The Tribe of Dan Adopts Micah’s Idolatry

This chapter shows the way in which one person’s distortion of truth, turning it into a falsity, can have severe consequences on a larger scale.

The tribe of Dan – one of the twelve tribes of Israel – was given land to the west, by the coast, but they found it hard to hold on to. The name of the tribe of Dan means ‘to judge’, but if judgment isn't based on the Word there will be chaos. (Arcana Caelestia 842)

Faced with competition for their homeland, the tribal leaders of Dan went looking for a place for themselves elsewhere. They sent five men of valour to spy out the land. These men came to Micah’s house, and they recognised the voice of the young Levite there. They questioned him about his situation, and he told them that Micah had hired him to be a priest to his household. The men of Dan asked the Levite to ask the Lord if their search would be prosperous, and he told them that it would be.

The spiritual meaning of this part of the chapter is to do with an intensifying wrongness. At the textual level, there is reference to the Lord, and an apparent normality in what takes place. But underlying it, there's a wrongness, which will become apparent later in the chapter. The pointers to it here are the five men from Dan, them coming straight to Micah’s house, and the hiring of a priest.

The number ‘five’ has a good meaning in many parts of the Word, but it can also have a bad meaning, as it does here. In this context, it stands for only a little, for disunion and the destruction of the Word (Apocalypse Revealed 738).

Coming directly to Micah’s house and recognising the Levite brings together two evil intentions: Micah’s idol and the men of Dan’s search to take a home for themselves. An example for us could be where two people plot to seek the harm of a third person. (Arcana Caelestia 4724)

The hiring of a priest is something disallowed, for priests are there to serve the Lord and they are provided for by the people, not to be hired. Hiring, spiritually, stands for seeking reward for what you do, whereas the true reward is heaven for those who serve without expecting a reward. (Arcana Caelestia 8002)

The five men leave Micah's house, and go on to Laish in the far north, where there are people who dwell securely in peace and without rulers, far from others and with no ties. Laish means ‘fearless and kneaded together’. It is a picture of perfection, of heaven. (Divine Love and Wisdom 200)

The five men then return to their tribe of Dan and report about Laish. They say that it is ideal for the taking because it has plenty of land and its people are secure. They say that “God has given it into your hands”.

Six hundred men of the tribe of Dan set out and they too, come to the house of Micah. The five spies tell them about the idols and they meet and greet the young Levite. Then the five spies go in and take all the idols in the house. The Levite joins up with the men from Dan and they go on together.

One spiritual meaning in the story is that evil (Dan, gone bad) loves to destroy peace and innocence (Laish).

The complete loss to Micah of all his idols and his hired priest, shows, too, that in fully turning to evil, there is the final loss of everything that might bring a person back. (Arcana Caelestia 9039)

People living near Micah go and accost the men of Dan about what they have taken -- but Micah is told to stop complaining or his household will be killed.

The Danites leave, and go and capture Laish, killing and burning, and re-naming the city Dan. There they set up the images and appoint priests. These images remain in Dan all the time that the house of God is in Shiloh.

The spiritual meaning of one evil or falsity becoming greater or more numerous is in the way that we might hold a negative emotion or a distorted view in our mind where it then spreads to other emotions and views we have and brings them into greater evil and falsity. This is the intention of evil and also of hell’s influence, to extend it to be as widespread as possible.

This is the outcome of everything that has developed through this and the previous chapter. It describes the spread of evil to become a terrible force for destruction and spiritually, for an individual person, for self-destruction. In the context of the decline of Israel to where ‘everyone did what was right in their own eyes’ this progression presents the pathway and process of that spiritual loss. (Divine Providence 19)

6388. 'Issachar' means recompense gained from works. This is clear from the representation of 'Issachar' as mutual love which is earned as a reward or recompense, dealt with in 3956, 3957. Here recompense gained from works is meant, as is evident in the internal sense from every detail mentioned in this prophetic utterance concerning Issachar, in addition to which Issachar in the original language means reward. The reason why 'Issachar' here means recompense gained from works, whereas previously he meant mutual love, is that here one has to understand by Issachar people with whom some kind and appearance of mutual love, that is, of charity towards the neighbour, is present. But they wish to receive recompense for the good deeds they do; thus genuine mutual love or charity is not merely tainted by them but actually perverted. For people with whom genuine mutual love resides enter into the delight and blessedness that is theirs when they. perform good deeds to their neighbour; there is nothing they desire more. That delight and blessedness is what is meant in the Word by 'reward', for delight or blessedness is the reward, and in the next life it becomes the joy and happiness that is experienced in heaven, and so becomes for those people heaven itself. For when those in heaven with whom that love resides perform useful services and good deeds for others, they feel so full of joy and happiness that they seem to themselves to be in heaven for the first time then. This feeling is granted them by the Lord; and He grants it to each one according to the nature of the service he performs.

[2] But that happiness departs the moment they think of recompense, for thought of recompense, even though they already have the true recompense, renders that love impure and corrupts it. The reason for this is that they are now thinking about themselves, not about their neighbour, that is, how they themselves can be made happy, not how others can be unless they themselves benefit from it. Thus they turn love towards the neighbour into love towards themselves; and to the extent that they do so they prevent joy and happiness from being communicated to them out of heaven, since they channel the flow of happiness from heaven into themselves and do not pass it on to others. They are like objects which do not reflect rays of light but absorb them. Objects that do reflect them are lit up and shining, whereas those that absorb them are dull and not at all shining. People who are like this are therefore separated from angelic society, like those who have nothing in common with heaven; and these are the ones who are described here by 'Issachar'.