Why will Dan not be in heaven? The Absence of Dan in the Book of Revelation.

Why will Dan be excluded from being His witness to the world during the tribulation? The answer appears to be that the tribe of Dan turned apostate. As a result, the nation was taken captive by the Assyrian army (Judges 18:30; 1 Kings 12:28-30; 2 Kings 10:29). They continue to reject Christ in the tribulation.

The absence of the tribe of Dan from the list of those tribes sealed in heaven is a biblical mystery. In the book of Revelation, when the 144,000 are sealed, Dan is not mentioned among them . However, in Ezekiel 48, Dan is included in the division of the land in the millennial kingdom. Some interpretations suggest that Dan turned apostate, leading to their exclusion.

The entire tribe of Dan is absent from the list of those tribes which are to be found in heaven.

Here is the list given in Revelation 7.

And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel. (Revelation 7:4, KJV)

Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand.
Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand.
Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand. (7:5)
Of the tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousand.
Of the tribe of Nephthalim were sealed twelve thousand.
Of the tribe of Manasses were sealed twelve thousand. (7:6)
Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand.
Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand.
Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand. (7:7)
Of the tribe of Zabulon were sealed twelve thousand.
Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand.
Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand. (7:8).

Dan is not listed (neither is Ephraim--but the focus for this question is Dan). But Dan was clearly a son of Jacob (Israel), and among the tribes in the wilderness. As of the time when they sent spies into Canaan and selected a representative from each tribe, we see the following:

1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2 Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them. 3 And Moses by the commandment of the LORD sent them from the wilderness of Paran: all those men were heads of the children of Israel.

Dan was the eldest son of Rachel's maid Bilhah--the first of the maids to be given to Jacob by his two wives.

1 And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die. 2 And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel: and he said, Am I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb? 3 And she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her. 4 And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife: and Jacob went in unto her. 5 And Bilhah conceived, and bare Jacob a son. 6 And Rachel said, God hath judged me, and hath also heard my voice, and hath given me a son: therefore called she his name Dan. (Genesis 30:1-6, KJV).

Dan is Rachel's eldest surrogate son: Why is he not listed among those in heaven?

Why did the Tribe of Dan go missing in the Book of Revelation when all the other tribes are mentioned?

Revelation 7:4–8 lists 144,000 “sealed” or protected servants of God who will minister during the tribulation of the end times. The sealed comprise 12,000 individuals from each of the twelve tribes of Israel: Judah, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. For some reason, the tribe of Dan is not listed; in its place is Manasseh, which is one of the two tribes that came from Joseph.

The Bible does not tell us why the tribe of Dan is excluded from the list of the twelve tribes in Revelation . However, some background information about the twelve sons of Jacob and the twelve tribes of Israel might provide some clues. First, a brief history of the twelve tribes:

The twelve tribes of Israel came from the twelve sons of Israel—Israel being the name that God gave Jacob (Genesis 32:28). Jacob’s twelve sons were Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin (Genesis 35:23–26; Exodus 1:1–4; 1 Chronicles 2:1–2). The progeny of those twelve sons comprised the twelve tribes of Israel.

In the time of Joshua, when Israel inherited the Promised Land, Levi’s descendants did not receive a territory for themselves (Joshua 13:14). Instead, they had priestly duties and took care of the tabernacle. The Levites were given several cities scattered throughout the land.

To fill out the twelve allotments, Joseph’s tribe was divided in two—Jacob had adopted Joseph’s two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, essentially giving Joseph a double portion for his faithfulness in saving the family from famine (Genesis 47:11–12). In this arrangement, the tribes given territory in the Promised Land were Reuben, Simeon, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh. In some places in Scripture, the tribe of Ephraim is referred to as the tribe of Joseph ( Numbers 1:32–33).

