Fulfilling the Prophecies
Ezekiel was told to lie on his left side for 390 days; each day symbolizing a year that Ephraim was to remain in exile, outside of the Land of Israel:
4 "Lie also on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the House of Israel upon it. According to the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity.
5 For I have laid on you the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days: three hundred and ninety days; so you shall bear the iniquity of the House of Israel (or Ephraim).
[Yehezqel (Ezekiel) 4:4-5]
Israel was to remain in exile 390 years, but there was a catch: Leviticus tells us that those who do not perform all His commandments after being punished will have their time of punishment multiplied seven-fold:
14 “But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments, 15 and if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My Covenant, 16 I also will do this to you:
17 I will set My face against you, and you shall be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you.
18 And after all this, if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you (even) seven times more, for your sins.
[Vayiqra (Leviticus) 26:14-15, 18]
If the Assyrians began invading around 734 BCE, then 390 years later brought us to 344 BCE. Ephraim apparently did not begin keeping all the Commandments at that time; and therefore his punishment was multiplied out seven times more.
Seven times 390 years of punishment is 2730 years of punishment. Therefore, 734 BCE plus 2730 more years brings us to 1996 CE. If this calculation is correct, we should be able to see the nascent beginnings of an Ephraimite movement at this time; and this is in fact what we do see.
While it was established a few decades prior to 1996, the Ephraimite movement began to flourish in-and-around the mid-to-late 1990’s. This phenomenon can only be explained by Scripture Prophecy.
Lest anyone say that the Ephraimite movement was devised by men, rather than YHWH, there are other Scriptural witnesses. One major one we will look at here is in the Book of Hosea.
The Book of Hosea speaks primarily of Ephraim. Therefore, speaking of the Lost Ephraimites, Hosea prophesies:
2 After two days He will revive us;
On the third day He will raise us up,
That we may live in His sight.
[Hosea 6:2]
Kefa (Peter) tells us not to forget that a prophetic day with YHWH is equal to a thousand years:
8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with YHWH, one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. [Kefa Bet (2nd Peter) 3:8]
If a prophetic day is actually a thousand years, then the two prophetic days of Hosea 6:2 represent two thousand years. In context, then, Hosea 6:2 tells us that after two thousand years, the Ephraimites would be raised up (in the third day), so that they might live in YHWH’s sight.
The only question is, “When does the third day begin?” The phrase ‘the third day’ ought to give us a hint that this prophecy somehow relates to Yeshua:
31 And after He is killed, He will rise the third day.” [Marqaus (Mark) 9:31]
By definition, a Messiah is a Divinely-Appointed Leader who brings the lost and scattered of Israel back to the Land of Israel, and to the Covenant. Yeshua is the only historical person who fulfills that role.
Modern scholarship tells us that the Messiah was actually born in or about 4 BCE. Two thousand years after 4 BCE brings us to 1996 CE, which is the same year that the Ephraimite and Nazarene Israel movements began to gain popularity.
But was there a deeper meaning to the scattering of the Ephraimites? If Divine Providence tells us that everything happens by the hand of the Creator, then what was His purpose?
YHWH made a number of prophetic promises to the Patriarchs. For example, Avraham was told that all the families of the earth would be blessed in him (meaning, in his descendants):
1 Now YHWH had said to Avram:
"Go out of your country, from your family, and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you.
2 “I will make you a great nation; I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing.
3 “And I will bless those who bless you, and curse the one despising you; and in you (meaning, in your descendants), all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” [Genesis 12:3]
Then Avraham was told that he would father not just one nation; but that he would father many nations:
4 “As for Me, look! My covenant is with you; and you shall become a father of many nations…. 6 And I shall make you bear fruit exceedingly, and (I shall) make nations of you, and sovereigns shall come from you.
7 And I shall establish My covenant between Me and you, and your seed after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be Elohim to you and to your seed after you.
8 And I shall give to you all the Land of your sojourning, all the land of Canaan; and I shall be their Elohim.”
[Breisheet (Genesis) 17:4-8]
Who are these many nations? The Muslim peoples also descend from Avraham; but these are not the people of the Covenant, because the Promise was specifically to come through Yitzhak (Isaac):
19 Then Elohim said: "No! Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Yitzhak (Isaac). I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him.
20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.
