To be or not to be that is the question?

 

 

April 2007 ©Copyright Abrahamic-faith Ministries www.abrahamic-faith.com

updated 25th May 2008

updated 16th July 2009

e-mail shimoun63@yahoo.com

 

Terms of Reference

Tim uses Yeshua for Jesus

Simon uses Yahushua for Jesus

 

Tim Hegg - e-mail thegg@torahresource.com www.torahresource.com

 

Rabbi Simon Answers Tim Hegg on his three fatal flaws of the unification of the 12 tribes of Israel

 

I do like Tim and I have read a few of his good books but I must say here Tim makes the ultimate fatal flaw to simply justify a racist messianic position as I shall prove in this short paper.  However I want to point out that Tim is not racist as a person but his position certainly espouses a racist attitude held by many Messianics know it all who live in gross ignorance in contradiction to scripture and history.

 

I will examine three of his points to show how misleading they are in themselves.  Tim says this about these points.

 

Point 1.  The Northern Kingdom called Israel, comprised of the Ten Tribes, lost their identity because of their exile to foreign lands at the hands of the Assyrians in the 8th century BCE.

 

Point 2. From their foreign lands of their exile exile they were dispersed to other nations, where their self-identity as Israel (Northern Tribes) was lost, and they saw themselves individually as natives of the foreign lands to which they had been dispersed (i.e., Gentiles)

 

Point 3. Those who retained their identity as Jews were from the Southern Tribes of Judah and Benjamin.  This group primarily makes up the Jewish communities of our modern times, and except for a small remnant, have rejected Yeshua (Jesus) as the true Messiah.

 

Tim on point 1 - The two House theory is built upon the presupposition that the Northern Tribes were lost among the nations and have forgotten their true identity.  In general, Biblical and historical data show conclusively that the Northern Tribes were never lost.

 

Rabbi Simon responds to point 1 and refutes it

 

According to Tim the scattered Israel (House of Israel - Ephraim) was never lost and and he claims to prove it with conclusive data and then quotes Hosea  2:7.

She will chase her lovers, but not overtake them; yes, she will seek them, but not find them. Then she will say, `I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better for me than now.'

He gives this quote from historical records that Archaeological finds from the region of Kannu', a separate colony outside Assyria, and dated to 650 and 606 BCE, show contracts containing Hebrew names.  These were Israelites deported by Sargon II from Samaria.  Under the conquest of Assyria by Babylonia, they must have enjoyed group rights and privileges under the law of the land.  Moreover, some 137 years after the Northern Tribes were taken into exile, Assyria was conquered by Babylon.  Since evidence shows that the exiled Northern Tribes retained their identity as a separate people group with privileges and Hebrew names, it is beyond doubt that Israelites and exiles from Judah were reunited, having been exiled to the same regions.

 

Rabbi Simon:  The following verse defeats his thesis entirely.  YHWH Elohim was going to scatter Israel over the Euphrates thus they would end up in parts of Turkey and Armenia crossing over into Europe.  Assyria and Babylon never ruled Europe or Eastern Europe thus defeating his entire conclusion.

1 Kings 14:15 "For YHWH will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water. He will uproot Israel from this good land which He gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the River, because they have made their wooden images, provoking YHWH to anger.

Tim's faulty logic continues by quoting Ezekiel 37:16 and stating that this must mean that the Northern Tribes as they existed in Ezekiel's time constituted a unified, identifiable entity who survived their deportation and settled in Assyria.

 

Tim completely ignores the prophecy in 1 Kings 14:15 thus we can see why his logic is upside down.  Ezekiel was not confirming something as reality in Babylon at the time of his exile but confirming the reality to happen in the future.  This is what Tim and many others have failed to understand.

 

Tim makes the basic mistake that many others are also making, where he looks at the prophecies of the future and tries to fit them retrospectively in the era and milieu of Babylon.  Let me show you.

Ezekiel 37:21-22 "Then say to them, `Thus says YHWH Elohim: "Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; (22) "and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king over them all; they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again.

