Intro
Our text last week was Zechariah 10:1-4. For context, we will begin by reading that passage. “Ask the LORD for rain in the springtime; it is the LORD who sends the thunderstorms. He gives showers of rain to all people, and plants of the field to everyone. 2 The idols speak deceitfully, diviners see visions that lie; they tell dreams that are false, they give comfort in vain. Therefore the people wander like sheep oppressed for lack of a shepherd. 3 “My anger burns against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders; for the LORD Almighty will care for his flock, the people of Judah, and make them like a proud horse in battle. 4 From Judah will come the cornerstone, from him the tent peg, from him the battle bow, from him every ruler.”i
That passage flows in this way:
In verse 1 God extends a timeless invitation to ask and receive. This invitation applies to Zechariah’s generation; it applies to our generation; and it will apply to the mortals who live during the Millennium. It is the way God supplies our needs. We pray and He answers prayer.
Verse 2 warns about the deception that has led God’s people astray. Seeking sources other than God leads to confusion, deception, affliction, and oppression. It led to exile for Israel. For the Christian today, it leads to bondage and sorrow. The fundamental reason people fall into these deceptions is the lack of godly leadership. Verse 2 concludes with the phrase: “because there is no shepherd (NKJV). We know from the next verse, there were people presenting themselves in leadership. But there was no true shepherd. The narrative proceeds with God’s solution to that core problem.
Verse 3 introduces God’s intervention to solve the leadership issue. God corrects the problem in two ways: (1) He punishes the false leaders. (2) He takes care of His people, represented by Judah. Judah is specifically addressed because out of that tribe will come God’s solution for the lack of godly leadership.
Verse 4 promises the coming of Messiah who will provide the leadership needed. The cornerstone metaphor reveals him as the foundation and stabilizing influence for the kingdom. He will administer wisely and carry the glory of God (like a tent peg) and defeat oppressive enemies (like a battle bow). The result will be the vanquishing of every oppressor. From Him every false ruler will be purged from Judah.
Verse 5 appropriately follows: “Together they [Judah] will be like warriors in battle trampling their enemy into the mud of the streets. They will fight because the Lord is with them, and they will put the enemy horsemen to shame.” This verse expounds on the promise made in verse 3 to make the people of Judah “like a proud horse in battle.” Instead of being subdued and beaten down by their enemies, Judah will be empowered by God to defeat their enemies in battle. As revealed earlier in Zechariah 9:13-15, God will use Judah to tread down the gentile oppressors. This is an event that will occur in preparation for the Millennium.ii Zechariah 9:13 lets us know Ephraim (the northern tribes) will have a part in this victory.iii
The phrase at the end of 10:5 is interesting. The NIV translates it, “and they will put the enemy horsemen to shame.” In Zechariah’s day, the cavalry was the most formidable part of the army. It represented the superior weaponry of the day. The phrase is telling us that at this end-time confrontation between Israel and the gentile armies led by Antichrist, somehow (through supernatural aid from God as declared in this chapter) Antichrist’s most sophisticated weaponry won’t defeat the Jewish nation.iv Just as a cavalry in Zechariah’s day would be confounded and embarrassed because it could not defeat an inferior force, Antichrist’s army will be confounded by their ineffectiveness against the Israelites. We are getting a glimpse of something that will happen in the last days. Keep this in mind as we proceed through the rest of the chapter. It is all eschatological; it reveals end-time events.
Zechariah 10:6 turns the focus to the northern kingdom signified by the phrase “the tribes of Joseph.” In that verse the southern tribes are signified by the term “Judah.” Judah was in focus in verses 3-5. But now God reveals his plans for the northern tribes, sometimes referred to as the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. They are called the “Ephraimites” in 10:7 because Ephraim was the dominant tribe in the northern kingdom. Zechariah 10:6 begins, “I will strengthen the house of Judah, And I will save the house of Joseph. I will bring them back, Because I have mercy on them.” Once again, we are reminded that God will not only bring the southern kingdom back to their homeland, but he will also bring back the ten northern tribes. We encountered this in our previous message where God promises to use both Judah and Ephraim to defeat the enemy. In Zechariah 9:13 God said, “For I have bent Judah, My bow, Fitted the bow with Ephraim.”
