Tekoa Manning

What does the tribe of Dan have to do with the Messiah?

“Dan’s troops went last, marching behind their banner and serving as the rear guard for all the tribal camps. Their leader was Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai” (Numbers 10:25).

Dan served as the rear guard of Israel. In this role, the tribe symbolically reflects aspects of the Messiah—the One who is both before His people and behind them as their protector. Dan is associated with judgment and with the serpent imagery found throughout Scripture.

When Moses blessed the tribes, he declared:

“Concerning Dan he said: ‘Dan is a lion’s cub’” (Deuteronomy 33:22, BSB).

This comparison parallels the blessing spoken over Judah:

“Judah is a lion’s cub” (Genesis 49:9).

Both Judah and Dan are connected to lion imagery, authority, and rulership.

According to Jewish tradition, each tribe carried a unique banner representing its identity. The banner of Dan was associated with a serpent, while its camp on the north side was linked with the eagle. Some traditions even describe the viper as a winged serpent held in the eagle’s mouth.

Many scholars and Bible students have noted the absence of the tribe of Dan in Revelation 7, where Manasseh is listed instead. Throughout Scripture, names and tribal arrangements often carry prophetic symbolism. Just as the priestly divisions in passages such as 1 Chronicles contain deeper spiritual patterns, the tribal listings in Revelation also appear to reveal aspects of redemption and the Messiah’s kingdom.

When we examine the tribes listed in Revelation—including the names, meanings, and birth order—we discover themes that point toward the Father’s redemptive plan and the nature of the Son. While much is learned from Judah, the tribe from which Yeshua came, other tribes also reveal prophetic patterns connected to Messiah.

The Feast of Shavuot (Pentecost) marked the outpouring of the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit, and many connect this sealing work with the preparation of the Body of Messiah for the coming Feast of Trumpets. Because Revelation 7 speaks of the sealing of God’s servants, Dan’s omission has led to much discussion and interpretation.

“Do not harm the land or sea or trees until we have sealed the foreheads of the servants of our God.”

And I heard the number of those who were sealed, 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel:

From the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed,
from the tribe of Reuben 12,000,
from the tribe of Gad 12,000,
from the tribe of Asher 12,000,
from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000,
from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000,
from the tribe of Simeon 12,000,
from the tribe of Levi 12,000,
from the tribe of Issachar 12,000,
from the tribe of Zebulun 12,000,
from the tribe of Joseph 12,000,
and from the tribe of Benjamin 12,000.
(Revelation 7:3–8, BSB)

Judah, the fourth son, means “praise.” Judah held the scepter, and from Judah came Yeshua the Messiah, whose kingdom endures forever.

Dan was also connected to the number four. In Hebrew thought, four is often associated with authority, dominion, government, and rule.

The names of the tribes themselves carry rich symbolic meaning:

* Reuben — “Behold, a son”
* Gad — “Good fortune” or “troop”
* Asher — “Happy” or “blessed”
* Naphtali — “My wrestling”

Benjamin, the twelfth tribe listed in Revelation 7, means “Son of My Right Hand,” a powerful picture of Messiah seated at the right hand of the Father.

Some believe Dan’s omission from Revelation 7 is connected to the tribe’s association with judgment and the serpent imagery found in Jacob’s blessing:

“Dan will judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Let Dan be a serpent beside a road, a viper beside a path, who strikes a horse’s heels, so that its rider falls backward. For Your salvation I wait, Adonai!”
(Genesis 49:16–18, TLV)

Over the centuries, many doctrines have unfairly slandered the tribe of Dan, often associating the tribe exclusively with apostasy or evil. Yet every tribe of Israel experienced failure and weakness at different times in history. For example, the tribe of Benjamin was nearly destroyed after the horrific events recorded in Judges 19–21.

Samson, who came from the tribe of Dan, also shares several striking parallels with Messiah. Angels announced both births. Samson was set apart as a Nazirite, while Yeshua was called a Nazarene. In Acts 24:5, Paul himself was accused of being part of the “sect of the Nazarenes”:

“We have found this man to be a pestilence, stirring up dissension among the Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes, and he even tried to desecrate the temple.”
(Acts 24:5–6, BSB)

Both Samson and Yeshua are also connected symbolically to serpent imagery. Yeshua said:

“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life”
(John 3:14–15, BSB).

Mashiach means “the Anointed One.” Yeshua is the First and the Last.

Judah was the first tribe to set out in the wilderness march, while Dan went last as the rear guard protecting the camps of Israel. In this way, Judah and Dan together form a remarkable prophetic picture: the Messiah who goes before His people and the Messiah who stands behind them as their protector—the First and the Last.

“Before their 1903 success, the Wright brothers were widely disregarded, mocked, and called "bluffers" by the public and press.”

“Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats.” ~ Howard Aiken

Day Walkers, Night Walkers, & Travis McGee

Southern High School, Louisville, Kentucky - 2012

I feel a wave of fear swell inside me, turning my freckled skin a blotchy red. The splotches seem to spread, crawling across my chest and neck, leaving my cheeks looking sunburnt. There’s no way to hide the fire or my frozen state of panic. I’m sure the onlookers can smell my anxiety. When faced with trauma, my body reacts by freezing up like a reptile. They say lizards become rigid when they get too cold, falling from trees and waiting to thaw out. A strange sense of connection washes over me. Every day, I'm counting down to summer, but right now, it's still fall.
Tank shoved me into the gym lockers. That sentence might sound simple, but it barely scratches the surface of the turmoil and frustration this distress has caused me. I’m barely sleeping and panic attacks are becoming the norm. I feel weak, scared, and utterly out of place.
How do I become a man in a world like this? I don’t know how to stand up to Tank, and what does a real man look like? I think of my dad, he's a man in my eyes, but he was never bullied in school. I can’t say he’s faced much adversity, other than what life has thrown at him, but still.
My head is buzzing from the impact of metal hitting flesh, yet I remain nonresponsive. The pain is escalating.
Who is Tank? He’s a junior with a nickname that perfectly fits his imposing stature. Towering over most of us, he excels in contact sports like football and wrestling. But what truly sets him apart is his razor-sharp wit and biting sarcasm that leaves me stinging with embarrassment.
I stand by the lockers as Tank and his crew laugh. Their words swirl around the room like a windstorm. What started as teasing banter has now spiraled into a tornado of insults. I let their words swirl around me because I’ve mentally checked out, fleeing to a mental space where I can shield myself from the drama. Finally, the gym teacher blows the whistle and barks, “Cut it out!”
I jolt from the whistle, but I still feel as if I am floating outside my body, trying to get my brain to command my limbs to move. Why me? Why am I the limping gazelle on their African safari? Devon gently slaps me on the back, just hard enough to wake me up.
“Come on, Red. It’s time for 4th-period English. Forget these guys.”
Meet Devon, my one friend. He’s not a target for bullying. Somehow, he’s managed to fit in with the in-crowd just enough to avoid the bullies. Devon is a loner, mainly keeping to himself. He’s an average-looking guy who tends to blend into the background. I, on the other hand, have freckles, extra weight, and angry red hair like my grandfather. I wear a man bun, have hazel eyes with wire-framed glasses, and try not to dress like a nerd. I used to feel less unattractive than I do now, especially since the bullying started. Now, I feel as if I was born to be a target.
I realize that I am not like most young men my age. I’m completely uninterested in sports, fitness, or the latest TV series. Instead, I lose myself in gaming, Stephen King novels, and vintage crime stories from the 1960s. I can probably blame John D. MacDonald for my unwavering love of fiction. I escape into the persona of MacDonald’s main character, Travis McGee, who lives on a boat called The Busted Flush in Florida, solving crimes alongside beautiful but wounded women who need rescued from predatory men.

Read the rest of the story👇

Day Walkers, Night Walkers, & TravisMcGee Award winning short story

If you don’t read anything else today, read this!

My Husband’s Testimony



My husband, Jeffrey Manning, has many amazing stories about the goodness of our Father. It is his voice that closes this devotional. Grab a tissue:

At the request of my beloved wife, Tekoa, and best friend, I would like to share a walk down memory lane with you. It's one of those memories that's like a tapestry. The Holy One was weaving a beautiful quilt, and I was honored to be a part of it. As I start this second sentence, there are already tears in my eyes just thinking about our Abba Father's goodness and how intricate His details are. I hope this message blesses you.

A while back, my dad called me and asked how long it had been since an article featuring a little boy named Colby and me had been published in the Metro section of the Courier-Journal Newspaper. Colby was a cancer patient at Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky. As we talked, it was hard to believe it had been over fifteen years since the publication. Weeks prior, my wife had gone through some of my old pictures and plaques to place in our office, and she had pulled the framed article out to hang above my desk.

As Dad and I continued to talk, he let me know that the Kosair Children's Hospital Foundation had called and wanted him to come and take a tour. He wanted to see if I would accompany him. The hospital wanted to show my dad and me all the updates they had made. My dad had been faithfully giving all these years.

This testimony started months after I decided to rededicate my life to Messiah Yeshua in the mid-1990s. Following a church service, a lady approached me and told me she had a word for me from the Father. She said, “The Father has a plan for you to head up a ministry.” Further, she stated that I would be mentoring and teaching many men and for me to get spiritually prepared. I thanked her and then thought, "This lady is crazy! I am trying to get my own life straight, and now I am going to be in leadership. Yea, right lady."

Our Father works in mysterious ways, and I soon realized that the lady in question wasn't crazy. Within a year, two brothers in Messiah and I started the Shield of Faith Christian Police Officers Association. This entire testimony would take another chapter or two to write about. However, one facet of the ministry started about a year later when we received a call from a Crimes Against Children Detective about a young child at Kosair Children's Hospital who would forever change our lives.

To our astonishment, a seven-year-old boy, who, along with his mother, had been traveling with the circus, grabbed a live wire that burned off three of his little fingers. The disturbing part was that his mother abandoned him at the hospital with only the clothes on his back and left with the circus, never to return. We were asked to step in. What could we do? A group of us nervously went and befriended this child, seeing him daily and bringing him clothes and toys. We could tell he hadn't had the best of upbringings due to his choice of language at times. We did all we could and tried to shower him with our Father's love and prayers of protection.

