WHAT HAPPENED TO THE LOST TRIBES? 

                           Part One 

                             by 

                       Brian Williams 

                            (1967)

A Sermon preached by BRIAN WILLIAMS at the Civic Theatre,

Chelmsford Saturday, 24th June, 1967

     "Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed

them out of His sight there was none left but the tribe of Judah

only ... So was Israel carried away out of their own land into

Assyria unto this day." - 2 Kings 17 :18, 23.

     "Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the

sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it

shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto

slum, Ye are not my people, there it a hall be said unto them, Ye

are the sans of the living God:" - Hoses 1:10

     "I say then, hath God cast away His people? God forbid ...

God hath not east away His people which He foreknew." - Romans 11

:1,2.

     THE seventeenth chapter of the Second Book of Kings is one

of the saddest in the whole of God's Word because it tells of the

way in which first Israel and then Judah departed from the Lord.

          You will recall that the plan of God as revealed to us

in the Bible was to bring a nation into existence to whom He

could teach His laws and His commandments, so that by the keeping

of those commandments and the keeping of God's laws that nation

would be blessed above all the nations out the world. It would be

a servant nation, it would be a model nation; and as a result of

their obedience and their blessedness, all the other nations of

the world would glorify the Lord God of Israel. The Bible says,

"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom

He lath chosen for His own inheritance."

     So to understand the revelation of the Bible at all, we must

understand this fact of God's purpose in bringing the Israel

nation into existence. We remember that God had made many

wonderful promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, concerning the

nation that was to spring from their loins, this nation whose

destiny ultimately was to rule with God. The very name itself,

Is-ra-el, means ruling with God or prince with God. We know also

that when the Lord Jesus Christ returns, He shall reign as King

of kings and Lord of lords, and this nation of Israel which He

created in the first place shall also reign with Him.

     What I want us to see is that God has not changed boats

midstream, that He has never gone back upon His Word, that He has

not failed to keep His promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

     Rather, the Lord Jesus Christ came to confirm the promises

made unto the fathers, and the only reason that there are so many

different interpretations of the prophetic Word is that people

have failed rightly to divide the Word of truth: they have failed

to make the necessary distinction between Israel and the Jews.

(1) The JEWS ARE NOT ISRAEL. 

     Anyone who is not certain as to this fundamental difference

between Israel and the Jews will find in one book "Britain in

Prophecy" all the information he needs, and there are scriptures

which show that Israel and the Jews are still two entirely

separate people when Christ returns. (This book in its entirety

is on this Website under this section devoted to the prophecies

of the Bible - Keith Hunt).

     God's Word interprets itself, and all we have to do is to

learn rightly to divide the Word of truth, and learn also to

humble our-selves and be willing to be corrected by God's Word,

and not just read it according to our own preconceived nations

and ideas.

     In the First and Second Book of Kings and the First and

Second Book of Chronicles we have related for us the history of

these two nations or kingdoms, the one kingdom of Israel, and the

other kingdom of Judah who ultimately became known as the Jews.

     You will recall that when the Israel people came out of

Egypt in the exodus led by Moses, there were twelve tribes of

Israel. If you have maps in the back of your Bible you will

almost certainly have a map showing the division of Cannon - the

promised land - amongst the twelve tribes. You will see the

portion of land that was allotted to each one.

     Then you will find that in the first two verses of Psalm 114

God says, "When Israel - that is to say, the twelve tribes - went

out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange

language; Judah was His sanctuary, and Israel His dominion." so,

in the mind of God, long before there was any division of the

twelve tribes into Israel and Judah, the division already

existed; and it existed for a very good purpose inasmuch as it

would ultimately affect the destiny, the salvation, of every

human being that has ever lived. That may sound an astonishing

statement to make, but if you will bear that in mind and remember

those important verses m Psalm 114, you will see that that is

true!

     The Bible speaks in Jeremiah 33, verse 24, of "The two

families which the Lord bath chosen," that is to say, Judah and

Israel. Elsewhere we read of two houses, or two kingdoms, or two

nations, or - in Ezekiel - of two sisters that were married to

the Lord, In the "Illustrated Bible Geography and Atlas,"  it

contains coloured maps clearly showing the division of Canaan,

among the Twelve Tribes, and the later Kingdoms of Judah and

Israel, you may find most helpful.  

