James, A Letter To The Twelve Tribes.

James writes to the "twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad" at a time when twelve tribes did not exist. The northern tribes had been carried away in 721 BC and lost as a distinct people. Some individuals may have existed at the time of James that claimed descent from some of the lost tribes, but the tribes had disappeared over 700 years before. The northern tribes were taken primarily to the area of what is now Iraq. In that place, those tribes lost their identity as children of Israel and merged into the culture. The present Iraqis are probably some of the descendants of the lost tribes. If James was referring to Jews in

some form of an idiom, he would need to distinguish Jews that believed in Jesus. It does not fit to assume that James was directing the letter only at Jews.

What is fitting with Scripture is that the twelve tribes of the old covenant were a picture of the people of God of the new covenant. James is using the expression to identify believers under the new covenant, since these believers are now the people of God. Paul says in Galatians that we are the Israel of God. It is the same idea as the expression "the twelve tribes". Paul and James were talking about the same thing.

The reason this identification is important is because it is central to understanding the Old Testament. In I Peter 1:10, the point is made that the prophets were prophesying of the grace that would come to us. Jesus on the road to Emmaeus explains the old testament Scriptures to two disciples. There is a key to understanding the Old Testament, and it is not in approaching Scripture as history or literature. The Holy Spirit is speaking of the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.

Now go read the prophecies. You can see that they are all set in a historical context. When Isaiah makes a statement about a virgin conceiving, he was making a direct statement to a king that made sense in its context and came true in its context. There was an immediate meaning for the message. But we now know that there was a far more powerful meaning, that spoke of the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. So the need is to understand the message of the Holy Spirit

that is in the prophecies of the Old Testament.

What is the key is that we are the Israel of God. The message of the Old Testament is to us. It looks like Paul, James, and Peter all understood that, and could look at the prophecies in that way. (Written by Greg Whitten)