The new wave of awareness of late, of the Return, Reconciliation and Establishment of the re-united 12-Tribed Kingdom of G-d is opening many windows for contemplation. While the entire phenomenon unfolds, its confirmation is reliant on the ancient pillars of the Tanach and the foresight and writings of the Jewish Sages on these Prophetic issues. Yet, it has been greatly influenced by the ideas and directions of various religions which proceeded throughout the centuries in response to the Word of G-d.
It is in times like these that the ‘science’ of hindsight comes to its full rights. We shall apply this science in considering the much-hidden, though Main Theme of Bible Prophecy for the Ingathering of the Tribes of Israel.
Firstly: Is there such a Celebration to look forward to?
Isaiah 25:6-9, “On this mountain HaShem Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine – the best of meats and the finest of wines. On this mountain He will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign HaShem will wipe away the tears from all faces; He will remove His people’s disgrace from all the earth. HaShem has spoken. In that day they will say, ‘Surely this is our God; we trusted in Him, and He saved us. This is HaShem, we trusted in Him; let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.'”
Ezekiel 37:22 “And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.”
The Heavenly Banquet in Jewish Tradition – Exodus Rabbah 25:8
“Another explanation of ‘He shall dwell on high.’ (Isa 33:16). It is written, ‘For the Lord your God brings you into a good land’ (Deut 8:7) – to see the table that is prepared in Paradise, as it says, ‘I shall walk before the Lord in the lands of the living’ (Ps 116:9). He [G-d] as it were sits above the patriarchs, and the patriarchs and all the righteous sit in his midst, as it says, ‘And they sit down at your feet’ (Deut 33:3), and He distributes portions to them. Should you wonder at this, then recall how even in this world He placed Himself between the two cherubim for their sake … then how much more will this be so in Paradise? He will bring them the fruit from the Garden of Eden and will feed them from the Tree of Life. Who will be the first to say Grace? All will respectfully request God to order one to say Grace; He will bid Michael say it; and he will bid Gabriel, and Gabriel the patriarchs, and they will give the honour to David, saying, ‘It befits an earthly king to bless the Heavenly King.’ They will hand over the cup to David, who will say, ‘I will lift up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord.’… Hence ‘For the LORD your God brings you into a good land,’ and for this reason does it say, ‘He shall dwell on high.”
Secondly: A Banquet like this – for reasons as these? Is it not sufficient reason for such a Celebration? Is it not the fulfillment of the central Theme of the Bible? – of all Life itself? – the establishment of the long awaited and long suffered for Kingdom of G-d?
In that day the Celebration Theme will be: “Surely this is our G-d! We trusted in Him, and He saved us. This is HaShem, we trusted in Him; let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation!”
Is the Pesach Seder a metaphor of the Ingathering of the Tribes?
- Depicting a physical and spiritual release from the ‘Bondage of Egypt’; in this case a release from spiritual bondage in exile amongst the nations?Jeremiah 16:13-15, “Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, the Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the North, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.”
- Depicting a “Second Exodus” – greater even than the First?
It seems that the Church has read such a Message from their ‘New Testament’ and is celebrating it in various forms which present a replacement for the Jewish Pesach Seder which the Church rejects. Not only do they reject the Original Biblical format as maintained by Judah, but they have in fact high-jacked the entire Divine Promise from its original recipients – Jewish Israel proper. The Church now entitles itself to being the fulfillment of the Ingathering – and to ownership of Zion, the Promised Land for the regathered Tribes of Israel!
Listen to the clear entitlement by the Pope of Roman Catholicism – but, before we do so, for those who are not familiar with Catholic vocabulary, let us clear two phrases used in this quote which are so common to Catholicism:
Eucharist – the Christian ceremony in which people eat bread and drink wine as a way of remembering Jesus Christ’s last meal at The Last Supper, before his crucifixion. In some Christian churches, this ceremony is called Communion or Holy Communion.
