ONE NATION, ONE LAND, ONE GOD
In recent days a group of 19 Jews were clandestinely brought to Israel from war-torn Yemen. The Rabbi of the group brought with him a 500-600 year old Torah scroll. Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, more than 51,000 Yemenite Jews have immigrated to Israel, most arriving in the mass transfer in 1949 called Operation Magic Carpet. Only around 50 Jews remain in Yemen and these have chosen to remain there in spite of there now being no organized Jewish communal life nor indeed even a Rabbi. Most of these live in a special compound next to the American Embassy in Sana'a, where they can be protected. However this protection would be lost should the Americans leave.
 |
| Some of the new arrivals from Yemen |
Who are the Jews of Yemen?
 |
| A family of Yemenite Jews walking through the desert to a gathering point in Aden during Operation Magic Carpet By Kluger Zoltan - Israeli National Photo Archive, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4903313 |
This event reminded me of the prophecies in Ezekiel regarding the regathering of the 'lost' peoples of Israel.
 |
| http://sounddoctrineminstries.weebly.com/uploads/8/8/6/4/8864463/1338593.jpg?679 |
"Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “As for you, son of man, take a stick for yourself and write on it: ‘For Judah and for the children of Israel, his companions.’ Then take another stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his companions.’ Then join them one to another for yourself into one stick, and they will become one in your hand.
And when the children of your people speak to you, saying, ‘Will you not show us what you mean by these?’— say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Surely I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companions; and I will join them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand.”’ 20 And the sticks on which you write will be in your hand before their eyes.21 “Then say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; 22 and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king over them all; they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again. 23 They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. Then they shall be My people, and I will be their God.
24 “David My servant shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd; they shall also walk in My judgments and observe My statutes, and do them. 25 Then they shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob My servant, where your fathers dwelt; and they shall dwell there, they, their children, and their children’s children, forever; and My servant David shall be their prince forever. 26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them, and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore. 27 My tabernacle also shall be with them; indeed I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 28 The nations also will know that I, the Lord, sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.”
Ezekiel 37: 16-28
Prior to the Assyrian and Babylonian Exiles, the people of Israel were divided into two kingdoms, the kingdom of Israel in the north, and the kingdom of Judah in the south. When the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom, in the years leading up to 722 BCE (BC), they scattered the people of Israel throughout the Assyrian Empire of the time, and repopulated the Land with people from other conquered groups. The northern tribes are often described as the "Lost Tribes of Israel", as their exact whereabouts is unclear, and their descendants are thought to have assimilated into the local peoples of the Middle East and Central Asia. Assyrian bas-reliefs show however that the Israelites were exiled in family groups, which may well have maintained the customs and beliefs for many generations. Of course these families are also likely to have joined up over time with other similar groups. It is quite possible therefore that pockets of Israelite ethnicity survived long after the exile, even to the present day.
The southern kingdom, comprising the tribes of Judah, Levi and Benjamin, were conquered later, by the Babylonians, who took the leaders and the wealthier echelons of society into captivity, together, to Babylon. The poor remained in Judah or emigrated to the south, some reaching Ethiopia and Africa via Egypt. The large group from Judah that were taken to Babylon, remained largely together and retained their distinct identity. It is they whom we know today as the Jews - the word coming from Judah. As a result of the edict of Cyrus a group of Jews, together with some remnant of the northern kingdom, returned to the Land of Israel and rebuilt Jerusalem, re-establishing a strong Jewish presence. I believe that this is the group represented in the prophecy above by the stick of Judah and the people of Israel, his companions. However, what of the other stick - the stick of Joseph, in the hand of Ephraim and the people of Israel? Where are these people today and is God bringing them back to the Land to be reunited with the stick of Judah, as promised?
Only God really knows where all these people are, but He does know! And He will bring his prophecy to pass, and is doing so. Slowly and quietly some groups of the 'lost' tribes of the northern kingdom are being identified and brought back to Israel. Perhaps the biggest group is the Ethiopian Jews, most of whom were airlifted to Israel in 1991 after they were declared by the Chief Rabbi as being descended from the Tribe of Dan. Today there are about 135,000 Jews of Ethiopian descent living in Israel.
 |
| Ethiopian Jews kissing the Land as they arrive in Israel http://www.israelnationalnews.com/static/Resize/pictures/468x282/492261.jpg |
Another large group came from the cities of Bukhara and Samarkand in Central Asia, thought to be descended from the Tribes of Issachar and Naftali. There are also over 1700 members of the Bnei Menasseh, or as they call themselves, Menmase, from the border area between India and Myanmar (Burma) already living in Israel and many thousands of others waiting to come http://www.bneimenashe.com/history.html.
 |
| Some members of the Bnei Menashe arriving in Israel in 2012 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-20841382 |
There are also many other groups under investigation and members of some of these have also immigrated to Israel. DNA testing has provided hard evidence that the Lemba of southern Africa are of Israelite origin. The priestly class of the Lemba even has genetic links to the Jewish Kohanim, the priests. The Pashtun of the Khyber Pass region between Afghanistan and Pakistan are another group with demonstrable cultural and religious links to ancient Israel.
You can learn more about these groups and the search for them on " The Quest for the Lost Tribes " https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEHuWG6TFAQ&list=PLNDSHEDjg3UHi8GcK7vkkScHb5MtXsdoi&index=1
What an exciting time to be alive!!! It is sometimes easy to forget that when we get caught up in the day to day of life in Israel. How good it is to be reminded that we are all part, albeit a tiny part, of a much larger, intensely exciting story. It puts my petty, personal cares into something of a more healthy perspective.
What a wonderful future lies ahead. Please join me in praying for the outworking of God's promises and for the quest to find these 'lost' people and bring them home. Remember too that they are just humans, like you and me, and are coming to a very strange world. It is not an easy transition. They often come from poor, backward communities, where modern amenities are unknown. They are being catapulted into a fast, 21st century society where they have to learn the language, find homes, get education and find jobs. They also, very sadly, often face discrimination and rejection after they arrive here. Often the generation gulf between the immigrant parents and their Israeli-born children is immense and stressful. Please pray for them.
In parallel we are continuing to see a large influx of Jews mainly from France and the Ukraine. Overall Jewish immigration reached a 15 year high in 2015 with record numbers, 7900, coming from France. Although often wealthy and usually well educated, it is still a difficult transition. With the increase in Anti-Semitism and terror in Europe we can only expect the immigration from Europe to increase in the future. It seems perhaps that the completion of the prophecy of Jeremiah is beginning to materialize.
Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “that it shall no more be said, ‘The Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ but, ‘The Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them.’ For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers.
“Behold, I will send for many fishermen,” says the Lord, “and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.
Jeremiah 16: 14-16
Many fishermen have already gone out to the nations calling the people to come, and many have responded, but yet many remain. Could it be that the time of the fishers is drawing to a close, and the time of the hunters beginning? I would suggest to any Jews or Israelites in Europe, indeed anywhere, that now is the time to seriously consider making aliyah (immigrating) to Israel. The remaining window of opportunity may be very short.
