The Lost Ten Tribes of Israel — What the Bible Really Says

Welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a 30-minute walk through the Scriptures, teaching in-depth Bible truths that change people's lives. Now, here's your host, Les Feldick. And again, good to have everybody back in the studio. And for those of you on television, we'd like to welcome you and again ask that you follow with us, get your Bible down and follow the verses and the Scripture reference with us, take a few notes. If you end up with some questions, feel free to call us. Otherwise, we have all these programs available on videotape. Also a little booklet. We've got the first 12 lessons ready in print, and the next 12 will be probably out in the next three or four weeks. Talked to Sharon the other day, and she was up to number 19, and when she hits 24, it'll be ready to go into print. So remember that. And then, as we've been stressing now for the last two weeks, this will be the third one. We want to call this Letter-Writing Month. Please write to us. Let us know that you're watching. I can even use some criticism. That won't hurt me a bit. But mostly, of course, we like to just know that you're watching and that you're learning. I've set it so often, this program, I take no monetary compensation, and all you folk here in the studio know that. So my only compensation in this life, at least, is just to hear the comments from people that they're learning. And I guess the best thing I hear from week to week, I've learned more in the last three months than all my life put together. Well, you know, that just puts me on cloud nine. Now, that isn't because of me, but at least the Lord is using me for something, and we certainly want to give Him all the credit and all the glory for it. All right. Now then, let's get right back to where we left off again last week, and I'd like to have you come back with me momentarily to 2 Kings chapter 17. The verse we ended with at the close of the last program was down at verse 23. And again, remember now, Israel has been a divided nation for many, many years. We have the ten tribes to the north. We had the two tribes to the south. That was basically Judah and Benjamin. And then the capital of the northern kingdom, of course, was Samarian, from which we will get the Samaritans of Christ's day. Then the Syrian king, Sennacherib, or one of the others, they come in, and they take the northern kingdom captive, and many of them are taken out. Now, I'm going to read the last verse just for a moment, and then we're going to look at some things where the children of Israel had sinned until verse 23 says, "...until the Lord providentially," sovereignly now, "...removed Israel out of His sight." Now, that's a terrible statement, isn't it? You know, we feel that America is at the same kind of a crossroads. Now, I've always said I'm not a preacher. I'm not going to get on the stump and start preaching. But listen, I'm worried about our nation. I'm a patriot. I love America. I love my freedom, not just to worship, but for everything. Imagine, they're in a nation on earth that has the freedoms that the Americans have. I mean, we can just pick up, we can change jobs, we can go anywhere we want to go. We can pursue whatever occupation or profession we want to pursue. Listen, there aren't many places in the world that can do that. But we're seeing it at a crossroads. And it's not because of political party per se. It's because of the moral climate of our nation. And I don't care whether it's Republican or Democrat or Independent. When the moral climate declines and the social fabric, the moral fabric of our nation is falling apart, some party can't change it, the Republicans can't change it, the Democrats can't change it. It's going to have to be an intervention of the power of God. We have to come back to our book. And I'd like to feel that I can have just a little, little, tiny, small part of that, of getting people, at least those few small percentages that I feel may be watching the program, and getting them into the book, and getting a renewed interest in God's Word. You know, it's being ridiculed, it's being scoffed, by and large. But on the other hand, if people will just take the time to study it, like we do in my classes, it's not that impossible to believe all this. It is so valid, it's so logical. I mean, there's nothing else that is more logical than the things that are laid down in this book. But now Israel has come to the place where God just simply puts them out of His mind. And so He permitted the Assyrians to come down and take them captive. Now, I have to stop here a moment, because there is so much false teaching. That reminded me, I was going to comment. I bet I haven't got the magazine with me now. I'll have it in the next program, I guarantee it. Remember a few weeks ago, I made comment about the satanic powers in high places. And I said, now that doesn't mean in government, but in spiritual places. Well, you know, I got home that afternoon, and the Biblical Archaeological Review magazine was in my mail. And in there is an article that I wanted to share with the class here, as well as with the television audience. And that said explicitly what I was talking about. I haven't got it here handy, so I'll have it for the next program. And we want to share this with you, because this is what's so frightening. When people in