Surely YHWH will in the future gather all of Israel from every side and many nations not just Assyria and the prophecy goes on to talk about making them one nation and with one king over them.  The obvious question is did Israel serve under one king (Messiah) returning after the captivity from Babylon as referred to in Ezekiel 37:21-22?  Well that still has not happened so far thus Tim's hermeneutic is at fault not YHWH's prophecy which still stands.  Jeremiah also spoke about the same King Messiah in Chapter 23.

Jeremiah 23:5-6 "Behold, the days are coming,'' says YHWH, "That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; a King shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. (6) In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely; now this is His name by which He will be called: YHWH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Tim goes on to quote the Hebrew word for forget "shâkach" that proves that they did not forget their identity. However he totally ignored Biblical and historical data that stands against what he is saying.  I am sure many people will agree with Tim but Tim it still stands against Biblical and historical data.

Matthew 10: 6 But go rather to the LOST sheep of the House of Israel.

Powerful words from Yahushua declared that He came for the "LOST" sheep yet Tim is just trying to prove the opposite and contradicting Yahushua's own words.

 

Tim the Jewish nation or Judah may have been at tmes referred to as the House of Israel but mostly YHWH addresses them as the House of Judah.  The House of Israel were always the reference to the non-Jewish i.e. non-Judah the Ten tribes in the north of Israel.

Luke15: 32 It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive, and was LOST and is Found.

We need to put our private theologies to one side and understand that no one can argue with the Father that the younger son (Ephraim) was lost and is now found.  The Greek word apollumi (Strong's 622) is used in the sense for scattering, to lose or to be destroyed but NEVER LOST entirely.

Deuteronomy 28:64 "Then YHWH will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known wood and stone.

Well if we simply read Deuteronomy 28:64 it is quite conclusive without a doubt that YHWH said if Israel (All twelve tribes) did not listen to His commandments He would scatter them from one end of the earth to the other.  The word for "scatter" is the Hebrew word "poots" (Strong's 6327) which is the same word used in Genesis 11:9 for scattering of the people into different tongues and dispersing them all over the world, who were trying to build a tower of Babel against YHWH.

Genesis 11:9 Therefore its name is called Babel, because there YHWH confused the language of all the earth; and from there YHWH scattered (poots) them abroad over the face of all the earth.

The sin of Israel (Ephraim) was not far different by building hand made objects and worshipping them they got scattered and dispersed among every nation.  They were indeed SCATTERED but they were not LOST.

 

Now if Tim can prove that this scattering was limited or that this scattering was not all over the globe which we know it was then Tim can win the argument.  Tim simply builds a straw man and then attacks it.  The Entire world for Tim might start from Israel and end up in Babylon WHICH many messianics are mistakenly doing.  This is why it shows that many Messianics who look to Rome for the Anti-Messiah are equally wrong because they do not understand how to apply prophesies which speak about Islam to Islam rather than to the papal regimes.

 

Let me prove my point further.

 

Today in Pakistan and Afghanistan many thousands of miles away from Israel we find the tribe of Judah in the Pukth people (Pathans), only a few of these people know their identity from the tribe of Judah and call themselves from the House of David (Daudy Qabila) yet they are Muslim and at least twenty millions of them are scattered in Pakistan alone.  We have several biological Ephramites in Pakistan also known as Yosef Zai (sons of Joseph) who do not know their identity or their Elohim anymore and have completely forgotten their past but the only thing that verifies them is the fact that they have Hebrew customs by which we know they are from these tribes.  Some families in Pakistan have a custom of making curls on children's hair and leaving them until the child grows up, we know that this is an unknown custom in and among Muslims but is completely an Israelite custom and not Islamic.  So if I agree with Tim then these families and the other twenty million Judahites simply don't exist because they returned from Babylon.  Laughable.  For your information Tim my whole family came from Iran and my personal family belong to the Tribe of Lewi and we have members of Judah and Benjamin, they probably became Muslim at the time of the Hindu persecutions in India, if I was to believe you then according to you my whole family should have travelled to Israel but no they travelled east and we don't exist by your theology but I have a very large family in Pakistan still very happy to be Muslims and don't know YHWH exactly as Hosea 5:4 states. I would have never known who I was until YHWH showed this to me by example and made me go and search my roots.

 

None of these people returned to Israel because there was no pact between Pakistan and Israel so how Tim and his co-partners believe Jewish Israel today is 12 tribes is not only impossible but unbelievable also by any stretch of the imagination.

 

My questions to Tim is this If these people have not forgotten their maker then why are they worshipping Allah since Tim claims they did not forget?

Hosea 5:4 "They do not direct their deeds toward turning to their Elohim, for the spirit of harlotry is in their midst, and they do not know YHWH.

The Hebrew word "Yada" can mean many things here not just knowledge or relationship with the Holy One of Israel.  In ancient Hebrew it actually means that they were lead through a door by sight not by YHWH's sight but their own sight in other words EYES.  This makes perfect sense because they worshipped statues a thing of sight and many still do rather than a product of knowledge or relationship.  Try explaining that away or try reasoning with a Hindu who is from Ephraim not to worship the statue in front of his eyes while he is adamant that this product of someone's hands loves him.

 

Many Christians even in Pakistan don't know the difference between YHWH and Allah.  Why don't the people who call themselves Messianics go and visit Pakistan and India and see for yourselves.  Come out of your US shells because there is a bigger world out there, yes there are other countries other than the United States of America.

 

Hosea chapter 5 verse 4 nails the point home that fits in with what I am saying that they have forgotten their maker and do not "know" Him any longer the reason why they worship Allah.  My point is this that Pakistan was NEVER part of the Babylonian Empire thus it conclusively proves that according to Deuteronomy 28:64 YHWH did scatter and make them forget their identity and they became heathens not only the ten tribes towards that part of the world but also the tribe of Judah who still exist in that land so his theory of all the tribes remembering their identity is simply untrue for the majority.  We know that not so long ago Israeli authorities found and confirmed some people from the tribe of Manashsheh, who were brought back to Israel from India, which further proves my point that not all the tribes are in Israel right now and they will return in the distant future.

Hosea 1:10 "Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, `You are not My people,' there it shall be said to them, `You are the sons of the living God.'

I am sorry Tim to be sarcastic because your maths does not add up. The word "sand of the sea" does not translate into five million Jewish people in the land of Israel today neither does it translate into fifteen million Jewish people in the world.  We have to ask the million dollar question, is Satan's seed greater or YHWH's seed? 

 

Today Satan's seed in the Islamic nations alone is 1.6 billion people then by that my dear Tim you fall far short making Satan stronger than YHWH but this is a lie that we should not promote since Satan is nothing in front of YHWH but charred dust.  YHWH is the mighty one of Israel who said they will be as the "SAND OF THE SEA" that means too numerous to count and if that "sand of the sea" was only even Israel's sand on the Tel Aviv beaches then we are talking billions not millions, far exceeding Satan's seed but amongst many gentile nations today both in the East and the West.

 

Here is the twist in the tail that a lot of these people did travel even into the West thus we have the same prophecy in Hosea.

 

Ephraim returns from both the East and the West!

Isaiah 43:5 Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the east, and gather you from the west;

Further proof that the Ephramites will return from the West i.e. Europe and the farthest lands such as the USA.

Hosea 11:10 "They shall walk after YHWH. He will roar like a lion. When He roars, then His sons shall come trembling from the west;

Tim's point 2 - The Two House theory ends up having all or most believers in Yahushua (Jesus) being the descendents of the Northern Tribes of Israel.  Yet God's plan of salvation is for all the nations, nut just the descendents of Jacob.

 

Rabbi Simon refutes Tim's point 2.

 

Let us examine Yahushua's own words to His disciples.

Matthew 10:5-6 These twelve Yahushua sent out and commanded them, saying: "Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. (6) "But go rather to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.

