The Lord gave Abraham a blessing that He would
multiply his descendants as the stars in the sky or the sand on the seashore2.
The word translated "multiply" means to increase, exceedingly, become numerous,
great. The blessing given to Isaac's wife, Rebecca3
was "Be the mother of thousands of millions" or "myriads." Together they
passed on their blessing to Jacob: "May God make you fruitful and multiply
you, that you may become a congregation of peoples."4
The blessing given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was that of a great congregation
of physical descendants. In other words, bunches and bunches of baby heirs,
"gargantuan groups of great-great-great grandchildren" (Wootten).
The word for congregation is translated from the
word ekklesia that is derived from two Greek words. Ek means "out of" and
Kaleo means "to call out." Put together the purest meaning of ekklesia
is "an assembly, congregation or gathering of called out ones." The Father
said that Jacob, who was renamed Israel, would bring forth a huge ekklesia.
Ekklesia is the word that has been mis-translated
as "church" in the scriptures. The word "church" was coined many centuries
later and comes from the old English word "kirk". King James ordered his
translators to substitute the word church because at the time the Church
of England had become a political and religious institution. Translating
ekklesia as "an assembly of called out ones" would have jeopardized the
king's control as the head of the Church of England. The word "church"
is not one Jesus or His apostles ever used.*
If the ekklesia are "called out ones" then one
might ask "What are they called out FROM?" We'll get to that later. Back
to the story:
Jacob passed on the patriarchal blessing and gave
the birthright of the first born son to his beloved Rachel's firstborn
son, Joseph and to Joseph's son Ephraim. The birthright included a double
portion and the right to act as the next family ruler. The firstborn was
considered the "priest of the whole family" and received the right to inherit
family leadership, preferential status, sanctity, authority, sovereignty,
and responsibility for the continuance and welfare of the family. When
Jacob blessed Ephraim before he died, passing on the patriarchal blessing
from Yahweh, he essentially said that those of Ephraim would become a "fullness
of Gentiles (nations)! The abundance of the nations! They would be so numerous
that they would have to inhabit the lands of other nations!" The blessing
went from being passed from individual to individual to the NATIONS!
Israel was betrothed to the Lord at Mt. Sinai.
I can't find in scripture where she was ever replaced as His intended wife.
She was destined to be the bride and wife of God and to bear Him myriads
of children but first she ended up spending a lot more than 40 years wondering
in the wilderness. It's been more like a few thousand.
After Jacob blessed Ephraim, Ephraim's descendants
were regarded as a single tribe. Later ten of Israel's twelve tribes collectively
became known as Ephraim, Ephraimites and/or Israel. Ephraim separated from
Judah and Benjamin in what was essentially a civil war of brother fighting
brother. Ephraim became the northern kingdom and Judah and Benjamin formed
the southern kingdom. The term "Jew" comes from "Judah" and refers primarily
to those of the southern kingdom. Therefore, all who are Jews are Israel
but not all who are Israel are Jews.
Eventually Ephraim and Judah were both taken captive
by hostile invaders. Judah was taken captive by Babylon but stayed mostly
intact as a people and race. They held onto their identity as Israelites
and to their religious heritage. Judah returned to rebuild the temple and
primarily composes the people who reclaimed and now populate the geographical
nation of Israel in the Middle East.
Ephraim on the other hand fell to Assyria about
a hundred years before Judah was taken captive. The Assyrians had
an unusual policy of scattering their captives and so the tribes were "swallowed
up by the nations."5 Ephraim
began to mix with the pagan nations, adopted their customs and religions
and essentially "forgot" that they were Israel by blood. For all outward
appearances they became "foreigners" or "Gentiles" even though genetically
they were very much Israel.
Ephraim became the "lost" ten tribes of Israel,
except that they weren't really lost. Researchers have a pretty good idea
of where they went: Scotland, Britain, Wales, Ireland, France, Switzerland,
Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Spain. There is
the possibility of descendants in Iran. The descendants of these tribes
are now in those areas or in North America, Australia, New Zealand and
South Africa.
Israel only lost her identity, not her birthright
and patriarchal blessing. Scripture makes it clear that Israel will be
restored and reunified with Judah before the second coming of the Messiah
and the fulfillment of the promise of Abraham to make his descendants more
numerous than the stars.
The single stick of Judah and Ephraim joined together
in the Lord's hand in Ezekiel 37 is speaking of this end time reunion.
"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.
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."6
Yeshua/Jesus came to fulfill this prophecy and
to gather the lost sheep of Israel. He DID reunite them in one stick -
THE CROSS. Although Judah as a nation rejected Him as bridegroom not all
Jews refused him as Messiah, but her national rejection opened the door
for Ephraim to be re-gathered. The Lord sent His JEWISH apostles and prophets
to the gentile nations to extend grace to those without Israelite heritage
and to gather the scattered remnant of Israel that was scattered among
them. Ephraim's Jewish brothers and sisters composed one stick of
the "Ekklesia." They became a congregation called out from the law to live
by the Spirit. They were sent to find Ephraim. Ephraim began to wake up
and hear the call of the good news. Those of Israelite bloodlines but lost
memories, and those who were truly "gentiles" by birth but who had been
adopted as full sons and grafted in by grace, became a second congregation
of "called out ones" from the pagan religions. The two sticks were beginning
to come together in the CROSS.
For the first couple of hundred years progress was
being made in the rejoining and awakening of Israel. The Ekklesia was growing
and expanding. The Gospel was being preached throughout the known world.