The restoration and reunification of all twelve tribes of Israel is such a common theme in biblical prophecy that we will address the matter now before we proceed. What does God have in mind for the Lost Tribes of Israel who were carried into captivity more than a century before the southern kingdom was exiled to Babylon?v
I. Restoration and Reunification of Northern Ten Tribes with Southern Two Tribes.
The historical background revolves around the split in the nation that occurred in 950 BC when Rehoboam became king. The first king of the united kingdom was Saul. He disqualified himself and was replaced by David. When David died Solomon became king, and when Solomon died his son, Rehoboam became king. The split is recorded in 1 Kings 12 when Rehoboam refused to give tax relief as requested by Jeroboam.vi For the next two centuries the two separate nations existed and were often in conflict.vii
The captivity of the northern kingdom is recorded in 2 Kings 17. Follow with me as we begin reading in verse :5-6:
“The king of Assyria invaded the entire land, marched against Samaria and laid siege to it for three years. 6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River and in the towns of the Medes.” Verses 7-23 give an explanation as to why these tribes went into captivity along with an exhortation to not follow their example. Verse 23 concludes, “So the people of Israel were taken from their homeland into exile in Assyria, and they are still there.” At the time 2 Kings was written, they were still exiled in Assyria.
Then verse 24 tells us that the exiled Israelites were replaced by a mixture of gentiles. “The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Kuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites. They took over Samaria and lived in its towns.” These people came to be known as Samaritans. So, the northern tribes never came back to their homeland the way the southern tribes did in Zechariah’s day. During the time Jesus was on earth, we see a lot of ethnic animosity between the Jews living in Judah and these Samaritans. The Samaritans were not Israelites brought back from captivity. They were pagan gentiles resettled there to replace the northern tribes who were dispersed into captivity.viii
So, what happened to the northern tribes who went into exile? Writing in the first century AD, Josephus says that “the ten tribes are beyond Euphrates till now, and are an immense multitude, and not to be estimated by numbers.”ix However, historians lost track of them after that. Richard Phillips says, “These so-called Lost Tribes had been so thoroughly dispersed among the Gentiles as to have disappeared from history altogether.”x No one really knows what happened to them. Yet God says he will bring the northern tribes back to their inheritance. It is something only he can do.xi
The fullest revelation of this promise is in Ezekiel’s vision of dry bones. In Ezekiel 37 God gives Ezekiel a vision of dry bones representing the whole nation of Israel. In verse 11 God tells Ezekiel what the bones represent. “Then he [God] said to me: ‘Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off’ 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’” So, the vision is about the restoration of Israel to their homeland. This is not about a literal resurrection.xii It is using that metaphor to predict the restoration of Israel to their homeland. The graves are their place in exile; the “resurrection” represents them coming out of that place of exile and being restored to their homeland.
Now in verses 15-17 God has Ezekiel perform a prophetic act designed to provoke the interest of the people in Ezekiel’s day. “The word of the Lord came to me: 16 ‘Son of man, take a stick of wood and write on it, ‘Belonging to Judah and the Israelites associated with him.’ Then take another stick of wood, and write on it, ‘Belonging to Joseph (that is, to Ephraim) and all the Israelites associated with him.’ 17 Join them together into one stick so that they will become one in your hand.”
The interpretation of the prophetic act follows beginning in verse 18. “When your people ask you, ‘Won’t you tell us what you mean by this?’ 19 say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am going to take the stick of Joseph—which is in Ephraim’s hand—and of the Israelite tribes associated with him [that is the ten northern tribes], and join it to Judah’s stick [the two southern tribes]. I will make them into a single stick of wood, and they will become one in my hand.’ 20 Hold before their eyes the sticks you have written on 21 and say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land. 22 I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. There will be one king [Messiah] over all of them and they will never again be two nations or be divided into two kingdoms.”
