The reunification of the two houses of Israel (the Jews and the Christians) around the Torah and the testimony of Yeshua is prophesied from one end of the Bible to the other. This is a major biblical theme and a key aspect of the gospel message that has been overlooked by Christian Bible teachers, but it affects you and your spiritual destiny as this video shows.
Tag Archives: Two Houses of Israel
Great Physician, Heal Us!
Jeremiah 17:14, Heal me, O YHVH. This is a plea to YHVH, the Great Physician. Only he can heal the hardness (17:1) and crooked deceitfulness or weakness (17:9) of Israel’s heart. Various prophets link the concept of healing to that of the two houses of Israel being reunited, being restored to their promised land and spiritual inheritance, returning to Torah and the establishment of a Messianic kingdom on earth. Here are some thoughts on these things:
The Breech Will Be Repaired
Those who are returning to the Sabbath in its full spiritual sense and are returning to the “old (ancient, everlasting) paths” (Jer 6:16) are called “repairers of the breach” (Isa 58:12; Amos 9:11).
What is a breach? By dictionary definition a breach is “an infraction or violation of a law; a broken, ruptured or torn condition; a split, crack or divide between two sides; a break in friendly relations.” This is what occurred when the northern kingdom was torn away from King Rehoboam causing a split in the nation of Israel (1 Kgs 11:13, 29–40; 12:1–20).
The last question the disciples asked Yeshua before his ascension was whether he was about to restore the kingdom to Israel (Acts 1:6). What was Yeshua’s response to them? He told them to preach the gospel everywhere (verse 8). This message of restoration and repairing the breach was the focus of what Paul called the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:18) and the middle wall of partition between Jews and non-Jews coming down and the making of one new man out of two through the atoning sacrifice of Yeshua (Eph. 2:11–19).
The “Sick” Will Be Healed
The hireling and self-seeking shepherds of Israel who should have cared for, healed and fed YHVH’s sheep have instead left them in a weakened, sickly and malnourished state (Ezek 34:4, 16). Yeshua came to heal his sick sheep (Ezek 34:8–31).
Spiritual Blindness Will Be Healed
In Hebraic thought, blindness is a metaphor for spiritual blindness, lack of spiritual enlightenment, and especially Torahlessness; that is, it is a reference to those who are blinded to the light of YHVH’s truth (Isa 29:18; 42:7, 16, 18–19; 43:8; Jer 31:8, see also Rom 11:25; Isa 56:10).
Yeshua Is More Than a Mere Carpenter
Matthew 13:55, Carpenter’s son. Yeshua was physically and spiritually a carpenter or housebuilder (Pss 104:3; 127:1; Heb 3:1–6). He still works with wood in that he’s joining the two sticks of the two houses of Israel together (Ezek 37:19).
Men are like trees or sticks that Yeshua is putting together (Mark 8:23–24) into one house, or one tree — the olive tree of Israel (Ezek 37:19 cp. Rom 11:16–18; Jer 11:16; Hos 14:6). At his second coming, Yeshua will permantly bind or graft the two houses together legally as he finalizes the new covenant, which he initated at his last supper (Matt 26:28 cp. Heb 8:8, 13 and Jer 31:31, 33).
The Two Sticks Prophecy Yet to Be Fulfilled
Ezekiel 37:14–28, The vision of the two sticks (trees). The second vision Ezekiel records in chapter 37 involves YHVH commanding him to take two sticks (or trees) and writing upon one stick “for Judah and for the children of Israel and his companions [i.e., those who have knit themselves together with or joined to the tribe of Judah],” and upon the other stick, write “for Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel and his companions.” Ezekiel was to told to then join the two sticks together, so that they would become one stick (or tree) in his hand (verses 15–17).
How were these two nations, which separated from each other some three thousand years ago, to be rejoined into one nation? That has been the subject of much debate between both Jewish and Christian commentators for years. Some modern historical revisionists view this prophecy as having been fulfilled when the Jews returned to the land of Israel in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah after their Babylonian captivity ended. But this interpretation leaves some unanswered questions. The book of Ezra, which chronicles the return of a remnant of Jews from Babylon to the land of Israel, lists the numbers and tribes of those who returned. All the tribes listed were originally from Jerusalem and Judah and were from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin (Ezra 2:1; 4:1; 10:9), and there is no mention made that any of the ten northern Israelite tribes joined the Jews in resettling the land of Israel. So far as the returning Jews were concerned, it is likely that they considered their northern brothers lost and assimilated among their Assyrian captors and that only they were left of all the twelve tribes to resettle the Promised Land after their captivity. If this were so, Continue reading
The Torah and Testimony—A Stone of Stumbling
In the following several verses we see an amazing prophecy concerning the two houses of Israel who, generically speaking, have become the modern church and the rabbinic Jews.
Here Isaiah prophesies about the canonization of the Bible into two subdivision—the Torah (or loosely speaking, the Old Testament) and the Testimony (the New Testament). He also predicts that each of these two religious groups (the Jew and he Christians) would spiritually stumble over or have a problem with the identity of the Messiah, who is the Stone of Stumbling and the Rock of Offense. In general, as we shall see, the Christians struggle with the pro-Torah message of the Old Testament (or Word of Elohim), and the Jews reject the message of the New Testament (or Testimony of Yeshua) about the Messiahship of Yeshua.
Isaiah 8:14–15, Stone of stumbling. Both houses of Israel (Ephraim and Judah; i.e., the Christian [see notes at Gen 48:14,16] 48: and the Jews) have stumbled over the stone of stumbling, who later on is identified as Yeshua, the Messiah (1 Pet 2:4–8; Rom 9:32–33; 1 Cor 1:23). The non-believing Jews stumbling over the Messiahship of Yeshua who is the Living Torah-Word of Elohim incarnate (John 1:1,14), while the Christians stumble over the Written Torah, which they claim was abolished and is minimally relevant to them. This stone of stumbling is an obvious reference to Yeshua who is a stone of stumbling to both houses of Israel (i.e., the non-believing Jews and the Christians.) The Christians stumble over or reject (at least, in part)Yeshua who is the Written Torah-Word of Elohim (John 1:1). The non-believing Jews, on the other hand, reject Yeshua, the Living Torah-Word of Elohim who came in flesh form (John 1:14). Continue reading