Moses blessed the Tribe of Dan just before the Israelites crossed over to their inheritance in the Promised Land.
Dan’s was the shortest blessing given out of all of the tribes’ blessings.
Moses simply said: “Dan is a lion’s cub, springing out of Bashan.” (Deuteronomy 33:22.)
What on earth does this blessing actually mean?
A LITTLE ABOUT DAN
The Contemporary English version of the bible translates the above passage to read like this: “Tribe of Dan, you are like a lion cub, startled by a snake.”
When we look up the meaning of the name “Dan” it means “He has judged me.”
Dr. David Ilan and Dr. Yifat Thareani of the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem have studied the tribe of Dan according to archeological remains.
One of their discoveries was that the areas where The Tribe of Dan lived also housed Arameans and Phoenicians as well as Israelites.
WERE DAN’S DESCENDANTS PAGAN?
These foreign people worshiped pagan gods. Because of them being in the area and also maintaining worship there, many thought that the tribe of Dan had turned pagan in their early practices. This may still prove true of part of the tribe.
However; recent discoveries by these two men have proved that the worship of Yahweh was carried out in a non-pagan way in a very large sanctuary that has been unearthed and examined by archeologist. This sanctuary existed where the tribes of Dan lived at one time period of their history.
So it is hard to know if a portion of the people of Dan remained true to God all through history, or if all of Dan rebelled and turned pagan.
ONE GOOD MEMEBER FROM DAN
We do know that one person from the long-ago tribe of Dan was definitely on God’s side.
His name was Oholib. Here is a previous lesson from this study that speaks of how he used his talent to further God’s Kingdom:
Oholib was from those of the Tribe of Dan who did remain faithful.
MIX OF FAITHFUL AND UNFAITHFUL
We do know there were those who did not remain faithful though, and the Tribe of Dan has been used many times as an example for the tendency of people to follow man-made religion over biblical faith in God.
After this blessing of Moses; when the Tribe of Dan came into the land of Canaan, they were assigned a tract of land that was smaller than the other tribe’s territories.
It was smaller, but more fertile and had the Mediterranean Sea as its border. Fishing and commerce were readily available to them because of this. Things were good for them for awhile; then we hear the stories of how many in the tribe of Dan fell into idolatry.
NO APPRECIATION FOR BLESSINGS
These ancient people of Dan did not appreciate their God-given territory, so they sent out spies to find a better land.
They wiped out a peaceful group of people and ripped their land from them. The people of Dan then moved into that area that was closer to The Jordan, just south of Lebanon. When they established cities there they named the largest city Dan.
THE KING OF THE NORTH
One pagan altar was set up at Bethel, and another one was located in Dan.
Each of these two new locations had an idol of a golden calf.
People would come to Dan to worship in pagan ways.
After all the years of emphasis of the sins with the original golden calf; how could a tribe of Israel ever repeat the same sin?
This will forever be a smear on the name of Dan in Israel; though it can be noted that not EVERYONE from the tribe of Dan left in that region participated.
THE SIN OF BEING LUKE-WARM
It can be debated, however, that the ones who opposed the pagan rituals did nothing to stop this type of worship in their land.
How can we learn from the mistakes that Dan made?
We should not accept idol worship or let it take over the power of our God-given national sovereignty.
A LOST LEGACY
When Dan decided to endure pagan practices and sometimes participate in them; they lost their legacy of being known as God-fearing people.
I know Oholib would have been so dismayed to learn this of the generations that followed him in history.
Looking back on the blessing of Moses; it sounds logical that Dan would become the tribe that was blessed in every way in its youth (the lion cub); but also one that would move away from the destiny that God had given them in the latter times (the one who was frightened by a snake and moved out of its place.)
The lion cub startled by a snake would be a word picture of how Satan would come to destroy Dan in the youth of the nation of Israel.
Perhaps a few did survive.
One day; we will know.