Is there more proof text in the Renewed Covenant that those calling themselves Christians are nothing more than the physical descendants of the ten lost tribes? In 1 Kepha (Peter) 2:8-10 we see Peter quoting Hosea chapter one. The people who are a “royal priesthood a chosen generation and a holy nation ” are identified by Kepha as nothing more than the former lo-ami and lo-ruhammah of Hosea chapter 1. In Peter 2:11 He says: “You who are now Renewed Covenant Priests and Renewed Covenant Israel once were not a people (lo-ami) and had not obtained compassion and mercy (lo-ruhammah). But now through Yahshua you are restored to a people called ami and receiving ruhammah.”
Did Sha’ul (Paul) also understand the regathering of the twelve tribes of Israel through Yahweh's Son? In Romans 9:24 Shaul states that Yahweh calls Jews and Gentiles to make up His body as heirs of eternal life. Then in verse 25 quotes Hosea chapter one and identifies the born again redeemed Gentiles of his day as the Old Covenant House of Israel (Ephraim). He quotes the lo-ami passage of Hosea one and attributes this to "saved Gentiles". Verses 25 & 26 boldly declare this. Finally in verse 27 he puts the icing on the cake and declares that these "saved Gentiles" not only are the former House of Israel that became the "fullness of the Gentiles", but he even quotes Isaiah stating that out of the entire "sand of the sea" promise to Ephraim regarding physical multiplicity only a remnant of Israelites from all twelve tribes will be saved. Notice the transition and progression as the saved Gentiles of verse 24 in Romans 9 wind up being identified as the former House of Israel (ten tribes) spoken of by Isaiah, in the next two verses.
In Ephesians 2:11 Shaul declares that those who got saved as Gentiles are no longer Gentiles. They have a new identity, and that identity is according to verse 12 a citizenship in the Commonwealth of Israel. They are Israelites! You cannot be a citizen of a spiritual entity known as "the church" or any other spiritual entity. In order to be a physical citizen of the state of Washington you have to be a physical being. In order for former Gentiles, who by virtue of their acceptance of Messiah have become physical citizens of the House and Commonwealth of Israel, they must be and in fact physical Israelites from a different side of the family than Messianic Jews. Verse 19 nails this down for us as Shaul declares that these folks are no longer strangers to the House of Israel but fellow citizens.
In Galatians 3:29 Shaul refers to born again non Jews as the seed or sperma of Abraham. Does the Greek word for seed (sperma), from where we get the English word sperm, sound like something spiritual or something very physical? Therefore if you belong to Messiah through the new birth, regardless of who you think you are, you are Abraham's sperm! That's why verse 28 says there are no Jews, Greeks, men or women there is only Abraham's physical seed that has been redeemed and should be known as Renewed Covenant Israel.
Further proof is found in Galatians 4:28 where Shaul refers to non Jewish believers as being exactly like Isaac -- the heir of the physical promise of multiplicity. Was Isaac a physical being or just a spiritual being? He was a spirit-filled-and-led physical being. According to Shaul, that is exactly who the non-Jewish believers are in the Renewed Covenant. In 1 Corinthians 10:1-4, Shaul reminds saved Ephraimites that they were once Gentiles, but not any longer. He reminds these non-Jewish Israelites that their fathers (Hebrews) who were led out of Egypt went through the Red Sea and eventually met the Rock (Messiah) just as they had. In 1Corinthians 5:7-8 we see these Ephraimite Israelites keeping Pesach (Passover)! Only the people of Israel celebrate the Feasts of Yahweh!
There are man-made teachings and teachers that place the word "spiritual" in front of the word "fathers" in 1 Corinthians 10:1 as well as Galatians 3:29 where they add the word "spiritual" before the word "seed", to make it seem as if Christians are only some kind of spiritual seed, or worse yet something called "spiritual Jews." Adding to the Word of Yahweh is a capital offense punishable by death (Proverbs 30:5, Deut. 4:2, Deut. 12:32, Rev 22:18).
This is the day divinely decreed for the restoration of all things (Acts 3:20-21). When Ephraim begins to believe that they are part of physical Israel they will act like Israelites and return to Sabbath, kosher, keeping the feasts, Zionism and aliyah (returning to the land), and will cease to be jealous of the Jews (Isaiah 11:12-14). According to these same verses the day is coming when Jews will recognize Ephraim as their physical brothers in much the same way that all Jacob's sons came to recognize Joseph in Egypt. They thought he was a Gentile and all the while Joseph was an Israelite. Whether Judah recognizes born-again non-Jews as Ephraim does not change the fact that they, like Joseph, are unrecognizable to their brothers. Yet still like Joseph, Ephraim is Joseph's son and Jacob's grandson and is in fact an Israelite experiencing the same lack of recognition that his father Joseph experienced in Egypt. Joseph knew them but they knew not Joseph. Today, large segments of Ephraim recognize chosen, born-again Yahudah (Judah). Many within Brother Yahudah are beginning to recognize Ephraim. However, Yahudah is struggling to let Brother Ephraim back into the family, as Yahshua taught in the parable of the “Prodigal Son”, in Luke 15:11-32. Yahweh declares that this vexation of Ephraim by Yahudah will come to an end through Messiah (Isaiah 11:13-14), when He gathers the outcasts of Israel and the dispersed of Yahudah from all the earth. Notice how Yahudah was never outcast like Ephraim, only dispersed.
In John 10:16 Yahshua said "other sheep I have which are not of this fold. I have to bring them in as well. And they shall hear my voice and there shall be one flock and one shepherd". Notice that Yahshua had another Israelite flock that was still of His fold even before He died and rose again. He did not say that he will create a new and separate fold called "the church". He said that He already had two folds -- that He was sent to bring them in, and they will become one flock, or one united house.
John (Yohanan) expressed the same truth in John (11:49-52). He stated that when Ciaphas prophesied that it was good that Yahshua was dying for Yahudah, John added that Ciaphas was prophesying that Yahshua would not only die for that nation (Judah), but also the former House of Israel that were scattered abroad 722 years prior to Yahshua's birth. We know this is a reference to the House of Israel (ten tribes) since he calls them a nation (physical people), as well as children of Elohim. They were called children of Israel because Yahweh is the Elohim of Israel and they were Israel or children of Elohim even before Yahshua went to the tree of Korban (sacrifice). Notice that the Father's' revealed plan in verse 52 of chapter 11 is to gather both nations, or houses, into one. Even at the time of Yahshua, people's eyes and hearts were being opened to the truth about the family feud perpetuated by Jacob widened by Jeroboam and Rehoboam and in the last two millennia inflamed by the Church vs. Jewish battle over the title of “Who Is Israel?”. The question is fully answered when one realizes that there is only one people of Israel with one Elohim of Israel and one Messiah of Israel and one Torah of Israel and that both houses need to follow the same blueprint for the restoration of all Israel on common ground.
It’s comforting to note that according to Isaiah 49 verses 1-6 the Messiah is promised to all Israel and is even referred to as Israel, since Israel's restoration is the personification and primary purpose of His mission. Hosea 11:1 also calls The Messiah, Israel! In Isaiah 49:6, we see the Father asking Him if He is prepared to raise up the twelve tribes of Israel by bringing back into the fold those who, though scattered and lost as a nation, would be individually preserved in and amongst the Gentiles in the four corners of the earth for the Messiah's ministry. He did come. He did go looking for preserved individuals physically descended from Ephraim and Judah and has in fact restored these preserved ones. Though these preserved ones may not know who they are, though they may look, act, smell, behave and conduct themselves as gentiles and as descendants of their father Jeroboam, our Messiah knew where to locate them. He has located them and He is bringing them back to the fold on an individual basis not a national basis, as of yet. Interestingly enough the Hebrew word for preserved ones in Isaiah 49:6 is Notzrim or Nazarenes. It is these preserved born again Ephraimites that would be re-gathered in to the rebuilt Tabernacle of David and would return to the fold of Israel as Nazarenes. Let us recall that the entire early Messianic communities were known as The Nazarenes (Acts 24:5), the preserved ones of returning repentant Israel. Not to be confused
with today’s c
hurch group who call themselves the Nazarene church.There are those of us who know we have “Jewish” roots, meaning we are descendants of the Southern Kingdom from the tribes of Yahudah, Benjamin or Levites. Yet there are those of us who do not know what tribe we are from but we are also children of Israel. These are those who are from one of the 10 Tribes, the Northern Kingdom. So whether we are Jews or Ephraimites, we are all children of Israel. Now the question we should all be asking is, when? When will the 12 tribes be reunited? Or as the disciples asked Yahshua, “Master, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” Acts 1:6. Next month we will begin to look at the “when”.