Yahushua instructs His disciples to go to the "lost sheep or scattered sheep of the House of Israel" so He clearly does not say I came for the whole world.  The only way the whole word was going to receive redemption was through the covenant established with Abraham and the route was through Abraham's sons the twelve tribes through the King Messiah.  The Messiah Himself rejects what Tim claims.  Whose report would you to believe?  Tim or Yahushua of Nazareth?  The only redemption is through Israel for the whole world those that come in to the covenants by repentance and faith in the Messiah (Elohim of Israel) and those that don't will go into eternity without him.

 

The text of Genesis 12:3 is seen by Rabbis to mean as such.

 

Genesis 12:3 I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you ALL the families of the earth shall be blessed.

   

Let’s look at what this really means, that Yahushua is teaching us here that through Abraham ALL the families of the earth will be blessed. In Hebrew the verse for “In you ALL the families of the earth shall be blessed” reads “Ve Nivrechu Bekah Kol Mishpachot HA-Adamah."

 

The Hebrew word used here “Nivrechu” is translated as “be blessed”, however the actual Hebrew word used for “be blessed” is not “Nivrechu” but “Yivrechu”.  In the Jewish Rabbinic opinion this word is more correctly translated “intermingled” or to be “grafted in”.

 

In the Jewish ArtScroll Bible Series, Volume 1, page 432, it is written:

There is … an opinion shared by Rashbam [to Genesis 28:14], Chizkuni, Da’as Zekeinum, and quoted by Tur that the verb (ve nivrecu) in Genesis 12:3 is related to the root barak as in the Mishnaic term mavreek meaning to "intermingle or graft." [cf Kelaim 7:1, Sotah 43a.] As Heidenheim explains it, this interpretation is inspired by the fact that nowhere else besides here do we find barak in the sense of blessing in the niphal conjugation, while in the sense of "grafting" it is common in that form. [Bold emphasis mine]

Genesis 22:18 "In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.''

So essentially the text is saying that through Abraham's "seed" (King Messiah) all families will find salvation that is simply what the text says in a nutshell.  It does not disqualify them if they are Pakistanis, Indians, Americans or aborigines.  The text does have a narrower context that the person will come from Abraham's loins.  However Messiah was found in Israel just as the Bible prophesied meaning that though "gentiles" could find salvation but it had to be through the covenants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  Thus to say Messiah with a blanket statement that the Messiah came for the whole world and ignoring the covenants were with Israel contradicts what the Messiah said.

Matthew 15:24  But He answered and said, "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.''

It was the scattering of the "sheep" that Yahuweh had promised that through this many goyim nations would be born and they would become mixed with the "lost sheep" thus they would return back to the Messiah and this way salvation was offered to the whole world through the covenants of Israel only.  Note there is no covenant with any "gentile" nation.
 

Elohim's plan of salvation is for ALL nations through Israel not outside Israel and in His mercy He scattered the northern tribes to achieve that goal.  Today many people in the churches are probably biological Ephramites and even prophetic ones and the church as a whole is spiritual Ephramites but we cannot tell who is biological and who is not any longer.  Tim in his thesis ust forgot one part that the "gentiles" coming to Israel's covenant no longer remain gentiles.   These people who come into the Messiah are 100% physical Hebrew.  They no longer remain "gentiles" because if they do then they can have no part of Israel's covenants.  They have access and rights to Israel's blessings as 100% citizens of the "commonwealth of Israel just as Rabbi Paulos stated.  Calling them gentiles is an oxymoron, sorry Tim.

Ephesians 2:12/19 that at that time you were without Messiah, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without Elohim in the world.  (19) Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of YHWH.

We are full heirs and citizens that is the central fact.

 

In essence YHWH's plan is not for ALL nations but just Israel and those who join Israel since ALL Israel is not Jewish but twelve tribes.  I would like Tim to show me where YHWH says such a word as this that He has covenants with heathens to save them outside of Israel?

