How Did The Lost Ten Tribes Of Israel Become Lost?

And over the past couple of weeks, we've covered a couple of important topics in understanding the Bible, in understanding what we read in the Old and the New Testament. Several weeks ago, I covered God's enduring promises to Abraham. The promises that he made to Abraham that are regarding national greatness and regarding the fact that Jesus would be the seed of Abraham who would ultimately save the entirety of the world, all of mankind, if they're going to be saved, they're going to be saved through Jesus Christ. But of course, God's the one who determines understanding. He's the one who determines when and how that information is made available. But we covered God's enduring promises to Abraham. And then last week, we went over God's enduring promises to David. David was a quite well-noted king of Israel in the Old Testament. You read about him. People are commonly familiar with David and Goliath. They're familiar, even people who are not hardly familiar with the Bible. Usually, they're aware of David as the shepherd and ultimately then fighting Goliath and later being the king. But God made some very enduring promises to David. And that dealt with a throne of rulership that would be extended from David, and then through Solomon, and then through the descendants of David. And so, we've covered those, in a sense, somewhat quickly. And yet, if we don't understand those, they are key to really understanding, in many ways, the descriptions that we find in the New Testament. What we see whenever Paul's talking about Jew and Gentile, or whether he's talking about Israel. These are things that need to be understood by all of us. So, today I want to review, actually, Tim Can covered several of the things that I want to be able to elaborate on a little bit more fully. And it's important for us to look back and to be familiar with the story of the Old Testament. The story of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and then later Joseph in the book of Genesis. And the story of Israel through Moses and Joshua and the Judges and Samuel and Saul and David and Solomon. You know, we need to be familiar with those stories. And not just that they're stories, they are the inspired Word of God. And clearly God made promises to Abraham, and He made promises to David that He is yet to fully fulfill. But as I think Ken mentioned this as well in the sermonette, how can prophecy be clearly understood? How can we really understand what the Bible tells us in a prophetic sense if we don't comprehend something that it seems like many people do not have any idea about?

Most people assume that the Jews, people who embrace the religion of Judaism, make up all of Israel. But of course that is not the case. And you could make the statement, and it would be correct, all Jews are Israelites, and yet not all Israelites are Jews. Again, I think Ken referred to that in the beginning of his sermonette. Do we really understand that?

Is that important for us? We need to be able to see that as there was this separation of the house of Israel and the house of Judah after Solomon, that was very important. That was very significant. Why was that important?

Why was that significant? Well, we'll read that a little later, but it's important because God says, I am the one who did this. I'm the one who directed what would be done, because I was directing that things would go a certain way on down into the future.

And certainly, you see, as you read through mostly the books of Samuel and Kings, and then as you see repeated in Chronicles, in 1st and 2nd Chronicles, much of those former prophet books, you see all of this detailed, and yet sometimes it can be rather scrambled, and you have to kind of make a chart and try to figure it out.

And whether we can fully figure all of it out or not, because it is pretty clear some of the dates are not always exactly clear, and yet it's very clear what happens. Ultimately, the house of Israel goes into captivity, and a hundred or a hundred and twenty-five years later, the house of Judah also goes into captivity. And yet then, after seventy years of Judah being in captivity, some of them were sent back, and yet mostly everyone who was sent back to rebuild the temple were of the house of Judah, because you see an enumeration of who it was. You see a listing of the names of the people who came, and they were from the house of Judah.

So it is important for us to understand that, and to know that Judah, the house of Judah, what people in general might call the Jews today, people in the country of Israel, as well as there are Jewish populations in many parts of the world, including here in Kansas City and in New York City, and many other bigger cities here of the United States. We can identify people in that way, and yet the house of Israel is described as Israel, it's described as Jacob, sometimes it's described as Joseph, sometimes even as Ephraim, and certainly Manasseh also makes up that house of Israel.

