Who exactly is the house of israel?

[ItsJustDeep]

But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Matthew 15:23‭-‬24 KJV 

Who is Jesus speaking of? I've been confused on this topic because when it comes to the red letters, I don't know if He says he was here for everyone. 

Does Jesus himself say out of his mouth that salvation was/is for everyone or Paul?

 

 

 

 

[missmuffet]

He is simply connecting His presence with God’s purpose in Old Testament history. Christ was “born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law” (Galatians 4:4-5).

[DAVID5]

THIER IS NONE,, IT IS YET TO COME THRU JESUS,,, SHOLOM

Edited December 29, 2019 by DAVID5

[InChristAlways]

I find a concordance extremely helpful when looking up specific words and/or phrases.

http://www.eliyah.com/lexicon.html

Strong's Concordance - King James Version:

Strong's Lexicon (FULL Search by Strong's word number [e.g. 3091 Hebrew] OR English word!)

Hebrew Greek

Condensed Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon OR Thayer's Greek Lexicon (Search by Strong's word number [e.g. 2424 Greek]

Verses where house of Israel and house of Judah are used:

https://www.blueletterbible.org/search/search.cfm?Criteria="house+of+Israel"&t=YLT#s=s_primary_0_1

"house of Israel" occurs 152 times in 146 verses in the YLT.

Only mentioned in 6 verses of the NT: 2 verses each in Matthew,  Acts and Hebrews [concerning the New Covenant]. Note in Hebrews 8:8 both Houses are mentioned but in Hebrews 8:10, only the House of Israel is mentioned. Not sure if there is any significance of that.

Act 2:36 assuredly, therefore, let all the house of Israel know, that both Lord and Christ did God make him -- this Jesus whom ye did crucify.'

Act 7:42 and God did turn, and did give them up to do service to the host of the heaven, according as it hath been written in the scroll of the prophets: Slain beasts and sacrifices did ye offer to Me forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

Heb 8:8 For finding fault, He saith to them, 'Lo, days come, saith the Lord, and I will complete with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah, a new covenant,

Heb 8:10 because this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, saith the Lord, giving My laws into their mind, and upon their hearts I will write them, and I will be to them for a God, and they shall be to Me for a people;

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In contrast to the house of Judah which is mentioned in only 1 verse of the NT, Hebrews 8:8 concerning the NC.

https://www.blueletterbible.org/search/search.cfm?Criteria="house+of+judah"&t=YLT#s=s_primary_0_1

"house of judah" occurs 39 times in 39 verses in the YLT.

Heb 8:8

For finding fault, He saith to them, 'Lo, days come, saith the Lord, and I will complete with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah, a new covenant,

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Israel mentioned in 3 verses of the covenantle book of Revelation:

Rev 2:14 'But I have against thee a few things: That thou hast there those holding the teaching of Balaam, who did teach Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the sons of Israel, to eat idol-sacrifices, and to commit whoredom;

Rev 7:4 And I heard the number of those sealed, 144 thousands were sealed out of all the tribes of the sons of Israel

Rev 21:12 having also a wall great and high, having twelve gates, and at the gates twelve messengers, and names written thereon, which are those of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel,

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Judah is mentioned in 2 verses of Revelation:

Rev 5:5 and one of the elders saith to me, 'Weep not; lo, overcome did the Lion, who is of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, to open the scroll, and to loose the seven seals of it;

Rev 7:5 of the tribe of Judah 12 thousand were sealed; of the tribe of Reuben 12 thousand were sealed; of the tribe of Gad 12 thousand were sealed;

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I did a google search on the difference between those 2 houses/nations and came up with a few links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_House_theology

The United Monarchy of Israel became divided after King Solomon's reign passed to his son Rehoboam in about 931 BCE. Rehoboam refused to grant the northern ten tribes relief from Solomon's taxation and they subsequently formed their own autonomous nation in the north, making Jeroboam their king. The Kingdom of Israel (the Ten Lost Tribes) was taken into Assyrian captivity starting in 740 BCE, culminating with the seizure of Samaria in 721 BCE. Even after invitations to return, many years later, no large representation of the tribes ever returned to their former boundaries.

Between 597 and 586 BCE, the Kingdom of Judah was taken into the Babylonian captivity. Cyrus the Great later granted Judah permission to return to their lands, which they did, but the Jewish–Roman wars took a significant toll which included the Destruction of the Second Temple and exile from Jerusalem (except for the day of Tisha B'Av) and the renaming of Roman Judaea to Syria Palaestina.

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https://www.douglashamp.com/two-houses-now-united-the-house-of-israel-and-house-of-judah-restored-as-one/

When we speak of the Kingdom of God, there is no longer a House of Judah (Jews) and House of Israel (who were scattered to the gentiles/nations). As far as tribes go, there were twelve tribes and there always will be twelve tribes, as evidenced by the twelve tribes in Revelation 7 and 14 and by the twelve gates of the New Jerusalem. Hence, there will always be those who are from the tribe of Judah and those from the tribe of Levi, Benjamin, Asher, Naphtali, etc. But these twelve tribes are no longer divided in two nations – they are now one.

 

In conclusion, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were not Jews; they were Hebrews. Jacob’s sons became the Israelites and when the nation split, two nations emerged known as the House of Judah and the House of Israel. God divorced the House of Israel because of their incredible adultery and then scattered them to the nations/gentiles. He promised to remarry them back and the only way for that to happen was for Immanuel to die thereby cancelling the initial marriage contract (Old Covenant). When he arose, He was free to marry her under a new marriage contract (New Covenant)  in Jesus’ blood. This new covenant brings the two houses together and the two shall never again be two nations.