high places come out and ridicule the things that we know are the truth of God's Word, under the name of scholarship. Now, I've got nothing against education. I wish I had a few degrees. Instead, I have none, and I make no apology for that. But, if education takes a man to the place where he says some of this stuff, that these people say, I'm glad I haven't got it. And I imagine most people would agree with me. But anyway, there is so much teaching, and I think it came about primarily from one great Bible preacher. He's now gone. Where, at least as near as I can tell, he more or less instigated the doctrine of British Israelism. And he takes the approach that when these Northern Ten Kingdoms, or tribes rather, were taken captive up here into Syria, and that they never came back tribally, and consequently the term, the Lost Ten Tribes. You've all heard it, haven't you? As if they've been lost, and God lost track of them. Don't you kid yourself. Number one, even though the Assyrians may have taken a lot of them out of the northern part of Israel, and took them captive, yet I want to show you from Scripture that so many of them migrated down into the southern part of Israel, that the Babylonians are going to come and take them captive. It isn't just two tribes going to Babylon. It'll be all twelve. All right, now let's chase down some Scriptures. Go with me to 2 Chronicles. That's to the right. I can never remember whether Chronicles comes first or Kings. But Chronicles goes to the right. Go to 2 Chronicles chapter 13. And then in your spare time, if you don't mind reading some of these statistics of history back here in the Kings and the Chronicles, you can chase this down more in detail than I've been able to so far. But in 2 Chronicles chapter 13, I'd like to have you come down to verse 3. 2 Chronicles chapter 13, beginning with verse 3. Now remember, this is while both segments of the country are still in place, the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. They're about ready for a civil war, is what it really amounts to. Verse 3, And so Abijah set the battle in array with an army of valiant men of war, 400,000 chosen men. Now, Abijah, of course, was from the southern kingdom of Judah and Benjamin. He can only raise 400,000 top troops. So Jeroboam, now remember, he was the first king of the northern kingdom. He was the one who seceded, as I taught here last week. Jeroboam also set the battle in array against him, that is, against Abijah. And how many troops has he got? 800,000. Now that's logical, because after all, you've got 10 tribes up here and only 2 down here. And so this king is able to put 800,000 men of war against the southern kingdom's 400,000. Now, as you follow the numbers through the intervening years of history, you'll find that you finally get to the place where the northern kingdom can only put 580,000 troops in the field, the 10 tribes so-called, whereas the southern kingdom comes on the scene with 1,160,000. Well, what has happened? Well, there's been a mass migration of Israelites out of the northern kingdom down into the southern. Over the years, they just keep filtering down and filtering down so that the tables are completely turned. And then when you finally get to the place, and let me think for a moment, I think that's in 1 Kings 20, verse 27. Let's go back and see if that's the one I want. 1 Kings, yeah, 1 Kings 20, verse 27. Now, by the time we get toward the end of the history of the northern 10 tribes, look how they have been so depleted in numbers. So that verse 27 says, "...the children of Israel were numbered," that is, of the northern kingdom now. We're not talking about Judah. "...but the northern 10 tribes kingdom were numbered and were all present and went against them," that is, against Ben-Hadad of the Syrians. "...and the children of Israel pitched before them like two little flocks of kids." What does that tell you? Why, they weren't enough to even fool with. That's all they had left. All right, let's see if I can find another verse. Come back with me again to 2 Chronicles. To prove my point that we have a constant migration of Israelites from the 10 northern tribes down into Judah, so that in reality what was taken captive, they didn't have to come back because all of Israel is now down here, at least representatively. You got 2 Chronicles, chapter 15. This makes it so plain that that's exactly what happened. 2 Chronicles, chapter 15, verse 9. All with me? 2 Chronicles, chapter 15, verse 9. Asa of verse 8, "...gathered all Judah and Benjamin," now that's the southern kingdom, "...and the strangers," or what we would say the non -citizens, the aliens, "...and the strangers were all tribes that were in that northern kingdom. For they fell to him out of Israel," in what? Abundance. See? Oh, they were migrating down so fast that he couldn't even keep track. And Israel is being depleted and Judah is being expanded. "...For they fell to him out of Israel in abundance when they saw that the Lord his God was with them. So they gathered themselves together at Jerusalem in the third month and so on and so forth." All right, now let's go all the way to the New Testament. Years, years later. Go back to the book of Acts. Come into Acts, chapter 2. Let's drop down to verse 22. Acts, chapter 2, verse 22. Now, this is about 700 years later. Time just keeps rolling by. 700 years later, Christ has