Chapter Three and Four
by
Brian Williams
CHAPTER THREE
NATIONS IN CAPTIVITY
BEFORE proceeding to examine the Bible testimony with regard
to the fate of the "lost" Ten Tribes of the Northern Kingdom of
Israel, we may like to study further what the Bible has to tell
us about the tribes which did return, the Jews. The records of
Ezra and Nehemiah show that 50,000 Jews returned to Jerusalem,
almost exclusively of the tribes of JUDAH and BENJAMIN, with some
LEVITES, and a small number of people who could not show their
genealogy. That this handful of people may have included a few
Israelites is not disputed. The captivity of Israel took place
over a period ... and what more reasonable to suppose that a few
Israelites seeing the fate which was overtaking them escaped into
Judah? Moreover, the Bible clearly states that, immediately
before the final deportation of Israel, during a time of great
national revival in Judah under Hezekiah, there were those of
Israel which also turned to the Lord.1
For the most part, however, "they laughed them to scorn, and
mocked them."2
That a few Israelites escaped into Judah undoubtedly
accounts for the fact that upon the Jews' return from the
Babylonian captivity reference is made to "all Israel," implying
that all twelve tribes were represented. Nevertheless, the Bible
is emphatic upon this point - and we will quote other authorities
besides - that the Jews returned to Palestine but Israel did not.
Moreover, the prophets still continued to speak of Israel
and Judah as separate peoples. One of the greatest prophets,
Daniel, a Jew, was carried captive to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar
in 604 B.C. During the seventy-year period of the captivity
Daniel rose in power to become prime minister first of Babylon
and then of its successor, Medo-Persia. Making intercession to
God on behalf of his people, Daniel prayed: "O Lord,
righteousness belongeth unto Thee, but unto us confusion of faces
as at this day; to the men of JUDAH, and to the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, and unto ALL ISRAEL, that are near, and that are afar
off, through all the countries whither Thou has driven them."3
Ezekiel was another prophet of the Babylonian captivity who
spoke at length of a restoration of both Judah and Israel -
prophecies which reach right to this very day in which we live
and whose fulfillment lies in the immediate future. Jeremiah
spoke of a day when "the house of JUDAH shall walk with the house
of ISRAEL, and they shall come TOGETHER out of the land of the
north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your
fathers."4
And so that we may be in no doubt that this lies yet in the
future, God tells us it will take place when "they shall call
Jerusalem the throne of the LARD; and all the nations shall be
gathered unto it, to the Name of the LORD, to Jerusalem: neither
shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil
heart."5
Clearly, this is in no way fulfilled by the present-day
return of the Jews to the modem Israeli nation.
The prophets Zechariah and Malachi also ministered to those
who returned from the Babylonian captivity, yet they speak of
Israel and Judah as having a separate identity. Clearly they were
not yet reunited as one people, nor could they be, for the
division was ordained of God.6
And Israel and Judah were to fulfil separate and entirely
different destinies.
JEWS RETURNED - ISRAEL DID NOT
It was a remnant of Judah (the Jews) who returned to
Palestine, but not Israel. It was the Jews who inhabited the land
in the time of Christ, but not the tribes of Israel. In the last
chapter we quoted the words of an eminent scholar of our day. Let
us now examine the testimony of Josephus, the famous Jewish
historian, who was a contemporary of Christ:
Quote:
And such was the end of the nation of the Hebrews, as it hath
been delivered down to us, it having gone twice beyond Euphrates;
for the people of the ten tribes were carried out of Samaria by
the Assyrians, in the days of king Hoshea, after which the people
of the two tribes that remained after Jerusalem was taken, were
carried away by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon and Chaldea.
