The Birthright: Part 2

THE BIRTHRIGHT: PART 2

The historical northern kingdom of Israel consisting of the current so-called lost ten tribes are legally ordained by God as the holders of the birthright promise.  The house of northern Israel was originally deemed the wife of God but the Lord divorced His wife, however the future Israel will be the bride of Christ.  The first appearance of Jesus was to accept the scepter and establish His Kingship of the Kingdom of God as the Lion of the tribe of Judah.  This secured His throne rights as the Messiah.  His second appearance will be to the tribes of Joseph to secure His birthright inheritance and establish the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God which will be His Kingdom.  It was the actual Kingdom inheritance that went into captivity and that Kingdom is not lost.

Misunderstood Prophecy

Some deluded Bible teachers insist all twelve of the tribes are present in modern Israel but that is completely untrue.  There may have been a few individuals during the Idumean times of Jesus first appearance and there may be some in current Israel but they do not hold the birthright title and no one in modern Israel will ever hold or have access to that title.  The name Israel signifies the holders of the birthright but Judah, in the form of Idumeans, and current Israel of Judahite/Edomites do not hold that title.  These same deluded Bible teachers insist the lost ten tribes as well as British Israelism is a myth initiated by Herbert W. Armstrong of the original Worldwide Church of God.  Mr. Armstrong had some faulty doctrines, but he may have been led to discover the true nature of the so-called lost tribes, therefore, it is not a myth as will be explored later.

Unfulfilled prophecy cannot be properly comprehended without understanding the true Biblical nature of current Israel as opposed to the Biblical northern Israel of ten tribes.  As an example, go to Ezekiel 38-39 and plug in true Israel in the place of modern Israel at each occurrence of the word “Israel” and it completely changes the understanding or misunderstanding of the prophecy(s). 

Current Bible teachers and exegetes can write books and make money while convincing readers of their misunderstood concepts of the fulfillment of prophecy by current Israel and the surrounding areas and peoples but they are wrong if they consider as the entire twelve (or 13) tribes living in the Promised Land.  In 1948 the Idumeans proclaimed their new nation as Israel.  The evangelical world proclaimed that prophecy had been fulfilled.  The restoration of the Kingdom was at hand.  They were the chosen people of God and they would fulfill the remaining prophecies of the Bible.  The Christian world immediately placed their support behind the state that illegally took the name of Israel which could only be employed by the tribes of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh.

Judah only had the legal right to produce the Messiah as the inheritor of the scepter, which was done from 2 BC until the death and resurrection of Jesus in 33 AD.  When Jesus was born and secured His legal throne and Kingship rights the prophetic role of Judah concerning the salvation of the world was concluded.  The destruction of Jerusalem, the temple, and the Judean/Idumean remnant in 70 AD defines the final fulfillment of Judah regarding the Messiah-ship of Jesus.  One prophecy remaining to be fulfilled would be one final restatement of the cursed fig tree bearing many leaves but no fruit, which is the current Israel which is in the process of being fulfilled.

Northern Israel

The northern ten tribes began their nation around 930 BC due to a disagreement concerning taxation and leadership.  Jeroboam of the nation of Ephraim, the holder of the birthright, was the leader and first king of the nation.  A split or breach occurred when the birthright tribes were taken away from Solomon’s son, Rohoboam.  This nation lasted for 210 years and officially ended at the fall of Samaria in 721 BC.

Although the northern nation of Israel was destroyed and the majority of the population carted away by Assyria, the Old Testament prophets continued to prophesy the restoration of the House of Israel with the House of Judah, and the current nation of Israel is not that restoration and never will be in this present age regardless of the deluded teachings of Bible exegetes.

The “dry bones” prophecy of Ezekiel 37 was not fulfilled in 1948 as proclaimed by deluded Bible teachers, but will be fulfilled at the second coming of Jesus.  This passage speaks of the repair of the breach between Judah (Judeans) and Joseph (the northern nation of Israel).  It also speaks of resurrection from the dead.