So, the question is: How will that get accomplished? If no one knows who and where the northern ten tribes are, then how can they be restored to “the mountains of Israel.” I will quickly give you a few answers that have been proffered for this question.
(1) Replacement Theology simply says the church has become Israel and all God’s promises are spiritually fulfilled by the church.xiii As people, including ethnic Israelites, become Christians, they are automatically joined together in Christ. On the surface, this seems like a reasonable explanation. But the problem with this is that the overall system of Replacement Theology cannot be supported, especially in the light of Romans 11.
(2) Cults have developed fanciful theories on who the lost tribes are and how God is fulfilling his promises to them. Probably the best known of these is British Israelism which is sometimes called Destiny of America. In this scheme, “Britain is Ephraim, and the United States is Manasseh, and the throne of David is now the British throne.”xiv I remember being exposed to one form of this error in the early 1960s shortly after I was saved. In those days, Herbert Armstrong was teaching a version of this and sent us his magazine every month. In the British Israel theory, the Anglo-Saxons are the Lost Tribes of Israel.
Mormonism has developed some strange doctrines on the subject as well.xv There are other groups that identify the Japanese people as the lost tribes. Still others think it is the Native American Indians.xvi A few years back, I was inviting a neighbor to our church, and he was in a group that thought the black race was the Lost Tribes of Israel. Since no one knows what happened to the northern tribes, there is all kinds of ridiculous speculation like those I have just mentioned. None of these claims can be substantiated.xvii
(3) Conservative theologians who hold to the literal fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel, usually contend that the nation was united by the migration of godly members of the northern tribes to the southern kingdom shortly after the split. We know there was a migration at that time. But they were not returning to their inheritance. They were moving to the land appropriated to Judah.xviii
Second Chronicles 11:13-16 records that migration. “The priests and Levites from all their districts throughout Israel sided with him [Rehoboam]. 14 The Levites even abandoned their pasturelands and property and came to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons had rejected them as priests of the Lord 15 when he appointed his own priests for the high places and for the goat and calf idols he had made. 16 Those from every tribe of Israel who set their hearts on seeking the Lord, the God of Israel, followed the Levites to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices to the Lord, the God of their ancestors.” So, some from every tribe did join the southern kingdom at that time. Among the group that returned to Judah from Babylon, Ezra 2:28 mentions 223 men of Bethel and Ai. We also find the prophetess, Anna in Luke 2:36 identified as being of the tribe of Asher. So, at one level you could say all the tribes were united in that way.
But there is a significant problem with that explanation as the reunification prophesied by Ezekiel. The migration spoken of in 2 Chronicles 11 had already occurred more than 300 years earlier. Ezekiel is predicting a glorious restoration and reunification of Israel that will happen in the last days.xix We do not know how this will take place.xx God knows who and where those lost tribes of Israel are. They are lost as far as man’s ability to track them, but they were never lost by the Lord. There is an element of mystery in all this, and the efforts by cults to explain it are misguided and at best a distraction. I am dealing with this today so that you won’t be misled by all that nonsense or any new versions of it that may arise in the future.
God will do exactly what he promised to do in Ezekiel 37. When it happens, it will be evident and supportable. It will be a glorious healing of the nation. The division that occurred in Rehoboam’s day was due to sin, and it marred the testimony of Israel to the gentiles. It has been a source of pain and sorrow for Israel. But God will heal that family division, and it will be the source of great celebration in the last days.
