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JESUS TOUR QUESTIONS ARTICLES SERMONS SUBSCRIPTIONS ABOUT | ||||
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EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND (AP) - With prayers, pipers and some political nuance, the legendary Stone of Scone was placed in its new home in Scotland on Saturday [November 16, 1996], seven centuries after it was stolen by an English king. . . . Prince Andrew represented his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, at the ceremonies on the feast day of St. Andrew, Scotland's patron saint. The rough-hewn block of gray sandstone, weighing 458 pounds, was the coronation seat of Scottish kings until it was carried away as war booty by King Edward I in 1296. The Stone of Scone (pronounced "skoon") was placed under the coronation chair in Westminster Abbey, where it has been involved in all coronations since. The stone will be placed on public view in Edinburgh Castle. Legend says that the stone originated in the Holy Land, and that the biblical patriarch Jacob rested his head on it when he had his dream of a ladder reaching to heaven. |
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Signposts and Landmarks
One would think that if millions of Israelite refugees migrated from their places of captivity in northern Mesopotamia, some evidence would remain to show their passage. This is indeed the case! Literally dozens of pieces of information comprise a jigsaw puzzle that shows the passage of Israel from the Middle East to northwestern Europe.
God Himself told Ephraim to mark their way so that they could return one day to the Promised Land: "Set up signposts, make landmarks; set your heart toward the highway, the way in which you went. Turn back, O virgin of Israel, turn back to these your cities" (Jeremiah 31:21). How were they to do this?
One of the main ways involves the prophecy of Jacob about the tribe of Dan. "Dan shall be a serpent by the way, a viper by the path" (Genesis 49:17). A serpent or snake leaves a mark behind it as it moves over the earth; some snakes, like rattlesnakes, leave very distinctive trails. So does the tribe of Dan.
Though Joshua had allotted land to Dan in Canaan, the Danites found it to be difficult to hold and settle because of its proximity to the Philistines. They began to look elsewhere for living space.
And six hundred men of the family of the Danites went from there, from Zorah and Eshtaol, armed with weapons of war. Then they went up and encamped in Kirjath Jearim in Judah. (Therefore they call that place Mahaneh Dan [Camp of Dan] to this day. There it is, west of Kirjath Jearim.) (Judges 18:11-12)
Finally, they came to the city of Laish, in the far northern reaches of Israel, and they took it. "And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born to Israel. However the name of the city was formerly Laish" (verse 29).
And thus they have been naming places after their ancestor ever since! A good map of Europe will show dozens of place names carrying the name of Dan within them. The Don, Dnieper, Dniester and Danube rivers all flow into the Black Sea. The Romans knew the Rhine and Rhone rivers as the Eridanus and the Rhodanus. Denmark (literally, "Dan's Land") and Sweden are both northwestern European countries. The English escaped from Dunkirk (literally, "Dan's Church") during WWII. One can find similar place names sprinkled heavily throughout England, Scotland and especially Ireland, where dun means "judge," just as dan does in Hebrew!
A Lot in a Name!
In Scripture God obviously puts a great deal of stock in names. He changed Abram's name to "Abraham" for a reason; He did the same by renaming Jacob to "Israel." The reason is that He names things what they are. He named His Son "Jesus" because He is Savior! As we have seen with Dan, his name is significant in tracing the steps of migratory Israel after their captivity.
Genesis contains two significant prophecies about the name of the Israelite peoples that we must address. In the first, Genesis 21:12, God tells Abraham to send Ishmael and his mother away, "for in Isaac your seed shall be called." Paul repeats this twice in the New Testament (Romans 9:7; Hebrews 11:18). On the surface this seems to mean that God would consider Isaac's progeny to be the true sons of Abraham, and this is true. But it means so much more! It also means that Israel would call itself by the name "Isaac" in later times.
The second prophecy concerns Jacob's blessing on the sons of Joseph. In his prayer he asks God to "bless the lads; let my name be named upon them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac" (Genesis 48:16). This confirms God's words to Abraham, only this time it is specifically directed toward the birthright tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. The descendants of Joseph would bear the names of the patriarchs, particularly Isaac.
Amos, written less than a half century before Israel fell, uses the name "Isaac" twice to refer to Israel:
The high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste. . . . Now therefore, hear the word of the LORD: You say, "Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not spout against the house of Isaac." (Amos 7:9, 16)
Israel may have already been calling itself "the house of Isaac" or "the sons of Isaac" even before their overthrow and captivity.
After Assyria fell, ancient records tell of a new people living around the shores of the Caspian Sea. These people were variously known as Sakai, Sacae, Sagetae, Sakki, Scyths, Scythians, Scuths, Scuits, Scolotoi and Scots. In his book The Tribes, Yair Davidy writes:
SACCAE was the contemporary Middle Eastern term for Scyth and the name is believed to be a derivative of ‘Isaac'. The appellation ‘Saxe' or ‘Saxon' is a further development of the same name. (p. 128)
Sharon Turner, author of History of the Anglo-Saxons, agrees, "Saka-Suna or the Sons of Sakai abbreviated into Saksun, which is the same sound as Saxon, seems a reasonable etymology of the word ‘Saxon'" (p. 87). It takes no great leap of reason to conclude that "Saxons" is a corrupted form of "Isaac's sons."
Where do we find the Anglo-Saxon peoples living in these last days? In the very same place the Bible tells us Israel would be: northwestern Europe and its colonies!
These are just a few of the biblical proofs of the location of "lost" Israel today. We lack space to explain such proofs as Jacob's Pillar Stone, the "overturns," Jeremiah's commission, the whereabouts of David's dynasty, the journeys of Christ's apostles, the end-time fulfillment of the birthright promise, the 2,520 years prophecy and many others. Much more evidence—of historical, linguistic, cultural and even physiological natures—exists in other sources currently available.
© 1997 Church of the Great God
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Charlotte, NC 28247-1846
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