21 But My covenant I will establish with Yitzhak (Isaac), whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year.”
[Breisheet (Genesis) 17:19-21]
Ishmael also has an inheritance, in that Ishmael was to become twelve princes: and indeed, there are twelve Islamic nations. However, Salvation is not of Ishmael, but of the Jews (meaning Yeshua, John 4:22); and the Promise was prophesied to come through Yitzhak, and then through Ya’akov (or Israel).
Genesis 35:10-12 also tells us that Israel would father a nation, and a company of nations:
10 And Elohim said to him, "Your name is Ya’akov (Jacob): Your name shall not be called Ya’akov anymore, but Israel shall be your name.” So He called his name Israel.
11 Also Elohim said to him: "I am El Shaddai. Be fruitful and multiply: A nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body.
12 The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land.”
[Breisheet (Genesis) 35:9-12]
While there has been much genetic immigration and emigration, the Jews of today’s time are essentially the direct prophetic descendants of the Jews of Yeshua’s time. Therefore, when verse eleven speaks of a nation and a company of nations that descend from Ya’akov, we can assume that the singular nation that is spoken of is the Jewish nation; but who is the company of nations?
The Muslim nations do not qualify, in that they descend from Ishmael (and not Israel). Therefore, the only reasonable candidates are the Protestant Christian nations, from whom the Ephraimites are now (not coincidentally) beginning to emerge.
Notice that this also makes sense. Despite Muslim claims to the contrary, the Christians are the only other people on Planet Earth who worship the same Elohim, and who read the same book. That there has been fighting between Judah and Ephraim is easily ascribed to the fighting that has always existed between the Two Houses (since ancient times).
Next, in the Dream of Jacob’s Ladder, we will start to see the prophecies that could only be fulfilled by the dispersing of the Tribes. There are some very important aspects mentioned in this prophecy, which both Orthodox Jewish and Christian scholars miss:
10 And Ya’akov (Jacob) went out from Be’er-Sheva and went toward Haran. And he came on a place and stayed the night there, for the sun had gone. And he took stones of the place and placed them at his head; and he lay down in that place.
12 And he dreamed; and behold! A ladder was set up on the earth, its top reaching toward the heavens. And behold! The angels of Elohim were going up and down on it!
13 And behold! YHWH stood above it and said, “I am YHWH, the Elohim of your father Avraham, and the Elohim of Isaac. The Land on which you are lying, I give it to you, and to your Seed.
14 And your seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and you (meaning Israel’s descendants) shall spread to the west, and to the east, and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you (meaning genetically); and (in) your Seed (meaning Yeshua).
15 And behold! I will be with you and will guard you in every place in which you may go, and will bring you back to this Land. For I will not forsake you until I have surely done all that I have spoken to you.” [Genesis 28:10-15]
Verse 14 is a very special verse, and there is a two-fold promise contained within it.
At Galatians 3:16, the Apostle Shaul tells us that this word ‘seed’ is singular; and that it refers to Yeshua:
16 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, "And to seeds", as of many, but as of one, "And to your Seed", who is the Messiah. [Galatians 3:16]
This is another one of those frequent instances where the Apostle Shaul’s words have thrown so many Christians off track for so many years, because it was not yet time for the truth to be revealed.
In context, the Dream of Jacob’s Ladder tells us that the whole world would be blessed in Yeshua. This is obviously true. All nations have benefited from the tremendous technological and industrial achievements that have been wrought by the Protestant Christian peoples. Many nations have also benefited from the numerous societal freedoms that were originally initiated in Protestant Christian society (and which some say can only survive in a believing society).
However, if we check the language carefully, we will see there are actually two blessings given in verse fourteen. In addition to being blessed in Yeshua, all the families of the earth were to be blessed in Ya’akov (or Israel). Taken at its strictest, most literal meaning, this means that all of the families of the earth would be blessed in that they would intermarry with Israel’s descendants. (This cannot possibly refer to Yeshua, because Yeshua never had children.)
What the passage states, then, is that all the families of the earth would be hybridized with the literal seed of Jacob; and that once all the families of the earth had literally become of Israelite stock, then they would be subject to the Promise.
Once they were subject to the Promise they would have the option to receive Salvation by Grace through faith, by accepting Yeshua as their Messiah.
