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Religion See other Religion Articles Title: At Dan At Dan By John David Clark, Sr. - September, 1993 Whereupon King Jeroboam took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto the people, "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." And he set the one in Beth-el, and the other he put at Dan. And this thing became a sin (1Kgs.12:28-30). They that say, "Thy god, O Dan, liveth", even they shall fall, and never rise up again (Amos 8). He was a young man of reputable birth, this Levite. There was no denying that he, Jonathon, the son of Gershom, son of Moses, had the credentials to merit respect. But it irked him that Moses had made Aaron and his descendants the priests of Israel instead of making his own sons the priests. Was not Moses far greater than Aaron? Did he not know God far better? Was he not allowed into the most holy place to speak with God "face to face", which neither Aaron nor anyone else was ever allowed to do? No, it was not proper now that he, Moses' own flesh and blood, should be subservient to Aaron and his sons. So, this young, self-willed Levite forsook the service of the Lord at his station in Bethlehem and set off to make his mark in the world. He journeyed north into the territory of the tribe of Ephraim, and it happened that he came upon the house of a man named Micah. Now "the man Micah had a house of gods, and made an ephod [holy vestment], and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest" (Jud.17). When Micah learned of the young Levite's background, he became excited and quickly desired him to "be unto me a father and a priest, and I will give unto thee ten shekels of silver by the year, and a suit of apparel, and thy victuals" (Jud.17:10). Pleased that he had done so well so quickly (as he had known he would if only given the chance), Moses' grandson agreed, and he became priest to the household of Micah. "And Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house with Micah. Then said Micah, `Now I know the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest.'" Of course, God approved of none of this, but both Micah and Jonathon knew God so little that neither of them understood that sad fact. What a reward this seemed to be for all his efforts! He knew of many a priest of Aaron's lineage who would envy him now! Just think, a few days on his own and now look at the money and the respect he demanded! But a man with Jonathon's qualifications wouldn't be satisfied with even this noble position for very long. When the army of the tribe of Dan rode through that area on their way to take some land in northern Canaan, they learned of Micah's house of gold and silver gods and plundered it. After all, wasn't it better that those gods should protect and guide a whole tribe than simply one man's family and farm? When Jonathon demanded of them an explanation, the soldiers reasoned with the foolish young man thus, "Hold thy peace, and lay thine hand upon thy mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest. Is it better for thee to be a priest unto the house of one man, or that thou be a priest unto a tribe and a family in Israel?" It was an opportunity right out of heaven! His prayers had been answered! He heard the call! He "felt led" now to accept the offer of a new pastorate, and with gratitude for all that Micah had done for him, he packed his bags and went with the Danite thieves north, "And the children of Dan set up the graven image. And Jonathon, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan" for the next 600 years, until God finally destroyed them. Throughout the story of pre-exilic Israel, through the times of Samuel, Saul, David, Solomon, and the divided kingdom, the descendants of Moses' grandson Jonathon "ministered" in Dan. There, in the northern extremity of the promised land, in the pleasant valley between Mount Hermon to the east and the mountains of Lebanon to the northwest, survived one continual, solid pocket of rebellion to the word of God. A couple of centuries after Jonathon's time, Israel was torn apart by civil war, north against south. Unlike the civil war this country endured, Israel was never reunified. And the primary reason that its division was permanent was that in the north, King Jeroboam invented a new religion, a religion which prevented the citizens of the north from obeying God to go to Jerusalem to worship. As part of his new religion, Jeroboam erected two golden calves, much like the famous golden calf which Israel constructed - and Moses destroyed - when they were camped at Mt. Sinai so long ago. One of these idols Jeroboam erected at Beth-el, near his border with his estranged southern brothers. The other he erected at DAN! The high place at Dan was thought to be one of the most holy places of worship in the land. It had as priests the descendants of Moses himself, and now they also had the golden calf which was twin to the golden calf at Beth-el - "the king's chapel". The prophets who condemned this place and warned the people were ridiculed and rejected. No sensible person could question the legitimacy of their religion now! How the priests who descended from Moses explained Moses' angry attitude toward golden calves is unknown. But that is really no problem. When the money is right, the human mind's ability to conjure up very good reasons for doing very evil deeds is virtually inexhaustible. Dan's high place doesn't rise much from the valley floor. Unlike many of the "high places" in ancient Israel, its appeal was not in its physical closeness to heaven, but in its vistas of the mountains to the east, north, and west, and of the surrounding valley stretching southward toward the Sea of Galilee. But beyond its lovely setting, Dan possessed another attraction which few other high places could boast: fresh, cold water. Perpetual springs bubble up at Dan from the valley floor, forming cold streams that run briskly through the thick, shady undergrowth - a blessing from God in the dry, hot summers of Canaan. I and my four fellow travelers learned how much of a refuge from the merciless sun the place can be. On our journey