Today’s Scripture Reading (June 29,
2013): 2 Kings 17
History
regards the Ten Tribes that formed the Kingdom of Israel as lost. The reality is
that in 722 B.C.E. the Assyrian army defeated Israel and the northern tribes
simply disappeared from the pages of history. Unlike the later defeat of Judah
by the Babylonians, we know nothing of what happened to Israel after 722 B.C.E.
No prophets wrote during her exile, no historians recorded the struggle of the
inhabitants of the ten tribes in a strange land – and there is no story of the
return of Israel to her native home. It is a real life mystery, the people who
made up the ten tribes simply vanished never to be seen again. A number of
people have put forward possible solutions to the mystery, including the
hypothesis that the North American Indians were really the lost tribes of
Israel – but none of the suggested scenarios really make any sense. All we can
say about the lost tribes of Israel is that we know we don’t know.
For some
historians, the problem with the lost tribes of Israel is that they have never
really been lost. The whole idea of lost tribes of Israel is based on a myth –
the myth propagated by this verse. Outside of the Bible there is no record of a
wholesale captivity for Israel. Like Babylon, the Assyrians seemed to have been
happy to remove just a token representation of Israel – the best and the
brightest. When Babylon took Judah into captivity, it was only Judah’s
continued rebellion that resulted in as extensive of a captivity as we know
occurred at that time. But for Israel we know of no continued rebellion against
the power of the Assyrians.
The records
of the Assyrians tell us a story of the Assyrian destruction of Israel rather
than the losing of the tribes that made up the nation. From the Assyrian side,
there is absolutely no record of anyone one from the tribes of Dan, Asher,
Issachar, Zebulun ever being removed from the nation. From the tribes of Ephraim,
Manasseh, Reuben, Gad, Simeon and Naphtali only a portion was removed. And the
evidence is that the Assyrian population moved in and intermarried with the
tribes – wiping them from the face of the earth. Judah resisted that level of
assimilation, maybe partially because they recognized the hand of God on them
in a way that was unknown – because of the people’s choice, not God’s – in the
North Country.
The idea that
the ten tribes were not lost, but rather watered down through intermarriage
holds true with the
Biblical record. If this was what happened, then it
explains the hostile relationship between the Jews of Judah and the Samaritans
to the north – the reality was that the Samaritans were a constant reminder of
what could have happened to Judah outside of the direct action of – and trust
in - God. And that reminder is exactly what this passage is supposed to stress.
Israel would become a cautionary moral tale for Judah for the rest of their
existence.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Kings
18
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