[Darris McNeely] We've been doing a series here on Beyond Today Dailys about the 50th anniversary of the Six-Day War in Israel, when the state of Israel expanded its borders in a very major battle with Egypt and other Arab states that surrounded it at that time, and explaining the importance of the state of Israel to the modern world, to history, especially when it comes to Bible prophecy. There's a key that I want to focus on in this particular part here that talks about the role of the state of Israel, the Jewish state, because as we all know, Israel today is essentially a Jewish state comprised of Jews that came together in 1948, founded the state of Israel after having a presence there for several decades, and establishing the state of Israel and they have been at war and beleaguered but holding their own quite well for all of this time. But there's a critical key to understand about the Jewish state when it comes to the biblical record, and it's this. The Jewish state is only one tribe or one part of the entire story of the story of Israel as told in the Bible.

Again, students of the Bible understand that the descendants of the patriarch Jacob, who had 12 sons, it's his 12 sons whose descendants formed what became the original nation of Israel in the biblical record. The tribes that came out with Moses at the time of the Exodus, that were led into the Promised Land and established that sovereign state, those descendants of Jacob became Israel. Now there were 12 sons, there were 12 tribes, they had a confederation, they had a nation, eventually all united under King David and his son Solomon. Afterwards, there was a revolution. The nation actually split. It became a nation of Israel, and there became a nation called Judah in the biblical record. And in fact, we can trace this as we go through the story within the Bible because there is a scripture in the book of 2 Kings 16 (2 Kings 16:1-20) that talks about the distinction between Israel and the nation of Judah. At one particular time, they were warring against each other, they had skirmishes against each other. The Bible record shows us that there's a distinction between Israel and Judah in the days after the death of King Solomon. Now why is that important? Well because the nation of Israel eventually disappeared into history. They were taken captive by the Assyrians. They have become known in history as the so called lost 10 tribes of Israel. 

However, there are biblical prophecies that talk about the existence of those tribes of Israel at the time of the end, being regathered. There are other prophecies that point to certain descendants of individual tribes having a modern fulfillment, the promises to Abraham and the blessings that were given through to Issac and Jacob and Jacob passed on to the sons of Joseph. And so when we look at that, we understand that what is in the land of Israel today, the state of Israel, a Jewish state is really the record and the existence of only one of those tribes and their descendants, the nation of Judah, the tribe of Judah, now occupying that land. And that's very important to the biblical story, as we have been showing. But there's another part of the story that's important. 

If you go back into the book of Genesis 49 and 48 (Genesis 48:1-22; Genesis 49:1-33), you see details about this. In 48 of the book of Genesis, you see where the patriarch Jacob blessed the actual sons of Joseph: Ephraim and Manasseh, and put his name, the name of Jacob, which at that time had been changed to Israel, he put his name Israel upon the sons of Joseph. And that story, when it comes to Bible prophecy and modern world history and understanding our modern world, is a very critical piece of the puzzle to understand why the state of Israel matter, also why the English-speaking peoples matter.

Again long-time viewers of "Beyond Today" understand that this is told in our booklet, our free booklet, "The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy." This booklet traces in more detail that story of how and why the English-speaking nations today have inherited the blessings God originally gave to Abraham. And it made such a difference, and a very critically and important difference in the modern world, and even in their relationship with the state of Israel, the United States, and Great Britain historically. It's a fascinating story that you want to understand. You can get a free copy of that booklet on our website or just write to us for your own copy of that.

But when you put all of this together, you recognize that what is happening in...with the state of Israel today, is part of a much larger biblical story, but it's only one part, and it involves other nations, and ultimately, all nations in the world, which is what we'll talk about in the next installment on BT Daily. Join us next time.