Many Christians find the genetic component to be a challenge, in that Christianity has always focused exclusively upon the gift of Grace through faith:
26 For you are all sons of Elohim through faith in Messiah Yeshua. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Messiah have put on Messiah.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek (meaning a Hellenized Jew), there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Messiah Yeshua.
29 And if you are Messiah’s, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
[Galatians 3:26-29]
Not understanding the role of a Messiah, the Christian misreads Galatians 3:26-29 as saying that just because one believes in Yeshua, that the genetic component is no longer important. That is not what this passage actually says. Remembering that Shaul’s letters can be confusing, what this passage actually says is that the Messiah came to bring the Israelites back to the Promises (the Covenant). In other words, He came for Avraham and Israel’s descendants.
The question then typically arises, “Why would the Messiah come only for those who were subject to the Promises?” It is because this is the very definition of a Messiah: a Divinely-Appointed Leader who brings back the lost and scattered of the Children of Israel.
Christianity’s definition is actually anti-Messiah: one who does away with the Children of Israel in favor of those who were never heirs to the Promise at all. This interpretation is entirely contrary to Scripture.
The next question that usually arises is one of utter astonishment: “What if there was someone in the inward-reaches of the Brazilian jungle who never received Jacob’s genetics? Would he or she be able to graft into the Covenant by grace through faith?
The simple answer is that this question goes directly against Scripture. We are told (in multiple locations) that every family, every nation, and every clan would be blessed in Avraham’s seed (through Ya’akov). Unless we are willing to call YHWH a liar, we must believe every word of His Word.
The detailed answer is that there are records of the Israelites being on both the North and South American continents since before the Babylonian Exile, circa 586 BCE. Modern archaeologists have also replicated ancient Phoenician trans-Atlantic voyages (re: Thor Hyerdahl and the Ra I and II expeditions); and since the Israelites were also seafaring merchants, there is no reason to believe that they did not also number among those who crossed the Atlantic.
Further, there were three major (and many minor) exiles in the Nation of Israel’s long history. The vast majority of the Israelites never returned from these exiles; and given the many thousands of years that these exiles had to merge, migrate, drift and assimilate, it only seems reasonable that they had ample time to fulfill the letter of YHWH’s Word.
When we remember that the ancient Israelites were also seafarers, almost three thousand years is plenty of time for the dispersed of Jacob to have spread to the four corners of the earth. To visualize how long such migrations might take, all we need to do is to imagine pouring three cups of chlorine bleach into an Olympic-sized swimming pool. It might take some time for the chlorine bleach to disperse, but one can rest assured that it will.
The Jews have been known to be at the center of world commerce in all ages. Scripture also records for us that Jewry had penetrated into the heart of Africa by or before the first century CE. For example, an Ethiopian Jew had come up for the pilgrimage:
27 And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the Queen of the Ethiopians (who had charge of all her treasury) and had come to Jerusalem to worship, and was returning.
[Ma’aseh (Acts) 8:27]
We should remember that Ethiopia is fully one-third of the way to South Africa; and that Nigeria is similarly distant. Remembering that the word ‘Niger’ means black, there was also apparently a Nigerian Jew numbering among the prophets and teachers:
1 Now in the assembly that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Shimon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Shaul.
[Ma’aseh (Acts) 13:1-2]
However, despite the migrations of Israel’s children, genetics is only a prerequisite to Salvation. One is not saved by genetics, but by faith in Yeshua:
7 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.
[Galatians 3:7]
Judah and Ephraim were scattered to the four corners of the earth, to be mixed with the children of every tribe and tongue and people. Once every family, every nation and every clan was blessed with Israel’s genetics, the whole world was now heir to the Promise of Salvation. At that point it became only a question of who would decide to hear Yeshua’s voice (and heed it), and who would not.
Yeshua tells us that His sheep will hear His voice, and will rejoin their brothers (the Jews):
14 I am the Good Shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.
15 As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.
16 And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock, and one Shepherd.
[Yochanan (John) 10:14-16]
When His sheep hear His voice calling them back to the Land after two thousand years, it will fulfill other prophecies as well. For example, in Jeremiah 31:6, the word ‘Watchmen’ in Hebrew is Notzrim. This is also the Hebrew word for the Christians:
6 “For there shall be a day when (the Christians) on Mount Ephraim shall call out, “Arise, and let us go up to Mount Zion, to YHWH our Elohim!”
[Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) 31:6]