The last time we met I talked about how Israel due to internal strife split up into two kingdoms soon after King Solomon passed away.
These two kingdoms were Ephraim and Judah.
Fast forward another 200 years and we see the Kingdom of Judah had always tried its best to stay away from their heathen neighbors and cling close to Hashem.
Unfortunately, with Ephraim the exact opposite was true.
The people of Ephraim wanted to get rid of their Hebrew identity and become just like their pagan gentile neighbors.
Well, it wasn’t long before God granted them their wish.
During this time, the nation of Assyria was the top dog in the region and it decided to attack and conquer Ephraim which they succeeded in doing quite easily.
The Israelites were scattered all over the Assyrian Empire where they were eventually swallowed up by the many Asian cultures in the area.
To put it bluntly, the Ephraimites lost their Hebrew identity, heritage AND…
…would no longer be considered a people belonging to God.
The Scriptures even use the term LO-AMMI (non-people) to describe them.
The 10 Israelite tribes who together made up the Kingdom of Ephraim ended up mixing their genes with the gentile people of the world.
Ephraim appeared to have disappeared forever…
…until recently.
From this point forward in the Bible, Ephraim and Judah will be referred to as the two houses of Israel.
Ephraim is also sometimes referred to as the “Joseph Tribes” for obvious reasons.
When we get into the Book of Joshua we’ll see that term popping up a lot.
So understand that Ephraim and Judah together comprise the whole house of Israel.
Or to put it another way, these two half parts of Israel when combined make up all of Israel.
Keep this in mind because the next time we meet we’re going to talk about what happened 130 years after Assyria conquered and scattered Ephraim.
This will be another mind-blowing prophetic study that is described in the Book of Ezekiel.
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