Automatic Transcript Generated:
Speaker 1
All right, so Roland is asking, why is the tribe of Dan missing from the 144,000 revelation seven? Oh, I love that. I love this question because it’s actually something I studied a while ago. And as I studied it more, I saw an even more clear understanding of why. And it is so perfectly clear as you look at the Bible, both in the Old Testament, because you have to have the Old Testament again to understand the Book of Revelation.
Speaker 1
So let’s start off with some basics. So Israel, the Nation of Israel, was based on the twelve tribes of the literal Israel. There was Abraham, Isaac, and then Jacob. And Jacob became the man Israel. God renamed Jacob to be Israel.
Speaker 1
And Israel had twelve sons. And so each of those twelve sons became a tribe of the nation of Israel.
Speaker 1
And so there was Reuben and Judah and Levi, all these twelve brothers who each had their own tribe. Now, there was a brother named Dan. Oh, Dan, this tribe became, did some interesting things. Let’s just say that. So the tribe of Dan, the name Dan actually means judge.
Speaker 1
Like if you read the Book of Daniel, his name means God is my judge, or God is judge. So Dan just simply means judge. And it’s interesting because right before their father Israel passed away, he gave a prophecy, in a sense, of each of the twelve of his sons. And so in verse 16 of Genesis, chapter 49, verse 16 and 17, he gives a prophecy about Dan. And it says in verse 16, Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.
Speaker 1
So that was supposed to be his job, was to judge the people or to judge the people. And then verse 17, though, it says something very different, if you keep going, it says, dan shall be a serpent by the way, a viper by the path that bites the horse’s heels so that its rider shall fall backward. So basically it shows that Dan’s purpose was to be a judge. And obviously there’s so many verses in the Bible, know, Judge righteous judgment to be a good judge, to be a righteous judge. But he’s saying, but I know what’s going to happen is he’s going to end up being a viper or A serpent, which that equates to the devil, basically something evil.
Speaker 1
And we do see that in the tribe of Dan. And it breaks my heart. Now, really quick, when you’re referring to Dan being taken out of the twelve tribes of Israel as part of the 144,000 at the end of time, because in the Book of Revelation, chapter Seven, it says the tribe of Judah, there was 12,012 times 12,000 makes 144,000. However, when you get down to the verse six of Revelation seven. Verse six it says, and of the tribe, when you go down, tribe of Aster, tribe of Nephilim, and the tribe of Manassehs.
Speaker 1
So basically, Dan is replaced by Manassehs. And if you know who Manassehs is in the Bible, or Manasseh, this is the New Testament Greek version of the same word or the same name, which was Manassa. And basically he was the first born son of Joseph. And it’s interesting because Joseph still has a tribe as part of the 144,000, but Manasseh, his firstborn son, replaces the tribe of Dan. And I think that there’s two reasons that the Book of revelation will, I think, confirm why I believe that is.
Speaker 1
So. So if you look at the tribe of Dan and what happened with them in their history, there’s two things that happened. After Israel went into slavery in Egypt and then Moses drew them out. There was twelve tribes to be the twelve tribes of Israel. Well, when you get to the Book of Judges, Israel is finally in the Promised Land, but they don’t have a king yet.
Speaker 1
And things are kind of just falling into place, and things aren’t really quite stable yet. And basically it says in the Book of Judges that men were just doing what was right in their own eyes. Like there wasn’t really a structure government going on at that time. Kind of the Wild west of the Old Testament, in a sense. And so what you see, though, there’s two instances we see that the tribe of Dan did that, I think, is why God had to pull him out of the 144,000 and replace him with the tribe of Manassa.
Speaker 1
Now, if you go to the Book of Judges chapter five, basically, the context of Judges chapter five is that it says in chapter four that basically there was a people that were oppressing the Israelites, and so they were under oppression, and they were saying, let’s band together and let’s get out of this. Let’s pray to God this happened because we sinned. Let’s return back to God and let’s fight and earn our freedom again against these Philistines. And so they all said, yeah, well, let’s battle together. All twelve tribes are going to band together, and we’re going to fight back, and we’re going to free ourselves from this, and God bless them in battle.
Speaker 1
And so then you see, and this was led out by Deborah, who was a prophetess and a judge of Israel at that time. And so after the battle, they win. And then she sings a song, a song of victory, and she goes through all of the tribes and says something about them. But when she gets to Dan, you see in judges chapter five, verse 17, and she said, gilead abode beyond Jordan, and why did Dan remain in ships? So she’s saying here that, hey, we were out in battle, and the tribe of Dan stayed in their ships.
Speaker 1
They would not. They refused to go into battle. And so I think that was one big mistake on the part of Dan that showed basically their character, that they were not willing to partake in the Battle of the Lord that God called them to fight in. So that was step one. But then you look at the Book of Judges down the line in chapter 18, and this will blow your mind.
