This is a great subject to demonstrate some of the misconceptions many Christians have been plagued with by those who ignore the straightforward historical books of the Bible.
All Israel did return to its land after the Babylonian captivity under the decree of Cyrus; and Ezra and Nehemiah have documented it for us:
"And now for a little space grace hath been shewed from the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage." -- Ezra 9:8
"Should we again break thy commandments, and join in affinity with the people of these abominations? wouldest not thou be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us, so that there should be no remnant nor escaping? O Lord God of Israel, thou art righteous: for we remain yet escaped, as it is this day: behold, we are before thee in our trespasses: for we cannot stand before thee because of this." -- Ezra 9:14-15
"And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire." -- Neh 1:3
"Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations: But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there." -- Neh 1:8-9
"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 children of Israel were in their cities." -- Neh 7:73
The regathering actual began prior to the Babylonian captivity under King Hezekiah. The small remnant of Israel that escaped captivity by the Assyrians rejoined with Judah, at Hezekiah's request:
"So the posts went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying, Ye children of Israel, turn again unto the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and he will return to the remnant of you, that are escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria." -- 2Chr 30:6
Those from Israel who rejoined with Judah are mentioned in 2nd Chronicles 30:18, 25-26. Of course, those were eventually carried away into Babylon along with the tribes of Judah, but the regathering had already begun.
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Biblewriter, being blind to the fact that Ezekiel is loaded with parables, cannot see that Eze 20 has already been fulfilled. Ezekiel even implied he was speaking in parables in that very chapter (vs.49); but it goes ignored by those who have been led to believe they can "literally" interpret the prophecies (more appropriately identified as "selective literalism" since they never interpret a "future" horse as a real horse; but as something modern, like a car.)
Moses foretold all of this: the captivity; the return and restoration; the ultimate destruction of the nation; their divorce from God, and their permanent scattering. He also foretold the blessings of the faithful remnant: those Ezekiel speaks of in verses 39-44: the ones who did not rebel.
The truth is that
all Israel did return from captivity, and the so-called "lost tribes" is a myth.
But the recovery took time: about 600 years, or so. The first recovery began under the decree of Cyrus (Ezra 1:1-3,) which fulfilled this prophecy by Ezekiel:
"Then shalt thou say to them, Thus saith the Lord; behold, I will take the tribe of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel that belong to him, and I will add them to the tribe of Juda, and they shall become one rod in the hand of Juda." (Eze 37:19 LXX)
The returning northern tribes rejoined with Judah under Zerubbabel of the house of David. That was the day
all Israel came to be known as "
Jews":
"In the year B.C. 538 the exiles turned their backs on Babylon. Daniel remained behind. His heart was with them, but he felt that for their sakes he must still abide in the king's court, and await his death in the land where he had spent his life. After four or five months of toilsome journeying across 800 miles of desert, the pilgrims reached at length the shapeless ruins of the holy city. The day of their arrival was the day of Israel's resurrection; on this day the name Jew was born." [William Fairweather, "From the Exile to the Advent." T & T Clark, 1895, pp.35-36]
"The name of Judah after the return from captivity was, as we have seen, the general name given to all the returned exiles, whether they belonged to the tribe of Judah or to the remnants of the other ten tribes." [Charles H H Wright, "Zechariah and His Prophecies." Hodder & Stoughton, 1879, Zech 12:3-6, p.374]
"So the Jews prepared for the work: that is the name they are called by from the day that they came up from Babylon, which is taken from the tribe of Judah, which came first to these places, and thence both they and the country gained that appellation." [Flavius Josephus, "The Complete Works: Antiquities of the Jews." Christian Classics Ethereal Library, Book xi.5.7, p.596]
It is important to understand that God promised
only that a remnant would return--a very small one, in fact:
"Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah." -- Isa 1:9
And Isaiah made it abundantly clear in this verse that he was speaking of the 10 northern tribes as part of the remnant:
"For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness. For the Lord God of hosts shall make a consumption, even determined, in the midst of all the land. Therefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts, O my people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against thee, after the manner of Egypt." -- Isa 10:22-24
And more returned over the centuries, but not all. Therefore, there was a second recovery by Christ and the disciples that was the prophesied by Isaiah and Ezekiel:
"And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea." -- Isa 11:10-11
"For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day." -- Eze 34:11-12
This was the fulfillment:
"But [Jesus] answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." -- Matt 15:24
"These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." -- Matt 10:5-6
All twelve tribes were known to the Lord--he knew his sheep and they knew Him (John 10:14.) James also knew them; and if you read James carefully you will realize that he knew them well:
"James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting." -- Jas 1:1
And all twelve tribes were serving God in the days of Paul:
"And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God, unto our fathers: Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope's sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews." -- Acts 26:6-7
The faithful remnant that were allowed to return from Babylon became known as the "Elect" in the days of Christ. They were the "all Israel" Paul wrote of; the ones that God did not cast away; the ones he foreknew; the ones he predestinated to serve Christ:
"God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel saying," -- Rom 11:2 KJV
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified." -- Rom 8:28-30 KJV
They were also prophesied by Joel:
"And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call." -- Joel 2:32 KJV
They were the chosen remnant, and the elect:
"Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace." -- Rom 11:5 KJV
They were the ones Peter was writing to:
"Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied." -- 1Pet 1:1-2 KJV
"But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;" -- 1Pet 2:9
That chosen generation fulfilled a promise made to Israel in the days of Moses; but like all of God's promises to Israel, they were given on the condition on obedience:
"And now if ye will indeed hear my voice, and keep my covenant, ye shall be to me a peculiar people above all nations; for the whole earth is mine. And ye shall be to me a royal priesthood and a holy nation: these words shalt thou speak to the children of Israel." -- Exo 19:5-6 LXX
The covenantbreakers received no inheritance, but were cast away (Rom 1:28-32; 11:2.) The remainder--the remnant--were blessed with the promises (Gal 3:29,) the priesthood (1 Pet 2:9,) and some even with the oracles of God:
"What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God." -- Rom 3:1-2
You have just read some of those oracles, from Peter, John, James, and Paul. But this is most important: Jesus was sent to bless Israel, first, before any Gentile:
"Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities." -- Acts 3:25-26 KJV
He could not have blessed them if they were not known to Him.
Those were the called and chosen generation. The rest of Abraham's natural seed--those cast away, and the Gentiles, have to call upon the name of the Lord to be saved, as Joel stated above in verse 2:32.
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