Scattered and Gathered

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:9-10)

I heard a preacher make a profound statement that I have not forgotten: “the human race was scattered in Adam.” Begin reading the first chapters of the Bible and you will indeed find this theme of being scattered or cast out.

After they sinned, Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden, with a flaming sword and angels blocking their way to the Tree of Life. And so began the story of Paradise Lost, as Milton called it, and man’s struggle outside of his home in Eden. Mankind is homeless in a world that is hostile to him and not under his control and authority.

Then Cain killed his brother Abel, and it was over a religious matter. For this act Cain went out from the presence of the Lord – he was cast out and made to wander on the face of the earth.

The people of the earth then multiplied and became so wicked that God decided to start over. After the Deluge the people came together, all speaking the same language, in the Plain of Shinar and decided to build something for themselves. But God was not pleased with their plans and He confused their languages and scattered them over the face of the earth.

After this God decided to start over again, starting with one man named Abram. From this one man God was going to make a nation for Himself. God was creating His own nation, and that from a man and a woman who had never been able to conceive children on their own, to show that He creates something where there was nothing, just as He created the world in the first place. This glorifies God and makes it impossible to give the credit to man. The only reason we have ever heard of Abraham or the nation of Israel is because of God. God chose Abram. Abram did not choose God, but was an idol worshiper like everyone else there in Ur. The people of God are not the people of God because they are better than other people. The people of God are the people of God because He has chosen them by grace. Through Abram and his “Seed” – not many seeds, but one “Seed” – God would bless the nations of the world which He had previously scattered at Babel.

Abraham’s descendants went down to Egypt where they became a nation, but also became slaves. God brought them out of slavery, redeeming them for Himself, and at Sinai God made a covenant with them. God now had His own nation.

God wanted to reveal Himself to them and to dwell in their midst. They were to be His people and He was to be their God. They were to have no other gods before Him. A unique God-consciousness was being cultivated in the people of Israel, something no other nation had. Every aspect of their lives was to be dominated by God, even down to the kinds of food they ate.

Israel was to be a holy nation, a People uniquely belonging to God, set apart from the other nations of the world. They were set apart for God. And God was a jealous God, like a husband to Israel, and He not willing to share them with any other lovers.

But the Law made nothing perfect. The people of Israel, almost from the beginning, had hard hearts and stiff necks. They played the harlot and went after other gods. And so they broke the covenant God had made with them at Sinai and brought down the curses of the covenant on their heads. In His wrath God sent them into exile in Babylon. Again we see this theme of sin and being scattered, cast out, exiled, and alienated. Sin always scatters us, casts us out, and separates us from God.

But God was not done with Israel and He did not completely reject His people. There was a remnant, chosen by grace, which was restored. God scattered them into exile, but as He had promised through the Prophets, He gathered them again. Sin scatters. But God, by grace, gathers His people again.

All of this scattering and gathering in the history of the human race was in anticipation of an even greater gathering.

In Christ, through the Gospel, God is gathering a People who had been scattered by sin and its effects. This great gathering is not just for Israel but also for the nations – those scattered at Babel – which was promised in the blessing of Abraham: God would bless the world through Abram’s “Seed,” which is Christ.

In Christ Jew and Gentile, once separated and scattered in Adam, would be gathered together into one Body in Christ. We are a part of that Body of people, gathered together in Christ. This is not the kind of gathering like the one at Sinai. This is a gathering of people who have the Law written on their hearts, who are no longer wayward and unfaithful. This is a gathering of people who know the Lord.

So we have been gathered together today in Christ, all members of one Body, but in anticipation of a still greater, final gathering that is still to come. When we get to the end of the Bible, we see a little preview of this ultimate gathering of the redeemed from every nation and language. They are dressed in white, having been cleansed from every sin that had scattered them. And they worship God, giving Him the glory for the salvation that He alone could have accomplished.

This great and final gathering is our destiny, where we will then dwell in the presence of the Lord forever. It is our business as God’s people still scattered in this world to begin to prepare for this final gathering and to be in the presence of the Lord. In this world we will find no permanent home and we wander as strangers and aliens in the earth. We wander but are not lost.