Tribe of Benjamin - Key to Redemption

The prophet Ahijah revealed to Jeroboam the mystery of chastisement of the House of David. Benjamin is the key to understanding this prophecy and the mystery involved in it. When the tribe of Benjamin adhered to the tribe of Judah this had to do with the kingdoms being established as northern and southern. The word of God, however, was that only one tribe would be preserved to the House of David. As a result individual Benjamites might be preserved by becoming known as Jews but for the tribe of Benjamin to once again be recognized and known as the tribe of Benjamin the House of Israel would have to be restored. The House of Israel would only be restored when it was restored to be reunited with the House of Judah. At that time there would only be one house. This is the time of redemption.

Amos 9
11 “In that day I will restore
David’s fallen tent.
I will repair its broken places,
restore its ruins,
and build it as it used to be,
12 so that they may possess the remnant of Edom
and all the nations that bear my name,”
declares the LORD, who will do these things.

The distinguishing of the tribe of Benjamin from the tribe of Judah can be understood as the key to understanding the promise of this redemption.

Why then did Ahijah tell Jeroboam to take 10 pieces of the cloth to himself? This is the structure of the mystery. One tribe only is promised to the House of David, its own tribe, Judah, but only ten are given to Jeroboam. The other tribe is designated as a prophetic mystery. It is neither promised to Rehoboam or Jeroboam. It has been said that to start with at least this other tribe is Simeon, because Simeon is scattered in Judah. However, this does not resolve the problem as it is a problem of prophetic designation, not of geography. In any case it is known that the elders of Simeon went over to Jeroboam and a scattered migration of Simeon into the norther kingdom took place, so Simeon became one of the lost ten tribes.

Another answer is that the other tribe is Levi, as Jeroboam could not take a piece of cloth corresponding to Levi in regard to a kingdom, nor could Levi be attached to the house of David and to the tribe of Judah without Levi's also having a ministry to all Israel. This does not answer the mystery either, however, because Levi was not being counted in the context of the prophecies concerning the kingdom in the first place. Whenever Ephraim and Manessah were being counted Levi was not being counted. Ephraim and Manessah were each being counted here, therefore Levi was not a factor in the fist place. This brings us to the question of Benjamin.

It is one possibility that Ahijah said to Jeroboam to take 10 pieces and not 11 because, though God would not preserve the tribe of Benjamin to the house of David, God knew that Benjamin would cleave to Judah and Jeroboam would not rule over Benjamin. However, even if we said this was true it would not really answer the mystery of the prophecy. Let' spread this out clearly, like a well set table.

If God had preserved two tribes to the House of David, (even though not saying that he was going to do so), there would be two tribes now preserved as tribes. We would not now be speaking of the nation of the Jews but the nation of the Jews and Benjaminites. Two tribes would be seen as being inseparably joined together but yet clearly and totally distinct from one another. This is not the case. Benjamin is not preserved as a tribe anymore than Ephraim is. Only Judah is preserved as a tribe to the House of David, just as stated in the prophecy. This is so even though Benjamin never became "Not My People". We see then that it was not being lost to the Assyrian captivity that made the "Lost Ten Tribes" to be lost. It was the chastisement of the House of David that made both them and the tribe of Benjamin to be lost. We must see what this chastisement is really about.

Behind the relationship of the tribe of Benjamin and Judah is the prophetic relationship of the patriarch Benjamin and the patriarch Judah. This relationship was forged when Judah put his own life forth as a guarantee for Benjamin's life. This became the key to the redemption of Joseph from slavery in Egypt, which was itself the key to the redemption of Joseph's brothers from their sin of selling him and treating him as one dead. In the great secret of the mystery of God's covenant with Abraham, this redemption of Joseph's brothers from their sin will be the very reason for their redemption from Egypt hundreds of years later. We are beginning to see how all of this is centered in the tribe of Benjamin and that Benjamin is the key. It is important that we look again at the nature of God's covenant with Abraham and the reason for its having been made.

In Genesis 15 we read the following:

1 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”
2 But Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”
3 And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.”
4 And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.”
5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
6 And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.


7 And he said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.”
8 But he said, “O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?”
9 He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”
10 And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half.
11 And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.


12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him.
13 Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.
14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.
15 As for yourself, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age.
16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”


17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.
18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,
19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,
20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,
21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”


We see in verse 8 that Abraham asks God how Abraham will know that he will possess the land. This is immediately after Abraham has been declared righteous in his faith. We can say then that he asks this question not because he is doubting God but because he is believing God. There is much that could be said about this. We will say here, simply, that Abraham was asking God to tell him how he would be able to assure his children who would inherit the land through him that they would, in time, come to possess the land. It is to this question that God immediately responds by making the covenant with Abraham.

When after making the covenant it is explained that from God's point of view it is not time yet for Abraham's family to inherit the land because " the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full", this might be understood to not only be a critical fact in its own right but to also be an allusion to the fact that the evil inclination in the family of Abraham, (originating with Adam), had not yet fully been made manifest - as it would be in the selling of Joseph.

