Focus: Duplicity may give short-term advantages and gains, but in the end God loves and is best served by people with an undivided heart.
Function: To move the people to examine their own hearts and loyalty to the triune God.
Texts: Genesis 30:1-6; 49:1,2,16-18 (Judges 13:1-5; 16:31; 18:1-31)
Every son and daughter of Adam struggles, from one degree
to another, with duplicity in the heart. Two-faced Dan and his tribe personify
that very duplicity. When you listen to Jacob’s dying words to Dan and when you
ponder those words in light of Dan’s story and tribal history, you begin to
realize how easy it is to relate to our “brother” Dan.
When it comes to Dan, these are the words that come to mind: hypocrisy, cunning, fake, deception, deceit, dishonesty, disloyal, guile, fraud, treacherous, devious, misleading, disloyal, unreliable, two-faced, false piety. Surely, these words are not complimentary of a person’s character. Yet, all of us are familiar with these words; all of us recognize their features in other people, and when we are honest, we also recognize these two-faced impulses in our own hearts.
The Lord Jesus once told his disciples a story about a farmer who sowed wheat—lots of it. (Matthew 13:24ff). As the seeds sprouted, the farmer’s servants noticed that along with the wheat there were many weeds. They went to the farmer and asked them: “Do you want us to go and pull them up?” ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’” Now by telling this story, the Lord Jesus made it clear that in the kingdom and church of God there will always be two-faced Danite characteristics.
The
Christian church has recognized that very truth throughout the ages. In fact,
the Belgic Confession, Article 29 makes reference to the presence of “two-faced
Dans” in the church. The Belgic Confession, for example, speaks of “the
company of hypocrites who are mixed among the good in the church and who
nonetheless are not part of it, even though they are physically there.”
It is not for us to sit in judgment over each other. We
do far better to examine our own hearts. And should we find two-faced-Dan
characteristics within us, and then we do well to fight them and snuff them
out. For duplicity and pious religiosity may give short-term advantages and
gains at times, but in the end God loves and is best served by people with an
undivided heart. Let’s learn from Dan, and take to heart the Spirit’s teaching
from Scripture!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dan’s problem of double-heartedness began at the time of
his birth. Ask yourself: who is Dan’s mother? Is it the woman who gave birth to
him and is nursing him? Or is it the woman who owns the birth mother? Is it
Bilhah, or is it Rachel, the beloved wife of Jacob?
Rachel feels vindicated when Jacob produces a son by her
maidservant Bilhah. Now Rachel can legally claim her maidservant’s son as her
own. Rachel feels that God has blessed her decision to let Jacob sleep with her
slave. So, Rachel calls her son “Dan” which means “judge,” or “vindicated by
God.”
Rachel
may feel blessed and judged by God. But the child called “Dan” is left with a
life-long dilemma: To whom do I show loyalty? To Bilhah, my natural mother
by birth, or to Rachel, my legal mother by the law of the land? Dan grows
up with a divided heart. And that divided heart leads to duplicity, deceit,
disloyalty, guile and many other two-faced problems in Dan’s tribal family.
Listen
now to Jacob’s dying words to Dan. In Jacob’s words, you’ll hear an echo of
Rachel’s words: “Dan will provide justice for his people as one of the
tribes of Israel.” Thus, with prophetic foresight, Jacob sees Dan’s
offspring exercising judicial qualities for God’s people, Israel. Those
qualities would come to expression during Israel’s conquest of the Land of
Promise, during the so-called “days of the judges.”
But
note what happens next to Jacob. As the Spirit of God gives prophetic foresight
to Jacob on his deathbed, and as Jacob sees (with the eyes of faith) the
characteristic tendencies of Dan and his offspring, Jacob almost panics: First,
Jacob utters to Dan what God shows him: “Dan will be a serpent by the
roadside, a viper along the path, that bites the horse’s heels so that its
rider tumbles backward.”
Then, sinking back into his bed, Jacob utters this cry of
lament and help to God: “I look for your deliverance, O Lord.”
Having received foresight of things to come pertaining to two-faced Dan, Jacob
turns to God for deliverance. It’s as if Jacob is saying, “Lord, deliver us
from double-heartedness and duplicity; deliver us from snake-like evil and
devilish behavior.”
Congregation, tracing Jacob’s prophetic words throughout
Dan’s tribal history is first-class drama. For you’ll bump into Samson, a
Danite. And Samson exhibits or personifies the two-faced characteristics of Dan
as mentioned by Jacob. For example, Samson judged Israel for twenty years. He
restrained and subdued the Philistines by cunning, tricks, and sheer brute
strength. Like a viper biting the horse’s heels, so Samson bit the Philistines
with his unorthodox fights, and conquests and methods. Samson hamstrung the
Philistines for twenty years. Then he died.
But also note Samson’s heart: it’s divided. He is aware
of God and God’s covenant demands on him and his people. Samson, however, is
also keen on doing his own thing. God told his people NOT to marry Canaanites;
Samson dallies around with a Philistine woman. Samson exhibits moments of great
reliance and trust in God; but he also shows extraordinary selfish tendencies
that make mockery of Samson’s relationship with the God of Israel. Samson
personifies two-faced Dan’s characteristics. In the short term, those
characteristics gave Samson an advantage. But in the end, it’s clear from
Scripture that God loves and is best served by people with an undivided heart.
We must learn from Dan’s duplicity and avoid living treacherously and
deceitfully.
Take that story of Dan’s tribe going after the citizens
of Laish. The story underscores two characteristics of Dan: Dan’s ruthless
guile and deceitfulness; and Dan’s divided heart or pious hypocrisy.
