Standing on the Promises

The Rabbis say that the entire revelation of God’s Truth is contained in capsule form in the Torah, the five books of Moses. Even doctrines about the Messiah appear in texts such as Genesis 49:10 and Numbers 24:17. The Torah is the most essential and fundamental revelation ever given to humankind. It remains a truism that if a certain doctrine or teaching is not found in the Torah, at least at an intimated level, then it is to be rejected. That is why we encourage people to study the regular cycle of readings from the Torah which Judaism worldwide follows. Such regular immer- sion in the Torah is a good intellectual and spiritual discipline. It puts one in tune with the Jewish people, and it provides a firm foundation for subsequent study of the entire Bible and related materials.

Intregal to this firm foundation of the Torah is the book of Genesis or “Beginnings” (Bere’shit in Hebrew). The book of Genesis is the MOST fundamental and basic book in the entire Bible. As the name implies, this book deals with the beginnings, or origins, of everything—the cosmos, human history, and the redemptive Plan of God. United Israel focuses primarily on the message of the restoration of ALL Israel, including the “lost” Tribes, and the implications of that regathering for the entire world. Accordingly, we should expect to find the roots of this teaching within the Torah, if it does indeed have a solid Biblical foundation. This article will demonstrate in the clearest possible way that the fundamental message of United Israel is grounded firmly in the Torah, and particularly in the book of Genesis.

What Was Promised to Abraham?

In Genesis 12, when Abraham first hears from the LORD (YHVH) at age 75, he is told to leave Haran in northern Mesopotamia and go south to what was then known as the land of Canaan. He is given seven promises by the LORD (YHVH):

I will make of you a great nation (goy)
I will bless you
and make your name great
and you will be a blessing
I will bless those who bless you
and curse him who despises you
and in you will all the families of the earth bless themselves (12:1-3)

Here we find the beginnings of what we might call the SEED and SOIL promises. In other words, the plan of redemption, which God inaugurates here through Abraham, involves two fundamental components—the promises of offspring and land. Shortly thereafter, when Abraham arrives in the land of Canaan the LORD (YHVH) appears to him a second time and declares to him: “To your seed I will give this Land” (12:7), again summarizing the two indispensible components of the Redemptive Plan through Abraham. It is to involve a specific group of his lineal descendants and their strategic possession of a specific Land.

As one reads through the subsequent chapters of Genesis which chronicle the life of Abraham, God continues to appear to him over a 25 year period and He repeatedly reaffirms these Pro- mises. These two essential elements, offspring and land, emerge with unequivocal clarity. Although other children of Abraham are to be blessed, the offspring who are to fulfill these initial seven promises are to come only through Isaac, born by his wife Sarah (Gen 17:15-21; 25:1-6). These descendants through Isaac are to become:

• ..as the dust of the earth (13:16)
• ..as the stars in the sky (15:5; 22:17)
• ..as the sand upon the sea shore (22:17)

Indeed, these descendants are to become so numerous that Abraham is properly called not merely the father of a great nation, but the “father of MANY (hamon/) nations.” The Hebrew word here means a “crowd” or “bustling tumult” of nations.

These promises are repeated, first to Isaac, and later to his son Jacob, who receives both the birthright and the blessing (Gen 26:3-5). Moreover, the specific language and terminology used, especially to Jacob, is most interesting. The very first time the LORD (YHVH) appears to him He gives him the astounding promise: “...you will become an ASSEMBLY of peoples (qahal ‘amim/)”(Gen 28:3). Years later, when his name has been changed to ISRAEL, he is told more specifically that his descendants would be: “...a nation and an ASSEMBLY of nations (qahal goyim/)” (Gen 35:11).

It is clear from these related passages that the Hebrew terms for people (’am/) and nation (goy/) are being used interchangeably. Whether one uses the term “nation” or “people,” the descendants of Abraham, through Isaac and Jacob, are to become an actual ASSEMBLY of peoples. This is more than merely a tribal designation as can be seen from a comparison of the language used for the descendants of Ishmael and Esau, who are both of the seed of Abraham but not part of this seed and soil promise. Ishmael is to become a great nation (singular) but never is it said that he would comprise “many” nations or an “assembly” of peoples. Of course Ishmael became the father of the entire Arabian people, made up of many tribes, but still spoken of as one nation. Esau’s descendants, who are listed in Genesis 36, are likewise seen as one people, the Edomites, despite their many tribal divisions. The Hebrew word translated “assembly” (qahal/) literally carries the notion of a large group or confederation of many nations.