After King Solomon died, Israel split into two kingdoms. Judah, to the south, included the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. The other tribes combined to make the kingdom of Israel in the north. In the ensuing years, many Israelites in the north emigrated to Judah in the south to flee the apostasy in their homeland ( 2 Chronicles 11:16; 15:9). Eventually, the northern kingdom of Israel was destroyed by the Assyrians, and most of the Israelites were either killed or deported; it’s likely that many of the Israelites who remained migrated to the southern kingdom of Judah, as many of the faithful before them had.

Jesus was from Judah, Paul was from Benjamin, Anna was from Asher, and John the Baptist was a Levite, but, since the Diaspora in AD 70, identifying the tribe of any given Jew is more difficult.

During the tribulation, when most of the world is following the Antichrist, 144,000 Jews will be sealed by God—12,000 from each tribe—for special service. God has kept track of the tribes, and He knows who is who. The tribes with sealed individuals are listed in Revelation 7:5–8, but it is not the same list as found in Joshua 13—22. The sealed tribes in the end times include Manasseh and Ephraim (under Joseph’s name). But Dan is not included. No explanation is given as to why.

There are some other details of the history of the tribe of Dan that might help explain why Dan is missing from the list of sealed tribes in Revelation. Judges 18:1–31 tells the story of the people of Dan falling into gross idolatry. Also, the Danites did not like the territory allotted to them near the Mediterranean Sea—the Amorites and Philistines gave them trouble—so they sent out spies to find a better area. In the north, the Danites learned of an area inhabited by a peaceful group of people, whom the Danites proceeded to wipe out; they then moved the entire tribe up to that region, just south of present-day Lebanon.

There they established their main city and called it Dan.

Later, in the divided kingdom, the people of Dan were part of the northern kingdom of Israel. King Jeroboam I established two pagan worship centers, one in Bethel and one in Dan (1 Kings 12:25–33). Sadly, this man-made worship at Dan, centered on a golden calf, became one of Dan’s lasting legacies.

Skipping ahead to Revelation 7, all the tribes of Israel are mentioned in the end-times tribulation except for Dan. Commentators through the centuries have proposed the following reasons for why the tribe of Dan is not included in the list:

• Dan’s historical embrace of idolatry and immorality leads to a disqualification for service during the end times.

• The Antichrist will come from the tribe of Dan (based on certain readings of Genesis 49:17; Deuteronomy 33:22; and Jeremiah 8:16).

• By the time of Solomon, the tribe of Dan had assimilated with the neighboring Phoenicians (as 2 Chronicles 2:14 may hint at) and so lost their national identity.

• The tribe of Dan, once the second-most populous tribe, declined in numbers and influence until, by Ezra’s time, it had been totally wiped out. This would explain why Dan is not listed among the tribes in 1 Chronicles 4—7 or in Revelation 7.

In the Revelation list there is a further change. The two names Ephraim and Dan have been omitted. The two names Joseph and Levi have returned to take their places. What is the significance of this?

Well, Ephraim and Dan are notorious in OT history as the two tribes which housed the two calves of Jereboam (1 KIngs ch12 v30, Bethel being a town in Ephraim). In other words, both names are "unfaithful". Joseph is well-known for his faithfulness in the affair of Potiphar's wife (Genesis ch39).

Through the person of Phinehas, Levi is commended for his "jealousy" (that is, his faithfulness towards the Lord) in the affair at Shittim (Numbers ch25 vv10-11). Phinehas thus obtained the "covenant of peace" which Jeremiah later associates with Levi (ch33 v21). In other words, both names are "faithful".

So the effect of the double change is that two unfaithful names have been replaced by two faithful names.

If we are allowed to go by a symbolic interpretation instead of by a literal interpretation, the message in this list is not that a particular tribe will be absent from heaven, but that "the unfaithful" will be absent from heaven. Just as "the faithless" are near the top of the list of absentees from the new Jerusalem (Revelation ch21 v8). This is part of the basic, fundamental message of Revelation, that in the face of the oncoming crisis we must KEEP faith in God, and keep being faithful to God, trusting that he is faithful to us.