Joshua 19:40-20:6.  Three things happen in today’s reading.  Dan’s portion is aloted to him, Joshua gets his land, and Joshua starts the process of designating the Cities of Refuge.

In an earlier post (3/17/12) we looked at what a City of Refuge was.  As in today’s reading it was a place for a person who unintentionally killed another person to live and be protected.  They could not leave the city, though, until the high priest died.  In that post I suggested that death in general is a consequence of sin and that sin needs to be dealt with.  Jesus as our ultimate High Priest is the one who deals ultimately with sin (Hebrews 9:1-17).  I think that the Cities of Refuge were a picture of this.

In Genesis 49 the blessing or prophecy of Jacob concerning Dan is a little scary.  First is says that Dan will judge his people.  That word “judge” means to fight for or contend.  But when we read through Judges we saw Dan failing to fight for their own territory.   The Danites moved north to look for a new place to live because they did not want to late over the land given to them by Joshua.  Today’s reading also mentions their failure to take the land and that they took Laish (Called Leshem in our reading) (Joshua 19:47).  Ironically the Danites were the second largest tribe in the wilderness (see Numbers 2).  In Moses blessing of the tribes he calls Dan a Lion’s cub (Deuteronomy 33:22).  That is the same wording used by Jacob in his blessing of Judah.  The difference though is in Jacob’s blessing the cub (Judah) seems to grow up and takes down the prey.  The cub becomes a lion.  On the other hand in Moses’ blessing the cub (Dan) is just frolicking around in the hills of Bashan, the very area where Dan migrated to and took over a peaceful city so they could live without conflict.  Dan in other words stayed a puppy.  And ultimately they fought only for themselves (See also Judges 5:17).  So although the blessing tells of them being judges it wound up being selfish service even though they were still part of the whole group.  The blessing gets worse in the second part with Dan being compared to a snake biting the heel of a passer by.  Traditionally Jewish scholars see this prophecy being fulfilled by Samson who was a Danite.  If you read through Judges with us you might remember that Samson was very self-centered too.  It is interesting that in Revelation 7 Dan is not included in the list of tribes which represent God during the Tribulation period (See “The Twelve?”).  Many scholars see a parallel between the description of Dan in Genesis 49 and the description of the conflict between Satan and the promised offspring of Eve (Jesus, see “The Old Testament Connection”).  The blessing of Jacob concludes with a prayer for God to bring salvation.

I think that today’s reading is a contrast between maturity and immaturity.  Dan was immature and only looked out for themselves.  In Israel’s history they do have some high moments (They helped build the Tabernacle (Exodus 31:6) and they did defeat Canaanites at Laish) but they had many bad moments too.  In Leviticus 24:11 we see a Danite cursing God’s name.  Also in the story of Laish one of the first things the Danites did in that city was set up a false religion (Judges 18:30-31). Joshua on the other hand is a picture of a true leader.  I like it that he take his land last.  And the picture is one of conquest and construction.  He actually took his land and did something with it.  It is sad that the inheritance which God gave, at the very door to the Tabernacle, the place where the Israelites had seen His presence for the last 45 or more years, was not fully taken.  They had the presence of God and didn’t use it.  But we have the presence of God too, the Holy Spirit (if you are a believer).  The question is are we going to be a Dan or a Joshua?  Are we going to leap around on the hills for the rest of our lives or take the land and build something on it?  Lord help me build my life for you.  Let my life be a city on a hill.  Let my life be a testimony, a witness, of your presence.  You told your followers that there is no middle ground (Luke 9:50, 11:23) we are either for or against you.  Help me not think I can sit on the fence and selfishly serve myself.  Let me be whole heartedly for you.