The redemption of the world would take place through an analogy of marriage, and through the principle of corporate marriage which God introduced when he made the first man and woman in the special manner in which he did. Because of the fall of Adam, the first Adam would be set aside as the king of Humanity in favor of a chosen son of Adam, who would be put in a position which corresponded to being married to a chosen branch of Humanity. The King of Israel would be the singular Son of Adam, who would be "married" to God's chosen nation, Israel, and in this way he would take the place of the first Adam as the King of the world. This would be a redemption and a new form of the creation of the world, where everything that God made to be under the kingship of the first Adam would be brought under the kingship of the last Adam, Israel's king.  In order for this to take place, Israel herself would have to be set apart in Adam, in Humanity, from the other nations. This would begin with Israel's redemption from Egypt, which would allow for Israel's complete redemption and ultimate wedding to the Son of Adam to take place. This would be the blessing of Abraham that God promised. Through the revelation of this blessing, Abraham and his offspring would, from their separate land give the testimony of God's redemption of Adam that would bless all the families of the earth. Therefore, the assurance of this for Abraham's family would begin with the process of their captivity in Egypt and their redemption and return to the land. This was God's covenant.

Now the heart of the knowledge that is promised through this covenant is the knowledge that will come to Israel through experiencing redemption from the evil inclination of the fallen Adam that they find in themselves. This is the story of Joseph and the restoration of Joseph and his brothers in the land of Egypt. The key to that story is Benjamin.

Why does Joseph make his brothers bring Benjamin down into Egypt? We can talk about this on two levels. On the first level, it is clear that he does so because it is this more than anything else that he could do that will serve in bringing his brothers to the place of full repentance for their having sold him into Egyptian slavery. Only as he is able to serve God in the work of the Spirit of God in bringing his brothers to this repentance is he able to move toward reconciliation with his brothers and reunion with his family. On another level, by forcing his brothers to bring Benjamin down into Egypt, Joseph fully raises the issue of the impossibility that a tribe from Israel, much less a house of Israel, should be lost. From the point of view of Israel, Joseph had already been lost. If Benjamin were also lost the whole house of Rachel would almost entirely be lost. Did the sons of the house of Leah truly want to destroy the whole house of Rachel? What if, God forbid, the house of Rachel were lost? We can look at what this would have meant to Jacob.

Jocob's desire was toward Rachel. The importance of this natural marital desire on the part of Jacob being redeemed can be seen by observing the fact that when God first promised the hope of redemption to Abraham he necessarily included Sarah. Israel would be a perfect branch of Adam. The marriage at its head would be a marriage that perfectly corresponded to the marriage of the first man and woman. This is the very element of the promise that was represented by Rachel and by Jacob's love for her. Indeed, it is Jacob's love for Rachel that sanctifies his marriage to Leah, even as it is his marriage to Leah that represents the prophetic truth that his marriage to Rachel will not, in the world to come, simply be of the order of the first Adam but will be redeemed in accordance with the resurrection of the dead.

What if both Joseph and Benjamin had really been lost and this testimony of Rachel their mother and her love with Jacob and their children had all been destroyed by the evil inclination? In making his brothers bring Benjamin down into Egypt Joseph demonstrated just how important it was that this testimony of the house of Rachel not be destroyed. Indeed, because the one who commanded them to subject Benjamin to possible death seemed to be to them the agent of Pharaoh they were able to see clearly just what damage they had really done to Israel in selling Joseph. But in truth, Benjamin was never in danger, for the apparent agent of Pharaoh was actually Joseph, the agent of God's covenant.

Now we can see a much clearer picture when we see that the Tribe of Benjamin adhered to the Tribe of Judah when the kingdom was divided between north and south. We can see the correspondence between the apparent danger that Benjamin was put in when he was made to go down to face the ruler of Egypt and the concealment of the Tribe of Benjamin by the fact that no word of prophecy was given to the House of David that any tribe other than the House of Judah would be preserved to be a witness to the coming Mashiach. No assurance was given by the word of God that Benjamin would be preserved.

We have the further parallels that it was Judah alone who was able to give his guarantee of his own life to Jacob for the life of Benjamin, and who, accordingly was able to complete the process of repentance and reconciliation with Joseph, while judgement and repentance continued to be worked in all the other tribes. Also, this same process continued to work within the person of Joseph also while it worked in his brothers. For example, as he held Simeon in prison he was holding his own heart in that very prison, which was the very same prison of Egypt in which he had for so long served time. All of this was the covenant of God.

And it still is the covenant of God. For at this very day we yet have this very same situation, where the safety of Benjamin is completely concealed, and only when it is revealed will it be seen that the one who has concealed Benjamin is the one who comforts Rachel. As we come to understand these things we will be assured with Abraham and we will know the hour of Israel's final possession of the Land is near, even at the door.

Followers