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The 12 Tribes of Israel in Bible Prophecy

Chapter one

By Neville V. Stevens

The Prince of Peace has not yet begun to make peace, yet He surely knows how. The fact is that the Lord Christ is presently watching the nations building strength for the purpose of destroying the Western nations – namely the Tribes of Israel, whose identity has become lost to them over the many centuries. Strange though it may seem to some, the Lord Christ came only to the ‘lost sheep of Israel’. Matt 15:21-26 "Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. ²² A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession." ²³ Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us." ²⁴ He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel." ²⁵ The woman came and knelt before him. "Lord, help me!" she said. ²⁶ He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs." There is nothing ambiguous about this! Jesus said He had come only to the lost sheep of Israel, and He further added that it wasn’t right to toss the children’s bread to dogs. The children being, of course, the Children of Israel or Jacob! And what are the Europeans doing today? They are lavishly tossing their bread to the PLO and Hamas and trying to rebuild them for the next assault on the Israelis. These evil, Muslim dogs have no right to live; they are treacherous, evil, lying, murderous vipers. Unfortunately, the Tribes of Israel have yet to learn to distinguish good from evil.

And who surrounds the Holy Land today? We can freely admit that they’re Muslims. Perhaps you don’t know that Jesus reiterated His comments to that Canaanite woman in a later prophecy. It’s found in Rev 22:14-16 "Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. ¹⁵ Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. ¹⁶ "I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this Testimony for the Churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star." In making this statement, Jesus prefaces it with the warning that He is coming soon. His purpose is to set up a Kingdom that will never be destroyed. Once the City of God – Jerusalem – is secured, who do you think will be outside baying for blood? Jesus identified them as dogs! These will be Muslims and their sycophantic supporters.

In view of the many Bible prophecies relating to the 12 Tribes of Israel it should be obvious to any honest observer that these would be very prominent in the end times. As far as the assumption of many church groups goes, the lost ten Tribes no longer exist as specific peoples. It’s odd that they should suggest such a thing, when the Book of Revelation makes it very plain that God will select 12,000 of each of the Tribes (Rev 7:4) for settlement in their allotted territories to form the nuclei of future tribal states. It should be noted that the Tribe of Dan is omitted here (for reasons we won’t go into right now), and a double portion is given to Joseph through his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh.

Then we can turn to the prophecies of the Book of Ezekiel, where he describes the Temple to be built in the final days where the Logos confirms to him that He will live forever. The description of the plans for the New Temple of God is given in Ezekiel ch40 through ch46, and in ch47 we see a description of the River of Life that flows from the Temple (Eze 47:1). Then in ch 48 we see the description of the Tribal allotments for the 12 Tribes of Israel. In this description the Tribe of Dan is mentioned in the allotments. Something has happened in the interim period that has resulted in the Dan’s portion being given to Joseph – as stated in the Book of Revelation. But we won’t go into that just now.

There is something else worth noting in Ezekiel chapter 47 and this relates to Gentiles who choose to live as Israelites and to serve the God of Israel. Eze 47:21-23 "You are to distribute this land among yourselves according to the tribes of Israel. ²² You are to allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the aliens who have settled among you and who have children. You are to consider them as native-born Israelites; along with you they are to be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. ²³ In whatever tribe the alien settles, there you are to give him his inheritance," declares the Sovereign LORD." By this we can see that it’s not a closed shop when it comes to inheritance. Gentiles who faithfully serve God and obey His Laws will be considered to be native-born Israelites. These will be a portion of those who truly are native-born Israelites, and God knows who His people Israel are.

In speaking of the 12 Tribes of Israel, it’s important to note that the Tribe of Judah (the Jews) is just one Tribe and this Tribe will certainly receive their allotment along with all the other Tribes – in fact, they will receive theirs first. The Jewish people have been an advance guard in securing the Holy Land and the Holy City Jerusalem. Coming straight out of a holocaust that killed six million of them, they immediately afterwards returned to God to establish the Holy Land. Even some Christian groups today acknowledge that this was accomplished through the intervention of Almighty God Himself. Miracle after miracle consolidated their hold on the Promised Land. Today devout Jewish people still stand before the Wailing Wall and dream of the day when God’s Temple will be rebuilt according to the plans of Ezekiel’s prophecies. In this they go much further towards reality than do Christians today. The hope of the New Temple being built on the Temple Mount is almost non-existent among Christianity. According to their pathetic doctrine, there is no need for a Temple. Never mind that the One, who became the Mighty Christ, plainly states that this is where He will live forever. Eze 43:6-7 "While the man was standing beside me, I heard someone speaking to me from inside the temple. ⁷ He said: "Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet. This is where I will live among the Israelites forever. The house of Israel will never again defile my Holy Name--neither they nor their kings--by their prostitution and the lifeless idols of their kings at their high places."

Jesus said ‘Salvation is from the Jews’: John 4:21-24 "Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." What is truth? God’s Word – the Scriptures – is truth! The only Scriptures existing at the time of Christ was the Old Testament! This is what Jesus and all the Jews quoted from and they believed it to be truth. The Samaritans worshipped all sorts of weird things which they never got from the Old Testament. On the other hand, Jesus said "We" – meaning Him and the Jews – "worship what they do know".

Christianity meanwhile developed a dark side of disobedience to God’s Law, and sneeringly called obedience to God’s Law ‘Judaising’. And it continues today! Any reasonable Bible student, who has actually read the Bible, knows that the content of the Bible is a little different to the airy-fairy nonsense believed by most Christians today. If Christians did nothing more than read the Book of Revelation, then they would at least realize that there are gaps in their pathetic doctrine and their beliefs don’t equate with reality. Repeatedly quoting elementary verses from Scripture might give them an emotional ‘high’, but there comes a time when they must leave aside the elementary principles and move on to maturity. Here’s a passage of Scripture they might like to ponder: Heb 5:7-14 – 6:1-3 "During the days of Jesus' life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverent submission. ⁸ Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from what He suffered ⁹ and, once made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him ¹⁰ and was designated by God to be High Priest in the order of Melchizedek. ¹¹ We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. ¹² In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! ¹³ Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. ^{HEB 6:1} Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, ² instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. ³ And God permitting, we will do so." (That is, leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity). Maturity! Now there’s a quality you don’t see much of in the churches today.

What seems to have escaped the understanding of Christians today is that most of the New Testament was written in perilous times. In 70AD, and the couple of years leading up to it, there was a bloodbath, originally because of an insurrection by the Jews against the Roman Empire. Collateral damage of ordinary citizens meant nothing in those days – today it’s a bit of modern fiction generated from the mindlessness of self-righteous leaders who have never experienced the fog of war. It’s certainly not God’s way! If God condemns a nation or a people, then every root and branch of them must be eliminated and just to put you in the picture: Mal 4:1-3 "Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire," says the LORD Almighty. "Not a root or a branch will be left to them. ² But for you who revere my Name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. ³ Then you will trample down the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I do these things," says the LORD Almighty." And in the very next verse we read this: V4 "Remember the Law of my servant Moses, the Decrees and Laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel." But I don’t expect that Christianity has much interest in this. Obedience to God is not a part of their doctrine. They’re too interested in elementary teachings!

But getting back to the bloodbath of 70AD, it was a bloodbath indeed. The Romans didn’t differentiate between Christians and Jews in the Holy Land; as far as they were concerned they were all the same people – which of course they were! The large majority of them were from the Tribe of Judah, and these were the enemy in the minds of the Roman army. It was in this conflict that the Jewish historian Josephus confirms that both Peter and Paul were imprisoned to await execution after transportation to Rome. In fact, the mode of Peter’s death was described to him by Jesus forty years before (John 21:19).

In the faith chapter in the Book of Hebrews, we find some very pertinent examples of faith. This chapter details the exploits of men of God who faced great challenges and became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies through the power of God. Others were jeered and subjected to ridicule, flogging and torture. They were chained in prisons, stoned, sawn in two and hacked to death by the sword. They were destitute, persecuted and ill-treated, yet they endured because of their faith in God. And the Book of Hebrews confirms that the world was not worthy of them. Heb 11:32-40 "And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, ³³ who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, ³⁴ quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. ³⁵ Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. ³⁶ Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. ³⁷ They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated-- ³⁸ the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. ³⁹ These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. ⁴⁰ God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect."