So why is it that we see the identity of the people of Israel unrecognized today? Why is it that people in general don't know who the house of Israel is today? And why is it that the house of Judah is recognized in this world? A lot of times people have a certain animosity toward the Jewish population in the world.

They have a certain either jealousy or hatred toward that population. But see, at least they can be recognized. So I guess the title of what I want to cover today is, how did the lost ten tribes of Israel become lost?

How did they get lost? How is it that people can identify where the people of Israel are today? I think for the most part all of us can do that. We're familiar with that. But it's important for us to understand how it is that... Why would the house of Israel get lost? What was their problem? That's also important. It's important to understand why it was that the house of Israel lost in many ways their identity.

They lost their name. They lost their language. You don't see people who are of the Israeli descent all speaking Hebrew today. I surely don't, and I would say most of you don't. Some of us know a little bit of some of the words of Hebrew, but we don't speak Hebrew. Why is it that that's lost? Why is it that you even use the term the lost ten tribes? Or the lost sheep of the house of Israel? Why would they be so lost? It's important for us to understand that.

First of all, and Ken covered some of this, so I will only quickly go over other parts of it or elaborate on it. In 1 Kings 11, I'll go some of the same scriptures that we already turned to, but these shouldn't just be scriptures that we write down and that we don't have any idea what they mean because they have great meaning. In 1 Corinthians 11, the first part of that chapter, you see Solomon's heart being turned away from God. Clearly Solomon was a favored son of David. He was a son that God had worked with and that he would bless.

He would give great wisdom, great understanding, great knowledge, and yet he failed to follow God's instruction about other gods and foreign wives. And clearly it says that his heart was turned away from the true God. Here in 1 Kings 11, you see this account, and in many ways it's kind of a sad chapter. 1 Kings 11, it says, in verse 4, when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David.

See, Solomon was distracted. You could see clearly why that would be the case. But where I want to begin is down in verse 11, because his heart had been turned away from God. God told him in verse 11, since this has been your mind, and you have not kept my covenant, and you have not kept my statutes that I commanded you, are you going to tear the kingdom from you and give it to your servant?

What's God talking about? We should know. We should already know before I even go through this. What was he talking about? Well, because Solomon disobeyed, because he ignored the clear instruction of God, that God was not going to bless his son, Rehoboam. He was going to give, ultimately, the kingdom to his servant, Jeroboam. In verse 12, yet, for the sake of your father David. I'm not going to do it in your lifetime. I'm going to tear it out of the hand of your son. I will not, however, tear away the entire kingdom.

I will give one tribe to your son. This would be Rehoboam. For the sake of my servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen. See, this is clearly God's doing. We went through last time how the God had promised to David, I'm going to perpetuate your posterity. I'm going to maintain your throne. It's going to be a throne that will exist when Christ returns and resumes. Rulership from that throne of David. And yet, we see here in 1 Kings 11 exactly how that occurred.

And you can read all of the verses. If we drop down to verse 26, 1 Kings 11, verse 26, Who was it that would become the head of the divided kingdoms? See, with Saul and David and Solomon, all of the tribes of Israel did together. They were just called the House of Israel. After Solomon, there was a country called, and they were basically to the north of Jerusalem. Samaria was their capital. They were in the northern part of Israel today.

And they were led by a man named Jeroboam. Now, Solomon's son, Reoboam, those two names are pretty similar. His son Reoboam would maintain the one tribe of Judah. And we will find that he would also have added to that Ephraim, or excuse me, not Ephraim, I'm sorry, Benjamin. Who would be added to it? And I will point that out here in a little bit. But here in verse 26 it says, Jeroboam, who was an Ephraimite?

See, he was from Ephraim. He was of the leading tribe of these ten that were going to be set aside. He was a servant of Solomon, his mother's name from Zera, a widow rebelled against the king. In this case, Jeroboam rebelled against Reoboam. Again dropping down to verse 37, God said to Reoboam, Take for yourself ten pieces. For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, See, I'm about to tear the kingdom from the hand of Solomon and give you ten tribes.

