Shalom All:
Will you all allow me to to grumble a little? 😉
Can I please get something off my chest?
Can I tell you that I have a problem with being called a “Two House Movement”?

After many years of teaching about both the houses of Israel, in the Early Nineties, Angus and I coined the term “Messianic Israel” to describe those of us who believed what we were teaching. In our Herald Newsletter we began to publish “The Hope of Messianic Israel,” a foundational document that essentially outlined our faith. We then began to include this “Hope” in each of our Newsletters, because having it there allowed us to address various issues that pertained to Israel’s restoration without having to once again fully explain the basic principles about the reunion of Judah and Ephraim as one united house.

When we started the Messianic Israel Alliance in 1999, we also chose to be an “Alliance” rather than an Association based on the word meanings: Association means a group of people organized for a joint purpose, a connection or cooperative link between people or organizations. Alliance means a union or association formed for mutual benefit, a relationship based on an affinity, the state of being joined or associated. We felt this spoke of a deeper relationship, of a joining together, and of mutual benefit, thus we chose Alliance.

Nonetheless, to my dismay, a day came when others began to call us a “Two House” movement.

I have a problem with this misnomer for many reasons. To begin, the Father allowed Israel to be divided into two houses for a season, but He promised that, in the latter days, He would reunite them and cause them to become one house. Ezekiel once called Ephraim and Judah “two nations,” but through him YHVH promised, “I will make them one nation in the land on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations” (Eze 37:22).

With all of our hearts, we believe in and work toward the full restoration of that one nation. From the beginning, our hope has been to be a “one house movement,” united in the “one King,” Messiah Yeshua. Therefore, I suggest that it is not we, but those who deny the work of the restoration of both the houses of Israel that should be called a two house movement!

Granted that some do talk about the two groups becoming “one new man,” but in the end, most of them see a difference in the two people groups who love the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They are the ones who are always calling them “Jews and Gentiles.” On the other hand, we refer to the people as being one reunited and restored house of Israel! We teach that Israel is called to be one house in Messiah! (Eph 2:11-22).

We do recognize that, as far as physical backgrounds are concerned, in the earth there are different groups of people. However, when we come together in Messiah Yeshua’s New Covenant, there can be no difference. We see this principle laid out in the promise the Father made through Jeremiah:

“‘Behold, days are coming,’ declares YHVH, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them…. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,’ declares YHVH, ‘I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, “Know YHVH,” for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,’ declares YHVH, ‘for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more’” (Jer 31:31-34).

Based on 2 Kings 17:34 (and other verses), we know the Holy One commanded the sons of Jacob, “whom He named Israel.” In other words, all twelve sons could rightly be called “Israel.” However, when the Almighty allowed the Twelve Tribes to be divided (2 Chr 11:4), the birthright name and title went with the sons of Joseph, the Ten Northern Tribes of Ephraim – they were the ones who were primarily known as “Israel.”

Again, as for the New Covenant the Father promised to make “with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,” we note that when He makes it, He makes it only with “the house of Israel.”

Does this mean Judah is left out?

Absolutely not. It instead means, we once were two separate houses who, as per our destiny, “stumbled over” the “Sanctuary” that is Messiah Yeshua (Isa 8:14; John 2:19-22; Rom 11:25). But now, we are born anew of His Holy Spirit and are part of His Commonwealth of Israel. In Him, we have been made one. As promised, we are part of New Covenant Israel, and we are “One House.”

While we were stumbling around, tripping over the Messiah, we truly were two blind houses, but once we entered into His New Covenant promise, we become one glorious reunited and restored house!

I say the people of Messianic Israel are a “One House Movement!”

Am Yisrael Chai b’Echad!
The People of Israel Live as One!

Shalom,
Batya