Dan’s guile and deceitfulness becomes clear when you
observe how they spy a sleepy town called “Laish” and how they plot to raid it.
Totally unaware of the intentions by the Danites, the people of Laish were like
sitting ducks: the spies saw that the people “were living in safety, like
the Sidonians, unsuspecting and secure. And since their land lacked nothing,
they were prosperous. Also, they lived a long way from the Sidonians and had no
relationship with anyone else.”
In other words, the people
of Laish were sitting ducks surrounded by a nest of vipers.
Perhaps, from a military point of view, the Danites’
conquest was a brilliant move and success. But the way the story is told in
Scripture suggests that God’s approval rating is very low. It’s as if Jacob’s
deathbed cry hangs over the city of Laish: “I look for your deliverance,
O Lord.”
Now the story of Dan’s tribe raiding and conquering the
city of Laish does not only betray deceitfulness and guile, but also a divided
heart. In the short term that may have been to the Danites’ advantage, but in
the end their disloyalty and divided heart becomes a snare in the life of God’s
people Israel.
Take a look at the story:
The Danite spies stumble
upon the home of Micah in the hill country of Ephraim, not far from the city of
Laish. Now Micah seems to be a wealthy person; he has slaves, lots of neighbors
who are willing to stick up for him, and Micah has something of special
interest to the Danites—Micah has a personal chaplain in his house. Micah has a
young priest in his service, a Levite (his name we do not know).
This
Levite acts as a mediator between Micah and the God of Israel. It also turns
out that this Micah is a very religious person, who has many idols or household
gods. And that, of course, suggests that Micah has many different loyalties,
not only to the God of the Israelites (as represented by his personal chaplain,
the Levite), but also to the many deities of the Canaanites.
And
this, of course, also shows us the heart of this young Levite. He has a Danite
characteristic—a two-faced, divided heart. This personal chaplain is
comfortable and willing to serve more than his Master, the God of Israel. This
priest is willing to accommodate his faith, his loyalty, his covenant obligations
and blessings to the culture of the land, and to the one who pays him the most.
This priest will serve the highest bidder, especially when service means
advancing his own position, wealth, and esteem.
As
the story unfolds, we notice that the Danite raiders are attracted to this
Levite priest. This priest can serve them well, pronouncing God’s blessings on
their (yes, deceitful intentions), and at the same time, this priest can help
them to accommodate to the idolatrous culture and ways of the Canaanites. In
other words, this priest is worth having in your midst, so the Danites think.
And
thus we read that the Danites entered Micah’s house and took “the carved
image, the ephod, the other household gods and the cast idol.”
When the Levite chaplain protested, the Danites made a deal with him: “Be
quiet! Don’t say a word. Come with us, and be our father and priest. Isn’t it
better that you serve a tribe and clan in Israel as priest rather than just one
man’s household.” Now this is a
bargain that the Levite chaplain could not resist. It is right up his alley of
his divided heart.
The
priest thought the bargain was gain; the Danites thought that they had the best
of both worlds—the world of Israel’s God and the world of the pagan Canaanites.
But their idolatry and divided heart became the dagger in Israel’s national
heart. Note the end of the story: (vs. 28b-31) “The Danites rebuilt the city and settled there. They named it Dan
after their forefather Dan, who was born to Israel-though the city used to be called
Laish. There the Danites set up for themselves the idols, and Jonathan son of
Gershom, the son of Moses, and his sons were priests for the tribe of Dan until
the time of the captivity of the land. They continued to use the idols Micah
had made, all the time the
house of God was in Shiloh.”
The
religious phoniness, the hypocrisy, the idolatrous, and lukewarm religious
devotion and accommodating approaches to pagan practices by the Danites led to
God’s wrath upon Israel and the exile of God’s people in the days of the
Assyrian empire and Babylonian empire. Dan’s divided heart; two-faced,
duplicitous living became a snare in the midst of God’s people. No wonder that
Jacob cried out on his deathbed: “I look for your deliverance, O Lord!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dan’s story is our story. It’s part of the story of God’s
people all throughout the ages. What must we do with Dan, and especially, what
must we do with these Danite tendencies we find within ourselves and among us
in the Christian communities all over the world? What are we to do?
1. We do well to examine our own heart. We are part of Adam’s race; we, too, have the
serpent’s poison of deceit and guile, of pride and self-service coursing
through our veins. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
says Scripture. So, we do well to ask ourselves at times: Am I being a
two-faced Dan? Am I exhibiting characteristics that lead father Jacob to cry
out: “I look for your deliverance, O Lord.”?
2. We do well to clothe ourselves with the mind of Christ.
As Christians we must live a conversion life: daily dying to sin;
daily rising to a life of love and obedience. Scripture tells us: (Eph. 4:20ff)
“…to put off (y)our old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful
desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new
self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” You
see? Put off; put on. We must learn to clothe ourselves with the mind and
characteristics of Jesus Christ.
3. We do well, then, to cultivate the fruit of the Holy
Spirit. Selfish ambition, idolatry,
irreligious piety, or hypocritical behavior need to be pruned and excised. How?
The apostle Paul shows us the way by enumerating the fruit of the Spirit: love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and
self-control. Jacob teaches us to cry out: “I look for deliverance, O
Lord.” And the Lord Jesus teaches us to pray: “And lead us not
into temptation, O Lord, but deliver us from all evil.” Christ has
given us his Spirit. In his power, by his grace, we can live with an undivided
heart.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.