But one tribe will remain for Reoboam. For the sake of my servant David, for the sake of Jerusalem, the city that I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel. All of this because he has forsaken me, he has disrespected God, he has worshipped Astartape, the goddess of the Sidonians and Chemists, the god of Moab and Milchem, the god of Ammonites, and has not walked in my ways, doing what is right in my sight, and keeping my statutes and my ordinances as David, his father, had done.

Nevertheless, I will not take the whole kingdom away from him, but I will make him ruler over all the days of his life. For the sake of my servant David, whom I chose and who did keep my commandments and statutes. But in verse 35, I will take the kingdom away from his son and give it to you that is those ten tribes. And so here's a reference that we have to the house of Israel that was led by Ephraim, Jeroboam, in Ephraim, an Ephraimite.

And you see the reference to the ten tribes, and yet in verse 36, to his son, I will give one tribe, which would be Judah, so that my servant David will always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem. So I want us to jump over to the next chapter here in 1 Kings 12.

You see this repeated as it kind of unfolds. 1 Kings 12, verse 19. So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day. And so there clearly was a division. There clearly had been altogether. And then later, because of this civil war, there was two countries. One named the house of Israel, one named the house of David or the house of Judah. Verse 20, when Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly. They made him king over all of Israel.

So is that saying all of Israel, or is that saying the ten tribes that he was to be in charge of? That's what he was to be in charge of. And there was no one who followed the house of David except the tribe of Judah alone. And in verse 21, when Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah. And he assembled the tribe of Benjamin, 180,000 chosen troops to fight against the house of Israel to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam. And of course, that wasn't going to happen.

It wasn't going to happen because if we look down to verse 24, in verse 24, God says, You shall not go up or fight against your kindred, the people of Israel. Let everyone go home, for this thing is from me. God says, I'm the one who has separated these two groupings of people, and they're going to fulfill my purpose.

They're going to be able to be used by me in this way. Now, ultimately, these ten tribes, you see the history of the kings of Israel, down through the many next chapters here, in 1 Kings and into 2 Kings.

You see successions of these kingdoms. Most all of the kings were bad. Most of them disobeyed. Unfortunately, you see references to them as they followed the sins that Jeroboam had committed. And so, that was kind of the reference point that they had. The House of Israel was certainly off track, and they certainly were disobedient in everything they did. And I want to look at several other verses here that point out what would eventually happen to the House of Israel. See, how did they get lost?

Well, when you get to the last of these kings of Israel, they're going to be taken away to Assyria. But here in chapter 14, 1 Kings 14, it says in verse 15, and this was talking about the way that God was going to deal with the poor ruler that Jeroboam was for the House of Israel. It says, the Lord will strike Israel. In verse 15, the Lord will strike Israel as a reed is shaken in the water, and he will root up Israel out of this good land that he will give to their ancestors, and he will scatter them beyond the Euphrates, because they have made their sacred poles, provoking the Lord to anger.

He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he sinned, and which he caused Israel to sin. He caused Israel to commit. See, this was, in essence, a kind of a description of what God was going to allow to happen. He was going to allow this nation, because of their sins, to go into captivity, to be captive to Assyria.

He would be scattering them. Let's jump over to chapter 17. Actually, this is on into 2 Kings, so it's going toward the end of the time when they were actually going to be scattered. But here in 2 Kings, chapter 17, verse 18, it says, Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and he removed them out of his sight. None was left but the tribe of Judah alone.

See, now that's that sign of a summary verse, that God was going to allow the house of Israel to be scattered. And yet Judah would remain. They would be a separate nation, a separate country. They would have a separate identity. And even though later on they also would go into captivity, they were going to go into captivity at the same time of these ten tribes that had followed Jeroboam. So dropping down to verse 22, The people of Israel continued in all the sins that Jeroboam committed, and they did not depart from them until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight.

