standing of who a word or prophecy is spoken to.As you read 1&2 Kings or 1&2 Chronicles you will read the history of the Kings of both Kingdoms. Jeroboam, an Ephraimite, became the first king of the Northern Kingdom and decided to separate his kingdom from Jerusalem and from following the commands of Yahweh. He adopted pagan practices and in some cases created “mixed worship”, meaning a little bit of truth and following Yahweh’s commands with the rest being lies and false worship. He set up golden calves and in some cases they called this worship unto Yahweh. Similar to when Aaron and the children of Israel made the golden calf and said, “tomorrow is a festival unto Yahweh!” He also changed some of the feast days to different times as well as eliminated Yahweh’s feast days for other pagan holidays. The Northern Kingdom plunged headlong into mixed worship and full pagan worship. Yahweh called all of this an abomination to Him. Every king of the Northern Kingdom continued this pattern of disobedience and destroying the Torah of Yahweh from their lives.
The Southern Kingdom’s first king after Solomon was Rehoboam. The kings following Rehoboam wavered back and forth in their worship of Yahweh and following Torah, Yahweh’s commands. Some kings were evil and worshipped pagan deities. However, some cleaned up the kingdom and worshipped Yahweh the way He commanded, for instance Josiah. See 2Kings 22.
Because of the wickedness of the Northern Kingdom, Yahweh gives Ephrayim, the House of Israel a certificate of divorce and although her “sister” Yahudah has also chased after other false deities, for the sake of David, He does not destroy her.
Jeremiah 3:8 “And I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Yisra’el had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Yahudah did not fear, but went and committed whoring too.
2Kings 8:19 However, Yahweh would not destroy Yahudah, for the sake of David, His servant, as He promised him to give a lamp to him and his sons forever.
Yahweh would not destroy the House of Yahudah because of His love for David and because it would be through Judah/Yahudah that the Messiah would come! Yahshua would come from the kingly line of David.
In Hosea chapter 1, the prophet sent to the northern kingdom of Israel is told to take a wife who is a whore since that would give him a pretty good idea what the ten tribes have done to Yahweh. After cohabiting with Gomer, Hosea calls their daughter "Lo-Ruhammah" (verse 6), meaning no mercy or compassion. In Hosea 1:4 we see Yahweh putting an end to the northern House of Israel and in verse 6 He promises not to show Israel, in the north, any mercy. In verse 7 Yahweh stated that unlike Israel, He will show mercy to Judah in the south. The couple conceived a son in verse 9 and Yahweh commands Hosea to call his name "Lo-Ami" for you are not my people and I am not for you. Israel or Ephraim is called Lo-Ami, not my people. No more mercy, no more My people, no more a kingdom, and Yahweh is fighting against you. We see clearly the end of the ten northern tribes as a nation before Yahweh. A total divorce and rejection has taken place. Hosea 7:8, 8:8, 9:11, 9:17,10:1, 12:1 and other passages confirm that Ephraim's plight is to become Lo-Ami, swallowed up among the Gentiles. Yet in verse 10 we see a startling declaration. Despite a death sentence for the ten tribes as an identifiable kingdom or nation, miraculously they reappear and are born-again, so to speak, in the last days. Hosea 1:10 begins with the words "Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the seashore. Here we have a kingdom totally destroyed and swallowed up among the Gentiles, miraculously reappearing as the former children of Israel and are even called the sand of the sea. Sound familiar? It should! This is the sand of the sea promise made to the patriarchs and to Ephraim. This verse further reveals just where we are going to find the ten lost tribes or the sand of the sea that cannot be counted; the ones who call themselves and are called by Yahweh children of Elohim.
Who is this born-again community of Gentile believers? Most of the “Lost Tribes” can be found in the churches today. They are the former dispersed House of Israel! Yahweh further states that when Ephraim is gathered they will be His people or His Ami and He will be their Elohim since they have become sons of the living Elohim by grace though faith (Hosea 2:21-23).
A nation that has come to an end, disappeared or become lost if you will, all of a sudden showing up as sons and daughters of Yahweh in the last days! Elohim Himself reminds us in verse 10 that this group is nothing more than the former House of Jeroboam or House of Israel. In Hosea 1:11 we see this return of the ten lost tribes coming back into the House of David in the days when these former lost Israelites appoint for themselves the same head that Messianic Jews are appointing for themselves.
This one head is the head of the body made up of Judahites and Ephraimites with perhaps some true Gentiles, now restored to Yahweh as redeemed individuals from both houses and are learning to trust and lean on the same Sovereign by appointing Him (Yahshua) as personal Elohim and Savior!
Verse 11 goes on to say that when individual Ephraimites and Judahites are making this personal appointment of Yahshua as king of their lives, it will not be a day to build something called "a church" that replaces the Jew, rather it will be the day of Jezreel. Jezreel means the replanting of those who were scattered! Notice the very next verse in Hosea 2:1, where both Judahites and Ephraimites who appoint Yahshua as their head (in the day of Jezreel’s regathering and replanting into David's rebuilt Tabernacle), will no longer look at their brothers and sisters as spiritual brothers or sisters only, but will see them in a new light. What light is that? As "ami", My own people. When Ephraim and Judah are individually regenerated and regathered into the rebuilt Tabernacle of David then we will begin to recognize each other as blood brothers, as physical Israelites from different sides of the same family that have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb!
The word Gentile simply means “of nations”. Yahweh promises Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that their seed would fill the nations. Jacob blesses Ephrayim with multiplicity in Genesis 48:19 But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He also becomes a people, and he also is great. And yet, his younger brother is greater than he, and his seed is to become the completeness of the nations.” The scattering of the 10 Lost Tribes of Israel is the fulfillment of this promise.
Now before we continue with the prophecy of the regathering of the Tribes let’s take a look at Judah (Yahudah). Like their brothers in Israel, Yahudah also falls into idol worship and paganism. Because of this the Southern Kingdom is taken into Babylon for 70 years but after the 70 years they are allowed to return to the land. While in Babylon they are called by the slang term of "Jews" or "Jewish". So when one states they are "Jewish", if they are speaking correctly, they are claiming to be from the Southern Kingdom of Judah/Yahudah. The Southern Kingdom consisted of those from the tribe of Yahudah, Benjamin, and some of the Levites.
Therefore you can be Hebrew and not be “Jewish” but if you are Jewish you are also a Hebrew! Or to put it another way, all Jews are Hebrews but not all Hebrews are Jews. If you aren’t getting my last two sentences, you need to go back and re-read this article.
We will continue with our study of the Hebrews in the next edition. Hopefully we can answer many of these questions. However, if you can’t wait, most of this article was taken from a teaching by Ben Ehrhardt, our congregational teacher, from our congregation’s website, HearOIsrael.org. You can find more of this teaching with more detail under the “Two House 101” Teaching on the site.
Blessings and Shalom!
