THE
GOOD AND THE BAD FIGS
By
Bertrand
L. Comparet
This lesson is about the good and the bad figs, this
information is principally found in Jeremiah. This subject is something on which
a lot of churches have become sadly confused.
The first deportation in the Babylonian captivity occurred
soon after the overthrow of King Jehoiachin, by Nebuchadnezzar. The Babylonians
captured Jerusalem about 606 B.C., and the deportation probably took place
nearly two years later, around 604 B.C. The details are set out in II Kings
24:9-17 and II Chronicles 36:9-10.
Then there was a second deportation, because the puppet king,
who had been placed on the throne by Nebuchadnezzar, rebelled. Nebuchadnezzar
had to come back and finish the job, deporting the rest of the people of Judah
and pretty largely burning and destroying the city of Jerusalem. This is
recorded in II kings 25:1-21, this was 585 B...
In between these two deportations, and in the reign of its
last king Zedekiah, the prophet Jeremiah was shown a vision of two baskets of
figs. Jeremiah 24:1-10 records, "Yahweh shewed me, and behold, two
baskets of figs were set before the temple of Yahweh, after that Nebuchadnezzar
king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of
Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths, from Jerusalem,
and had brought them to Babylon. One basket had very good figs, even like figs
that are first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not
be eaten, they were so bad. Then Yahweh said unto me, what seest thou, Jeremiah?
And I said, Figs, the good figs, very well; and the evil, very evil, that cannot
be eaten, they are so evil.
Again the word of Yahweh came unto me, saying, Thus saith
Yahweh, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that
are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the
land of the Chaldeans for their good. For I will set mine eyes upon them for
good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not
pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up. And I will give
them an heart to know me, that I am Yahweh: and they shall be my people, and I
will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.
And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so
evil, surely thus saith Yahweh, So will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah, and
his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them
that dwell in the land of Egypt: And I will deliver them to be removed into all
the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a
taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them. And I will send the
sword, the famine, and the pestilence among them, till they be consumed from off
the land I gave unto them and to their fathers."
Yahweh was speaking of two different groups, which had both
been in the land of Judah originally. The good figs were those that were captive
in Babylon. The bad figs were the princes and the residue of Jerusalem. Note,
Yahweh says the residue of Jerusalem, not the residue of Judah.
This might be compared with what Yahweh said in Jeremiah
32:31-32. "For this city hath been to me as a provocation of mine anger
and of my fury from the day that they built it even unto this day; that I should
remove it from before my face. Because of all the evil of the children of Israel
and of the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke me in anger, they,
their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of
Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem." If the inhabitants of Jerusalem
were just some of the men of Judah, there would be no point in making the
distinction here.
The prophet Ezekiel was with the group, which had been
deported to Babylon. Jeremiah was never taken to Babylon, although I have heard
the statement made, in some church literature, which even tries to put Jeremiah
in Babylon. If they ever really read the Bible, they would find the exact
opposite.
Jeremiah 29:8-19 records a letter sent by Jeremiah, to
those already in Babylon, telling them both sides of this prophecy. "Let
not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you,
neither harken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed. For they prophesy
falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them, saith Yahweh. For thus saith
Yahweh, that after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you
and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. For
I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith Yahweh, thoughts of peace,
and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Then shall ye call upon me, ye shall go and pray unto me, and
I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search
for me with all your heart. And I will be found by you, saith Yahweh: and will
turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from
all the places whither I have driven you, saith Yahweh; and I will bring you
again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive. Because ye
have said, Yahweh hath raised us up prophets in Babylon.
Know thus saith Yahweh of the king that sitteth upon the
throne of David, and of all the people that dwelleth in this city, and of your
brethren that are not gone forth with you into captivity; Thus saith Yahweh;
Behold, I will send upon them a sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will
make them like vile figs, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil. And I will
persecute them with a sword, with the famine, and with pestilence, and will
deliver them to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, and
astonishment, and an hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations whither I
have driven them. Because they have not hearkened to my words, saith Yahweh,
which I sent unto them by my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending
them."