Now as to Shalmaneser, he removed the Israelites out of their
country, and placed therein the nation of the Cutheans, who had
formerly belonged to the inner pans of Persia and Media, but were
then called Samaritans, by taking the name of the country to
which they were removed; but the king of Babylon, who brought out
the two tribes, placed no other nation in their country, by which
means all Judea and Jerusalem, and the temple, continued to be a
desert for seventy years: but the entire interval of time which
passed from the captivity of the Israelites, to the carrying away
of the two tribes, proved to be an hundred and thirty years, six
months and ten days. (Book X, Chapter 9, pare. 7)
Wherefore there are but two tribes in Asia and Europe subject to
the Romans, while the ten tribes are beyond Euphrates fill now,
and are an immense multitude, and not to be estimated by numbers.
(Book XI, Chapter 5, para. 2)
End quote
ARE THE JEWS 12 TRIBES OR TWO - OR FEWER?
But what do the Jewish people of today say? Are they the
descendants of the twelve tribes or of only two? Are they
descended from Israel or only from Judah? Who ARE the Jews?
Here is what the Chief Rabbi, Dr J.H.Hertz, said in a letter of
18 November 1918 replying to an enquiry from the Revd Merton
Smith:
"(1) The people known at present as Jews are descendants of the
Tribes of Judah and Benjamin, with a certain number of
descendants of the Tribe of Levi.
(2) So far as is known, there is not any further admixture of
other tribes.
(3) The Ten Tribes have been absorbed among the nations of the
world. See 2 Kings, chapter 17, more especially verses 22,23.
(4) The Jews look forward to the gathering of all the Tribes at
some future day. See Isaiah 27:12,13; and Ezekiel 37:15-22."
What do these statements mean except that the Ten Tribes
which were carried captive into Assyria never returned?
We now quote other Jewish authorities on the same question.
Rabbi Gershom wrote:
"We are longing to find our lost brethren who for two thousand
years have baffled all our efforts to discover their whereabouts,
and are at this day a riddle even to the greatest of our
illustrious Rabbis."
Dr V. Herman Adler, former Chief Rabbi of England, also
questioned on this point, wrote:
"You are quite right in your surmise, that the Ten Tribes did not
return to the Holy Land."
Professor A. Neubauer, a prominent and learned Jew, wrote:
"The author of Chronicles - a contemporary of Ezra - says that
the captives of Israel are "up to this day" in the lands of their
transportation ... 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 ... The hope of the return of the Ten Tribes has
never ceased amongst the Jews in Exile; this hope has been
connected with every Messianic rising."
("Where are the Ten Tribes?", The Jewish Quarterly Review, Oct.
1888)
Nothing could be more conclusive than the words of Holy
Scripture, the evidence of contemporary historians, and the
testimony of our Jewish brethren, but we will quote other Jewish
sources to substantiate what has already been established.
The Jewish Encyclopedia says:
"If the Ten Tribes have disappeared, the literal fulfilment of
the
prophecies would be impossible. If they have not disappeared,
obviously they must exist under a different name." (Volume 12,
page 249)
The History and Literature of the Israelites, by C. and A.D.
Rothschild, says:
"The Ten Tribes of Israel were irretrievably lost; and a deep and
impenetrable silence clings around their dispersion. The thick
folds of the veil have never been lifted." (Volume 1, page 489)
The Jewish Quarterly Review, July 1903, says:
"The career of the Jews can be stated without difficulty ...
until the present day. Of that of the Israelites, however,
nothing authentic is known after their departure from their
fatherland to Halah and Habor ... and due cities of the Modes.
With the beginning of their captivity, they seem to have passed
from all human knowledge."
The Jewish Religion, by Isaac Leiser, says:
"By this return of the captives - from Babylon - the Israelitish
nation was not restored, since the Ten Tribes ... were yet left
in banishment and to this day the researches of travellers and
wise men have not been able to trace their fate." (Volume 1, page
256)
The Jewish Chronicle, 2 May 1879, says:
"The Israelites, who were subjugated 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
Scriptures speak of a future restoration of Israel, which is to
include bath Judah and Ephraim. The problem then is reduced to
its simplest form. The Ten Tribes are certainly in existence. All
that has to be done is to discover which people represent them."
