Upon the heels of this came idolatry. Those images and teraphim, that stolen priest with his ephod, marked an epoch in the disruption of Israel. In far Laish, which those Danites conquered and renamed "Dan," they set up their molten and graven images, and invited the neighboring tribes to worship with them. Dan became notorious in Israel as an idolatrous tribe. (Amos 8:14.)
And what is idolatry?—It is the worship of human qualities. Not the image, but what the image stands for in license and in indulgence that draws the idolater. He is worshiping his own human qualities, worshiping himself. Love of self is idolatry, and love of self is the spring of criticism. Whenever we criticize another, we do so, often unconsciously, for the sake of elevating ourselves in the estimation of our public. If by our criticism we can prove another worth less, we thereby imply greater worth in ourselves. This is the very opposite of the prime law of the kingdom: "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you."
God bore with Dan, as He bore with all the other tribes, seeking ever to win him away from his evil to his true mission in Israel, until the time came when the supreme test was given to all the tribes, in the persons of their future heads, the twelve apostles.
And there was the head of the tribe of Dan, keen, alert, better educated than the most of his fellow disciples. He could easily see the faults of his brethren, and he did. Peter was too impetuous; John was first too passionate, and then too meek; Thomas was too moody; Matthew was too close, James too dull, Philip too impractical. Not one but had awful faults, except himself, Judas Iscariot. His qualities lifted him above the common herd; he was worthy to be first in the kingdom. If only his policies were followed, the kingdom would be won much the sooner. And so convinced did he become of his own worth, so worshipful of money, place, and power, that he schemed against the Lord Jesus Himself. He formed a plot to betray his Lord, reasoning that when brought into a tight place, Jesus would never allow Himself to be taken, but would show His divine power, and proclaim Himself king; and then, with the revelation of Judas' part in bringing about that crisis, the reward would follow.
You know what came of it. The traitor saw his Lord go to death; he saw his fellow disciples bewildered, dispersed, despairing; he saw his own schemes fall to dust and ashes. Then he went and hanged himself.
Was not he true head of the tribe of Dan? With him perished the last hope of the salvation of Dan. Not that those who may have been physically of Dan could not be saved, but in the resurrection they will belong to another tribe; for Dan, unlike the rest, was conquered instead of conquering, and forever Dan will be blotted out.
And now, my friends, I do not know that any of you are in the tribe of Dan. You must tell that for yourselves. But to every one of us comes the temptation to criticize and find fault, in the home, in the neighborhood, in the church. Let us remember, when that temptation comes, that it is an invitation to enter the tribe of Dan; and the tribe of Dan never goes into the kingdom.
It is the most terrible fault that afflicts the church, this habit of criticizing and backbiting. It is the most terrible because it is the most subtle of all temptations, and it has the worst results. It is spiritual cannibalism, this devouring of the characters of men. And the degraded condition of the cannibal follows upon its practice. It is the one sin that shuts out a whole division of Israel.
This is the one fault that deserves the sternest measures for suppression. When Dan comes to you with scandal or faultfinding concerning another, say: "Now, Brother Dan, I don't know anything about this; but God instructs us to take a man's faults directly to him, and in the spirit of meekness recover him from those faults. So now let us go to this faulty brother, and you tell him what you are telling me." Then take Dan by the arm and go! That will cure Brother Dan. He will either get out of his tribe or get out of the camp, at least out of your tent.
But first we must make sure that we ourselves are cured of the fault. It must have no dwelling place with us. It cannot be conquered by destructive methods; it is itself destructive. We cannot resolve, "I will not criticize," and succeed. We must have a positive program against it, a process of in-filling, that it may be crowded out. The secret of success lies in the inflowing of love, through a study and reception of the character of Christ. If we live with Him, through daily study of His Word, through daily speaking with Him in prayer, through daily ministry to others such as He inspires, then criticism and hatred and envy will be crowded out of our lives. They can be crowded out in no other way.
This is the way to get out of the tribe of Dan. And we must get out; for Dan has no place in Israel.
Gad
If there is any tribe to which I should prefer to be transferred from the tribe of Dan, I think it is the tribe of Gad. For Gad, tried and tested, succeeds instead of failing. Of Gad are the persevering ones. "Gad," said the patriarch, "a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last." Genesis 49:19.
No better illustration of Gad's perseverance is to be found than in the twelfth chapter of 1 Chronicles, verses 8 to 15. It was in the time of David, when he was hiding from Saul. Many there were in Israel who sympathized with David; but so great were the restrictions, so real the dangers of allying themselves with him, that they were few who took the risk.
On the other side of the Jordan, however, there were men of Gad who determined that, come what would, they would join the man whom God had anointed to be king of Israel. They looked to a future success that involved the reform and the glory of Israel; and they desired to be a part of the movement.
So these men of Gad set out to go to David. But Saul had his watchers, who quickly reported the movement, and there sprang up in the path of the Gadites armed hosts to oppose their way. Nothing daunted, the men of Gad gave battle. I do not know whether they had checks, defeats; I suspect they had,--"Gad, a troop shall overcome him"; but there is only put in one short clause their success: "They put to flight all them" of the east valley.
Next they came to the Jordan River, which ordinarily could be forded at various places. But now they found it in flood; and when Jordan is in flood, it is no small obstacle. Wide through the valley spread the waters, swift raced the stream; but to the dauntless men of Gad it was only another obstacle to be overcome. How they went across we are not told; the fords were buried, the boats doubtless swept away. They may have swum the river; in any case, it is said that they "went over Jordan . . . when it had overflown all his banks."
Not yet, however, were they free. Upon the western side, the full weight of Saul's forces could be brought to bear. Again they faced enemies determined to overcome and force them back. But the men of Gad could not be denied. Through whatever battles, ambushes, marches, ruses, they went their determined way, and "put to flight all them" of the west valley. And so they came to David. No wonder it is said of them that their "faces were like the faces of lions"; that one of the least was fit to be over a hundred, and the greatest over a thousand.
How vital to the success of the church are the men of Gad! When the dark days come, when opponents stand in the way of God's work, when men's hearts are fainting for fear, then those indomitable Gadites come forward to save the day. Elijah the Tishbite came from the mountains of Gad in a day when Baal seemed almost to have triumphed over Jehovah, and singlehanded with his God overthrew the power of superstition and tyranny, and re-established faith in the hearts of Israel. When the civil and religious liberties of Europe were threatened with extinction, there arose in the Lowlands that prince of Gadites, William the Silent, who, though defeated and thwarted in his plans again and again, nevertheless persevered until he overthrew the power of Spain and made little Holland mighty in liberty. And so we might, in many ages and many causes, find these unbreakable souls who have served God and their fellow men by their great quality of indomitable courage.
The fault of Gad is intolerance. It is the tendency of an uncompromising nature to look with little compassion upon the failures and weaknesses of other men. The stern strife which Gad carries on, his own rigid adherence to his faith and his ideals and his promises, tend to make incomprehensible and abhorrent to him the softer moods and policies of men differently situated or constructed. Tolerance, sympathy, compassion, it was hard for Elijah to feel and show; yet in the end, through the discouragement of his flight and through the vision of God's greatness in the "still small voice," Elijah learned it; and his last days on earth were mellow with the love of a father. It is for alI Gadites to learn the same lesson today.
(To be continued)