As he had foretold through all his servants the prophets, and so Israel was exalted from their own land, or excuse me, they were exiled from their own land to Assyria until this day. And in verse 24, the king of Assyria, after he had come into the land of Israel, after he had overtaken these ten tribes, he was carrying them away, captive to Assyria. And it says in verse 24, The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon and from Cuddah and Abba and Hamath, and placed them in the cities of Samaria in place of the people of Israel.

They took possession of Samaria and they settled in their cities. And so clearly, the people who made up the ten tribes, the people who were called the house of Israel, they were overcome by the Assyrians and then taken captive and carried to the land of Assyria, which was up to their north and to their east. So they were going to be captive toward the Caspian Sea.

In the book of Amos, I might just point out here because there are several other references. You see these books of kings and of the chronicles. You see kind of the story flow of what was to happen to these people. And yet, you also find that God would continue to send prophets.

He would continue to send prophets, whether it was major prophets like we know of Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, or some of the other prophets that we call minor, but just because their books are a little smaller, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, many of those prophets were sent to the house of Israel.

But here in Amos chapter 9, in verse 8, it gives a reference to the house of Israel, describing them as the house of Jacob. Amos 9, verse 8, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth, except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, says the Lord for lo, I will command, and I will shake the house of Israel among all the nations as one shakes with a sieve.

But no pebbles shall fall to the ground. Again, God says He would punish them for their sins. He would send them into captivity to Assyria, and yet He would eventually sift them through many other countries. And of course, you have other references as far as where they would eventually go. In Hosea 12, verse 1, it makes a reference to Ephraim. Ephraim herds the wind and pursues the east wind.

All day long, they multiply falsehood and violence. They make a treaty with Assyria, and oil is carried to Egypt. Again, only a reference there to them following the east wind, being that they would be going westward. If you look at the map, you can see north of the Middle East, you run into the area of Europe, and where Europe and Asia come together. And so even though they started off up toward Assyria, they would eventually go west.

And in Psalm 89, verse 25, they would be planted in the sea. I will set His hand on the sea and His right hand on the rivers. And so this was a path that the people of Israel were eventually going to take to settle in what we know today as Great Britain. In Jeremiah, you see this same thing described, because Jeremiah, even though he was kind of a later prophet, and he primarily was directed at Judah, he had to say about Israel. In verse 11 of Jeremiah 3, the Lord said to me, Faithless Israel has shown herself less guilty than false Judah.

See, God had words of warning, words of condemnation for both of these nations. And He said, I'm going to continue to work with the people, but I'm going to cause them to lose their identity, lose their connection to Me. So He says, Faithless Israel has shown herself less guilty than false Judah. Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, O Faithless Israel, says the Lord, I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, says the Lord, I will not be angry forever.

See, in order for these prophecies and predictions that God would interspersed throughout the prophets as they would give them, see, sometimes they were directly given for the people at that time, and sometimes they were given for a time that was clearly yet in the future. And I can point that out here in a little bit.

But you see references here to them being headed toward the sea, to be going toward the north, and going toward the west. And, again, as Ken also pointed out, why was it that Jesus mentioned the lost sheep of the house of Israel?

Why was it that they were looked at in that way? Because here in Matthew 10, you see Jesus telling his disciples, Matthew 10, verse 5, As Jesus sent the twelve out, and he gave them instructions, go nowhere among the Gentiles, and return no town, or enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And, again, Jesus was saying this, where was he? Well, he was right there in the nation of Israel.

He was right in Nazareth, or he was in Jerusalem, or he was in the Jordan, he was in Galilee, he was right in what you would say would be the people of Judah. But he says to his disciples, I want you to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Say the kingdom of God has come near. See, that was clearly a directive that the disciples were supposed to be doing. So even at that time, it appeared that the nation of Israel had lost its identity.

They didn't comprehend, or they didn't realize exactly what their background had been. And I want to go ahead and just point out, why is it, why is it that Israel had become so lost? Well, this goes back to what we read in 1 Kings 12. And again, Ken mentioned this, but they lost a national identity. They lost what it was that they were for two different reasons.