     Now, bear in mind that Kings and Chronicles, these four

books of the Bible, tell us the history of the two people which

the Lord had chosen, and the way in which they cam, to be divided

up into two nations was simply this. For some five hundred years

the twelve tribes were more or less united, but in the time of

Rehoboam [938-921 B.C.], who was the son of Solomon, there was a

revolt amongst the twelve tribes - civil war if you like - and

the result was that ten tribes broke away and called themselves

Israel, the leading tribe of which was Joseph; while the other

two tribes that remained were Judah and Benjamin and they called

themselves Judah. In Kings and Chronicles we have the history of

these two nations.

     Unfortunately, a lot of people say that Israel is the Jews,

and that is one of the biggest lies that the devil has ever told.

It is one of the biggest deceptions that has ever taken in

expositors of God's Word. In fact, the very first time that the

word 'Jew' is used in scripture is in 2 Kings, chapter 16 and

verse six, where you will find that Israel were fighting the

Jews, so how can they be the same people? And the Bible says that

in the last days the house of Judah shall walk to the house of

Israel and they shall come together into the land. So if you look

at that very carefully you will find that Israel and the Jews

were entirely two separate people.

(2) HOW THE TEN TRIBES OF ISRAEL CAME TO BE LOST. 

     Now here in Second Kings, chapter seventeen, the Bible says,

"In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah began Hoshea the son

of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel nine years." The Northern

kingdom of Israel had broken away from Judah and had established

as their capital the city of Samaria, while Judah who were

ultimately known as the Jews had as their capital Jerusalem. The

King of Israel reigned in Samaria, the King of Judah reigned in

Jerusalem. So Ahaz king of Judah had been already reigning in

Judah for twelve years when Hoshea the son of Elah came to the

throne and reigned over Israel from Samaria.

"And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, but not

as the kings of Israel that were before him. Against him came up

Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and

gave him presents." 

     How delightful are some of the verses in the Bible; what

volumes we can read into them! Here we find that Hoshea king of

Israel has become a vassal of Shalmaneser king of Assyria, and so

he gives him a present from time to time just to keep on the

right side of him! "And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in

Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and

brought no present to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by

year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in

prison." Hoshea had sent messengers to King So who was the king

of Egypt, and had not sent a present that year to the king of

Assyria. This upset the king of Assyria very much and was just

the provocation that he needed to go against Israel and

take them all away captive. You see the wonderful human element

in what some people might think awfully dull history!

"The king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and

went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years. In the ninth

year of Hashes [722 B.C.], the king of Assyria took Samaria, and

carried Israel away into Assyria," - all the Israelites, all the

people of the ten tribes of Israel, were carried away by this

great Assyrian army - "and placed them in Halah and in Haber by

the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes."

     Now the Bible tells us quite clearly why God permitted this:

"For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against

the Lord their God, which had brought them up out of the land of

Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had

feared other gods, and walked in the statutes of the heathen,

whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel, and of

the kings of Israel, which they had made. And the children of

Israel did secretly these things that were not right against the

Lord their God, and they built them high places in all their

cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. And

they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under

every green tree: and there they burnt incense in all the high

places, as did the heathen whom the Lord carried away before

them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger:

for they served idols, whereof the Lord had said unto them, Ye

shall not do this thing."

     Now in Deuteronomy, chapter 26, verse 16, we find what God

said to Israel, that is to say the twelve tribes, before they

went into the promised land: 

"This day the Lord thy God hath commanded thee to do these

statutes and judgments: thou shalt therefore keep and do them

with all thine heart, and with all thy soul. Thou hast avouched

the Lord this day to be thy God, and to walk in His ways, and to

keep His statutes, and His commandments, and His judgments, and

to harken unto His voice: and the Lord bath avouched thee, this

day to be His peculiar people, as He bath promised thee, and that

thou shouldest keep all His commandments; and to make thee high

above all nations which He bath made, in praise, and in name, and

in honour; and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the Lord

thy God, as He bath spoken."

     You understand the principle. God revealed Himself to

Israel. He did not for the time being reveal Himself to any of

the other nations of mankind, but He revealed Himself peculiarly

to Israel, and when He gave to them the ten commandments they

understood something of the character and righteousness of God.

