The Regathering

And a highway shall be there, and a way,
and it shall be called the way of holiness.
The unclean shall not travel through it,
but it is for them, he who walks on the way;
and fools shall not wander about.

Isaiah 35:8 (LEB)

Those who hold to the theology of dispensationalism, most evangelicals, and many others, view the current state of Israel as the prophesied regathering of Israel where they receive the promises given by God. Many of these people also believe that because this prophesy is supposedly fulfilled in our generation, that the so called rapture of the church must be imminent. There are problems with these ideas, however. For one, the following has not happened yet.

Isaiah 11:11–13 (LEB): ¹¹ And this shall happen on that day: The Lord will again extend his hand a second time to acquire the remnant of his people that is left, from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the coastlands of the sea, ¹² and he will raise a signal for the nations. And he will gather the outcasts of Israel, and he will gather the scattered ones of Judah together from the four corners of the earth. ¹³ And the jealousy of Ephraim shall depart, and the enemies of Judah shall be cut off. Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah, and Judah shall not be an enemy of Ephraim.

“Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah, and Judah shall not be an enemy of Ephraim.” This statement alone should leave dispensationalists scratching their heads. This is the parable of the prodigal son where the older brother is Judah and the younger brother, who returned from sin, is Ephraim. There is going to be a time when God regathers His people to the land where the Messiah will rule and all the tribes will coexist in peace.

There are some people that believe this happened in the first century when Yeshua walked the Earth. These people believe that on the day of Pentecost there were a remnant from all the tribes present when three thousand were saved.

Acts 2:4–12 (LEB): ⁴ And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them ability to speak out. ⁵ Now there were Jews residing in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. ⁶ And when this sound occurred, the crowd gathered and was in confusion, because each one was hearing them speaking in his own language. ⁷ And they were astounded and astonished, saying, “Behold, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? ⁸ And how do we hear, each one of us, in our own native language? ⁹ Parthians and Medes and Elamites and those residing in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰ Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya toward Cyrene, and the Romans who were in town, ¹¹ both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own languages the great deeds of God!” ¹² And all were amazed and greatly perplexed, saying to one another, “What can this mean?”

There is merit to this theory because many of the same places that these people were from, witnessing the pouring out of the Spirit, are listed in the Old Testament prophesies. I do not think that it is the climatic ending of the Messiah gathering His people to the land though. The prophecies are too many in number, and only partially fulfilled.

Isaiah 25:6–9 (LEB): ⁶ And on this mountain Yahweh of hosts will make for all peoples a rich feast, a feast of aged wines, fat filled with marrow, filtered aged wine. ⁷ And on this mountain he will destroy the face of the shroud, the shroud over all peoples, and the woven covering over all nations. ⁸ He will destroy death forever, and the Lord Yahweh will wipe off the tears from all faces, and he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth, for Yahweh has spoken. ⁹ And one will say, on that day, “Look! This is our God! We have waited for him and he saved us! This is Yahweh; we waited for him! Let us be glad, and let us rejoice in his salvation.”

There are many prophesies in the Old Testament the average church goer never considers, or even hears, and they all have language that does not describe what we are witnessing today in the land. The following verses describe what some have labelled as the “second exodus”. Whatever this event is, we can be confident that it is in the future.

Jeremiah 16:14–16 (LEB): ¹⁴ Therefore look, days are coming,’ declares Yahweh, ‘and it will no longer be said, “As Yahweh lives, who led up the Israelites from the land of Egypt,” ¹⁵ but only “As Yahweh lives, who led up the Israelites from the land of the north, and from all the lands where he had driven them,” for I will bring them back to their ground that I gave to their ancestors. ¹⁶ Look, I am sending for many fishermen,’ declares Yahweh, ‘and they will fish them out, and afterwards I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and from the clefts of the cliffs.