And we can see these here in 1 Kings 12. See, whenever they originally were separated, and Jeroboam was the first king of the people of Israel after Solomon, what happened? Well, many people stayed. The people of Judah stayed with Rehoboam. They stayed with the house of David. But then there was a conflict. And Jeroboam led them in such a destructive manner, they actually laid a pattern, a pattern for the people to get lost and to actually be lost. This has the same reference to people today. Why do people have very little knowledge of the house of Israel or the house of Judah? Or what it is that they ought to be doing?

Well, it's revealed here, beginning in verse 28. Because in 1 Kings 12, verse 28, this is talking about Jeroboam trying to figure out how to consolidate his kingdom. And of course, what he did was so destructive, it was so damaging that it would clearly set him and all of Israel apart from then on. Beginning here in verse 28, he says, so the king took counsel. He is, of course, doing this in opposition to someone he well knew, Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, who was going to be king over Judah. But it says, Jeroboam took counsel and made two calves of gold.

And he said to the people, you have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And he set one up in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. And so, obviously, this is very clearly similar to what they saw earlier in their ancestors. Whenever Moses delayed on the mountain, what happened? Well, Aaron ultimately created a golden calf. And he said, well, you can worship the golden calf. And as you know, if you've read that story, it's really pretty odd.

Aaron claims they just brought all the stuff, and I threw it out here, and out came the golden calf. And that certainly wasn't the case. You know, they shaped it, they molded it, they melted everything down. But the way Moses, or Aaron described it to Moses, well, it just appeared. But that wasn't quite the case. But, see, for Jeroboam to do this was terrible. What he was pointing out was that he was clearly affected by the idolatry of Solomon, his master. And so, he set up these two golden calves in two different parts of his realm.

And this thing, in verse 30, became a sin, for the people went to worship before either the golden calf at Bethel or before the other one in Dan. And he also made houses on high places and appointed priests from among all the people who were not Levites.

So he got rid of all the knowledgeable people, the people who knew something about the law. He got rid of the Levites, and he appointed people that he could control. It goes on to say, in verse 32, he appointed a festival on the 15th day of the 8th month, like the festival that was in Judah. Now, again, you can read that and you can say, well, I don't know what that has to do with anything. Well, it has an awful lot to do with everything. He offered sacrifices on that altar.

So we did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made, and he placed in Bethel the priest of the high places that he had made. And he went up on the altar that he had made in Bethel on the 15th day of the 8th month, in the month that he alone had devised. And he appointed a festival for the people of Israel, and he went up to that altar to offer incense.

Now, what do you see in that description? Well, it's pretty clear. He was leading the people into idolatry. He was leading them into forgetting the God who was the God over Israel in the days of even Saul and David and Solomon, and then following other gods. And then how would you go about doing that? Well, you would introduce your own made-up holidays. See, instead of what God says, you know, we go back and read what it is that we need to know about the holy days of God.

See, these are not just whimsical. These are not just something that I come up with or that you come up with. These are the appointed festivals of the Lord. He's the one who decides when they are. He's the one who decides how long they are. Obviously, the Feast of Tabernacles that he was trying to imitate was in the seventh month, certainly in Judah. And yet, turning the people away from God by creating their own festival times.

And you could say, of course, we have a perpetuation of that as you look through the entirety of our Roman year. And you see celebrations like New Year's Day and Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day. You see Easter. You see Halloween. You see Christmas. You know, where are those described in the Bible? Well, they're described here. They are festivals of men. And apart from that, he also moved away from the one thing that God said would be an identifying sign.

Now, this, in a sense, is really crucial for all of us. Because as we look in Exodus 31, what does God say? What did he say to the people of Israel? And this, of course, was in the day of Moses, so much earlier. But here in Exodus 31, you see a very clear statement. Now, if you were to want to pick out verses that show that you ought to be here on Saturday afternoon, you know, you can't very well find a verse that says you have to be here in the afternoon. You can go in the morning if you want up to Fulton.

