148
of the world.” “Ye are the salt of the
earth.” “Ye are my witnesses.” “Let
your light so shine before men that they
may see your good works, and glorify
your Father which is in heaven.”
We are to exert a saving influence over
those who are without God and without
hope in the world. The pathway to the
city of refuge is to be kept free from the
rubbish of selfishness and sin. . Those
who profess to be following the Lamb of
God are to take every stumbling-block
out of the way. But too often those who
claim to believe the truth lay stumbling-
THE WATCHMAN
blocks in the way of others. They say
that they know Christ, but in works they
deny him. By their trifling conduct they
hurt those they might have helped. They
sin against God and lie against the truth,
imperilling their own souls and leading
others astray.
“ Walk in wisdom toward them that are
without, redeeming the time, because the
days are evil.” God's people are to be
lights, shining amid the moral darkness
of the world. By a godly life they are
to show that the truth exerts an ennobling
influence over them.
ow RFA oe LO
Israel: The Return of the Jews. No. 10
J. S. WASHBURN
The Twelve Lost Tribes
that all the tribes returned to
Palestine: *“ So the priests,
and the Levites, and the
porters, and the singers, and
some of the people, and the
Nethinims, and all Israel,
dwelt in their cities; and
when the seventh month came, the chil-
dren of Israel were in their cities.” Neh.
7:73. Here it is clearly stated that all
Israel dwelt in their cities. The same is
also stated in Ezra 2:70: “So the
priests, and the Levites, and some of the
people, and the singers, and the porters,
and the Nethinims, dwelt in their cities,
and all Israel in their cities.” Also Ezra
3:1: “And when the seventh month was
come, and the children of Israel were in
the cities, the people gathered themselves
together as one man to Jerusalem.”
It is true that Jesus was born of Mary,
a descendant of the tribe of Judah. Paul
was of the tribe of Benjamin. Phil
3:5. But Zechariah, the priest, the
father of John the Baptist, was of the
tribe of Levi; and Anna the prophetess
was of the tribe of Asher. Luke 2:36.
Among the children of Israel who re-
turned to their own land were descend-
ants of Barzillai, the Gileadite. See
Fzra 2:61. The Gileadites were a
branch of the tribe of Manasseh. Num.
26: 20.
It is thus very evident that there were
representatives from other tribes than
those of Judah and Benjamin, and the
scriptures which we have quoted declare
positively that all Israel was there, that
EAD the following as proof
the twelve tribes were represented. It
is true, doubtless, that many of the chil-
dren of Judah, as well as the children of
Israel, never returned to their own land;
but that the tribes were lost as such is
one of the most astonishing perversions
of Scripture and history that it is pos-
sible to imagine.
When Jesus was upon the earth, there
were many representatives, a mixed class
perhaps, but still some of the original rep-
resentatives of the kingdom of the ten
tribes. The Samaritans were among
these. The woman at the well of Sa-
maria spoke of Jacob as their father.
She was probably descended from the
remnants of the ten tribes which never
had been scattered from the land of Is-
rael, but had remained there, and had be-
come mingled with heathen nations. It
is a fact to-day that the Jewish people
have lost very largely their personal
genealogy, so it would be very difficult
to find any Jew to-day who could tell
from what tribe he descended.
The terms “Israel” and “ Jew” are
used in the New Testament often as syn-
onyms. Compare Rom. 9:4-8 with
Rom. 2:27, 28.
Christ told the disciples that in the re-
generation they should sit upon twelve
thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Is-
rael. Thus they are still recognized as
one people. Matt. 19:28. The position
that the two tribes and the ten tribes were
to be separated even through eternity is
thus proven to be unscriptural.
Jesus told his disciples to go to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel, and stated
to the Gentile woman of Canaan, “1 am
not sent but unto the lost sheep of the
house of Israel.” How was Israel at that
time lost? They were located in their
own land. The twelve tribes were rep-
resented there, as we have seen. But
they were lost in sin, and the time soon
came when the seventy weeks had ex-
pired, that they were literally scattered
to the ends of the earth. James recog-
nizes the fact when he speaks thus:
*“ James, a servant of God and of the
Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes
which are scattered abroad, greeting.”
How many tribes at that time were lost
in sin, and had been, when James wrote,
literally scattered abroad? — Not ten, but
twelve. So, my brother, when you hear
of the ten lost tribes, remember that nu-
merically this is incorrect. There were
twelve lost tribes, not ten. This fact is
recognized also by the apostle Paul, who,
speaking to Agrippa, declares: “ Now I
stand and am judged for the hope of the
promise made of God unto our fathers:
unto which promise our twelve tribes, in-
stantly serving God day and night, hope
to come. For which hope’s sake, King
Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews. Why
should it be thought a thing incredible
with vou that God should raise the
dead?”
Paul recognizes thus twelve, not ten,
tribes, in existence in his time. The hope
of the twelve tribes is not a literal domin-
ion in the land of Palestine, or a restoru-
tion to power in the so-called Anglo-
Saxon people, but the hope of the resur-
rection of the dead and of a land that 1s
better than Palestine, Great Britain, or
even the great republic of the United
States of America.
The book of Revelation, also, in speak-
ing of the great gathering of God's peo-
ple, speaks of the twelve tribes of Israel
who shall find a home in the holy city,
the capital of the universe of God. Not
two, not ten, but twelve tribes were, first
lost in sin, then scattered abroad literally,
then gathered literally in the days of Ezra
and Nehemiah to their own land; then
again lost in sin, this time scattered per-
manently until the great restoration at
the time of the resurrection of the dead.
That neither the Jews, the two tribes,
nor the ten tribes, nor yet the twelve
tribes associated together, will be restored
to their own land until after the complete
destruction of this world and the resur-
rection of the dead, is shown clearly in
the 6th chapter of Isaiah: “And he said,