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harvest of either the wheat or the tares, a gathering either for blessing or for judgment is
implied.
Again, it will be necessary to make a selection from the great amount of references
that are found in the O.T. to the gathering of Israel. One of the fullest promises, and
supplying us with some of the necessary conditions associated with this gathering is
found in Deut. 30: 1-6. If in their captivity Israel "call to mind" the threat of cursing
and the promise of blessing, if they "return unto the Lord" and obey His voice, then said
God, I will turn their captivity and have compassion upon them "and will return and
gather thee from all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee", even
though they were driven to the outmost parts of heaven. These the Lord promises He will
bring into the land which their father possessed, and they shall possess it.
From this initial prophecy, several important features emerge:
(1)
The gathering of scattered Israel will be contingent upon their repentance. If Israel and Judah
return to the land in unbelief that will not be the gathering of the Lord, but a human attempt
to bring about the restoration by evil means, which will end in disaster, and such an
abortive movement has taken place, with disastrous consequences in our own time.
(2)
All Israel is in view in Deut. 30: The subdivision of the Ten Tribes and the Two Tribes is not
envisaged. It matters not where the dispersion of Israel may have taken them, even though
it be to the utmost parts of heaven.
(3)
This gathering will take scattered Israel back to the land which their fathers possessed, and they
shall possess it. That land is Palestine, and cannot possibly be Great Britain or any other
country on earth. This prophecy is explicit, it is basic, it is definite; it cannot be made to
mean anything other than what it actually says.
The reference to the "outmost parts of heaven" seems to have been in mind when that
typical anticipatory "gathering" took place on the day of Pentecost, for we read:
"And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under
heaven" (Acts 2: 5).
Leaving this testimony of Moses, let us acquaint ourselves with the witness of the
Prophets. Isa. 11: is one of the passages which seems to be rightly called Millennial. It
is linked with the presence of the Lord (Isa. 11: 1, 4 and 10).
"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. 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" (Isa. 11: 11, 12).
Let us once again pause to consider this prophecy:
(1)
This gathering of Israel takes place at the Second Coming of Christ for He shall not only fulfil
Psa. 72:, and judge the poor, but shall "smite the earth (eretz, or with some codices ariz
`the oppressor', verse 4) with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He
slay the wicked or the lawless one" (Isa. 11: 4). (See II Thess. 2: 1-8).