Eschatology – the body of religious doctrines concerning the human soul in its relation to death, judgment, heaven, and hell
Pope Benedict XVI: The Eucharist and Eschatology
“31. Reflecting on this mystery [of the Eucharist], we can say that Jesus’ coming responded to an expectation present in the people of Israel, in the whole of humanity and ultimately in creation itself. By his self-gift, he objectively inaugurated the eschatological age. Christ came to gather together the scattered People of God (cf. Jn 11:52) and clearly manifested his intention to gather together the community of the covenant, in order to bring to fulfillment the promises made by God to the fathers of old (cf. Jer 23:3; Lk 1:55, 70). In the calling of the Twelve {Apostels}, which is to be understood in relation to the twelve tribes of Israel, and in the command he gave them at the Last Supper, before his redemptive passion, to celebrate his memorial, Jesus showed that he wished to transfer to the entire community which he had founded the task of being, within history, the sign and instrument of the eschatological gathering that had its origin in him. Consequently, every eucharistic celebration sacramentally accomplishes the eschatological gathering of the People of God. For us, the eucharistic banquet is a real foretaste of the final banquet foretold by the prophets (cf. Is 25:6-9) and described in the New Testament as “the marriage-feast of the Lamb” (Rev 19:7-9), to be celebrated in the joy of the communion of saints (100). (Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, Sacrament of Charity, 30-31).”
As we have tried to show through the use of italics in this statement, the Church has been well aware of the ‘hidden’ Promise of the Ingathering of the Tribes of Israel. Whether they deliberately hid this message from the masses, or whether it was due to their own lack of insight – fact is, that it took all these centuries (2000 years) for the Ten Tribes exiled within Christianity, to wake up to their Hebraic Roots. The evidence of this spiritual transformation, which forms the Main Theme of Biblical Prophecy, i.e. the re-identification and return of the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel to their Hebrew Roots and even to the physical Land of Israel, abounds across the entire earth. Millions of sincere and seriously searching non-Jewish Bible students are reverting to what they regard as their “Hebraic Roots” and in the process “coming out” of the Churches.
Meanwhile, the Church has been informed sufficiently in order to inspire its leadership to high-jack the Divine Promises for the Restoration of Israel and apply it to themselves in a process which has become known as “Replacement Theology”. Hence, there is no place in formal Christianity for the original recipients, viz. the original two Houses of Israel, that is, Judah and Lost 10-Israel. Judah, being the target of these sentiments against their Divine Mandate, suffered physical persecution as a result throughout the centuries, across the entire earth, from country to country, pogrom upon pogrom. Consequently Judah was mainly inspired to cling to the historic allegory of the Pesach Seder, while the Ten Tribes in exile amongst the ‘replacement theologists’ were inspired by the ‘futuristic’ meaning thereof, though exposed also to the anti-Jewish spirit and the anti-Torah spirited interpretations of the Biblical Message by the Church.
It remains for both Houses of Israel, in these Times of Restoration of the Tabernacle of David, to consider the Pesach Message in its full context and to celebrate it in its rejuvenated and original spiritual meaning as a Key pointer to the Ingathering and establishment of the Messianic reunited 12-Tribed, Jewish Israel Kingdom to Come.
Ref. – The above article was written in response to information provided by the Catholic spokesman, Dr. Brant Pitre, who presents several studies on what he regards as the ‘Hebrew Roots’ of many Roman Catholic traditions. From these writings, it seems that the Eucharist, as a main foundational pillar of Catholic theology, is regarded as essentially rooted in Biblical Jewish liturgy and presented by the Church as a replacement for what it regards as ‘an outmoded religion’ (Judaism).
“The Last Supper and the Lost Tribes of Israel” – Dr. Brant Pitre
Independent research scholar. He works tirelessly as an activist promoting Israel and settlement of the Land of Israel, and as Webmaster and co-ordinator of Kol HaTor. Read More.
