Is there a Dead-Line for Deliverance? Is Repentance the Only Answer? (13 May, 2014, 13 Iyar, 5774)
Will the Israelites Return to the Land Before or After they Turn Back to the ALMIGHTY?
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Lyne Tracy wrote:
Re
Brit-Am Now no. 2242. Ten Tribes Studies.
http://hebrewnations.com/features/6/2242.html
#3. Question About Unification of the Lost Tribes with Judah [and Religious Matters]
Indications are that most of the Ten Tribes will return to Israel BEFORE the religious question has been settled.
They will be worshipping idols but will reform and change.
OR perhaps Scripture can be read as saying that some will have returned and what these accept will be validated by their brothers overseas?
Dear Yair Davidiy
I have been thinking on [Brit-Am Now no. 2242 article #3]Â and the return of the Israelites, the Ten Lost Tribes, to Israel, in the end days.
' Most of the Ten Tribes will return to Israel before the religious question has been settled. They will be worshiping idols'. Could this mean that only a few members of the lost tribes will return to God in faith in order to save the other lost Israelites, as many people who return to Israel, maybe worshipping idols? Why would God save us, unless we have repented and returned to him, if not as a whole, in part, maybe a few will return to God, will this make it possible. Can this explained?
Thank you
God Bless You
Lyne Tracy
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Brit-Am Reply:
Personally, we need to go back through the Bible and re-check all the sources.
Both general overviews and learning in depth are important and complement each other.
We should do this more periodically.
We should find a way to do this while preferably involving our subscribers as well.
Different passages give different impressions.
The Almighty definitely wants the Israelites to repent.
They are liable to be punished unless they do.
On the other hand there are levels of repentance and stages of purification.
Each individual has their own task and so does the community.
One of the FIRST AND POSSIBLY MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS SHOULD BE IDENTITY.
What proof is there?
Who is working to spread knowledge of this?
The question you asked is based on our impression from several verses.
These include:
Ezekiel 11:
14 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 15 Mortal, your kinsfolk, your own kin, your fellow exiles, the whole house of Israel, all of them, are those of whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, They have gone far from the Lord; to us this land is given for a possession.
16 Therefore say: Thus says the Lord God: Though I removed them far away among the nations, and though I scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary to them for a little while in the countries where they have gone. 17 Therefore say: Thus says the Lord God: I will gather you from the peoples, and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. 18 When they come there, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations. 19 I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them; I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, 20 so that they may follow my statutes and keep my ordinances and obey them. Then they shall be my people, and I will be their God. 21 But as for those whose heart goes after their detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their deeds upon their own heads, says the Lord God.
The above translation is acceptable to us except for the last verse.
We  understand the Hebrew original to be saying something like:
Ezekiel 11:21
And to the heart of their abominations and their detestableness goes their heart. I have put their pathway on their own head [i.e. they shall bear responsibility for their own frowardness] says the Lord ALMIGHTY.Â
This is how we understand the above:
There will be a stage when the Jews in Jerusalem and Judah will not wish to accept the Return of the Ten Tribes.
This reticence will be due to understandable psychological reaction cf.
Isaiah 49:
21 Then you will say in your heart,
Who has borne me these?
I was bereaved and barren,
  exiled and put away
  so who has reared these?
I was left all alone
  where then have these come from? Â
Even so the Exiles will return.
After they return they will undergo a further process of elevation. This will enable them to overcome the negative "baggage" they will have brought with them.
Those of them who after all this insist on hankering after the degeneration of their past will be punished.
There also is the concept of a Deadline.
The Almighty has a time-table.
At a certain point in time certain matters must take place one way or the other.
Isaiah 60:
22 The least of them shall become a clan,
  and the smallest one a mighty nation;
I am the Lord;
in its time I will accomplish it quickly.
The last expression above, "in its time I will accomplish it quickly" has been understood by the Sages to say that if we are deserving redemption will come earlier i.e. I will accomplish it quickly.
Even if we do not deserve it Redemption will come when the final point has been reached i.e. in its time (Talmud Sanjedrin 98;a).
# Rabbi Shimeon said: Whether they repent or do not repent, when the End Time arrives they shall be redeemed immediately, as it says, I am the Lord; in its time I will accomplish it quickly. #
Midrash Tanchuma BaChukati 3