By those ten commandments they knew that God was holy and

righteous and just and perfect. And the commandments of God are

not grievous; they were not intended to produce bondage, but they

are a mirror, if you like, so that when we look into the mirror

of God's Law we see whether we are clean or ditty. And so it is

God's commandments which establish the fact of sin, because sin

is the transgression of the law. Every one of us have broken

God's Commandments and therefore the Bible says that we are

sinners.

     And just as for every law there must be a penalty for

breaking that law, so the Bible says that "the wages of sin is

death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ

our Lord." So God said to Israel, "I will make you the greatest

nation if you will keep my commandments," which we know that they

were not able to do, as we shall see later on. God knew full well

that no nation in the world could ever attain unto true

righteousness and holiness by mere external formal obedience to

God's commandments.

     Man can only keep God's commandments as he has the grace of

God in his heart, as he is redeemed by the precious blood of

Jesus, and as he has a new nature and a new character; then the

commandments are written on his heart, and he is able to walk

before God as God desire.

     The Lord said to Israel, "If you will keep my commandments,

I will be your God and you shall be my people, and I will make

you the greatest people in the world, so that all other nations

shall see how blessed you are by keeping my commandments." And

so, of course, all the other nations would have to acknowledge

the God that made Israel great. I am sure you can see the

principle of that!

     Now if you look in Deuteronomy, chapter 28, you will see

that the Lord left Israel in no doubt as to where they stood:

"And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt harken diligently unto

the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all His

commandments which I command the, this day, that the Lord thy God

will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: and all

these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee if thou

halt harken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. Blessed shalt

thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.

Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy

ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kin,

and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy

store. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed

shalt thou be when thou goest out The Lord shall cause thine

enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face:

they shall come out against the, one way, and flee before thee

seven ways. The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy

storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and He

shall bless thee, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

The Lord shall establish thee an holy people unto Himself, as

He hath sworn unto thee, if thou shall keep the commandments of

the Lord thy God, and walk in His ways. And all people of

the earth" - please notice this, for this was the purpose of God

in bringing Israel into existence as a nation - "shall see that

thou art called by the name of the Lord; and they, shall be

afraid of thee. And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods,

in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in

the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the Lord sware unto

thy fathers to give thee. The Lord shall open unto thee His good

treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his

season, and to bless all the Work of thine hand: and thou shalt

lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow. And the Lord

shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be

above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou harken

unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee

this day, to observe and to do them: and thou shalt not go aside

from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right

hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them."

          What a marvellous destiny God promised to the children

of Israel if only they would walk in obedience to His

commandments! God said, "I Will make you the greatest nation in

the world; you will enjoy peace, health, prosperity, true

happiness in every sense of the word," and God's ways are sell

the same today, and the reason why this world is so full of

frustration, misery, despair, sin, hatred and wickedness, is

because it has turned its back upon God's laws; because man in

his wisdom which he thinks is superior to God's, has turned his

back upon everything that God has said and gone his own way. The

Bible says, "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but

the end thereof are the ways of death." "The way of peace they

know not."

     God promised marvellous blessings to Israel if only they

would walk in obedience to His laws, keep His commandments and

obey His Word. God said, "I will bless you above all the nations

of the world." "But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not

harken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all

His commandments and His statutes which I command thee this day;

that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake the:

cursed shalt thou he in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the

field. Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store. Cursed shall be

the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of

thy kin,, and the flocks of thy sheep. Cursed shalt thou be when

thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when then go est out.

The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke in

all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be

destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the

wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me. The Lord

shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until He have

consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess

it. The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a

fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and

with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they

shall pursue thee until thou perish. And thy heaven that is over

thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall

be iron. The Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and

dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be

destroyed. The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine

enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven

ways before them : and shalt he removed into all the kingdoms of

the earth."

(3) THE TEN TRIBES WENT INTO CAPTIVITY AND NEVER RETURNED.

     Everything that God said came to pass. Thus we read in the

Second Book of Kings, chapter 17 and verse 13: "Yet the

Lord testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the

prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil

ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all

the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you

by my servants the prophets. Not-withstanding they would not

hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their

fathers, that they did not believe in the Lord their God. And

they rejected His statutes, and His covenant that He made with

their fathers, and His testimonies which He testified against

them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after

the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the Lord

had charged them, that they should not do like them. And they

left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made them

molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped

all the host of heaven, and served Baal. And they caused their

sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used

divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in

the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. Therefore the

Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of His

sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only."

