07.05. Dan

DAN. FROM time to time, during the long sojourn in Egypt, the blessings which Jacob pro­nounced on his deathbed would be spoken of, sung of at the brick-kiln, and then on the parched soil of the desert, taught to their children, and kept in memory as pledges of future good. Who can tell how often the bondmen encouraged each other under the blows of the taskmaster, with the prophecy that Shiloh should yet arise, and Judah yet be the mighty lion? But to teach them, when they had reached Canaan and its happy seats, not to rest as if they had found all that the soul could win, the patriarch Jacob, while in spirit in the midst of these future scenes, is heard breathing out his longing desire for more than his words have described. Pausing after his glowing delineation of Judah’s lot, and his stirring sketch of the prowess of Dan, he is led by the inspiring Spirit to exclaim (Genesis 49:18)-"I have waited for thy salvation, O Jehovah," as if he had said, "All that development of greatness and power in Israel is not enough. Oh that the salvation of Israel were come!" It was the first of a long succes­sion of similar bursts of desire which used to find utterance when gleams of the glorious Saviour touched the chords of the believing heart. In the days of David we hear the worshipper cry, "My soul fainteth for thy salvation;" "Mine eyes fail for thy salva­tion;" "I have hoped for thy salvation, 0 Lord;" "I have longed for thy salvation, 0 Lord" (Psalms 119:81, Psalms 119:123, Psalms 119:166, Psalms 119:174). Isaiah cries, "Say to Zion, Behold thy salvation cometh" (Psalms 62:11), as if Zion were impatient with long expecting. Old Simeon exclaims at last, "Mine eyes have seen thy salvation." (Luke 2:30), when at Christ’s first coming he held "The Child born to us" in his arms. And the whole Church shall soon raise the joyous cry, at his second coming," Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us" (Isaiah 25:9).

"I know that my Redeemer lives, He lives, and on the earth shall stand; And though to worms my flesh He gives, My dust lies numbered in his hand.

"In this reanimated clay I surely shall behold Him near; Shall see Him in the latter day In all his majesty appear.

"I feel what then shall raise me up­- The Eternal Spirit lives in me. This is my confidence of hope That God I bee to face shall see.

‘Mine own, and not another’s eyes, The King shall in his beauty view.

I shall from Him receive the prize, The starry crown to victors due."

C. WESLEY. But we have somewhat anticipated. Let us go farther back than to Jacob’s blessing, let us go back to the birth-time of Dan, as recorded in Genesis 30:1-6.

Man’s heart has been called a microcosm and a family is a miniature world. What we find in Jacob’s house exhibits very cor­rectly the state of the world at large. All things in Jacob’s house seem out of order, envy, discontent, murmuring abound on one side, pride and the vauntings of rivalry prevail on the other. Rachel is against Leah, and Leah is against Rachel. Jacob cannot rectify the disorder; but at length Rachel hints that she has hit upon a plan which may adjust matters. She suggests that her handmaid Bilhah may have children by Jacob, and she will adopt her handmaid’s children. It is a plan such as only the unsatisfactory relations of polygamy would have admitted; but Rachel prayed over it (she says, "God hath heard me." Genesis 30:6), and the Lord made use of it. A son was born to Bilhah accordingly; and while Rachel adopted the child, and held him up as her own, she exclaimed, "God hath judged me, and hath given me a son;" and so his name was called "Dan," judging. Now this term, "judge" (which in Hebrew may be expressed by two verbs indiscrimin­ately, ***** or *****), is one that includes much. It is, indeed, properly the expression for managing and ruling; putting in order things that were all confusion, or that threatened to cause distress. And so God is "the widow’s Judge" (Psalms 68:5) when He manages her affairs for her in her help­lessness; and He comes to "judge the earth," as Gideon, Samson, Samuel judged and ruled Israel. It was this rectifying and adjusting of affairs in Jacob’s house that Rachel referred to when she uttered the exulting words, "God hath judged me!" The storm of passion is quieted; the boasts and vaunts of rivals are stilled; order begins to reign in the tents of Israel, as well as in Rachel’s distracted heart. In bitter­ness of soul and rash rebelliousness of feeling, she had said to Jacob, "Give me children, or else I die;" the Lord had heard her, too, but He had also heard her bemoaning the sin, and crying to Him to overrule all. And the Lord did overrule, for "He judged." Even as He shall do in reply to the prayers of his elect, who cry day and night to Him, "Avenge me of mine adversary" (Luke 18:7). Men have, like Rachel, strange plans of their own for putting right a dis­ordered world; but the Lord will over­rule all. In after days, Jacob foretold regarding Dan, with a reference to his name and the circumstance of his birth- "Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel."

