Lost tribes (From Penarth Times)

Lost tribes

YOUR CORRESPONDENT, Ben Lewis, suggested that the Jews were the chosen people. This popular misconception is used to add biblical justification to the oppression of the Palestinian people.

The Jews are of the tribe of Judah with a few Levites thrown in. Following the Babylonian captivity, the bulk of the house of Israel under the leadership of the tribe of Ephraim (ten other tribes with the remainder of the Levites) moved north and west, whereas the tribe of Judah returned to Jerusalem and Palestine until they were driven out again by the Romans. The Jews (Judah) have kept themselves as a distinct and separate people, whereas the remainder of the tribes of Israel have become lost among other nations.

This is seen by some as fulfilment of the promise that through the house of Israel, all nations of the earth would be blessed. The British Israel society argues that the ten lost tribes of Israel settled in the British Isles. And as for the Arabs, they also claim Abraham as their father.

So who are the chosen people? God is surely a just God and is no respecter of people. People become choice (or chosen) through obedience to righteous principles, not through their ancestry. The following biblical quotes might be relevant to the Palestinian situation:

Leviticus 19:34 - For the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you and thou shalt love him as thyself for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

Exodus 22:21 - Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him, for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.

This might also apply to our treatment of genuine asylum seekers.

Timothy J Gould Salisbury Avenue Penarth