     The Israelites never went back to the promised land! They

never went back! The Lord removed them out of His sight: there

was none left but the tribe of Judah only. And as if to emphasize

the importance of what is being said, verse 23 says again, "The

Lord removed Israel out of His sight, as He had said by all His

servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their

own land to Assyria unto this day." 

     That is to say, when this particular book of the Bible was

written, the Israelites were still in captivity, they were still

there in Assyria, and never at any time in Bible days or since

have the Israelites ever returned to Palestine.

     If anyone is dis-inclined to believe the Word of God, let

him go to any library and consult any standard work of reference,

any book on the history of the peoples of the east, and let him

read what happened in the eighth century B.C. Any and every

history book you care to examine will tell you that between 735

and 670 millions of Israelites were carried captive by the

Assyrians, and every one of those history books will tell you

that nobody to this day knows what happened to all those

Israelites. Except a few Holy Ghost Christians! Glory to God!

     I want to let you into a secret! Turn to Romans, chapter 11,

and the first two. There Paul asks the question, "I say then,

hath God cast away His people? God forbid. For I also am an

Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God

hath not cast away His people which He foreknew."

     How strange it is that most of our churches are preaching

diametrically the opposite to what Christ taught! They say that

God finished with Israel because they did not keep His

commandments, that He cast them off, finished with them, and then

had to start something else called the Church of God to make up

for the awful mistake that He made when He chose Israel.

     But Jesus Christ came to confirm the promises made unto the

fathers! "God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the Son

of man, that He should repent: hath He said, and shall He not do

it? or has He spoken, and shall He not make it good?" 

     Did not Jesus say that He had chosen Israel, and that they

should be a holy nation unto Himself? Well then, let us believe

the Word of God, and not the tradition of some of the churches!

Let us believe what God says. "Let God be true, but every man a

liar."

     Let us go back then to Second Kings, chapter 17, and we

shall see the continuation of the story. Remember, the ten tribes

of Israel have been carried captive into Assyria because of their

great wickedness: "The Lord was very angry with Israel, and

removed them out of His sight: there was none left but the tribe

of Judah only. Also Judah kept not the commandments of the Lord

their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made.

And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel," - that means He

rejected all twelve tribes. He had already rejected the ten

tribes that went into Assyria and now 130 years afterwards He

rejected the two tribes - "and afflicted them, and delivered them

into the hand of spoilers, until He had cast them out of His

sight. For He rent Israel from the house of David;" - this is

recapitulating on what has gone before "and they made Jeroboam

the son of Nebat king and Jeroboam drave Israel from following

the Lord, and made them sin a great sin. For the children of

Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they

departed not from them; until the Lord removed Israel out of His

sight, as He had said by all His servants the prophets. So was

Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this

day." 

     As we have already said, they never returned to Palestine.

"And the king of Assyria brought men front Babylon, and from

Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim and

placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of

Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities

thereof. And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there,

that they feared not the Lord: therefore the Lord sent lions

among them, which slew some of them. Wherefore they spake to the

king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou hast removed, and

placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God

of the land: therefore He hath sent lions among them, and,

behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner of the

God of the land. Then the king of Assyria  commanded, saying,

Carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought from thence; and

let him teach them the manner of the God of the land."

     Remember, these people that now came to live in Samaria were

not Israelites, nor were they ever converted to the Lord God of

Israel..."Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from

Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should

fear the Lord. Howbeit every nation made gods of their own, and

put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans

had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt ... So

they feared the Lord, and made unto themselves of the lowest of

them priests of the high places, which sacrificed for then, in

the houses of the high places. They feared the Lord, and served

their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they carried

away from thence. Unto this day they do after the former manners:

they fear not the Lord, neither do they after their statutes, or

after their ordinances, or after the law and commandment which

the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, Whom He named Israel;

with whom the Lord had made covenant, and charged them, saying Ye

shall not fear other gods, or bow yourselves to them, nor serve

them, nor sacrifice to them: but the Lord, who brought you up out

of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched out arm,

Him shall ye fear, and Him shall ye worship, and to Him shall ye

do sacrifice. And the statutes, and the ordinances, and the law,

and the commandment, which He wrote for you, ye shall observe to

do for evermore; and ye shall not fear other gods. And the

covenant that I have made with you ye shall not forget; neither

shall ye fear other gods. But the Lord your God ye shall fear;

and He shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.

