Misconception #34
Not Even God Can Find the Lost Tribes of Israel
But King Solomon loved many strange women;1 so says The Bible, speaking of the same man who had once been called the wisest man in the world.
The Wisdom of Solomon was said to have been as measureless as the sand on the seashore, greater than all the wisdom of the East, greater than all of Egypt. He was said to have written three hundred proverbs and more than a thousand songs. Solomon was so wise, in fact, that people from every nation in the ancient world came to hear him speak, among them, the fabled Queen of Sheba.2 Solomon, son of David, and builder of the splendors of the Temple of God at Jerusalem; Solomon, the man who loved many strange women, and whose many wives eventually turned his heart after other gods.3
So the Lord became angry with Solomon, because in his old age his heart turned away from the God of Israel, so He told him:
Because you’ve done this thing … I will tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your own officials. But for the sake of your father David, I won’t do this while you’re alive, but I’ll tear it out of the hand of your son.
Still, I won’t tear the whole kingdom from him, but I’ll give him one tribe for My servant David’s sake and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I’ve chosen.4
In this way, Solomon went from being the wisest man in the world, unmatched in wealth, power, and prestige, to the man who was responsible for dividing the Kingdom of Israel that had stood united for more than a hundred years. Thus, the stage was set for a new chapter in the drama of God’s people.
Story Continues Below
To hear Kent and Zen Garcia talk about correcting biblical misconceptions, from September 9th, 2021, CLICK BELOW.
Story Continues From Above
And what a drama it’s been, from the moment that Moses led the Israelites through the parted Red Sea, through forty years of wandering through the Wilderness en route to their new home, with just a slight detour at Mount Sinai along the way. Then, triumphantly entering the Promised Land after having conquered the land under the leadership of Joshua, the Israelites settled there—a chosen people separated to their God.
At first, they were ruled by a series of judges, by the likes of Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson. But afterward, the people demanded a king to rule over them; and although God preferred being their King, He eventually relented and provided them with a dynasty of human kings—first Saul, then David, then his son Solomon.
And although the people of Israel seemed at first to have gotten what they’d wished for, there was never a time in the history of these kings that there wasn’t some form of controversy. The issue came down to just one thing: Could a nation born by the miraculous intervention of a Supreme Being be ruled by that same Deity—whether by His own hand or through some human intermediary?
To this day, sadly, the answer remains very much in doubt…
Around 900 B.C., a revolution divided the kingdom, with the ten tribes of Israel to the north and the two tribes of Judah to the south.
For the next two hundred years, the northern kingdom of Israel would see the rise and fall of nineteen kings, springing from nine different dynastic families. The southern kingdom of Judah would follow a much different pattern, though just as troublesome. For more than three hundred years, they would see the ascension of nineteen kings and one queen, all originating from the line of David.
Eventually, as a form of divine punishment, both kingdoms were destroyed by invading armies, with the House of Israel being carried away by the Assyrians around 722 B.C. and the House of Judah, by the Babylonians around 586 B.C. But whereas the House of Judah remained fairly intact during their Babylonian captivity, it was the unique fate of the House of Israel to receive the specific judgment of being scattered throughout the nations. That’s when, according to the traditional view of history, the northern ten tribes seemed to vanish from the face of the Earth, and why they became known ever after as the Lost Tribes of Israel.
But is that really the final chapter to the story? Is tradition correct in its view that these so-called “lost tribes” are gone forever, never to be seen or heard from again? Or, as we’ve seen time and time again, does The Bible actually portray a far different picture?
