Genesis 48 | Who Is Israel

Let’s first look at what the Bible has to say about Israel.

God’s plan was that Israel would become a “multitude” of peoples, meaning that a multitude of ethnic groups would seek to join themselves to the community of Israelites.

Now YHVH had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

²And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

³And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. (Genesis 12:1-3)

And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people. (Genesis 28:3)

Behold, I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a multitude of people; and will give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession. (Genesis 48:4)

God gave Israel a literal piece of land, real estate that would be their inheritance forever.

Behold, I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a multitude of people; and will give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession. (Genesis 48:4)

Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I am the Lord your God, which have separated you from other people (Leviticus 20:24)

Look down from thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless thy people Israel, and the land which thou hast given us, as thou swarest unto our fathers, a land that floweth with milk and honey. (Deuteronomy 26:15)

While Israel became recognized by the United Nations as a nation again in 1949, certainly not all Israelites are living in the land God gave them, nor are their boundaries as large as what God promised to them (see Numbers 34:1-12).

While this is certainly a start to a return to the land, Scripture promises that the return will be complete.

³³When thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee, and shall turn again to thee, and confess thy name, and pray, and make supplication unto thee in this house:

³⁴Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest unto their fathers. (1 Kings 8:33-34)

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land (2 Chronicles 7:14)

This verse cannot be a reference to the United States or any other nation except for Israel, or else Scripture is not true. This is not a verse that Christians can claim, if Israel and the church are distinct.

⁸Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations:

⁹But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there.

¹⁰Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand. (Nehemiah 1:8-10)

Even though Israel has been exiled and scattered to the farthest horizon, God still looks on them as his people.

¹⁴And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.

¹⁵And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith YHVH thy God. (Amos 9:14-15)

Therefore as I live, saith YHVH of hosts, the God of Israel, Surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, even the breeding of nettles, and saltpits, and a perpetual desolation: the residue of my people shall spoil them, and the remnant of my people shall possess them. (Zephaniah 2:9)

⁷Thus saith YHVH of hosts; Behold, I will save my people from the east country, and from the west country;

⁸And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness. (Zechariah 8:7-8)

Verses for Further Study:

(hover over reference to read verse)

Psalm 135:12
Isaiah 49:8-9
Isaiah 60:21
Jeremiah 30:3
Jeremiah 32:37-38
Isaiah 50:6
Ezekiel 11:17
Ezekiel 28:25
Ezekiel 34:13
Ezekiel 36:12
Ezekiel 36:28
Ezekiel 45:8
Hosea 1:9-11

Review

So Ephesians says that God has only one people.

That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel. (Ephesians 3:6)

Scriptures also clearly teach that only Israel is God’s people.

⁵Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:

⁶And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. (Exodus 19:5-6)

Continue

Many people think of “Israel” and the “Jews” as being the same group of people, but in reality, the Jews are just a small segment of the larger group of people God called Israel.

Who is Israel?

Jacob was the son of Abraham whose name was changed by God to “Israel,” which means “prince of God.” He had twelve sons.

Who is Judah?

Judah was one of the sons of Israel, and his descendants became known as the tribe of Judah.

Judah is also a name collectively given to two southern tribes of Israel (Judah and Benjamin, as well as some of the tribe of Levi). These tribes were carried away to Babylon in 586 B.C., then restored back to their land 70 years later, only to be dispersed throughout the world after the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. They are known as “Jews.”

It was from the tribe of Judah, or from the “Jews,” that God promised a ruler would come, whom all nations would obey. King David was from the tribe of Judah, and the prophets announced that the Messiah would come from David’s kingly line.

The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. (Genesis 49:10)

And David [from the tribe of Judah] perceived that YHVH had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for his people Israel’s sake. (2 Samuel 5:12)

He also exalteth the horn [a ruler] of his people, the praise of all his saints; even of the children of Israel, a people near unto him. (Psalm 148:14)

¹⁰And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.

¹¹And it shall come to pass in that day, that YHVH shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea…

¹⁶And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt. (Isaiah 11:10-11, 16)

The New Testament records that Jesus was the Messiah that the prophets foretold.

And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, art not the least among the princes of Judah: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel. (Matthew 2:6)

⁶⁸Blessed be YHVH God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,

⁶⁹And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David;

⁷⁰As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began:

⁷¹That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;

⁷²To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant;

⁷³The oath which he sware to our father Abraham,

⁷⁴That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear,

⁷⁵In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life. (Luke 1:68-75)

Paul tells us that the Messiah would reign not only over Judah and Israel, but over all the nations of the world.

⁸Now I say that Jesus Christ [Christ is the Greek translation of Messiah] was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers:

⁹And that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy; as it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name.

¹⁰And again he saith, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people.

¹¹And again, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles; and laud him, all ye people.

¹²And again, Esaias saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles trust. (Romans 15:8-12)

So as we read the Bible, we need to be careful to note when Scripture says “Judah” or “Jews,” and realize that this is not always referring to the entire nation of Israel.

Who is Ephraim?

Israel (Jacob) blessed Joseph’s two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, before his death. Ephraim was the younger son of Joseph, predicted to become greater than his older brother Manasseh. His descendants would become a multitude of nations.

[Manasseh] also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations (Genesis 48:19, speaking of Ephraim and Manasseh).

His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh. (Deuteronomy 33:17)

Ephraim is often another name for the ten northern tribes of Israel, which were dispersed throughout the world because of their disobedience and idolatry. The prophets often referred to as “Israel” or “Ephraim” interchangeably.

For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people. (Isaiah 7:8)

Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned. (Hosea 7:8)

Isaiah said that Ephraim would be broken, that it would not be a people, and that it would be mixed among the people.

The people of the ten northern tribes of Israel mingled so much with the Gentile nations around them, gradually intermarrying and scattering further abroad, that in a short time, no one could distinguish them from the nations. It was as if they were no longer God’s people. They were, for all intents and purposes, Gentiles.

Note what God said, however, through the prophet Hosea.

⁹Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.

¹⁰Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.

¹¹Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel. (Hosea 1:9-11)

This adds a lot of meaning to what Jesus said.

I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. (Matthew 15:24)

And Jesus said unto [Zaccheus], This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:9-10)

¹²How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray?

¹³And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray.

¹⁴Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish. (Matthew 18:12-14)

At the time of Jesus, very few of the people of the northern tribes had returned to Israel. Most were scattered among the Gentiles, seemingly lost. However, all twelve tribes of Israel — not just Judah (Jews) — were very precious to God. Even though they had sinned, the Messiah said that He came to rescue and redeem them.

And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all. Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwelling places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God (Ezekiel 37:22-23).