The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel

The story of Israel is one of tragedy, one after another. This is because the Israelites failed to fulfill God's given purpose for the chosen people to be a witness unto the nations around them.

After the reign of King Solomon, Israel was divided into two kingdoms - the northern kingdom known as Israel and Ephraim and the southern kingdom known as Judah. The ten tribes of the northern kingdom are known as the Israelites while the two tribes of the southern kingdoms are called the Jews. The ten tribes of the northern kingdom turned to idolatry and paganism right from the very start under its first King named Jeroboam 1.

Because of their disobedience, God pronounced judgment upon the northern kingdom through the prophet Ahijah, even before the death of Jeroboam 1. 'For the Lord will strike Israel as a reed is shaken in the water, He will uproot Israel from this good land which He gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the River, because they have made their wooden images, provoking the Lord to anger (1 Kings 14:15). The River here is in reference to the River Euphrates.

God's mercy delayed the sentence for more than two hundred years, until the siege of the Assyrians that took the Israelites captive to places in Assyria and Media, over the other side of the Euphrates River. The banishment of the ten tribes of Israel beyond the Euphrates River effectively caused them to lose their Hebrew identity as it reversed God's calling of their forebear patriarch Abraham out of Ur beyond the River Euphrates into a land God will give to him and his descendants forever.

The banishment of the ten tribes of Israel caused them to lose their unique Hebrew identity until after the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. Since we are now living in the times of the end (end times), the diaspora of the lost ten tribes of Israel began to make their way back to the land of Palestine.

Could the 'kings from the east' mentions in Revelation 16:12 referred to some of the descendants of the lost ten tribes of Israel? The drying up of the River Euphrates could well paved the way for easy crossing back to the motherland in large numbers for the remnant of God's chosen people who will be saved during the time of the Great Tribulation.

The Jews are direct descendants from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin who are currently holding on to the land. The Apostle Paul in Romans 11 relates to Israel's future restoration. The present 'casting aside' of the nation of Israel is only temporary. This blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles (primarily Gentile church) has come in. And so all Israel (the remnant) will be saved (Romans 11:25-26).

The remnant refers to those Israelites whom God has preserved who will turn from their trangressions (Isaiah 59:20-21). These will make up of the lost ten tribes of Israel plus the two remaining tribes from the southern kingdom who will return to their homeland during these last days.

Interestingly, a book written by Steven M. Collin attempt to prove that the lost ten tribes of Israel can actually be found among the inhabitants of Britain and America -the modern descendants of the Hebrew race. He argued that the ten tribes, after being uprooted by the Assyrians, headed northward to start colonies all over the world. They eventually migrated to Britain and many move on to America, and subsequently some to Australia and New Zealand.

Adrian Fah is the author of The Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven