Scattering and Gathering

 

Scattering and Gathering

Deuteronomy 28:64 “And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.65 And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind:”

Deuteronomy 30:2 “And shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul;3 That then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee.”

     Call me prophetically illiterate.  Call me times ignorant.  You can call me frustrated.  I just don’t see it.  God enacted The Great Diaspora as planned when His people turned away.  With Abraham, He got closer.  With the succeeding patriarchs, He got closer.  He waited another 400 years of Egyptian captivity, then He got closer.  With Moses, He showed Israel His glory and forged a covenant with them.  In Deuteronomy, He rehashes the requirements again citing the conditions of blessings and cursings.  So when Israel drove in the ditch too long, God used Babylonians, Assyrians, and Persians to shotgun their seed about the nations.  Hence The Great Diaspora.

     So why do we have a 1948’s Israel?  Certainly it was not because of obedience did God by the act of the United Nations, carve out a slice of Middle Eastern property and stake up “no trespassing” signs.  Yes, following the great persecution of Jews in WWII, worldly compassion went their way.  But assigning them defenders of newly acquired soil against seething displacements on many sides does not make sense to me.  Neither do I see it in scripture.

     Please don’t call me anti-Semitic.  The purpose of this is not to cast bad light on them who have been historically beaten up.  Am I illiterate?  Ignorant? Possibly.  But still frustrated.  I hear the Church putting a magnifying glass on Israel like She is some kind of timekeeper for us.  Prophecy this…prophecy that.  The Anti-Christ with a new temple.  Blah, blah.  With all this in our heads and spinning around, we forget to love God and look out for our neighbor.

     I understand Israel’s responsibly is to spread the law of sin, the written code, to the ancient world.  Those about the Middle East and into pockets where He would send them.  They are to perpetuate the great history back to Adam.  Someone in traditions has to keep a record.

     I also understand the Church’s responsibility is to spread the law of grace to the new world.  These two could work together but there still seems to be a middle wall of separation which man keeps erecting though Christ took it down.

     In the end, He will gather His elect from every corner.  He will usher in a new time when neighbor will not have to teach neighbor.  He will certainly reign on Earth with the chosen.  He will extend the borders even to the Great River.  But until that time, She will endure persecution just as the Church has since Christ left.

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