Speaking of the so-called Lost Tribes of Israel, Arno Gaebelein reminds us that “nothing is lost with God. They are hidden rather, and the time will come when the enigma of the two tribes will be solved. Attempts have been made to locate them but all have failed. The Anglo-Israel theory (that England and America are the lost tribes) is so ridiculous and fantastic that it merits not even an investigation. God has kept track of them, and when this promised restoration takes place they will be brought to light.”xxi
So, in Zechariah 10:6 God says, “I will strengthen Judah and save the tribes of Joseph. I will restore them because I have compassion on them.” The basis for this restoration is God’s mercy and compassion for his people. Grace is all over this book. Here in 10:6 God’s reason for rescuing his people is not their good works. They do not deserve all that God is doing for them. But because of his unfailing love he will restore them. Do you have loved ones who need a restoration? Intercede for them on the basis of God’s mercy, mercy available through the cross. Do you need restoration in your own life? Throw yourself at the foot of the cross and ask for God’s mercy and forgiveness. His mercy and compassion for Israel serves as an example and encouragement for us. For the Lord is good, “For His mercy endures forever” (Ps. 136:1 NKJV).
Zechariah may have had Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones in mind as he gave his prophecy inour text. The salvation here begins with deliverance from political captivity, but it will culminate in spiritual transformation described in Ezekiel 37:23-28: “They will no longer defile themselves with their idols and vile images or with any of their offenses, for I will save them from all their sinful backsliding, and I will cleanse them. They will be my people, and I will be their God. 24 My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd. They will follow my laws and be careful to keep my decrees. 25 They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, the land where your ancestors lived. They and their children and their children’s children will live there forever, and David my servant will be their prince forever. 26 I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and increase their numbers, and I will put my sanctuary among them forever. 27 My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people. 28 Then the nations will know that I the Lord make Israel holy, when my sanctuary is among them forever.’”
Zechariah 10:6 concludes with a declaration of how thorough the restoration will be: “They will be as though I had not rejected them, for I am the Lord their God and I will answer them.” Israel messed up. God sent severe correction. But he also is restoring them, not only to their homeland but to himself. In Ezekiel 37:27 he promises, “My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people.” Here is hope for the backslider. Correction may come as a consequence of sin. But for people who receive the correction and repent, God says, “They will be as though I had not rejected them.” They will not be second-class citizens in the kingdom of God. God will restore them completely just as the father did in the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15).
II. Empowerment of the Northern Tribes and Resettlement in Their Homeland
The remainder of Zechariah 10 focuses on what God will do for the northern tribes, referred to as the Ephraimites. Much of what he promises to do for them he has already promised to do for Judah, the southern kingdom.xxii
Zechariah 10:7-8: “The Ephraimites will become like warriors, and their hearts will be glad as with wine. Their children will see it and be joyful; their hearts will rejoice in the Lord.8 I will signal for them and gather them in. Surely I will redeem them; they will be as numerous as before.”
Notice that last statement: “they will be as numerous as before.” This was obviously not fulfilled in Zechariah’s day.xxiii It was not fulfilled in the days of the Maccabees. This is one reason we know this is an end-time prophecy. Zechariah is prophesying a great end-time gathering of Israel.
Isaiah 11 predicts a second restoration that will occur “in that day,” in the last days. The first restoration came in Zechariah’s day, but it was not a full restoration, and it was not a permanent restoration. The Roman dispersion in 70 AD ended that partial restoration. But Isaiah and Zechariah see a second restoration in the last days before the Millennium. Isaiah 11:11-12 predicts, “In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the surviving remnant of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the Mediterranean. 12 He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; he will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth.” Of course, the regathering in Zechariah’s day was not “from the four quarters of the earth.” That will happen in the second regathering predicted in Isaiah 11:11.
Zechariah 10:7 predicts a permanent restoration. “Their children will see it and be joyful; their hearts will rejoice in the Lord.” The rejoicing is “in the Lord.” Letting us know the spiritual component of the restoration. This is consistent with what we read in Ezekiel 37:25: “They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, the land where your ancestors lived. They and their children and their children’s children will live there forever, and David my servant will be their prince forever.”
