“The children of Dan went up to fight against Leshem and took it.” Josh 19:47

My natural disposition is of one who avoids conflict. When our family took a personality profile test together and the result was I was a “Peacemaker”, my kids all echoed “that’s you, dad!”.

This does not give me an excuse for being passive or refusing to take up a matter that requires attention any more than being poor is an excuse for stealing. I cannot negotiate or rationalize away my responsibilities because they are inconvenient or intimidating. Sometimes, we just have to “take up the sword, and fight”.

When Joshua led the children of Israel across the River Jordan, each tribe was given an allotted inheritance for which they would need to confront corrupt and entrenched native inhabitants. Only by displacing these nations could God establish Israel under His rule and execute His Divine plan. During the rollout, tribes responded differently. Some obeyed; some did not. Some took risks; others shrunk back and justified their tepid responses.

The responses of two tribes in particular recently caught my attention. Joseph’s tribe (split up into Ephraim and Manasseh) claimed to be a “great people” (Jos 18:14ff) who proved to be wimps. They came to Joshua to complain that the inheritance they were given was too small. Their mentality was classic entitlement. They felt they deserved more. They believed they had been given the short end of the stick. The Canaanites they faced were obviously more powerful than the other tribes’ enemies; theirs had chariots of iron!

Joshua’s response was masterful. He basically says, “well, if you are such a great people, why don’t you get up there and clear that forest and make a wonderful district for more of you to live in?” They wanted everything to be handed to them on a silver platter, so they did nothing. Sadly, many Christians have exactly this kind of mindset today.

A chapter later (Jos 19:40-48) the tribe of Dan exhibits a totally different spirit. Far from passive or entitled, after Dan had settled into its allotted territory west of Jerusalem on the Mediterranean coast, they organized for battle 250 kilometers north, determined to take the city of Laish (or Leshem), a region originally given to Manasseh. Jos 19:47 says: “they struck it with the edge of the sword, took possession of it, and dwelt in it.” They then proceeded to change its name to Dan, in honor of their forefather, as if to make a further declaration: This region is now ours. We fought for it, and God has made it our inheritance forever.

Leshem was in fact a gateway city and transportation hub on Israel’s northern border with the hostile Assyrians, and later the Babylonians. Manasseh had refused to claim their inheritance, but Dan would not be intimidated. Old Jacob had prophesied over Dan nearly 500 years earlier that he would: “be a snake by the roadside, a viper along the path, that bites the horse’s heals so that its rider tumbles backwards”(Gen 49:17). This act, then, was the tribe of Dan taking hold of its prophetic destiny. How many of Israel’s enemies would be turned back at the border because of this courageous act? How many would get bit and “tumble backwards”?

God is speaking to us today through this story. We must know who we are. We must take bold steps to walk in our prophetic calling. We must resist the temptation to follow in the way of Ephraim and Manasseh, expecting things to be handed to us without having to work for them. Instead, may we be like Dan, a people who were not content to simply occupy, but were willing to contend for the more, and the best, of what God has ordained for them.

“There was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days…but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.” Ex 10:22-23

We underestimate the power of the covenant God has sealed with us through the shed blood of the Lamb to our own hurt. During this holy week, as we reflect upon the events surrounding the single most profound act in all history, I am compelled to recount the glorious benefits of the cross revealed in the very first Passover. In particular, I will highlight the concept of separation that was a major theme then and will once again play a central role in the days before Jesus’ return (cf. IS 60:1-3). 

In the leadup to that fateful night, we find God was honoring His covenant in numerous ways. Despite intense affliction, the population of God’s people multiplied dramatically. Remarkably, “the Hebrew women [were] not like the Egyptian women”, giving birth “vigorously”, quickly, and safely even before the midwives could get there (Ex 1:19). 

As judgment fell on Egypt, as plague after plague bombarded the land, the mercy of God prevented the swarms of gnats and locusts, the curses of the frogs and boils, and the pelting of the hail from marauding God’s favored ones. He vowed: “I will deal differently with the land of Goshen where my people live…so that you will know that I, the Lord, am in this land. I will make a distinction between my people and your people…” (Ex 8:22-23). 

Although the covenant was freely available to all of Jacob’s seed, and yet “every man shall take for himself a lamb” (Ex 12:3). Appropriating the blessings was not automatic. Each man had to select and slaughter an unblemished lamb and apply the blood to the doorposts and lintel of his home in order to be afforded defense from the destroyer who came to strike all the firstborn in the land. While piercing screams of grief echoed from street to square as the angel of death passed over Egypt, the Hebrews slept peacefully in preparation for their long-awaited escape from bondage at the break of dawn. 

The flight would have been short-lived if God had not intervened yet again with the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. As Pharaoh’s chariot-borne army hotly pursued the fleeing Israelites, God erected an impregnable hedge around them. Scripture records: “The cloud gave light to the Israelites, but made it dark for the Egyptians, and during the night they could not come any closer” (Ex 14:20). Hours later, when the army attempted to pursue Moses’ horde into the parted Sea, the final and most dramatic separation occurs when the waters which had walled up for the Hebrews collapsed to annihilate every soldier and beast not divinely garrisoned by the great I AM. 

The exodus saga convincingly reveals God as a Master in the art of separation. So much more than a grand Sunday school tale, we who are wise are brought face to face with one of the timeless truths that will keep us–His children, the benefactors of His covenant–confident and courageous as thick darkness once again covers the earth in the Last Days. 

Beloved, we are like 21^st century Goshenites. As adversity pummelled and perplexed the Egyptians, the region where the Israelites lived was under a huge canopy of protection. As Pharaoh’s heart grew harder and resistance intensified, God “multiplied [His] signs and wonders in the land” (Ex 7:3) through the faith and persistence of His servant Moses. As sin and wickedness abounded in Egypt, grace was magnified upon Goshen all the more. Plagues, pestilences, disasters all wreaked havoc on the shadowless homes of those who did not believe while the lamps continued to burn brightly inside the dwellings of those whose doorframes were sprinkled with redemption blood. As darkness thickened into gross darkness, as it had been for the Hebrew children standing at the brink on the Sea’s shore, so shall it be for us who have fortuitously been grafted into God’s covenant with Abraham. The Sun of Righteousness shall arise upon us. 

There is restoration and refreshment in His wings. Our church is a sign of this separation promise: not a single case of COVID has been recorded among our more than five thousand members. God had marked His people throughout their legendary sojourn out of bondage and into their destiny. Now, as this sanctified people looked back at bodies strewn next to swords, armor, and broken chariots upon the shores of the Red Sea, an outline of a seventy-palm-tree-oasis came into focus on the horizon before them. As the blood of the Passover Lamb had purchased their salvation, God affirmed one last covenant by-His-stripes benefit as they dipped their tired feet in pools of water underneath sunset painted skies at the end of that very long day. He said:

            “If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight…I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.” Ex 15:26

Have a Joyous Passover, and Happy Easter.