The desert had indeed begun to ‘blossom like a rose’, as Isaiah had foretold:
Isaiah 35:1 “The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice, and blossom. Like the crocus, 2 it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God.
So, why trust these Hebrew prophets?
1 The Tanakh (Tawrat, Old Testament) is regarded as holy by Jews, Christians and Moslems; the New Testament by Christians and the gospels (Injil) by Moslems– yet how many have read the prophecies contained in them?
2 As far back as Genesis and Deuteronomy God promised to scatter the Israelites – if they continued in rebellion and disobedience – “to the four corners of the earth”.
3 Yeshua (Jesus) prophesied that this Jewish race would not disappear until all was fulfilled. Despite many attempts to wipe them out, they are still here!
4 God also promised to bring the Israelites back to their own land and the Jews are now established again in their own State of Israel today. Since 1967, they have also controlled the whole city of Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount.
So much for the Jews (only 2 1/2 tribes out of twelve), but what about the rest of the Israelites? In the next chapter we’ll continue by looking at the promised return of the so-called, ‘Lost Tribes’ of Israel.
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5 The 2nd Exodus!
In the Hebrew prophecies Judah and Israel are inseparable. At one time, for the convenience of a radio script, I tried to separate those Hebrew scriptures referring to the return of Judah from those referring to Israel i.e. the ‘ten tribes’. It proved to be impossible.
In Ezekiel 37 we have the prophecy of two sticks being joined i.e. Ephraim and Judah. Judah are the Jews, of course; and Ephraim, who was the son of Joseph, is often used as an abbreviation for all of the ten tribes, because it was the largest of them.
Ezekiel 37:15 The word of the LORD came to me: 16 “Son of man, take a stick of wood and write on it, ‘Belonging to Judah and the Israelites associated with him.’ Then take another stick of wood, and write on it, ‘Belonging to Joseph (that is, to Ephraim) and all the Israelites associated with him.’ 17 Join them together into one stick so that they will become one in your hand. 18 “When your people ask you, Won’t you tell us what you mean by this?’ 19 say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am going to take the stick of Joseph—which is in Ephraim’s hand—and of the Israelite tribes associated with him, and join it to Judah’s stick. I will make them into a single stick of wood, and they will become one in my hand.’ 20 Hold before their eyes the sticks you have written on 21 and say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land. 22 I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. There will be one king over all of them and they will never again be two nations or be divided into two kingdoms. 23 They will no longer defile themselves with their idols and vile images or with any of their offenses, for I will save them from all their sinful backsliding, and I will cleanse them. They will be my people, and I will be their God.
24 “‘My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd. They will follow my laws and be careful to keep my decrees. 25 They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, the land where your ancestors lived. They and their children and their children’s children will live there forever, and David my servant will be their prince forever. 26 I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and increase their numbers, and I will put my sanctuary among them forever. 27 My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people. 28 Then the nations will know that I the LORD make Israel holy, when my sanctuary is among them forever.’”
The prophecies regarding the return of the Jews to Israel have been in gradual fulfilment since 1890 on. Through all their wanderings, the tribe of Judah have maintained a distinct identity. What we now refer to as the Jews, actually consist not only of the tribe of Judah, but also Benjamin and many from the tribe of Levi – who were also part of the kingdom of Judah, after the other, northern kingdom of Israel was taken captive by Assyria.
Then what about the other ten tribes of Israel, NOT associated with Judah, or ‘Jewish’ and separated from the land of Israel for nearly 3,000 years? They have no distinct Jewish identity, because, of course, they are NOT Jews. If they still exist, do we even know who, or where, they are? After all these centuries do they still retain any identity with Israel?
Let’s remember the promise made by God as far back as the days of Moses:
Deuteronomy 28:58 If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name—the LORD your God— 59 the LORD will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses. 60 He will bring on you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you. 61 The LORD will also bring on you every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed. 62 You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be left but few in number, because you did not obey the LORD your God. 63 Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please him to ruin and destroy you. You will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess.
64 Then the LORD will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known. 65 Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart. 66 You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life. 67 In the morning you will say, “If only it were evening!” and in the evening, “If only it were morning!”—because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see.
That seems pretty final, doesn’t it? The northern ten tribes of Israel continually disobeyed their God – more so than the tribe of Judah – and so these words were fulfilled on them first, when the Assyrian armies came in 722 BCE and carried them off into captivity.
The former northern kingdom of Israel was ‘ethnically cleansed’, their presence ceased in the land and they were replaced by foreigners from the east – known to us now as the Samaritans – whom the Assyrians ‘planted’ in their place.
That seemed to be the end of the story as far as those northern tribes were concerned, but then comes this amazing promise in the next chapter but one:
Deuteronomy 30:1 When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come on you and you take them to heart wherever the LORD your God disperses you among the nations, 2 and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, 3 then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you. 4 Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the LORD your God will gather you and bring you back. 5 He will bring you to the land that belonged to your ancestors, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors. 6 The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live. 7 The LORD your God will put all these curses on your enemies who hate and persecute you. 8 You will again obey the LORD and follow all his commands I am giving you today.
For God to somehow resurrect these ‘lost tribes’ – and also to stir up in them any dor
mant desire to re-connect with the land and the God of Israel – would be something akin to a multiple resurrection of the dead. But that is exactly what Ezekiel’s ‘dry bones’ prophecy was about:
Ezekiel 37:1 The hand of the LORD was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “Sovereign LORD, you alone know.” 4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! 5 This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’”
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet — a vast army.
11 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.’”
If this were to actually come to pass, would it not be possibly the greatest miracle the world has ever seen? Well, let me tell you something – it IS already happening!
