Question: Would not the spiritual kings and queens of the Gentiles who gather God’s “sons” and “daughters” of the house of Israel (Isaiah 49:22–23) be themselves of the house of Israel?
Answer: Hosea’s prophecy that “Ephraim has assimilated among the nations (hitboleil ba’amim); Ephraim is an unturned pancake” (Hosea 7:8) affirms Jacob’s birthright blessing on the head of Ephraim that his end-time offspring would become “the fullness of the Gentiles” (melo‘ haggoyim). The only three further scriptural instances of the expression “fulness of the Gentiles” (Romans 11:25; 1 Nephi 15:13–18; 3 Nephi 16:4–7) relate this to the end-time restoration of the house of Israel at the hands of the Ephraimite Gentiles. Both Nephi and his brother Jacob additionally reiterate Isaiah’s prophecy of Isaiah 49:22–23—that the house of Israel would be restored through the end-time ministry of the Gentiles’ kings and queens (1 Nephi 21:22–23; 2 Nephi 6:5–13).
From Nephi’s brother Jacob: “Thus saith the Lord God: When the day cometh that they shall believe in me, that I am Christ, then have I covenanted with their fathers that they shall be restored in the flesh, upon the earth, unto the lands of their inheritance. And it shall come to pass that they shall be gathered in from their long dispersion, from the isles of the sea, and from the four parts of the earth; and the nations of the Gentiles shall be great in the eyes of me, saith God, in carrying them forth to the lands of their inheritance. Yea, the kings of the Gentiles shall be nursing fathers unto them, and their queens shall become nursing mothers; wherefore, the promises of the Lord are great unto the Gentiles, for he hath spoken it, and who can dispute?” (2 Nephi 10:7–9).
Hence we see the importance of realizing who we are in the world’s end-time scenario or we would not know what our ministering role is in God’s plan for his people and for the world. Are we the house of Israel? If so, we will be among those to whom the Gentiles’ spiritual kings and queens minister as foster fathers and nursing mothers. Are we among those who are “identified with the Gentiles” (Doctrine & Covenants 109:60)? Then we have the chance to minister to the house of Israel—those whom the scriptures define as the Jews, Ten Tribes, and Lamanites of today. Thus it is after the Ephraimite Gentiles fulfill their end-time ministry that they are “numbered among the house of Israel” (1 Nephi 14:1–2; 2 Nephi 10:18–19; 3 Nephi 16:10–15; 21:5–6).