through the land of Israel, this place was at or near the top of every one's list of favorite places. The ancient high place had shade from the greenery surrounding the springs and from the grove planted on the high place in honor of the gods. It had an abundant and very refreshing water source. It had Moses' descendants as priests. It had the magnificent, glimmering, golden calf. It afforded worshipers the inspiration of grandiose scenery, which is always conducive to meditation and prayer. With the exception of one thing, it was the perfect spot to worship God. However, that one thing was a very big one thing: God had forbidden His people to worship Him in any place but the one place He chose. And the one place God had chosen was Solomon's temple in Jerusalem. That fact alone made every religious act that was performed at Dan to be in vain, but only those who had a heart for God could penetrate the attractive appearance of the site to see it as it really was: a place of high treason against the Almighty. When Jesus said, "That which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God", he was speaking in reference to the magnificent religious works of men. Those words were spoken to men, like the young Levite, Jonathon, who were too proud of their ability to worship God to humble themselves to worship God as He said to worship Him, and so proud of their complicated and twisted theologies that the simplicity of the gospel embarrassed them. There is a powerful lesson to be learned from the Master's words, if we will learn it. Archaeologists have uncovered much of ancient Dan and its high place, and experts in that field are in the process of actually reconstructing the sanctuary where the golden calf probably stood. Among the ruins, I tried to imagine walking those streets (the main roads were wide and paved with smooth stones) with the ancient Israelites. I tried to imagine the heavy aroma of sweet incense which would greet Dan's visitors, gracefully extending to weary travelers pleasant relief from the common, foul odors of their difficult, mundane lives. To the ordinary person, to whom clothing itself was not always available, how impressive must have been the intricately woven robes of the priests and priestesses! By all appearances, the gods had richly blessed these relatives of Moses for their devotion. As worshipers were led to the sanctuary, they were awestruck by the divine aura of the place. The glistening gold and silver of Dan's bejeweled idols, in contrast to the commonplace stones of the roads and hills, lent credence to the priests' claims of sanctity. And above them all, there was the magnificent golden calf. Among the gods, it rose on its gilded pedestal north of the altar, as majestic as one could imagine. As background, and adding to the beast's alluring pose, were fertile, green fields and beyond them the hills. Dan certainly would have impressed the typical inhabitant of Canaan as a holy place among the very finest the Middle East had to offer. And there must have been a powerful intimidation accompanying the priests' person, whose lineage could be traced so far into a glorious past. Could I have survived the enormous pressure to bow and to kiss the idol? Could I have seen through the patina of holiness which covered the high place at Dan to behold the filthiness and wickedness which God and His prophets saw so clearly? Could I have been unimpressed with the sanctimonious, self-assured manner of Moses' experienced, elderly descendants? I don't know. I hope so, but it doesn't pay to be too confident about what we would have done, if we had been in someone else's shoes. I walked around tel Dan, and contemplated the history of this wonderfully serene and inviting hill. And I pictured in my mind's eye the fierce spiritual warfare waged here by Satan against God's prophets and God's people. Then I pictured the modern, enormous structures which men call "churches" here, and the impression of sanctity that those places give to the people who enter through their costly doors. Have things changed at all? I think not. In the main, God's simple truths are still disdained, and spiritual credibility is still being measured by things other than a man's personal experience with the Almighty: number of people involved, budget size, credentials of ordination, the length of time a denomination has been in existence, to name a few. Yet, as always, the real measure of a man's spiritual worth is whether or not God has chosen and ordained him, not how many follow him or how much money he takes in. If we can resist the temptation to judge ourselves by the artificial standards which we set for ourselves, and if we can learn to judge righteous judgment instead, we shall have accomplished a rare and a very difficult feat. And we will have learned a lesson which many an anguished soul now in the unyielding grip of hell's tormenting flames wish they had learned, before they followed Moses' offspring into the sweet-smelling high place of Dan and bowed before the stately golden calf of Jeroboam. I walked around tel Dan, and contemplated the history of this wonderfully serene and inviting hill. And I pictured in my mind's eye the fierce spiritual warfare waged here by Satan against God's prophets and God's people. Then I pictured the modern, enormous structures which men call "churches" here, and the impression of sanctity that those places give to the people who enter through their costly doors. Have things changed at all? I think not. I don't think so either....a lot of churches honor Dan and his 'god' on their altars today: http://www.apfn.org/apfn/flag.htm [eagle] THE LOST TRIBE OF DAN THE EARLY JEWISH & CHRISTIAN VIEW OF THE IDENTITY OF THE ANTICHRIST http://www.watch.pair.com/dan.html 1Jo 2:18 Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. 1Jo 2:22 Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. 1Jo 4:3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that [spirit] of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. 2Jo 1:7 For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Kiss the Son [Jesus Christ] while His wrath is kindled but a little. Psalm 2.
