Segment X
page 1 of 4
: page 1 : page 2 : page 3 : page 4 :
God’s Purpose and
Mission for the Twelve Tribes
When the Lord called
Israel out of Egypt, He said,
“You yourselves have seen what I
did to Egypt, and how I carried you
on eagles’ wings and brought you
to myself. Now if you obey me
fully and keep my covenant, then out
of all nations you will be my
treasured possession. Although the
whole earth is mine, you will be for
me a kingdom of priests and a
holy nation…’” (Exodus
19: 4-6, italics mine) A priest is
someone God has appointed to stand
between God and man. (Hebrews 5:1)
Israel was to be a kingdom of priests
showing fallen man the love and ways
of God. This was God’s plan for
Israel, but His plan never got off
the ground. Seven hundred years after
Israel left Egypt, the Lord pleaded
with Israel, “I, the Lord, have
called you in righteousness; I will
take hold of your hand, [If you will
love me and obey me, I will not
destroy you.] I will keep you and
will make you to be a covenant for
the people and a light for the
Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind
[to truth], to free captives from
prison [of sin] and release from the
dungeon those who sit in [spiritual]
darkness.” (Isaiah 42: 6,7,
insertions mine) These words fell on
deaf ears and about hundred years
later, God exiled Israel to Babylon
for apostasy. Seven hundred after the
exile, the apostle Paul elegantly
summarized God’s original
purpose for the twelve tribes when he
said: “For this is what the Lord
has commanded us [the twelve tribes
of Israel]: “I have made you a
light for the Gentiles, that you may
bring salvation to the ends of the
Earth.’” (Acts 13:47,
insertion mine) We can see from these
texts that God’s plan for Israel
did not materialize, and we know from
Revelation 7 that 12,000 from each of
the twelve tribes will yet accomplish
God’s purposes and mission.
Genesis 6 indicates
the flood in Noah’s day was
brought about because of
intermarriage. The Bible says,
“The sons of God [those faithful
to God] saw that the daughters of
[carnal and agnostic] men were
beautiful, and they married any of
them they chose.” (Genesis 6:2,
insertion mine) Ironically, the
consequences of verse 2 necessitated
the destruction described in verse 7.
Now that we have
briefly reviewed God’s purpose
and mission for the twelve tribes of
Israel, we should be able to
understand God’s motive and
intent when He declared the following
law. “Do not intermarry with
them [the inhabitants of Canaan]. Do
not give your daughters to their sons
or take their daughters for your
sons, for they will turn your
sons away from following me to
serve other gods, and the Lords anger
will burn against you and will
quickly destroy you.”
(Deuteronomy 7:3,4, insertion and
italics mine) God declared this law
just before the twelve tribes entered
the Promised Land. Bible history
confirms that Israel essentially
ignored this law from the start.
Everyone who knows anything about the
Old Testament has heard about
Samson’s love for Delilah who
was a Philistine, and King Solomon is
widely known as “the man”
who had 700 wives and 300 concubines.
“King Solomon, however, loved
many foreign women besides
Pharaoh’s daughter –
Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites,
Sidonians and Hittites. They were
from nations about which the Lord had
told the Israelites, ‘You must
not intermarry with them, because
they will surely turn your hearts
after their gods.’ Nevertheless,
Solomon held fast to them in love. He
had seven hundred wives of royal
birth and three hundred concubines,
and his wives led him
astray.” (1 Kings 11:1-3,
italics mine)
Foreign wives led
Solomon astray, and in turn, King
Solomon led Israel into apostasy.
Consequently, it became impossible
for God to produce a nation of
priests because His people had no
interest in accomplishing His
objectives. Israel had abandoned
God’s agenda to satisfy its own
agenda. About 200 years after Solomon
died, God destroyed the ten northern
tribes of Israel, and 100 years after
that, He exiled the remaining two
tribes to Babylon. Ironically,
God’s wrath against the nation
did not terminate Israel’s
intermarriage with foreigners. During
the seventy years of Babylonian
captivity, Jewish captives continued
to intermarry.
God forbade
intermarriage, because He foreknew
intermarriage with foreigners
guarantied Israel’s departure
from the purpose and mission for
which they had been chosen. Notice
how God’s law against
intermarriage has two sides: From
God’s perspective, His law would
protect Israel from the wayward
influence of husbands and wives who
wanted to serve other gods. From
Israel’s perspective, the law
was a detriment to the pursuit of
happiness because it restricted
dating and marriage. Who can reason
with two young people in love that
they should not marry because there
is a law against it? The parents of
Samson tried to reason with him, but
they could not overcome his affection
(or should I say, affliction) for
Delilah. In short, this is the
dilemma of the carnal nature. God’s
laws are based on a comprehensive
understanding of good and evil and
His exalted purposes for us. A heart
that is grossly selfish and our
failure to understand the grand
purposes for which we were created
cause our rebellion against God.
