I already knew late yesterday what I wanted to emphasize in this Lesson. In which I am trying to explain an expression I have heard all my Christian life. That phrase being “the lost tribes of Israel!”
I realize this is a reference to the “10 Tribes” of the (after Solomon’s Kingdom was severed) North. That is … all Israel except the Tribes of Judah and Benjamin! Nationally she (those 10 Tribes) is called by different names in the Bible, even in Isaiah’s Prophecy alone. (“Israel, Ephraim, Samaria,” typically, though other names were used as well … even “Sodom” a few times, due to her egregious sinning!)
As a general rule … the Northern Kingdom far outpaced the little South Kingdom (“Judah, Jerusalem”) in their iniquity. In fact, that nation (the North) did not have a single godly King in all her history. (From Jeroboam I all the way through to Hoshea!)
For her blatant rebellion and sinfulness … God allowed Assyria to decimate those backslidden people! The fierce Assyrian armies attacked and conquered and deported the Ten Tribes! The infamous date generally assigned to this Tragedy, 721 BC. (Isaiah was still preaching when it happened!)
Assyria furthermore brought numerous heathen groups (clans of polytheistic people) into the land of Israel, Samaria, resulting in further degradation, in every way, but particularly spiritually. Virtually changing the land’s ethnic composition! (Hence the “hatred/animosity” between the “Jews” ands the “Samaritans, so evident tin New Testament days!)
So now … where are the “10 Tribes?”
Well, secular history says indeed that they are “lost,” forever!
Assimilated into the “world community” of citizens!
“Globalism” at work, I imagine some would aver!
And it is accurate to say that the rest of Old Testament history (mostly) deals with little Judah! With Judah and Jerusalem … the north not mentioned a lot at all.
(Now it is true that Judah was also taken into Captivity, due to her sins as well. In 586 BC, by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians. But she was allowed to return to her Land, roughly 70 years later! When Babylon fell to the Persians. So, the two Tribes were never said to be “lost.” Not by reputable Bible historians!)
It’s just Israel, Ephraim … “lost!”
But what a minute!
Isaiah chapter 10 (still our Text today) promises some good news in this regard!
God to Israel, the Land of Ephraim …
“And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God. For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness.” Isaiah 10:20-22
“Remnant” … the “residue, remainder,” essentially “what’s left.”
God has saved, spared, preserved a “few!”
A “handful” who have “stayed” (leaned and trusted) upon the Lord!
God shall allow them to “return” to the Land, some day!
Their “disaster” (“consumption” truly meaning “destruction” even “cessation”) will be turned into revival! Their end will be … righteousness!
God will work on their behalf!
Yes, friends, the Jew will ALWAYS exist!
Folks, those Tribes are NOT lost, not to the Lord anyway!
Read this amazing Paragraph … “Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: if those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then THE SEED OF ISRAEL also shall cease from being a NATION before me for ever. Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the SEED OF ISRAEL for all that they have done, saith the LORD.” Jeremiah 31:35-37, as long as the sun rises, that little Nation will continue!
Wow!
Israel forever!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
A quick “aside” … in Revelation chapter 7 … God knows where they are, all the Tribes of Israel. One more proof … they are not lost! An angel is told … “Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. 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. 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.” And so on …
I rest my case!