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| Sticks of Judah And Joseph/Ephraim Entwined Into One Stick Represents The Two Houses of Israel United As One In The End |
A BRIEF HISTORY LESSON IDENTIFYING
WHO THE ISRAELITES ARE TODAY
By Helena Lehman of the Pillar of Enoch Ministry
Let me start this short history lesson with this radical but true statement: The Israel of Yahshua's day no longer exists. Yes, that's right. In fact, shortly before Yahshua's First Advent Ministry, the Promised Land wasn't called Israel. Instead, it was called the Kingdom of Judah before the Romans took it over. After that, it became the Province of Judea under Imperial Roman rule. This province was occupied by Israelites from only a few select tribes, as most of the other Israelites had been scattered abroad by this time, and did not choose to return to the Promised Land.
Interestingly, Israel is NOT a piece of real estate such as the Promised Land, but is the name that was given to Jacob, who fathered 12 sons that fathered all 12 Tribes of Israel. Furthermore, the Promised Land is not a square plot of ground in one particular location of the Earth, but is connected to a much larger area. The New Jerusalem itself will cover a vast territory, not just one small portion of the land allotted to the people of Israel in eternity. It is strongly hinted at in Deuteronomy 11:22-25, where the Israelites were informed that anywhere they left their footprints in their wanderings would be added to their everlasting heritage. In truth, therefore, the entire Earth will one day be their everlasting heritage, NOT just that tiny piece of land between Egypt and Syria in the Middle East!
However, Jacob's father Abraham is the first one who was considered righteous by his faith in Yahweh, and we are all considered to be children of Abraham by our faith in Yahshua. Not only that, but Yahweh promised Abraham that his offspring through his faith would be as numerous as the stars, which suggests that the entire Universe will one day be the everlasting heritage of Israel! Emphasizing its importance, Yahweh stated this Everlasting Covenant Promise to Abraham three times in Genesis:
Genesis 15:5 - “Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
Genesis 22:17 - “...blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.”
Genesis 26:4 - “And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed...”Furthermore, all the born again saints are betrothed to Yahshua and will be wedded to Him one day soon, which means that they are all already considered to be children of Israel through Yahshua, and honorary Jews via both adoption by Yahweh and marriage to Yahshua. This universal tribal affiliation that is a reality through faith in Yahshua has also been made known to humanity through the Mazzaroth or Zodiac, where all Twelve Signs of the Zodiac are allegorically tied to the Twelve Tribes of Israel, and everyone born under the Sun has the potential to become an Israelite through faith in Yahshua. To understand this connection of Israel with the Mazzaroth or Zodiac better, please read the following article:
HOW THE STAR GOSPEL
IDENTIFIES THE END TIME
ISRAELITE NATIONS AND
THEIR ROLE IN THE FORMATION
OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER
The above article is a truly revolutionary look at the massive scope of our Israelite heritage in Christ, and I hope that you will take the time to read and ponder over it.
Returning to this study, it is significant that Yahweh's Covenant Promises made to Abraham mentioned the virtually numberless number of the stars in the heavens. This also ties into the fact that Abraham's faith in Yahweh was credited to him as righteousness. In fact, this is a significant point that many Christians and Messianics seem to miss. Yahweh's love of Abraham's faith in Him is a symbol of the love and trust He desires from all those who profess to love Him, and our Father God intends to make sure that there will be a virtually inexhaustible supply of spiritual giants who exercise the Faith of Abraham. This is why, in the New Testament, it is made clear that all those who place their faith and trust in Yahweh and His promised Son and Messiah Yahshua are considered to be righteous also.
Now, what is not really acknowledged in Bible studies focused on Abraham is the fact that this same man Abraham not only fathered the Israelites through Isaac, and the Arabs via Ishmael, but he also fathered most of the other people groups of the Middle East that are identified as Semitic, and these people all spoke a related set of Semitic languages including Akkadian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Canaanite, Phoenician, Persian, Arabic, Aramaic, and Hebrew. In fact, the descendants of Abraham peopled the entire Middle East. This was first accomplished through Sarah's handmaiden Hagar, who was an Egyptian princess. Hagar gave birth to Ishmael, and though it is not well known, Ishmael had 12 sons whose descendants formed into several distinct Semitic kingdoms, just like Isaac's son Jacob's 12 sons were destined to do both in the past, and much later in history.