I will never forget the day I received a call from the hospital asking me to come down and be with this child who had lost his fingers. It was the day they would be taking off his bandages completely. After all his surgeries, the little boy would see his hand for the first time. They were worried about this being traumatic and wanted his new friends to be there with him for support. I grabbed a co-worker who was also a member of the Shield of Faith, and we headed down to the hospital. I will never forget holding this child down as he screamed while they took off the bandages. Boy, was this kid resilient! In a couple of minutes, he was fine and ready to play. My co-worker and I drove back to headquarters in silence, with the previous events being replayed in our heads. Simultaneously, we both started talking about how, in the world, a mother could leave their child to go through something like that all by themselves. I am thankful that this story ended well. The little boy, who was abandoned, ended up being adopted by a good family and moving on to a new life. Praise the Lord, Adonai!

Soon after, the Medical Director of Kosair Children's Hospital approached us about regularly visiting some of the children. I remember our first meeting. We were instructed about the do's and don'ts of what to say and not to say. How fragile some of the situations were. We realized that the primary place we were going was to the children's unit in the cancer ward. Talk about having second thoughts. Fear began to rear its ugly head. I was nervous but felt like this was of Abba Father, as did my brothers and sisters of the Shield of Faith.

I remember being as anxious as anything as we went into the first room of the cancer unit. There was this chubby little boy introduced to us as Colby. He had no hair from the chemo treatments, but his smile lit up the room. This little fellow sat up in his bed and spoke with a country twang I will never forget. I remember thinking about all the do's and don'ts and thought, "What would be a safe question for Colby?" So I asked, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" He thought for a split second and said, "I want to be a Preacher." At that very moment, I knew that the Father had sent us to do this work. I didn't realize that Colby would preach a message to me and others that no spiritual leader ever has since.

Over the next couple of years, Colby and I developed a heavenly-ordained relationship that I will forever cherish. The Shield of Faith members and I began to visit the Hospital once a week on Wednesdays, and very seldom did we miss. The children always looked forward to the police showing up in their uniforms and coming to see them. All the kids had a soft spot in our hearts, but Colby was super special. No matter how much he was hurting, Colby always made it a point to make our day more special than we ever made his.

We were approached by the Hospital and the Courier-Journal requesting to join us during one of our visits. Out of all the rooms and all the children, they chose Colby to share in the article. Yes, He was that special. From that article alone, we started getting a plethora of donations–not just money but toys, including police wagons to carry everything around. Another piece was done in the Southeast Christian Outlook, a local church with over 20,000 weekly in attendance. The Outlook featured Colby getting baptized in the hospital's burn unit. Yes, Colby spread the gospel and became more of a preacher than I ever dreamed of being. He continued to touch everybody he encountered, especially me.

One day, I got the call nobody ever wanted to hear. Colby didn't have long, and he wanted to see me. During the visit, I could not get over how brave he was. Colby asked me if he could be buried with my police handcuffs. What an honor. I remember handcuffing him and me together and letting his family take a picture of us. Two days later, I was called to Colby's bedside, where he took his last breath minutes before I arrived.

I'm proud to say that the Chief of the Louisville Police Department allowed us to take a brand-new police car to es**rt Colby home to Casey County, KY. He also allowed the Shield of Faith Officers to be Colby's Pallbearers and to play taps with the bugle. I had the honor and privilege of speaking at Colby's funeral and placing my cuffs into his casket. This kind soul wanted to preach the gospel, and he did it better than any man I've seen.

I will never forget when we arrived at the cemetery. And we got out of our cars and were close to starting the service. A Donkey came over to the fence. He made the loudest noises and carried on for a couple of minutes. I remember the hairs standing up on the back of my neck. I remember thinking that the donkey braying was for Colby. After the service, two other officers with us mentioned the donkey braying loudly for Colby. The donkey was brought up several times on our ride home, and it also reminded me of the humble donkey Jesus-Yeshua rode on and the fact that our Father used a donkey to speak.

For five years, I was honored to meet and make many friends at Kosair Children's Hospital. Again, several of these children went on to be with the Father, and others received miracles. The toys continued to pour in due to Colby, and I am proud to say that off and on for the past sixteen years, officers of the Shield of Faith have continued to make these visits, as well as my faithful dad.

Yes, Colby was a Preacher and ministered to many unknowingly. I also know that only God could have taken the broken man I was, a man who was trying to get my life back on track and place my feet on a path that would connect me with a little ole country boy named Colby, who would forever change my life.

I want to take this opportunity to thank the ones that indeed are the angels at these children's hospitals. I want to commend the doctors, especially the nurses, who are there daily, caring for and comforting the children and their families. I pray many blessings and much comfort over these angels as they deal day in and day out with some of their new friends suffering and some passing away:

The righteous one perishes, but no one takes it to heart. Godly men are taken away, but no one discerns that the righteous man is taken from evil. He enters into shalom.

–Isaiah 57:1-2, TLV