Part II: Israel and Judah
The teaching, which is to follow, is from the KJV of the Bible; I and II Kings, and I and II Chronicles. Any other references used will be noted within the text.
Dates used are not always agreed upon by Bible scholars and are not quoted with authority.
The dates used in tonight's lesson are from a web site forwarded to me by ZLM; http://www.mindspring.com/~cvn76/thebooks/h-chron.html
Please wait until after the session is over to comment or ask questions. Or you may email me at tovah49@hotmail.com.
Review: Last week we learned from the Biblical account in Genesis 26:3 that God renamed Jacob "Israel" which means "ruling with God".
Israel (Jacob) had twelve sons. These sons and their descendents were known as the sons (children) of Israel.
Six sons with Leah in order of their birth:
1st Reuben ("behold a son")
2nd Simeon ("hearing")
3rd Levi ("joined")
4th Judah ("praise")
9th Issachar ("reward")
10th Zebulun ("Yah is renowned")
Two sons with Rachel:
11th Joseph ("increaser")
12th Benjamin ("son of the right hand")
Two sons with Bilhah (Rachel's maid):
5th Dan ("judge")
6th Naphatili ("wrestling")
Two sons with Zilpah (Leah's maid):
7th Gad ("seer, lot, fortune") uterine brother of Asher
8th Asher ("happy")
Joseph died in Egypt and his inheritance was given to his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.
Israel (Jacob) blessed Ephraim and said (Gen 48:19), "...his seed shall become a multitude of nations".
Israel came into the land of Canaan in 1403 BC and was ruled by judges for over 300 hundred years.
In 1043 BC Saul, tribe of Benjamin, was named as king of the nation of Israel.
Saul ruled for 40 years and sinned in God's eyes, and David, tribe of Judah, was named as king.
The house of David ruled over all of Israel from 1003-927 BC.
While Solomon, the son of David, was king, he sinned against God, but God said he would leave a remnant of the nation because of his love for King David.
In 927 BC, after King Solomon died, the nation of Israel was divided and became known as Israel and Judah.
Ten of the tribes revolted against the son of Solomon (Rehoboam, grandson of David) as king.
They chose Jeroboam, an Ephrathite and a servant of Solomon, to rule over them.
Jeroboam was the first king to rule the ten tribes of Israel.
Two tribes, Benjamin and Judah, became known as the southern kingdom of Judah ruled by the line of David.
The other ten tribes became known as the northern kingdom of Israel. (I Kings 12:1-9).
The southern tribe (Judah) had for its capitol Jerusalem and the temple.
Eventually, the northern tribe (Israel) had for its capitol Samaria (built by their sixth king Omri).
Because Jeroboam was afraid that Israel would go to Jerusalem to worship, he set up sanctuaries in Bethel and Dan and named his own priests for the idol worship of two golden calves and devils.
"...for Jeroboam and his sons had cast them off (the Levites and the priests) from executing the priest's office unto the Lord:"
Therefore, all of the priests and Levites left their possessions in Israel and went to Judah.
And "after them those out of all the tribes of Israel" who loved God came to Jerusalem to sacrifice (II Chron.11:13-16).
And Israel "left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made them two molten images, two calves and a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. And they caused their sons and daughters to pass through fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke Him to anger. Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of His sight; there was none left but the tribe of Judah only." (II Kings 17:16-18)
And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until He had cast them out of His sight (II Kings 17:20).
In 722 BC the northern kingdom of Israel was taken captive by Assyria.
And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, Cuthel, Ava Hamath, and Sepharvain and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities there (II Kings 17:24)
The children of Israel were displaced in Halah, Habor, by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. (II Kings 17:6)
Israel, the northern kingdom, became known as the "ten lost tribes" because they were taken off of their land, and their land given to pagans.
According to the Youngs Biblical Concordance, "Samaritans" was the name given to those who returned to Samaria (the capitol of Israel) and intermarried with the heathen immigrants there.
The tribes are considered "lost" because their identity was lost through exile and intermarriage.
Samaritans seem to be despised in the New Testament, perhaps because of their mixed blood, perhaps because of the divided kingdom before the captivity.
According to Young's, the Samaritans believed only in the first five books of the Bible, and considered no other Jewish writing as holy.
