The Ten Lost Tribes Of Israel

Have you ever heard of “The Ten Lost Tribes Of Israel”? Twelve tribes came into the promised land with Joshua, (Josh 3-4), Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph and Benjamin. The descendants of the twelve sons of Jacob.

Joseph had two sons Manasseh and Ephraim whose descendants would become “half tribes” (Josh 14:4). Yes, this makes "13 Tribes". Joseph is actually two half tribes (Josh 22:10-11; 1 Chr 5:23, 26; 6:70-71 etc) and Ephraim is typically mentioned as synonymous to the Northern kingdom of Israel (2 Chr 13:4; 17:2; 19:4; 25:10), and in some lists the tribe of Dan is not listed (Rev 7:4-8).

Following the death of King Solomon the nation fell apart under his son King Rehoboam, (1 Kin 12:16-17). The tribes of Judah and Benjamin sided with Rehoboam in the South with the rest “succeeding from the union” to King Jeroboam, (1 Kin 12:20), in the North.
Several hundred years later after God had sent several of His prophets to warn the Northern kingdom of Israel God raised up the Assyrians, one of the most brutal armies known to history to come and take them out of the land, (2 Kings 15:29, 1 Chronicles 5:26).

Where they went and where they are today has been a mystery.

Speculations have always been around and several heresies still live on saying the “Ten Lost Tribes” went to Northern Europe to become the English or the Danes. They are fond of saying “Denmark” sounds like “Danmark” meaning the tribe of Dan had settled there. Most figure they assimilated into the nations the Assyrians sent them to. And there they say no one can ever claim any heritage with one of those lost northern tribes.

But are ALL the 10 northern tribes that were expelled, in their entirety, unaccounted for?
I mean, not all of the 10 northern tribes of Israel put up with Jeroboams heresy...

1 Chronicles 9:2-3
2 Now the first to dwell again in their possessions in their cities were Israel, the priests, the Levites, and the temple servants. 3And some of the people of Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh lived in Jerusalem

2 Chronicles 11
13 And from all their territories the priests and the Levites who were in all Israel took their stand with him.
14 For the Levites left their common-lands and their possessions and came to Judah and Jerusalem, for Jeroboam and his sons had rejected them from serving as priests to the LORD.

And just a little while before Sennacherib conquered Israel...

2 Chronicles 30:11
Nevertheless some men of Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.

That's how there were those, very late in the history of Israel, who were still able to trace their roots back to a Northern tribe.

Luke 2:36
And there was a prophetess, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years and had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage,

So… Just because they’re not of the tribe of Judah, Levi, or Benjamin doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve been “lost”.

There are a couple other clues.
When the Jews returned after the captivity we have a list of those with Zerubbabel…

Ezra 2:2
Those who came with Zerubbabel were Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, and Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel:

Were they tribal leaders?
Well… that one just mentions eleven.

Nehemiah found a written list and it mentions twelve…

Nehemiah 7:7
Those who came with Zerubbabel were Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, and Baanah.

Were these heads of each of the tribes?
I mean, later we read…

Ezra 2:70
So the priests and the Levites, some of the people, the singers, the gatekeepers, and the Nethinim, dwelt in their cities, and all Israel in their cities.

“All Israel” as in “all that’s left”?
Maybe….

Ezra 6
16 Then the children of Israel, the priests and the Levites and the rest of the descendants of the captivity, celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy.
17 And they offered sacrifices at the dedication of this house of God, one hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and as a sin offering for all Israel twelve male goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel.
18 They assigned the priests to their divisions and the Levites to their divisions, over the service of God in Jerusalem, as it is written in the Book of Moses.

So you see my point that the northern tribes did not just evaporate.

Now here is why this is important.

Jeremiah 31:10
"Hear the word of the LORD, O nations and declare it in the coastlands far away; say, 'He who scattered Israel will gather him and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.'

God has always known where His people are and it has never been far fetched that He can gather them back to His promised land.
Scoffers say that there is no way anybody from any Northern tribe can be identified and fulfill the promise of God. But the fact is that the Bible no where says any of these people were ever “lost” or that they couldn’t be recovered.

The late Herbert W. Armstrong and his Worldwide Church Of God taught that these tribes went into Europe and eventually America. The Mormons say they sailed on a ship to South America. Well, to be fair they do not say all the ten tribes sailed to America but the fact remains that so many stories have gone out through the years that these people left and melted into the nations or departed for other continents.

The Bible teaches that people from all twelve tribes were in the Southern kingdom of Judah when the Babylonians attacked and exiled them. All twelve tribes had families that came back so all twelve tribes have their members in the ethnic Jewish people of today. Identifying who they are is certainly no problem for God and is increasingly becoming no problem for us. DNA testing has yielded firm evidence of family history and with DNA databases growing larger and larger in Israel and the rest of the world a more detailed “map” of genetic history can be seen.

God will gather all His people into their land that He gave their fathers and He has no problem knowing who and where they are.