Dr. Alfred Edersheim, born of Jewish parentage, later converted
to Christ and ordained in the Church of England, says:
"In what has been said, no notice has been taken of those
wanderers of the ten tribes, whose trackless footsteps seem as
mysterious as their afterfate ... Such mixture with, and lapse
into, Gentile nationalities seems to have been before the mind of
those Rabbis who ordered that, if at present a non-Jew wedded a
Jewess, such a union was to be respected, since the stranger
might be a descendant of the ten tribes ... We know that
individuals who had settled in Palestine, and, presumably,
elsewhere, were able to trace their descent from them. Still the
great mass of the ten tribes was in the days of Christ, as in out
own, lost to the Hebrew nation." (The Life and Times of Jesus the
Messiah, Longmans 1885, pp 14-16)
The following prayers are taken from the Authorized Daily
Prayer Book of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British
Empire (Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1929):
"As for our brethren, the whole House of Israel, such of them as
are given over to trouble or captivity, whether they abide on the
sea or on the dry land - may the All-present have mercy upon
them, and boring them forth from trouble to enlargement, from
darkness to light, and from subjection to redemption, now
speedily and at a near time; and let us say Amen" (page 70)
"O Rock of Israel, arise to the help of Israel, and deliver
according to Thy promise, Judah and Israel" (page 136)
"May Judah be saved, and Israel dwell securely" (page 153)
Notice that these quotations are mainly from 19th-century
sources, long before the establishment of the Israeli nation in
1948. Around 90 percent of Israeli Jews are descended from the
Khazars, an Asiatic people who converted to Judaism about AD 800
(see Arthur Koestler, The Thirteenth Tribe, Hutchinson 1976). It
is therefore quite wrong to think of the present-day "return of
the Jews" to Palestine as the prophesied regathering of all the
tribes. Some true, devout Jews repudiate the Israeli State.
Moreover, these and other Jewish scholars argue that if Messiah
had come, then the redemption of the Ten Tribes would have taken
place. Dr Edersheim says:
"Later Jewish notices connect the final discovery and the return
of the "Lost Tribes" with their conversion under that second
Messiah [which] would almost inevitably lead up to the most wide
concessions in the Christian argument." (The Life and Times
of Jesus the Messiah, p.15)
Quoting Dr Neubauer again:
"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."
Writing in the Jewish Chronicle, the same author says:
"If, as you Christians say, the Christ has come, then the House
of Israel ought to be manifest, and what you have got to do is to
find the people who represent them."
(Quoted in the National Message & Banner, 24 Dec. 1927, p.825)
So the Jews reject Jesus as their Messiah. They say that if
Jesus was the Messiah, the Ten Tribes would be His followers!
WHERE IS LOST ISRAEL?
We have now seen indisputably that the Ten Tribes of Israel
went into captivity in Assyria more than 700 years before Christ.
We have seen that the Jewish people of today acknowledge that
their brethren in Israel must be somewhere in existence. They did
not remain in Assyria for they are clearly not there today. They
did not return to their own land for the Jews know nothing of
them. Where, then, are the tribes of Israel to be found? The
Bible gives us the answer, and the truth reads stranger than
fiction!