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Why is the tribe of Dan [and Ephraim http://asis.com/~stag/symbols.html / http://asis.com/~stag/royalty.html ] missing in Revelation 7:4-8? [Because they got Israel worshipping IDOLS....This does not mean they can't repent and accept Christ, and become His seed (Gal. 3:16-29)]. http://www.libertygospeltracts.com/question/prequest/danmiss.htm Ephraim = Israel = Jesus Jer 31:9 They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim [is] my firstborn. King Jesus Christ JESUS CHRIST = ISRAEL "Israel is my son, even my firstborn" (Ex. 4:22 cf. Hosea 11:1/Matthew 2:15).... "THE MYSTICAL NAME ISRAEL LITERALLY MEANS 'PRINCE OF GOD'" "Scriptures give the Christ different names. Sometimes they call Him Jacob: "Jacob, my son, I will help thee; Israel, my chosen, my soul hath received him, he shall bring judgment unto the nations." (Eusebius, AD 312) PREMISE #1: JESUS CHRIST IS ISRAEL Jesus/Yeshua is the builder of the tabernacle of David -- He is the great King, both of the temporal and eternal worlds. His supremacy over Jews as well as Gentiles is prophetically seen in Abraham's role as the father of both Ishmael and Isaac, Arabs and Jews. In Christ alone is the pattern of the Old Covenant body realized in His eternal glorious "One Body" -- The Body of Christ, The House of David (Isaiah 22:22) -- the "Israel of God" (Gal 6:15-16). * Exodus 4:22 "Israel is my son, even my firstborn" * Hosea 11:1 "When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt." * Matthew 2:15 "And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son. " * Zechariah 6:12 "Thus speaketh the Lord of Hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH: and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord." * Isaiah 22:20,21 "And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah: And I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand: and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah." * Jeremiah 2:3 "Israel was holiness unto the Lord, and the firstfruits of his increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, saith the Lord." #2: REJECTION OF ISRAEL BRINGS DESTRUCTION There are two sides to the coin of ancient Israel's history. The touch of God upon the pinnacle of Sinai must be balanced against the touch of God upon the pinnacle of the temple in A.D.70. The first was felt at the formation of the nation, the latter at its dissolution. It is important to realize that Preterists don't see the fall of Jerusalem in AD70 as punishment from God for the murder of Christ, as much as the natural consequence of having rejected him. in other words, the Jewish nation destroyed itself by rejecting Jesus as Israel. Hosea 13:9 "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help."....." http://www.preteristarchive.com/StudyArchive/j/jesus-is-israel.html The "man" that wrestled with Jacob and put His new name on him was Jesus: http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/Gen/Gen032.html#28 Exd 33:20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. [see here: http://www.blueletterbible.org/tsk_b/Exd/33/20.html Jhn 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared [him]. The King James Bible tries to co-op Jesus' name: The parents of Samson, a Danite were also visited by Jesus....You know it was Jesus because they were allowed to prepare a sacrifice to Him, and He went up in the flame.... http://www.blueletterbible.org/tsk_b/Jdg/13/19.html He said His name was Wonderful....as in His name shall be called WONDERFUL, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace [Isaiah 9:6-7]. The King James says His name is "secret"....see Judges 18:19....Put thine hand on thine mouth....everything's a secret with them....secret societies...mystery religions....STATE SECRETS... Jdg 13:18 — And the angel of the LORD said unto him, Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it [is] secret? [check out other versions of the Bible...they usually say "Wonderful", not even close to "secret"]. http://www.blueletterbible.org/tsk_b/Jdg/13/18.html =============================== google 13 Satanic [Illuminati] Bloodlines Tribe of Dan They need to repent.... Jer 31:27 ¶ Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast. Jer 31:28 And it shall come to pass, [that] like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the LORD. Jer 31:29 In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge. [no more curse passed down!] Jer 31:30 But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge. Jer 31:31 ¶ Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Jer 31:32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day [that] I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: Jer 31:33 But this [shall be] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. Jer 31:34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more...... Jesus is the mediator of the New Covenant. http://www.blueletterbible.org/tsk_b/Jer/31/31.html It's really pretty simple...why can't they get it?
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