already come and been crucified and we're into the book of Acts. And now look what Peter says to that Jewish audience out there in the temple complex. Verse 22, "...Ye men of Judah," what? Israel. "...Ye men of Israel." He's not just talking to the residents of two tribes. He's talking to all 12 tribes. "...Ye men of Israel." Now, verse 36 even says it better. As he winds down this sermon of Acts, chapter 2, Peter says in verse 36, "...Therefore, let all the house of Israel." Is that two tribes? Huh? No, that's all of them. When he says, "...all the house of Israel," he means all the house of Israel. So those 10 tribes aren't lost. Oh, parts of them may have disappeared into the woodwork. Some of them we know came back and set up worship at Samaria. They became the hated Samaritans of Jesus' day because they were half-breeds. Now, you remember the true Jew was proud of his heritage. He was proud of his bloodline. But these Samaritans had intermarried and they had adulterated their bloodline and they had also adulterated their worship. They had set up a false temple. And consequently, the Jews of Jesus' day wouldn't even go through Samaria because they were hated for their being half-breeds. But they were still more Jew than they were Gentile. And so when Jesus talks to the woman of Samaria at the well, I still maintain he's not talking to a Gentile. He's talking to a Jewess. Now, let's go one step further. Go all the way back to the book of Revelation. Revelation chapter 7, I think it is. Revelation chapter 7. And, of course, this is still future. I like to think not very far into the future. I think we're getting close to it. I think that things are winding down so fast that it's going to be here before we know it. But look what happens. As soon as the tribulation has begun, one of the first things that happens in Jerusalem is the appearance of God's two witnesses that are going to preach to the nation of Israel. And out of their preaching, the first thing I think that happens are the setting aside, or is the setting aside, of these 144 ,000 Jews. Now, contrary to one of the cults that's so evident who maintain they're going to be the 144,000, remember these 144,000 are Jews. Look at it, plain as it can be. Verse 4. And this is shortly after the opening of the seven years of tribulation. And I heard the number of them who were sealed. And there were sealed 144,000 of how many? All the tribes of the children of Israel. Now, you can't make it any plainer than that. It doesn't say two tribes. It doesn't say the rest are lost. But they're all represented. Now, this is one of the amazing things of the nation of Israel. Here they've been in a dispersion of one sort or another now for almost 2,700 years. Out amongst all the nations of the world. But they're still what? They're still Jew. And then on top of that, when God brings them back to the land as we see them going back now, whether it's out of Russia or wherever, they're Jews. And even though they themselves cannot tell you what tribe they came from, I know someone who knows. God does. And He has providentially kept at least this many young Jews fairly pure in their tribal bloodline so that He can say, 12,000 from the tribe of Reuben. 12,000 from the tribe of Gad. 12,000 from the tribe of Asher. And right on down the line, He's going to be able to finger them and say, you're from that tribe. Now, this is amazing that after all these hundreds of years, there are still going to be that many young Jewish men who will have their tribal lineage intact enough that God can say, you're from the tribe of Reuben. Now, that's your 144,000 and nothing else. They're Jews. They're going to be young Jewish men who are going to circumvent this globe with the preaching of the gospel, not of grace. That has ended. The church is gone and God is right back where He left off with Israel, back up there in the early part of Acts. And these young Jewish men, of course, are going to proclaim the coming of the King, the gospel of the kingdom. But I want you to see that all 12 tribes are represented. All right, now then, let's go back quickly and pick up the remaining history for these two tribes and, of course, all of the immigrants from the other tribes. They, too, now, about 150 years later, about 150 years after the Sumerians or the northern kingdoms are taken into captivity and it's left a wasteland, now Judah's turn comes. They, too, have gone into abject idolatry. And for that, we have to go all the way to the last chapter of 2 Chronicles. 2 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, chapter 36, 2 Chronicles, chapter 36, and let's drop in at about verse 15. 