Right now, all over the world, there are tribes – and nations, even – who remember their descent from those same northern tribes of Israel, (the so-called ‘lost’ tribes). They have been lost to the attention of the world in general, but they have always retained a knowledge of who they were and where they came from, even if they have lost the outward appearance of ‘Jewishness’.
Who are these people? And where are they living today?
Well, let’s think back to who they were carried off by – a once great and powerful nation, Assyria, who don’t even exist as a separate nation today. The only remnant is the small (3.5 million) Assyrian Church, which still exists in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon today – also in Iran, Jordan, Turkey and in scattered exile communities around the world.
Though the Assyrians have now largely faded from history, we know the geographical area they once ruled and it is in these areas – and perhaps further east from them, along the ancient ‘silk routes’ – that we should firstly look for survivors and descendants of those ten tribes of Israel which they took captive so long ago?
And in the lands of Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Myanmar (Burma) we do indeed find many millions who still claim descent from the tribes of Israel! (See Scattered Among the Nations, by Bryan Schwartz).
In eastern Afghanistan there are around seven million Pashtuns – Moslems who still affix the Star (shield) of David on their houses, use prayer shawls identical to those of Orthodox Jews, circumcise on the eighth day (in contrast to most Moslems, who traditionally circumcise at the age of twelve), and use Israelite names for many of their tribes (eg. Yusufzai, people of Joseph) as well as personal and place names e.g. Israel, a name not normally used by Moslems.
Another eight million Pashtuns live in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan, Pakhtunkhwa – the area that was devastated by a major earthquake in October, 2005. A further six million Kashmiris – also Moslem – live in a remote valley on the Pakistan/Indian border, with many similar characteristics and customs to the Pashtuns.
And on the Indian/Myanmar border, in the neighbouring Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur, live around four million people, who refer to themselves as the Bnei Menashe – i.e. the children of Manasseh, one of the ten tribes, also referred to as the Shinlung.
Most of these Menashe responded to the teaching of Christian missionaries from 1854 on, so that the majority of the population is now Christian. However, since the 1950s, following the birth of the State of Israel, maybe 25,000 Menashe have become Jewish, are studying for official Beit Din conversion to Orthodox Judaism, and applying for aliyah to Israel.
The amazing thing is that 1,400 Menashe have currently achieved their goal of aliyah, and are now citizens of Israel – many serving in the Israeli Defence forces (IDF). The words of the Hebrew prophets are already being fulfilled!
Obviously this is a relatively small number compared with a total of 25 million Menashe/Pashtuns/Kashmiris, But if this beginning continues and grows, then we really need to take seriously the authenticity of the inspiration of those prophets and pay attention to ALL of their writings.
Asia is only one part of the puzzle. We have previously mentioned the Ethiopian ‘Beta Israel’ and the Yemenite aliyot – from Africa and Arabia. These are not the only tribes in Africa to claim Israelite origins. In Nigeria, the Igbo* (Biafran) tribe of 30-40 million all are confident of their Israelite identity, as are many also of the Yoruba* tribe. (*See Bibliography)
In Uganda, there are several villages of Abayudaya, who are living as Jews, with synagogues and Beit Din conversions to Orthodox Judaism.
Again, in South Africa and Zimbabwe, live the Lemba tribe. Many of the men in this tribe have been tested for DNA research and confirmed to be of Israelite descent, and the tribe are currently in dialogue with the Israeli immigration authorities about making aliyah to Israel.
As explained in the book, ‘DNA and Tradition: The Genetic Link to the Ancient Hebrews,’ by Rabbi Yaacov Kleiman, more than 9 percent of Lemba men have the DNA signature called The Cohen Modal Haplotype (CMH) – against 3 to 5 percent in Jewish populations in general.
Amongst the Lemba’s priestly Buba clan, the frequency of this Cohen genetic marker is 54%, which compares well with 45% amongst Ashkenazi and 56% amongst Sephardi cohanim (priests).
There are other groups throughout the world, also. The trickle may well become a flood and a few plane loads of Menashe and others may soon lead to a mass exodus. But, at present, stumbling blocks remain in their way.
Do the Israeli authorities want a massive influx of black African and Asian immigrants? The short answer seems to be, ‘No way!’ But once again, the Hebrew prophets have been there before us:
Isaiah 11:11 In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the surviving remnant of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the Mediterranean. 12 He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; he will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth. 13 Ephraim’s jealousy will vanish, and Judah’s enemies will be destroyed; Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah, nor Judah hostile toward Ephraim.
14 They will swoop down on the slopes of Philistia to the west; together they will plunder the people to the east. They will subdue Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites will be subject to them.
At the moment, Judah, in the person of the Israeli immigration authorities, are indeed ‘harassing’ Ephraim i.e. making it difficult for the ten tribes to make aliyah. For instance, many thousands of the Beta Israel are still living almost destitute in Ethiopia, because they have sold their houses and are waiting for permission to come to Israel.
Among the 25,000 Menashe who want to make aliyah, the au
thorities are only officially permitting 100 per year to enter, and even that figure has been reduced in recent years. At the present rate it will take 250 years for those who want to come at present, to be allowed in. Something must change in the heart of the Israeli government.
Again, Isaiah says that Ephraim must not be jealous of Judah. A lot of the worldwide antagonism towards Israel is based on jealousy. An attitude of, ‘Why should they be the chosen people?’
There will need to be a great change of attitude towards Israel, especially from Moslem Pashtuns and Kashmiris, before aliyah will become a possibility. When the Pashtun Taliban want to make aliyah to Israel, it will truly be a miracle!
Nevertheless, there are signs of change. Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi, a Pashtun scholar from Malahabad, in India, has spent many years researching the history of his fellow Pashtuns – studying in Israel, and also speaking in synagogues across the USA.
The Whore and her Mother: 9/11, Babylon and the Return of the King Page 6