THE TWO HOUSES OF ISRAEL (8): The Ten Lost Tribes

God never grows tired of bestowing His mercy. As long as there is someone who may change and is willing to repent, God will extend His Compassion. Therefore, He made a last call to repentance to the Northern tribes, even after most of them had already been taken into exile. Those that were still in the land received one last call. 

(II Chronicles 30:6-9)   So couriers went throughout all Israel and Judah with letters from the king and his princes, as the king had commanded, saying, "O people of Israel, return to the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may turn again to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria.  (7)  Do not be like your fathers and your brothers, who were faithless to the LORD God of their fathers, so that he made them a desolation, as you see.  (8)  Do not now be stiff-necked as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the LORD and come to his sanctuary, which he has consecrated forever, and serve the LORD your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you.  (9)  For if you return to the LORD, your brothers and your children will find compassion with their captors and return to this land. For the LORD your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him."

How did Northern Israel respond?

There were two different kinds of reactions:

* This is how the majority reacted…

(II Chronicles 30:10)  So the couriers went from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, and as far as Zebulun, but they laughed them to scorn and mocked them. 

* There was a minority, a remnant that reacted like this…

(II Chronicles 30:11)  However, some men of Asher, of Manasseh, and of Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. 

In Jerusalem there was a great feast to celebrate the repentance of a remnant of the Israelites from the North. Some of them stayed among the tribe of Judah.

An example those who stayed is Anna, the prophetess who recognized Jesus as the Messiah, when he was still a baby, when his parents took him to the Temple to be redeemed (Luke 2:36-38). She was of the tribe of Asher, but lived in Jerusalem.

Among the remnant from the North that joined the House of Judah were the Levites.

(II Chronicles 11:14-17)  For the Levites left their common lands and their holdings and came to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons cast them out from serving as priests of the LORD,  (15)  and he appointed his own priests for the high places and for the goat idols and for the calves that he had made.  (16)  And those who had set their hearts to seek the LORD God of Israel came after them from all the tribes of Israel to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the LORD, the God of their fathers.  (17)  They strengthened the kingdom of Judah, and for three years they made Rehoboam the son of Solomon secure, for they walked for three years in the way of David and Solomon.

As a result, the House of Judah became a conglomerate of all the tribes of Israel. They married among each other and became an ethnic unit known as “the Jews”. This group was no longer formed only by the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, but also by the faithful remnant from the other tribes who fled from the paganism of the North.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL?

Most of the Northern Israelites departed from the ways of the Lord and did not repent of their sin. They were assimilated in the Nations to which they were taken. Those who remained in Israel became one with those from the captive nations that were taken to the Land of Israel.

While Assyria controlled the region, Northern Israel was considered as an Assyrian province. It later became part of other Empires (Babylonian, Greek, Roman, Ottoman).

In history, the House of Israel seems to have disappeared…

THE SAMARITANS

Who were the people dwelling in Samaria, capital of the Northern Kingdom? The Bible clearly points that out:

(II Kings 17:24)  And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the people of Israel. And they took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities.

The Northern remnant was mixed with the people from other cities that the Assyrians brought there. With the racial merge there was also a cultural and a religious merge. 

(II Kings 17:33, 41)  So they feared the LORD but also served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away... (41)  So these nations feared the LORD and also served their carved images. Their children did likewise, and their children's children--as their fathers did, so they do to this day.

The Samaritans are the result of the union of the few Israelites that were left in the North of Israel and the people from the many places the Assyrians relocated into the region.

That is the reason why the Jews did not consider the Samaritans to be “pure Israelites”, not just for racial reasons, but mainly for religious reasons. The Samaritans had merged the religion of their ancestors from other regions with the local Israelite faith. When the Jews came back from the Babylonian captivity, the Samaritans wanted to participate in the rebuilding of the Temple. However, they were rejected because of their pagan traditions. This enmity was still evident during the time of Jesus (John 4:9).

The House of Israel was taken captive, dispersed and assimilated. That is why it has been called: “the Ten Lost Tribes”.

In our next publication we will see what happened to the House of Judah…