2 Chronicles, chapter 36, verse 15. Now, remember who we're dealing with. We're dealing with the southern kingdom in the area of Jerusalem and the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by His messengers rising up betimes and sending because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place. What's it say? God sent prophet after prophet, first to the northern kingdom. Now, again, we didn't touch on it when we were dealing with the northern kingdom, but who were two of the great prophets of Israel up north? Well, Elijah and Elisha. See, they prophesied and they worked the nation constantly trying to bring them back, but they would not. Now, God does the same thing with Judah. Jeremiah. Jeremiah was a prophet down here in Judah. That's why he was called the weeping prophet because he could see, just like I said about America, he could see the handwriting on the wall concerning Judah that if they didn't turn from their idolatry, that God, in fact, Jeremiah prophesied who? He said the Babylonians will come and overrun you. They will kill you without mercy. They're going to take what's left of you captive. And you know what they did with Jeremiah? They threw him in a dank, wet dungeon and left him there to rot. And that's where the Babylonians found Jeremiah, down in a dungeon. And you know why he was there? Because he tried to warn his people. But they wouldn't listen. All right, let's continue on. Verse 16. So God sent them oftentimes the prophets and the messengers to warn them, but they mocked, see? They mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and misused His prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people till there was no remedy. Now, you know one of the parables refers to that. I think most of you if you've been in my class, you know which one it is. You remember where a husbandman set up a vineyard, got it all prepared, got it into production, and then where'd he go? To a far country. And after a while he thought, boy, I've got to have someone go check on my vineyard. And so he sent a servant. And what'd they do to the servant? They killed him. So sometime later he sent another servant. What'd they do with him? They killed him. Finally, he said, after losing all those servants, well, maybe if I send my son, they'll listen to him. And so he sent his son. And what did the keepers of the vineyard do to his son? They killed him. Now, of course, what was the parable talking about? God dealing with Israel. And so when he sent the prophets into Israel, what'd they do with them? They killed them. Finally, he sent his son. What'd they do with him? They killed him. Well, anyway, let's come back to this. So they despised his words and misused his prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people till there was no remedy. No hope. Isn't that sad? Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldeans, or the Babylonians from Babylon, who slew their young men with a sword and the house of their sanctuary had no compassion on them, young man or maiden, old man or him, stooped for age. He, God, gave them all into the Babylonian king's hand, which was Nebuchadnezzar. Verse 18, And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord. Now, you ought to remember the temple that Solomon built was beautiful. It was gorgeous. It had tons of gold and silver and precious stones in it. And all the utensils that were made of gold. And what happened to them? They took them to Babylon. All right? Verse 20, And them who had escaped from the sword, he, that is, Nebuchadnezzar, carried away to Babylon, where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia. In other words, they lived throughout the whole concept of the nation of Babylon until they were defeated by the Medes and the Persians, which we'll probably be looking at in our next program. Now, all this happened to, verse 21, to what? Fulfill. Now, you see, when God prophesies something, and especially when it's in a time frame, it's going to happen. It is going to happen. And see, Jeremiah had foretold, now verse 21, Jeremiah had foretold that the land would enjoy her Sabbaths for as long as she lay desolate, she kept Sabbath to fulfill, three score and ten years. That's 70 years. What had happened? Well, you see, when Israel went into the land under Joshua and they were occupying the whole land of Canaan, part of the laws that God laid down was that every seventh year the farmland would be left fallow. It was not to be cropped. It was called a sabbatical year. We still use the term. But see, Israel hadn't been in the land very long and their greed got the best of them. What'd they do the seventh year? They farmed it anyway. And God says, I'm going to get it back. The land is going to lay fallow for 70 years, one out of every seven that you obliterated it. So how long did they forget to keep the sabbatical? 490 years. And God says the land will lay rest. So they were in captivity then in Babylon, that's clear out here, remember, on the Euphrates, for 70 years. And while they're gone, the land is empty. It just becomes a habitation of wild animals and what have you. And then verse 22 to the end, we got to do this quickly. Now, in the first year of Cyrus, the king of Persia, now you remember, it was the Persians and the Medes who destroyed Babylon. They had run their course. And Daniel, when we come to it, remember, is the second man in the Babylonian kingdom. But when the Medes and the Persians overrun Babylon, Daniel ends up as the second man in the Persian kingdom. Amazing. He must have been some sort of a man. But anyway, Cyrus is now the Persian king. And when the 70 years are expired, Cyrus, who was named in Jeremiah's writing hundreds of years before, this man Cyrus comes on the scene and God uses Cyrus then to proclaim, verse 23, that all the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord God of heaven given to me and He, God, hath charged me to build a house which is in Judah. Call 1-800-369-7856. Remember, all programs are available in printed form, audio cassette, and videotape. Be sure to tune in next time to Through the Bible with Wes Feldick.