Gather

Gather

“For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. . . . I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. I will call for the grain and multiply it, and bring no famine upon you.” Ezek. 36:24, 29.

The dispersion of the Jews has been a great curse over them. The Lord dispersed them over the entire earth because of their great sinfulness and stubbornness. This curse has not just been over the people, but also over their land, which was so exceedingly glorious when they were gathered there and had God-fearing kings, priests, and prophets and were willing to be led by God’s good laws and commandments. However, the land became a desert of thorns and thistles throughout the entire time of their dispersion. The dispersion and the curse belong together.

Jesus came to gather. “How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” Matt. 23:37. Jesus did not come to gather Israel so they could become a worldly superpower. If that had been His intention, they would certainly have been willing to be gathered, but Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world. Jesus wanted them to leave their sinful, selfish interests so He could gather them under His heavenly Father’s will, the same will by which He Himself was led and by which He was mightily protected and blessed. Think of the blessing, safety, and glory that would have come over Israel for time and eternity if they had been willing to be led by God’s good will. Think of the infinite suffering and need they would have been spared.

“But you were not willing,” He said sorrowfully. Here we can see how dangerous and foolish it is not to be willing to be gathered and united in the will of Christ when He draws on our hearts and calls us. They all had their own will, and in their pride and conceit they saw something great in keeping it. Both they and everyone since then who has not been willing has amply tasted the bitter fruits of being obstinate.

In these days we are experiencing that the Lord is gathering His dispersed people. He fetches them from among the nations and gathers them from the various countries. We also see that their land is being transformed from a desert to a fruitful garden, at the same speed as the gathering of the people.

To gather and to bless belong together. Just as He is now gathering and blessing the earthly Israel, so He will also in our days gather and bless the spiritual Israelites. He will call for the grain, and there will be no lack of spiritual nourishment.

A church is only blessed in relation to the true oneness that rules in its midst. Therefore the apostles exhorted, fought, and labored to lead each individual to perfect unity in life and doctrine. Paul says that it was for this reason that God gave to the church apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers for the edification of the body of Christ, so that they all might come to the unity of the faith in the Son of God. They were to strive to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace and bear one another in the love of Christ. “Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” Eph. 4 and 1 Cor. 1:10.

Jesus prayed fervently in His high priestly prayer: “That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which you gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.” John 17:21-23.

Here we can see how it burned in Jesus’ heart and in the apostles’ hearts that the saints might be one and have fellowship. If this same fervent desire is not in our hearts, then there is something wrong within. If there is something that we should have more of on earth in these days, it is unity. A living faith in the fact that we can be perfectly one as the Father and the Son are one is almost non-existent. However, where it really does exist, unity is created, and the glory that the Father gave to His Son is also given to these saints through this unity.

There are many preachers who can gather people in buildings that are filled to overflowing. They invite sinners to salvation and healing and to partake of the gifts of the Spirit, but they do not believe that this assembly can be one as the Father and the Son are one—and they most likely don’t work toward that end, either. As a general rule, these assemblies have their pastor preach a sermon to them, and then they go their own way again, each of them with their self-will still intact. They might be one in some doctrinal matters, but this does not satisfy Christ. All these individual self-wills act like a wall around each of them and are obstacles to fellowship. Jesus saw that, and He came to earth to break down these walls and bring peace and unity.

“For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of division between us . . . and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.” Eph. 2:14, 16.

God be praised! Now all these smart, stiff, and stubborn self-wills that have caused so much unrest, strife, and noise can be silenced on the cross of Christ. Then we can be united as new people in one body, with the same mind, the same Spirit, and speaking the same thing. Only as new and transformed people can we be one, hating and cursing ourselves according to the flesh, yet being led by the Word and will of Christ.

Every single Jew, who has been brought home to his land by the Lord, no longer to sojourn in the dispersion, can relate a personal story of suffering. They could easily write entire books about how they came through the whole ordeal in amazing ways and landed in Palestine. The spiritual Israelites can also relate how God, in His zeal for their salvation, laid hold of them and bowed their minds through times of adversity and tribulations and in amazing ways led them into the church of the living God. They will also have to experience sufferings, but they will be the sufferings of Christ that bring incorruptible riches and glory into their lives to the same degree as they partake of His sufferings.

God be praised for the church of the living God that is now blossoming in the last days into an unfailing, glorious brotherhood in the Holy Spirit, and is a reality in life and doctrine. It is also a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense among today’s religious groups, as it has always been. However, Jesus says that the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. The church is Christ’s own work on earth, and He works powerfully under the cover of reproach. Jesus suffered great contradiction from sinners, and it is also evident today that if we examine the lives of those who rave against the church in their writings and speeches, we will find that they are sinners. Some of them don’t even have victory over tobacco, not to mention victory over their proud and vain human nature. In their impudence they are not even ashamed to serve up obvious lies openly, and to make the idea of a victorious life in Christ seem ludicrous. Thus they scoff at God’s own Word and bring judgment over themselves. All of them have to acknowledge the fellowship and unity in the church of God they are opposing, even though this unity is totally unknown amongt them. They are blind guides for the blind, but they are powerless against those who can see. To their great consternation, more and more people have their eyes opened to the unity and glory in the body of Christ, even those in their own midst. They are alarmed by the powerlessness of their own warnings to those over whom they had previously held sway. It is no longer of any use for a blind person to explain away something that a seeing person can see so clearly.

We live in an evil and dark world and in the midst of an outward religiosity without power. Unrighteousness abounds, and the love of many will grow cold. May we, through prayer and watchfulness, be preserved in humility, faithfulness, and devotion, so that the lampstand and the fire of the first love may shine, purify, cleanse, and spread warmth in our midst. May we with a living hope await the gathering to Him who will soon come to fetch the saints and faithful ones from all the corners of the earth.