When looking back as far as Genesis you see Jacob/Israel blessing Ephraim with the first born blessing ahead of his brother. Ephraim means double fruit. We also know this lineage of 'Abrahram, Isaac, and Jacob' are to known by just that, not Ephraim and on down the lineage.
Yet your descendants shall be as the sands of the sea: Gen 22
I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore
read Hosea to understand how Israel were to become not a people, (absorbed into the nations) yet become abundant:
Hosea 1:
for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away.
7But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the LORD their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen.
8Now when she had weaned Loruhamah, she conceived, and bare a son.
9Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.
10Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.
11Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel.
H3157= Jezreel
יזרעאל
yizre‛ê'l
yiz-reh-ale'
From H2232 and H410; God will sow; Jizreel, the name of two places in Palestine and of two Israelites: - Jezreel.
Don't be confused about the little nation called Israel in the middle east today. We are talking about God's people: his two witnesses throughout these past 2k years. It was done by design. It made a way for ALL who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. God's people: the true olive tree and the wild olive tree grafted back in.
Look @ Is 43:
1But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.
10Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.
11I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.
12I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God.
13Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it?
14Thus saith the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships.
15I am the LORD, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King.
22But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel.
28Therefore I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary, and have given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches.
ez 37: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ez%2037&version=KJV
11Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.
12Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.
13And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves,
14And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.
16Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and for all the house of Israel his companions:
17And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand.
18And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not shew us what thou meanest by these?
19Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand.
20And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes.
21And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land:
22And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.