Satan knew that the fulfillment of this reunion would result in the
return of Christ and an end to his reign of terror on the earth so he commissioned
his "queen" Babylon (a demonic principality) to put a stop to it. Babylon
took the two powers that conspired to kill Yeshua - politics and religion
- and united them to kill the young Ekklesia of Israel. The political power
of Rome established the Christian church system as a sanctioned religious
institution. Babylon gained control of Israel and began to turn her against
her sister Judah. The Jews became subject to persecution often by members
of their own family of Israel. In response they hardened their hearts to
the news of the Messiah. Ephraim, who had not fully regained the memory
of her birthright, fell under the spell of the promises of Babylon. Believing
she was becoming rich, she handed over her inheritance and became lost
again among the nations. The church system of Babylon stole her identity,
began to misuse the name of her betrothed, moved into her house and began
spending her inheritance!
One of the MAIN points I want to make concerning
the descendants of Israel is that there are MANY, MANY believers sitting
in the Christian church system who genuinely care for Israel and pray for
her and who have NO idea that they ARE Israel. There are also probably
many who hate Israel or at the least care nothing for her and have no idea
that they also ARE Israel. Not only have they come to accept themselves
as "gentiles" but they have no idea that they carry within them the blessing
of Abraham and the birthright of the firstborn of Israel. They have accepted
a counterfeit in place of the real thing. They have become "the church"
instead of the "Ekklesia." The "church" HAS replaced Israel in a sense!
But it is time for Israel to COME OUT OF HER and take her proper position
as the bride of Yeshua which is a ruling position of authority.
Many who are truly Israel by bloodline or by engrafting
grace have COME OUT of this false system but because they have forgotten
who they are they don't know exactly what to do with themselves now. They
think they are wandering in the wilderness when in fact it is the wilderness
they are coming out of! Many of them are still trying to patch up their
wounds from the church system and trying to figure out which way to go
next. They are poised to enter into the Promised Land but because they
lack the understanding of who they are, where they originally came from,
and the destiny of Israel they can't find a clear direction to get there.
There are others who have come out of the church
system and may not fully under- stand why but have been drawn back to their
Jewish roots. They have embraced the Hebraic heritage but the problem is
that many of them have traded one Babylon for another. After beginning
with the Spirit they have become "bewitched" and are trying to attain their
goal by human effort again by returning to Jewish ritual7. They
become very legalistic in their return to their roots. Many Messianic Jews
seem to fall prey to this same problem. They can't seem to get free of
the old covenant and enter fully into the new.
Then there are those who come out of the system
and try to return to a "New Testament model" for church. The problem with
that is that the New Testament Church was the SEEDLING, not the full grown
oak that would come with maturity. We have entered into the fullness of
times which means the age of maturity. We have not yet seen what the Ekklesia
is to look like when she reaches full stature but it will not be what she
looked like as an infant and toddler. Still, some insist on returning to
their childhood.
Then there are many, many, many who are genetic
or engrafted Israel who are still trapped in Babylon believing they are
supporting a good system approved and sanctioned by God. They support and
defend the church system with fierce loyalty having no clue that they are
trapped in a slave system. They are trapped by tradition, ignorance (no
one has taught them differently**), fear, manipulation by false shepherds
and a variety of other chains.
And then there are those who are in the system
who are just totally lost. They call themselves Christians but they are
really unbelievers. They are probably more lost and harder to reach than
the ones who know they're unbelievers. Some of them may be in waiting for
a true encounter with the Holy Spirit but most of them are the ones the
enemy uses to support and run the current church system. He especially
likes to put them into positions of leadership and then he is able to manipulate
the system and the sheep through them. These are the false shepherds, antichrists,
false prophets and Jezebels that oversee the prison system and that keep
the true remnant of Israel in bondage and darkness.
Later we'll look more at Israel and the "new creation"
she is supposed to become and expand our vision of the Promised Land and
the boundaries of Israel, but first let's expose the false church system
with more depth. Isaiah 47: 3 says of Babylon: "Your nakedness will be
exposed and your shame uncovered." In the next installment we'll
begin to uncover the truth of the "Circus Maximus."
* For more in-depth study of the Ekklesia there
is an excellent article by Pastor Terry Parks posted on the website of
the Rock Church. The address is:
http://www.therockchurch.ws/ecclesia.htm
** Correction: I, Annelore, have taught for now
20 years on the believers' relationship to Israel, exposing lying doctrines
and false teachings, man's traditions and manipulations. And there
have been a few other servants of the Lord with similar messages and teachings.
| 1 This
interpretation of "Who Is Israel" quotes
from the book of the same title by Batja Wootten. The Wootten website is
www.messianicisrael.com;
the book is available at http://www.mim.net/Store/Books/Books.shtml;
the book does not necesarily represent Or Tzion's teaching, but Annelore
regards it a point of view to be considered and not utterly rejected, in
view of the worldwide phenomenon of a sudden "awakening" of people belonging
to many different nations. While never having met a Jew nor knowing anything
at all about Judaism, they suddenly experience a tremendous longing, interest
and love for the land, the people of Israel and for everything Jewish.
When I, Annelore, asked the Lord about this amazing phenomenon, He said:
"I am calling out to the blood; and the blood
hears My Voice and answers Me."
At the time no genetic tests had been made as
yet to establish genealogical lines, such as has been done meanwhile successfully
with the high priestly bloodline of Aaron. From G-d's answer it becomes
clear that every descendant of the lost tribes of Israel will share the
same cluster of DNA. Hence, Wooten's book merits thoughtful consideration. |
| 2 Gen.
26:4 |
3 Gen.
24:60 |
4 Gen.
28:3 |
5 Hosea
8:8 |
|
6 Ez37:
21-22 |
7 Galatians
3 |