 

Tim's point 3 - The Two House Theory teaches that only when believers realize they actually are descendents of the Northern Tribes can the prophecies of the union between Judah and Israel be fulfilled.  But the Scriptures teach that the union of Israel and Judah comes as an event distinct from the salvation of the nations.

 

Tim goes on to show that there are three distinct people.  Judah, Israel and the nations.

 

Rabbi Simon refutes point 3

 

Tim says this and contradicts himself because he was not for Two House and yet makes this bizarre statement which is self contradictory from his earlier stand.

 

Tim: The Scriptures clearly teach the re-gathering of Israel (Northern Tribes) and Judah (the Southern Tribes) as one, unified nation in the end times.  On that there can be no dispute.  But how and when are the dispersed people of Israel and Judah gathered to the Land and united under the rule of One Shepherd?  The first thing that is noticed in reading the Scriptures regarding the re-gathering of Israel is that there are three distinct groups: Judah, Israel, and the nations.

 

Well since they according to Tim are already in the land then where is the Shepherd and what End-Times?  Actually Judah, Israel and the nations are not three distinct groups but only two.  Israel (twelve tribes) and the nations, there is no third group since Yahuweh has covenant with only one nation Israel and they are not Jewish alone but eleven other tribes.

 

Tim goes on to quote the following passage from Ezekiel then says if Israel was lost then how can the nations say the following verse and that in order to say the following they had to know Israel's identity and that they belonged to YHWH?

Ezekiel 36:20-21 When they came to the nations where they went, they profaned My Holy name, because it was said of them, 'These are the people of YHWH; yet they have come out of His land.' But I had concern for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations where they went.

As to Tim's alleged description of Ezekiel 36 is a little problematic when you rip the verse out of the whole chapter and try to read your own theology out of it.  Let's start from Ezekiel chapter 36:1.

 Ezekiel 36:1 "And you, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel, and say, `O mountains of Israel, hear the word of YHWH!

This prophecy is both near and far, both literal and allegorical, here it speaks of Israel as a nation and speaks of Israel as a kingdom of nations (Plural) e.g. going back to the prophecy of Abraham Genesis 12:3 and Jacob 48:19. Mountains of Israel.

 Ezekiel 36:2 `Thus says YHWH Elohim: "Because the enemy has said of you, `Aha! The ancient heights have become our possession,'''

Mountains here signify not just the land of Israel but the lands of the Israelites that means many nations today which are being attacked by Muslims where they openly declare we want to wipe the Jews and crusaders.  Who do you think are the crusaders in the Muslims eyes?  Does Satan know the ones who proclaim the gospel or is he blind also?  These are nations that once had very strong Christian heritage such as UK and the US with still 89 million Christians in the US alone they have plenty of biological Israelite blood but of course YHWH is speaking both near and far that is something that many scholars may not have seen.  How do we know that this is speaking about Muslims and not others?

Ezekiel 36:5 `therefore thus says YHWH Elohim: "Surely I have spoken in My burning jealousy against the rest of the nations and against all Edom, who gave My land to themselves as a possession, with whole-hearted joy and spiteful minds, in order to plunder its open country.'' '

All Edom here is a reference not just to Jordan but to ALL the Islamic lands who want to take possession of Israel today.  If we applied the prophecy just to Edom then sorry it does not work since King Abdullah II is a partner for peace with Israel and most of the terrorism that Israel endures is generated by the Palestinians living within her borders but the prophecy is not just about Palestinian Arabs but the whole Muslim world.  See my book World War III - Unmasking the End Time Beast for further clarification.

Ezekiel 36:8 "But you, O mountains of Israel, you shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to My people Israel, for they are about to come.

Here the prophecy is literally applied to the land of Israel where the Israelites will be brought back, not just Jewish Israel as mostly today but the other 10 tribes also.

 

In context now.

Ezekiel 36:20 "When they came to the nations, wherever they went, they profaned My holy name when they said of them, `These are the people of the Lord, and yet they have gone out of His land.'

