Dan Gen. 49:16-18 16 Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. 17 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. 18 I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD. The commandments of God in the Garden of Eden to our first parents are the bedrock that continues throughout the Scriptures. They are very important! Here s what I mean: Man s responsibility to God s creation. Gen. 1: 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. Gen. 2: 15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. Gen. 2: 24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. It is this latter foundational commandment that began to go by the way. In 4:19, And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. This was just downright disobedience and a practice that Jacob was guilty of. (Okay, he was tricked into it by Laban, but nevertheless, Jacob had no problem going along with it!) Let s turn to Gen. 30:1. It is important here to catch hold of the relationship these two sisters, - Rachel and Leah, - had. Gen. 30:1, Rachel is jealous, she s getting hysterical, and poor old Jacob, his life wouldn t have been worth living! And Jacob turns on Rachel and answers her angrily (v.2). However, Rachel hit on a plan (v.3), - as if the equation wasn t complicated enough, she suggests adding another factor, Bilhah.
D.G. 2 (Would she never have heard of the complications that arose when Sarai introduced a similar thought to Abram, Jacob s grandfather?!) It seems that the only thing we learn about sin is that we never learn, - it s only God s grace that can lift the sinner out of the ever-spiralling mire! Anyhow, Bilhah had a child but because she was Rachel s handmaid the young son Dan was reckoned unto Rachel. V.6, now look at Rachel s twisted mind. Rachel had done something very wrong, yet at the same time she really believed that God was listening to her prayers and had answered her with the birth of this new baby. This wasn t her son, - he was Bilhah s son! yet Rachel believed she was justified in causing her husband to commit adultery. (the 10 commandments weren t yet in vogue, but Gen. 2:24 was!) But let s look at God s grace as He deals in mercy with Dan DAN THE DELIVERER v.16 That s what Dan means, - judge, deliverer. [Daniel = God is judge/deliverer ] Under God, Moses brought the children of Israel out of Egypt and led them to the borders of the Promised Land. When Moses died Joshua succeeded him and led them into the Land. Following the death of Joshua the nation was ruled by judges, Their purpose was to lead the people out against the enemy and direct them in the truth of God, Gen. 49: 16 Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. He, in his turn, was to be one of the judges, i.e. out of the tribe of Dan. Samson belonged to the tribe of Dan (cf. Judges 13:1-5); v.24 tells us about his birth; isn t v.25 beautiful?!
D.G. 3 Samson s rule as judge was successful and greatly blessed of God, - he delivered Israel from the hands of the Philistines and set his people free, - he was indeed blessed of God. However, his fleshly nature got the better of him, - he had an eye for the girls (14:1-3; 16:1,4), and he came to a sad end. DAN THE DESPISED Gen. 46:8ff. is another list of the sons of Jacob with relation to their sons. Note that all Reuben s sons, all Simeon s sons, etc. are mentioned, but when you come to v.23, - to the list of Dan s sons, - there is only one name mentioned, Hushim. Who is Hushim? Well, in Hebrew when you see im at the end of a word it is the same as when we put s on the end of our words, - it merely makes them into the plural, Hence, cherub(im), seraph(im), nephal(im), Hushim. So Hushim is not a boy s name or a girl s name; it is used merely to designate the whole tribe of Dan, in a similar way to how the word British encapsulates the people of Scotland, N. Ireland, Wales and England. The sons of Dan are the only sons not to be mentioned. Furthermore, I Chron. 2:1 records the twelve sons of Jacob (Dan is there, v.2). However, from 2:3 7:40 Dan has been omitted, Judah (2:3-4:23), Simeon (4:24-43), Reuben (5:1-10), Gad (5:11-22), Manasseh (5:23-26; 7:14-19), Levi (6:1-30), Issachar (7:1-5), Benjamin (7:6-12; 8:1-39), Naphtali (7:13), Ephrain (7:20-29), Asher (7:30-40). NO DAN! Rev. 7:4-8 again NO DAN! Why? What s the reason for Dan not being mentioned? Let s look a little bit deeper. We have found already that when Jacob has used the symbolism of an animal in speaking to his sons on this very last occasion he has used it for a specific and significant reason (n.b. Issachar), Dan shall be a serpent by the way
D.G. 4 The Genesis account of how Adam and eve fell into the trap laid for them by the serpent would have been a story Jacob would often have told to his sons, Gen. 3: 15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Then return to Gen. 49:17, - Dan is going to be like a serpent that bites at the heels of the horse as it rides along a well-trodden pathway, and consequently the rider will fall backwards. You see, here is the reason why Dan is being omitted, - you can t trust him, because his actions towards his brethren are treacherous. He is intent on their downfall, and in keeping with the language of Gen. 3:15 he is hellbent on doing the work of Satan in tripping up the people of God, lying in wait for his brethren to come within pouncing distance. Jacob, - although physically blind, - could see into the future and prophesied that his son would ally himself with the forces of Satan. We have seen Dan the Deliverer, Dan the Despised, and it s not getting any better for him DAN THE DEPRAVED I Kings 12. Solomon has died; young Rehoboam had become king. At the request of his people, he had to devise a policy for governing his people, He asked the older men and then he asked his contemporaries, To his peril, he decided to take the advice of his younger friends. In next to no time ten out of the twelve tribes rebelled and Jeroboam was set up as the rival king (v.20). The two tribes that remained faithful to Rehoboam were known as Judah ; the other ten tribes were known as Israel. The main centre for the kingdom of Judah was in Jerusalem,
D.G. 5 (The tribe of Judah could trace its ancestry back through David to Abraham, and forward to the Lord Jesus Christ.) Jeroboam, from the tribe of Ephraim and belonging to the new breakaway kingdom of Israel, established the city of Dan in the north as one of its two main centres (Bethel being the other). Therefore, Dan became a centre for rebellion against the true people of God. What kind of a place was this Dan? Judges 18. Dan conspired against the people of the town of Laish, he killed them and burned everything they owned. He then rebuilt it and called it Dan, 29 And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born unto Israel: howbeit the name of the city was Laish at the first. 30 And the children of Dan set up the graven image: Thus, Dan became synonymous with a thoroughly pagan anti-god society in which Jeroboam could come along and promote the practice of idolatry, and Dan succeeded as the serpent who lay in wait, and he caused many to tumble backwards, i.e. ten out of the twelve tribes, just as old Jacob had prophesied. This then is the tribe that has constantly been in opposition to God and the faithful people of God. Dan had all the privileges of being brought up in a home where God s promises and blessing were revered and respected, Yet, he despised the God of his fathers and caused the spiritual downfall of many of his brethren. An enemy from within the camp! Dan was without doubt the worst of Jacob s son. On his deathbed old Jacob cried out, 18 I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord. I look for your deliverance, for there is none other.
D.G. 6 IN CONCLUSION there is just one final passage I want to turn your attention to, Amos 8. The prophet Amos was a bane in the life of idolatrous Israel, - they didn t want to hear what he had to say (7:12,13). Amos is referring now back to Jacob s farewell to his sons, and God s Word records, 8:7 The LORD hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works. vv.8-11. But here s God s final word on the matter, and look to whom it is addressed, 14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beersheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again. The tribe of Dan bears the brunt of God s wrath. The Bible says, Gal.6: 7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. J.B. Phillipps translated it like this, Don t be under any illusion: you cannot make a fool of God! A man s harvest in life will depend entirely on what he sows. Dan, - a fool of a man, with all the privileges, and consider how he ended up!