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VII. Coming Events and Signs of
the Times
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Chapter 77
:
The Gathering of Israel
1.
BECAUSE of disobedience, what experience came to Israel?
"I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of
the earth." Jer. 34:17. See Jer. 25:8-11.
2.
What prophecy spoke of their return from captivity?
"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says
the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give
you an expected end. . . . And ye shall seek Me, and
find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your
heart. 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." Jer. 29:11-14. See also
Jer. 23:3.
NOTE.-The first dispersion of the Jews occurred B.C.
606-588, under Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. In
B.C. 457, under Artaxerxes, the Persian king, large
numbers of Jews returned to Palestine, their
homeland.
3.
How had Moses spoken of another and greater dispersion?
"The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far,
from the end of the earth. . . . and he shall besiege
thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls
come down, wherein thou trustedst. . . . and the Lord
shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of
the earth even unto the other." Deut. 28:49-64.
NOTE.-This calamity and dispersion occurred in 70
A.D., under Titus, the Roman general. Says the
Popular and Critical Bible Encyclopedia, Vol. II,
article "Jerusalem," page 932: "Jerusalem seems to
have been raised to this greatness as if to enhance
the misery of its overthrow. So soon as the Jews had
set the seal to their formal rejection of Christ, by
putting Him to death, and invoking the
responsibility of His blood upon the heads of
themselves and of their children (Matt. 27:25), the
city's doom went forth. Titus, a young, brave, and
competent Roman general, with an army of sixty
thousand trained, victorious warriors, appeared
before the city in April, 70 A.D., and the most
disastrous siege of all history began." See reading
in Chapter 68. of this book.
4.
Under what striking symbol was all this foretold?
"Thus saith the Lord, Go and get a potter's earthen
bottle, and. . . . break the bottle . . . and
. . . say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts;
Even so will I break this people and this city, as one
breaks a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole
again." Jer. 19:1-11.
NOTE.-"No city on the globe has suffered more from
war and sieges than Jerusalem. . . . Storming
legions, battering-rams, and catapults have razed it
again and again. And yet, the general outline of the
city has always been preserved. Zion and Mt. Moriah
remain in full view from Olivet, and there, on those
hills, stretching away toward the west, city after
city has come and gone in the passing ages."-Popular
and Critical Bible Encyclopedia, Vol. II, article
"Jerusalem," pages 928, 929.
5.
How long was Jerusalem to be trodden down of the
Gentiles?
"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." Luke 21:24.
NOTE.-Jerusalem stands for the people, the truth,
and the true worship of God. It is first mentioned
in the Bible as Salem (Gen. 14:18); is spoken of
figuratively as a mother bringing forth the children
of God (Gal. 4:26,27); and is a type of the holy
city, New Jerusalem, which is to be the metropolis
of the new earth. In Rev. 11:2 it is used as a type
of God's people during the long period of 1260 years
of papal persecution, who are there referred to as
"the holy city," which the Gentiles "tread underfoot
forty and two months."
6.
What will terminate the "times" allotted to the
Gentiles?
"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." Matt. 24:14.
7.
Why was the gospel to be preached to the Gentiles?
"Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the
Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name."
Acts 15:14.
8.
What false idea of this gathering were some to hold?
"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." Micah
4:2.
9.
For what will the heathen he assembled in Palestine?
"Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley
of Jehoshaphat. . . . Multitudes, multitudes in the
valley of decision [margin, concision, or threshing;
i.e., war] : for the day of the Lord is near in the
valley of decision." Joel 3: 12-14.
10.
Under whose influence are the nations to be assembled?
"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. 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." Rev. 16:13,14.
NOTE.-Infatuated by the doctrine of the world's
conversion and a temporal millennium of peace,
prosperity, and good will among men, the deluded
nations will aim to make Jerusalem the center of a
glorious kingdom, at which place they will doubtless
expect Christ will come and take up His reign as
their king. This was the favorite idea of the
crusaders in the Dark Ages. But the crusaders were
mistaken in their conception, and sorely
disappointed. So also will the modern crusaders be
mistaken and disappointed; for one object of
Christ's second coming will be to "smite the
nations" and to destroy these armies assembled. Rev.
19:15.
11.
Unto whom are God's people to be gathered?
"The scepter 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." Gen.
49:10.
12.
How did Christ speak of the gathering of the Gentiles?
"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." John 10:16.
13.
What great gathering yet awaits God's people?
"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. . . . 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. "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." Matt. 24:31. |