But you can find plenty of verses that talk about the Sabbath day being the day that God is designated to be a day of worship. And yet, again, most people think that the Sabbath day is Jewish.

They make that connection. That's not biblical, but they make that connection. And yet, you see here in this account about Jeroboam how that he turned away people from the true God, from worshiping the true God, and he corrupted not only the Holy Days, but the Sabbath. Because here in Exodus 31, let's begin reading in verse 12.

The Lord said to Moses, You yourself are to speak to the Israelites, and this is what you're to say. You shall keep my Sabbaths. See, not your Sabbath, not whatever Sabbath you might think is, you know, you might come up with, or like Jeroboam, he appointed whatever day the people were to worship, whatever festival they were to go to.

But God told Moses, and then he gave to the Israelites, You shall keep my Sabbath. For this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, given in order that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. You shall keep the Sabbath because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does not work on it shall be cut off from among the people six days. Shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest. Holy to the Lord, whoever does any work on that Sabbath day shall be put to death. Therefore the Israelites shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath, throughout their generations, as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed. See, now clearly you can go to Exodus 20 and read a section in the Ten Commandments about the Sabbath. It kind of summarizes it in saying, remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.

In both Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 you can read both those listings of the Ten Commandments. And you can see in one case it says, remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. And it says a little later, it points out that I'm the Creator God. And in Deuteronomy, it's one or the other. I don't have those both written here in front of me. But you can look at them, it points out God is the Creator in one. In the other one it points out that I delivered you out of Egypt. I'm the one that you need to respect. I'm the one that you need to obey. I'm the one that you need to worship. And so, if they lose their identifying sign, what could you expect? Nobody would know who you are, nobody knows what you do. And of course that's been perpetuated down to us today. People, disregard the Sabbath, forget anything about it, think that, well, it's kind of obsolete, or think that it's simply Jewish. See, now the Jews have maintained an awareness of the Sabbath. I'll point out that a little bit later, that even though the Jews do not observe the Sabbath in the way that I believe God would expect, at least they do observe the Sabbath, or they at least are aware of the way that the Sabbath exists. And that's why, you know, you actually find them being quite identifiable. It's a sign. And that's what people identify. They may have added a lot of other things, which certainly was the case in Jesus' day. And today, I know that that's the case. And yet, whenever you read this and you see that, well, observing the Sabbath, that's going to... that's going to... what's that going to do for you?

Well, I think you could say that, in a sense, that pretty well rearranges your life.

It is, in essence, a test command as to whether or not we are going to surrender to the will of God, whether we are going to follow what we want to do. That's what it comes down to. And, of course, it's binding on, as it mentions here, the people of Israel, but it's also binding on all of mankind. We have people who make up and are members of the Church of God around the world. They all observe the Sabbath. They all understand. That's a part... that's not everything, but that is certainly an identifying part of what it is to be a part of the people of God today.

And we see the makeup of the Church today, both being Jewish as well as Greek. Both Jew and Gentile are a part of the Church of God today. And so is the Sabbath just for Israel, or is it for everyone? Well, you can go to what Jesus said, because He says, I'm the Lord of the Sabbath, and He says, the Sabbath was made for Israel.

