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By
Bertrand L. Comparet
When Yahweh's people Israel entered Palestine, they were
one nation of 12 tribes, like the United States of 50 states. They continued so
until the death of King Solomon in 975 B.C. The ten northern tribes formed a
separate kingdom, keeping the ancient name Israel. Meanwhile the two southern
tribes formed the nation of Judah, keeping the old capital city of Jerusalem. In
each of these kingdoms, even at their worst, there were always some people who
were loyal to Yahweh.
The southern kingdom of Judah kept its official national
loyalty to Yahweh, at least in name and form, almost to its end. However, the
number of its people who really lived up to the national religion became fewer
and fewer through the years.
Almost immediately after it broke away from Judah, Israel
rebelled against Yahweh. Israel's first king Jeroboam, feared that if his people
returned to the temple at Jerusalem, they might also renew their political
loyalty to Jerusalem, so he led them into idolatry, I Kings 12:26-33.
Though they rebelled in religion, they still retained Yahweh's laws for their
civil government until their sixth king, Omri. After that, they abandoned the
laws of Yahweh for the statutes of Omri. Despite all this, Yahweh allowed Israel
two centuries more for repentance before their Assyrian captivity and exile.
This was a long time in the lives of men, but a short time in the life of a
nation. Though Israel was then rebellious, Yahweh knew that it would eventually
do His will.
Judah still officially proclaimed the old religion and
gave lip service to Yahweh's laws. Yet, the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah and
Ezekiel give eloquent testimony to the hypocrisy of the pretense. It was a
religion of form only without the understanding of its truths. Oppression,
usury, robbery, adultery and murder were commonly practiced, even by the ruling
classes of priests and nobles whose duty it was to enforce the law.
Yahshua illustrated the condition of the two nations in
one of His parables. In Matthew 21:28-31 He said, "A certain man had
two sons; and he came to the first and said Son, go work today in my vineyard.
He answered and said I will not; but afterward he repented and went. He came to
the second son and said likewise. And he answered and said I go sir, and went
not. Which of the two did the work of his father? They say unto Him, The first.
Yahshua saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, that the tax collectors and the
harlots go into the kingdom of Yahweh before you". Israel at first refused,
but finally obeyed the will of Yahweh, Judah professed to obey, but really did
not.
But Yahweh does not wait until after the thing has
happened before He speaks of it. While Israel was still rebellious and Judah was
making empty promises, the prophet Jeremiah was told to explain this. The time
was 601 B.C., over a century after Israel had been conquered by Assyria and
deported from Palestine, never to return. It also was the beginning of Judah's
70 years captivity in Babylon. In Jeremiah 18:2-6 Yahweh said,
"Arise and go down to the potter's house and there will I cause thee to
hear My words. Then I went down to the potter's house and behold, he wrought a
work on the wheel. And the vessel he made of clay was marred in the hands of the
potter, so he made it again another vessel as seemed good to the potter to make
it. The word of Yahweh came to me saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with
you as this potter? Saith Yahweh. Behold as the clay is in the
potter's hand, so are ye in Mine hand, O house of Israel." Israel's
captivity and deportation from their land was not their destruction, it was only
Yahweh's remolding them into a vessel fit for His use in the future.
However Judah had a different destiny, its hypocrisy
could not go on forever. Jeremiah 19:1-11 gives another parable, this
time for Judah. "Thus saith Yahweh, Go and get a potter's earthen bottle
and take of the ancients of the people and the ancients of the priests * * and
say, Hear ye the word of Yahweh, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem;
thus saith Yahweh, the God of Israel: Behold I will bring calamity upon this
place. * * Because they have forsaken Me and have estranged this place and have
burned incense in it to other gods. * * And have filled this place with the
blood of innocents. * * I will make the council of Judah and Jerusalem in this
place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by
the hand of them that seek their lives: and their carcasses will I give to be
meat for the fowls of heaven and the beasts of the earth. And I will make this
city desolate and an hissing: everyone that passeth thereby shall be astonished
and hiss because of all the plagues thereof. And I will cause them to eat the
flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, * * in the siege and
straightness, wherewith their enemies and they that seek their lives shall
straighten them. Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that
go with thee, and shalt say unto them, thus saith Yahweh: Even so will I break
this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter's vessel that cannot be made
whole again."
The Anglo Saxon, Scandinavian and Germanic nations, who
are really the Israel of the Bible, have often been stubborn and rebellious.
Often Yahweh has called them a stiff-necked people. Yet Yahweh is their God and
they are His people and in the end they will do His will. If the rebellious clay
twists in His hand and is marred, He still molds it again into the vessel of His
choice and over the centuries it serves His purpose.
The people of Judah, that were still in Palestine, had
become integrated with the scribes and Pharisees. It was difficult to tell them
apart as they had intermarried and taken on the beliefs and actions of the
people they were living among. This is what happens when you integrate,
mongrelization inevitably follows. The few pure Israelites and their mongrelized
brothers all had to partake of the judgment that was to come upon this area.
They gave lip service only, but no honest performance could come from them. As Isaiah
29:13 says, "This people draw near Me with their mouth and with their
lips do honoreth Me, but have removed their hearts far from Me; and their
reverence toward Me is taught by the precept of men". Remember how often
Yahshua denounced the Jews. "Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites!"
Accordingly, both of Jeremiah's parables were fulfilled.
The nation of Judah, those still remaining in Palestine, was irreparably broken
at its siege by the Romans in the years 69 and 70 A.D., when they were actually
reduced to cannibalism and the city was destroyed, as Jeremiah had prophesied.
Israel, on the other hand, was remolded by Yahweh to serve His purpose. What was
this purpose? Isaiah chapters 43 & 44 tell us, "Ye are My
witnesses, saith Yahweh and My servant whom I hath chosen: * * I, even I, am
Yahweh and beside Me there is no savior. * * Therefore ye are My witnesses,
saith Yahweh, that I am God. * * This people have I formed for Myself: they
shall show forth My praise. I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy
transgressions for Mine own sake and will not remember thy sins. Thus saith
Yahweh, the King of Israel and his Redeemer: I am the first and I am the
last and beside Me there is no other god. Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have
not I told thee from that time and have declared it? Ye are even My
witnesses. Thou art My servant O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of Me.
I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions."
The Anglo Saxon, Scandinavian and Germanic nations have
served this purpose. They have been the great missionary nations proclaiming to
the entire world the identity of the one true God Yahweh. They have translated
the Bible into all languages in the world. They have shown the world the high
standard of justice and prosperity, which can come to a nation, which is
governed by Yahweh's laws. True, there have always been some persons among them
who have fallen below this high standard. This is only the failure of those
individuals, not the failure of the whole nation. These nations are not totally
perfect, you say? Just show Me one among the other nations, which reaches just
half as high up on the scales! As to our critics, Yahweh has said in Isaiah
54:17, "Every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou
shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of Yahweh and their
righteousness is of me, saith Yahweh".
Like the son in Yahshua's parable, they first refused,
then repented and did their father's will. Like the marred clay in Jeremiah's
parable, they were remolded by Yahweh, into the pattern He had determined. Let
no man tell you that Yahweh's word has failed, for we the Anglo Saxon,
Scandinavian and Germanic people, are the Israel of today. |