1. 2 Chronicles 30:11,18
2. 2 Chronicles 30:10
3. Daniel 9:7
4. Jeremiah 3:18
5. Jeremiah 3:17
6. 1 Kings 12:24
CHAPTER FOUR
THE ISLES AFAR OFF
WHAT happened to the ten lost tribes? The Jewish people of
today acknowledge that their brethren of Israel must be somewhere
in existence. The Bible says, "In the ninth year of Hoshea, the
king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into
Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Haber by the river of
Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes."1
A War Office map of the Persian Gulf (third edition, 1941)
shows the river Uzun rising to the south of Lake Urmia and
flowing into the Caspian Sea, and the towns Abhor and Harau in
the same area. From the Book of Tobit in the Apocrypha we learn
that there were Israelite captives in Rhages and Ecbamna - modern
Teheran and Ramadan in Iran. But the Israelites did not long
remain in the places of their deportation. The prophet Ezra, to
whom we have already referred, wrote concerning them: "Those are
the ten tribes, which were carried away prisoners out of their
own land in the time of Osea [Hoshea] the king, whom Salmanasar
the king of Assyria led away captive, and he carried them over
the waters, and so came they into another land. But they took
this counsel among themselves, that they would leave the
multitude of the heathen, and go forth into a further country,
where never mankind dwelt, that they might there keep their
statutes, which they never kept in their own land. And they
entered into Euphrates by the narrow passages of the river ...
for through that country there was a great way to go, namely, of
a year and a half: and the same region is called Arsareth."2
ISRAEL SIFTED BUT NOT LOST
The migration of the tribes of Israel from Halah and Habor
to Arsareth is an historical fact. But they did not remain there.
God had other plans for his people. "I will not utterly destroy
the house of Jacob, saith the LORD. For, lo, I will command, and
I will SIFT THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AMONG ALL NATIONS, like as corn
is sifted in a sieve, yet shall nor the least grain fall upon the
earth."3
God said that Israel would be sifted among the nations yet
never lost, and ultimately He would bring them to a new land of
their own. "Moreover I will APPOINT A PLACE FOR MY PEOPLE ISRAEL,
and will PLANT THEM, that they may DWELL IN A PLACE OF THEIR OWN,
and MOVE NO MORE; neither shall the children of wickedness
afflict them any more, as beforetime."4
Where would be the appointed place where Israel would dwell
safely in a land of their own? What sort of land would it be, and
where would it be located? God said, "But the land, whither ye go
to possess it, is a LAND OF HILLS AND VALLEYS, and DRINKETH WATER
OF THE RAIN OF HEAVEN: a land which the LORD thy God careth for:
the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the
beginning of the year even unto the end of the year."5
This promise of a land of hills and valleys, cared for by
the Lord Himself, must refer not just to Canaan but also to the
new land of their destination!
ISRAEL'S NEW HOME IN THE ISLES
Their new home would also be in the islands of the sea. Many
are the references in Isaiah in which the Lord identifies the
islands with His people Israel. "Wherefore glorify ye the LORD in
the valleys, even the Name of the LORD God of Israel in the ISLES
OF THE SEA."6
"Sing unto the Lord a new song, and His praise from the end of
the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein;
the ISLES [Hebrew = islands, coastlands], and the inhabitants
thereof... let them give glory unto the LORD, and declare His
praise in the ISLANDS."7
Why are the inhabitants of the islands to give glory to God?
Why are these people exhorted to praise the Lord? Who are these
people? God tells us the answer. "Listen, O ISLES, unto Me; and
harken, ye people from far ... Thou art My servant, O ISRAEL, in
whom I will be glorified."8
Here the Lord positively identifies the inhabitants of
certain islands with the lost tribes of Israel. Is there any clue
to their location? The answer is given us in many places in the
Bible. "For thus saith the LORD; Sing with gladness for Jacob,
and shout among the chief of the rations: publish ye, praise ye,
and say, O LORD, save thy people, the REMNANT of Israel. Behold,
I will bring them from the NORTH country, and gather them from
the COASTS OF THE EARTH ... for I am a father to ISRAEL, and
EPHRAIM is My firstborn. Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations,
and declare it in the ISLES AFAR OFF, and say, He that scattered
ISRAEL will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his
flock."9
"I will not execute the fierceness of Mine anger, I will not
return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man ... They
shall walk after the LORD [and] shall tremble from the WEST."10
"He that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs
of water shall He guide them ... Behold, these shall come from
FAR: and, to, these from the NORTH and from the WEST."11
What do these verses tell us? That God's people, the remnant
of Israel, is to be found the chief of the nations, in islands
afar off, and situated to the north and to the west of their
original home in Palestine. The only islands fitting this
description are the BRITISH ISLES.
