In the Lounge, with the candlestick, Rahman and I were murdering ourselves when, Rahman brought into light Revelation 7 concerning the twelve tribes of Israel.

"And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.
5 Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand.
6 Of the tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Nephthalim were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Manasses were sealed twelve thousand.
7 Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand.
8 Of the tribe of Zabulon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand."

The question that was put forth was:

If this is truly the twelve tribes of Israel or this is symbolic meaning something else, where is the tribe of Dan?

And more importantly, why was he replaced by Manassah instead?

Karl

12 tribes is an idealistic expresssion for all Israel. Whenever God includes all he makes up the number to twelve tribes.

Judges 5: The Song of Deborah;Judah, Simeon & Levi are missing
De 33:6-25: Simeon missing, but still "12"
Rev 7: 144,000 of Israel. Dan missing, but still "12"

Ge49.7
The clans of Levi & Simeon were grouped together in this curse. They were to be scattered in Israel. Levi's curse was turned into a blessing when Levi chose God in the wilderness, but Simeon was not even given a separate blessing in De 33. Both were scattered in Israel; Levi for blessing, Simeon for loss of identity. This is God's view of things. Simeon was prominant at other times of Israel's history, but the curse remained.

It is symbolic as in the 95% of the Revelation. They never properly 'entered' into their inheritance.(Judges 1:34) they were missing from the gathering of the tribes under Deborah.

Dan is the apostate tribe. This is the background to the famous "10 shekels and a shirt" story. The Danites ultimately stole the young Levite and their final picture is contained in Jdg 18:29-31 KJV 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: and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land. (31) And they set them up Micah's graven image, which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh. They institutionalised their apostacy. During the time of Jeroboam Dan was chosen as the site for one of the golden calves which set the Northern Kingdom of Israel on its course of nationwide apostacy;1Ki 12:27-30 KJV If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah. (28) Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. (29) And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan. (30) And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan. See also 2 Kings 10:29. That is almost the last we hear of Dan; they were taken captive by the Assyrians c722 BC and passed into myth.

Ezekiel's vision included a portion of the land for them; but we are back to interpretation again. (Eze 48:1) and Ezekiel's temple city had a gate for Dan. The other Bible references are usually in the phrase 'from Dan to Beersheba' meaning from the northernmost extremity to the southernmost of the land of Israel.

Dan, symbolically, is associated with unbelief, idolatry and apostacy. In the symbolism of Revelation no such people are included in the New Israel.
wkip

_________________
Ron Bailey

Hot diggity-dog! ...

Great stuff brother Ron! ... This goes in my SI file! ... Can't wait to use it, and will make sure that i give you "props" ... ;-)

Ron wrote:

Amen brother Karl,

And the explanation works equally well whether one takes Rev. 7 literally or symbolically, in either instance God's not drawing unbelief, idolatry and apostacy to Himself ...