The Story of Redeemed Israel from Abraham to the New Jerusalem

The truth of the two houses of Israel literally permeates the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Entire chapters and whole books of the Bible are dedicated to this message, so it’s not one that can be ignored. Multiple books could be written and numerous sermons preached on this subject. However, just for the fun, let’s see if we can condense this vast subject down into a short teaching, and yet still capture the essence of what the Bible reveals on this vital topic.

The biblical prophets likened the nation of Israel to an olive tree that had split into two sub-trunks. One of these smaller trunks represented the nation of Judah, while the other smaler trunk the nation of Ephraim (and Manasseh) or Samaria. It was the same tree with the same main trunk and roots, but it became smaller trunks. One trunk went one way, and the other went the other way. Eventually, YHVH broke these two trunks off of the main trunk of the olive tree, but then promised to graft them back into the main tree trunk and make of two nations one nation or one tree again. Before discussing this, let’s review some family history.

A Special People—A Special Assignment

Back in Genesis, nearly 4000 years ago,

YHVH entered into a special spiritual relationship with a man called Abraham, and his descendants, who became known as the children of Israel. It was YHVH’s plan to use the nation of Israel as a spiritual light or magnet to draw the Gentiles into a spiritual relationship with YHVH. Though Israel failed in this lofty mission, YHVH promised to send the Messiah, who single-handedly would make a way for the Gentiles to be redeemed and reconciled to the God of Israel. When Yeshua the Messiah showed up on the scene to fulfill that prophecy, he sent out his disciples to gather in the lost sheep of the house of Israel who had been previously scattered in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the end of the earth. Were the disciples sent to scattered Israelites or to the Gentiles? That is the question we’ll answer next.

One Nation With Split Personality Disorder

YHVH called Abraham to start a nation, which eventually became the twelve tribes of Israel. YHVH brought these tribes out of Egypt where, en route to the Promised Land, he formed them into a nation with it’s own laws and constitution—the Torah. YHVH promised to bless Israel as long as it stayed faithful to him and obeyed his T orah-laws. However if they turned away from him, he promised to punish them by removing them from the Promised Land and scattering them throughout the nations of the world.

Israel remained faithful to YHVH for awhile, but eventually they turned away from him and turned to pagan and idolatrous ways. YHVH’s curse for disobedience fell on the nation, and it was ripped in half and became two nations known as the nation of Judah (or the southern kingdom or house of Judah) and the nation of Ephraim (or the northern kingdom, also known as Samaria, or the house of Israel). Eventually, both nations fell so far into sin or Torahlessness that their enemies defeated them and deported them to foreign nations as slaves, and from there they were scattered to the four winds—literally to the farthest islands of the seas.

YHVH Promises to Regather His People

Despite the tragedy that occurred to the descendants of Abraham, YHVH promised to spiritually awaken his people in the nations where he had scattered them, to bring them back to him, and then to regather them back to the land of Israel. This incredible plan as revealed in the pages of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is what we want to discuss below.

The Torah Forms the Foundation for the Two Sticks Message

The prophecy concerning the scattering of the northern kingdom (or Ephraim and Manasseh) and the southern kingdom (the Jews) among the nations of the earth and being regathered in the last days is grounded in and predicted by the Torah.

In Genesis 48:14, Jacob blessed his two grandsons making the fish symbol and the sign of the Paleo-Hebrew letter tav or “t,” over them with his arms. He also told them about the Messenger of YHVH that had redeemed him from all evil. In ancient Hebrew, the letter “t” looked like a cross literally meant “sign or seal of the covenant.”

In Genesis 48:16, Jacob then prophesied that Ephraim and Manasseh would “grow into a multitude of nations in the midsts of the earth.” Grow in Hebrew is dagah meaning “fish.” Thus, this verse can be translated as “may they proliferate abundantly like fish within the land/earth” (ASET).

Perhaps Jacob’s prophecy over his two grandsons will give us a clue as to what people-group their descendants would become. Today, this group of people champions a Messenger of heaven individual who redeems or saves them from all evil, and they have a cross and fish as their ancient symbols.