So what’s wrong with everyone? Why has everyone become so besotted with evil? Does anyone really believe that this political correctness phase of history is the new era of enlightenment? God is about to put everyone to the test, so why do they keep wallowing in this pig swill? The whole nations of Israel need to remember God’s Law and understand the Testimony of Jesus. Right now they understand neither! Through the Prophet Isaiah, God has given a very poignant reminder of what to expect in the last days: Isa 8:20-22 "To the Law and to the Testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. ²¹ Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. ²² Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness."

Who today speaks according to the word of the Law and the Testimony? Very few people speak in defense of God’s Law today, and none even understand what the Testimony of Jesus is, let alone being able to speak according to it. There is a very clear definition in the Bible about what the Testimony of Jesus is, and it’s found in Rev 19:10 "At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, "Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who hold to the Testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy." And please don’t anyone try to tell me they have the Spirit of Prophecy! Point blank – they don’t have it! And every bit of ‘prophecy’ they ever uttered came from their own imaginations or the imaginations of others – never from the Bible! Virtually the whole of Christianity has no idea what God’s great plan for mankind, and specifically the 12 Tribes of Israel, is all about.

But let’s go back to Isaiah chapter 8 again and note something interesting. Just to put it into context, God gives reassurance to His servant the prophet, and then pronounces a judgment on both Houses of Israel, that is, both the House of Judah and the ‘Ten Tribes of Israel’. And then He gives further instructions about the Law and the Testimony: Isa 8:11-18 "The LORD spoke to me with His strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people. He said: ¹² "Do not call conspiracy everything that these people call conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it. ¹³ The LORD Almighty is the One you are to regard as holy, He is the one you are to fear, He is the one you are to dread, ¹⁴ and He will be a sanctuary [for the prophet upon whom His hand rests]; but for both houses of Israel He will be a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem He will be a trap and a snare. ¹⁵ Many of them will stumble; they will fall and be broken, they will be snared and captured." ¹⁶ Bind up the Testimony and seal up the Law among my disciples. ¹⁷ I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the House of Jacob. I will put my trust in him. ¹⁸ Here am I, and the children the LORD has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion."

Bind up the Testimony and seal up the Law among my disciples! In view of the fact that no-one could care less about the Testimony of Jesus, and have chosen to fabricate their own testimony, it’s a good idea to bind them up among God’s disciples. These disciples are signs and symbols from the LORD Almighty. Now there’s an interesting point. These are the disciples of the LORD Almighty. It’s even more interesting since the LORD Almighty took just one Tribe for Himself – Levi! And the Tribe of Levi are the firstfruits – the first fruit of the harvest! Num 8:13 "Have the Levites stand in front of Aaron and his sons and then present them as a wave offering to the LORD. ¹⁴ In this way you are to set the Levites apart from the other Israelites, and the Levites will be mine. ¹⁵ "After you have purified the Levites and presented them as a wave offering, they are to come to do their work at the Tent of Meeting. ¹⁶ They are the Israelites who are to be given wholly to me. I have taken them as my own in place of the firstborn, the first male offspring from every Israelite woman." There are obvious reasons why God chose the Levites as His very own Tribe. The Levites served God in reverence of His Holy Name. Honour towards God was more important than their own honour and they stood in awe of Him. In this they closely resembled the Lord Christ today who continues to serve Almighty God as His High Priest in the Heavenly Sanctuary.

For those who baulk at this and suggest that God has abandoned the Levite Priesthood and no longer considers the Tribe of Levi to be His very own, chosen Tribe, to be the wave offering – the first fruit of the harvest, then they would have some difficulty explaining the appearance of John the Baptist. John was the son of a Levite priest. What is more, this Levite priest, Zechariah the father of John, was filled with the Holy Spirit when he prophesied about his son John and detailed what he would be. The whole account is found in Luke 1:57-80. We’ll go into all of this later in this article. It’s worth noting, however, that John preceded the appearance of the Lord Christ and set out proclaiming the Kingdom of God. It’s also worthy of note that John’s ministry was not the Church! Jesus established the Church of God later. John’s was an entirely separate ministry, and his purpose was to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to prepare the way for the Lord Christ. John, of course, stood in awe of Jesus and stated that he was unworthy to unloose his shoes.

Getting back to the reference in Isa 8:16 about binding up the Testimony and sealing the Law among Almighty God’s disciples, this tells us a couple of things. Firstly, the Testimony and the Law are entrusted to Almighty God’s disciples and in their possession. The second question then becomes, why does God want them bound up and sealed? Well, the Prophet Amos speaks of this time – a time of retribution for the sins of the House of Israel. He details horrific carnage and enslavement against the House of Israel but concludes with the hope of better times at its conclusion. So let’s read the good news first: Amos 9:13 "The days are coming," declares the LORD, "when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills. ¹⁴ I will bring back my exiled people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. ¹⁵ I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them," says the LORD your God."

The bad news is that God has particular issues with one Tribe – a very important Tribe – namely the Tribe of Ephraim. And this prophecy is directed towards them. They are destined for destruction and will go into captivity in one of the most horrendous and catastrophe periods in human history. And now we are well into the Day of the LORD, this horror period could begin any time now. So on what basis is it directed towards Ephraim? The answer is found in Amos 8:7-10 "The LORD has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: "I will never forget anything they have done. ⁸ "Will not the land tremble for this, and all who live in it mourn? The whole land will rise like the Nile; it will be stirred up and then sink like the river of Egypt. ⁹ "In that day," declares the Sovereign LORD, "I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. ¹⁰ I will turn your religious feasts into mourning and all your singing into weeping. I will make all of you wear sackcloth and shave your heads. I will make that time like mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day."

Did you notice to whom this is directed? It’s the Pride of Jacob, and God says He will never forget anything they have done. So who is this Pride of Jacob with its capital letters indicating a name? Who did the Patriarch Jacob elevate over all the others? Even though a young child, Ephraim and Manasseh became Jacob’s own firstborn sons and Ephraim was destined to be the greatest of all. Gen 48:5 "Now then, your two sons born to you in Egypt before I came to you here will be reckoned as mine; Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine." So Jacob likens Joseph’s two sons as his own firstborn sons and then concludes that Ephraim will be the greater: V17-20 "When Joseph saw his father placing his right hand on Ephraim's head he was displeased; so he took hold of his father's hand to move it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head. ¹⁸ Joseph said to him, "No, my father, this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head." ¹⁹ But his father refused and said, "I know, my son, I know. He too will become a people, and he too will become great. Nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his descendants will become [melo hagoyim – which means] the fullness of the Gentiles." ²⁰ He blessed them that day and said, "In your name will Israel pronounce this blessing: ‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’" So he put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh." It’s clear that Jacob was very proud of Ephraim and even elevates him over all of his other sons.

Then in Genesis chapter 49, Jacob proceeds to bless his sons and to predict their future (V1). He has this to say about the Tribe of Joseph: V22-26 "Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine near a spring, whose branches climb over a wall. ²³ With bitterness archers attacked him; they shot at him with hostility. ²⁴ But his bow remained steady, his strong arms stayed limber, because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel, ²⁵ because of your father's God, who helps you, because of the Almighty, who blesses you with blessings of the heavens above, blessings of the deep that lies below, blessings of the breast and womb. ²⁶ Your father's blessings are greater than the blessings of the ancient mountains, than the bounty of the age-old hills. Let all these rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers." Since Jacob put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh, Ephraim rightly inherited the title of Prince among his brothers. As further evidence of this, in the allocation of 144,000 of each of the Tribes of Israel (Rev 7:3-8), Manasseh is mentioned, but Ephraim is included under the name of his father Joseph. If you do a search of the Bible, you will find Ephraim mentioned many times more frequently than his brother Manasseh in Bible prophecy, and what is more, you will find that Ephraim is widely prophesied about, whereas any detail about Manasseh is sparse. The whole Book of Hosea is dedicated to Ephraim and is a book of prophecy about him.

Moses also prophesied about the Tribe of Joseph and added more about the greater power of Ephraim: Deut 33:13-17 "About Joseph he said: "May the LORD bless his land with the precious dew from heaven above and with the deep waters that lie below; ¹⁴ with the best the sun brings forth and the finest the moon can yield; ¹⁵ with the choicest gifts of the ancient mountains and the fruitfulness of the everlasting hills; ¹⁶ with the best gifts of the earth and its fullness and the favor of him who dwelt in the burning bush. Let all these rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the Prince among his brothers. ¹⁷ In majesty he is like a firstborn bull; his horns are the horns of a wild ox. With them he will gore the nations, even those at the ends of the earth. Such are the ten thousands of Ephraim; such are the thousands of Manasseh."

