JOSEPH #39 | JOSEPH IN EGYPT #21 | LAST WORDS OF JACOB #10

Pastor Christopher Choo

Lesson 3635

JOSEPH #39

JOSEPH IN EGYPT #21
LAST WORDS OF JACOB #10

7. DAN #1

When Jacob blessed his sons, he included prophecies of their future as a tribe.

So far only God's prophecies were recorded in Genesis. 

Jacob is probably the first person in biblical history whose lengthy prophecies were officially recorded although some say Abraham did prophesize too.

Even so, it is important to study these prophecies to understand how far-reaching they are even until now.

Let us study Dan's prophecy.

Jacob blesses Dan in today’s passage - the first time in Genesis 49 that he blesses a son by a concubine instead of one of his wives (see Gen. 30:1–6).

Yet Dan will also show himself to be an Israelite through his powerful judgeship.

"Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. 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” (Gen. 49:16–17). 

1. Dan will be a judge and avenger of his people.

Jacob calls him a serpent (v. 17), having in mind a poisonous yellow desert snake that would hide in crevices or burrow in the sand and strike unsuspecting people or animals.

Like this serpent, Dan will be small compared to his prey but far deadlier than his victim suspects. 

The tribe of Dan does indeed end up as one of Israel’s smaller clans; however, perhaps the most well-known of all the judges emerge from this tribe centuries after Jacob. 

Samson, a Danite, would rescue the Israelites from the Philistines, usually by relying on his own craftiness (Judg. 13–16).

2. Dan the Serpent saved Israel in Samson’s day, but his remaining history would not be so celebrated.

Later on, the Danites would craftily steal an idol and slaughter a quiet, unsuspecting people (Judg. 17–18). 

Both of these activities flagrantly violated God’s will which was duly noted in Judges 18:27.

Dan thus became a troublesome tribe. They would migrate northwards from their tribal allotment near modern Tel Aviv and form their own territory near Lebanon which was named Dan.

There they introduced idolatry into Israel (Judges 18:30). King Jeroboam set up one of his idolatrous golden calves in Dan (1 Kings 12:26-30), and later Dan became a center of idol worship in the northern nation of Israel (Amos 8:14).

Some think the serpent by the way refers to the idea that the Antichrist would come from the tribe of Dan (based on Daniel 11:37 and Jeremiah 8:16).

Dan is left out of the listing of tribes regarding the 144,000 in Revelation 7:5-8.

But Dan is the first tribe listed in Ezekiel’s millennial roll call of the tribes (Ezekiel 48). This is a remarkable sign of God’s redemption as some commentators say.

The lesson we learn today is to honour God's call rather than to worship idols of our own making.

There is still debate on Dan's ultimate destiny. But he seems to have made it from Ezekiel's role call of honour with his name placed first in pre-eminence.

Jacob himself ends Dan's prophecy by saying " I have waited for your salvation, O LORD."

The Hebrew word for salvation is “Yeshuwah.” At this point in the prophecy, when Jacob was near death, he called out for God’s salvation.

Knowingly or not, Jacob called out for Jesus.

The writer  Spurgeon remarked: “What a happy breathing-space is this! When you and I also are near our journey’s end, may we be able to say, as Jacob did, ‘I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord.'"

Did Dan call out to God for salvation as his father did?

This is unclear from scripture and the debate continues until today whether Dan finally repented by calling on the Name of God. 

Romans 10:13

For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”