Besides the population descended from Abraham through Ishmael, Abraham also peopled the Middle East through Isaac and his 2 sons. Esau was the founder of the Edomites and several other Semitic kingdoms. Then there was Jacob, who was called Israel. As already mentioned, Jacob had 12 sons that he fathered through four women. Besides the fact that Ishmael had 12 sons like Jacob, it is also not well known that Abraham had 6 sons that were born to him through his second wife Keturah, who was Abraham's Semitic concubine when Sarah was old, and whom Abraham married after Sarah died. Later, the many tribes descended from Abraham were SCATTERED ALL OVER THE WORLD. This was primarily through conquest displacements, and also during forced and voluntary migrations to different lands after defeat. This dispersal and migration of Israelites to different lands after their military defeat occurred during 4 different Diasporas.
It is also a well known fact that most of the Jews that returned to Israel after the Babylonian Captivity were from the Tribe of Judah, along with Israelites from the Tribes of Levi and Benjamin. In fact, the other tribes were only found in large numbers outside of Israel, mostly to the North in Parthia and Europe, although some Israelites settled in ancient Ethiopia and Asia also. In fact, the Kingdom of Parthia was mostly made up of displaced Israelites, and their kingdom rivaled Rome's at one time. The Wise Men that worshiped Yahshua when He was born in Bethlehem actually came from the Kingdom of Parthia during its heyday, and Parthia occupied part of the land where the ancient kingdom of Persia had been, and where my mother's ancestors are from. So it is highly likely that I am an Israelite by blood as well as by faith.
The displaced Israelites are called the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, and these people make up the populations of most of Europe, the United Kingdom and her British Commonwealth nations (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc) and the Americas today. Though they do not replace the Jews or Judah, they are nonetheless counted as an integral part of Israel. There are also small pockets of Israelite descendants in parts of Africa and Asia. As already mentioned, these Israelite descendants were scattered throughout the world during 4 different Diasporas.
The first Diaspora was when the Assyrians destroyed the apostate Northern Kingdom of Israel in the 8th Century BC. The second Diaspora was when Nebuchadnezzar of Persia conquered the Southern Kingdom of Judea in the 5th Century BC. The 3rd Diaspora happened when the Romans destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD, and the 4th and final Diaspora occurred in 136 AD after the Bar Kokhba Revolt. At that time, the Romans chased most of the remaining Jews out of Judea and the surrounding areas. So as far as being Israelites via ancestry or blood lineage, there are many people groups scattered all over the world that qualify.
But during His First Advent Ministry, Yahshua (and later His chosen Apostle Paul) made it clear that the true Israelites are only found by their faith In Yahshua, and by their spiritual rebirth that allows them to keep Yahshua's 2 Commandments. His Commandments call us to love Yahweh and one another, and they therefore embody all of the original 10 Commandments, as well as the Moral Law found scattered throughout the Old Testament books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Since true Israelites are not found via blood heritage or tradition, but by faith in Yahshua ALONE, the answer to the question of where Israel is located today is: ONLY in the hearts of born again believers that love and follow Yahshua!
Now, as for the tiny modern nation called Israel that is occupied by Christian and Muslim Arabs, and non-believing people of Jewish and Israelite descent as well as some Messianic Jews, it is indeed a prophetic fulfillment of the regathering of Israel in the Last Days. Prophetically, the tiny modern nation of Israel is known as the House of Judah. However, Judah is not the only part of Israel that Yahweh warned would be regathered in the Last Days.
There is also the regathering of Israel that is going on in ALL of the Gentile and Lost Israelite nations of the world. This worldwide regathering of the set apart Israelites out of this wicked world and into the Kingdom of God within is described in two of Yahshua's parables; the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, and the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares. The saved Jews and Gentiles and Lost Israelites that believe in Yahshua are allegorically tied to the Sheep and the Wheat in those parables. The Jews among these herds of sheep and bushels of wheat are prophetically known as the House of Judah, and the Gentiles and Lost Israelites are known prophetically as The House of Ephraim or Joseph.
According to Yahweh's prophetic words as shown on the graphic at the beginning of this article, these Two Houses of Israel are to be united in the Last Days to fight the unholy enemies of Israel that are united with the Antichrist. Yahshua also spoke of these Two Houses of Israel, identifying them as different sheepfolds in the following Scripture:
John 10:15-16 ~ “As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 16 And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.”The divinely initiated division of today's world into two different and opposing groups is being done via many diverse political and spiritual polarities that exist in all the nations of the world. These have served to divide the population of the whole world into two distinct ideological groups, one that is often too rigid in its conservative orthodoxy, and the other that is often too lax in its socialistic approach to Yahweh's Moral Law or Commandments. Today these opposing groups are identified as Liberals and Conservatives in America and elsewhere, and they are constantly warring with each other. The constant opposition and turmoil caused by this ideological war is also causing all the political chaos, and the widespread emergence of wickedness that manifests itself as unrestrained violence and rebellion in the world today.