 

If you are under the New Covenant, you have come either from the House of Judah or the House of Israel (who were wanders among the gentiles). You might be genetically Hebrew but if you aren’t then you are part of the mixed multitude. Assuming you are not Jewish, then you are no longer a “gentile”: you have been grafted in to the commonwealth (all twelve tribes) of Israel! You are now a Hebrew and you can enter the kingdom through the work of Jesus on the cross, who removed the middle wall of separation between the House of Israel and the House of Judah.

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Gal 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Col 3:11 Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

Edited December 29, 2019 by InChristAlways

[Resurrection Priest]

The name "Israel" means something different, depending upon the time period and therefore the context. 

Jacob's name was changed to Israel.   His children would then be "the Children of Israel" (shortened simply to "Israel"). 

After Solomon the kingdom split.  The ten Northern tribes split off to form their own government under Jeroboam.  They pursued wickedness and idolatry and the LORD allowed them to be conquered and dispersed by Assyria.   

Thousands of refugees migrated South into Judea.  The Southern Kingdom was called Judea, and her citizens "Jews" (short for Judeaites), but her citizens also called themselves Israelites (because they were descended from Jacob/Israel).  Jesus called Nathaniel "an Israelite indeed". 

Those who rejected their Messiah, were "broken off" from the Olive Tree which represents Israel (See Romans Chapter 11).   Though they can be "grafted in again" IF they come to believe in Yeshua.  Gentiles who believed were "grafted in" (or adopted). 

So today, we have a geopolitical Israel of people semi descended from Jacob/Israel, with no connection to Yeshua as their Messiah.   

And we have Messiah's Israel - His bride and church (congregation), scattered over all the world. 

One did not "replace" the other.  One has become the other - through a lot of pruning and grafting. 

What we today call the geopolitical nation of Israel (including unbelieving Jews the world over) is really a pile of broken off branches.  Some - I'm sure - have enough life left in them to be "grafted in again" IF they come to believe in Yeshua as LORD and Savior. 

Matthew 15:24 When Jesus said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel," I believe He was speaking of His greater "Israel" - all those of sincere faith who make up His Kingdom - not simply the DNA descendants of Jacob.  

 

[OldCoot]

Well, given that 2 Chronicles lays out many instances where those of the northern kingdom of "Israel" that wished to remain faithful to the Lord migrated southward and aligned with Judah, the joining back together started before the Babylonian exile.  One of those episodes of members of the northern tribes migrating south to Judah occurred over 100 years after the Assyrian conquest of the northern kingdom.

After the exile, when Ezra brought his remnant back, he referred to them a Jews 9 times and Israel 40 times.   When Nehemiah brought his remnant back from Babylon, he referred to them as Jews 11 times and Israel 22 times.

The kingdom distinctions disappeared and by the Hasmonean period, Jew and Israel had solidified as synonymous terms.  

So by the time of Yeshua, "whole house of Israel" had returned to the meaning of Jacob/Israel.  "whole" being the operative word.  Kingdom distinctions were gone.  Tribal distinctions did still remain, as there are at least 4 tribes referred to in the NT.   Yeshua came for the spiritually lost of all Jacob/Israel.

And Hosea 5-6 states that it is both those kingdom distinctions (Judah and Ephraim), all Jacob/Israel, that are responsible for causing Yeshua to return to His place due to the corporate, national rejection of Him.  And it will be they who will have to acknowledge that rejection of Yeshua, turn to Him, and petition for His return before He will return again.  Yeshua affirmed this in Matthew 23.

And while those who come to faith in Yeshua are grafted in and feed on the root of the faith of Abraham, they do not replace or superseded physical Israel in any way.   Literal, physical, corporate, national Jacob/Isreal has a destiny to fulfill yet.   While we may not be able to identify physically who they are, the Lord must be able to or there is going to be some prophecy that will not be fulfilled, thereby the promises the Lord made will  not be kept.

The redeemed that make up  the unique ekklesia of Messiah is, corporately, the bride of Messiah.  Jacob/Israel is the wife of Yahweh that will one day be restored to that unique relationship as per Hosea 2 and other passages.   They are not one in the same group as they each have unique destinies to fulfill.

Based on what Hosea wrote, if there is no physical descendants of Jacob/Israel that can be identified, then Yeshua will never return.  He stated explicitly in Hosea 5:15 that He would return to His place because of their offense. Well, for Him to return to His place, He had to have left it.  That was His first coming.  And He states that He would not come back here until they (all Jacob per Hosea 5:14) acknowledge their offense.   So just the context alone means that what is being discussed regarding Israel has nothing to do with the church, which by definition is only made up of those who have come to faith in Yeshua.  The church did not reject Yeshua and cause Him to return to His place.  It was not even the Hebrew people in general that rejected Yeshua, as the start of the Church was exclusively Jewish.  It was the leadership of corporate, national Jacob/Israel that did.  And it will be that same identity that will have to acknowledge that offense and turn to Him before He will come back.    And Yeshua says essentially the same thing in Matthew 23.

And I am convinced it is because of this that Satan has expended a lot of effort in delegitimizing the Hebrew people (surprisingly by many in the church through history) and out right eliminating them from the earth whenever he could.  But just like in the days of the prophets, the Lord always keeps a literal, physical remnant.    And it will be from that remnant that the 144,000.... 12,000 from each of 12 tribes of Jacob... will come from as John told us in Revelation.

 

 

 

Edited January 1, 2020 by OldCoot