He Will Gather His Chosen From The Four Winds

Theme: He will gather His chosen from the four winds

Text: Dan. 12:1-3; Heb. 10:11-14; Mark 13:24-32

Everyone would like to know his or her future. Although many people would not admit it the first thing they read in the papers or magazines is the horoscope. Many people also very often search for information about their future by consulting all types of so-called specialists – the spiritualist, the fetish priest or any person who claims that he or she has access to such knowledge. The search for this kind of knowledge is a worldwide phenomenon. It is a very sad commentary of our day that many people, no matter their level of education, would believe almost anything even when it defies commonsense. They often see the people involved in such practices as very spiritual and would even pay them for their services. Is it any wonder that claiming and pretending to have such knowledge and being able to deal with future problems has become a profession or way of life for some people? Unfortunately this practice affects many people in very negative ways. Some years ago an elderly couple consulted a psychic about their future. They were told that the man would have gambling debts in heaven and the only way to prevent it from happening was to pay the debt in advance. This psychic through this ungodly prediction managed to get his hands on the life savings of the couple. Luckily for the couple the news came out and the psychic was arrested, prosecuted and jailed and some of the money retrieved. He could not foretell his own future in jail. This is not an isolated case but unfortunately many cases remain stories because the affected people are so scared of offending the people making the predictions that they take no action against them. A person was actually told that when he left the world he would be condemned to walk around naked because the owner of the clothes they would bury him with would claim it and take it away from him. The only way for him to avoid this embarrassment was to present clothes to the one making the prediction. Why are people so interested in seeking such knowledge anyway? It is simply because human beings want to be prepared for the future. But should this mean that we should go around looking for people who make predictions about the future? What we should be doing is to be concerned about what God has revealed and not concerned about what He has not revealed. We should be concerned about the fact that Christ will return and He will gather His chosen from the four winds.

We should be concerned about God’s divine will and purpose for creating us. We should be concerned about God’s desire to have beings of like-mind and like-heart to share His life with. Not only did God create us He also saved us. The price was not cheap and it cost God all He had. He knows His chosen ones and gave them the Holy Spirit to enable them live a life that glorifies His name. Since the Holy Spirit is God, we literally have God living in us. We are actually walking here on earth with heaven in us.

God has a people is a theme that runs throughout Scripture and almost all-biblical prophecy is based on it. Biblical prophecy has been fulfilled and is being fulfilled. The festivals of the Jews are a timetable for the fulfilment of prophecy. The prophecies celebrated in the festivals of the Passover, the First Fruits and Pentecost has already been fulfilled. At His resurrection Jesus presented some of His chosen ones to the Father as the first fruits. This is comparing what took place at the resurrection of Christ to the ceremony of presenting the first fruits of the harvest to the Lord as ordained for the Israelites under the Law. The sheaf of the first fruits waved before the Lord was a picture of Christ coming from the dead as the sinner’s representative and as the beginning of a new creation. The sheaf of the First Fruits was the first complete fruit to rise up out of the seed that had been planted or buried earlier. It was to be waved before the Lord on the day after the Sabbath. The waving of the first fruits was an act of worship and of triumph for the appearing of the first fruits at the appointed season gave the assurance that the rest of the harvest would be gathered in safely. This was fulfilled when Christ rose from the dead and presented those who rose with Him on the day after the Sabbath, on Sunday, to God as the First Fruits of the harvest of souls. Christ is gathering in the rest of the harvest. He is gathering those who belong to Him, those who have acknowledged that He paid the penalty for sin and have accepted Him as Lord and Saviour.