No, that's not what it says. It says the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. See, the Sabbath was made for all of mankind. It was... we read about it in Genesis 2. It was designated by God at the very beginning of creation. It was introduced to Adam and Eve from the very start, long before there was any Israel, long before there was any Abraham, long before there was any Moses, long before that. And so, you see, what Jeroboam did was really quite terrible. He took people's eyes away from the true God by turning to idolatry, and then he profaned the identifying symbols, the signs, that would be a part of their connection to God. It's interesting, I pulled out one little section here that Mr. Armstrong had written in the book, The United States and Britain in Prophecy, again about 50 years ago. And he was pointing out how significant it was that people don't know what the Sabbath is, they don't know when it is, they don't know anything about it. But see, what is it that we read here in Exodus 31? Well, it says that you shall keep the Sabbath, and it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations. It's given in order so that you can know the true God, so that you will know the Creator God, not just a God that you happen to want to worship, but that you will know the Creator God, and that it will sanctify you. It will set you apart. That's what sanctify means. It will set you apart. And interestingly, Mr. Armstrong wrote about that, and of course he was writing about it again back 50, 60 years ago. And he had gone through experiences with observing the Sabbath, and people who had refused either to do that or had interfered with Sabbath observance over the years. But he says, how does the Sabbath set people apart? How does it separate them from those who are not God's own true people? Well, if you have begun to keep God's Sabbath holy, as He commands, you have found the answer already by actual experience. If you haven't, just start keeping God's Sabbath holy as He commands you, and you will soon learn that you are automatically set apart from all other people. The world, people you know, some of your family and relatives, business associates and contacts, they will set you apart. And Sabbath actually is God's sign, which identifies not only God as the Creator, the Ruler, but also identifies those who truly are His people. See, that's significant for all of us to be reminded of the fact that God sets us apart. He gives us an identifying sign. Now, obviously the Sabbath is not everything we do in obeying God and serving God, but it clearly is a primary thing that we never want to overlook or never want to neglect, because it is incredibly important. I'd like for us to go over to Ezekiel 20.

And I will pretty much close with what we read here in Ezekiel 20. At least the latter part of this sermon can be out of Ezekiel 20, because Ezekiel was actually a prophet who was writing later, in the timeframe of the house of Israel falling. He was writing partially to Judah. He would later be a part of the captives who would go away to Babylon. And yet, even after Israel had already been in captivity for a hundred years, God was directing him to write about Israel and how they have profaned God, how they profaned the Sabbath, and how they ignored God.

And so, clearly it wasn't for the people of Israel at that time, because obviously he couldn't go to them, but it was for the people of Israel today. The people like us who associate with the Word of God and with the direction from God. But here in Ezekiel 20, you see actually somewhat of a lengthy discussion here that I will only read through part of it.

Starting around verse 10, again saying to the people of Israel how they had rebelled, how they wouldn't listen. In verse 10, so I led them out of the land of Egypt. I brought them into the wilderness. I gave them my statutes. I showed them my ordinances by whose observance everyone should live. So there it doesn't sound like it's only to Israel, but everyone should live according to the Word of God.

Moreover, in verse 12, I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between me and them so that they may know that I am the Lord and that I am the one who sanctify them. Dear, we sanctify by God. That's what this is saying. If we're respectful to God's directives, if we're respectful to His commands, then we will be set apart. And yet we will be able to have a close communion with God. In verse 13, even though I gave them my Sabbaths and I said they're a sign to make you my people, in verse 13, the house of Israel rebelled against me.

In the wilderness, they didn't observe my statutes. They rejected my ordinances, again by whose observance everyone shall live. And my Sabbaths, they greatly profaned. And then I thought I would pour out my wrath upon them and make an end of them, but I acted for the sake of my name so that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations.

In whose sight I had brought them out. Moreover, I swore to them in the wilderness I would not bring them into the land that I had given them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most glorious of all lands, because they rejected my ordinances. They didn't observe my statutes. They profaned my Sabbaths and for their heart went after their own idols. See, again, the same reference to Sabbath-breaking and idolatry that Jeroboam had promoted in the people of Israel under his rule.

Nevertheless, I spared them, and I did not destroy them or make an end of them in the wilderness. See, we go back and read that about them being in the wilderness and about eventually, after those who did not believe had been purged, eventually he would bring them into the land. What he said is to their children. In verse 18, I said to their children in the wilderness, do not follow the statutes of your parents, nor observe their ordinances, nor defile them yourself with their idols.

