There are numerous scriptures that indicate there will only be a Remnant left from the House of Judah and the House of Israel after the Great Tribulation/Jacob's Trouble (Jeremiah 30:11; Zephaniah 2:7-9; Zephaniah 3:13; Jeremiah 50:20; Ezekiel 6:8; Micah 2:12; Micah 4:5-7; Isaiah 10:22; Romans 9:27; Revelation 12:17; verses of comfort for the Remnant: Revelation 3:10 and Zephaniah 2:3). Then when I read the following passage from Isaiah, it prompts the questions: How does a Remnant of 10-Israelites proclaim they don't have enough room to live, IF they are JUST a "remnant"? How big is this "remnant"?
Isaiah 49:14-23
(14) But Tsiyon says, “יהוה has forsaken me, and יהוה has forgotten me.”
(15) “Would a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Though they forget, I never forget you.
(16) “See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; your walls are always before Me.
(17) “Your sons shall hurry, your destroyers and those who laid you waste depart from you.
(18) “Lift up your eyes round about and see, all of them gather together and come to you. As I live,” declares יהוה, “you shall put on all of them as an ornament, and bind them on you as a bride does.
(19) “For your wastes, and your deserted places, and the land of your destruction, shall soon be too narrow for the inhabitants, while those who swallowed you up are far away.
(20) “The sons of your bereavement shall yet say in your ears, ‘The place is too narrow for me, make room for me to live.’
(21) “And you shall say in your heart, ‘Who has brought forth these for me, since I am bereaved and barren, an exile, and wandering to and fro? And who reared them? See, I was left alone – from where did these come?’ ”
(22) Thus said the Master יהוה, “See, I lift My hand up to the gentiles, and set up My banner for the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters carried on their shoulders;
(23) “And sovereigns shall be your foster fathers, and their sovereignesses your nursing mothers. They bow down to you with their faces to the earth, and lick up the dust of your feet. And you shall know that I am יהוה – those who wait for Me shall not be ashamed.”
Most Christian teachers and prophecy scholars see the semi-recent restoration of Jew-dah to the Land as a fulfillment of Isaiah 49, but when have the Jews proclaimed "the place is too narrow for me"? Jewish Israeli leaders are more worried about the birth-rate of Palestinians than they are about having enough land for Jewish immigrants. Isaiah 49 is likely a manifestation after what happens in Jeremiah 50, where Babylon is destroyed and 10-Israel and Judah both return to Zion together.
So the key question: How big is this Remnant?
If my estimations are correct, the House of Joseph (10-Israel) represents a population of more than 3 billion plus. Most 2House Christian teachers focus heavily on Western Christian populations as representing Ephraim (and that may be where the head of Ephraim is primarily located, just as Isaiah 49:12 indicates), but genetically similar populations are located in Russia, the Indian sub-continent, and China... and it just so happens that there are many "believers" in Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) in those regions. So even those who may not be genetic descendants of Ephraim or 10-Israel, there will most certainly be a mixed-multitude.... which will further inflate and complicate the process of determining just how big this future remnant may be. Yet, a conservative estimate puts them in the tens of millions.
Note: the 144,000 of Revelation are called "first fruits" for a reason. They are only the first fruit, not the only fruit to survive the Great Tribulation. If you are suffering from the Remnant-of-the-Remnant complex, the best solution to that illness is to actually read the Scriptures in context.
Shalom b'shem Yeshua haMashiach,
Hanok
Related:
- Two-House Teaching defuses Anti-Semitism
- 10 Reasons the Jews are from Judah
- Things “One-Housers” hope You never find out!
- Quick History of the "Two Sticks" of Abraham (10-Israel AND Judah)
- What Tribes made up the Northern Kingdom of Israel?
- History and Timeline of 10-Israel and Judah
- 10-Israel and Judah in Scripture
- Where are the tribes in the Last Days, in End Time scenarios?
- Where were the 10-Tribes in the 1st Century AD?
- Two-House Reality in the New Testament?
- The Birthright Promise of Multitudes in Scripture
- Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 110b, Will the Ten Tribes of Israel return?
- Using the DNA of Saka-related peoples to find the Lost 10 Tribes of Israel
- Were the 10-Tribes of Israel ever really "LOST"? (Part-1)
- What happened to the Lost 10 Tribes of Israel? (Part-1)
- The Lion, the Lamb, and the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel
- Israel AND Jew-dah, what part of “AND” do you not understand?