Howbeit they did not harken, but they did after their former

manner. So these nations feared the Lord, and served their graven

images, both their children, and their children's children: as

did their fathers, so do they unto this day."

     What a tragic story, and what an apparently ignominious end

to God's people! Ten tribes carried into captivity; millions of

Israelites carried captive into Assyria never to return to their

own land, leaving behind two tribes of Judah that kept God's

commandments a little better than their Israelite fellows had

done and enjoyed intermittent revival, until they too apostatised

so badly that God had to write them off, or so it seemed. By this

time the Assyrian power had fallen and the great empire which

took its place was Babylon. The king of Babylon came and took

Judah captive, and carried them all away into Babylon, leaving no

one behind save a few stragglers, just a tiny remnant of the

people ...

(4) THE JEWS RETURNED TO PALESTINE BUT ISRAEL DID NOT. 

     You might have thought that that was the end of the story

and that God had slipped up somehow, because He had had such high

hopes and expectations of these twelve tribes of His Israel

people, and now they had failed Him so miserably and God had

apparently finished with them and sent them all away, just like

He promised, just like He warned through His prophets.

     But now we are to look at another key chapter in the Bible,

Hosea chapter one. Hosea prophesied before Israel was carried

into Assyria and before Judah was carried into Babylon. He

prophesied about 785 B.C., that is to say, rather more than sixty

years before the fall of Samaria [722 B.C.] and the final

capitulation of Israel to the invading Assyrian armies.

"The word of the Lord that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in

the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Bud Hezekiah, kings of Judah,

and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel. The

beginning of the word of the Lord by HosEA. And the Lord said to

Hosea, "Go, take unto the, a wife of whoredoms and children of

whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing

from the Lord."

     Now the Bible says that when God made His covenant, the old

covenant, with His Israel people, He was married to them. But the

Bible talks about Him divorcing Israel, putting away His wife,

because Israel had gone after other lovers. Israel had committed

whoredom by going after false gods; she had committed adultery,

and so the Bible says that the Lord Jesus wrote them a bill of

divorce, although He was married to Israel and had been good to

His wife. So here, Hosea is commanded of God to take certain

steps which would enact the fate of the people of God. He was to

marry an unfaithful woman. "So he went and took Gomer the

daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bare him a son. And the

Lord said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little

while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of

Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of

Israel." 

     This was before it happened ! More than sixty years before

Israel was taken captive to Assyria and lost, God said through

His prophet that it was going to happen! "And it shall come to

pass at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the

valley of Jezreel. And she conceived again, and bare a daughter.

And God said unto him, Call her name Lo-ruhamah: for I will no

more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take

then, away."

     The name 'Ruhamah' means mercy, and 'Lo' means 'not;' so God

said, "I want you to call your little girl Lo-ruhamah - no

mercy - because I will not have mercy upon the house of Israel;

but I will utterly take them away. But I will have mercy upon the

house of Judah, and will save them by the Lord their God, and

will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by

horses, nor by horsemen."

     We have seen already that the ten tribes of Israel were

carried captive into Assyria, and 130 years later the two tribes

of Judah, having also forsaken, their God, were carried captive

into Babylon.

God would give them light

 by Brian Williams

 (a sermon given in 1967)

     We have seen already that the ten tribes of Israel were

carried captive into Assyria, and 130 years later the two tribes

of Judah, having also forsaken their God, were carried captive

into Babylon.

     But after seventy years, under Cyrus king of Persia, the

Jews were permitted to leave Babylon and come all the way back to

Palestine, and their descendants were there in Jesus' day. 

     How did they come back? They did not have to fight their way

back!  They were given permission to return to Jerusalem to

rebuild the city and to rebuild the temple, exactly fulfilling

what God had said through His prophet Hosea "Who is he that

saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?"

How can you know a tree prophet?

     When he says a thing is going to happen and it comes to

pass, just like he said! "But I will have mercy upon the house of

Judah, and will save them by the Lord their God, and will not

save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by

horsemen." How marvellously that was fulfilled! Read the books of

Ezra and Nehemiah, and you will find that 42,360 Jews took the

opportunity to return, together with some seven thousand other

people, making just about fifty thousand people that undertook

the long trek from Babylon to Jerusalem, and to rebuild the city

and to rebuild the house of God. And the descendent, of this

mixed multitude were there in Jesus' day, the only surviving

recognisable remnant of God's people, because the ten tribes had

gone into Assyria and were apparently lost. Nobody would now

recognize them as being God's people. And of all the Jews that

had gone into Babylon, only fifty thousand returned and the

others were dispersed. It was the descendants of that remnant of

the Jews that returned to Palestine that was there in Jesus' day.

