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Audio
Tablet Eight
Jews return to their land. The
House of Israel
apparently never returns
...the Lord stirred up the
spirit
of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout
all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,
...The Lord
God of
heaven hath
given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me
to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
(Ezra 1:1-2)
<1>The
temple
was to be built in "Jerusalem, which is in Judah." There is no
mention of the Samarian or the
House of Israel, and also:
Then rose up the chief of the fathers of
Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites,...
(Ezra 1:5)
<2>So those who went up to build the
temple in "Jerusalem,
which is in Judah" were the Children of Judah, Benjamin, and the
priests of the Levites. There is no mention of the name of the other
tribes, nor of Ephraim or Manasseh, the inheritors of the promise of
the material possession of "a nation and a company of nations." Furthermore:
Now these are the children of the province
that went up out of the captivity, of those which had been
carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had
carried away unto Babylon, and came again unto Jerusalem and
Judah, every one unto his city;
(Ezra 2:1)
<3>It was the
House of Judah (Jews)
which was carried away by Nebuchadnezzar, into Babylon, not the
House of Israel. The
House of Israel was carried away by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria
(II Kings 17:3-6).
<4>Also, it was the
Jews
who were carried to Babylon, not the
Samarians
(House of Israel).
Samarians were placed
"...in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities
of the Medes" (II Kings 17:6).
<5>So it was surely only the
Jews that "came again unto
Jerusalem and Judah," not the
House of Israel.
The ten lost tribes are
the
House of
Israel (Samarian,
or
Ephraim):
<6>What happened to the
House of Israel? It is what is known to many as the "ten lost tribes" of
Israel, and apparently
no one knows what became of them.
<7>Since we know that
God
never fails in His Promises and that the
Jews
never became "a nation and a company of nations" in a great sense,
then we should look for other clues that
God left for humanity to understand His Work.
<8>From this point on the story of the
promises given to
Israel take two
completely different routes. <9>One is how the promise of spiritual dominance (scepter)
was fulfilled through the Children of Judah. <10>The other
one is how the promise of "a nation and a company of nations" which
was given to the children of Joseph would be fulfilled (the
birthright).
<11>So there are three promises which should
have been fulfilled through the
Children of Israel: First, a spiritual blessing through a kingly
Messiah (scepter);
secondly, a great nation from Joseph's seed (Manasseh); and thirdly,
a great company of nations from Joseph's seed (Ephraim).
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