Speaker 1
I don’t want to read the whole thing, but basically, I’ll summarize what happens. So in the Book of Judges Chapter 18, basically, you see that the tribe of Dan says, hey, we are here in the land of Canaan, but we haven’t picked a spot for ourselves. We want to pick our land. We want to know our inheritance. So they send five spies out, and they go look for some land in Canaan.
Speaker 1
Well, they go out and they find this little valley called Laish. And they know this looks really good. And the people don’t seem to be too tough. Let’s go ahead and take it. So those five spies, they get near there, and then they get to A House that is owned by a man named Micah.
Speaker 1
And so they stay in this Man’s House. And while they’re there, they are talking to somebody and they say, hey, you’re a Levite. You’re not a Canaanite. You’re not one of these outside people. You’re an Israelite.
Speaker 1
And so he says, yeah, I was hired. This Levite says, yeah, I was hired to be a priest in this Man’s House. And basically he has an Ephod, which is something worn by a priest. And then he also has a graven image, so like an idol. And so this Levite, like I said, he was hired by this Man, Micah, to be his priest for assuming his people.
Speaker 1
So those five spies say, well, since you’re a spoke, you’re called to be a priest. Can you let us know if we’re going to be blessed in trying to take this land? And he says, yes, god will bless you in going and getting it. So what does the Tribe of Dan Do? They go out and they steal the stuff from the guy’s House that was nice enough to let him stay there.
Speaker 1
They steal Micah’s stuff, including his idol, his graven image. And then they take the priest with them.
Speaker 1
But then they lie to the priest and say, you can be our priest, and wouldn’t you rather do that? And he’s like, okay, yeah, that sounds good. And then they go out. The Tribe of DAn goes out to this people in the Valley and slaughters them. Says they had them by the edge of the sword and then burned the City.
Speaker 1
So very unkind, very cruel way of taking over this Town. They could have just come in and, you know, this land is ours now. Get out instead. No, they slaughter these people, and then when they set up their City, do they keep that man as a priest that they said, hey, you’re going to be our priest. No, they pick somebody from the son of Manasseh.
Speaker 1
So here we see, I believe, why Manasseh replaced Dan, because that was the tribe of People that basically were the Priests for, you know, did the Tribe of DAN set up an altar for God or do any praise for God? No. God said, yeah, I’ll bless you and you get this land. And what do they do? They set up the graven image that they stole from Micah.
Speaker 1
So it’s pretty terrible. So I think that God, in his wisdom said, I don’t think I can even think to name one of my people, the 144,000 after this tribe, because they were just so incredibly wicked. And it’s really interesting, because when you look at the book of Revelation, at the very end, in Revelation, chapter 21, this is basically where we see the new heaven and the new earth. Revelation 21, one says, I saw a new heaven and a new earth. And then it says in verse seven and eight something very interesting.
Speaker 1
He says, he that overcomes so people who are good, overcome the evil of this world, shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he will be my son. And it says in verse eight, but the fearful, like the tribe of Dan, who refused to fight in battle, the unbelieving, abominable murderers, hormongers and sorcerers and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake, which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. Does this not describe the tribe of Dan to a. Were, you know, fearful they wouldn’t participate in battling for the needs of their country, but they would go out and kill for themselves. Selfishly, they were unbelieving.
Speaker 1
They did not believe in God. When they got what they wanted, they just forgot about God. They were abominable. They did terrible things. They were murderers.
Speaker 1
They went and slaughtered these people who were living peacefully by themselves. They were idolaters. Instead of erecting an altar to God, giving him praise, they erected a graven image, which they stole. And then they lied to this priest about. So we definitely see that Dan was not a good tribe of the children of Israel.
Speaker 1
I mean, none of Israel was perfect, we know, in history, but Dan was a special breed of mean. And so I think that God was trying to show, you know, just because you’re the son of Israel, just because you bear this name, you’re the son of somebody important, that doesn’t mean you’re going to have the right to the tree of life. You can be taken out of the Lamb’s book of life. You can lose your crown, you can lose your salvation. So I hope that makes it pretty clear as to why Dan was taken out of the 144,000, the twelve tribes in the 144,000.
Speaker 1
And I think God is just making a clear distinction that this sort of behavior of, that Dan performed is not going to be part of God’s new kingdom, but rather it’ll be given to somebody else, which Joseph was a very righteous son of Israel, and his first born was Manassa, so hence it went to them, and Manassa was the priest to Dance. So I think God at least was like, well, I’ll let your priest be part of the 144,000, but, you know, no, not when you do the things that you do.
For the full episode:
https://youtube.com/live/NcC6-u9eXd0
Share this video with a friend:
https://youtu.be/P3dcg_YTup8
In His Service
BibleAsk Team
