The Gathering of the People Unto Christ
In an adult Bible
Class which I attended recently as an unexpected visitor, the dear friend who
was teaching (a devout Premillennialist) was somewhat restrained by my presence,
as he tried to fit Genesis 49, into his Scofield pattern. Thinking of Jacob's
prophecies about his sons and following his belief that all prophetic
predictions about the natural descendants of Jacob will find their complete and
eternally glorious fulfillment in the future millennium, he stopped short of
saying all he believed and simply asked his class to give further thought to
the points he liked best, but did not fully develop. He did, however, give me
some stimulation for joyful consideration of the cause of Israel's dying
delight.
My main joy has come from two promises
made to Judah. The first in Genesis 49:10 is that, "The sceptre shall not
depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh
come." Our teacher quite rightly saw David and Solomon as fine elements in
that prophecy. He also warned against following deceptive teachers like those
produced by Mormonism and British Israelism, with their erroneous teachings
about the so-called "lost tribes," and the phoney idea that our
British Royal Family are descendants of David's royal line. He stopped when
British Israelism takes off on its phantom trail with Jeremiah and the daughter
of King Zedekiah, to sanctify forever the island of Ireland and to plant
"The Stone of Scone" under British monarchs, in the throne at
Westminster. He failed to show that, at the very point in the history of Israel
where the last corrupt kings disappeared, the best of Judah's princes, men like
Daniel, Zerubbabel, Mordecai, Zechariah, Nehemiah and later the Maccabees and
others took over as teachers, rulers and soldiers. Even Zechariah, the priest,
the father of John the Baptist, was connected with the tribe of Judah. God knew
how to preserve a godly line through every generation of national corruption,
until His appointed time and final Sovereign came.
But Jacob's main joy was realized when he
foresaw the scene described in the last part of verse 10. He did not see Shiloh
as a rejected suitor, a jilted lover, who would be compelled to win the object
of His first choice by making her jealous by the favours He would show to an
outside bride. Rather, he saw what made him exult with glad joy and say,
"Unto him shall the gathering of the people (nations, Gentiles) be."
The word "Gathering," means to submit, obey, to hope toward, or flock
to. It gives the picture of hosts of glad devotees flocking in glad
submissiveness to yield in loving obedience and eternal allegiance to Him. It
gives the same picture from the purely human viewpoint, as we see in Isaiah 49:21-23.
There, we hear Christ speaking in glad amazement, as He foresees the hosts of
the elect that have come to Him from Gentile backgrounds, since the fall of
national Israel in 70 A.D. and we hear Him say, "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 had they been? Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up mine hand
to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy
sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.
And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers:
they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the
dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord: for they shall not be
ashamed that wait for me." (Isaiah 49:21-23). Jacob is anticipating Psalm
2:6-9, where God, the Father says, "Yet have I set my king upon my holy
hill of Zion. I will declare
the decree: the
Lord hath said unto me. Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of
me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost
parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of
iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." Psalm
110:1-4 is a further expansion of this, as seen from the Godward side. The
gathering of the glad subjects of Genesis 49:10 is a continuing, sure reality
because, "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I
make thine enemies thy footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength
out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Thy people shall be
willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of
the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth. The Lord hath sworn, and will not
repent. Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek." It was
as if Jacob saw the whole, innumerable host upon whom Christ was looking when
He spoke the words of John 10:16, the host which He claimed even when He was
here as His own possession, which He was committed to bring, to make up the one
and only flock, made up of Jews and Gentiles, that will respond to His voice
and gladly follow His leadership.
This is no picture of flesh-loving
pleasure seekers, rushing to so-called healing campaigns or emotional sprees,
in order to get, "High on Jesus." This is the picture of a rush of
fervent volunteers, who see in the chance to serve Christ, as glad extensions
of His consecrated body, the most delightful privileges that Earth and Heaven
afford to men. Jacob had lamented the brevity and futility of his own
man-governed life (see Genesis 47:9) and now he was faithfully spending his
last hour as a prophet of the all-seeing God. He will not groan
and fight to keep his physical prison house, but, as soon as this prophetic
chore is completed, he will pull up his feet into the bed and, in business like
action, would cut the moorings and take off as a forerunner of the crowd he had
just foreseen.
What a blessed joy it is to be part of
the fulfillment of Jacob's vision, and instruments in God's hands in making
good the many other, similar promises. This adds unspeakable joy to the delight
of giving the Gospel and the greater privilege of living as confirmations of
God's claims. This should move every teacher, personal worker and preacher with
a consuming urge so to present the truth that this kind of urge will be
stimulated in poor sinners' breasts and they will rush, not merely to escape
Hell or get help, but to serve and please Christ. There the old man's eyes,
long dim to things of earth, for which he lived too long, brightened up with
heavenly rapture, as he saw Christ standing as an irresistible magnet and every
kind, colour and class of humanity coming from all directions and backgrounds
to find life's highest meaning and deepest delight in losing themselves by
being completely and forever absorbed in Christ.
Philip Keller's sheep dog, Lassie,
learned to run to him, in the unspeakable joy of being used to carry out her
master's wishes. Thus all whom Jacob recognized as Christians submerge every
interest and devote every exercise of life to one end, the expressing of the
will and nature of our blessed Shiloh. That is the Kingdom and we shall never
have a better chance to be a fulfilling part of it than we have here and now.
Summer 2003 Front Page Next Article