In John 4:21-24 Jesus talked to a Samaritan woman at the well and told her that the time was coming when she would no longer worship the Father there (Samaria), nor in Jerusalem.
In Acts 1:8 the apostles were to go to Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria with the good news.
According to Brit-Am (an Orthodox Jewish Organization), the ten lost tribes and/or their descendents migrated to Scotland, Northwest and Northeast Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa.
"Reuben was important in France, Issachar in Switzerland, Benjamin in Belgium, Zebulon in Holland, Dan in Denmark, Naphtali in Norway, Gad in Sweden. The country of Finland was influenced by the tribes of Simeon, Issachar, and Gad. Simeon, Dan, and Ephraim were important in Ireland."
There is much talk of late about where the tribes went and their descendents.
According to Alfred Edersheim in "Sketches of Jewish Social Life", the Talmud shows that all genealogical registers in the Temple were destroyed by order of Herod.
I wonder if these even included the 10 tribes of Israel because of the division between the two kingdoms in 927 BC.
"Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in the faith:" (1 Tim 1:4)
Summary: The Biblical account of the 12 tribes of Israel, and how they became separated into two kingdoms, clearly show us who Israel was, and how she became known as the "Ten lost tribes".
Still, we must recall that the southern kingdom of Judah is still referred to as "the children of Israel", although Israel is never referred to as "Judah".
In the Biblical accounts, even as early as in the Book of Kings, "Judah" is referred to as "Jews", which is the English translation for Yehudim, "Judahs".
It may be safe to conclude then, that the word "Jews" refers to the descendents and converts of the southern kingdom of Judah.
Remember, this included the Benjamites, all of the Levites, the priests, and "all who loved God" who joined the southern kingdom of Judah BEFORE the ten tribes went into Assyerian captivity.
Why is this important to know?
Because God has promised to gather the two houses together, Israel and Judah.
Has this already begun?
"Then said the woman, How is it that thou, being a Jew, asked drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans?" The woman states clearly that Jesus is a Jew (from the tribe of Judah).
"Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his livestock?"
"Our fathers worshipped in this mountain (of Samaria): yet ye (the Jews) say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship."
The woman at the well called Jacob "our father" and also stated that "our fathers" worshipped in the mountain of Samaria. We know that the northern tribe of Israel lived in Samaria, and that their father was Jacob!
Jesus goes on to tell her that "ye worship ye know not what; we know what we worship; for salvation is of the Jews." In Samaria, there was idol worship during the time of the 10 tribes and the only true worship was going on in the Temple in Jerusalem, which was in the southern kingdom of Judah.
In Acts 1:6 the apostles ask Jesus, "will thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?"
In Acts 1:8 Jesus sends the apostles to "Jerusalem, Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."
Personal Opinion: I think that the Biblical account of Jesus and the woman at the well in Samaria reveals that the gathering of Israel started at that time.
Jesus said He was called first to the lost sheep of Israel, which included the ten lost tribes.
Because the Samaritan woman addressed Jesus as a Jew and her father as Jacob, there was definitely a distinction made between the kingdom of Judah and the kingdom of Israel.
Although the woman was of the children of Israel (Jacob), she was not a Jew.
Yeshua told the woman at the well that salvation was of the Jews.
It seems to me that God is using Judah to bring in all the tribes!
Remember that the apostles were also the sons of Israel from the line of Judah, and all that they added to the church are no longer considered aliens but are of the commonwealth of Israel (Eph 2:19).
Isa 60:4, "Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through thee, I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations.
Thou shall suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shall suck the breast of kings: and thou shall know that I the LORD thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob."
In the Talmud it was considered "unclean" to pass through Samaria, and also we see through the account in John 4 that the Jews still didn't enter into that land.
Isa 60:4 tells us that Israel (Samaria?) was hated and that no man went through there.
In 1 Peter 2:1-2 we see that those added to Israel are no longer strangers but are considered as one "born in the land".
Those were the kings and priests too (1 Peter 2:9).
Could the milk of the Gentiles (Kings) be the milk of the word (1 Peter 2:2) which is fed to the 10 tribes scattered abroad in all of the Gentile nations?
Nice thought anyway!
Next week Part III: Judah
Questions and comments are welcomed at this time.
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