Promises Focus on the Sons of Joseph

The most common way people have understood this language is in reference to the twelve tribes of Israel, descended from the twelve sons of Jacob. However, close attention to the words Jacob himself used when blessing the two sons of Joseph just before his death at age 147, indicates otherwise. It appears that the multiplicity of Abraham’s seed will be realized in particular through these two sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh. First, he reminds his son Joseph that the LORD (YHVH) had promised him years earlier that he, Israel, would become “an ASSEMBLY of peoples” (Gen 48:4). He then blesses the two sons, asking that they grow “into a multitude in the midst of the earth” (48:16). Jacob then says that while the Page 2

firstborn, Manasseh, would become a “great people,” that his younger brother Ephraim would actually be come even greater: “...his seed shall become a MULTITUDE of nations” (48:19). Thus, it appears that even the single half-tribe of Joseph is to become not just a tribe, or even a single nation, like Ishmael or Esau, but a multitude of nations.

This special status of the tribes of Joseph is reflected in the subsequent blessings which the patriarch, Israel, pronounces upon the twelve tribes on his deathbed. Although each of the sons of Jacob receive his rightful portion, Joseph is clearly singled out by the most extraordinary language:

Joseph is a fruitful bough whose branches run over the wall... with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that couches beneath, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb; the blessings of your father are potent above the blessings of my progenitors to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills; they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separated from his brothers. (Gen 49:22-26).

Reuben was the firstborn of Jacob; legally the birthright should have gone to him, but like Esau he lost this privilege, and the birthright was given to Joseph (1 Chron 5:2). Years later, when Moses blesses the twelve tribes before his death, Joseph again is clearly singled out for the most abundant blessings:

Blessed of the LORD (YHVH) be his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that couches beneath, and for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth by the moon, and for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the primordial hills, and for the precious things of the earth and its fullness, and for the good will of Him that dwells in the bush. Let the blessings come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him who was separated from his brothers. The firstling of his herd, grandeur is his, and his horns are like the horns of an wild ox; with them he shall push the peoples altogether to the ends of the earth... (Deut 33:13-17).

One thing that is important to note about these blessings upon the various tribes, and especially upon the tribes of Joseph, is their eschatological character—that is, they are to be realized primarily “in the last days” (Gen 49:1). This point cannot be overstressed. To put the ful- fillment of these promises at some point in the distant past would be to ignore Jacob’s clear and unambiguous words concerning when the prophecies were to be fulfulled. One should expect that Joseph’s realization of the full scope of these abundant promises of blessings will be realized in the period the Bible refers to as “the last days,” just as Genesis Page 2

49:1 clearly states. So, although the tribes of Joseph were among the largest and most prosperous tribes of ancient Israel, we should expect them to achieve an unprecedented level of greatness in the latter times. Moses speaks of these tribes in particular “pushing the peoples altogether to the end of the earth” which seems to indicate a global influence of some scope.

Becoming Thousands of Ten Thousands

Taken together, the promises in the book of Genesis regarding the lineal descendants of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob are quite extra- ordinary. They seem to indicate that the tribes of Israel, and particularly the tribes of Joseph, could eventually be described only in the most superlative language—many nations, a multitude or tumult of peoples, or an assembly of nations. But how is one to understand such language? Does it merely describe the twelve tribes of Israel in the ancient world from the time of Moses through that of Solomon?

