I wanna share something interesting with you.
Have a look at the following opening verses of Deuteronomy Chapter 30.
“When the time arrives that all these things have come upon you, both the blessing and the curse which I have presented to you; and you are there among the nations to which ADONAI your God has driven you; then, at last, you will start thinking about what has happened to you; and you will return to ADONAI your God and pay attention to what he has said, which will be exactly what I am ordering you to do today- you and your children, with all your heart and all your being. At that point, ADONAI your God will reverse your exile and show you mercy; he will return and gather you from all the peoples to which ADONAI your God scattered you.”-Deuteronomy 30:1-3
Do you notice the classic IF/THEN formula present in those verses?
The Lord says Israel will be exiled to the heathen nations but…
…IF they repent and return back to God, THEN Hashem will reverse their exile and return them back to their land inheritance.
Let’s break this down a bit.
FIRST, Israel must come to a realization of WHY they have been exiled.
SECOND, they must sincerely repent and turn away from the Godless lifestyle they’ve been living.
THIRD, they must again start obeying God’s Torah….not just studying it but actually obeying it.
FINALLY, if these three conditions are fulfilled, the Lord will bring Israel back to the land.
This is the pattern God’s people must follow if they have rebelled and wish to be restored.
Looking back in history, we see this is exactly how it went with Judah (the Southern Kingdom) when they were exiled to Babylon in 586 BC.
During this exile, Judah heeded the prophets (Ezekiel and Daniel) sent to them and repented.
As a result, within a mere 70 years the Lord reversed their exile and returned them back to the land.
However, things turned out quite different for Judah’s brother kingdom Ephraim-Israel in the North.
About 135 years earlier, the 10 tribes of Israel (otherwise known as the Northern Kingdom of Ephraim-Israel) were exiled at the hand of the Assyrians and they never returned.
Why?
Because of the good ole IF/THEN formula I’ve been talking about.
The Northern Kingdom never repented from their apostasy that caused them to be dispersed all across the planet.
Quite the contrary, they wanted to be like their gentile neighbors.
So God told them…
“Fine, if you want be like a bunch of gentile dogs, then so be it!” (That’s a paraphrase).
And don’t be offended that I used the word dogs in reference to the gentiles.
In those days, a gentile was a child-sacrificing unbeliever who more often than not was a Canaanite.
Check out these words from Messiah.
The woman came and knelt before him.
“Lord, help me!” she said.
He replied,
“It is not right to take the children’s bread
and toss it to the dogs.”
“Yes it is, Lord,” she said.
“Even the dogs eat the crumbs
that fall from their master’s table.”
-Matthew 15:25-27
Onward.
Hashem gave Ephraim-Israel their free-will choice and as a result, the 10 tribes all but disappeared as they were swallowed up by the gentile nations.
Again, keep in mind this tragedy happened because the 10 tribes did NOT follow the formula outlined here in Deuteronomy 30.
Contrast that with the Southern Kingdom of Judah approximately one and a half centuries later.
They DID follow the Deuteronomy Chapter 30 formula of repentance and as a result are alive and well in the Promised Land today!
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