Then we see where the term ‘Pride of Jacob’ is further refined in the Book of Isaiah to the ‘Pride of Ephraim’. Ephraim being the Prince among his brothers – all the Tribes of Jacob! It was Ephraim who was to be the greatest of all his brothers, towering over all the other nations in might, wealth, prestige and power. Their land is endowed with every conceivable blessing just as Jacob predicted. Now we will see who Ephraim is today. There is a wealth of evidence to support this identity, but the most compelling evidence is found in the Book of Isaiah. It speaks of a city, their national pride, the administrative capital of the U.S. Isa 28:1 "Woe to that wreath, the pride of Ephraim's drunkards, to the fading flower, his glorious beauty, set on the head of a fertile valley-- TO THAT CITY, the pride of those laid low by wine!" This is their city, the glorious capital, set on the head of a fertile valley, and the place where the legislative business of the people is done. God makes the point that they are acting like drunkards at a very bad time in their history. God knows of a being who is powerful and strong and who hates the American people. This being is a ruler of the heavenly realms – the spirit world, one of the unseen rulers of nations, whose overall ruler is Satan the devil. And this ruler has a plan to destroy Washington and overthrow the power of the USA: V2 "See, the Lord has one who is powerful and strong. Like a hailstorm and a destructive wind, like a driving rain and a flooding downpour, he will throw it forcefully to the ground. ³ That wreath, the pride of Ephraim's drunkards, will be trampled underfoot. ⁴ That fading flower, his glorious beauty, set on the head of a fertile valley, will be like a fig ripe before harvest--as soon as someone sees it and takes it in his hand, he swallows it. ⁵ In that day the LORD Almighty will be a glorious crown, a beautiful wreath for the remnant of his people. ⁶ He will be a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, a source of strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate." Afterward, the Lord God Himself will be a wreath for the remnant of Ephraim after they return from captivity and slavery. Ephraim has a reputation for retreating or turning back at the gate. Ps 78:9-11 "The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned back on the day of battle; ¹⁰ they did not keep God's Covenant and refused to live by His Law. ¹¹ They forgot what He had done, the wonders He had shown them."

When God sends an army against His enemies, He doesn’t expect them to retreat on the day of battle. He expects them to turn back the battle and make it a rout. God favours men like Abraham who mounted up and pursued four kings and their armies. Though accompanied only with 318 trained men and greatly outnumbered, Abraham pursued them for miles slaughtering them as he went. And who was it that met Abraham on his return and praised his effort? It was the Prince of Peace Himself – the One who became Jesus Christ (Gen 14:13-20). We need to learn some of the reasons why men like Abraham are so highly praised by God – and this is one of them. So people need to rid themselves of preconceived ideas, especially when their ‘virtue’ begins to favour the enemy over their own people.

Almighty God has good reason for making this statement quoted earlier in Isa 28:6: He will be a Spirit of Justice to him who sits in judgment, a source of strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate. This Spirit of Justice is the same Spirit that dwells in the Lord Christ – the Promised Messiah, the Lord of Armies. If Christian readers have actually read the Book of Revelation, then they would have noticed this: Rev 2:26-28 "To him who overcomes and does My will to the end, I will give authority over the nations-- ²⁷ `He will rule them with an iron scepter; he will dash them to pieces like pottery' -- just as I have received authority from my Father. ²⁸ I will also give him the Morning Star. ²⁹ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." Well, the Churches do have to overcome to the end and endure death and hardship or whatever it takes. They must go as sheep to the slaughter just as their Lord Jesus Christ went as a Lamb to the slaughter. If anyone doesn’t have the faith that God can raise them from death – just like Jesus Christ, then they are worthless for any purpose. They’ve missed the point of their whole existence, and they’ve lived their lives in vain. But for those who do overcome and do God’s will to the end, they will have power over the nations to dash them to pieces like pottery whenever it becomes necessary to do so. The Kingdom of God, which will last forever, will never allow rebellion to arise again. Obviously, whenever such aspirations of rebellion emerge, it will be harshly and swiftly dealt with.

Naturally enough, God doesn’t intend for the whole House of Israel to be slaughtered and cease to exist, so He is setting infrastructure in place to combat the scourge independently of the Churches or the nations of Israel. And this is being done through God’s own Tribe – Levi! There’s an interesting aside to all this. The Book of Malachi is also called the Book of the Messenger, because this is what ‘Malachi’ means. Rather fortuitously, it became the final Book of the Old Testament, and part of the message is to remember something. It just happens to be something that Christianity and the nations of Israel choose to forget. We’ve already mentioned it but it bears mentioning again because it’s the Levites that are responsible for upholding the Laws of God: Mal 4:4 "Remember the Law of my servant Moses, the Decrees and Laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel." The fact is that the Laws of God are primarily the province of the Tribe of Levi to uphold and enforce on all the House of Israel, and to make them aware that refusal to obey will result in catastrophic consequences. Naturally enough, the Levites stringently uphold God’s Laws and obey them. God intended the Levites to set the example for all the House of Israel and indeed for all the rest of the world who will either obey or die.

It can now be revealed that the ‘fiery chariot’ that lifted Elijah up and transported him to a different place on earth was the very class of space ship that rained the fire down on Sodom and Gomorrah. These are the combat craft that God sends in times of conflict. Every Bible student should be aware of these from the scriptures when Elisha was confronted by invaders: 2Kings 6:15-17 "When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. "Oh, my lord, what shall we do?" the servant asked. ¹⁶ "Don't be afraid," the prophet answered. "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them." ¹⁷ And Elisha prayed, "O LORD, open his eyes so he may see." Then the LORD opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha." This is the type of weaponry that God commands and an army surrounding a city is no match for this type of power. These were supernatural ships that could not be seen by human beings; hence Elisha’s servant had to have his eyes opened to see them. Elisha is the one who inherited Elijah’s mantle of authority when he departed to parts unknown. Elijah was still on earth at that time and was merely transported to another place. In fact, he wrote a letter to King Jehoram about twenty years later. Just for interest’s sake, this is the account: 2Chron 21:12-15 "Jehoram received a letter from Elijah the prophet, which said: "This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: `You have not walked in the ways of your father Jehoshaphat or of Asa king of Judah. ¹³ But you have walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and you have led Judah and the people of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves, just as the house of Ahab did. You have also murdered your own brothers, members of your father's house, men who were better than you. ¹⁴ So now the LORD is about to strike your people, your sons, your wives and everything that is yours, with a heavy blow. ¹⁵ You yourself will be very ill with a lingering disease of the bowels, until the disease causes your bowels to come out.’ " So you can forget the myth about Elijah being in heaven as some like to claim – presumably to support their mistaken belief that they too will go to heaven when they die!

So is all the USA the Tribe of Ephraim? Far from it! Anyone who thinks this is missing the point. Ephraim founded the nation and set its course. But every Tribe of Israel lives there. In this same way God views the Israelis as the Jews, even though there are other Jews in the world, so God views America as the ‘lost sheep of Israel’! This is because all ten of these Tribes are represented in the American population, even though all these tribes are also represented among those who live in Europe. God intended for the 10 Tribes of Israel to be one nation in the last days because God intends to join them with the Tribe of Judah so these two nations can become one nation. This is described in prophecy as two sticks in God’s hand, which He intends to join together to become one nation. Eze 37:15-28 "The word of the LORD came to me: ¹⁶ "Son of man, take a stick of wood and write on it, `Belonging to Judah and the Israelites associated with him.' Then take another stick of wood, and write on it, `Ephraim's stick, belonging to Joseph and all the House of Israel associated with him.' ¹⁷ Join them together into one stick so that they will become one in your hand." Here we see that it is God’s intentions that all the Tribes of Israel – all 12 Tribes of them, will eventually be joined as one nation. Just two Tribes today represent all of those who will become one nation, and that is Judah and Ephraim. Ephraim is described as having all the House of Israel associated with him – as a single stick! This stick is describing a single entity or nation. In V22 below, God says He will make them one nation and that they will never again be two nations. So clearly, God is speaking of the two nations of Judah and Ephraim becoming one nation. And just to make it abundantly clear, the present-day nation of Ephraim has all the Tribes of Israel living in his nation. Anyone who knows the immigrant history of America knows that the population came from virtually all the European nations. In this particular prophecy, the European House of Israel, which are separated as individual nations, are not included.