In Zechariah 10:8 God says, “I will signal for them and gather them in.” The NKJV says, “I will whistle for them.” In this context, the Hebrew sharaq refers to the whistle or pipe the shepherd used to gather his flock.xxiv We have seen this process happening in our generation mostly for the southern tribes. Since 1948 God has been signaling his people to return to their homeland. There are now more Jews in Israel than any other nation. The United States has the second largest population.xxv
Zechariah 10:9 says, “Though I scatter them among the peoples, yet in distant lands they will remember me. They and their children will survive, and they will return.” As a people they survived the holocaust. They survived centuries of exile often in countries hostile toward them.
The Hebrew word translated scatter carries the idea of scattering seed for planting. It is close to the word used in Zechariah 2:2, 4 which “refer to the exile of Judah among the nations.”xxvi But in the difference between these two words, Meyers finds an interesting distinction between the dispersion of the northern tribes versus the southern kingdom. That author writes, “The metaphor of planting is eminently appropriate to the prophet’s awareness of the long duration—the rootedness—of Ephraim’s exile. The image of planting the northerners also contrasts with image of scattering the southerners.”xxvii In their dispersion, the Ephraimites would find themselves “in distant lands.” The NKJV says, “in far countries.”
But God says that in those distant countries, “they will remember me.” There seems to be something going on in the last days with the northern tribes that will awaken their sense of ancestral identity in Yahweh. The regathering of these people will involve an awakening in the hearts of these people concerning Yahweh. In the previous verse, the Lord said that he would “signal” for them. We are not told exactly how these events will happen, but we are informed that God will in some way call for them as a shepherd calls his flock, and they will in that context remember Yahweh.
Zechariah 10:10-11 specifically mentions Assyria and Egypt as places of exile.xxviii In verse 10 God says, “I will bring them back from Egypt and gather them from Assyria.” As mentioned earlier, 2 Kings 17:6 says, “In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria.” In their strategy of replacing indigenous populations with other nationalities, the Assyrians may have deported Israelites to Egypt.xxix We also know from Hosea that Ephraimites voluntarily migrated to Egypt and Assyria before the deportation.xxx So there may have been vast numbers of Ephraimites in those two countries.
These two nations may be representative of all the gentile nations where the Ephraimites are exiled.xxxi But God seems to have something specific to say about Egypt and Assyria. In verse 11 he says, “Assyria’s pride will be brought down and Egypt’s scepter will pass away.” The scepter was representative of governmental authority. There could be an indication of these two nations experiencing political humiliation. Of course, the Six Day War in 1967 was a humiliating defeat for Syria and Egypt.xxxii
Look back with me at the promise God makes to Israel at the end of verse 10: “I will bring them
to Gilead and Lebanon, and there will not be room enough for them.” “Gilead is the
mountainous region northeast of the Jordon known as the Golan Heights. It became a part of
Israel n the Six Day War just as predicted here.”xxxiii At some time in the future so will Lebanon.
These areas were included in the boundaries God gave to Abraham in Genesis 15:18. They
represent the more remote, sparsely populated territory. The revelation is that the numbers for
Israel will swell to the point that even these more remote areas will be fully occupied. Isaiah
54:2-3 predicts this explosive growth in population: “Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your
tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. 3 For you will
spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their
desolate cities.” You can imagine the conflict that might develop as Israel expands into these
areas.
So, God promises in Zechariah 10:10, “I will bring them back from Egypt and gather them from
Assyria. will bring them to Gilead and Lebanon, and there will not be room enough for them.”
Verse 11 says, “They will pass through the sea of trouble; the surging sea will be subdued and
all the depths of the Nile will dry up. Assyria’s pride will be brought down and Egypt’s scepter
will pass away.”
This is God removing every obstacle to their emancipation just as he did in the days of Moses.
The NKJV says, “He shall pass through the sea with affliction, And strike the waves of the sea.”