When Yeshua came in the first century he told his disciples he was making them “fishers of men”. Is this what he meant? He told them to go out and find the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Matthew 15:24 (LEB): ²⁴ But he answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

Yeshua also spoke of a gathering of his people. Yeshua is the Messiah and he is going to gather his people, Israel. This is not replacement theology. These are His people, the descendants of Abraham. They must be following the one, true God though. There is no separate gentile church with different prophesies as dispensationlists claim. We must join ourselves to the Messiah if we want to be part of this event. He is the one holding the stick in his hand that will contain both the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Paul is speaking to the gentiles in the following verses.

Romans 11:17–21 (LEB): ¹⁷ Now if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although you were a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them and became a sharer of the root of the olive tree’s richness, ¹⁸ do not boast against the branches. But if you boast against them, you do not support the root, but the root supports you. ¹⁹ Then you will say, “Branches were broken off in order that I could be grafted in.” ²⁰ Well said! They were broken off because of unbelief, but you stand firm because of faith. Do not think arrogant thoughts, but be afraid. ²¹ For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.

Those from the nations must plug into the green olive tree, which is rooted in Messiah. This means that we must do the opposite that the church has done for the last 1800 years, trying to create its own tree by forsaking God’s laws and persecuting the Jewish people. There is only one God and one Messiah who will gather the house of Israel and the house of Judah. We must be grafted in.

Matthew 24:31 (LEB): ³¹ And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect together from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other end of it.

I believe this is the gathering spoken about all throughout the prophets. Do people really believe the following verses are speaking about an earthy kingdom?

Psalm 48:1–14 (LEB): ¹ Yahweh is great and very worthy of praise in the city of our God, in his holy mountain. ² Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, in the far north, the city of the great king. ³ God is in her citadels; he is known as a high stronghold. ⁴ For see, the kings assembled; they advanced together. ⁵ They themselves saw it, so they were astonished. They were terrified; they ran off. ⁶ Trembling seized them there—pain as of a woman in labor. ⁷ With an east wind you shatter the ships of Tarshish. ⁸ As we have heard, so we have seen in the city of Yahweh of hosts, in the city of our God. God will establish her forever. Selah ⁹ We have pondered your loyal love, O God, in the midst of your temple. ¹⁰ As is your name, O God, so is your praise to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is full of righteousness. ¹¹ Let Mount Zion rejoice; let the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgments. ¹² Walk about Zion and circle it; count her towers. ¹³ Consider well her ramparts. Go through her citadels so that you can tell the next generation ¹⁴ that this is God, our God forever and ever. He himself will guide us until death.

We see similar language in the book of Revelation. The birds are going to eat the flesh of the rebellious. This is not an earthly battle, although it will happen on earth. The nations on earth are going to be raging and fighting, then all of a sudden, they will see God and His armies, turn to fight them, and realize it is over.

Revelation 19:17–21 (LEB): ¹⁷ And I saw one angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly directly overhead, “Come! Assemble for the great banquet of God, ¹⁸ in order that you may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of military tribunes, and the flesh of the powerful, and the flesh of horses and those seated on them, and the flesh of all people, both free and slave, and small and great!” ¹⁹ And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war with the one who is seated on the horse and with his army. ²⁰ And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs before him, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who had worshiped his image. The two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulphur. ²¹ And the rest were killed by the sword of the one who is seated on the horse—the sword that comes out of his mouth—and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.

We will finally be in a place where death is defeated and the city of God will be part of a new earth.

Revelation 21:1–4 (LEB): 21 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea did not exist any longer. ² And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling of God is with humanity, and he will take up residence with them, and they will be his people and God himself will be with them. ⁴ And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will not exist any longer, and mourning or wailing or pain will not exist any longer. The former things have passed away.”

I heard many sermons over the course of 47 years, and it was seldom made clear the parallel scriptures in the prophets and the book of Revelation. These verses in Isaiah that we looked at earlier are speaking of the same events.

Isaiah 25:7–8 (LEB): ⁷ And on this mountain he will destroy the face of the shroud, the shroud over all peoples, and the woven covering over all nations. ⁸ He will destroy death forever, and the Lord Yahweh will wipe off the tears from all faces, and he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth, for Yahweh has spoken.

