Life Without Struggle?
By Bill Valine
“I will give you a life free from conflict.” If God made us that offer, would we hesitate to accept it? A life free of conflict might seem like a wonderful gift for us and our children, but the story of the tribe of Dan may make us think twice.
When the children of Israel left Egypt, Dan was one of the leading tribes. The first chapter of Numbers tells us that Dan was only second to the tribe of Judah in size, and Numbers chapter 2 says that Dan was one of the four section leaders in the camp of the Israelites.
Yet in the list of the 144,000 sealed by God out of the tribes of Israel in Revelation chapter 7, the tribe of Dan is notably missing.
What happened between Numbers and Revelation that caused Dan to disappear from among the tribes of Israel? As we read through Scripture, it becomes apparent that the tribe of Dan had a track record of avoiding conflict.
When the twelve spies came back from the Promised Land, Numbers 13 reveals that the spy from the tribe of Dan joined in with nine others to insist that the conquest of Canaan was a hopeless endeavor. They would never be able to defeat the inhabitants, they said, and this was in spite of having seen God humble the nation of Egypt with ten plagues, and despite God’s promise to fight for Israel and defeat their enemies (Exodus 23).
When the Promised Land was divided among the tribes, Dan received a portion between Judah and Ephraim. But rather than going out and conquering that land, the tribe of Dan was forced into the mountains by the Amorites (Judges 1).
When Deborah and Barak led the armies of Israel out to battle in Judges 5 against Jabin, King of Canaan, Dan stayed home. Rather than engage in a difficult fight to claim the land that they were given, the Danites chose instead to follow an easier path, going outside their God-given inheritance to attack an isolated village (Judges 18).
Even Samson, Dan’s favorite son, had to be goaded by God into fighting the Philistines (Judges 14:4).
For many hundreds of years, it seemed as if Dan’s choice to take the easy way out had paid off in wonderful benefits. They had built the city of Dan in a pleasant, isolated land, far from the conflicts they had so diligently worked to avoid.
And yet, as slow as the consequences were to appear, they were still overwhelming. By King David’s time, Dan had been greatly reduced in numbers (1 Chronicles 12). By King Asa’s reign, the city of Dan had been destroyed by the Syrians.
Even in God’s eyes, there were consequences. God used the prophet Ezekiel to give hope to the people living in exile that the land would once again be divided between the tribes of Israel. But as we read through that list, we find that Dan had already lost its initial inheritance, and was being limited to its holdings in the north (Ezekiel 48).
By the time God gave John his Revelation, Dan was missing from the list altogether.
Even though Dan lived in peace for many years, the tribe had made itself vulnerable. In order to avoid any conflict with their enemies, it was necessary for them to become like those enemies.
God had warned them that they needed to drive out the inhabitants of the land and possess it themselves. If they failed to do that, the people they allowed to remain would influence them to abandon God and embrace their idolatry and false religions.
And that is exactly what happened. As they moved north to attack the city of Laish, they picked up Micah’s Levite “priest” along the way and embraced his idolatry (Judges 18). Their acceptance of idolatry was so complete that there was not a hint of shock or surprise when Jeroboam placed the golden calf in their city years later (I Kings 12:28-30).
The Danites isolated themselves from the rest of God’s people to avoid any conviction that might be caused by watching their brothers (who were heavily engaged in the battles Dan should also be fighting).
As they separated themselves from the people of God, they became vulnerable to the attacks of the enemy. When those attacks came, they were so far away that there was no one close enough to help them.
What lessons, then, can we draw from the Tribe of Dan?
Primarily, if we find ourselves making excuses for not openly declaring our faith in Jesus, then we need to realize that we are in grave spiritual danger. We must realize what the Danites didn’t: there is no neutral ground. The people that we work with, go to school with, and interact with daily must be impacted by the Gospel of Christ, or we will be impacted by whatever gods they worship.
The price of peaceful coexistence is always complacency: we will be forced to compromise our values. How easy it can become to slack off in our prayer life; to avoid sharing our testimony; to find excuses for not attending church and for neglecting our Bible reading. How easily we can convince ourselves that our feeling of comfort is a sign that God approves of our choices.
We will find ourselves tolerating sin – first in those around us, and then within ourselves. And we will find our conscience making us uncomfortable when we are around Christians who do maintain their values.
To assuage our guilt, we may seek to isolate ourselves from them – and by so doing, make ourselves even more vulnerable, as Dan did. Even if (by God’s grace) we retain our salvation, our children will be ill-prepared to face the attacks of the enemy that will surely come.
In Revelation 2:3-5, God commends the church at Ephesus while issuing a strong warning: “And you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless, I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from whence you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place – unless you repent.”
The only proper course for us to follow is revealed in this admonition. As I wrote this article, God showed me just how much I have let slip in my own life. I, too, am challenged to return to my first love.
For our own sakes and for the sake of those who will come after us, we must be diligent to do the first works. To do those things that we did when we first became Christians, and to trust that God will take care of us as we continue to fight the good fight of faith and live lives that are pleasing to Him.