Bibledoorajar Speaks of Dan

When Huck Finn asked Tom Sawyer who Robin Hood was, Tom replied, "Why he's one of the greatest men that was ever in England. And the best. He was a robber." Huck asked who did he rob? Tom said, "only sheriff's and bishops and rich people and kings, but he never bothered the poor. He loved 'em. He always divided up with 'em perfectly square." This was the Robin Hood I watched on T.V. as a girl, but years later I had a hard time finding him in the reputable classic edition of Robin Hood that I read. Trying to figure out Israel's tribe of Dan is a bit like that. Stories aboud about their destiny, many based on very extensive research. When Bilhah delivered him, Rachel, his legal mother, named him Dan because God had judged in her situation.  But he was born from a jealous act no matter how "legal" and he seemed to have trouble from the beginning. When Israel blessed him he said he would judge the people and be a serpent along the way.  His tribe was the smallest and never did completely subdue the land intended for them. So they, like Huck's Robin Hood, raided and robbed a northern idolatrous city (Lacish) and demanded that their idolatrous priest become their spiritual leader. So, they had a great hand in muddying the spiritual waters of the northern part of Israel. However, the tribe did produce many judges perhaps the most renown being Samson. Probably many of the tensions he had to judge stemmed from the muddied waters brought about by his own people  intermarrying with the idolatrous people of the area. Later, when the nation of Israel frought with civil and spiritual tensions and divided into north and south it was the ten northern tribes who seceded. Remember, the kings always came from the tribe of Judah in the south and sometimes the behavior of those kings toward the northern tribes was disastrous. Remember, Jereboam taxed them so much for the care of the Temple that the result was the building of an alternative place of worship in Dan. This less than noble spirituality trailed along just about everywhere the people of Dan migrated and they emphasized it by renaming places with the name of Dan (as they did with Lacish). Because of the ungodly aspects of the "trail" they left, some scholars say that the AntiChrist will come from this tribe. But I will leave that up to the Writer of The Standard Edition. However, this we can learn, once you open the door to idolatry and introduce alternative worship, it means trouble with the Writer and Judge. As we begin the Advent Season we should all work hard to not leave a trail or join a trail with an antichrist spirit. Look to Bethlehem. Follow that trail.