     Now the Bible says, "Now when she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she

conceived, and bare a son. Then said God, Call his name Loammi:

for ye am not my people, and I will not be your God." The

name 'Ammi' means 'My people,' the word 'Lo' means 'Not,' so

when He said, Call your little boy Lo-ammi, it means 'Not my

people' or 'No people'. So Hosea has three children by his

unfaithful wife. The first one is called 'I will have my

revenge,' the second is called 'No mercy,' and the third is

called 'No people,' revealing picturesquely the forthcoming fate

of the ten tribes of Israel.

(5) SURE PROOF OF ISRAEL'S IDENTITY. 

     Now here is one of the key verses in all the Bible, Hosea

chapter one, verse ten. If you cannot understand this verse then

I guarantee that you cannot understand the Bible! "Yet the number

of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which

cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that

in the place where it was said unto them, Ye am not my people,

there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living

God."

     Remember what we have seen in 2 Kings 17. Israel gone into

captivity in Assyria never to return, the Jews gone into

captivity in Babylon and permitted to return after seventy years.

Gad says to Israel, I will have my revenge. You who are no longer

obtaining mercy, you who are no longer am people, I am no longer

your God. Yet in spite of all that, "the number of the children

of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be

measured nor numbered." God says He will make this Israel people

so great in number, who shall be able to number the fourth part

of them? They are the thousands of Manasseh and the ten thousands

of Ephraim!

     God says that in spite of the fact of His not having mercy

on Israel, of finishing with them, and sending them into

captivity never to return, He will make them as the sand of the

sea for number, "and it shall come to pass, that in the place

where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall

be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God."

     What does that mean, sons of the living God? The Bible says,

"He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many

as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God,

even to them that believe on His name." It means Christians. The

Bible says, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed

upon us, that we should be called the sons of God therefore the

world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not. Beloved, now are

we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be:

but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for

we shall see Him as He is."

     Hath God cast away His people which He foreknew? Paul says,

with all the power at his command, "God forbid." How could God

cast off the people to whom He had made such glorious and exceed-

ing great and precious promises, that they should be a people

after His own heart? How could God do away with this people and

so nullify the promise made to Abraham when He said, "In blessing

I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as

the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea

shore, and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in

thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because

thou hast obeyed my voice", and, when He promised "In Isaac shall

thy seed be called"; when He said, "Jacob have I loved, but Esau

have I hated"; and when He said, "I am God Almighty: be fruitful

and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee,

and kings shall came out of thy loins," all of which promises

were to be fulfilled "in the last days"

     Praise the Lord! Everywhere in the Bible we find that the

last days are shown to be this Christian dispensation. Look at

Hebrews, chapter one, and the first two verses: "God, who at

sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the

fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us

by His Son." So the last days are the days of the Christian

dispensation when the good news of the gospel is sounding forth

throughout the ends of the earth, and God said that in the last

days, Joseph's descendants would be "a nation and a company of

nations". From his elder son Manasseh would come a great people,

and from his younger son Ephraim would come a multitude, or

fullness, of nations that would be as the dust of the earth,

spreading abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north,

and to the south, inhabiting the waste places of the earth; a

people blessed with blessings of heaven above and the earth

beneath and the deep that lieth under; a people blessed above all

the nations of the world; a people that would take the gospel

throughout the ends of the earth, because they would be the sons

of the living God.

     What happened? O glory to God! God did not break one of His

promises. Oh how I wish could proclaim this to Billy Graham's

congregation at Earl's Court Arena tonight! I wish I could shout

it from every rooftop and proclaim it from every pulpit: "Blessed

be the Lord God of Israel; for He bath visited and redeemed His

people." How did He do it? We have read it so many times this

week: let us look again at Isaiah, chapter 53. God sent His

prophet to speak to Israel, and he said, "Who hath believed our

report?"; and who will believe the message that we bring? It is

almost too fantastic for words! "Who bath believed our report,

and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For He shall grow up

before Him as a tender plant, and as a mot out of a dry ground:

He bath no form or comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there

is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and

rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and

we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we

esteemed Him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried

our Sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and

afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was

bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was

upon Him; and with His stripes we am healed. All we like sheep

have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and

the Lord bath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was

oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His month: He

is brought as a Iamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her

shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His month. He was taken from

prison and from judgment: and who shall declare His generation?

for He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the

transgression of my people was He stricken. And He made His grave

with the wicked, and with the rich in His death; because He had

done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it

pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He bath put Him to grief: when

Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His

seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord

shall prosper in His hand. He shall see of the travail out His

soul, he shall be satisfied: by His knowledge shall my righteous

Servant justify many; for He shall hear their iniquities

Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great, and He

shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He bath poured

out His soul unto death: and He was numbered with the

transgressors; and He bare the sin of many, and made intercession

for the transgressors."

     What happened? Israel was carried away captive. God said I

will have my revenge, you will no longer be my people and I will

not be your God, and I will utterly take you away. But in spite

of that, that the promises made to Abraham and the fathers might

stand, and that all the World might wonder at the grace, the

love, the compassion, the mercy, the incomparable Wisdom of

Almighty God, God says He will make His Israel people so great in

number that it is impossible to count them, and in the place

where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, it will he

said of them, You are Christians, sons of the living God. In the

last days of this Christian dispensation, the ten tribes of

Israel are to have became a Christian nation.

     How could it come about? By redemption. To redeem means to

buy back something that belonged to you in the first place. The

Bible says, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for He hath

visited and redeemed His people." "Thou shalt call His name

JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins." O glory to

God!

     "Paschal Lamb, by God appointed, All our sins on Thee were

     laid; By almighty love anointed, Thou hast full atonement

     made: All Thy people are forgiven Through the virtue of Thy

     blood; Opened is the gate of heaven;

     Peace is made 'twixt men and God."

     May we close with Jeremiah, chapter 31, verse 31, to round

off what we have said: 

"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new

covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in

the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the

land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an

husband unto them, saith the Lard: But this shall be the covenant

that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days,

saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and

write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall

be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his

neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for

they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest

of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I

will remember their sin no more. Thus saith the Lord, which

giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon

and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea

when the waves thereof roar; The Lord of hosts is His name: If

those Ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the

seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me far

ever. Thus saith the Lord, If heaven above can be measured, and

the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also

cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done,

saith the Lard."

     O that we might understand the matchless grace of God! How

would the new covenant be established with the house of Israel?

How could God have mercy upon this people whom He had cast

off for breaking the very commandments, the keeping of which

would make them to be the greatest people in the world? Read

Matthew 26, verse 26: "And as they were eating, Jesus took bread,

and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and

said, Take, eat; this is my body. And He took the cup, and gave

thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this

is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the

remission of sins."

     The Lord said, "I will make a new covenant with the house of

Israel", and Jesus, the night He was betrayed, said, "This cup is

the new testament - the new covenant - in my blood." Hallelujah!

     His Israel people, cast away, never returning to Palestine,

is in the last days, in the economy of God, to be frond a people

that as a nation has begun to come under the new covenant, that

has embraced - at least nominally - the glorious Gospel of the

Lord Jesus Christ, and is known throughout all the ends of the

earth as a Christian nation and commonwealth of nations.

     The apostle Paul sums it all up in Romans, chapter 11,

reading from verse 29: "For the gifts and calling of God are

without repentance." God called Israel in the first place, and

"God hath not cast away His people which He foreknew." "For as ye

in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained merry,

through their unbelief: even so have these also now not believed,

that through your mercy they also may obtain merry. For God hath

concluded them all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon

all." 

     God purposed for His Israel people to be lost, to become an

obscure people, that in the fullness of time they might receive

the Gospel of His dear Son the Lord Jesus Christ, in ignorance of

their true identity, that through them the nations of the world

might also come under the blessings of this new covenant.

     And so Paul throws his arms up in the air, words almost

failing him at this point to express the great and marvellous

thing that God has done, and he says: "O the depth of the riches

both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His

judgments, and His ways passed finding out! For who bath known

the mind of the Lord? Or who hash been His counsellor? Or who

hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him

again? For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things:

to whom be glory for ever. Amen."

     You know what happened to the Lost Tribes, and you know who

they are.

     "Ye seed of Israel's chosen race, Ye ransomed from The fall,

     Hail Him who saves you by His grace, And crown Him Lord of

     all"