Wherever Israel (Ten tribes) went they profaned His holy Name YHWH because they acted and behaved like pagans even calling Him Allah.  Is this not true?  Here Tim says how come "the nations" said of them "these are His people", that means they are not lost.  He is reading into the text that the nations know that their land is Israel but this is not what the text he quotes says as I showed above.  This is quite easy to reconcile, today when Christians lift up the Name of Yahushua (Jesus) what do the Islamic people say?  We will cut off both these pesky Christians and those dirty Jews why because these both groups worship the Elohim of Israel so there lies our identity crisis resolved, it is not that the pagans know who we are but it is that we are showing them who we worship by which they know who we are, none of us have labels on our foreheads that say Judah, Dan or Nepthali.  This is how the prophecy is to be understood in context of Ezekiel 36:20. 

 

If I sing Shir HallelluYah L'adonai then what do you think I will be accused of by the nations?  Oh, he is a Jew worshipping the Jewish Elohim, it will be used in a hatred way not love even by some alleged Christians who hate the Jews and call themselves New Israel.  Thus the identification is automatically made by the nations and has nothing to do with what or where my identity came from.  I could be an African or a Chinese but this kind of behaviour clearly gives away that I worship the Elohim of Israel which in turn connects me right back to the "Land of Israel".

 

Reunification of Judah and Ephraim still remains

Jeremiah 50:4 "In those days and in that time,'' says YHWH, "The children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together; with continual weeping they shall come, and seek YHWH their Elohim.

The prophet Jeremiah shows that the re-gathering is yet future.  Do we see Ephramites and Judah seeking YHWH together?  No.  There is much hatred amongst some Jewish people for Christians and vice versa.  I saw this first hand in Israel so I reject what Tim claims.

Jeremiah 50:2 "Declare among the nations, Proclaim, and set up a standard; proclaim, and do not conceal it Say, `Babylon is taken, Bel is shamed. Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are humiliated, her images are broken in pieces.'

"In those days" is a clear idiom of the last days upon us.  What standard is this?  This is the Messiah Yahushua of Israel that believers are to setup and lift up on high, it is not "a standard" but The Standard, the Emblem the only one who can save the lost, the Hebrew language very clearly says to show, to reveal by obedience, by exalting by clear markers to all the nations so they know who the Messiah is.  Why is there a command not to "conceal it" because a lot of Christians signed packs with Israel not to preach the gospel but to hide it and just love the Jewish people to hell.  This is a clear prophecy for Babylon to be broken up in the end of days.

Jeremiah 50:5 They shall ask the way to Zion, with their faces toward it, saying, `come and let us join ourselves to YHWH In a perpetual covenant That will not be forgotten.'

Why are they asking the way to "zion" if all 12 tribes are already in the land?  This shows this is yet future when the unified twelve tribes of Israel will join hands together to hold fast the covenant not to annul it again.

Isaiah 11:12 He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

This prophecy is identical to Jeremiah 50, here again the "banner" is not some physical object but it is the sign of the Messiah the King of Israel to be lifted up to all nations so they know who is Elohim and where is salvation.

 

Last I checked most of Judah still reject Yahushua (Jesus) as Saviour, King and Elohim unless this has changed in the last hour.

Isaiah 11:13 Also the envy of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not harass Ephraim.

The envy of Ephraim is yet to depart and Judah fights with her strength which will ultimately fail as the Messiah has to come to help them.  If you last saw your news you will realise Judah is still fighting her battle.

 

A lot of Messianics who hate the Two House (twelve tribes) theory make erroneous claims that Jewish Israel today is the twelve tribes.  This cannot be true in light of scripture or in light of historical records.

 

Unfortunately the Messianic movement is full of problems because many reject the deity of Messiah so some of these don't even have THE STANDARD.  They have hatred with the idea that Jewish Israel today the twelve tribes when it is not.  They think they have a chip on their shoulders.  They are a half way house full of confused people.

