The Church of God has long understood the modern identities of Ephraim and Manasseh as Great Britain and the United States. There are some smaller groups which say it is reversed, but the majority go with the traditional view.
Ephraim was to become a “company of nations” similar to a commonwealth. The British Empire basically began to dismantle itself in the 1930s into several squabbling governments that were supposed to give allegiance to the Queen as “Head of the Commonwealth”. In reality, many of them split off only to later declare independence and leave the Commonwealth.
However, there are some that have hung on. Not surprisingly, many of those are still governments run by people descended from ancestors of the British Isles. Not because of any inherited skill, mind you, but because God is gracious and will keep His promise to Abraham as long as He can.
It was, therefore, of interest to me to read that “British expats ‘forced from New Zealand’” posted 6 July 2009 in the Telegraph.
When you read Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, Kings and Chronicles, you get the impression that Israel and Judah were sometimes not all that united. It seems to me that especially the House of Israel to the north was sometime fractious and divided.
“United we stand, divided we fall” comes to mind. When I look at the polarization of the US along ideological and ethnic lines, it probably shouldn’t be surprising if the fracturing of both the UK and the US occurs as both go further into decline. After all, if either country was truly united, then how would it easily fall?