t12papocrypha
Testament of Asher 7
Asher closes his testament by naming the two-fold fate of his posterity: dispersion for disobedience, then gathering through covenant mercy. The Dispersion is not abandoned — the Most High, El Elyon, will visit the earth in the person of man, eating and drinking among men, breaking the dragon's head through water, and speaking God's word in a human voice. That visitation is Jehovah-as-Christ, the incarnate covenant-keeper. The scattering follows the pattern of Gad and Dan — tribes stripped of land, lineage memory, and tongue. The re-gathering comes not by Israel's merit but through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as covenant anchors, in faith and through the hope of Jehovah's tender mercy.
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Become not, my children, as Sodom, which knew not the angels of the Lord, and perished for ever. For I know that ye will sin, and ye shall be delivered into the hands of your enemies, and your land shall be made desolate, and ye shall be scattered unto the four corners of the earth. And ye shall be set at nought in the Dispersion as useless water, until the Most High shall visit the earth; and He shall come as man, with men eating and drinking, and in peace breaking the head of the dragon through water. He shall save Israel and all nations, God speaking in the person of man. Therefore tell ye these things to your children, that they disobey Him not. For I have read in the Heavenly Tablets that in very deed ye will disobey Him, and act ungodly against Him, not giving heed to the law of God, but to the commandments of men. Therefore shall ye be scattered as Gad and as Dan my brethren, who shall know not their own lands, tribe, and tongue. But the Lord will gather you together in faith through the hope of His tender mercy, for the sake of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob.
