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The 12 Tribes of Israel

"Son of man, the citizens of Jerusalem (the Jews) are telling the rest of the House of Israel, that since they were sent away from God, that it is to them that the land has been given as their domain. Say therefore, The Lord says this: 'Yes, I have sent them far away among the nations, and I have dispersed them to foreign countries...but I will gather them together from among the peoples,
I will bring them all back from the countries where they have been scattered
and I will give them the land of Israel."
Ez.11:14-21 Most of us, when we hear the word 'Israel', think only of the Jews. But from the beginning the Jews have had to share this title with a great many others, because in scripture the House of Israel consists of twelve tribes and the Jews are just one of those twelve. (See Map above) The word 'Hebrew' --  describes twelve tribes, not just one. Everything that is written in the Old Testament was written for the the House of Israel as a group, not just for a single tribe. Understanding this is a major key to understanding the Bible. And as we shall see in the descriptions that follow, it is also the key to understanding about the varied churches of Jesus Christ. The clan of Judah rose to dominence over the other tribes of Israel when the Hebrew leaders of Ephraim proved unworthy. And the Jews gained complete control over the Mosaic religion when the Israeli nation divided and fell apart because of sin.

Then Attacked and were taken away into foreign captivity by Assyria, thus ten of the twelve Hebrew tribes vanished from history. By the time Jesus Christ was born, only a small remnant of two tribes remained in the Holy Land. The others had all disappeared. All these 10 tribes that vanished blended and  melded into the genetic infrastructure of the human race. Since the others had vanished  the Jewish remnant that remained in Palestine came to the conclusion that they were the sole beneficiaries of all of God's promises to the House of Israel. But the prophet Ezekiel told them no. They were simply the last tribe to go into Babylon's exile.
Ezekiel scolded the Jews for their arrogance in trying to usurp the covenant. He told them in no uncertain terms that all twelve of Israel's tribes were going to share equally in the fulfillment of scripture's promise, not just the two remaining tribes. Ezekiel put the Jews on notice that the missing Hebrew tribes were not missing as far as God was concerned. Jeremiah agreed. "In those days", Jeremiah said, "the House of Judah will unite with the House of Israel; together they will come from the land of the north to the land I gave your ancestors as a heritage." (Jer.3:18).

The Jewish leaders did not believe these predictions because they could not see how those vanished tribes could ever be recovered. The missing tribes of Israel had entirely disappeared from the seen. Their genetic identity had evaporated completely and seemed irretrievably lost. The Jewish scholars could not conceive a divine intervention powerful enough to restore these missing people, because the lost tribes had become indistinguishable from the Gentiles into whose stock they had blended and so claimed to have disappeared. For this reason, the Jewssteadfastly see themselves as the sole beneficiaries of all the ancient promises in scripture concerning the House of Israel.
Scripture had long predicted a royal lineage for the tribe of Judah and the rabbi's translated that to mean exclusivity. There were so many prophecies all seeming to say the same thing, who could deny it? But all those prophecies of royalty were for Jesus, not the Jews. It was not the roots that were royal but the One who sprang from them. The royal heir was Jesus, the Christ -- the princely Son of the Almighty King. The name 'Israel' means 'rebel. It was the name the Lord gave to Jacob because he rebelled against God by fighting against an angel.
Jacob, the son of Isaac, was Abraham's  grandson. He sired twelve sons. Their names were, in the order of their ages:

Reuben, Simeon, Levi ,Judah, Dan Naphtali,Gad,Asher,Issachar,Zebulun Joseph,Benjamine.