There were two groups here. Part of the nation of Judah had
already gone into captivity in Babylon. Part of the nation of Judah remained in
and around Jerusalem. Then there were the Jews among them who were in Jerusalem.
Just as the Jews congregate in our big cities of New York, Los Angeles,
Washington today, they did this in ancient times also.
Here we have clear prophecies by Jeremiah that even those not
yet deported to Babylon were going to be, and yet somehow they wouldn't believe
him. There had been the one Babylonian conquest and deportation and they
wouldn't believe there would be another on the way. They wouldn't listen to
Jeremiah for several reasons. One is the natural dislike of bad news, and second
was the supposed contradiction of Jeremiah by Ezekiel. Jeremiah had warned that
this last king of Judah, Zedekiah, was going to be captured and taken to
Babylon.
Jeremiah 34:2-5 says, "Thus saith Yahweh the God
of Israel: Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him, Thus saith
Yahweh: Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and
he shall burn it with fire: And thou shalt not escape out of his hand, but shalt
surely be taken and delivered into his hand; and thine eyes shall behold the
eyes of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak with thee mouth to mouth, and
thou shalt go to Babylon. Yet hear the word of Yahweh, O Zedekiah king of Judah;
thus saith Yahweh of thee, Thou shalt not die by the sword: But thou shalt die
in peace."
Especially note this prophecy. Zedekiah would be captured and
taken to Babylon and he would talk face to face with King Nebuchadnezzar. He
would be taken to Babylon, but he wasn't going to be put to death, he would die
in peace. In Ezekiel 12:10-14, it is recorded Ezekiel had said this in
Babylon and the word of it had gotten back to Jerusalem. "Say thou unto
them, thus saith Yahweh Elohim: This burden concerns the prince in Jerusalem,
and all the house of Israel that are among them. Say, I am your sign: like as I
have done, so shall it be done unto them: they shall remove and go into
captivity.
And the prince that is among them shall bear upon his
shoulder in the twilight, and shall go forth: they shall dig through the wall to
carry out thereby: he shall cover his face, that he sees not the ground with his
eyes. My net also will I spread upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare: and
I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans; yet shall he not see
it, though he shall die there. And I will scatter toward every wind all that are
about him to help him, and all his bands; and I will draw out the sword after
them."
You know how it is today in just about all of the major
churches. The preacher takes one verse, or sometimes just a phrase out of one
verse, as his subject for his sermon of the day. This is his point of departure
from the Bible, not to return to it. In ancient times, the preachers were doing
the same thing. Ezekiel said that Zedekiah would not see Babylon, so they said,
"That means he is not going to be deported there, and therefore the rest of
us won't be deported either."
Both of these prophecies were fulfilled in great detail. In Jeremiah
39:1-8 we have the historical record of it. "In the ninth year of
Zedekiah King of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,
and all his army against Jerusalem, and they besieged it. And in the eleventh
year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was
broken up. And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the
middle gate...And it came to pass, that when Zedekiah the king of Judah saw
them, and all the men of war, then they fled, and went forth out of the city by
night, by the way of the king's garden, by the gate betwixt the two walls and he
went out by the way of the plain."
The Chaldeans army pursued them, and overtook "Zedekiah
in the plains of Jericho: and when they had taken him, they brought him up to
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he gave
judgment upon him. Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah
before his eyes, also the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah. Moreover
he put out Zedekaih's eyes, and bound him with chains, to carry him to Babylon.
And the Chaldeans burned the king's house, and the houses of the people, with
fire, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem."