In the first month of
the Jubilee year of 457 B.C., Ezra, a
trusted officer in King
Artazerxes’ court, a priest of
Israel and a teacher of the Law of
God of Heaven, asked the king to
issue a decree permitting him to
travel to Jerusalem and finish the
reconstruction of the city and the
temple. Ezra was devoted to
God’s service and he eagerly
wanted to see his people fulfill
God’s will. After a lengthy
trip, Ezra arrived in Jerusalem and
he was overwhelmed with the
indifferent attitude of the people
toward God and the degenerate
condition of Israel. After surveying
the situation for himself, Ezra
called for the leaders. “After
these things had been done, the
leaders came to me and said,
‘The people of Israel, including
the priests and the Levites, have not
kept themselves separate from the
neighboring peoples with their
detestable practices, like those of
the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites,
Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites,
Egyptians and Amorites. They
have taken some of their daughters as
wives for themselves and their sons,
and have mingled the holy race with
peoples around them. And the leaders
and officials have led the way in
this unfaithfulness.’ When I
heard this, I [Ezra] tore my tunic
and clock, pulled hair from my head
and beard and sat down
appalled.” (Ezra 10:2,3; 10-12,
insertion mine)
Now that we have
reviewed God’s law about
intermarriage, Israel’s history
of apostasy and Ezra’s solution
to intermarriage, we are in a good
position to understand the meaning of
the phrase, “they did not defile
themselves with women, for they kept
themselves pure.” In summary,
the 144,000 will not be corrupted by
marriage and they will not fall into
apostasy because of their families.
They will not be deterred by martial
conflicts or familial rejection. They
will not be compromised. They will
fulfill the calling, mission and
purpose for which God ordains them.
Perhaps the following A/B parallels
will clarify this matter.
A.
When the time came to resume temple
services in Ezra’s day, the
priests had a choice of
abandoning their foreign wives and
children if they wanted to serve the
Lord. As you might expect, this was
very painful.
B.
When the call comes to be a servant
of the Lord God during the Great
Tribulation, the 144,000 will have a
choice to abandon their unbelieving
families to serve the Lord. This will
be very painful.
A.
Corporately speaking, Israel never
did become “a kingdom of priests
and a holy nation,” “a
light to the Gentiles,” or
“preachers of salvation”
because the leaders of Israel married
foreign women who insisted on
worshiping idols and offering
sacrifices to other gods.
B.
As a group, the 144,000 will be
scattered all over the world. Many of
them will be married and their
spouses many or may not love the Lord
as they do. The phrase, “they
did not defile themselves with women,
for they kept themselves pure”
means their spouses will not
compromise the 144,000. Their
devotion to God will be pure. The
144,000 will, like Abraham, be
willing to slay their own son If God
were to command it. This kind of
devotion to God is uncommon. This
is why the Bible exalts the 144,000
saying, “they kept themselves
pure – as in pure
devotion.” If necessary, the
144,000 will abandon their families
to serve God – and we can be
sure that their families for this
reason will abandon many of the
144,000. Jesus said, “A
man’s enemies will be members of
his own household. Anyone who loves
his father or mother more than me is
not worthy of me; anyone who loves
his son or daughter more than me is
not worthy of me.” (Matthew
10:36,37)
A.
In ancient times, a man could
voluntarily “bind” himself
to his king by becoming a eunuch.
(Isaiah 56:3) This rather severe and
irreversible procedure arose for two
practical reasons: First, the service
of eunuchs was desirable to kings
because eunuchs were not encumbered
with wives and familial relationships
that could interfere with their work.
Eunuchs were at the disposal of their
king at all times and they often held
positions of significant authority.
(Acts 8:27) Second, kings knew that
eunuchs could not produce an heir to
their throne. Therefore, kings
trusted eunuchs to oversee the most
contentious and dangerous part of
their kingdom, their harem. (Esther
2:3) Young men counted it an honor
and a great privilege to give up
their “right of manhood” if
they could be adopted as
“barren” sons of the king.
B.
As firstfruits of the harvest, the
144,000 will become the property of
Jesus our High Priest. In this sense,
a person could say the 144,000 will
be bound like eunuchs to King Jesus.
The 144,000 will form a personal
entourage that will attend Jesus
wherever He goes. (Revelation 14:4)
The 144,000 will be highly honored
throughout eternity because, like
their father Abraham, they exalted
the call of God above everything
else.
Remember, the subject
of the 144,000 is an
“iceberg” topic. On the
surface, the phrase says the 144,000
will not be defiled by women,
however, beneath the surface, there
is a lot more to this phrase than
avoiding sexual immorality. God’s
144,000 servants, (both men and women
according to Joel 2), will be
severely tested. Abraham was severely
tested to see if he loved Isaac more
than he loved God. (Genesis 22:2;
Hebrews 11:17) Moses was severely
tested to see if he would be willing
to be called the son of
Pharaoh’s daughter. (Hebrews
11:24,25) Shadrach, Meshach and
Abednego were severely tested to see
whether they would obey God. (Daniel
3:16-18) Daniel was severely tested
to see if he would continue to pray
to God. (Daniel 6:10) Job was
severely tested to see if his faith
in God was nonnegotiable. (Job 23:10)
Jesus was severely tested in the
wilderness by the devil (Matthew
4:1-11) and He was tempted in every
way as we are. (Hebrews 4:15) The
144,000 will be severely tested to
see if their love for Jesus will
endure humiliation and the scorn of
rejection. Once they pass the fiery
test, they will be mysteriously
transformed within. This mysterious
transformation requires some
explanation.
: page 1 : page 2 : page 3 : page 4 :
