I would highly recommend a trip to Israel for every pastor. It has a way of clearing the air, even more than a vacation does for me. It energizes my faith to see places and archaeological discoveries that support what I have believed and preached for years. It also dramatically impacts my devotional reading and study of Scripture. When I read about Joshua and Jericho, I can now picture in my mind what it must have been like marching over a million Israelites across a flat wide valley with no place to hide or sneak up on the city.
I just returned a couple of weeks ago from Israel and learned something about the city of Dan that I had never known before. I knew that Dan was originally named Laish. I knew that the tribe of Dan had not been originally assigned the northern territory by Joshua, but didn’t know why they moved from their originally assigned place to the farthest northern region of Israel. Our guide said that the tribe of Dan’s original territory made them a buffer between Jerusalem and the Philistines. That would obviously put them in a place of perpetual vigilance and sometimes even hostility. Moving north for the tribe of Dan was a move of convenience. Moving north also left the heart of Israel defenseless against Philistine aggression…a huge problem for the Judges and the Kings of Israel for hundreds of years to come.
Our guide told us this while we were standing on the Tel of Dan, looking down on the remains of Jeroboam’s temple and golden calf altar. That was when it hit me: that temple and altar were also motivated by convenience for the people and political expedience for the king. “Why travel all the way to Jerusalem to worship? Why go to all that bother? It is a long way to the Temple and will require a lot of planning, effort and expense. I know God said we are to worship Him only in the place He has established for His Name, but this temple will be much more convenient! No need to get so dogmatic about things. We will provide you a god and worship that are much more tailored to your needs.”
This move towards convenience is what divided the kingdom of Israel between north and south and eventually cost the northern tribes their place in the Promised Land and even their very lives. Standing in front of the ruins of Jeroboam’s altar to the golden calf, I felt such a deep sense of their loss, and for what? For the sake of convenience on two counts: first, the tribe’s move to the city to avoid being in a place of warfare and what it cost the rest of Israel. And second, Jeroboam’s temple and golden calf in that same city hundreds of years later. And all that is left of both are ruins!
Here is the application to the people of God in our day: When convenience becomes the main thing, compromise is inevitable! It took standing there, looking at the ruins, for me to realize that the price to be paid will be seen for generations to come.
Pastor Alec Rowlands