I, the Lord, am your God, follow my statutes, and be careful to observe my ordinances, and hallow my Sabbaths, that they may be a sign between me and you, so that you may know that I am the Lord your God. But in verse 21, what do we see? Well, we see the children rebelled against me as well. They did not follow my statutes. They were not careful to observe my ordinances, in whose observance everyone should live, but they profaned my Sabbath, and then I thought I would pour out my wrath upon them and spend my anger against them in the wilderness.

But again, I withheld my hand, and I acted for the sake of my name, so that it should be not profaned in the sight of the nations. In verse 23, moreover, I swore to them that I would scatter them among the nations, and disperse them through the countries, because they have not executed my ordinances, but have rejected my statutes, and profaned my Sabbath, and their eyes were set on their feet. They were their ancestors' idols. They had wanted to be like the nations, like the tribes of the country, and worship wood and stone.

See, this is what you see Ezekiel writing about in again the same way, that Israel, the people of Israel today, the people who make up a lost tribes of Israel, they don't recognize who they are.

They certainly don't want to acknowledge God, and they don't want to know and observe the Sabbath. That's what we find, the world that we live in today. And yet, it is something obviously that God is expecting us to not only do, but to delight in. He tells us, you know, we're to delight in the Sabbath. He tells us, so you find later that Judah, who in a sense maintained an awareness of the holy days and an awareness of the Sabbath, you find that they would later go into captivity too, mostly because of their disobedience and because of their ignorance.

But they are also, and we won't go through that today, but they're also pointed out to have, even though they had an awareness of the Sabbath, they improperly observed it. See, and that's the point that we have to think about today. You know, we can be aware of the Sabbath, and we need to properly observe it. We need to properly respect the time that God sets aside to be holy. And that perhaps is a topic for another day.

But what we find is that Judah, because they became lax and because of their improper observance of the Sabbath, that God had given them as a sign. See, they had that sign, but I would say that today you would find that, you know, the Jewish world in general, even though they, in a sense, identify with the sign of the Sabbath, you know, they're not observing that like God says.

They're not observing it like we are expected to do. And so it is important for us to realize that, you know, the Sabbath is, in a sense, more than just one of the laws of God.

It is a sign between us and our Creator. It is a sign between a relationship between God being our ruler and us being the people of God. So I might ask, as I mentioned, since the Jewish world today is aware of the Sabbath and yet not properly keeping it, what advantage is it to be a Jew?

You read this in Romans 3, verse 1 and 2. Paul is talking about this. He talks a lot about Jew and Gentile. He talks a lot about what it is to understand the topics that are revealed in the Bible. But he points out in Romans 3, verse 1 and 2, he mentions, what advantage then has the Jew?

And he answers that and says, well, much in every way. They have the oracles of God. They have the Word of God. See, they were commissioned to maintain the Bible. The Old Testament, as we know it today, they were aware of the laws of God. They were aware of the Sabbath. They were aware of the Holy Days. But of course, even in the days of Jesus and in the days of the Apostle Paul, they weren't observing those properly, even though they were aware of them.

So we will perhaps explore some of that as we go forward. You read Romans 9 and 10 and 11, and you see that God clearly has unfinished business with Israel. God is not finished with the physical descendants of Israel. He's not finished with working with the nation of Israel, even as we go into the kingdom of God. But with the foundation that we've gone over here in the last several Sabbaths, we can at least begin to look at some of those things and be reminded of the background of what it is that God expects of the people of God, of how it is He wants us to have a pure heart and to have a true desire to serve Him and to obey His Word, and clearly to respect and keep His Sabbath.

That's why when you read about the people there in Angola being told that, well, we may not even let you meet. I certainly hope that it doesn't turn out to be that, because that's something we really ought to pray about, because that's an important thing to you and me. It's an important thing to them. It's an identifying thing as a part of our connection to God.

And so I ask that you pray about that, and we will perhaps go into some more of this next time.