Book of Numbers Jews Turning Away From God Again and Again

"Chapter 24: The Scattering and the Gathering of Israel," Doctrines of the Gospel Pupil Transmission (2000), 64–66

"24: Scattering and Gathering of Israel," Doctrines of the Gospel Educatee Transmission, 64–66

Introduction

President Joseph F. Smith spoke of the purposes of the Church: "We proclaim the objects of this organization to be, the preaching of the gospel in all the earth, the gathering of scattered Israel, and the grooming of a people for the coming of the Lord" (in James R. Clark, comp., Messages of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 4:145).

Doctrinal Outline

1. Ancient Israel was scattered throughout the earth considering the people rejected God's covenant.

   1. It was prophesied that Israel would be scattered amid the nations of the earth because of the people'due south wickedness (see Leviticus 26:33; Deuteronomy four:23–27; 28:25, 37, 64; 1 Nephi x:12–13; 21:1; 22:3–4).

   2. The scattering began when the Assyrians carried the ten tribes away into captivity (meet 2 Kings 15:29; 17:half-dozen).

   3. The scattering connected when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, carried Judah away into captivity (see 2 Kings 25:ane, 7, 11; 1 Nephi 10:3).

   4. Lehi and his descendants were a co-operative of State of israel, broken off and scattered (see 1 Nephi xv:12; 19:24; 2 Nephi iii:5).

   5. After the decease of Jesus, the Jews were scattered among the gentile nations (see two Nephi 25:15; Luke 21:24; D&C 45:xviii–21, 24).

   6. The scattering of the Jews is likened in scripture to a sifting, a divorce, and the auction of a man to pay his debts (see Amos nine:eight–9; Isaiah 50:1).

2. Through His prophets God promised to gather scattered Israel once again.

   1. The gathering of scattered Israel is a result both of God's mercy and too of Israel's repentance (come across Isaiah 54:7; Ezekiel xi:17; Jeremiah 50:4–v; 2 Nephi x:7; xxx:7).

   2. According to God's prophets, the redemption of scattered Israel shall be accomplished in the latter days (see Deuteronomy 4:27–31; D&C 113:vi).

   3. The raising of an ensign to the nations is the signal for Israel to be gathered home in the latter days (see Isaiah 5:26; xi:12).

   4. Moses delivered to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery the keys of the gathering of Israel (see D&C 110:11).

   5. All nations will eventually evangelize upwards the scattered peoples of the Lord, who will return to the lands of their forefathers' inheritance (see Deuteronomy 30:3; Psalm 107:1–three; Isaiah 43:five–six).

   6. Of the twelve tribes, the tribes of Joseph'southward sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, will be gathered first and so direct the other tribes in their gathering (see JST, Genesis 48:5–11; Deuteronomy 33:16–17; D&C 133:30–39).

   7. Known every bit the remnant of the Lord, gathered Israel is likened to the ransomed or redeemed from captivity, the lost sheep sought out, or the outcasts taken back (see Isaiah x:21–22; 11:11–12; Ezekiel 34:11–sixteen; two Nephi 8:11).

Supporting Statements

1. Aboriginal Israel was scattered throughout the world because the people rejected God'southward covenant.

   • "If you will read the 26th chapter of Leviticus and the 28th affiliate of Deuteronomy—in that location are many other capacity as well in the Bible but these ii especially—you will detect recorded many things by way of covenant and promise and admonition that the Lord gave to Israel. He told them what would happen if they kept his commandments. He told them the consequences of breaking his commandments. All that was clearly ready forth in these scriptures earlier the Israelites entered the promised land. …

     "As time went on they violated these covenants. They turned away from the admonitions, the commandments, the instructions that the Lord gave them through the Prophet Moses, and eventually, because of that rebellion, the curses came upon them and they were scattered among the nations of the world" (Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 1:165).

   • "We have something in the Book of Mormon that, if we did not take any other truth expressed in it, would be sufficient evidence of the divinity of this book. I take reference to the fifth affiliate of Jacob. In this chapter we take a parable that nobody could accept written unless he had the guidance of the Spirit of the Lord. It would have been incommunicable. … No greater parable was ever recorded. It is a parable of the scattering of Israel. The Lord revealed to Jacob that he would scatter Israel, and in this figure, Israel is a tame olive tree. …

     "… In its native land it began to dice. So the Lord took branches like the Nephites, like the lost tribes, and like others that the Lord led off that we do not know anything most, to other parts of the globe. He planted them all over his vineyard, which is the globe" (Joseph Fielding Smith, Answers to Gospel Questions, iv:203–4).

   • "It has been said, that 'if a complete history of the house of Israel were written, information technology would be the history of histories, the key of the earth'southward history for the past twenty centuries.' Justification for this sweeping argument is establish in the fact that the Israelites accept been so completely dispersed amidst the nations as to give to this scattered people a identify of importance as a gene in the rising and development of well-nigh every large sectionalisation of the human being family. This work of dispersion was brought nearly by many stages, and extended through millenniums. It was foreseen past the early prophets; and the spiritual leaders of every generation prior to and immediately following the Messianic era predicted the scattering of the people, as an ordained consequence of their increasing wickedness" (James E. Talmage, The Articles of Faith, 316).

   • "Israel was scattered because she apostatized; because she broke the Ten Commandments; because she rejected the prophets and seers and turned to wizards that peep and mutter; because she forsook the covenant; because she gave heed to fake ministers and joined false churches; because she ceased to be a peculiar people and a kingdom of priests. When she became as the globe, the Lord left her to suffer and live and exist as the globe then was" (Bruce R. McConkie, The Millennial Messiah, 186).