 

Tim's last comment which I already addressed where he tried to separate Israel, Judah and the nations into three groups is incorrect since when you look at the prophecies given to the Patriarchs and Jacob's blessing in Genesis 48:19 it is abundantly clear that the ten tribes were to become many goyim (gentile) nations which they did thus we can clearly see YHWH addressing the two Houses as one group of covenant keeping people which means it is Israel (Goy - The Ten tribes) who have carried the mantle and proclaimed Yahushua as Messiah for the last two thousand years in majority, while only a minority did this from the tribe of Judah, today there are only about 7000 believer in the land of Israel from the tribe of Judah thus we can see Abraham's prophesies have more forcefully fulfilled by multiplying his seed to countless numbers of Gentile people aka the scattered ten tribes of Israel and Judah.  Now one might ask what about the goyim (Gentiles) i.e. who is a pure Gentile and has nothing to do with Abraham's seed and those who are mix gentiles from Goy Israel e.g. the 10 tribes?  This is why people who lived at the time of Abraham the Chinese dynasties are pure gentiles who could find salvation in Israel by being grafted in just like the rest of the goy Israel has found salvation in the Messiah.

 

The Bible refers to these groups of people who are pure gentiles as Gerim (Proselytes) they acquire full rights with the children of Israel however they do not remain a separate people after conversion.  Gentiles coming into Israel is not a new phenomenon because many came in from Egypt to join the Elohim of Israel and thus were accorded same rights and status was given to them.  This is why YHWH said and made the law upon them also while in Israel I find some Jewisih people show hatred towards the black Jews from Ethiopia (the flashas).

 Numbers 15:16 One law and one custom shall be for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you.

We can see YHWH only saw two people here by showing Israel plus goyim (Gentiles those we might call pure Gentile blood and nothing to do with the Ten tribes).

 

In YHWH's ultimate plan there are only two groups of people not three these are Israel (The twelve tribes often referred to in the Bible as House of Jacob or just Jacob) and the gentiles who have no covenants, however in order to receive salvation the Gentiles have to come into the covenants of Israel (Eph 2:12).  Therefore when we actually divide Israel it is only the House of Jacob plus Gentiles, which is two groups and not three. 

 

We cannot shotgun the two houses together and say Jewish Israel today is all twelve tribes.  YHWH certainly saw and prophesied the Northern and Southern divisions in Israel but did not consider either part as separate from the covenants given to the whole house of Jacob.  The other argument by people that Anna the prophetess from the tribe of Asher (Luke 2:36) was in Judah South thus the whole tribe existed in the South but what people forget is Anna is not the whole tribe but only one member of that scattered tribe.  When tribes intermingled or the individual members came to Jerusalem we find some members of the Northern tribes present but that by no means indicates that all the members of the Northern tribes fit into the South.  It is like saying Simon from Pakistan is in England now does that mean that the other 160,000,000 Pakistanis are here also?  Of course Not thus we should avoid these kind of baseless conclusions.

 

Even Ezekiel is shown this and they are called two women but daughter of one mother showing that both North and South are actually one corporate entity.

Ezekiel 3:2-3 "Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother. (3) They committed harlotry in Egypt, they committed harlotry in their youth; their breasts were there embraced, their virgin bosom was there pressed.

Whether Messianics deny or accept the truth of YHWH of the divided two houses which He is bringing together it does not matter, the Messianic movement by itself has shown itself to be another failure since most Messianics are beginning to reject Yahushua the Messiah of Israel so what good is this movement that rejects the King of glory?  Many so called Messianics rejected the Messiah in Holland, in Rotterdam, Amsterdam, England, Brazil, Latin America and the US so they can make Aliyah and get converted into Judaism and get the citizenship for Israel.  While the Jewish Rabbis in Israel are converting returning tribes such as Manasheh from India to Judaism so they are busy doing tribal replacement yet this is contradictory to Yahuweh's plan because it causes tribal corruption. 