Josephus also records some detail of the great accuracy of
the prophecy. Jerusalem was taken about midnight and Zedekiah, with his family
and a few retainers, fled. They couldn't go out any of the regular gates of the
city, because these were all guarded by the besieging army. So they fled out of
one little gate that had been overlooked, in disguise. When the pursuers came
into sight, near Jericho, all the retainers scattered and fled, leaving Zedekiah
and his family alone to await capture. Zedekiah was taken to Babylon alive, he
was kept a prisoner there to the end of his life. He finally died of natural
causes he wasn't killed. He went to Babylon, but he never saw it because he had
been blinded. This is an instance of the extreme accuracy of the Bible.
We know that on this second conquest of Jerusalem, Not only
Zedekiah, but many of the remaining population were taken to Babylon. It records
there were left only some of the poorest sort of people of the land. This is not
to be construed as poor in the financial sense, but poor in the quality of
people they were.
Here we have two kinds of figs, the good and the bad. How are
we going to sort them out? Who are the good figs? Remember that Jeremiah 24:5
said they were among the Judahites who were taken into captivity into the land
of Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans. We know that substantially the whole
remaining nation of Judah was taken into Babylonian captivity.
We know that after seventy years of captivity when the Medes
and Persians conquered Babylon shortly thereafter a remnant returned to
Jerusalem, as the books of Ezra and Nehemiah record. Were these good figs that
returned after the seventy years of captivity? I don't believe so; there are too
many indications against it.
Jeremiah 24:6 says of those who were the good figs,
"I will plant them, and not pluck them up." This doesn't fit those who
came back to Jerusalem, because they came back for a few centuries for
continuous trouble. Jeremiah 24:6 says, to those who were the good figs,
"I will give them an heart to know me, that I am Yahweh: and they shall be
my people, and I shall be their God, for they shall return unto me with their
whole heart."
Those who returned to Jerusalem came back bringing with them
the Babylonian Talmud, the tradition of the elders. These returnees
refused to receive Yahshua and they refused His message. John 5:23
states, "He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath
sent him."
John 5:37-38 records, "And the Father himself
which hath sent me, have borne witness of me...And ye have not his word abiding
in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not." John 5:41-42
continues, "But I know you, that ye have not the love of Yahweh in you...if
another shall come in his own name, him will ye receive."
John 6:45 tells us, "Every man therefore that
hath heard and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me." John 8:19
continues, "Then they said unto him, Where is thy Father? Yahshua answered,
Ye neither know me nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye would have known my
Father also." John 8:54-55 adds, "It is my Father that
honoureth me, of whom ye say, that he is your God: yet ye have not known
him."
Israel had to go into Babylonian captivity, and what happened
to them there? We know that it was a large nation, which was captured, and we
know that only 42,000 people came back to Jerusalem. Slightly over 8,000 of
these people were not of any tribe of Israel whatsoever. So those of Israel, who
came back from Babylon, were only some 34,000 people. What happened to the rest
of the Israelites?
Jeremiah predicted what was going to happen to the rest, the
good figs. Jeremiah 50:1-4 tells us, "The word of Yahweh spake
against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet.
Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish and
conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in
pieces, her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces. For out of
the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land
desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart,
both man and beast." Note this final verse. "In those days, and in that
time, saith Yahweh, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children
of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek Yahweh their
God."
We hear some people who profess to know something of the
Israel message, quoting this verse as though it was something in the future.
Remember Yahweh has been talking specifically about the fall of Babylon and
says, "...in those days, and in that time, saith Yahweh, the
children of Israel shall come..." We know that the ten tribed northern
kingdom of Israel, together with a considerable group of the people of Judah and
Benjamin, were deported by the Assyrians, and settled in an arc around the
southern end of the Caspian Sea, where they became known as the Sythians.
In 612 B.C., the nation of the Assyrians was broken up, their
capital Ninevah, was captured and destroyed. It was an alliance of three. There
were Sythians, the people of Israel destroying their Assyrian conquerors, the
Medes, and the Babylonians. They had formed this alliance against the Assyrians.
The Sythians were a very formidable military people. We have always been a
formidable military people, all of our history.