In Jewish thought, Deuteronomy 30:1–10 forms the basis for the idea that because of rebellion against YHVH’s commandments, the 12 tribes of Israel as a result of YHVH’s punishment would be scattered throughout the nations of the world. However, YHVH tells them that their descendants in the last days will repent of their sins and turn back to him resulting in their being regathered back to the land of Israel. The Jewish sages call this event, “the final redemption” and predict that it will happen at the beginning of the Messianic Age, or at roughly the year 6000 from the creation—which by the calculation of some scholars is now.

1“Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where YHVH your Elohim drives you, 2 and you return to YHVH your Elohim and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3 that YHVH your Elohim will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where YHVH your Elohim has scattered you.…5 Then YHVH your Elohim will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. 6 And YHVH your Elohim will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love YHVH your Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.…8 And you will again obey the voice of YHVH and do all His commandments which I command you today. 9 YHVH your Elohim will make you abound in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your land for good. For YHVH will again rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over your fathers, 10 if you obey the voice of YHVH your Elohim, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to YHVH your Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul.” (Deut 30:1–10)

The Two Stick Message and the Testimony of the Jewish Sages

Numerous Orthodox Jewish sages down through the ages affirm that Ephraim and Manasseh and their compatriot tribes would be scattered throughout the nations of the world, but then would be supernaturally regathered by YHVH at the end of the age to fulfill biblical prophecy. Such notable Jewish sages as Eliezer Ben Hyrcanus, Moses Maimonides (aka the Rambam), Dovid Kimchi (aka the Radak), Samson Raphael Hirsch, Menachem Schneeerson, Jacob Immanual Schochet along with the Talmud itself affirm this truth.

The Two Stick Message and the Testimony of the Old Testament Prophets 

The understanding of the Jewish sages with regard to the regathering of lost and scattered Israel is not only prophesied in the Torah, but is squarely based on the numerous prophecies of nearly all the Old Testament biblical prophets—some of whom dedicated entire chapters and books to the  subject of the regathering of the 12 tribes of Israel including those of the northern kingdom, house of Israel or Ephraim and Manasseh.

Perhaps the most notable prophecy among the Old Testament prophets is that of Ezekiel 36 and 37. In chapter 36, YHVH through Ezekiel speaks about his people being scattered through the nations of the world because of their sins, but how in the last days he would regather them. This would occur because he would pour out his Spirit upon them causing a great spiritual revival to occur that would draw them back to him.

Then in Ezekiel 37, YHVH likens Israel to a great army that has been dead for a long time, but is suddenly resurrected by the Spirit of Elohim. Then YHVH shows Ezekiel a vision of two sticks or tree trunks where Judah (who are the Jews) and his fellow tribes and Ephraim and his fellow tribes (the Christians) each represent a stick, which when put together become a tree—the reunited olive tree of the nation of Israel. This is the famous two-stick prophecy. Ezekiel then prophesies that David will be resurrected and will rule over a reunited Israel and Elohim will dwell among his people. Obviously, this prophecy is yet to be fulfilled in its fullest sense.

Additionally, Isaiah 49:1–6 tells us that YHVH would raise up the Messiah to “bring Jacob back to him, so that Israel is gathered to him…to raise up the tribes of Jacob.” Isaiah goes on to say that through the Messiah, the Gentiles will receive the light of the truth and he would be YHVH’s “salvation” (or Yeshua) to the ends of the earth where the tribes of Israel had been scattered. In other words, Yeshua and the message of the gospel like a huge fishnet would be the means by which YHVH would regather the tribes of Israel who had been scattered all across the earth along with all those Gentiles with whom Israel had intermarried.

The Two Stick Message in the Testimony of the Yeshua (New Testament) 

Next, we come to the Testimony of Yeshua (or New Testament) where Yeshua the Jewish Messiah proclaims in the Gospel of Matthew (Matt 15:24) that it was his mission to regather the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He then chose and commissioned his twelve disciples (one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel) to do the same (Matt 10:6) by preaching the message of the gospel and bringing people to Yeshua, the Jewish Messiah.

