21 Then shalt thou say in thine heart: Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? And who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where have they been?
The scattering and gathering of Israel is one of the most
prominent prophecies of the Old Testament, and it is referred to many, many
times throughout scripture, both ancient and modern. Surely it is a prophecy
that the Jews (as the last identifiable tribe of Israel) have and believe in.
And yet this verse makes it sound like when Israel is finally gathered that
they will be surprised that there are so many other Israelites. That is
evidence to me that this is a spiritual gathering even more than a physical
gathering. I wonder what Jews think when they find out that members of the
Lord’s restored church are all part of the house of Israel, mostly from the
tribe of Ephraim. My guess is that they don’t believe it; they may think it’s
cute that these gentiles are pretending to be Israelites, or they are offended
by it. But I think they are so focused on a physical gathering to the land of
Jerusalem that the spiritual gathering catches them by surprise, as they are
converted. So of course they wonder where all these Israelites came from. They
may have believed the prophecies about the Gathering, but they didn’t
understand them.
- Isaiah 54: 1
- Galatians 4: 27
