0238. Scattered Among the Nations
Scattered Among the Nations
"So they took up Jonah, and they cast him into the sea" (Jon_1:15).
"For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the House of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve" (Amo_9:9).
Students will at once acknowledge that the sea, when used as a type, stands for the nations. "And he said unto me, The waters which thou sawest, * * are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues." Thus Jonah, cast into the sea, is a type of Israel cast into the nations. And history has verified the type.
Everyone today concedes the literalness with which God has carried out the prophecy of our key text in Amos. Where can one go that he does not run across Jacob’s sons? Certainly they are sifted among all nations.
For many years Israel has dwelt without a king, and without a prince and without a sacrifice. For many years Israel has been trodden down of the Gentiles. Her glory has fled away like a bird, and her goodness like a morning cloud. She has been smitten, dried up in her root; she is fruitless.
The chosen of the Lord, the people of our God, are desolate in the day of His rebuke; they have been feeding upon wind; they are oppressed and broken in judgment. God blessed them as long as they hearkened to His voice; but now He has sent His storm upon them, and cast them into the sea.
Why didst thou run away from thy God, O Israel? Why didst thou provoke Him to anger against thee? Did not Moses thy great emancipator give thee warning of thy lot, shouldest thou rebel?
Poor backsliding Israel: "Cursed art thou in thy basket, cursed in thy store. Cursed art thou in the city, cursed art thou in the field."
Poor Israel, "The heaven that is over thy head is brass, and the earth that is under thee is iron."
Poor Israel, thou dost grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in the darkness. Thou dost serve thine enemies. They glory over thee and defame thy God.
Thou art scattered among the nations, scattered to the four quarters of the earth.
Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR