How Did Israel's Lost Ten Tribes Become Lost?

Nearly 150 years after Israel fell to the Assyrians, Judah also fell before a foreign conqueror. The Babylonians burned Jerusalem, Judah’s capital, and carried many Jews away to Babylon. This is much like the Assyrian conquest of Israel. However, there were no “lost tribes of Judah.” No matter how much they have been persecuted, no matter how much the world has tried to squeeze them out of existence, the Jews have retained their identity to this day. What was the difference between Israel and Judah? How did Israel become “the lost ten tribes of Israel,” while Judah has never been lost?

God’s Word tells us how Israel lost its identity. First, the house of Israel rejected God and turned to idolatry. Because Israel rejected God and His Covenant, God forsook Israel. Because Israel followed the pagan ways of the Gentiles and God consequently forsook Israel, her spiritual condition became just like that of the Gentiles. Finally, Israel was completely removed from its land by the Assyrians and became lost among the Gentiles because it was just like the Gentile nations around it. The Bible is very clear about these facts, and leaves no room for doubt that they are true.

Israel turned to idolatry almost from its birth as an independent nation, as Jeroboam, her first king, set up golden calves for the people to worship. We’re told in 1 Kings 12:26-30, “And Jeroboam said in his heart, ‘Now the kingdom may return to the house of David: if these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn back to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and go back to Rehoboam king of Judah.’ Therefore the king asked advice, made two calves of gold, and said to the people, ‘It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!’  And he set up one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan." Not one king of Israel ever departed from Jeroboam’s idolatry, as you can find in the Scriptural account of each king’s reign.

Israel sank deeper and deeper into the quicksand of idolatry after this initial act of rebellion against God. During the reign of Ahab, Israel began to serve Baal (1 Kings 16:31-32, 18:18-40) and Asherah (1 Kings 18:19). Eventually, Israel’s idolatry began to involve unspeakable abominations: “So they left all the commandments of the LORD their God, made for themselves a molded image and two calves, made a wooden image and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and soothsaying, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger” (2 Kings 17:16-17).

Like leaven, Israel’s sins spread to every facet of life. The prophet Isaiah condemned Israel because the powerful oppressed the weak: “For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression; for righteousness, but behold, a cry for help” (Is. 5:7). Again, we find, “Thus says the LORD: ‘For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because they sell the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of sandals. They pant after the dust of the earth which is on the head of the poor, and pervert the way of the humble. A man and his father go in to the same girl, to defile My holy name. They lie down by every altar on clothes taken in pledge [compare Ex. 22:26-27], and drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god’” (Amos 2:6-8). To add to all this, Israel trusted in lies: “Ephraim has encircled Me with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit, but Judah still walks with God, even with the Holy One who is faithful” (Hos. 11:12). Israelites even deceived themselves by boasting, “. . . in all my labors they shall find no iniquity that is sin” (Hos. 12:8).

Hos. 4:13-14 adds the following concerning Israel’s immorality: “They offer sacrifices on the mountaintops, and burn incense on the hills, under oaks, poplars, and terebinths, because their shade is good. Therefore your daughters commit harlotry, and your brides commit adultery. I will not punish your daughters when they commit harlotry, nor your brides when they commit adultery; for the men themselves go apart with harlots, and offer sacrifices with a ritual harlot. Therefore people who do not understand will be trampled.”

Finally, we read, “Hear the word of the LORD, you children of Israel, for the LORD brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land: ‘There is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land. By swearing and lying, killing and stealing and committing adultery, they break all restraint, with bloodshed upon bloodshed’” (Hos. 4:1-2).

As these verses show, Israel cast away its spiritual identity by walking in the ways of the Gentiles. Israel forsook God and His covenant, and turned to idolatry and lawlessness. The people of Israel were no longer “a special people” (Deut. 26:18) set apart from the Gentiles, but were spiritually identical to them.

Of course, Israel did not go unpunished for forsaking God. Because Israel rejected God, God rejected Israel. God spoke through Jeremiah, “Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce….” (Jer. 3:8). God told Hosea, “Bring charges against your mother [Israel], bring charges; for she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband!" (Hos. 2:2a). Again, God told Hosea, “I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away [from their own land’” (Hos. 1:6). God further told the Israelites through Hosea, “You are not My people, and I will not be your God” (Hos. 1:9). Because of the northern ten tribes’ sins, they were no longer God’s people, nor would they continue to receive mercy from Him. God also cursed them, declaring, “I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel” (Hos. 1:5) and, “Israel shall surely be led away captive from its own land” (Amos 7:11, 17). Thus God rejected Israel because of her sins (see also Jer. 12:7).

