7.10 The Gathering of Israel                                       

 

1. What experience did Israel have to endure for its disobedience?
Jeremiah 34:17 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ye have not hearkened unto Me, in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother, and every man to his neighbour: behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the LORD, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.
Jeremiah 25:8-11
8 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Because ye have not heard My words,
9 Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations.
10 Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle.
11 And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

 

2. Which prophecy speaks of their return from captivity?
Jeremiah 29:11-14
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
12 Then shall ye call upon Me, and ye shall go and pray unto Me, and I will hearken unto you.
13 And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart.
14 And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.
Jeremiah 23:3 And I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.

 

3. How had Moses spoken of another and greater dispersion?
Deuteronomy 28:49-51 Read till verse 64
49 The LORD shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand;
50 A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young:
51 And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee.

 

4. Under what striking symbol was all this foretold?
Jeremiah 19:1-3
1 Thus saith the LORD, Go and get a potter's earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests;
2 And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee,
3 And say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle.
Note: This disaster took place in 70 AD. Under Titus the Roman general. With an army of sixty thousand, he surrounded the city and destroyed it.

 

5. How long would Jerusalem be trampled by Gentiles?
Luke 21:24 And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
Note: Jerusalem signifies the people, the truth, and the true service of God. It is first mentioned in the Bible as Salem (Genesis 14:18); it is spoken of figuratively as a mother who brings forth the children of God (Galatians 4:26, 27); and is a type of the holy city, the new Jerusalem, which will be the capital of the new earth. In Revelation 11:2, Jerusalem is used as a type of God's people during the long period of 1,260 years of papal persecution, to which it is referred there as “the holy city” which the Gentiles trample for forty-two months.

 

6. What will put an end to the “times” that are destined for the Gentiles?
Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

 

7. Why was the gospel to be preached to the Gentiles?
Acts 15:14 Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name.

 

8. What false view would some have of this gathering?
Micah 4:2 And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

 

9. To what purpose shall the Gentiles be gathered in Palestine?
Joel 3:12-14
12 Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.
13 Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great.
14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.

 

10. Under whose influence are the nations gathered?
Revelation 16:13-14
13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
14 For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.

 

11. Unto whom shall God’s people be gathered?
Genesis 49:10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto Him shall the gathering of the people be.

 

12. How did Christ speak of the gathering of the Gentiles?
John 10:16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one fold, and one Shepherd.

 

13. What great gathering yet awaits God’s people?
Isaiah 11:11-12
11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
12 And He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
Matthew 24:31 And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.