And just to complete Ezekiel’s prophecy: Eze 37:18-23 "When your countrymen ask you, `Won't you tell us what you mean by this?' <sup>19</sup> say to them, `This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am going to take the stick of Joseph--which is in Ephraim's hand--and of the Israelite tribes associated with him, and join it to Judah's stick, making them a single stick of wood, and they will become one in my hand.' ²⁰ Hold before their eyes the sticks you have written on ²¹ and say to them, `This is what the Sovereign LORD says: 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. ²² 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. ²³ They will no longer defile themselves with their idols and vile images or with any of their offenses, for I will save them from all their sinful backsliding, and I will cleanse them. They will be my people, and I will be their God."

And then we come to the time frame with the statement above: ‘There will be one king over them’. This king will be King David, who will be raised from the dead and be the ruler of the House of Israel forever. Now that will be worth seeing! To see that courageous and righteous king raised from the dead and view his coronation as King over all Israel will be something to behold. Eze 37:24-28 "My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd. They will follow my Laws and be careful to keep my Decrees. ²⁵ They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, the land where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children's children will live there forever, and David my servant will be their prince forever. ²⁶ I will make a Covenant of peace with them; it will be an Everlasting Covenant. I will establish them and increase their numbers, and I will put my Sanctuary among them forever. ²⁷ My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people. ²⁸ Then the nations will know that I the LORD make Israel holy, when my Sanctuary is among them forever.' "

This is the account of how it all began: 1Kings 11:26-40 "Also, Jeroboam son of Nebat rebelled against the king. He was one of Solomon's officials, an Ephraimite from Zeredah, and his mother was a widow named Zeruah. ²⁷ Here is the account of how he rebelled against the king: Solomon had built the supporting terraces and had filled in the gap in the wall of the city of David his father. ²⁸ Now Jeroboam was a man of standing, and when Solomon saw how well the young man did his work, he put him in charge of the whole labor force of the House of Joseph." This shows some of the qualities of the Ephraimites, and how they get things done. To build the mightiest nation on earth in the space of about 390 years from its first settlements, America has certainly demonstrated these qualities. V29 "About that time Jeroboam was going out of Jerusalem, and Ahijah the prophet of Shiloh met him on the way, wearing a new cloak. The two of them were alone out in the country, ³⁰ and Ahijah took hold of the new cloak he was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces. ³¹ Then he said to Jeroboam, "Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: `See, I am going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon's hand and give you ten tribes. ³² But for the sake of my servant David and the city of Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, he will have one tribe. ³³ I will do this because they have forsaken me and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Molech the god of the Ammonites, and have not walked in my ways, nor done what is right in my eyes, nor kept my Statutes and Laws as David, Solomon's father, did." Bear in mind that Solomon was still alive at this time, so Jeroboam’s immediate future was looking tenuous if Solomon were to find out about the prophet’s discussion with him.

V34 "But I will not take the whole kingdom out of Solomon's hand; I have made him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of David my servant, whom I chose and who observed my Commands and Statutes. ³⁵ I will take the kingdom from his son's hands and give you ten tribes. ³⁶ I will give one tribe to his son so that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city where I chose to put my Name. ³⁷ However, as for you, I will take you, and you will rule over all that your heart desires; you will be king over Israel. ³⁸ If you do whatever I command you and walk in my ways and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my Statutes and Commands, as David my servant did, I will be with you. I will build you a dynasty as enduring as the one I built for David and will give Israel to you. ³⁹ I will humble David's descendants because of this, but not forever.' ⁴⁰ Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam fled to Egypt, to Shishak the king, and stayed there until Solomon's death."

1Kings 12:20 "When all the Israelites heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to the House of David." Judah refused to abandon the Holy City and the House of David even though their king was a worthless tyrant.

1Kings 12:25 "Then Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. From there he went out and built up Peniel. ²⁶ Jeroboam thought to himself, "The kingdom will now likely revert to the House of David. ²⁷ If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam." Apparently Jeroboam didn’t think to himself for too long, because he soon had advice for solving the problem. He decided on providing an alternative form of worship because, as he said, it was too much for them to go up to Jerusalem – well that was his subtle excuse anyway. The glitter and glamour of two gold calves to worship was irresistible to the people and before long, they conned themselves into believing they were worshiping the gods that brought them out of Egypt.

V28 "After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." ²⁹ One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. ³⁰ And this thing became a sin; the people went even as far as Dan to worship the one there. ³¹ Jeroboam built shrines on high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people, even though they were not Levites. ³² He instituted a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the festival held in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. This he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made. And at Bethel he also installed priests at the high places he had made. ³³ On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a month of his own choosing, he offered sacrifices on the altar he had built at Bethel. So he instituted the festival for the Israelites and went up to the altar to make offerings."

So what did God think about this? After all, this Ephraimite had been appointed by Him to be king. I would point out at the very outset that God knew exactly what He was doing. As a matter of fact, the Prophet Hosea lived at the time of Jeroboam and his prophecies are against the house of Jeroboam and the 10 Tribes that resided with him. But these prophecies go far beyond that. They point to a time when the Israelites will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. At the time of the Hosea the prophet, David was already dead. So it is speaking of a future time – a time when the Israelites will number like the sand of the seashore: Hos 1:10 "Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, `You are not my people,' they will be called `sons of the living God.' ¹¹ The people of Judah and the people of Israel will be reunited, and they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel." As we all know, the Tribes of Judah and Israel have not been united as one stick in God’s hand – yet! Furthermore, the Israelites – and we are referring to the Israelites associated with Ephraim – will live many days without a prince or leader. It will be a time of anarchy, a time when any type of worship will be impossible except that which the LORD God has commanded. Hos 3:4-5 "For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or idol. ⁵ Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the LORD and to his blessings in the last days."

Just to recap on a few things here, the Book of Hosea was directed to the ten Tribes of Israel that were being ruled by the Ephraimite Jeroboam whom God Himself appointed. Yet at the very outset, Hosea predicts the reunification of both Houses of Israel – which to this very day has not happened. And neither has David been resurrected and become their king. When you see a single Israelite nation of 300 million people emerge you begin to realize that this is approaching the description of being like the ‘sand on the seashore’. So while much of what Hosea wrote was at least partially fulfilled in his day, a large portion of it was not. Clearly, there has to be a latter fulfillment, and this is confirmed by the term used in V5 above, ‘in the last days’.

Virtue cannot be imposed upon a people by fiat or any form of legislation. Virtue is developed by observation and reason – the ability to distinguish between right or wrong, good or evil. But there is another aspect to virtue, or righteousness if you prefer, and this is to serve the One who gave us life. As created beings, we have an obligation to our Creator. What is so hard about obeying God’s Law? Obeying God’s Law has huge benefits as it invokes God’s many promises for health, prosperity and protection. Obviously, those who don’t obey God have no protection from Him, and all they are really doing is dicing in a game of chance. You win some, you lose some, but if you keep at it, then you will lose all. Virtuous men and women learn these things early and avoid the traps and pitfalls. God has this to say on the subject: Hos 4:6 "My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the Law of your God, I also will ignore your children." There is certainly a dearth of real knowledge today! Yet we are constantly bombarded with information about everything. Information about everything is just a few clicks away from the vast store of the Internet. Obviously, the Internet has not successfully served to address the lack of knowledge that God is speaking of. The people’s interest is occupied elsewhere, and if you read through the Book of Hosea, you will find references to the things that are increasingly occupying the minds of the people.

I don’t intend to go into it all here, because everyone can see the degeneracy developing. However, God has this to say: Hos 7:1-4 "Whenever I would heal Israel, the sins of Ephraim are exposed and the crimes of Samaria revealed. They practice deceit, thieves break into houses, bandits rob in the streets; ² but they do not realize that I remember all their evil deeds. Their sins engulf them; they are always before me. ³ "They delight the king with their wickedness, the princes with their lies. ⁴ They are all adulterers, burning like an oven whose fire the baker need not stir from the kneading of the dough till it rises." And how applicable is this today: Hos 10:4 "They make many promises, take false oaths and make agreements; therefore lawsuits spring up like poisonous weeds in a plowed field." Every bit of misfortune is always someone else’s fault. There’s always someone else to launch a lawsuit against. The greed and avarice has no bounds. Honor and decency are totally absent today in the courts, and the courts encourage it. And God notices it all!

