Returning home!

The internet in Singapore has been abuzz with the story of Nisar Keshvani and his family, who were evacuated from Riyadh in the wake of the war with Iran. His heartwarming story evokes the feeling of having returned home the moment he boarded the RSAF aeroplane, and how the passengers even broke into an impromptu rendition of the Singapore national anthem. 

What an amazing thing it is to return home! Our home on earth has a special place in each of our hearts. I definitely feel something special when I return from travel overseas, and I know my children feel the same way, especially those years when they're living overseas.

Returning home is not necessarily just an emergency rescue (though sometimes it can be!). 

The Bible famously records in Jeremiah 29:10-11, "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."

It's a common mistake to only read the second sentence of this passage, which then gives the false impression that God's plans only involve nice things and not hard times. But the context of Jeremiah 29 is essential. God spoke these words to the people just as their nation was defeated and on the verge of exile to Babylon. They would have to serve 70 years in exile, building their lives outside their beloved homeland. 

But God promised that all this - defeat, exile, hardship, longing - these were the very plans to eventually prosper them, and to give them a hope and a future. He would never leave or abandon them for even a second. He would see them through every moment till every good promise of His was fulfilled.

And that's exactly what happened. History tells us that seventy years later, Babylon would fall to the Persians, and the Persian king would allow the Israelites to return to their homeland, where they would rebuild. Home. Surely.

God has a plan for each of us to return to our home with Him too. So one day, that will be my story. Pilgrim on earth that I am, I will return home to my Father, with every good promise of His fulfilled. Home. Surely.

But... is there a way for me to miss the plan that will bring me home?

I had decided to complete a Bible-in-a-year plan this year, and as of today, the plan has passed the books of Joshua and Judges. One particular narrative thread leapt out at me. In Joshua 19:40-48, Joshua allots the territory for the tribe of Dan within Canaan. However, the record in Joshua also briefly notes that when this allotted territory was later lost by the Danites, they went to a different place and named that place Dan.

Judges 17-18 provides further colour. Judges 17 records that a man named Micah stole some silver from his own mother. He later admits that he stole the silver, but for some reason his mother isn't upset, and even gives the silver back to Micah, telling him to make a silver idol out of it. 

So Micah does that, and makes a shrine for the idol in his own house, and even installs a priest - initially his own son, and then later, a travelling Levite priest. And Micah even says, "now I know the Lord will be good to me, since this Levite has become my priest." 

This is the scary bit to me. Micah didn't exactly abandon the faith. He still called his god, the Lord. 

But he did make an idol of precious metal, and called that "The Lord".

He made a temple in his house, as a substitute for the tabernacle where God told the people to worship, because it was a lot of more convenient to worship at home than at the tabernacle.

He installed a Levite priest for his temple, just like the Levites who were called to serve at the tabernacle. 

There was a form of godliness that Micah wanted to follow and worship. So he dressed it up to look like the God He was supposed to worship. And then he declared, yup, now it's all going to be good.

Do you see?

Judges 18 goes on to show that when we dress up something as the Lord, it doesn't actually work. A war party of Danites come upon Micah's house, and seeing the silver idol and the Levite priest, they tell the priest, hey, why don't you come with us and bring the idol along with you? Better to be a priest to a whole tribe than to just Micah's household. So the Levite says, sure! And he packs up everything, including the idol, and joins the war party.

Micah runs after the Danites, complaining. The Danites essentially tell him - bro, better back off, before we get mad at you. So Micah retreats, empty handed. The silver idol and his hired priest gallop off into the distance with the Danites , leaving Micah behind.

Do you see?

It doesn't end there.

The Danites, with their new silver god and hired priest, come upon the city of Laish, far to the north. It is undefended, and they take the city, and set up their capital there, together with the idol as a centre of worship. Remember - God's promise to the Danites was for a different territory in the southwest. But taking that territory was very difficult. So the Danites went to the far north and took a city that was easy to conquer, that was outside the territory promised to them by God. Dan's territory remained untaken, while they called their new territory "Dan".

Do you see?

The consequences can be really dire. When the kingdom of Israel later split into the northern and southern kingdoms due to civil war, King Jeroboam of Israel set up centres of worship in the north in Bethel and... Dan. In contravention of where they were supposed to worship in Jerusalem. 

The northern and southern kingdoms drifted further and further apart over the years, until the destruction and exile by the Babylonian kingdom. Today, only the southern kingdom's tribes - Judah and Benjamin, plus the Levites who served in the southern kingdom - retain their tribal identity, because they were the ones who returned home from exile. The other tribes just drifted and drifted and drifted... and today their distinct identities are pretty much lost. No home.

It doesn't even end there.

All the tribes of Israel, even those lost from the northern kingdom, are listed as having been reconstituted in Revelation's account of Judgement Day, when Christ returns. They all return home. Except one. Dan.

No home. 

Because Micah had a promised God, but decided to dress something else up to look like God and call that God. And that silver god and hired priest promptly decamped and abandoned Micah when trouble came knocking. 

Because Dan had a promised land to call home, but decided not to fight for it, and made some other place home, far away from where they were supposed to be.

There's one more character worth mentioning here, and that is the prophet Daniel, who lived during the time of the exile in Babylon. In his life, Daniel famously chose to maintain his covenant with God. He declined to take the unclean food offered by the royal Babylonian household. He declined to bow to the statue of the king. He continued to pray to God even when it was made illegal. And God delivered him and his friends from the lions, from the furnace and from the plans of his enemies. 

Daniel knew where his promised home was, and he never substituted it with his own judgment.

The name "Dan" means "judged". The name "Daniel" means "God is my judge".

Micah and the tribe of Dan chose to judge for themselves. Daniel chose to let God be the judge of his life and his decisions. 

May I choose to be like Daniel - not dressing up my own judgment and calling it God's, but relying on God's judgement alone, and fixing my eyes on my true home. At the end of every flight, the famous SQ announcement crackles over the intercom, "And to all Singaporeans, a warm welcome home". I long to hear one day, the voice of my Saviour pronouncing, "And to all my faithful sheep, a warm welcome home!"