(Note: This rejection was temporary and did not bring about the annihilation of Israel. God simply “took hands off” and allowed Israel to go its own way and experience the consequences of its sins.)

Because Israel rejected God and God rejected Israel from being His servants, Israel’s spiritual condition ceased to be different from that of the Gentiles. Therefore, a major portion of Israel’s identity became lost. By becoming similar to the Gentiles, Israel ceased to be “a special people” (Deut. 7:6). Because Israel’s spiritual identity was lost, all that remained of Israel’s identity was the land which God had given them. The Assyrians removed the Israelites from this last vestige of their identity in a series of deportations during the eighth century BC (2 Kings 17:5-18).

Although some have claimed that the Assyrians removed only a small part of Israel from the Promised Land, God’s Word teaches that all the northern ten tribes were carried away captive. In Ezek. 35:15 God had this to say concerning the nation of Edom: “As you rejoiced because the inheritance of the house of Israel was desolate, so I will do to you; you shall be desolate, O Mount Seir, as well as all of Edom — all of it! Then they shall know that I am the LORD." If the land of Israel was desolate, then obviously Israel no longer inhabited it. In 2 Kings 17:18 the matter is settled: “Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them from His sight; there was none left but the tribe of Judah alone." What could possibly be clearer than that? All northern Israelites (and probably many people of Benjamin, too) were carried away captive and none remained!

Thus, God removed Israel from its last piece of identity. The house of Israel was now entirely like the Gentiles: Israelites worshiped the gods of the Gentiles; the northern Israelites, like the Gentiles, were not God’s servants (Hos. 1:9); and now Israel had been completely removed from its own land and taken to the lands of the Gentiles. In such a situation, how could the Israelites avoid being misidentified as Gentiles? They had nothing to remind them or others of their heritage.

The Bible plainly tells us that Israel did indeed become lost after its captivity. Hos. 8:8 says, “Israel is swallowed up; now they are among the Gentiles like a vessel in which is no pleasure." If Israel was swallowed up, then it could not be found — in other words, Israel was lost! Israel was still lost during the lifetime of Jesus Christ, for we read, “Then said the Jews among themselves, Whither will he [Christ] go, that we shall not find him? Will he go unto the dispersed [Israelites] among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles?” (John 7:35, KJV.)  The Jews acknowledged that they could not find the house of Israel!

For additional proof that the house of Israel ceased to be recognized as such, let’s turn to Is. 63:16-19, where the end-time Israelites lament: “Doubtless You are our Father, though Abraham was ignorant of us, and Israel does not acknowledge us. You, O LORD, are our Father, our Redeemer from Everlasting is Your name. O LORD, why have You made us stray from Your ways, and hardened our heart from Your fear? Return for Your servants’ sake, the tribes of Your inheritance. Your holy people have possessed it but a little while; our adversaries have trodden down Your sanctuary. We have become like those of old, over whom You never ruled, those who were never called by Your name."

Notice first that the Israelites said the rest of Israel did not acknowledge them. The rest of the Israelites, those who are acknowledged as such, are the Jews. As we just saw, the Jews do not know who their brethren are; therefore, they cannot acknowledge them. So Israel is also lost to its brethren. Next, notice the Israelites also said that they had become like those who were never God’s people. So not only was/is the house of Israel not acknowledged by its brethren, its people had become as though they were Gentiles.

Let’s look now at one final Scripture. In Hos. 1:10b we read, “And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them [the house of Israel], ‘You are not My people,’ there it shall be said to them, ‘You are the sons of the living God.’” In this verse, we see that after He regathers them, God will tell the people of Israel their identity as His people. If the people of Israel were aware of their identity — if they were not lost — why would God have to tell them who they are? Clearly, Israel will not know its own identity when it is regathered, so God will reveal to the people of Israel their true identity!

Thus God’s Word shows that the house of Israel is lost — “the lost ten tribes of Israel.” Israel rejected God in favor of idols and began to commit abominations soon after it became an independent nation. Because Israel rejected God and His covenant, God forsook Israel and turned them over to suffer the consequences of their actions. Because Israel walked in the way of the Gentiles and was forsaken by God, Israel’s spiritual state became identical to that of the Gentiles. When Israel refused to repent, God brought the Assyrians against them, who completely removed them from their land (2 Kings 17:18). The Bible unambiguously tells us the Israelites lost their identity in the lands where they were carried captive (Hos. 8:8; John 7:35; Isa. 63:16-19; Hos. 1:10). Moreover, if one ponders the issue, is it any wonder that Israel lost its identity? Israel had rejected its own identity by rejecting God!

To be continued...