Can it really be true that part, at least, of the lost
tribes of Israel are to be found among the British and kindred
people? If so, then this people of Israel must in the last days
12 be organized into "a NATION and a COMPANY OF NATIONS."13
But that is precisely a picture of Great Britain and the
Commonwealth. Let us refer again to some of the marvellous
promises of God made to the house of Joseph, and which we
remember were unconditional. They were birthright promises
conferred upon Israel because of Abraham's obedience. God said
that in the last days of this Christian dispensation, Israel
would be a multitude (or fullness) of nations, so great in
population as scarcely to be reckoned. They would be blessed with
the dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth. They would be
ruled over by a dynasty of kings, they would break forth to the
west, the east, the north and the south, they would possess the
gate of their enemies, and they would be a blessing to all the
nations of the earth.
ISRAEL PUNISHED FOR 2,500 YEARS
Before proceeding further, there is an important time factor
involved in the fulfilment of the birthright promises to Joseph
which we must consider. God promised that if Israel would obey
His laws and keep His Commandments, He would make them "high
above all nation: "14
He would bless their land, destroy their enemies, exalt them
above all the people of the earth. On the other hand, the Lord
warned Israel of the consequences of disobedience. "But if ye
will not harken unto Me, and will not do all these Commandments;
and if ye shall despise My statutes, or if you soul abhor My
judgments, so that ye will not do all My Commandments, but that
ye break My covenant ... then I will punish you SEVEN TIMES more
for your sins ... and if ye walk contrary unto Me, and will not
harken unto Me; I will bring SEVEN TIMES more plagues upon you
according to your sins ... and if ye will not be reformed by Me
by these things, but will walk contrary unto Me; then will I also
walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet SEVEN TIMES for
you sins ... and if ye will not for all this harken unto Me, but
walk contrary unto Me; then I will walk contrary unto you also in
fury; and I, even I, will chastise you SEVEN TIMES for your
sins."15
What does this seven times chastisement suggest? It is
important to remember that the Bible is its own interpreter. We
do not have to depend upon human interpretation to understand the
Bible. The Bible explains and interprets its own symbols. In
scriptural terminology, the word time (or times) is often used
for year. In the book of Revelation, we find that a period of
three-and-a-half times is the same as 1,260 days.16
But God said He would punish Israel for a period of seven
times, which must therefore be the same as 2 x 1,260 or 2,520
days. Now on the scriptural basis of a day for a year 17, this
seven-times punishment must signify a period of 2,520 years. We
conclude, therefore, that from the time of Israel's captivity in
Assyria the nation must be punished for 2,520 years before
entering into the birthright promises.
Now Israel went into captivity in Assyria in 722 B.C. and
2,520 years from that date brings us to A.D.1799. Therefore we
should expect Israel to become a great nation and a company of
nations, entering into a period of unprecedented wealth and
influence, from about the year 1800 onwards. It was at precisely
this time that Britain and America began to emerge as the leading
nations of the world. 1801 was the year of the first official
census of the population of Great Britain; also in that year
Ireland was joined to England and Scotland to form the United
Kingdom. Then in 1803 the US government was able to buy from
France the huge tract of land extending from the mouth of the
Mississippi River to the Canadian border. This purchase of
Louisiana and other French-held territories doubled the size of
the United States at the stroke of a pen!
(But also we find from historical facts and Biblical history that
the House of Israel STARTED to go into captivity BEFORE 722 B.C.