Then later there was the Medo-Persian army coming down and
taking Babylon. Some of the ancient historians record that the Sythians swooped
down into Babylon, at this time and gathered up most of the deported Judahites
and Benjamenites. They took them back with them, as they were ready to start
their march northward into Europe. They would not leave the people of Judah and
Benjamin behind they took them with them. As Jeremiah had said, "...in
those days, and in that time, saith Yahweh, the children of Israel shall
come, they and the children of Judah together going and weeping: they shall go,
and seek Yahweh their God.
The Apocrypha, II Esdras 13:39-46 has a record of
this. Esdras had been given a vision and the angel speaking to him refers to
that. "And whereas thou sawest that he gathered another peaceful multitude
unto him; those are the ten tribes, which were carried away prisoners out of
their own land in the time of Osea the king, whom Saimassar the king of Assyria
led away captive, and carried them over the waters, and so came they into
another land. But they took this counsel among themselves that they would leave
the multitude of the heathen, and go forth into a further country, where never
mankind dwelt, that they might there keep their statutes, which they had never
kept in their own land. And they entered the Euphrates by the narrow passage of
the river...For through that country there was a great way to go, namely, of a
year and a half: and the same region is called Arasreth. Then dwelt they there
until the latter time."
We know that Israel went around the eastern end of the Black
Sea. Some of them went through the mountainous region lying between the Caspian
Sea, the Black Sea, and the Caucasus mountains. Because they came out of the
Caucasus Mountains on their march into Europe, many historians have called these
people Caucasians. However, they never ask who were they before they went
through the Caucasus Mountains.
Some others went around the eastern side of the Caspian Sea.
After they came to the north end of it, they turned west and joined the other
migration. Israel migrated up the Danube valley, for the major portion of their
migration. Asareth, a northern tributary of the Danube, in modern Rumania, still
bears the name Sareth. Sareth is one of the places they would have passed in
their migration; even the name of it was given.
Of the good figs Yahweh had said He would build them and not
pull them down. We can see how Yahweh has prospered our people, the white
nations of Europe and the United States and other kindred people. As to those
who claim this heritage falsely, these Edomite Jews who are occupying Palestine
today, look what Malachi chapter 1 has to say about them.
"The burden of the word of Yahweh to Israel by Malachi.
I have loved you saith Yahweh. Yet ye say, wherein hast thou loved us? Was not
Esau Jacob's brother? said Yahweh: yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, and laid
his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. Whereas
Edom saith, we are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate
places; thus saith Yahweh, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they
shall call them, the border of wickedness, and the people against whom Yahweh
hath indignation forever."
What about the people of Judah who came back to Jerusalem
after the seventy years of Babylonian captivity? Daniel 9:24 prophesied
that, "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city,
to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make
reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to
seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy."
There were two baskets of figs, one good and one rotten.
Today in our land, we have people who claim American citizenship, along with
their Israeli passport. They are here in this country, and they vote in our
elections. When it convenient to them, they claim to be Americans, but are they
really? History certainly repeats itself.
Isaiah 3:8-9 states, "For Jerusalem is ruined,
and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against Yahweh,
to provoke the eyes of his glory. The shew of their countenance doth witness
against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto
their soul! For they have rewarded
evil unto themselves."
All the ancient monuments that show Israelites show a
straight nosed, typically Anglo Saxon type of face. The monuments which show the
Canaanites, from the Hittites in the north, way up into Turkey, on down through
the various Canaanite people living in Palestine, all show hook nosed typically
Jewish faces. There is another bit of information that hasn't been given much
publicity, the Assyrians who lived bordering the Hittites. The Assyrians were
also a hook nosed Jewish type of people.
In Assyria as in Babylon, the people lived in river valleys
where there was no stone available. If they wanted to do any building with
stone, they had to carry it over long distances. Like you find over here in the
California Imperial Valley, those river valleys were made up of very fine silt
clay. This material was ideally suited for the making of bricks and tile, so
their building construction was of brick.
When they wanted to leave a permanent carved monument, they
would bring in a big block of stone from the mountains, a long distance away.
