In 1650 one of America’s earliest missionaries speculated on the identity of the native inhabitants. They might well, he said, be the remnants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.
He was only one in a line of speculators who connected the Ten Lost Tribes with, among others, the British, the Japanese and the Pashtuns of Afghanistan.
A Mystery Begins
The mystery begins in the 732 BCE. The twelve tribes of the Jewish people have split into two kingdoms. The Southern Kingdom contains the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. (Benjamin eventually becomes part of Judah)
The Northern Kingdom houses the other ten. All of them are descendants of the twelve sons of the Biblical Patriarch Jacob.
The End of the Northern Kingdom
In 732 BCE the Assyrians attacked the Northern Kingdom. They succeeded in deposing the Israelite king and proceeded to engage in ethnic cleansing.
They deport the Israelites to other parts of the Assyrian empire and bring in native Assyrians to settle and intermingle with the remaining Israelites. The result was the loss of Israel’s unique practices and way of life.
Who Survived?
2 Kings 17:18 tells us that amongst the former Israelites “there was none left but the tribe of Judah.” The Assyrians threatened them as well, but through wise leadership and God’s intervention, they survived.
Because Judah survived, the Jews survived. One scholar estimates Jews today descend from only 1-2 percent of the people who lived before the loss of the Ten Tribes.
A Symbol of Hope
Despite their loss, the ten tribes remain a potential symbol of Jewish hope for redemption. The best example of this hope is found in the words of the Prophet Ezekiel.
Ezekiel stands in a valley covered with dry bones. The bones represent the decimated Jewish people in the wake of the destruction of the Northern Kingdom. An angel approaches Ezekiel and asks, “Son of man, can these bones live?” (Ezekiel 37)
Ezekiel does not know. Then God tells him not to lose hope. The dry bones of today will become the living people of Israel tomorrow. Ezekiel envisions this hope in a dream in which the bones grow flesh and come back to life, arrayed before him as a standing army.
The Arrival of the Messiah
God further tells Ezekiel to take two sticks and rub them together. The two sticks symbolize the Northern and Southern Kingdoms. Like the people of Israel, they, too, will live again, reunited under the sovereignty of a descendant of King David.
“They will no longer be two nations,” Ezekiel prophesies, “and no longer be divided into two kingdoms… My servant David will be king over them, and they will have one shepherd.” (Ezekiel, 37:22,24)
This vision beckons to us today. When the Messiah comes (or returns, depending on one’s faith), those who were lost will be found. And, as another Prophet put, “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, nor they shall learn war any more.”
Do You Believe Any of the Ten Lost Tribes Survived?
