Building on the Foundation

Seven centuries before Christ, a famous people vanished from the earth. The world’s mightiest empire invaded their land, burned their cities, and carried them away as captives. To most researchers, the captives’ fate remains unknown. In perhaps the biggest missing persons case of all time, millions of people disappeared from the historical record, never to be heard of again! The conquerors were the Assyrians, a proud, warlike people whose power and cruelty terrorized the rest of the known world. The vanished people belonged to the northern kingdom of Israel. As we saw in three previous posts (links below), they are now called the “lost ten tribes of Israel.” What happened to the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel? Were they obliterated in an ancient genocide, or are their descendants still wandering this terrestrial globe? Did they assimilate into surrounding peoples and disappear altogether, or have they secretly played a role in world history? Have you been looking at them your whole life wit...

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 an...

Have you ever heard someone talk about Moses leading the Jews out of Egypt? Or heard someone otherwise talk about the ancient Israelites as if all of them were Jews? These people speak in error, for most Israelites were not Jews! Here’s why. You may remember that after King Solomon died, Israel ruptured into two houses or kingdoms: ten tribes formed the Northern Kingdom of Israel, while the tribes of Judah and Benjamin formed the Southern Kingdom of Judah (1 Kings 12). The Bible describes only one of these kingdoms as “Jewish,” and that is Judah. In the last of many wars between Israel and Judah, Israel allied herself with Syria and invaded Judah (2 Kings 15:37, 16:5; Isa. 7:4). Using the KJV, we find in 2 Kings 16:6, “At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and drave the Jews [the people of Judah] from Elath: and the Syrians came to Elath and dwelt there unto this day.”  This is the first time God’s Word uses the name “Jews.”  Notice the Jews are the peopl...