I have been 'walking the tribes' this morning, forced into virtual inactivity of late because of my continuing illness but with a lot of time for thinking and meditating. By 'walking the tribes' I refer to sensing their presence and activity in the modern world whilst reflecting on their histories, cultures, national dispositions, interactions with their neighbours and biblical origins.

Today it started rather unexpectedly when I picked a book by a team of architects and ecologists under the direction of Carl-Albrecht von Treuenfels and Klaus Töpfer entitled Static Dreams: Architecture and Ecology (Pro Futura Verlag GmbH, München: 1996), though I had been immersed in Czechoslovak stamp sorting for a few days beforehand. Some of you may not know that my father and grandfather were both architects so this is very much 'in the blood', as it were. And though I was slated to enter that career too, I deviated into Biochemistry because of my love of the 'architecture' of living things and thence into the ministry and the 'architecture' of the soul. Coupled with that, I have had a lifelong passion for Austrian (particularly Strauß, Schubert and Mozart) and German (principally Beethoven and others) classical music. And you all know I am a Central European history buff.

Germany and Austria have long been of passionate interest though I had not realised, until much later, it was because of tribal connection: both are East Manasseh and both are the brother of Ephraim, my own tribe. They are Josephite kin. Long before the United States (West Manasseh) was founded, Germany was a single country, loosely knit together under the auspices of the Holy Roman Empire (the First Reich). Within that realm lay the German states in which the Kingdom of Prussia latterly would became dominant, what is today the Netherlands (Holland), Belgium and Luxemburg (or Lützelburg as it was then known as), Switzerland, Austria (including the mdoern day Czech Republic, Slovenia and Galicia in south-eastern Poland), two of the Baltic States (Estonia and Latvia) and northern Italy. You might say that this was the 'Sphere of Manasseh'.

The First Empire (really a Confederation) eventually came to an end and 'Großdeutschland' (Greater Germany) split into what has come to be called 'Germany' (north) today and 'Austria' (south). The Prussian-led north Germans centred on Berlin became a very austere, disciplined, efficient, scientific, Lutheran, morally incorruptible and somewhat colourless realm in the north ('Deutsches Reich' or Second Reich - 1871-1918) and the Vienna-led southern Germans of 'Österreich' (Austria or 'Eastern Reich') tended more in the direction of the artistic, romantic, Catholic, laid back and flamboyant [1]. Though the split between north and south was arguably necessary in order to preserve the Protestant Reformation (which never took root in Catholic Austria, save briefly in the Czech lands of Bohemia), Germany and Austria are in reality a single nation with characteristics and attributes (not to mention weaknesses) that really belong together.

As I was meditating on the history of the German peoples, a tavnith or pattern began to come more sharply into focus. Anciently in biblical times, Manasseh split into the two tribal areas separated by the River Jordan and Like Chinnereth (Sea of Galilee) of West and East Manasseh and this has been a characteristic of this tribe down the ages following their migrations out of Asia Minor and into the world. Originally centred in the [Holy Roman] Empire, it would split into Germany and Austria. The Tribe of Zebulon (United Netherlands), protected under the wings of Manasseh, would also split off and, in Manassehite fashion, would also split into the Netherlands/Holland (north) and Belgium (south). And even Belgium itself, an artificial construction of the British to serve as a buffer against Prussia, is itself split into Vlaamland/Flanders (north) and French-speaking Wallonia (south) which really belongs to Reubenite France.

Though planted by Ephraimite Great Britain, the original colonies of the United States, though initially settled by the English (New England), at length absorbed large numbers of immigrants from all over the world but principally from Germany. Indeed, as I point out in another essay, the German migrant population became so large that there was a time when the US government considered making German the national language of that nation. That both nations have the eagle as their national emblem is not coincidental. At any rate, the tendency of Manasseh to 'split' soon became self-evident. Once independence from Britain was declared, there can be no doubt that there were two Mannasseh's again - West Manasseh (United States) and East Manasseh (the European German realm). The continent of North America remained split between Canada (north) and the USA (south) and in the 19th century West Manasseh itself threatened to split when the north (United States) and south (Confederate States) went to war. Today the USA and Canada are close and are covertly being 'united' (together with Reubenite Mexico) by the élites into a North American Union.

The splitting tendency of Manasseh continued in Germany itself. After the demise of the First Empire in the 19th century, the northern German states (under Prussia and including Saxony, Mecklenburg and some smaller states) coalesced into the North German Confederation but excluding Bavaria, Baden and Württemberg with their closer cultural ties to Austria (but which are today in modern Germany). A couple of decades later these southern states did unite, together with the ethnic and German-speaking Elsaß-Lothringen (Alsace-Lorraine) part of France, to form the Second Reich or German Empire, whence the modern German state into being.

Though not ethnically German, the Slavic Czechs, Moravians, Slovenes and south-eastern Poles still bear the Manassehite imprint of Austria in their culture and architecture. And the tendency to 'split' continued with them too. Bohemia-Moravia (Czech Republic) split from the artifically-created 'Central European Slavic Belgium', Czechoslovakia (created in 1918) in 1993, Slovenia split from the artificially-created 'Southern European Slavic Belgium', Yugoslavia (created also in 1918), in 1991. And Poland was 'split' by Soviet Russia in 1945/7, the USSR absorbing eastern Galicia, Wilno (Vilnius) and Pinsk. In its turn, the Prussians lands were split off eastern Germany, with the bulk given to Poland and the rest of Russia and Lithuania.

German Manasseh (Austria and Germany) has attempted to reunite twice, the first voluntarily after World War I (but forbidden by the victorious Allies) in 1918 and forcibly under Hitler in 1938 for a short six years. And, of course, Germany itself was forcibly split into West (Federal Republic) and East (Democratic Republic - strictly speaking, Central Germany) until the reunification of those two parts in 1990. And even more curious, the present Germany (like the formerly split Western and Eastern halves) isn't strictly-speaking even a sovereign nation but, uniquely in the history of states, is the branch of an international corporation and under continued occupation (see Strange Goings-On).

As far as Yahweh is concerned, though she remains split and split again, Manasseh is still one Tribe of Israel and we may expect to see unification politically at some time in the near future. Does this mean the United States and Germany will fuse into one state? No, it means that, in all likelihood, one of them will disappear at some point. In any case, there is to be a complete reorganistion of the nations in the Millennium and what is important for us is the gathering of the Remnant out of these Israelite nations, and indeed from every nation under the sun, into the end-time Twelve Cities of Refuge prior to their final relocation to the Holy Land. This is all a part of the Second Exodus which only began last year.

Yahweh has established the nations and though the Enemy tries to rearrange or combine them (with such projects as the European Union, North American Union, Eurasian Union, African Union, etc.), they can only last but a short while whence they will split up again. An epic struggle is being fought in my own Ephraimite country of Great Britain to rip it apart into provinces and merge it into a European superstate or Empire (EU), including trying to force Northern Ireland (Zarah-Judah) into the Irish Republic (another Dan). How this will play out remains to be seen. Nothing is permanent until Messiah returns and builds His Realm. In the meantime, Yahweh is gathering His remnant in both Manasseh's.

Endnotes