But they did not build with stone. Both in Babylon and in Assyria, the typical
palaces and major buildings had their main wall structures made of sun-dried
brick, just like the adobe buildings that we see here in our own southwest.
Naturally these sun-dried bricks wouldn't last very long, if
exposed to the rain. There was an outer layer, one brick thick, of burned brick.
Then, at least on their palaces, the interior was lined with beautifully painted
and glazed tile work. Doing this tile work, they had the best artists of the
kingdom. In fact, they had the best artists they could capture from other
nations also, to make the interior decorations on the walls of their palaces.
What was depicted there, was not the Assyrian’s enemies' caricature portrayal
of them. This was the Assyrians portrayal of their own people by their best
artists. The faces are the typical hook nosed, pawn shop Jews.
When we consider the fact that, long after the destruction of
Assyria and the scattering of her people, the Bible continues to prophesy of
events that Assyria was going to do in the end times, those that survived.
There is a long series of Bible prophecies concerning
Assyria. Not Assyria as it existed during Bible times, but what it was going to
do later. You will find that those prophecies coincide exactly with the
prophecies about Russia in Ezekiel chapters 38-39.
A lot of the surviving Assyrians fled northeast, from their
old kingdom into what is today southwestern Russia, Georgia and the Ukraine.
There was a very large Jewish population there and we know that the Jews are the
complete masters of Russia today. The identical prophecies that the Assyrians
were going to do this, and that the Russians were going to do that, today it
adds up to the same thing.
The way we write the Greek in our translations of the old
Greek historians into English, we really mangle it up. In English we write the
word Scythian, because our people settled around the Caspian Sea. You may well
ask how they got that name. The answer is they didn't have this name in the
Greek.
In ancient times, every city of any consequence was a
fortress. These cities had walls as big and as high as the inhabitants could
furnish the labor to make them. When an invading army was approaching, all the
farmers from miles around fled into the city for refuge. Many a city withstood a
long siege successfully.
When the Assyrians captured the ten tribed northern kingdom
of Israel and deported them, the Assyrians weren't about to allow them to settle
down and build for themselves a large number of fortresses. They kept Israel a
nomadic, shepherd and cattle herding people.
The only shelter that a nomad has is a tent, if he is lucky.
If he is not quite that lucky, he may just have to throw together a brush hut
for shelter at night. The Hebrew word succa, which probably is applied
more accurately to a brush hut, was also used for a tent. The plural of succa,
is succoth, and in the course of time was slurred over into scuth.
The Greeks called these nomadic herders scuthoi, tent dwellers and
nomads, which they were.
This is the very thing that gave the Scythians their
tremendous military strength, in later time when their army was strong enough to
defeat the enemy great. If their army had to retreat before a larger enemy army,
they could retreat without losing a thing. The Scythians had no cities to defend
at that time. As they gathered their strength, where the Assyrians had settled
them, they became a powerful military force again.
For a century these Scythians were constantly harassing the
Assyrians, as the opportunity presented. By
the time of the overthrow of Ninevah, the Assyrians were showing the results of
this constant harassment, they had been pretty much been bled white.
History records that these Scythians made a raid clear down
into Palestine. They reached the borders of Egypt, before they were turned back.
They left a settlement, in the Jordan valley, which was called Scythopolis. But
it was against Yahweh's plan for them to come back and stay in Palestine.
Combined forces pushed the Scythians on into their European homelands.
The Medes and Persians, even though they had received the
help of the Scythians, were ungrateful. Every king, in those days, thought that
his only business was to conquer as many of his enemies as he could. The
Medo-Persian armies turned against the Scythians. The Scythians turned one of
their armies back with a frightful death and slaughter. They gathered another
army and went out again against the Scythians. These were primarily the ones on
the western side of the Caspian Sea.
These Scythians retreated before them, finally getting back
into the Caucasus Mountains. There is a great pass in the Caucasus Mountains
that, from that time until our own day, has borne the name, The Pass of
Israel. The communist (Jewish) government may have changed the name, since
they came into power, but until then it was known as The Pass of Israel.
