1S16-5: Messiah And The Fragmented Church – Parallels With Ancient Israel

Let me remind you of Israel’s current geo-political situation.

In a nutshell, they were an unstable collection of tribes with split loyalties toward each other.

Even calling Israel a nation at this time would’ve been a stretch.

Why?

Because they didn’t have set borders, a capital city, or a proper army.

Their current army was simply a militia made up of common citizens.

Also, every time King Saul took some sort of military action, it wasn’t on behalf of all Israel.

It was on behalf of the northern tribes who were politically aligned with him.

Remember it was the Northern tribes who installed Saul as king in the first place and it was the Northern tribes who were called “Israel” at this time.

This was as opposed to “Judah” who represented the southern confederation of tribes.

The North and the South may have been part of the same big community.

But the truth is they were at odds with each other.

Any cooperation between the two was always based on mutual self-interest.

So the takeaway I’m getting from all of this is the ridiculous irony of the situation.

Here we have 12 tribes all descending from ONE man (Jacob) and called out from the world by ONE God… and yet they’re divided as all hell.

Isn’t that interesting?

This wasn’t God’s intention for His people.

Yahweh wants to save all of Israel and have them come together as ONE nation under Him.

I find this situation so ironic, especially when I think of the state of the Messiah-believing church today with its over 20,000 denominations not to mention all of the cults out there (the Moonies, the Mormons, and so on).

Anyway, let me end this post on a positive note.

The Scriptures assure us a time is coming when all this gentile nonsense will END…

The twelve tribes of Israel will be restored to their former glory and proper authority…

And when Messiah comes and establishes his throne in Jerusalem, the whole world will be subjected to Torah rule.

Then, and only then, will this world have peace.

But until then, holy cow is it gonna be a CRAZY roller coaster ride!

CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT

“I do not want you to be
ignorant of this mystery,
brothers and sisters,
so that you may not be conceited:
Israel has experienced a hardening
in part until the full number of
the Gentiles has come in,
and in this way all Israel will be saved.
As it is written:
‘The deliverer will come from Zion;
he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
And this is my covenant with them
when I take away their sins.’”
-Romans 11:25-27

“Then I heard the number of
those who were sealed:
144,000 from all the tribes of Israel.
From the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed,
from the tribe of Reuben 12,000,
from the tribe of Gad 12,000,
from the tribe of Asher 12,000,
from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000,
from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000,
from the tribe of Simeon 12,000,
from the tribe of Levi 12,000,
from the tribe of Issachar 12,000,
from the tribe of Zebulun 12,000,
from the tribe of Joseph 12,000,
from the tribe of Benjamin 12,000.”
-Revelation 7:4-8