These were the men whose descendants were to form ten of the twelve tribes of Israel. Two were removed. One to perpetuate the priesthood, and the other to sire two grandsons who were later added in.  As the Bible so states that out of jealousy, the brothers conspired against young Joseph and sold him into slavery. He was taken in chains to Egypt, where he rose to a position of great authority, becoming a personal friend of the Egyptian Pharaoh who put him in charge of the Egyptian grain stores. A skillful administrator, Joseph filled the Egyptian silo's to overflowing, staving off a disastrous famine that engulfed all the other nations of the Middle East. Later reconciled with his family (after they came looking for something to eat), his father, Jacob (Israel) elevated Joseph to patriarchy status, and promoted Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Manesseh to positions of equality with his own sons. This completed the formation of Jacob's 12 tribes.  In response to his rebellion against the angel, God changed Jacob's name to 'Israel', and, as a result, his eleven sons became known preferentially as the 'House of Israel' rather than the 'House of Jacob' (which is used as an occasional alternative by various prophets). The name 'Israel', therefore, is symbolic. It means house of rebellion. And it stands for a nation that made war against God by rebelling against His will, but which was allowed to survive by the mercy of God. The name, therefore, has two derivitives, rebellion and mercy. The people of Israel were born into rebellion because of Adam's sin and they have gained their life only through the mercy of the forgiveness offered by Jesus Christ. A symbol of that forgiveness can be found in Israel's true name, 'Jacob'. That is why references to this name appear in many prophecies. They are synonymous with an 'Israel' reconciled to God and restored to its former status. This is a reconciliation that can only take place in Jesus Christ. Because of our birth into Adam's sin, we all share a common relationship with Israel -- having been born into a life of rebellion against God . Despite that fact, we have been allowed to regain our lives through repentance and conversion into the sanctfying grace of Jesus Christ who paid the penalty for this sin in all of our names.
Jacob's fight against the angel duplicated man's warfare with God; and God's mercy to Jacob mirrored the reconciliation offered to mankind through Jesus Christ. For his struggle against the angel, Jacob received the name 'Israel', and that name has been passed down into all of his descendants -- and all, like Israel, have been offered the opportunity to extricate themselves from the battlefield and reconcile themselves with God.
We might gather from this that everyone in the world belongs to the House of Israel in a spiritual way, but Jesus, Himself, has declared otherwise: "If God were your father, you would love me, since I have come here from God...I was sent by him.
Do you know why you cannot take in what I say? It is because...the devil is your father, and you prefer to do what your father wants." (Jn.8:42-44).

Not everyone belongs to God. The salvation of those that do -- the 'lost' Israelites hidden in the deepest recesses of the world's population -- is one of the most important themes of scripture.
Anyone who accepts the sanctifying grace offered to the world by God through Jesus Christ comes into unity with these twelve tribes and proves that he is a true part of God's Israel in heaven. One of the most important truths we have learned from Jesus is that the ingathering is not genetic. The people of God are not determined by DNA or by any other genetic factor. God has no favorite people. There is no divine race. Only a divine behavior. The missing Hebrew tribes, scattered among the people of the North, have been recovered by God, not by genetic tracking, but by faith in a preached Gospel.
Jesus said our enemies would be members of our own families -- people who share our own genetic lineage. (Mt.10:34-36). And this applies to Jews as well as to pagans. Paul said that "it is not physical descent that decides who are the children of God". (Rom 9:8). There is no such thing, then, as a 'divine gene'. This will be seen most clearly at the End when the Jews in Jerusalem divide into two camps. The Jews who are saved will be saved by their faithfulness to the commandments of God -- not by the fact that they are Jewish. The true House of Israel are those who hear and obey the voice of God. "Those who do not love me do not keep my words." (Jn.14:24). Jesus told the Jews that those who do not obey His commandments do not belong to God (Jn.8:47), proving that obedience to the Gospel is the actual measure that divides the true House of Israel from the civilization ruled by Satan.

"Glory to him who is able to give you the strength to live according to the Good News I preach, and in which I proclaim Jesus Christ, the revelation of a mystery kept secret for endless ages, but now so clear that it must be broadcast to pagans everywhere to bring them to the obedience of faith." (Rom.16:25-26). The people of the Ingathering, therefore, are those who listen to Christ's words: "I told you, listen to my voice; carry out all my orders, then you shall be my people and I will be your God." (Jer.11:4).
The lost tribes of Israel can be seen today only through Christian conversions. The fact that there are twelve tribes of Israel rather than just one explains the variations between the different churches of Christ. If there are eleven different tribes of Israel pursuing Jesus, it only stands to reason that they will all manifest themselves in different ways. Instead of hating and vilifying churches of Christ that differ from our own, then, we should glorify God that these differences exist because they prove the truthfulness of scripture by showing a rescue that spans all the different tribes.
This diversity shows that Jeremiah's prophecy has come true. And that means the Bible is correct. "God said to me...go and shout these words towards the North: 'Come back, disloyal Israel -- it is God who speaks -- I shall frown on you no more, since I am merciful..." (Jer.3:10-12). "See, then, that the days are coming -- it is God who speaks -- when people will no longer say, 'As God lives who brought the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt!', but, 'As God lives who brought the sons of Israel out of the land of the North and back from all the countries to which he had scattered them'." (Jer.16:14-15).