It is the route of the Georgian military road.
This mountain pass came to a point where the mountains on
both sides were so steep, that fighting along the surface was impossible. There
is just a narrow little bit of ground at the edge of the river, because the
river covered most of the bottom of this gorge. Here and there are places where
great rocks barred the passageway. A few men could have defended this pass
against an army of a million men, because the million men could only have passed
this place three or four at a time. This narrow passageway was named the Cariel
Gorge after that, and it has borne this name down to our present time.
Remember, Yahweh was going to gather the good figs out of the
many nations where He had scattered them. We know what happened to these
Scythians while they were still in Scythia; two of the tribes were even then
known as the Angles and the Saxons. There were several others called Getae, over
a period of time this name was slurred over and finally became Goth. The Angles
and Saxons we have no difficulty in tracing, because the tribes of the Jutes,
Angles and Saxons settled in northwestern Germany, along the border of what is
now known as Denmark. In Europe this is written as Dansmark.
By the time the Goths were moving up through the Danube
valley, they were starting to be pushed westward by the great flood of mounted
nomad warriors from Asia, under Attila the Hun. First the Visigoths turned west.
They were coming into the Roman Empire then, and the Romans sent out an army,
which the Visigoths almost exterminated. Because of this defeat, the Romans gave
the Visigoths some land on the western side of the Danube River.
They would be allowed to stay there, provided they wouldn't
move. They were supposed to be just peaceful settlers and give up their arms.
They did give up their arms to the Romans, and surprise, as soon as they did
this the Romans started to oppress them. In addition there was also pressure
coming from the east.
So the Visigoths went on the march again. They came up above
the north end of the Adriatic Sea, down into northern Italy. In 408 A.D., they
were threatening to capture the city of Rome. By this time, Rome had gone the
way we are starting to go now. In the days of Rome's greatness, it was the Roman
citizens themselves who made up the Roman army, a well-trained powerful army.
By now the Romans had grown soft, off the plunder of other
nations. The Romans couldn't be bothered with military service. They were hiring
mercenary soldiers to defend them. These soldiers fought, not because it was
their country, but because they were getting paid wages to do so. There is a
great debate going on here now about ending the draft and having a mercenary,
professional army. History does repeat itself.
The Romans saw they couldn't withstand this force of the
Visigoths. They bought them off. paying a very heavy ransom and tribute. In this
same year 408 A.D., Rome pulled the last of the Roman legions out of Britain,
calling them back to Rome to defend the city.
In 410 A.D. the Visigoths resumed their attack upon Rome,
captured and looted it. They had captured and plundered the whole northern half
or more, of Italy. Soon thereafter, perhaps 412 A.D. or around this time, the
Visigoths, finding nothing more worth taking pulled out. They marched through
southern France, where a few of them settled; the bulk of them crossed the
Pyrenees Mountains and settled in Spain. From the time the Visigoths arrived in
Spain, somewhere between 415 A.D. and 420 A.D., they were the dominant ruling
people until the Moor's conquest in 711 A.D.
When the Moors came into Spain, attacking from the south,
these Visigoths fought a rear guard battle as far as they could. Then they were
pretty largely driven up into northern Spain. Today we can find two different
racial types in Spain. There is a dark Latin type, but there are also blue-eyed
blonds who are the pure descendants of the old Visigoths.
About fifty years after the Visigoths came through, the other
Gothic tribe, the Ostrogoths, came along the same route. Part of these
Ostrogoths had gone up the Danube river, way up to the shores of the Baltic Sea,
where they had settled in what is called East Prussia today. The rest of these
Ostrogoths, or eastern Goths, came down into Italy, captured and looted Rome and
then set themselves up a Gothic kingdom in northern Italy. This lasted as an
independent kingdom about twenty-five years.