When Rebecca is sent away by her family to marry Isaac they say to her, “Become the mother of thousands of ten thousands” (Gen 24:60). Taken literally, this expression clearly indicates numbers in the millions. Is this mere hyperbole or overstatement, or are we to understand the language with more exactitude? It is true that in the Hebrew language the expressions “as the sand of the sea” or “as the stars of heaven” are used idiomatically to mean very large numbers (see 1 Kings 4:20, 29). However, the Torah is very precise in numbering the tribes of Israel in the time of Moses. The count of males over the age of 20, prior to entering the Land is recorded to have been over 600,000 (Num 26:51-62). If one includes women and children, the sum would surely have been at least two or three million, perhaps more. Moses declares to this vast assembly that “God has multiplied you until you are today as numerous as the stars in the sky” (Deut 1:10). But he then adds, “May the LORD (YHVH), the God of your fathers, increase your number a THOUSANDFOLD and bless you as He promised you” (Deut 1:11). Here we see that Moses himself understands the Promises to Abraham to include numbers far in excess of the millions which stood before him. Even if one takes this language in the most conservative way, we would still end up with many hundreds of millions of descendants of Abraham!

That is precisely what the Prophets indicate will be the case in the last days. Jews today number perhaps 15 million worldwide (1993 Britannica Yearbook). They descend primarily from the ancient tribes of Judah and Levi. Yet Hosea says of the northern ten tribes, those “lost” tribes taken into captivity by the Assyrians in the 8th century B.C.E.:

Yet the NUMBER of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, that cannot be measured or num- bered, and it shall come to pass, that instead of that which was said to them, “You are not my people,” it will be said to them, “You are the sons of the living God” (Hosea 1:10 [2:1 Hebrew text]).

This is an extraordinarily vital prophetic text to ponder. Those who make light of the message of the “lost” Tribes and their eventual UNION with the Jewish people (Judah) need to take serious note of Hosea’s plain and unequivocal message! Here we see clearly that Judah, that is, the Jewish people, who have never lost their identity as God’s Chosen People, are completely separate from these Israelites who have lost their identity and become as Gentiles. And yet, just as the Promises which we have surveyed in the book of Genesis indicate, it will be precisely these “lost” Israelites, the tribes of Joseph, which will be so vast in numbers at the time of their Restoration that they can not even be counted! Indeed, throughout the book of Hosea the prophet repeatedly refers to the northern tribes as “Ephraim,” calling them by the name of Joseph’s son (Hosea 5:5; 7:1; 11:12; et al.). According to the prophet Ezekiel these “lost tribes” are spoken of as being “in the hand of Ephraim,” and thus associated with him. In other words, Ephraim is to become the dominant tribe in both numbers and influence, prior to the time of Restoration and Union with the Jewish people in the last days (Ezk 37:15-28). This is precisely what we would expect, based on the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and extended to the sons of Joseph in particular.

A final historical point seems to strongly bear this out. Josephus, the first century Jewish historian offers us a most interesting comment on these northern tribes of Israel in his momumental work, The Antiquities of the Jews:

Wherefore there are but two tribes in Asia and Europe subject to the Romans, while the ten tribes are beyond the Euphrates till now, and are an immense multitude, and not to be estimated by numbers (11.133).

Josephus clearly understands that those people known as the Jews, from Roman times onward, are from the two tribes of Judah and Levi, while the ten tribes are far removed to the north and exist in great, incalculable numbers. Other his- torical sources bear this out. Note that Josephus does not claim, as some modern interpreters do, that the Jewish people somehow ended up including those from the ten tribes. He is most clear on this point. Thus we have the combined witness of the Promises to the Patriarchs, the Hebrew prophets, and Josephus—all agreeing on these essential points.

Wherever and whoever those “lost” ten tribes might be, at least on the basis of the Holy Scriptures, United Israel has a firm foundation for its work. Even without the meticulous historical research that has been assembled, and which we will progressively present on this web site, we already have some clues about what we are looking for. Based on the PROMISES of the LORD (YHVH) Himself, in both the Torah and Prophets we are led to expect that the tribes of Joseph and his associates would eventually possess great wealth and influence, that they would number in the hundreds of millions, and yet they would consider themselves to be Gentiles. These factors were never realized in the history of ancient Israel. However, a growing body of evidence, Biblical, historical, and scientific, allows us to identify the descendants of the northern ten tribes today with a high level of reliability.