While it is true that we all have an identity or nationality from the country where we were born, have you ever wondered where that inner desire to know the truth about your identity as one of God’s people comes from?
Beyond the fact of having been raised in a believing family or even having attended a Sunday church for a long time, sharing with other believers their faith and such beautiful times of worship, there is still a restlessness in your heart to continue to obey and know even more deeply the God of Israel. Has this happened to you?
If your answer is yes, I want to tell you that you are not alone. The same thing has happened to many of us, and we are involved in that same search for that deep feeling of love for God and for the people of Israel.
I want to share a possible answer to this concern, and it is found in the history of the people of Israel. Let’s go back to the first book of Kings, chapter 11. Because of King Solomon’s sin, YeHoVaH divided the kingdom of Israel into two: the house of Judah and the house of Israel. The house of Judah, despite being exiled to Babylon because of their sin, was able by the grace of the Most High to return to the land of Israel and preserve YeHoVaH’s Torah to this day. The opposite happened to the house of Israel, which was taken into captivity by the Assyrian empire and was eventually dispersed by the rest of the nations.
At some point in history, the sheep of the house of Israel were rejected by YeHoVaH (Hos 1:6,9) but He himself promised that this would not be forever (Hos 2:19-20,23).
Let us now see how Ezekiel mentions a beautiful prophecy where the house of Judah and the house of Israel will return and will be one nation, and his servant David will reign, and YeHoVaH will dwell in their midst.
Thus saith YeHoVaH: Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations to which they have gone, and will gather them from everywhere, and will bring them into his land; and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one king will be king to them all; and they will never again be two nations, nor will they ever again be divided into two kingdoms. Nor will they defile themselves any more with their idols, with their abominations, and with all their rebellions; and I will save them from all their rebellions with which they sinned, and I will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd; and they will walk in my precepts, and my statutes they will keep, and they will do them. They will dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, in which your fathers lived; they and their children and their children’s children will dwell in it forever; and my servant David will be their prince forever. And I will make a covenant of peace with them, an everlasting covenant it shall be with them; and I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set my sanctuary among them forever. My tabernacle will be in their midst, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Ezekiel 37:21-27).
Perhaps this prophecy is the answer you were looking for, thus confirming your Hebrew identity, as part of the house of Israel that was scattered throughout the nations, but one day you will be called home again, back to your home with our Father YeHoVaH.
Shalom!
