Redemption of the Lost Tribes: Preparing for the Coming of the Messianic Age

By Rick Richardson

Rick Richardson takes us back in time from the fall of man, to the Abrahamic covenant, the kingdom of Israel, and the separation of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel from the southern kingdom of Judah. He explores the Messianic Age and notes that this will only happen once Israel is redeemed, turns back to God and the Ten Lost Tribes return to their homeland.

"Redemption of the Lost Tribes" cuts through myths and misunderstandings carried over the years regarding the End-Time prophecies with great Biblical exposition.

Pacific Book Review

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Jun 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9781698714707

Rick Richardson

Rick Richardson is director of the Billy Graham Center Institute and its Church Evangelism Initiative, and professor of evangelism and leadership at Wheaton College Graduate School. He previously served as evangelism and discipleship pastor at Church of the Resurrection in Wheaton, Illinois, and helped launch Willow Creek Community Church's first multisite campus. His books include Reimagining Evangelism and Evangelism Outside the Box.

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Copyright 2023 Rick Richardson.

Original copyright was 2016, published by Trafford.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

isbn: 978-1-6987-1469-1 (sc)

isbn: 978-1-6987-1470-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023909012

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Trafford rev. 06/28/2023

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Contents

Chapter 1 Expectation

Chapter 2 Transformation

Chapter 3 Instruction

Chapter 4 Redemption

Chapter 5 Identification

Chapter 6 Inclusion

Chapter 7 Conversion

Chapter 8 Conclusion

Dedication for Second Edition

The re-publication of Redemption of the Lost Tribes is something Rick was planning to do prior to his untimely death on February 25th, 2022 (the 25th of Adar I, 5782). Rick was always a visionary with a purpose. From the time he was young he felt that G-d had something important for him to do, and everything we did throughout our life together was focused on that goal, being in constant connection with G-d’s will. As we began to see more indications that the Messianic Age is upon us, Rick felt more drawn to spreading information about the need for the Lost Tribes to return. Afterall, in the Nevi’im (Prophets) G-d tells us it will happen… even if all looks lost.

The second edition of this book is dedicated in memory of my beloved husband, and the author of the book, Rick Richardson (Yosef Yisrael ben Avraham Avinu). May his neshama have an Aliyah!

Shoshana (Susan) Richardson

June 23, 2023

4 Tammuz, 5783

Chapter One

Expectation

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Maimonides in The 13 Principles of Jewish Faith says:

The Twelfth Principle –

I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah. No matter how long it takes, I will await his coming day.

The phrase I will await his coming day is an expression of expectation; this is to say that we should actively wait for the Messiah to come.

Having such an expectation seems to be quite a natural thing to do. A few years ago, I attended a lecture, during Sukkot, in the old city of Jerusalem. The room was filled mostly with yeshiva students. After the talk, the rabbi opened the floor to questions. He told the audience that they could ask about ANYTHING. For the next hour or so, most of the questions were on one topic; Messiah, (although his speech was on an unrelated subject).

Expectation, (or to actively wait), is more than just enduring the passage of time; it involves preparation. The question is: how does one prepare for the Messiah and the Messianic Age?

First let’s understand what the Messianic Age is.

The Messianic Age

The Messianic Age is NOT the World to Come; it precedes the World to Come. It, in itself, is a time of preparation.

Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan in Maimonides’ Principles, The Fundamentals of Jewish Faith writes:

The main benefit of the Messianic Age will be that we will no longer be under the subjugation of foreign governments who prevent us from keeping all the commandments. It will be a time when the number of wise men will increase, as we find (Isaiah 11:9), All the world will be filled with knowledge.

War will no longer exist, as the prophet said (Ibid 2:4), nation shall no longer lift up sword against nation. It will be an age of great perfection, through which we will become worthy to ENTER INTO the World to Come. [pg90]

Since the Messianic Age is a time for us to prepare for the World to Come, it would follow that preparing for the World to Come will bring the Messianic Age.

Let me explain by using the actor as an example. When an actor is playing a role, he must do so with both the actions and emotions of the character that he is playing. This can be done two different ways; either his actions bring the feelings (emotions) to the character, or how he feels makes the actions appropriate. Either way, for the actor to play his role it requires both actions and emotions. However, either one brings about the other as a natural consequence.

Another example: I have worked in broadcasting for over 30 years. As a Program Director, my job was to get a radio station the highest number of listeners possible. I was less concerned about the mechanics of getting more listeners, and more concerned about BECOMING that station. Since I can go into a town and (simply by listening) determine what the number one station is, it would follow, that if I made a radio station SOUND that way, then they would be the number one station. It is seeing the END result and BECOMING that.

Since we know that the Messianic Age will have certain qualities and conditions, ACHIEVING those qualities and conditions will BRING the Messianic Age and Messiah, or at least allow a Messianic condition to exist.

Chofetz Chaim in Haggadah Berurah writes:

If we really want Eliyahu [Elijah] and Moshiach [Messiah] to come we must make the proper preparations for them. The situation may be compared to someone who invites several honored guests to his house for dinner, and when the people arrive, he begins taking dishes out of the cabinet and raw food from the refrigerator to prepare the meal.

