The phrase the lost sheep of the house of Israel
refers not to Jewish territory, but the Jews as a people, regardless of where they happened to live. The phrase house of Israel
is typical Old Testament language referring to Israel as a unit, a nation, among whom God wanted to live, but who time and again refused to embrace him (Exodus 16:31–36; Isaiah 5:7). In a sense, Jesus here first commands the apostles to do evangelism before mission work could begin. The disciples are commanded to go nowhere (apelthein) among the Gentiles,
but would minister to the Gentiles when the Jews rejected the gospel.
Because of the distinction between Gentiles and Samaritans on the one hand and the house of Israel on the other (that is, not the land of Israel but the nation itself), we can assume that the target of the disciples’ first mission is not the territory itself but the Jews as a people. They are also here emphatically commanded to go nowhere (apelthein) among the Gentiles.
This would, however, indeed happen at a later stage when the Jews rejected the gospel and the apostles would go minister among the Gentile nations. Moreover, the expression “the lost sheep of the house of Israel" suggests that Jesus here has all ethnic Jews in mind, regardless of where they happened to live.1
The phrase house of Israel
is typical Old Testament language referring to Israel as a unit, a nation, among whom God wanted to live, but who time and again refused to embrace him (Exodus 16:31–36; Isaiah 5:7). In a sense it can be said that Jesus here first commanded the apostles to do evangelism before the missions could begin.2
5 These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans,