Misconception #34 (Cont’d)
Not Even God Can Find the Lost Tribes of Israel
There are three questions we need to answer if we’re to solve the age-old mystery surrounding the Lost Tribes of Israel. One, why did God scatter the House of Israel amongst the nations in the first place? Two, if these northern tribes were lost to history, does that mean God lost track of them, too? And three, is it God’s intention that they remain lost forever?
First, let’s look at what the Scriptures say about why God scattered the northern House of Israel. In The Book of Leviticus, we find the origin of God’s intention toward them, when He said:
I am the Lord your God Who rescued you from Egypt so that you’d no longer be slaves to them. But if you resist My laws, hate My statutes, and scorn My judgments, I’ll oppose you, and you’ll be destroyed by your enemies. And if you refuse to obey Me, I’ll punish you seven times more for your sins.1
This same idea repeats three more times, in the next ten verses, and then God said:
Because And if, in spite of all these things, you still refuse to listen to Me … then I’ll scatter you among the heathen, and your cities will lie desolate.”2
But why would God do something like that? Why doesn’t He just punish the people and be done with it? Why does He have to remove them from the land, too? The following verses explain why.
Then the land will finally enjoy the Sabbaths so long as your land lies desolate and you remain in the land of your enemies. As long as your land remains uninhabitable, then it will rest, even as it didn’t rest during the time that you resided there.3
Story Continues Below
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Story Continues From Above
So there’s the answer to one of our questions. God scattered the people of Israel so that the land would finally be able to fulfill His plan; in this case, in regard to the much-misunderstood concept of the Sabbath rest, which typifies what The Book of Hebrews speaks of when it describes the rest that follows the work of faith.
We who have had faith have entered into that rest. Whereas God spoke in another place about the seventh day in this regard: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works.” Therefore, there remains a rest for the people of God, because whoever enters into His rest, has also ceased from his own works, just as God did from His.4
In other words, when God’s people live according to the precepts of faith, they, too, can expect to rest in that accomplishment, even as God rested on the seventh day of His creation. This, then, is the true meaning of Sabbath rest.
The real significance of this is, for most of the time that the Children of Israel lived in Palestine, they’d lost sight of the true purpose for which God had placed them there. They weren’t there simply for their own sakes; God had a much greater purpose in mind, a purpose they usually squandered. That’s why God removed them from the land, so they might finally turn from their old ways of disobedience, which could only be done after they’d been carried away into captivity. Only then could the Israelites return to the kind of faith they’d all but forgotten about after so many years of false religion, fostered by the belief that they’d always be God’s darlings, no matter what they did to provoke Him.
The next question, then, is: Once the northern tribes of Israel were carried away into captivity, did God lose track of them in their lost condition? The prophet Amos gives us a hint of God’s perspective of this global drama.
See how I observe even this sinful kingdom, having destroyed it from the face of the Earth, yet I have not utterly wiped out the House of Jacob. Look at how I’ve commanded so that I’ll sift the House of Israel throughout every nation, as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet I haven’t lost track of a single grain.5
Based on this passage, then, it would seem obvious that God has never lost sight of the Lost Tribes. The prophet Hosea confirmed this same idea when he had God saying, “Israel isn’t hidden from Me, for I see that she’s defiled.”6
In fact, God was so intent on Hosea conveying this message of Israel’s defilement, He commanded him to do the unthinkable… The first thing the Lord did—to ram His message down the proverbial throat of an entire nation—was to have Hosea marry a prostitute! Then He had His prophet name his three children by this woman according to a specific aspect of the divine judgment that, because of their idolatry and disobedience, would soon overtake them.
And Hosea’s wife bore him a son whom he named Jezreel, because God said, “Soon I’ll cause the kingdom of Israel to cease.”
Then his wife bore him a daughter whom he named Loruhamah, because God said, “I’ll no longer have mercy on the House of Israel, but will allow them to be carried away into captivity.”
And finally, his wife gave birth to yet another son whom Hosea named Loammi, because God said, “You’re no longer My people, and I won’t be your God.”7
Just imagine the stunned look on the faces of those Israelites when they saw one of God’s own prophets had married a whore—and had three kids by her, to boot! The only thing more shocking, I’m sure, would’ve been the look on any of the faces of those who’d come to understand what God was trying to tell them through Hosea’s actions.
Fortunately for all involved, though, the story of Israel’s disgrace was destined to not end on such a dismal note, because, as bizarre as it certainly appeared to the uninitiated, the Lord was still working out an important purpose in all of this. Just when all hope seemed lost, God interjected a remarkable twist to this ongoing drama—a grand soap opera of the ages, if you will. Without even pausing between sentences, Hosea then prophesied of the day when Israel’s downfall would actually lead to a new day of hope and restoration. On the heels of the previous passages of doom, the prophet declared:
Yet the number of the Children of Israel will be as the sand of the sea that cannot be measured or numbered, and someday, in the very place where it was said, “You’re not My people,” even there it will be said, “You are the children of the Living God.”8
