A Lost Opportunity
The chosen nation of old, to which God gave the opportunity of World-Service, was descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They were not Jews but “Hebrews”, descended from “Heber”, the term “Jew” first originating a thousand years after Abraham’s day when a Remnant of the “House of Judah” returned to Palestine from captivity in Babylon.
Through diffidence and disobedience to Divine Law, the twelve Tribes of Israel failed in their mission, becoming divided into two kingdoms, viz: the “House of Israel” (Ten Tribes), and the “House of Judah” (Two Tribes). Further disobedience caused each kingdom in turn to be exiled from Palestine. Only the “House of Judah” (or a small “Remnant” of it, called “Jews”) returned to the Land, to await their Messiah. Ten-Tribed Israel, on the other hand, according to Josephus the great Jewish historian, remained outside; ultimately migrating northwards and westwards.
Abraham’s original name was “Abram”; but God changed it to “Abraham”, meaning “Father of a multitude”, when He promised that he would be the “Father of MANY NATIONS” (Genesis 17:4).
His grandson Jacob inherited this birthright promise, God saying to him also: “A NATION AND A COMPANY OF NATIONS shall be of thee, and kings (which later included Jesus Christ) shall come out of thy loins” (Gen. 35:11).
Regarding Jacob’s twelve sons, from whom the twelve tribes of Jacob (Israel) came, we read: “The genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright; for Judah prevailed above his brethren, and of him came the chief ruler (King David, and great David’s Greater Son); but THE BIRTHRIGHT WAS JOSEPH’S” (I Chron. 5:1, 2). Accordingly, after Joseph had been sold by his brethren into Egypt, where he became a great ruler, we read God’s promises to his two sons, as follows: “He (‘Manasseh’ the elder) shall become a people, and he also shall become great: but truly his younger brother (‘Ephraim’) shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations . . . And Israel said, . . . Let my name (Is-ra-El) be named upon them, . . . and let them (Manasseh and Ephraim) GROW INTO A MULTITUDE in the midst of the earth” (Gen. 48:19,11,16).
God had offered the glorious chance of WORLD-LEADERSHIP as a nation or “Kingdom” to the Remnant of Judah when He sent them His Son “Jesus” to be their King. “But when they saw the Son they said among themselves, “This is the heir, come let us kill him.” So, they crucified God’s only-begotten Son! Therefore, in the words of Jesus Himself, “The KINGDOM OF GOD shall be taken from you (Judah) and given to a NATION bringing forth the fruits thereof’ (Matt. 21:43). We thus see how the Judahite Remnant, which by Christ’s time included peoples of many nations, including the Idumea peoples composed of the Esau Edom people, rejected as a NATION the offer of being the centre of Christ’s earthly Kingdom, the privilege becoming transferred to a NON-JUDAHITE SECTION of Jacob’s great family of nations, as necessitated by such Scriptures as Jer. 33:25, 26, etc. Obviously, this must therefore be the JOSEPH SECTION, according to the Scriptures shown above.
Courtesy Open Bible Kingdom Fellowship