" What is your definition of the house of Israel and house of Judah?
Why do you suppose he says he is going to make a covenant with 2
different sets of people? Or is he saying the same set of people
twice? To me repeating the same set of people 2 times, that makes
no sense. Why would God do such a thing?"
Hi Steve,
In the days of Jeremiah, the house of Israel and the house of Judah had
a definite and clear meaning to the ears of these ancient Hebews. The
twelve tribes of Israel had been divided into two distinct nations under
Kings Jereboam and Reheboam. During the days of Solomon, Jereboam had
rebelled against the king and encourage the norther ten tribes to
go with him. After Solomon death, Rehoboam returned from Egyptian
exile and completed his rebellion against Solomon's successor, Jereboam.
Jereboam now bcame the king over the house of Judah composed of Benjamin,
Judah and Levi. Rehoboam became the king over the other ten tribes who
lived to the north. In approx. 750 B.C., the house of Israel was taken
into Assyrian Captivity. In approx. 589 B.C., the house of Israel was
taken into Babylonian Captivity.
Jeremiah is writing his prophecies during the Babylonian Captivity.
The terminology of the house of Israel and the house of Judah is used
to indicate God would be dealing with the whole nation of the ancient
Hebrews. It had always been the custom to refer to all the Jewish people
as the sons of Jacob or Israel. The word Israel simply means descended from
Jacob. Later prophets began to use the term Israel and Jew(really
Judaen) interchangeably to mean the entire people of Israel.
During the Babylonian restoration under Nehemiah and Ezra, Jews
from the house of Israel from the Assyrian Captivity found their way
back to Jerusalem as did the Jews from the Babylonian Captivity.
After regathering a remanant of Jews from both the house of Israel and
the house of Judash, they rebuilt the Temple and reamined in the land
of Judah until Jesus came. The majority of those returning were from
the house of Judah but there was a significant remant from the house
of Israel. This fulfilled the regathering in the prophecies that would
return to usher in the Messiah.
This is simply the historical background of these two names.
Your question: "What is your definition of the house of Israel
and house of Judah?" is the really important question of this
whole post and because it is so important I would like to deal
with it in a separate post before I return to Hebrews. |