- sometime as shown in 2 Kings 15:17-29. This was between 752-740
B.C. The captivity was finally full and complete by 718 B.C. Add
to this 2,520 years and add one year because there was no year
zero, and you come up with a time period that includes the United
States becoming an independent nation and the powers of Britain
and the USA starting to emerge as the most prosperous and
mightiest powers the modern world has seen - Keith Hunt)
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
How does America fit into the picture? We remember that the
promise to Jacob of "a NATION and a COMPANY OF NATIONS" was to be
fulfilled through Joseph's two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. It was
they who would be called by the name Israel. 18
But Manasseh was to become "a PEOPLE" - the greatest single
nation on earth - while Ephraim, his younger brother, would
become "a MULTITUDE [FULLNESS] OF NATIONS,"19 a unique Common-
wealth.
The fact that the dying Jacob passed on the birthright to
both grandsons jointly, then finally prophesied of each
separately, suggests that Ephraim and Manasseh were to be closely
associated over a long period of time, and then finally to
separate. This was so in the case of BRITAIN and AMERICA. America
was first settled by British emigrants in 1620 and consisted
originally of only thirteen states. Then in 1776 came the
Declaration of Independence whereby the United States of America
became separated from Britain.
From this time, these two insignificant nations of Britain
and America began to expand and develop into the two greatest
nations in the world. Britain in particular became a great
colonial power, establishing a world wide Empire, unique in human
history. Notice that this took place after the loss of the
American colonies, just as prophesied of Israel in the Word of
God: "For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy
destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the
inhabitants, and they that swallowed him up shall be far away.
The children [colonies] which thou shall have, after thou hast
lost the other [colony, i.e. America], shall say again in thine
ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that
I may dwell."20
It was after the loss of the American colonies that Britain
became a vast world Empire spanning the earth. No less than
twelve million people emigrated from Britain during the
nineteenth century.
Here it is to be noted that for the most part there was no
question of an aggressive and warlike nation dispossessing the
peoples of other lands. In fact, it seems as though Britain never
had a colonial policy, and that her role as a great
Empire-builder was fulfilled but reluctantly. Rather it would be
true to say that men were impelled by a sense of adventure and
high purpose, a compulsion of destiny, to explore far-off lands
and to develop the natural resources of the territories they
discovered.
The Bible says, "When the Most High divided to the nations
their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the
bounds of the people according to the number of the children of
Israel. For the Lord's portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of
His inheritance."21
This means that in pertaining the nations of the world to
populate the earth, the Lord appointed bounds to their lands so
that space should be provided to accommodate His Israel people.
It is a fact that most of Britain's colonies were empty lands
until their discovery by the pioneers. Then with the advent of
British colonial rule came the development of natural resources,
the growth of industry and commerce, the construction of roads
and railways, the provision of educational and medical
facilities. Thus Britain, under God, brought the nations of the
world and the peoples she embraced, all the benefits of Christian
civilization based upon divine law.
In the next two chapters we will examine in detail some of
the further prophecies relating to Israel in this New Testament
dispensation, and we will see whether Britain does indeed possess
the marks of the Israel people as the evidence thus far suggests.
We shall confine ourselves to the scriptural evidences of Israel.
If Britain is indeed to be identified with God's chosen
people Israel, then we should expect that EVERY sign of that
identity will be readily recognized in the British people. We
shall not need to distort the scriptures or put upon them any
interpretation which differs from the obvious and apparent
meaning. We will take the scriptures exactly as they are.
1. 2 Kings 17:6
2. Esdras 13:40-45
3. Amos 9:8-9
4. 2 Samuel 7:1-10
5. Deuteronomy 11:11-12
6. Isaiah 24:15
7. Isaiah 42:10-12
8. Isaiah 49:1-3
9. Jeremiah 31:7-10
10. Hosea 11:9-10
11. Isaiah 49:10-12
12. Genesis 49:1
13. Genesis 35:11
14. Deuteronomy 26:19
15. Leviticus 26:14-28
16. Revelation 12:6,14
17. Numbers 14:34, Ezekiel 4:6
18. Genesis 48:16
19. Genesis 48:19
20. Isaiah 49:19-20
21. Deuteronomy 32:8-9
..................
TO BE CONTINUED
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