Just before his ascension to heaven in Acts chapter one, Yeshua commissions them to take the message of the gospel to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the whole world in order to help restore the kingdom to Israel.

Some of his disciples were fisherman from the Galilee region of Israel. Yeshua told them that instead of fishing for fish, he was now sending them to fish for men; that is, for the lost sheep of Israel who had become like lost and scattered like fish in the seas of humanity as the patriarch Jacob had predicted would happen to the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh more than fifteen millennia earlier.

Yeshua also called another 70 disciples besides the twelve. Seventy is a significant number, since in Genesis chapter ten, the 70 nations of the world are listed. Yeshua chose twelve disciples to go to the twelve tribes of Israel, and another 70 disciples to go to the nations where Israel had been scattered.

The Two Stick Message and Paul the Apostle

We know from the Scriptures that these lost Israelites will be regathered as the prophets foretold. Even Paul the apostle had a sense of this as he proclaimed the gospel message to the Gentiles of his day, whom he viewed as lost Israelites who had been scattered and mingled among the nations of the Roman Empire and beyond.

For example, in Romans 9, Paul likens the Gentiles to those of Ephraim about which both Hosea and Isaiah prophesied. Then in Romans 11, Paul speaks about the Gentiles being grafted into the olive tree of Israel as if they were the descendants of the branches that YHVH had broken off the olive tree of Israel according to Jeremiah the prophet (Jer 11:16). In Ephesians 2, he tells the Gentiles that they are to become part of the covenants and nation of Israel through faith in Yeshua the Messiah, and to be reunited with their Jewish brothers just as Ezekiel prophesied in his famous two stick prophecy.

Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh­…that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, …so as to create in Himself one new man from the two…For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God… (Eph 2:11–19)

Finally, in Galatians 3:29, Paul says that all those who are in Messiah are the seed (Gr. sperma) or literal offspring of Abraham, thus making a born again Christian an Israelite in Paul’s eyes.

The Testimony of the John the Apostle 

In Revelation chapters 7 and 14, John prophesies of an end-times regathering of 144,000 Israelites—12,000 from each tribe. Finally, at the end of the Bible in Revelation 21, when the New Jerusalem comes down to earth from heaven, the twelve gates of that city will be named after the twelve tribes of Israel. This indicates that only redeemed Israelites will be allowed into Elohim’s eternal kingdom.

Conclusion 

Here laid out before us is the wonderful biblical message of the two sticks of Israel. In summary, the nation of Israel was like a spiritual olive tree, planted in the garden of Elohim, which was located in the land of Israel between the three great continents of Africa, Europe and Asia.

Their divine mission was to feed the nations with its fruit—the word or truth of Elohim, and to anoint the nations with its oil—the oil of the Holy Spirit. Sadly, ancient Israel failed in its commission, and instead turned away from Elohim and his Torah-laws, and was broken off from the olive tree of Israel or banished from the land of Israel.

Eventually, from the nations where they had been scattered, YHVH through his prophets promised to regather them through Yeshua the Messiah as his disciples preached the gospel message of redemption from the sin of Torahlessness. That regathering began at the time of Yeshua and will culminate around the time of his second coming.

As Israelites who have been lost and scattered for millennia among the Gentile nations of the world awaken to the gospel message and their need to return to the Elohim of Israel, and they repent of their Torahless pagan practices, YHVH is regathering them from those nations. He is in the process of grafting them back into the olive tree of Israel and will eventually bring them back to their land, where King David will rule over all the tribes of Israel. The twelve apostles will rule over each of the twelve tribes, and Yeshua will rule over all as King of kings and Lord of lords during his soon coming millennial kingdom on earth just as the biblical prophets have predicted. This is the glorious hope of the world to come leading to the New Jerusalem where only redeemed and glorified Israelites will be able to enter its twelve gates, which are named after the twelve tribes of Israel. So through which gate will you enter? There is no Gentile gate!