 

"The people known as Jews are the descendants of the Tribes of Judah and Benjamin, with a certain number of the Tribe of Levi. So far as is known, there is not any further admixture of other tribes. The Ten Tribes have been absorbed among the nations of the world. The Jews look forward to the gathering of all the tribes at some future date."   ---Dr. Hertz - Chief Rabbi of the British Empire . 1918

 

"While not a link is missing of the historical chain so far as the romance of the House of Judah is concerned, the Israelites who were subjected by the Assyrian power disappear from the page of history as suddenly and completely as though the land of their captivity had swallowed them up... the Ten Tribes are certainly in existence, all that has to be done is to discover which people represent them."

---The Jewish Chronicles, May 22, 1879.

 

“The captives of Israel exiled beyond the Euphrates did not return as a whole to Palestine along with their brethren the captives of Judah ; at least there is no mention made of this event in the documents at our disposal… In fact, the return of the ten tribes was one of the great promises of the Prophets, and the advent of the Messiah is therefore necessarily identified with the epoch of their redemption.” ---Jewish Quarterly Review, Vol. I -1888, pages 15, 17

 

“Until the arrival of the Prophet Elijah and the Messiah, no member of any of the Ten Tribes shall be accepted (for the purpose of marriage) into the Jewish people.”  Rabbi Rafael Eisenberg, A Matter of Return, p. 138.

 

"If the Ten Tribes have disappeared, they must exist under a different name." 

The Jewish Encyclopedia, 1905, vol. 21, page 249.

 

“Behold I will recall a matter that is expressly mentioned many times in
Scripture. It is known that with the Return of the Exiles under Ezra only
the Tribes of Judah and Benjamin returned.” What Does the Bible Say?
Nachmanides (Moshe ben Nachman) 1194-1270.

Nachmanides also stated;  

 “It has been made quite clear from our study that the only ones who returned from the Babylonian Exile were they who belonged to the Kingdom of Judah . Those however who are termed the House of Ephraim, or The House of Israel , meaning the Ten Tribes are still in Exile in Assyria . These Tribes did not have any participants in the Second Redemption, as I have noted.”

“I believe that the Ten Tribes to be in various parts of West Europe .”  Rabbi Moshe Maimon (Maimondes, 1135-1204) -- authored the Mishneh Torah. 

 

 

Here is more sources of what many Jewish organisations think.

 

They intermarried and were absorbed into surrounding nations and races. They’ll never return

 

                                                (The majority point-of-view)

 

“The people were transported eastward, and a new population was brought in westward. The transported Israelites became the “ten lost tribes”; in reality these were absorbed by the people of the lands to which they were transported and they disappeared.” ---The Hebrew Scriptures by Samuel Sandmel, p. 20.

 

“Thus were the people led away into distant provinces of the [Assyrian] empire and became colonized with strangers, and the Kingdom of Israel became a tale that is told.” --- ISRAEL : A History of the Jewish People by Rufus Learsi, p. 79.

 

“…but in general it can be said that they disappeared from the stage of history.”

 ---Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. 15, p. 1004.

 

“These are the Ten Lost Tribes; lost not as a jewel is lost on the road, perhaps to be found again, but as a drop of wine is lost in an ocean of water, dissolved, gone.”  ---Eternal Faith, Eternal People, by Leo Trepp, p. 14.

 

“The Ten Tribes of Israel were not even permitted like the sister kingdom of Judah , to bequeath to later ages…the memory of rich and varied destinies. They were irretrievably lost.” --- C. and A. D. Rothschild, History and Literature of the Israelites, Vol. 1, page 489.

 

“The Jews do not claim to represent the Twelve Tribes for the Ten Tribes never returned from captivity and are lost to history.” ---Rabbi Aaron Werner, when asked by Dr. Schiffner, “Do the Jews represent all 12 tribes.”

 

 “So, to condense this massive summary all down to one sentence: the ten lost tribes were conquered, and, like almost every other conquered people in the ancient world, lost their separate identity and were assimilated away into the sands of history.”

(Collective summaries from Eli Barnavi's Historical Atlas of the Jewish People, Judah Gribetz's The Timetables of Jewish History, Joseph Telushkin's Biblical Literacy, and the Encyclopedia Judaica.) 

 

Abrahamic Faith