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The Absence of the Tribe of Dan
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Bible Question Form to send your own question.
Q:
Why
is the tribe of Dan not included in the 144,000 in the Book
of Revelation?
A: Thank you for your question concerning
the absence of the tribe of Dan in
Revelation 7. That is a very interesting question. I
believe that the history of that tribe reveals clues as to
why they would be excluded.
First of all, in Genesis 49, Jacob
talks about each of his children and their futures. When he
gets to Dan, he likens him to a serpent. Obviously, a
serpent is not a good thing. Serpents, in the Bible, are
connected to Satan, sin, and judgment.
By the time we get to the Book of Judges, the tribe of Dan
was setting up a priest just for their tribe. The priest
that they got was called “father” and had taken a vow of
poverty (Judges 17:10). This
priest was also an idol-worshipper and a thief (Judges
18:20). Again, this is not a good thing.
If we move forward to the time of the kings, we notice that
when the kingdom was split in two, Jeroboam, the king of the
Northern Kingdom (Israel), made 2 golden calves to keep his
subjects from going to Jerusalem to worship the Lord. This
was done in response to his concerned that traveling to
Jerusalem might lead to reuniting the kingdom under
Rehoboam. He put one calf in Bethel and the other up in Dan.
All of this is found in 1Kings 12,
and verse 30 says, “And this
thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before
the one, even unto Dan.” Dan, then, became the center of
pagan worship for the 10 tribes in the north.
Finally, the last time the name Dan is mentioned in
scripture is found in Amos 8:14.
That verse says, “They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and
say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beersheba
liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.”
Again the context of this verse connects Dan to idolatry.
What we learn from all of this is that Dan was the first
tribe to practice idolatry, and their history was dominated
by graven images. The Lord does not tolerate that kind of
thing as Deuteronomy 6:14-15
attests—“Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of
the people which are round about you; (For the LORD thy God
is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the LORD thy
God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the
face of the earth.” (Deuteronomy
6:14-15). These verses, like
Amos 8:14, reveal the consequences of worshipping those
pagan images—complete and total destruction. I believe that
this is the reason why they are excluded from
Revelation 7.
Kept by the power (1Peter 1:5),
Karl Lohman
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