Bible Readings for the Home Circle Part 96

Look not on earth for strife to cease, Look not below for joy and peace, Until the Saviour comes again To banish death and sin.

Then in the glorious earth made new We'll dwell the countless ages through; This mortal shall immortal be, And time, eternity.

F. E. BELDEN.

The Gathering Of Israel

[Ill.u.s.tration.]

Wailing Place Of The Jews. "The Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people." Isa. 11:11.

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, saith 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 home land.

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 t.i.tus, 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. t.i.tus, 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 pages 313, 314.

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 breaketh 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 pa.s.sing 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 wors.h.i.+p of G.o.d. It is first mentioned in the Bible as Salem (Gen.

14:18); is spoken of figuratively as a mother bringing forth the children of G.o.d (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 G.o.d'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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 be a.s.sembled in Palestine?

"Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat....

Mult.i.tudes, mult.i.tudes in the valley of decision [margin, concision, or thres.h.i.+ng; 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 a.s.sembled?

"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 G.o.d 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 a.s.sembled. Rev. 19:15.

11. Unto whom are G.o.d's people to be gathered?

"The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until _s.h.i.+loh_ 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 G.o.d's people?

"And it shall come to pa.s.s 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 _a.s.semble 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.

The Millennium