Thankfully, this division of the world into two distinct ideological groups that hate one another because they are spiritually divided is also a sure sign that Yahshua is coming again soon to rescue all the true Israelites that love and follow Him alone. When Yahshua does come for His Bride in the Rapture, He will only rescue those who are born again from both of the Two End Time Houses of Israel. These are the Jews of the House of Judah and the Gentiles and Lost Israelites of the House of Joseph or Ephraim. But before the Rapture, and afterward, Yahweh is going to unite the truly born again members of both the House of Judah and the House of Ephraim into one mighty army in His control. This is revealed in the following scriptures, where I have added my Spirit-led interpretations in parentheses:
Ezekiel 37:19 ~ “Thus says the Lord God (Yahweh Elohim): ‘Surely I will take the stick of Joseph (Or Rod of God, Symbol of God's Authority), which is in the hand of Ephraim (Christians in the USA, the UK and other traditionally Christian Nations), and the tribes of Israel (the 10 Lost Tribes in Europe), his companions; and I will join them with it, with the stick of Judah (the Jews in America and the tiny Middle Eastern nation of Israel), and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand.’”
~*~ Zechariah 9:13 ~*~
“For I have bent Judah (Jews in Israel), My bow,
Fitted the bow with Ephraim (Christians in the West and elsewhere),
And raised up your sons, O Zion (Houses United Under Yahweh),
Against your sons, O Greece (Antichrist's Humanistic Rule),
And made you like the sword of a mighty man.”
The Scriptures from Ezekiel Chapter 37 and Zechariah Chapter 9 quoted on the introductory graphic and above this paragraph with my interpretations, and several other Scriptures not quoted here indicate that the Houses of Judah and Ephraim will be working together with Yahweh to fulfill some of the End Time prophecies of the Bible. In fact, this is already apparent since the USA and Israel are fairly close and well united right now. This may also be the case after the Great Tribulation, when some of the backslidden and lukewarm believers in the massive, worldwide Laodicean Church that is going to be left behind to be refined in the fire of the Great Tribulation will wake up and realize that they were left behind because of their apostasy!
This article is actually not just based on what the Bible teaches, but on the Signs in the Heavens that Yahshua created at the dawn of time. So there is not one, but Two Witnesses to its veracity. The Witness in the Heavens is found most clearly in the Sign of Pisces the Fishes, which represents the Two Houses of Israel in mortal conflict with the Humanistic (i.e. Communistic, New Age, and Atheistic) New World Order of the Antichrist. The Antichrist's Kingdom is represented by the Bands and Cetus the Sea Monster, which represents the Beast from the Sea, and the Antichrist's New World Order. The following graphic that came from my January 2019 Article about the Heavenly Signs surrounding the two Supermoons that began this prophetic year shows the Sign of Pisces or Israel as it should be prophetically understood:
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| Signs in Pisces and Aquarius shortly after the January 21st, 2019 Lunar Eclipse (Click Graphic to Enlarge, or Right Click and Open in New Window for More Detail) |
I firmly believe there will be a Second Rapture to accomplish this rescue of the awakened former apostates in the Houses of Judah and Ephraim that will occur when the Two Witnesses that are murdered in Jerusalem during the Great Tribulation (See the Book of Revelation, Chapter 11) are resurrected and taken up to Heaven. This will be just as the Seventh and Last Trumpet is blown, and just before the Bowls of God's unmitigated Wrath will be poured out on the wicked around the world. These same saints that are taken up near to the end of the Great Tribulation will then become a part of Yahshua's army of angels and saints that will witness His victory over the military forces of evil and darkness in this world that are aligned against Him, as described in the Book of Revelation Chapters 18 and 19.
To that I say: "MARANATHA!
COME, ADONAI YAHSHUA!"
With Love From
Your Sister In Yahshua
Helena Lehman of the
Pillar of Enoch Ministry
http://pillar-of-enoch.com
IMPORTANT COPYRIGHT NOTICE:This article is the Copyrighted written work of Helena Lehman, and it cannot be used in any digitally written blog or printed book without the express written permission of Helena Lehman, or an officially designated representative. Contact information for Helena can be found on the following web page at her Pillar of Enoch Ministry web site at: http://pillar-of-enoch.com/contact.html
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