Judah and Israel Today
“Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.” I Kings 4:25
Anyone even slightly familiar with the history of the 12 tribes of Israel knows that there have been tremendous movements of these people. The location of the people has varied greatly over time. Before 745 B.C., the 12 tribes were in Palestine.
By 700 B.C., most of Israel and Judah were in Assyria. By 604 B.C., the remnant of Judah was in Babylon. Seventy years later, part of this remnant returned to Palestine. In A.D. 70, the “Jewish” nation was destroyed under Titus. One extremely important point is that most of Judah also went into Assyrian captivity (8 years later than the house of Israel.) II Kings 11: 13 and Isaiah 36: 1 tells us that Sennacherib came up against the fenced cities of Judah and took them. In the Bible Research Handbook, we have a copy of Sennacherib’s monument in which he relates the exact number of the people of Judah that he carried away to Assyria 200,150. We know that less than 15,000 were taken to Babylon. The ratio is 14 to 1 for every 1 Judahite who went to Babylon, 13 went to Assyria.
What happened to Israel and Judah in Assyrian captivity? The details of this exciting story would take a whole book to relate. In brief, by land and sea they moved slowly over the centuries, north and west until they came to Western Europe and the British Isles. Up until 1620 A.D., that is where they were. Then another great movement began the move to the Americas in answer to the prophecy of II Samuel 7: 10. In 1800 most of the people were still in the Isles and western Europe; even by 1900 this was still true. But time changes things and today most of the people are on this continent. Some, of course, moved to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Rhodesia and other places in the British Commonwealth during this colonizing period.
Take a look at the numbers the U.S. has a population of 275 million and Canada has 31 million which totals 306 million. The population of Great Britain is 59.5 million, Denmark 5.3, Sweden 8.8, Norway 4.4, Netherlands 15.9, Australia 19. 1, New Zealand 3.8, Finland 5.1, Iceland .276, Switzerland 7.2, for a total of 129.4 million.
That is a 2 to 1 ratio 2 in the U.S. and Canada for every 1 anywhere else in the world. Again let me emphasize, we are talking about today. Historically, there were large Israelite populations in France and Germany and there are still Israel people there today. However, it seems to be difficult to get an ethnic break down of their current populations. So therefore, it is difficult to know what those numbers would be. There are some Israel people all over the world but it would be extremely difficult to make an accurate population count.
What does this mean as far as who is who and what is what today? I believe it means that the U.S. represents the 10 tribes of Israel and Canada represents the 2 tribes of Judah. I will show you why I believe this to be so. Please notice that I am NOT saying that Great Britain, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, The Netherlands, South Africa, Rhodesia, Australia, and New Zealand are not Israel nations. Of course they are! I am only saying that more of the Israel people today are in the U.S. and Canada than in all the other Israel countries combined.
It was Shelah Judah who stayed in Palestine until they were destroyed as a nation in A.D. 70. It was Shelah-Judah among whom Jeremiah and Ezekiel lived and prophesied. They were the good and bad figs of Jeremiah 24. They were the broken bottle of Jeremiah 19 –fulfilled in A.D. 70. Of course, there were a few of each of the 12 tribes still there as well as a few of Pharez and Zarah Judah. However, most of this remnant was Shelah-Judah. This was the nation that Jesus came to and which rejected Him both as Messiah and King. This was the people and nation which killed the prophets, stoned God’s messengers, rejected and crucified Jesus, Matthew 23:29 38 and Luke 11:47 54.
Perhaps, we need to remember here that Shelah was half-Canaanite and realize WHY God so strongly condemned inter racial marriage. The posterity of an inter racial marriage, in this case Shelah Judah, has had a most turbulent, stormy and sorry destiny. Judas Iscariot was one of the most notorious sons of Shelah Judah. If we were to list many others who have lived down through time, it would be the great “bad who’s who” of all time.
Hopefully, with the foregoing in mind, we can trace the rest of the house of Judah and the house of Israel without mixing up the “Jews” with these people. None of Zarah Judah or Pharez Judah were ever known as Jews. Where did they go? Well, we left them in Assyrian captivity with the house of Israel. They migrated with the Israelites and came to the same areas that is western Europe and the British Isles. Zarah Judah and Pharez-Judah settled in Germany, Ireland, Wales, and Scotland. Now all of Germany was not Judah but many Judahites were there. At this point in time, many have left Germany but there are still sizeable numbers there. Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland are still essentially Judah. However, over the last few centuries many Germans, Irish and Scots have migrated to Canada. They have also migrated to other Israel nations, but today the majority of the Canadian population is Scottish, Irish, German and French. Now the Norman French were Benjamites. You will remember that the tribe of Benjamin was given to Judah and these two tribes that is Benjamin and Judah—formed the Southern Kingdom or the House of Judah. Therefore, if the population of Canada today is largely Judahites and Benjaminites, it would seem logical to conclude that they represent the House of Judah. I believe that a careful reading of II Samuel 7: 10 would indicate that most of the North American continent is being spoken of as the appointed place.
Again, it becomes a matter of numbers. There are more British people in the United States than in Britain. I believe that this is also true of each of the other tribes there are more Danites in the United States than in Denmark and Scandanavia. There are more Zebulunites in the United States than in Holland. There are more Ephraimites, Manassehites, Gadites, Reubenites, Simeonites, Naphtalites, Asherites, Issacharites, in the United States than anywhere else in the world.
If this is so, then the United States represents the ten-tribed House of Israel and Canada represents the two-tribed House of Judah. Again, I am not saying that they represent all of Israel for Israel remains in all the nations that we have mentioned but the evidence shows that there are MORE of Israel in the United States and Canada than anywhere else in the world.