   

2. Through His prophets God promised to get together scattered Israel once once again.

   • "The sufferings of Israel accept been but necessary chastening by a grieved yet loving Father, who planned by these effective ways to purify His sin-stained children. …

     "Though smitten of men, a large part of them gone from a knowledge of the world, Israel are not lost unto their God. He knows whither they accept been led or driven; toward them His centre still yearns with paternal love; and surely will He bring them forth, in due fourth dimension and by appointed means, into a condition of blessing and influence conforming His covenant people. In spite of their sin and nevertheless the tribulations that they were bringing upon themselves, the Lord said: 'And yet for all that, when they be in the country of their enemies, I will non cast them away, neither volition I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: I am the Lord their God.' As complete as was the handful, and then shall be the gathering of Israel" (Talmage, Articles of Faith, 328–29).

   • "The restoration of the kingdom to Israel—that was the thing uppermost in the minds of Jewish State of israel in our Lord'due south day. …

     "And so even the Twelve—after spending three years with Jesus in his mortal ministry; later on associating with him for xl days equally a resurrected being; and afterward being taught all that it was expedient for them to know to perform the labor that and then was theirs—even the apostles sought yet to acquire of the fulfillment of the prophetic give-and-take concerning State of israel the chosen. 'When they therefore were come together,' at the time appointed for the rise of Jesus into sky, to sit downwardly on the correct manus of the Majesty on loftier, 'they asked of him, proverb, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?' …

     "… The kingdom was non to be restored to Israel in their mean solar day. Let them preach the gospel and save souls before the dire day of darkness that shortly would embrace the earth. The promised 24-hour interval of restoration, the day of Israel's triumph and glory, the day of millennial glory—all this lay ahead. Information technology was scheduled for the last days" (McConkie, Millennial Messiah, 309–ten).

   • "Many ancient prophecies foretold that in the terminal days the Lord would set up an ensign to the nations, a standard to which Israel and the righteous of all nations might get together. (Isa. 5:26; xi:10–12; 18:iii; 30:17–26; 31:9; 49:22; 62:10; Zech. ix:xvi.) This ensign is the new and everlasting covenant, the gospel of salvation (D. & C. 49:9); it is the great latter-24-hour interval Zion (D. & C. 64:41–43); it is The Church building of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" (Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 228).

   • "Now, nosotros are concerned with the gathering of Israel. This gathering shall continue until the righteous are assembled in the congregations of the Saints in the nations of the world. This reminds us of the tenth article of religion, wherein the Prophet Joseph Smith said to his inquirer, 'We believe in the literal gathering of State of israel and in the restoration of the 10 Tribes; that Zion (the new Jerusalem) will exist congenital upon the American continent; that Christ volition reign personally upon the earth; and, that the world will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.' …

     "At present, the gathering of Israel consists of joining the true church and their coming to a noesis of the true God. … Any person, therefore, who has accepted the restored gospel, and who at present seeks to worship the Lord in his own tongue and with the Saints in the nations where he lives, has complied with the law of the gathering of Israel and is heir to all of the blessings promised the Saints in these concluding days" (Spencer W. Kimball, The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, 438–39).

     

     President Spencer W. Kimball

   • "Past and by the Jews will be gathered to the land of their fathers, and the ten tribes, who wandered into the north, volition be gathered abode, and the blood of Ephraim, the second son of Joseph, who was sold into Egypt, which is to be found in every kingdom and nation under heaven, will be gathered from among the Gentiles, and the Gentiles who will receive and adhere to the principles of the Gospel volition be adopted and initiated into the family of Male parent Abraham, and Jesus volition reign over his own and Satan will reign over his ain" (Brigham Young, Discourses of Brigham Immature, 121–22).

   • "Why is it that you are here to-mean solar day? and what brought you lot here? Because the keys of the gathering of State of israel from the four quarters of the earth have been committed to Joseph Smith, and he has conferred those keys upon others that the gathering of State of israel may be achieved, and in due time the same thing will be performed to the tribes in the country of the n. It is on this account, and through the unlocking of this principle, and through those means, that you are brought together as you are to-day" (John Taylor, in Journal of Discourses, 25:179).

   • "It is essential in this impunity that Ephraim stand up in his place at the head, exercising the birthright in State of israel which was given to him by direct revelation. Therefore, Ephraim must exist gathered outset to prepare the manner, through the gospel and the priesthood, for the residue of the tribes of Israel when the time comes for them to be gathered to Zion. The great majority of those who have come up into the Church are Ephraimites. It is the exception to find one of whatsoever other tribe, unless it is of Manasseh.

     "It is Ephraim, today, who holds the priesthood. Information technology is with Ephraim that the Lord has made covenant and has revealed the fulness of the everlasting gospel. It is Ephraim who is building temples and performing the ordinances in them for both the living and for the expressionless. When the 'lost tribes' come—and it will exist a nigh wonderful sight and a marvelous affair when they do come to Zion—in fulfilment of the promises fabricated through Isaiah and Jeremiah, they volition have to receive the crowning blessings from their brother Ephraim, the 'firstborn' in Israel" (Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 3:252–53).

sawyersatho1977.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/doctrines-of-the-gospel-student-manual/24-scattering-and-gathering-of-israel?lang=eng

Share this post