In the Bible, a journey to Jerusalem is always up; when Dan moves north, it’s downhill all the way.
The Danites receive the spies’ report with alacrity. The spot was ideal! “God has given it into your hands, a place where there is no lack of anything that is on the earth,” said the spies (Jdg 18:10). It’s a terrible thing when we rubber-stamp God’s signature to our will. We say, “God told me…” when it’s nothing but wishful thinking. Heading north with “six hundred men of the family of the Danites…armed with weapons of war” (v 11), they stopped first at Micah’s house to transfer his home-grown religion to their new home at Laish, renamed—you guessed it—Dan! It’s such a long trip now to Shiloh and will be even farther to Jerusalem, so why not have everything handy? Thus “they took the carved image, the ephod, the household idols, and the molded image” (v 17). But what about the priest? Ask him! Would he rather be pastor of a small country congregation or a mega-church? They were talking his language! “So the priest’s heart was glad; and he…took his place among the people” (v 20). Poor Micah! When he discovered his loss, he cried, “You have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and you have gone away. Now what more do I have?” (v 24). Indeed! Homemade gods are ideal if you want to control them, but useless when you need their help. Nevertheless, in spite of seeing how futile Micah’s god was to him, “the children of Dan set up for themselves…Micah’s carved image which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh” (vv 30-31). Thus they institutionalized idolatry in Israel, soon to build there a golden calf. And many centuries later, during “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jer 30:7), again the Lord will find no one from Dan to stand for Him in time of need (see Rev 7:4-8). What has Dan done?