So, when will it end? When will Ephraim come to the end of his season of punishment? If we count 2730 years from 734 B.C., we arrive at the year 1996! If we use the year 722 B.C.E as a base, we come up with the year 2008!
So, why do we need to understand Ephraim’s punishment? Because some of us are Ephraim and our punishment is now coming to an end! Also, we need to see that Yisra’el would not be rewarded with restoration of their kingdom while a majority of the people were still undergoing their punishment of not being a recognizable people! And, they could not be recognized as the people of Yisra’el until now! Even so, non-Jewish believers (Christians) have not seen themselves as physical co-heirs with Yahudah. They have not seen that they might well be actual heirs to the promises made to the Patriarchs. Instead, many have been taught that they have replaced Jewish Yisra’el, or that they are spiritual Yisra’el. But, these believers have not seen themselves as part of the corporate (physical) people of the commonwealth of Yisra’el. And, they especially have not seen themselves as a people who need to be reunited with their brother Yahudah.
When Yahshua returns, we as his people will be freed! But before full restoration can come to pass, the price had to be paid. For YHWH has to adhere to His own Word. So, Yahshua cannot return until the punishment that YHVH mandated for those of Ephraim is completed. Praise YHWH we are now in the time of the completion of our punishment! We cannot be absolutely sure as to the exact beginning or end of YHWH’s decreed discipline. However, based on Scripture in Ezekiel and Leviticus, I believe starting in about 1996 and through 2008 Ephraim’s punishment is coming to end.
The ending of Ephraim’s punishment begins a new and accelerated phase of two house truth and national reconciliation with our brother Yahudah! Mainly since 1996 non-Jewish believers (Christians) began to see that there are two houses of Yisra’el, Ephraim and Yahudah, as described in Scripture. And, the believers now are beginning to come out of the Church. Isaiah 8:14 “And He shall be for a set-apart place, but a stone of stumbling and a rock that makes for falling to both the houses of Yisra’el, as a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Yerushalayim (Jerusalem)”. Further, it is evident that the two houses have not as yet been fully reunited as one Kingdom.
For the people of Yisra’el have not yet taken full possession of the Land. And, the Son of David is not ruling over us. So, it is in this day or age that people are beginning to see that Ephraimites are full-fledged members of the commonwealth of Yisra’el.
YHWH is now in the process of restoring Yahudah and Ephraim, the two sticks as His one united Kingdom! (Ezekiel 37:19-22).
We see this restoration in the parable of the fig tree. The generation that sees the fig tree blossom will see His return. (Matthew 24:32-34 HRV). “Learn you the parable from the fig tree, when its branch is tender and the leaves sprout you know that summer fruit is near”. “So likewise you, when you will see all these things, know that it is near, even at the door.” “Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away, until the whole is accomplished.” Notice, Vs 32 says, “Learn you the parable from the fig tree, when its branch is tender and the leaves sprout you know that summer fruit is near”.
This scripture says branch, not branches, indicating one stick. Also, there is a play on the
words “summer fruit”. When we go Amos 8:1-2 we see that the “summer fruit” is Yisra’el. Amos 8:1-2 says “This is what the Master YHWH showed me, and see, a basket of summer fruit. And He said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” And YHWH said to me, “The end has come upon my people Yisra’el, no longer do I pardon them.” Amos 8:1-2. From Amos we see that the summer fruit is the house of Yisra’el. Amos was a minor prophet to only the House of Yisra’el. He prophesied their demise and restoration. In the Matthew parable Yahshua was using the basket of fruit to indicate the beginning of the House of Yisra’el (Ephraim) being restored – coming out of their punishment and that the whole restoration was near. Unlike most who say that the fig tree blossomed in 1948 when Yahudah become a State, I personally believe the fig tree began to blossom in 1996 when the house of Yisra’el began to wake up to who they are and return to the Torah. Why? Because the punishment was coming to an end. I think the house of Yisra’el is the fig tree, not the house of Yahudah. Yahudah represents only 2 of the 12 tribes. And Yahudah never was called Yisra’el until they changed their name to Yisra’el in 1948. The basket of fruit (house of Yisra’el) is the harvested fig tree. The harvest of the house of Yisra’el will not be complete until all the 10 tribes of Yisra’el know their Messiah, realize their heritage and are living in the land with their brother Yahudah joining them. So Ephraim must now be instructed as to his heritage (Jeremiah 31:18-19), and Yahudah
to the identity of their Messiah (Romans 11). Then the two houses will become one reunited, victorious house of Yisra’el living in the land! (Isaiah 11:11-14). Ezekiel 37:19-22 “Say to them, ‘Thus said the Master YHWH, “See, I am taking the stick of Yoseph, which is in the hand of Ephrayim, and the tribes of Yisra’el, his companions. And I shall give them unto him, with the stick of Yahudah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in My hand.” ’ “And the sticks on which you write shall be in your hand before their eyes. “And speak to them, ‘Thus said the Master YHWH, “See, I am taking the children of Yisra’el from among the gentiles, wherever they have gone, and shall gather them from all around, and I shall bring them into their land. “And I shall make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Yisra’el. And one sovereign shall be sovereign over them all, and let them no longer be two nations, and let them no longer be divided into two reigns.” How will YHWH accomplish this massive task? We are the generation to whom the truth (Torah) and of the restoration of the two houses is now being revealed. The task of getting the word out about the two house message falls on us!
Now as I was putting this paper together I did come on to something new that I have never seen before that also may mean something to us today. I would like to read Ezekiel 4:1-8. “And you, son of man, take a clay tablet, and you shall lay it before you, and shall inscribe on it a city, Yerushalayim, and shall lay siege against it, and build a siege wall against it, and heap up a mound against it, and set camps against it, and place battering rams against it all around. “Then take an iron plate, and set it as an iron wall between you and the city. And you shall set your face against it, and it shall be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. It is a sign to the house of Yisra’el. “And lie on your left side, and you shall put the crookedness of the house of Yisra’el on it. As many days as you lie on it, you shall bear their crookedness. “For I Myself have laid on you the years of their crookedness, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days. And you shall bear the crookedness of the house of Yisra’el. “And when you have completed them, you shall lie again on your right side and shall bear the crookedness of the house of Yahudah forty days, a day for a year. I have laid on you a day for a year. “Then you shall set your face toward the siege of Yerushalayim, with your arm bared, and you shall prophesy against it. “And see, I shall put cords on you so that you do not turn from one side to another until you have completed the days of your siege.” Now remember that Yisra’el was taken into captivity in the 8th century BCE which was over a hundred years before Ezekiel was even born in the 6th century BCE. Since Yisra’el had been taken into captivity and dispersed by the time of Ezkiel's prophecies, anything he has to say about Yisra’el is for the future, because the fall of the house of Yisra’el was before Ezekiel’s time, so they never heard the warnings of Ezekiel, who is to be a Watchman to the House of Yisra’el. So this warning is for the children from Ezekiel’s time forward and on to us today.
Ezekiel 3:17 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Yisra’el. And you shall hear a word from My mouth, and shall warn them from Me.” Either Ezekiel did what he did and wrote a history lesson, or it is a prophecy for the future. I think this prophecy had already begun to happen by the time Ezekiel came on the scene and is also a prophecy being fulfilled throughout history to this day for both houses, and I might add, that it has already come to pass in our time as you will see later on. This Scripture is plainly a punishment situation and days and years are concerned. YHWH instructed Ezekiel to make a portrait (one translation says map) of Jerusalem. Ezekiel 4:1-3 “And you, son of man, take a clay tablet, and you shall lay it before you, and shall inscribe on it a city, Yerushalayim and shall lay siege against it, and build a siege wall against it, and heap up a mound against it, and set camps against it, and place battering rams against it all around. “Then take an iron plate, and set it as an iron wall between you and the city. And you shall set your face against it, and it shall be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. It is a sign to the house of Yisra’el.” Now notice carefully, that Ezekiel is to bear the iniquity, not to symbolize it but he was ACTUALLY TO BEAR THE INIQUITY of the house of Yisra’el and the house of Yahudah in his own body: Ezekiel 4:4-5 “And lie on your left side, and you shall put the crookedness of the house of Yisra’el on it. As many days as you lie on it, you shall bear their crookedness. “For I Myself have laid on you the years of their crookedness, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days. And you shall bear the crookedness of the house of Yisra’el."
The iron plate is behind Ezekiel. Ezekiel 4:3 “Then take an iron plate, and set it as an iron wall between you and the city. And you shall set your face against it, and it shall be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. It is a sign to the house of Yisra’el.” He is also tied up. Yehezqel 3:25; 24:7 “Put cords on you and bind you with them, so that you do not go out in their midst.”
This shows that what he is portraying is captivity. Notice that this is different from Numbers 14:36 where Yisra’el was to bear their own iniquity. This time EZEKIEL IS TO BEAR THE INIQUITY of these two houses, who, remember the house of Yisra’el had been taken captive over a hundred years earlier. Since, Ezekiel personally bore the iniquity of Yisra’el in his flesh, is Ezekiel a "suffering servant," or is there something more at play here? In addition, notice: Ezekiel 4:6 "And when you have completed them, lie again on your right side; then you shall bear the iniquity of the House of Yahudah forty days. I have laid on you a day for each year.
Therefore, EZEKIEL IS PERSONALLY TO BEAR INIQUITY, this time for Yahudah. Since he was in captivity during the siege days show that he bore their iniquity--which was captivity. Also all the things that were to happen to Jerusalem, were to be a sign to Yisra’el (Ezekiel 4:3).
More on the Punishment of Ephraim in July’s edition! Most of this article was taken from a teaching given by Allen Dodge of Beit Emet Congregation in Vancouver, WA.
Blessings and Shalom! Saya
The Prodigal Son is Ephraim coming home!