Obviously, God has no intentions of admitting such people into the Kingdom of God. Are such people salvageable? Well, only time will tell. God will provide the remedy for any who might come to repentance and hate themselves for what they were. But the vast majority will perish, never to live again. Their only reward was in this life. Contrary to the lies of priests and ministers who follow the pagan teachings of a life hereafter, there is no resurrection for anyone who never had God’s Holy Spirit, and God’s Holy Spirit is given only to those who obey Him: Acts 5:32 "We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him."

Then we see the Prophet Hosea addressing the two nations of Israel and Judah. Here we see the Ten Tribes of Israel called by the name of Ephraim. Hos 5:14 "For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, like a great lion to Judah. I will tear them to pieces and go away; I will carry them off, with no one to rescue them. ¹⁵ Then I will go back to my place until they admit their guilt. And they will seek my face; in their misery they will earnestly seek me." Hos 6:1-2 "Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but He will heal us; He has injured us but He will bind up our wounds. ² After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us that we may live in his presence." We’ll deal with the meaning of this last verse a little later in this article. But take notice that it is speaking of Ephraim and Judah.

So Ephraim and Judah are slated for punishment, but both are also slated for a quick turnaround. Both will be a kind of firstfruit in the Kingdom of God. Ephraim, the nation of the USA, was founded on righteous principles. God even comments on the founding fathers of the nation. He also says that when He found Israel it was ‘like finding grapes in the desert’. It’s interesting that God should have used this description, because the House of Israel is His vineyard: Isa 5:7 "The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden of his delight." Hos 9:10 "When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the desert; when I saw your fathers, it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree." God uses the term ‘When I found Israel’, implying that they were once ‘lost’, as in the term ‘lost sheep of Israel’. But the founding fathers of the new land of Israel were a delight to Him, because they were Christians and righteous men to boot. Their love of God is reflected in all that they wrote. God says it was like seeing the early fruit on a fig tree.

In contrast to this, Jesus enacted a parable – an account that had a hidden meaning. He went to a fig tree to get some early fruit. When He found there was none to be had, he cursed the fig tree and it withered and died. And that, my friends, was a parable for our time today. It’s a time of trouble that has seen the morals of the founding fathers depart. The whole U.S. nation was founded on these righteous morals, and now they are but a fading flower. Troubles mount up and the scapegoating begins. Their troubles started with the departure of the righteous President Bush, and quickly accelerated with the election of a black, Muslim president. Did half the nation go completely mad on that Election Day? Well, you can judge for yourselves in coming days. God Himself laments the departure of righteousness in the land: Mic 7:1-7 "What misery is mine! I am like one who gathers summer fruit at the gleaning of the vineyard; there is no cluster of grapes to eat, none of the early figs that I crave. ² The godly have been swept from the land; not one upright man remains. All men lie in wait to shed blood; each hunts his brother with a net. ³ Both hands are skilled in doing evil; the ruler demands gifts, the judge accepts bribes, the powerful dictate what they desire – they all conspire together. ⁴ The best of them is like a brier, the most upright worse than a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen has come, the day God visits you. Now is the time of their confusion. ⁵ Do not trust a neighbor; put no confidence in a friend. Even with her who lies in your embrace be careful of your words. ⁶ For a son dishonors his father, a daughter rises up against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law – a man's enemies are the members of his own household. ⁷ But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me." This last sentence identifies the watchman as the prophet who watches what is happening and warns.

So Ephraim is in the process of destruction and their enemies are moving in for the kill. Hos 9:11 "Ephraim's glory will fly away like a bird – no birth, no pregnancy, no conception. ¹² Even if they rear children, I will bereave them of every one. Woe to them when I turn away from them!" Then they will know that God has been protecting them – when He withdraws His protection! ¹³ "I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place. But Ephraim will bring out their children to the slayer." (Tyre was a fortified stronghold until Alexander the Great came along and conquered it.)

There is an additional sentence to Isa 5:7 quoted above that I didn’t include. This is what is left out because it branches to another subject: "But when they came to Baal Peor, they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol and became as vile as the thing they loved." Who is Baal? There has been much conjecture about the identity of Baal as a god. Religious groups have speculated that Baal is some kind of idol. Baal is indeed represented by an idol among ancient Baal-worshipers, but that idol represents Satan the devil. Baal worship is the worship of Satan, and the Lord Christ made this very clear. When He was accused of being Baal-zebub (also spelt Beel-zebub), the prince of demons, Jesus immediately responded by asking how Satan could drive out Satan. Matt 12:24-26 "But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, "It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons." ²⁵ Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. ²⁶ If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand?" So Baal worship is the worship of the devil in any form!

Behold the President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama bowing to Baal. This evil sycophant sure knows how to provoke God’s anger! King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is Satan’s representative and a silver-tongued liar and deceiver!

Satan presently resides in his holy city of Mecca, which his servant King Abdullah of Arabia has so graciously provided for him. Abdullah is the embodiment of one of Satan’s powerful lieutenants – a ruler of the heavenly realms; in other words, a demon entity. The Scriptures make it clear that Satan is not happy with his present location and dreams of the day of his former glory, when he lived in Babylon. He envisages Babylon as the capital of the world. He’s going to get his own way for a brief period of time, but only for God’s purpose to punish His people Israel for back-sliding into Baal worship. There is a rather cryptic description of this house-moving found in the Book of Zechariah. It’s heavy in symbolic language, all of which has specific meanings, but for the present we’ll just deal with Satan’s moving process to the ancient city of Babylon. Zech 5:5-11 "Then the angel who was speaking to me came forward and said to me, "Look up and see what this is that is appearing." ⁶ I asked, "What is it?" He replied, "It is a measuring basket." And he added, "This is the iniquity of the people throughout the land." ⁷ Then the cover of lead was raised, and there in the basket sat a woman! ⁸ He said, "This is wickedness," and he pushed her back into the basket and pushed the lead cover down over its mouth. ⁹ Then I looked up--and there before me were two women, with the wind in their wings! They had wings like those of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between heaven and earth. ¹⁰ "Where are they taking the basket?" I asked the angel who was speaking to me. ¹¹ He replied, "To the country of Babylonia to build a house for it. When it is ready, the basket will be set there in its place." Perhaps later in this article we can explain some of this symbolic language to understand its very important meaning. Anyone who has a mind to study the passage further could start at Nahum 3:4-6.

Once again the Babylonian Empire will emerge with the City of Babylon as its Capital – and Satan himself will dwell there. Bible students will be aware of the importance of the City of Babylon in endtime events – provided they have actually read the Book of Revelation. Babylon will become a life or death issue for the whole House of Israel, but especially for Christians. Bible students should also be aware that when God speaks of Babylon, He knows what He is talking about. The vast array of false prophets out there, don’t! Telling lies in God’s Name doesn’t seem to bother them though. You might have noticed that many of these false prophets in the Churches have now pulled their pathetic prophecy articles off their websites. Since none of their prophecies came true, they’ve had to rethink their options. (See Micah 3:5-7) Most of them have reverted to lifestyle issues about how to improve your lifestyle, complete with a few elementary quotations from the Bible to give the illusion of spirituality. Talk about the blind leading the blind! One has to wonder what their followers think about all this. The truth is that there has been a stampede out of the churches and churches are failing everywhere. Some of these ‘ministers’ may have to find gainful employment elsewhere, and they sure picked a bad time to do this!

Well the day of your Watchmen has come – the day that God visits you – just as God says in Micah 7:4, and it will be a time of great confusion. Since we just mentioned the Book of Revelation, it’s worth noting a passage from Rev 6:15-17 "Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. ¹⁶ They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! ¹⁷ For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?" What’s so interesting about this is that it confirms what the Prophet Hosea said in relation to the House of Israel. Hos 10:8 "The high places of wickedness will be destroyed – it is the sin of Israel. Thorns and thistles will grow up and cover their altars. Then they will say to the mountains, "Cover us!" and to the hills, "Fall on us!" So when God visits, then beware. It will be a time of great wrath for the entire world, but it’s the sins of Israel that God is primarily concerned about.

It’s immediately after the quote from Rev 6 that God seals 144,000 of each of the Tribes of Israel (Rev 7:1-8) to protect them from harm. This is not a big number in comparison to the size of the rest of the house of Israel, but these will form the core of the inhabitants in the Kingdom of God. These will have proven themselves loyal, obedient, and faithful to God. The rest of them will be calling on the mountains and rocks to fall on them to hide them from the wrath of God.

