In my last post, I discussed how over the course of Israel’s history the Tribe of Reuben died out due to Reuben sleeping with his father’s concubine Bilah.
However, a tribe dying out over time was actually quite a normal thing in those days.
Just as throughout the ages nations have always emerged, thrived and prospered and then disappeared with the sands of time.
There was really nothing supernatural or unusual about a large tribe transforming into a small tribe or vice versa.
A variety of political and economic circumstances could cause this to happen.
If a certain area became popular for whatever reason (like today’s hot tourist destinations), it would attracts tons of people who would bring in a ton of money into the region and transform the lifestyles of the inhabitants from dire poverty to super wealthy practically overnight.
Or a tribe might have a monopoly on a precious resource native only to that land (like the Arabs with their oil) and as a result become filthy-rich merchants peddling that resource.
Those are positive examples.
A negative example of a tribe becoming weak or extinct would be if they were living next door to a strong and hostile neighbor who one day decided to step over their border and wage war on them effectively wiping them out.
It is in this way that the ebb and flow of a tribe’s fortunes were always swinging up and down.
The individual members of a given tribe wouldn’t necessarily perish, it’s just that the tribe they were a part of would cease to be.
Keep in mind that by definition a tribe is basically just a large extended family.
Whenever a tribe became weak for whatever reason, its members did what most folks do to survive.
They attempt to partner up with a stronger party.
This could take the form of daughters marrying into the bigger and stronger tribes or tribal leaders forming business or political alliances with other tribes.
For the same reason, it was also common for a family from one tribe to “immigrate” into another tribe’s territory.
Eventually over time they would become fully assimilated.
This was truly a win-win situation because the tribe who received the new immigrants gained fresh blood which added to their economic and military strength.
And the immigrant family gained protection and prestige from the much larger and more powerful tribe they had joined.
More often than not a tribe welcomed newcomers because they knew it would add to their strength.
Everything I just described was also par for the course with the tribes of Israel…EXCEPT FOR ONE MAJOR DIFFERENCE.
What made the tribes of Israel unique is that their futures were predestined by the Lord.
Recall the blessings (and some curses) that Jacob pronounced while on his deathbed upon his 12 sons who would each go on to produce the 12 tribes of Israel.
We’ll see that what Jacob prophesied is exactly what will happen over time…
…and Moses is reaffirming this here in Deuteronomy Chapter 33.
I mentioned it was natural for both tribes and nations to become strong, make a big bang in the world and then disappear.
Well, this reminds me of something Mark Twain said about the Jews.
I’ve shared this quote before but I want to share it again because I think it’s super relevant to the topic at hand.
“The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?”
Mark Twain’s got a point.
I mean if you think about it, the existence of the Jewish people today makes no sense.
In fact, their existence goes beyond making sense.
Let me demonstrate by asking you this?
Do you have a Hittite friend?
Or a Jebusite friend?
Or an Aromite friend?
I can say with 100% accuracy you don’t.
Why can I be so confident?
Because those races don’t exist on the planet anymore homie.
Now let me ask you this?
Do you have a Jewish friend (meaning one descended from the Tribe of Judah)?
Maybe you do or maybe you don’t but if you told me you did I obviously wouldn’t do a double take because the Jewish people are alive and well today.
I myself have more than a few Jewish friends.
Heck, a good portion of them are on my Facebook feed right now.
However, I can’t remember the last time I got a Facebook friend request from a Canaanite (I probably wouldn’t accept it anyway if I did).
Can you see how amazing and miraculous this is?
The ancestors of the Jewish people today were alive together with the Canaanites thousands and thousands of years ago.
Yet they (the Jewish people) are here and the Canaanites are not.
Why do you think I was so freakin’ excited when I went to Israel?
It was because I knew I would be rubbing shoulders with an immortal God-chosen people.
Understand there is no people group in the world who have…
…been kicked out of their land, scattered across the nations, kept their identity solidly intact the whole time…
….AND THEN…
…returned to their land to become a nation again as Israel did in 1948.
It just doesn’t make any sense unless we add some supernatural force to the equation.
I stand together in awe with Mark Twain and ask the same question.
What is the secret of their immortality?
This is a question to which only a believer in the God of Israel has the answer.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“…and everyone who lives and
believes in me shall never die.
Do you believe this?”
-John 11:26
Leave a Reply