He shall have his turn in judging Israel. And as he at his birth brought about a temporary cessation of strife and envy, so, when he shall have become a tribe, he shall be found performing a similar service. All this came to pass when Samson was raised up from this tribe at a critical period of the nation’s history, to be to the whole land a deliverer and ruler. Not only did Samson for twenty years clear Israel’s troubled sky, but he left his impress on the nation, who saw in him what might their God was able to communicate, so that truly one could chase a thousand. He caused the nations round, also, to know the same, and to stand in awe. But again, when he shall judge Israel, he shall do it in a peculiar manner.

"Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, That biteth the horse-heels, so that the rider falleth backward." In marching through the desert, Dan brought up the rear of the camp, and may often have driven back the retreating foe. But the special allusion here is to Samson again; for like the serpent and the adder, see him suddenly, abruptly, and by most startling strokes, assailing the Philistines from time to time. Yet more, Jacob may refer to the Danites, in characteristic suddenness and force, coming down upon the city Laish. These at any rate are outstanding facts regarding this tribe, related by the sacred historian in a way that may lead us to suppose that, on other occasions besides, Dan exhibited a similar peculiarity of tempera­ment and character. But further, let us note, Dan, in all these deeds, was adjusting the balance, or "judging;" for even the affair of Laish was suggested by the tribe finding itself over-crowded, and by some­thing of Rachel’s desire to equal their rivals in prowess and possessions.

It may be because of the singularity of the description, "A serpent-an adder," that there arose a whisper among the Jews and the early Christians, that Antichrist should spring from the tribe of Dan-Antichrist: that serpent, that adder, and yet mighty ruler. Some of the fathers thought their opinion confirmed by the fact that Dan set up the graven image of Micah (Judges 18:31), and also by the omission of the name of Dan in Revelation 7:1-17. But for that omission sufficient reasons of another kind can be given; and when we turn to Moses’ blessing, in Deuteronomy 32:22, there is no hint of evil having its peculiar source in Dan. Moses omits Simeon, but he mentions and blesses Dan- "Dan is like a lion’s whelp, that is wont to leap from Basham."

He is never to be like Judah-a full-grown lion and lioness; he is to be "a young lion," making efforts at great deeds; and specially like the young lion in his daring leaps. It was in conformity with this trait in his character that he sent out his warriors from the south, where his lot seemed fixed, to the far north, leaping at once from the one end to the other end of the land. While adjusting affairs in his own tribe, he does unlooked-for things on the foe-coming on Laish all suddenly and irresistibly. Shall not the Judge of the earth do the same? Shall He not come all suddenly, as the leap of a lion’s whelp, upon an unthinking world, when they are saying, "Peace and safety"?

There is a most interesting variety in the Lord’s people; the Lord’s tribes have each a characteristic of their own. Cephas is not Apollos, nor is either of them a Paul. There is variety in their gifts, and graces in their lot and in the results of their assigned work. Often the Lord uses a man for some one great and important purpose, and then the man disappears from view. Micaiah announces Ahab’s doom; Daniel’s three companions pass unscathed through the furnace; Joseph of Arimathea takes down the body ­of Jesus from the cross; and no more is heard of these men of God. So the tribe of Dan performs two great exploits, or rather comes twice into bold prominence, and then disappears. In 1 Chronicles, while the other tribes have a place and mention in the catalogues of genealogy, Dan has none at all. So also Dan has one famous city, Joppa, but only this on that can be spoken of as renowned. This is the Lord’s way, judging as He sees best, managing and ruling according to his will among the inhabitants of the earth.

One other fact about Dan. The architect of the Temple of Solomon was the son of a Tyrian; but his mother was of the tribe of Dan (2 Chronicles 2:14): "a woman of the daughters of Dan," who had married a Gentile proselyte, but was soon left a widow. How, then, is this woman said to be "of the tribe of Naphtali," in 1 Kings 7:14? Because, she being born in that part of Dan which is in the north, and probably in the town called Dan, or Laish, had passed over to the adjoining tribe of Naphtali; and probably while residing there had met with a man of Tyre. In her widowhood, the Lord comforted her by giving her son singular talents, and sending him to stand before kings, and, better still, to direct the building of the house of the Lord. Was not the "Lord judging the widow," managing her case kindly and well? And was He not teaching us that Gentiles were to come to the light of the Lord, and build his true temple along with Israel? Yes, Dan (true to his name and early history) suggests the right adjustment of the jealousy and envy, the boastings and the rivalry of Israel and the Gentiles; for as in purchasing the site for it, a Gentile, Ornan, had his part to act: so Jew and Gentile both are thus represented in building the Lord’s house.