Remember how we quoted Moses earlier about the Prince among his brothers? Deut 33:16-17 "With the best gifts of the earth and its fullness and the favor of Him who dwelt in the burning bush. Let all these rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers. ¹⁷ In majesty he is like a firstborn bull; his horns are the horns of a wild ox. With them he will gore the nations, even those at the ends of the earth. Such are the ten thousands of Ephraim; such are the thousands of Manasseh." All these things have come true for Ephraim, the mightiest, richest, and most powerful nation on earth.

Then we see in the Book of Hosea that change is on the way – change you can believe in – which was the electoral slogan of their Muslim President. Ephraim is being changed from a firstborn bull that gores the nations to the ends of the earth, to a prancing heifer which doesn’t know what its doing. The following verses go on to say that they have planted wickedness and reaped evil, and eaten the fruit of deception – just like Eve. Hos 10:11-14 "Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to thresh; so I will put a yoke on her fair neck. I will drive Ephraim, Judah must plow, and Jacob must break up the ground. ¹³ But you have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil, you have eaten the fruit of deception. Because you have depended on your own strength and on your many warriors, ¹⁴ the roar of battle will rise against your people, so that all your fortresses will be devastated – [just] as Shalman devastated Beth Arbel on the day of battle, when mothers were dashed to the ground with their children."

It doesn’t take a very competent Bible student to work out who is standing illegally on Holy Ground in the Middle East in defiance of God. Any Bible student can see that Islam wants to control all the sacred places of God. This is the very mindset of Satan. Any new player who arrives on the scene in the service of God becomes a target for Satan. He even targeted the Lord Christ when He first appeared. Having failed, he set his sights on Peter (Luke 22:31). Satan is unbelievably active when it comes to trying to thwart God’s plans. He often changes tactics, but he never gives up.

No more will rulers be appointed with great authority unless they have experienced life as a human being and have experienced all the pain and suffering, the highs and lows, while maintaining that God’s Way is best through it all. Jesus Christ is the perfect example for all of us. But we can also take the example of Jesus’ own Tribe – the Tribe of Judah. Throughout all their history of pain and suffering, the highs and lows, they have never forgotten God’s Way of righteousness. Without the Jews, whom God entrusted with the sacred Scriptures (Rom 3:2), Christianity would probably not exist today. So, not only did God trust the Tribe of Judah with the birth of His Son Jesus, He also trusted them with the preservation of His Word. What other Tribe has such an unbroken performance record as Judah?

So at this point, let’s revisit the passage about Almighty God’s disciples: Isa 8:16-18 " Bind up the Testimony and seal up the Law among my disciples. ¹⁷ I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob. I will put my trust in him. ¹⁸ Here am I, and the children the LORD has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion." This just happens to be something the Levites are really good at. They understand and deliver signs and symbols from the LORD Almighty. They don’t get involved with the pathetic symbols of mainstream Christianity, and as for their pathetic signs and conspiracies, as well as their fake prophecies, forget it! We, in this Brotherhood are only interested in signs and symbols from the LORD Almighty. Over the years there have been plenty of these.

So when is it a good time to bind up the Testimony and seal the Law? In the Book of Amos, we learn of a period when there will be a severe dearth of knowledge to explain what is happening. People will stagger all over the place trying to figure it all out, and wondering why God allowed it. The local parson will be no help, nor will the dreamers, nor the leaders of the churches who never had the Spirit of Prophecy, which of course, is the Testimony of Jesus (Rev 19:10). First it will be a coast to coast (or sea to sea) search – probably coast to coast television broadcasts hoping for explanations, then they’ll head from the northern parts to the east, relying on faint memories of some who once lived there in the heartland of the original 13 settlements. But it will be all too late! They won’t find the word of the LORD anymore, and they will be on their own. Amos 8:11-12 "The days are coming," declares the Sovereign LORD, "when I will send a famine through the land – not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD. ¹² Men will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the LORD, but they will not find it."

So there will be considerable gaps in the knowledge of the Churches. They will at last realize they had no knowledge of Bible prophecy or what to expect. In short, they have never known the Testimony of Jesus. Sure they pumped themselves up with fake signs and symbols that had nothing to do with reality, still it provided padding for their sermons to delight the congregation. If they had built on a Rock from the outset their chances would have been a whole lot better. And do you know what that Rock is? Here’s the explanation: 1Cor 10:1-5 "For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. ² They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. ³ They all ate the same spiritual food ⁴ and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual Rock that accompanied them, AND THAT ROCK WAS CHRIST. ⁵ Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert." The Rock that accompanied them was Christ! He is the God of the Old Testament. Jesus has been there from the beginning, and this is why He is the Alpha and Omega – the first and the last.

From earliest times, everything was placed in the hands of the Christ, called Yahweh or the Logos – the Spokesman for Almighty God. Almighty God placed everything in this creation under his control and supervision including the Omega – the violent end! 1Cor 15:24-28 "Then the end will come, when He hands over the kingdom to God the Father after He has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. ²⁵ For He must reign until He has put all his enemies under His feet. ²⁶ The last enemy to be destroyed is Death. ²⁷ For He "has put everything under his feet." Now when it says that "everything" has been put under Him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. ²⁸ When He has done this, then the Son Himself will be made subject to Him who put everything under Him, so that God may be all in all."

We’ve quoted this before, Isa 8:20 "To the Law and to the Testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. ²¹ Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. ²² Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness." If they don’t live by and speak according to the Law and the Testimony, then they will have no light of dawn. So what does this light of dawn mean? It heralds the dawning of a new day, which the Apostle Peter elaborated on: 2Pet 1:19 "And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the Morning Star rises in your hearts. ²⁰ Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. ²¹ For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."

We all know about those who dream up lying stories to make you feel good and make them look good. Deceitful, arrogant creatures that they are! And Peter goes on to refer to them: 2Pet 2:1-3 "But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them--bringing swift destruction on themselves. ² Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. ³ In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping." Their condemnation is already assured and they will certainly not see the Light of Dawn! These lying deceivers would have you believe that they have some kind of reputation with God. They think because they can work the name of Jesus three times into one sentence, they have some kind of spiritual prowess. Never do they suggest or even know that the Lord Christ – the promised Messiah – is a Mighty Warrior! Or that He is coming to rule the nations with an iron bar. Do they ever mention that this Mighty Warrior will appear with a two-edged sword? And never do they mention Isa 63:1-6 that speaks of this Mighty Warrior marching through the territory of Edom – and specifically Mecca and Medina, the so-called holy cities of Islam, and emerges with His garments drenched in their blood. Why don’t they mention this? Don’t they understand plain English?

God was always going to reveal His Plan to His servants the prophets: Amos 3:7-8 "Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing His Plan to his servants the prophets. ⁸ The lion has roared – who will not fear? The Sovereign LORD has spoken – who can but prophesy?" God says concerning Ephraim: Hos 12:10 "I spoke to the prophets, gave them many visions and told parables through them." Yes, God has spoken and told parables through the prophets. Jesus also told many parables. What most people don’t understand it that Jesus spoke in parables so He wouldn’t be understood – not to make the meaning clearer! Jesus’ Testimony could only be revealed through the prophets, and by speaking with hidden meanings, Jesus ensured that this would be so. Matt 13:10 "The disciples came to him and asked, "Why do you speak to the people in parables?" ¹¹ He replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. ¹² Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. ¹³ This is why I speak to them in parables: ‘Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. ¹⁴ In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. ¹⁵ For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’"

Today, Ephraim, the mightiest nation on earth, boasts that they are also the richest and most righteous nation on earth. From the human perspective, this may well be so. But God doesn’t see things in exactly the same way that humans see them, and I’m afraid the clay can’t be the potter, though some like to think they are. Hos 12:8 "Ephraim boasts, "I am very rich; I have become wealthy. With all my wealth they will not find in me any iniquity or sin." Well, God can see plenty of iniquity and sin, and so can all those who love their God. I think every practical, sensible person can see that the tide of iniquity today is unstoppable – short of major punishment and devastation. In the next verse, God mentions that He brought them out of Egypt, but they will live in tents again: V9 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt; I will make you live in tents again, as in the days of your appointed feasts." This will certainly help the housing crisis but I don’t expect that anyone wants to solve the housing crisis that badly. So this is what the whole nation is facing in the very near future. But you’ve seen a bit of this in the recent past, when hurricanes, tornadoes, fires and other calamities have forced this upon some people.