Ezekiel 37:12 NET  Therefore prophesy, and tell them, 'This is what the sovereign LORD says: Look, I am about to open your graves and will raise you from your graves, my people. I will bring you to the land of Israel.

In verse 12 above, the Lord specifically says, “I am about to open your graves and will raise you from your graves”.  That will truly occur at the rapture (harpazo, catching (away), gathering (up)) and it did not happen symbolically or otherwise in 1948 because no individual from the ten northern tribes were present and no one was raised from the dead, even symbolically.

As stated in Part 1, Ezekiel was a type of missionary sent to the tribes of Israel by God.  He writes that Israel (10 northern tribes) have no shepherd and have become scattered over the face of the earth and that no one is earnestly searching for them.  The Lord states that He will search for them and deliver them in the “cloudy and dark day” which is a reference to the wrath of God prior to the complete fulfillment of the Kingdom of God during the Millennium era.

Ezekiel 34 KJV  (2)  Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel….. ( 5)  And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered.  (6)  My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them.  (12) KJV  As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.  (13)  And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country.

The Messiah, Jesus, is the King.  The house of Israel was His wife but will become His bride.  The House of Israel (Jacob, Joseph, Ephraim, and Manasseh) will be the future bride.  Israel is the birthright nation but all races and nations can join the wedding as bridesmaids (just be prepared and make certain your lamp has oil before the door closes).  It is my opinion that Israel is beloved by God and that Israel is the “apple of God’s eye”, but the current nation of Israel is NOT the birthright Israel and is not the “apple of His eye”.  Real Israel is among the nations soon to be the Bride of Christ, the future completely fulfilled Kingdom of God, and are currently among the righteous God-worshipping Christians referred to as the Church.  Members of the current nation of Israel who are actual tribal members of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi can be restored as the breach will be restored but will require a belief in Jesus Christ as the Messiah of Judah just like anyone else.  There is not two ways to salvation.

Dr. Stephen E. Jones: God’s Kingdom Ministry  While historians throughout history, and even the apostles in the New Testament, have continued to write about the Israelites, it is amazing that modern Bible teachers seem to ignore the facts completely. Their zeal to give the birthright to the Jews today blinds them to the entire flow of prophecy in its outworking among the modern nations.

The Location of Lost Israel

The Tribes by Yair Davidy: [Copied from Stephen Jones book entitled, Secrets of Time]   This book published in Hebron, Israel relates “the Israelite Origins of Western Peoples.” Its Jewish author even has a Letter of Commendation from Rabbi Abraham Feld of the prestigious Maccabee Institute in Jerusalem.

This book shows how most of the ancient Israelites were exiled and lost their identity and that today their descendants are to be found mainly amongst the “Gentile” peoples of North America, Northwest Europe, Australia and South Africa. The present-day Jews in the Diaspora and Israel [i.e., the Israeli state] are mainly descended from only two of the original twelve tribes whereas the offspring of the remaining majority are in the above areas.… (p. 1) These claims are not far-fetched. They are supported by Biblical, Historical, and other evidence much of which is, in effect, even recognized by the academic world, which simply has not sufficiently co-related the information in its possession and has not drawn the necessary conclusions from the proof it already acknowledges. (p. 2) The Israelites were transported en-masse first mainly to areas in northern Mesopotamia and to Hara and from those regions they later moved northward into “Scythia” (roughly the area encompassed in the past by the U.S.S.R.) whence they migrated in several waves to the extreme north and west of Europe from which their descendants settled North America, Australasia, and South Africa. The peoples in these said nations today are thus in the Biblical and historical sense brothers of the Jews who came from the remaining southern kingdom of Judah and comprised the second half of the Hebrew nation with the Lost Ten Tribes comprising the remainder. The Jews and the Lost Ten Tribes together form the Israelite HEBREW nation. (p. 7)

More location information coming next in Part 3