Then these Ostrogoths were overthrown politically, but the
people remained there. As in Spain, there are two distinctly different racial
types in Italy. There is the dark, swarthy type in southern Italy and Sicily,
and in northern Italy there are the blond blue-eyed people of our own race. The blonds are the present day descendants of the Ostrogoths.
Portions of the Ostrogoths migrated into Austria and up into Switzerland. In
Switzerland there isn't a pure type, but different racial types, part of whom
are Israel.
Not all of the Ostrogoths went all the way up into the Baltic
regions. Some of them settled in the fine country they found in the Danube
valley. We again find what is obviously Israel, in Hungary and in
Czechoslovakia. These people aren't one hundred percent Israel, because this
area had been a battleground for invaders of many different races of people, who
left some of their racial bloodlines behind. However, we can find quite a number
of people who are obviously Israel, especially Germany and the Scandinavian
countries.
From the Jutes, Angles and Saxons (Germans) there was the
settlement of the British Isles after the withdrawal of all the Roman legions.
Herbert Armstrong, and his ilk, will try to tell you that England is going to
have to be overthrown, as part of the collapse of the old Roman empire, simply
don't know their history. There wasn't an Englishman residing in England at the
time the Romans were there.
English history, as such, begins with the landing of the
Jutes, Angles and Saxons. By this time the Roman army had been gone for nearly a
century. So, an Englishman is a German who went for a boat ride and a German is
an Englishman who stayed home. Yet, we let the Jews promote constant warfare
between them.
Remember that Yahweh spoke, in these passages I read to you,
about the evil that had existed in the lands of Israel and Judah, provoking Him.
This evil did exist because they had let themselves be corrupted by the Jews
among them, exactly as we today allow ourselves to be corrupted by the Jews
among us. In punishment we have to go through disaster, the same as fell on our
ancestors 2,500 years ago.
Another group of people that make up part of the English
today, are the Normans who came in under William the Conqueror in 1066 A.D.
History records that the Norse and Danish Vikings were a scourge of most of the
known world for several centuries, at least along the coastlands of Europe.
Viking ships even turned up in the harbor of Constantinople. Viking ships sailed
up the Tiber River to attack the city of Rome. Rome was so well fortified, and
these Vikings didn't have the equipment or training for conducting a long siege,
consequently they didn't capture Rome. However, they did capture the island of
Sicily and there was a Norman kingdom there for several generations.
The Vikings harassed the coasts of France continually, and on
three different occasions, Vikings captured and looted the city of Paris.
Finally one of the French kings made a deal with one of these Viking chieftains.
The king promised the Vikings the English Channel coastal province of Normandy,
if the Vikings would settle there with their people. They were to thoroughly
settle the coast and then act as a buffer against any further attacks.
Before this time, these Vikings had likewise harassed the
British Isles, including Ireland. They established settlements on the coasts of
England, in addition to conducting a great deal of piratical raiding. A large
number of them also settled in Ireland. The early Irish histories record that
you could hardly find a village in Ireland that didn't have some of these Norse
Vikings among them.
So Israel was scattered among a number of nations. They
fulfill in all respects the description of the good figs. What about the others?
Some were left behind, even after the second Babylonian conquest and
deportation. They went down into Egypt, taking the prophet Jeremiah with them.
As Jeremiah told them, they weren't going to escape from the Babylonians by
going to Egypt. They would be under Babylonian rule even there, and would be
slaughtered. History does record that the Babylonians conquered Egypt shortly
after that.
Jeremiah didn't stay in Egypt, he had been warned of what was
coming. There is a record of Jeremiah leaving with the two princesses, daughters
of Zedekiah. Jeremiah finally landed in Ireland with one of them. The other had
married a Milesian king in Spain.
Those who remained in Palestine, those who went to Egypt, and
most of those who went back to Palestine, were the bad figs. The rest who went
on to become the Israelites of today, were the good figs.
Whenever
Yahweh makes a prophecy, He carries it out in complete detail, exactly as He
said He would.
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