Hos 13:1 "When Ephraim spoke, men trembled; he was exalted in Israel." Which nation on earth today can speak and cause other nations to tremble? Even if Ephraim sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold. If America tightens its purse strings, third world people die of starvation, disease or war. If America withdrew completely, no other nation could step into the gap. No other nation really cares about any other nation, except where self-interest is concerned. Only America gives with no strings attached. Can’t you see all those happy, smiling faces in the third world just rejoicing at America’s benevolence? If you can, then you are seeing something that I can’t! These greedy, wretched people have no appreciation for anything. The more they are given the more they demand. Perhaps you can understand why they are always under the curse of God. Famines, disease epidemics, plagues and wars – it never ends for these sort of people! It’s not popular to say in the presence of the Gentile nations of this world, but God chose only the House of Israel out of all the families of the earth (Amos 3:1-2). Everyone else belongs to Satan and they are his responsibility. Even those who are not native-born Israelites must be grafted into the tree and live as God commanded the House of Israel, then they too become a part of the elect nations of Israel.

As a point of interest, have you noticed that when Muslims migrate to nations of the Tribes of Israel they never assimilate? They insist that their host nation modifies its laws to comply with theirs. The disease of Sharia law is spreading throughout the Western countries, and the arch-rebel of the universe is dictating it all. Hab 1:5-7 "Look at the nations and watch – and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told. ⁶ I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwelling places not their own. ⁷ They are a feared and dreaded people; they are a law to themselves and promote their own honor." We all know who the Babylonians are, don’t we? We’ve seen the maps of the Babylonian Empire in the map section at the back of our Bibles, haven’t we? We know that virtually the entire Middle East was a part of the Babylonian Empire. God does too!

Just to digress for a moment, significant parts of the vast array of condemned false prophets are those who teach that America is Babylon. They have done this by gratuitously and falsely linking Scripture with their demented reasoning while white-washing evil, degenerate nations as victims of America. These demented creatures bad-mouth their own country as if it typifies all the evil in the world. Then they try to make out that these baseless claims are Bible prophecy. The amazing part of all this is that these people actually believe they have God’s Holy Spirit. What part of the Bible ever suggests that the City of Babylon resides anywhere other than where it was built originally? Amazingly, these people don’t even know what Hab 3:3 means. It concerns a prophecy for the very last days. We alluded to it in the inclusion of Isa 63:1-6 early in this article. It concerns a great slaughter in the land of Edom. These verses in Isaiah plainly reveal Who it is that emerges with His garments soaked in blood after the slaughter. Isaiah mentions that the Mighty One comes from Edom (V1). Habakkuk records Him arriving from Teman. So who, where and what is Teman? Gen 36:40-43 "These were the chiefs descended from Esau, by name, according to their clans and regions: Timna, Alvah, Jetheth, ⁴¹ Oholibamah, Elah, Pinon, ⁴² Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar, ⁴³ Magdiel and Iram. These were the chiefs of Edom, according to their settlements in the land they occupied. This was Esau the father of the Edomites." So Hab 3:3 tells us that the Holy One comes from Teman – the land of the Edomites. The Edomites occupied the land on the west side of Arabia on the Aqaba seaboard – the area where Mecca and Medina are.

So the prophecies of both Isaiah and Habakkuk agree on the location of the great slaughter by the Mighty One. But then the prophet Jeremiah enters the fray with even more detail of this slaughter: Jer 49:20-22 "Therefore, hear what the LORD has planned against Edom, what he has purposed against those who live in Teman: The young of the flock will be dragged away; he will completely destroy their pasture because of them. ²¹ At the sound of their fall the earth will tremble; their cry will resound to the Red Sea. ²² Look! An Eagle will soar and swoop down, spreading its wings over Bozrah. In that day the hearts of Edom's warriors will be like the heart of a woman in labor." So now we have all three prophets, Isaiah, Habakkuk and Jeremiah agreeing on the same event. Jeremiah also adds that ‘at their fall the earth will tremble’. Habakkuk says the same thing, but adds more: Hab 3:4-6 "His splendor was like the sunrise; rays flashed from His hand, where His power was hidden. ⁵ Plague went before Him; pestilence followed His steps. ⁶ He stood, and shook the earth; He looked, and made the nations tremble. The ancient mountains crumbled and the age-old hills collapsed. His ways are eternal."

Even the prophet Obadiah mentions this terrifying act of destruction upon the land of Edom/Esau/Teman. Obadiah 1:8-10 "In that day," declares the LORD, "will I not destroy the wise men of Edom, men of understanding in the mountains of Esau? ⁹ Your warriors, O Teman, will be terrified, and everyone in Esau's mountains will be cut down in the slaughter. ¹⁰ Because of the violence against your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame; you will be destroyed forever." And just to put it in perspective, the prophet Obadiah adds this: V15 "The Day of the LORD is near for all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return upon your own head."

The prophet Amos also weighs in with prophecies against Edom and lists the atrocities against his brother Jacob for their total destruction: Amos 1:11-12 "This is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Edom, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath. Because he pursued his brother with a sword, stifling all compassion, because his anger raged continually and his fury flamed unchecked, ¹² I will send fire upon Teman that will consume the fortresses of Bozrah." Muslims everywhere gather in Edom for their annual Haj. All Muslims share the view of Edom, Jacob’s brother, that Jacob is the enemy of all Islam. And like Edom, Islam is consumed with the desire to kill all the descendants of Jacob. You’ve seen their anger raging continually and their fury flaming unchecked. Since the children of Jacob – the Israelites – are the enemy of Islam, it should logically follow that Islam is the enemy of the Israelites – all 12 Tribes of them. But, America, your black, Muslim President says America is not at war with Islam and never will be. This was said in his address to the Turkish nation – a secular Islamic nation. I’ll restrain from any criticism of Turkey because in the future, they will perform a very important service to God whether they want to or not. It will involve providing a safe haven for certain people. Personally, I didn’t appreciate Obama going to Turkey as his first State visit to a Muslim country! It seems that Satan is trying to thwart God’s future plans. After Obama’s pathetic performance there, Satan may have had temporary success. It’s hard to keep track of Satan’s cunning nuances.

Let’s recap on a few things. God intended to gather the ‘lost ten Tribes of Israel’ into one place and under one ruler for the final windup before the Kingdom of God is established. It closely assimilates the conditions that existed under Jeroboam to whom God gave Ten Tribes. Under Jeroboam the Laws of God were liberalized and everyone was encouraged to do whatever they pleased or whatever they thought was right for them. Eventually they completely turned away from the Jewish Southern Kingdom and even waged war against them. Little did they realize that in so doing, they were fighting against God. The man that God gave Ten Tribes to was an Ephraimite. From this time on Ephraim became a principle player in a vast array of Bible Prophecy and actually plays a vital role following the beginning of the Kingdom of God, which will be taken by force by the servants of God. Remember what Jesus said to Pontius Pilate when asked if He were a king? John 18:36 "Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world (Gr. aeon meaning age or period). If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my Kingdom is from another place." Today Jesus sits with His Father on His Throne awaiting the establishment of His Kingdom on earth. He told Pilate that if His Kingdom was at that time, then His servants would fight to prevent His arrest by the Jews. There were no Muslim imams in those days to stir up trouble, so Satan had to use the Pharisees as his proxy and Satan had these Jewish religious leaders right in his pocket. That was then, but today things are a little different. Except for Peter, Jesus’ servants didn’t put up a fight at all, and Jesus even prevented them from doing so, saying ‘Those who live by the sword will die by the sword’. History shows that most of the 12 Apostles died in martyrdom and never defended themselves with a sword or anything else. In the another chapter of this article, we’ll explain why.

As Daniel the prophet wrote, the Kingdom of God will fill the whole earth – eventually, and will last forever. God is very specific about who will live in His Kingdom. The primary objective is to clear the Holy Land of the Islamic hordes and to reduce them to ashes: Mal 4:1-3 "Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire," says the LORD Almighty. "Not a root or a branch will be left to them. ² But for you who revere my Name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. ³ Then you will trample down the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I do these things," says the LORD Almighty." Won’t it be nice when these sniveling, whining, vile creatures are just ashes under the feet of the righteous? No longer will men, women and children be blown to pieces in restaurants, shopping malls, schools, etc. Obviously, the Kingdom of God will not end at the borders of Israel, but will fill the whole earth following the mother of all battles in the Valley of Armageddon. So from the north and the Far-east there will be further ethnic cleansing of the dragon-worshippers and others. After this, there will be a long period of peace, until Satan is paroled from prison, but that’s in the distant future.

God knew long ago that Ephraim would get worse and worse as they grew more prosperous. The more He blessed them the further they turned from Him. Hos 11:1-4 "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. ² But the more I called Israel, the further they went from me. They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images. ³ It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them. ⁴ I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them." Here we see Ephraim and Israel blended together as one entity. It’s plain to see that the tremendous blessings that made Ephraim so mighty and so wealthy came from God Himself. From earliest days of their settlements, God was with them to guide and bless them. There was a continual procession of virtuous men setting up processes and organizing their development. To the impartial observer, failure in anything seemed impossible. Everything the American people did seemed to drop in their lap as a gift from heaven. The founding fathers of the nation and successive generations recognized God’s fruitful bounty and they praised Him for it.

Those who know their God – and there’s not too many of them today – will know that God has no intention of allowing rebellion to encroach anymore into His prophesied Millennial reign. The time has come for God’s Great Plan to be put into effect. This is probably the time when most Christians would be imagining that the Lord Christ will return with all the saints and millions upon millions of angels accompanying Him. But there are a few things missed in this assumption. First of all, the angel spoke to those who saw Him go into heaven, and said this: Acts 1:11 "Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven." What the men of Galilee saw was different to His return as the Sovereign God with all the angels and saints. The angel said ‘This same Jesus’ will come back in the same way as they saw Him leave. Most Christians today don’t seem to want to believe this. As far as they are concerned, Jesus is going to return, take care of them personally, and destroy everyone else. Gentile Christianity believes they all go to heaven when they die so there is no need for Christ to do anything. Then we have the rapture theorists, who believe they will disappear into the clouds somewhere and just be observers to the destruction of the earth. All of these are merely unsubstantiated theories that have no support in the Bible. The truth is that Christianity has morphed into something entirely different from the original Christianity taught by Jesus. What is more, the duty of a Christian towards their Creator God has been lost completely to all of Christianity. Christians today may not want to believe this, but God not only requires obedience to the Laws He gave His servant Moses at Sinai and written on two tablets of stone, but God requires every Christian to be willing to lay down their lives for Him, just as Jesus did.

There is an oracle set within Zechariah, chapter 9, which speaks of the evil brood that still exists as it did in Joshua’s time. This is how these evil creatures are described in the Book of Joshua: Joshua 13:1-5 "When Joshua was old and well advanced in years, the LORD said to him, "You are very old, and there are still very large areas of land to be taken over. ² "This is the land that remains: all the regions of the Philistines and Geshurites: ³ from the Shihor River on the east of Egypt to the territory of Ekron on the north, all of it counted as Canaanite (the territory of the five Philistine rulers in Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath and Ekron--that of the Avvites); ⁴ from the south, all the land of the Canaanites, from Arah of the Sidonians as far as Aphek, the region of the Amorites, ⁵ the area of the Gebalites; and all Lebanon to the east, from Baal Gad below Mount Hermon to Lebo Hamath." So under Joshua’s administration, there were many Canaanites left remaining in the Promised Land. All of these have to be cleaned out and either dispersed or killed. And there is another group called the Jebusites who still live in Jerusalem and the surrounds: Joshua 15:63 "Judah could not dislodge the Jebusites, who were living in Jerusalem; to this day the Jebusites live there with the people of Judah." All of these people have been a thorn in the side of God’s people down through the ages. What God has done is to identify areas that must be purged of Satan’s brood. Since there are Jews living among them or at close quarters, they’ll have to be picked off with some dexterity. Then those who are left will become the leaders of Judah. There are lengthy, long-winded explanations for all these things and the importance of them, but we’re primarily interested in how things will progress as certain Jews become leaders in God’s Kingdom and how they will be selected. Zech 9:6-8 "Foreigners will occupy Ashdod, and I will cut off the pride of the Philistines. ⁷ I will take the blood from their mouths, the forbidden food from between their teeth. Those who are left will belong to our God and become leaders in Judah, and Ekron will be like the Jebusites. ⁸ But I will defend my house against marauding forces. Never again will an oppressor overrun my people, for now I am keeping watch."

In the very next verse we have an event that many people will be familiar with. It’s been fulfilled once before in the past but only partially. This time it will be fulfilled completely. Zech 9:9-17 "Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your King comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. ¹⁰ I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the war-horses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth. ¹¹ As for you, because of the Blood of my Covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit. ¹² Return to your fortress, O prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you. ¹³ I will bend Judah as I bend my bow and fill it with Ephraim. I will rouse your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece, and make you like a warrior's sword. ¹⁴ Then the LORD will appear over them; his arrow will flash like lightning. The Sovereign LORD will sound the trumpet; he will march in the storms of the south, ¹⁵ and the LORD Almighty will shield them. They will destroy and overcome with slingstones. They will drink and roar as with wine; they will be full like a bowl used for sprinkling the corners of the altar. ¹⁶ The LORD their God will save them on that day as the flock of his people. They will sparkle in his land like jewels in a crown. ¹⁷ How attractive and beautiful they will be! Grain will make the young men thrive, and new wine the young women."

We’ll deal with the full explanation of these verses in coming chapters. The rise of Judah and Ephraim to prominence in the establishment of God’s Kingdom is too important to just gloss over. Lengthy explanations are needed. But I’ll venture one comment concerning Judah’s leaders today. They are not exactly acting like shepherds to keep the wolves and hounds at bay – are they? God speaks of them as diviners and dreamers who give comfort in vain: Zech 10:2-8 "The idols speak deceit, diviners see visions that lie; they tell dreams that are false, they give comfort in vain. Therefore the people wander like sheep oppressed for lack of a shepherd. ³ "My anger burns against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders; for the LORD Almighty will care for His flock, the House of Judah, and make them like a proud horse in battle. ⁴ From Judah will come the Cornerstone, from him the tent peg, from him the battle bow, from him every ruler. ⁵ Together they will be like mighty men trampling the muddy streets in battle. Because the LORD is with them, they will fight and overthrow the horsemen. ⁶ "I will strengthen the house of Judah and save the House of Joseph. I will restore them because I have compassion on them. They will be as though I had not rejected them, for I am the LORD their God and I will answer them. ⁷ The Ephraimites will become like mighty men, and their hearts will be glad as with wine. Their children will see it and be joyful; their hearts will rejoice in the LORD. ⁸ I will signal for them and gather them in. Surely I will redeem them; they will be as numerous as before."

In Zech 9:7-8 (quoted above) we see the rise of new the Leaders of Judah, and where God says never again will an oppressor overrun His people because He will be watching.

Those who are left will belong to our God and become leaders in Judah, and Ekron will be like the Jebusites. ⁸ But I will defend my house against marauding forces. Never again will an oppressor overrun my people, for now I am keeping watch." Just after Judah and Jerusalem are besieged God again announces that He is keeping watch as the leaders of Judah join the holy warriors of God. The account is given in the Book of Zechariah – the whole 12^th chapter, but particularly V1-9. Much more will be written about this in later chapters of this article.

As the Prophet Hosea said at the conclusion of all he wrote: Hos 14:9 "Who is wise? He will realize these things. Who is discerning? He will understand them. The ways of the LORD are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them."

In the coming chapters you’ll learn about an obstruction that is presently hindering the planned fulfillment of Zech 9:9 and what is to be done about it by the Sons of Jerusalem. You’ll also learn what happens after the arrival of the King as He rides into Jerusalem. If nothing else, you will finally know why God has done all that He planned to do so long ago. And I have to tell you this; if you were as smart as God you would have done it the same way too! It is sheer brilliance! No wonder the Lord Christ was willing to give His life. Hopefully, you’ll be willing too. Not all of God’s servants will be called upon to lay down their lives; there are a special group of disciples of the Lord Almighty who will be called upon to take the Holy Land and the Holy City by force and to prepare the way for the Mighty Christ. And this army of God will continue to grow in power and might. Perhaps you, the reader, can be one of them if you’re prepared to serve the Creator God faithfully. You can read a description of Almighty God’s disciples in Mal 3:16-18. But don’t delay because it will be too late!

Since time is running out and disasters have been prophesied, every effort will be made to complete the chapters as soon as possible. We really are living in perilous times!

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