Such a person would certainly be considered a fool for leaving all the preparations to the very last minute, and furthermore the guests would be completely justified for feeling deeply insulted that their host did not take the trouble to make the minimal advance arrangements for their visit.

We beseech God several times a day – hundreds of times a year – in our prayers to send us Eliyahu and the Moshiach, but in fact we do not go to the slightest trouble to make even the most minimal preparations for Moshiach’s advent. [pg. 139]

Rabbi Ovadiah of Bartenura, in his Commentary on Ruth says:

In every generation is born a progeny of Judah fit to be Israel’s Mashiach! (appended to Mikra’ot GedolotBamidbar, pg. 479)

Every generation has a potential messiah. So the question is; will THIS generation merit the Messiah? In other words, the Messianic Age brings Messiah; Messiah does not bring the Messianic Age.

The Messiah, other than being a descendant of King David, has little identifying features. There is nothing magical about this person. He does not wave his hands and presto! the Messianic Age is here! Rather, when we as a society reach a level of spiritual maturity, to where peace is the result, Messiah will emerge from among us to assume that role.

So, what would be the Messiah’s role in all of this? Before going further it would seem appropriate to define the term Messiah. The word messiah means anointed. Anyone who is chosen to perform a particular task could be called a messiah. However, when a person says THE Messiah he is referring to an end of days individual who leads the entire world into an era of peace.

What is Messiah?

Maimonides (RAMBAM) describes the identity of the Messiah in the following terms:

And if a king shall arise from among the House of David, studying Torah and occupied with commandments like his father David, according to the written and oral Torah, and he will impel all of Israel to follow it and to strengthen breaches in its observance, and will fight God’s wars, this one is to be treated as if he were the anointed one. If he succeeded and built the Holy Temple in its proper place and gathered the dispersed ones of Israel together, this is indeed the anointed one for certain, and he will mend the entire world to worship the Lord together, as it is stated: For then I shall turn for the nations a clear tongue, so that they will all proclaim the Name of the Lord, and to worship Him with a united resolve (Zephaniah 3:9).

The Talmud says:

Rebi Alexandri said: Rebi Yehoshuah ben Levi raised the following contradiction, It is written, I, the Lord will hasten it in its time’ (Yeshayahu 60:22). Now, ‘hasten’ and ‘in its time’ contradict each other. [Rather, God said,] If they merit it, I will hasten it, but if they do not, then only at the appointed time." (Sanhedrin 98a)

In other words, there are specific times for prophetic events to take place; including the Resurrection of the Dead and the World to Come. However, if we merit it (If we are preparing) Messiah can usher in an era of world peace at a much earlier time. In essence, what we would do is begin the Messianic age sooner.

Likewise, the longer we remain unprepared, the later the Messianic Age will arrive and the shorter it becomes.

The topic of messiah has a mystique about it because it involves a lot of filling in the blanks, that can vary the resulting conclusions.

Again, Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan writes:

These things were purposely left ambiguous by the prophets. Our [Talmudic] sages likewise did not have any clear tradition in this area, and could therefore only come to some conclusion by interpreting various Biblical passages. It is for this reason that we find so many opinions regarding these matters. ["Maimonides’ Principles, The Fundamentals of Jewish Faith pg94]

Messiah’s Mission

Usually when a person discusses what Messiah should accomplish, the first and primary point is the rebuilding of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

However, in reality this is a secondary accomplishment; obviously it was not expected to be accomplished at a time when the Holy Temple was standing. What IS, and has ALWAYS been, the major accomplishment of the Messiah is to lead a UNITED kingdom of Israel (after they return from exile) into a period of world peace and Torah observance.

In Every Man’s Talmud Abraham Cohen writes:

Another confirmed belief was that the Messiah would affect the reunion of the tribes of Israel. While we find the teaching, ‘The ten tribes will have no share in the World to Come’ (Tosifta Sanh, XIII.12), the Talmud usually takes the opposite view. By appealing to such text as Is.xxvii.13 and Jer.iii.12, the Rabbis enunciated the doctrine of the return of the lost ten tribes (Sanh.110b).

‘Great will be the day when the exiles of Israel will be reassembled as the day when heaven and earth were created’(Pes.88a).

After the lost tribes return and the nations are reunited, Israel will then be a light (or example) for the rest of humanity to follow, and peace and tranquility will spread throughout the entire world with a Temple for all nations established on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

This book makes no claims of authority, but suggests that we MUST come to a point of new understanding in order to move into the coming Messianic Age; we may need to experience a paradigm shift, and change our world view in order to see the world as it is.

An atheist who looks back to the earth from outer-space will say, There is no God. Yet a man of faith will view the earth before him as proving the existence of God. Both men see exactly the same thing, and yet come to opposite conclusions. How can that be? It is because we see the world through our prism of beliefs. Our core beliefs and traditions filter reality to conform to those beliefs.

Likewise, a person who believes in conspiracy theories will find proof of the conspiracies in everything around him because he accepts as truth the conspiracies to begin with.

Summary

The Messianic Age precedes the World to Come. It is a time of preparation, that we can have a direct impact on. We do not have to just wait for Messiah to come, rather, we can bring the Messianic Age at a sooner time if we choose to be engaged with its hastening.

In addition, the UNITED kingdom of Israel is an essential element