We can go all the way back to Deuteronomy and find the prophesy of the regathering. Israel would sin, be driven from the land, and in the latter days, they will return to His commandments, and God will rescue them.

Deuteronomy 4:27–31 (LEB): ²⁷ And Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations to where Yahweh will lead you. ²⁸ And you will there serve gods made by human hands, of wood and stone, gods that cannot see and cannot hear and cannot eat and cannot smell. ²⁹ But from there you shall seek Yahweh your God and will find him, if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul. ³⁰ In your distress when all these things have found you in the latter days, then you will return to Yahweh your God, and you will listen to his voice. ³¹ For Yahweh your God is a compassionate God; he will not abandon you, and he will not destroy you, and he will not forget the covenant of your ancestors that he swore to them.

Just as in the first gathering at Mount Sinai, there will be a mixed multitude in the second gathering. Moses brought out the first group, and the Messiah will be bringing out the second group. I believe this happens at the resurrection, but this is just speculation.

Exodus 12:37–38 (LEB): ³⁷ And the Israelites set out from Rameses to Succoth; the men were about six hundred thousand on foot, besides dependents. ³⁸ And also a mixed multitude went up with them and sheep and goats and cattle, very numerous livestock.

The mixed multitude were able to be “grafted in” through Moses, just as we can be grafted into the promises through the Messiah, Yeshua. Yeshua made the way, and our part is to do just as he said and believe the Father raised him from the dead. This is similar as doing what Moses said because it all comes from God. There are things we cannot do that God told Moses to do because we do not currently have the infrastructure in place, however, we can do what Yeshua told us to do, and we can apply many principles of the Torah to our daily lives today.

Numbers 15:15–16 (LEB): ¹⁵ For the assembly, there will be one decree for you and for the alien who dwells among you; it is an eternal decree for all your generations. You as well as the alien will be before Yahweh. ¹⁶ There will be one law and one stipulation for you and for the alien dwelling among you.’ ”

This “eternal decree” cannot be changed, and it did not change, even if a bunch of bishops, popes and pastors wanted it to be changed. Paul couldn’t change it, nor did he try. People have just twisted Paul’s words to make it appear this way. John the Baptist, Yeshua and the apostles all told us to repent. The dispensationlists will try to tell us that they were not talking to us, and that Paul is the only one we are to listen to in the gentile church. This is the downfall of Christianity. Paul is simply telling us that if we are in covenant with the Messiah, that is living in the Spirit, we will not do the things the law forbids. If we do, then we will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Galatians 5:18–21 (LEB): ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. ¹⁹ Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are sexual immorality, impurity, licentiousness, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, factions, ²¹ envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, things which I am telling you in advance, just as I said before, that the ones who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

It is important to understand that there is no “church” outside of Israel. I am not speaking about a country in the Middle East. Currently that place is geopolitical in nature and secular. They are not directed daily by God to bomb various places as many evangelicals imagine. When the Messiah comes back we will either be found with him or rebelling against him. Those that are with him will be comforted.

Isaiah 66:14 (LEB): ¹⁴ And you shall see and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like the grass, and the hand of Yahweh shall make itself known to his servants, and he shall curse his enemies.

Those found doing works against him will be destroyed.

Isaiah 66:23–24 (LEB): ²³ And this shall happen: From new moon to new moon and from Sabbath to Sabbath all flesh shall come to bow in worship before me,” says Yahweh. ²⁴ “And they shall go out and look at the corpses of the people who have rebelled against me, for their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”

We have a similar message from Yeshua.

Luke 13:26–29 (LEB): ²⁶ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets!’ ²⁷ And he will reply, saying to you, ‘I do not know where you are from! Go away from me, all you evildoers!’ ²⁸ In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves thrown outside! ²⁹ And they will come from east and west, and from north and south, and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God.

I want to do everything possible to be in the kingdom of God. It starts now and there are certain house rules to being in the kingdom. We have a standard given to us in scripture that Yeshua told us to follow. Repent and believe the gospel!

The featured photo is by Louis Hansel on Unsplash.