James 1:1 - Explained
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.
I want to highlight where it says the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad. Of course the twelve tribes are the twelve sons of Jacob. And the Bible says that they are scattered abroad.
When you think back to the Old Testament, after they had left Egypt and entered the promised land, each of the tribes had various portions of land designated for them. The Bible even speaks about marrying within your tribe, partly for the purposes of keeping that land within the family as it was passed down through the generations. But eventually the lineage of the twelve sons of Jacob became wicked and sinful, and you even have a split between the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. Ten of the tribes went with the northern kingdom of Israel, and the southern kingdom of Judah had Judah and primarily Benjamin with them, although others were able to join up with them.
What you find in the Old Testament is that the southern kingdom of Judah was more righteous than the northern kingdom of Israel. The northern kingdom of Israel gets taken over by Assyria — they are rejected and scattered all over the place. And it is a warning that God gives to the southern kingdom of Judah, saying the same could happen to you as happened to the northern kingdom of Israel, so you had better get right with God. Of course the southern kingdom of Judah then had 70 years where they were kicked out of the land — basically put on time out. They were able to enter back into the land during the days of Daniel and got right with God for a time. But then at the time of Jesus Christ they end up killing the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, when you think of the word Jew, it actually comes from being part of the southern kingdom of Judah. So when you say Jew, it means more than simply being one of the twelve tribes — it specifically refers to being part of the southern kingdom of Judah.
What I want you to understand from James chapter 1 is that the twelve tribes, at the time this letter was written — around 50 to 62 AD — were already scattered abroad. How much more so 2,000 years later? If you run into someone today who says they are a Jew and you ask them which tribe they are from, the reality is they cannot prove it. They do not know. They cannot trace their lineage back that far.
And of course the Bible says in the New Testament that genealogies are pointless. In the Old Testament they had a purpose and a meaning. But in today's world they mean absolutely nothing. The reality is that when people say they are Jews today, they cannot prove they have that lineage. They do not know where their ancestry is — because the twelve tribes were already scattered abroad 2,000 years ago. How much more today?
Pastor Matthew Stucky