The Masoretic text has a singular pronoun indicating the action is by God. The Septuagint has
the pronoun plural indicating action by the Israelites, with the antecedent being the word “them”
at the end of the previous verse. The difference is not very consequential since Israel could not
“pass through the sea of trouble” if God did not go before them as he did in the Exodus at the
Red Sea. And God passes through the obstacle to make a way for his people. The take away from
verse 11 is a vivid picture of God removing all hinderances so that the restoration can take
place.xxxiv
Then verse 12 summarizes the grace and strength the nation will experience during the
Millennium. “‘I will strengthen them in the Lord and in his name they will live securely,’
declares the Lord.” The NKJV translates it, “And they shall walk up and down in His name.” It is
the same Hebrew phrase found in Zechariah 1:10, 11; 6:7. Understood in conjunction with those
passages, this phrase may indicate worldwide ministry as representatives of the Lord.xxxv
The word strengthen in this verse with reference to the northern tribes is the same word in verse
6 in reference to Judah, the southern tribes. The whole nation will be restored to their
inheritance, reunited as a nation, and empowered by the Lord to do his will.
In conclusion, I want to focus on God’s promise to heal the painful division in Israel experienced
in their history. A conflicted division in any family is always painful. Have you experienced it?
The message in our text is that God can heal it and restore the relationships. For Israel it will take
a miracle for it to happen. In our families, we have often tried to resolve the differences but
without success. The same God that will heal Israel’s divide can heal division in your family. If you need such a miracle, join with me in prayer.
ENDNOTESL
i All Scripture quotes are from the New International Version (2020) unless indicated otherwise.
ii As taught earlier, the Maccabean victory foreshadows this end-time empowerment. See Message #23 in this series entitled “Prisoners of Hope Liberated and Blessed.”
iii The timeless application is that God empowers His people to defeat their enemies. We saw this happening during the church age in Acts 5:14-16; 8:5-8; 16:16-40 for example. In the church age we contend with “the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph. 6:12).
iv The vision is revealed to Zechariah in terms he could understand. Had he seen modern weaponry, it would have been nonsensical to him.
v The southern kingdom fell in 586 BC; the northern kingdom fell in 722 BC. The northern kingdom went into exile 136 years before the southern kingdom. Second Kings 17:6 says, “In the ninth year of Hoshea [722 BC], the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria.”
vi This division came as a judgment from the Lord because of Solomon’s idolatry (1 Kings 11:9-13.
vii See H. I. Hester, The Heart of Hebrew History: A Study in the Old Testament, 1962 (Liberty, MO: The Quality Press, 1975), 200-202.
viii Second Kings 17:25 records a problem with lions that the Samaritans encountered. In an attempt to solve the problem, the king of Assyria sent a Israelite priest to teach the Samaritans what the god of the land (Jehovah) requires (verses 26-32). Second Kings 17:33 summarized the Samaritan response: “They worshiped the Lord, but they also served their own gods in accordance with the customs of the nations from which they had been brought.” That mixture was by no means acceptable to the Lord.
ix Flavius Josephus, Josephus Complete Words, trans. by William Whiston, Antiquities, Book XI, Ch. V (Philadelphia, PN: Porter and Coates, 1981), 234.
x Richard D. Phillips, Zechariah, 233. “Following the conquest of the northern kingdom by the Assyrians in 721 BC, the 10 tribes were gradually assimilated by other peoples and thus disappeared from history.” “Ten Lost Tribes of Israel,” Britannica. Accessed at https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ten-Lost-Tribes-of-Israel. John Bright wrote, “The city [Samaria] apparently fell in the late summer or early autumn of the year 722/721. Thousands of citizens—27,290 according to Sargon—were subsequently deported to Upper Mesopotamia and Media, there ultimately to vanish from the stage of history.” John Bright, A History of Israel, 2nd. ed. (Philadelphia, PN: The Westminster Press, 1972), 274. Commenting on Ezekiel 37, Christopher Wright says, “The northern kingdom of Israel had been wiped off the face of the map in any case, 150 years before the present destruction of the kingdom of Judah. And in spite of some attempts by godly kings like Hezekiah and Josiah to bring about some reunification of remnants of the north with the people of Judah, it really had not worked out.”
Christopher J. H. Wright, The Message of Ezekiel, The Bible Speaks Today, J. A. Motyer, ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001) 311.
xi “From a human perspective, Ezekiel’s vision of remnants of the original twelve-tribe nation streaming back to their hereditary homeland seems impossible. The northern population had been dispersed in upper Mesopotamia by an entirely different regime, the Assyrians, one and one-half centuries earlier; further, Assyrian imperial policy deliberately aimed to assimilate them into the population. Daniel I. Block, The Book of Ezekiel: Chapters 25-48, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament, R. Harrison and R. Hubbard, Jr., gen. eds. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998, 411-412.
xii Dead people would not have been saying, “Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off” (Ezek. 37:11).
xiii For a defense of this position see Keil’s commentary on Ezekiel 37. Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.
xiv Jan Karel Van Baalen, The Chaos of Cults: A Study in Present-Day Isms, 1938 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1973), 162.
xv Ibid.
xvi “Ten Lost Tribes,” Wikipedia. Accessed at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Lost_Tribes.
xvii For an exposition of the errors in British-Israelism, see Anton Darms, The Delusion of British-Israelism: A Comprehensive Treatise (New York: Loizeaux Brothers).
xviii In Joshua 13-19 each tribe was given the specific land that constituted its boundaries. Ezekiel 47:13-48:29 assures the possession of the tribes’ land inheritance in the last day. The promise in Ezek. 37:14 is: “I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land.” The migration in 2 Chron. 11:13-16 does not put the northern tribes in the land given to them. The joining of members from the northern tribes to the southern tribes in Rehoboam’s day cannot be the fulfillment of the promises in Ezekiel 37.
xix “The union, effected at the restoration from Babylon embraced but comparatively few of Israel; a future complete fulfillment must therefore be looked for.” Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft.
xx Cf. Deut. 29:29; 1 Cor. 13:9, 12.
xxi Arno C. Gaebelein, The Prophet Ezekiel: An Analytical Exposition, 1918 (Neptune, NJ: Loizeuux Brothers, 1972), 249-250.
xxii Meyers believes God will use those from the southern kingdom in the battles to liberate the Ephraimites from their captivity. See Meyers and Meyers, Zechariah 9-14, 202-207.
xxiii “Recent research on the province of Yehud has confirmed what the biblical text has long asserted, namely, that the population of Yehud was not significant (see neh. 7, 11).” Boda, Haggai, Zechariah, The NIV Application Commentary, 445.
xxiv Baron, 362-363. Cf. Judges 5:16.
xxv As of 2021 Israel had over 6.9 million, and the United States has about 6 million. “Number of Jews in the World 2022,” World Population Review. Accessed at https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/number-of-jews-in-the-world.
xxvi Meyers and Meyers, Zechariah 9-14, 216.
xxvii Meyers and Meyers, Zechariah 9-14, 216.
xxviii Cf. Isaiah 11:11-12.
xxix “The Assyrian conquest of Egypt took place in 676 and 667 BCE.” “The Assyrian Conquest of Egypt,” GraduateWay. Accessed at https://graduateway.com/the-assyrian-conquest-of-egypt/.
xxx See Hosea 7:11, 16; 9:3, 6.
xxxi Cf. Merrill, 254-255; Feinberg, 150.
xxxii Jordan was also part of that coalition. Syria was part of the ancient Assyrian Empire.
xxxiii Paul Wallace, Preaching Through Zechariah: Expository Sermon in the Book of Zechariah (Sedona, AZ: Crossway, 2019), 72.
xxxiv See also Isa. 11:12-16.
xxxv Cf. Unger, Zechariah, 185.
