ki 12:30  Then this thing became a sin, for the people went as far as Dan to be before one. 

So they went step by step from something "technically Godly" to full blown idolatry, taking all Israel with it.

Hmm, does that remind you of Jacob's "Blessing"?  The horse falling backwards?

Application:  Only pure motives- worship in Spirit and in truth- is acceptable to God.

So, why isn't Dan in Revelation?  When God required reverence, they gave insults.  When He required courage, they ran and hid.  When He required honesty, they settled for appearance.  And when they needed Him most, they denied Him completely, and led others to do the same.  I guess there isn't that much to be curious about.