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Isaiah 66:18-21
"And I, because of what they have planned and done, am about to come and gather the people of all nations and languages, and they will come and see my glory. I will set a sign among them, and I will send some of those who survive to the nations—to Tarshish, to the Libyans and Lydians (famous as archers), to Tubal and Greece, and to the distant islands that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory among the nations. And they will bring all your people, from all the nations, to my holy mountain in Jerusalem as an offering to the Lord—on horses, in chariots and wagons, and on mules and camels,” says the Lord. “They will bring them, as the Israelites bring their grain offerings, to the temple of the Lord in ceremonially clean vessels. And I will select some of them also to be priests and Levites,” says the Lord.
Everyone loves a good Homecoming celebration! Whether it is a Homecoming football game and you cheer on your high school team and root for the ol' Alma Mater. Or maybe it's the Homecoming dance where you celebrate high school royalty, pageantry and coming of age rituals awkwardly set to waltzes. Or maybe it is a Homecoming parade for the troops coming back from war. Even the ancient Romans knew about this last type of homecoming celebration. They perfected it to an art. Being a militaristic empire the Romans made honoring their war heroes a glorious event. Parades were thrown, crowds were assembled, wreaths were given and even generations later victors of war were celebrated through public art. These monuments were erected to champion the home town boys who went far from home to gain glory for Rome and returned home with the literal spoils of war (that was a literal example of the contemporary overuse of the word "literal"). The Arch of Titus is one such structure. It was constructed to celebrate Emperor Titus' victories while he was a military commander. Like any contest, war has winners and losers. Yet the losers in this conquest were decimated. This arch celebrated Titus' victories in the first of the Jewish Wars. The relief on the arch (that is pictured above shows) Roman troops carrying off the sacred treasures of the Temple at Jerusalem, which the Romans destroyed in 70 AD. The Second Jewish War (also known as the Bar Kokhba Revolt) would see the Romans destroy Jerusalem a second time, expel the Jews from Jerusalem and lead to a general Jewish Diaspora from Palestine for about 1,800 years. So for the Romans this artwork was a symbol of military honor but to Jews is a symbol of shame and ethnic persecution. Yet even though it would be the final Jewish dispersal from Palestine it was not the first. It was not even the one that is referred to in Isaiah 66:18-21. So why even discuss it with this verse? Well, because whether we are discussing a diaspora due to Roman oppression, Babylonian oppression, Assyrian oppression or what have you, the reasoning behind it seems to be the same... at where God is concerned. That is what is revealed in Isaiah 66:18-21.
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Merriam-webster.com defines Diaspora as "the movement, migration, or scattering of a people away from an established or ancestral homeland." Our popular conception of one usually involves this happening do to a tragic impetus. As an African American with ancestors who were slaves brought to the America in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, I am part of the greater African Diaspora. My wife, whose ancestor's migrated to the U.S. after the Great Potato Famine of 1845, is part of the Irish Diaspora. In 2005 we both became part of the contemporary New Orleanian Diaspora due to Hurricane Katrina. There are scores of people groups in the ancient and contemporary world that have been misplaced, yet the Jewish Diaspora is the most famous. The Jews trace their history back to Abraham who was taken from his hometown of Ur (in contemporary Iraq) by God to be shown a future homeland for his future offspring. Later the Jews would find themselves leaving Palestine again to seek shelter is Egypt during a famine. After being enslaved by the Egyptians for several centuries the Jews were emancipated by Moses and spent 40 years as a nomadic people in the Sinai peninsula. They would eventually conquer land in Palestine that would eventually turn into a kingdom... and then separate into two kingdoms. Eventually both kingdoms would be conquered by Mesopotamian powers and many of them taken away from Palestine. Eventually many would return, but this would start a period where the Palestinian Jewry would go from being ruled between different conquering Mesopotamian, Persian or European powers (with one small exception of self rule after the Maccabean Revolt). Even when Jews were allowed to live in Palestine, their maintained a population (known collectively as "the Diaspora") that lived in Jewish enclaves abroad. When the Roman induced Jewish Diaspora occurred, living abroad amongst Gentiles became the norm of Jews rather than the exception. Yet just as we are reminded in the New Testament that "all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose", God would show His children Israel that all of the calamity's that befell them happened for a reason. And that reason was one that was for the good of all mankind.
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Most Believers are familiar with the Promise of Abraham... when God told the ancestor of all Jews that all the nations of the world would be blessed by his offspring. But that isn't the only thing that God revealed to Abraham about them. In the same passage where God promises land in Palestine to Abraham's seed, He also tells of their future travail and captivity in Egypt. Later when God discusses the Egyptian slavery episode of Israelite history and His punishment of Egypt's pharaoh His states a similar line of reasoning that mentions in Isaiah 66: all of the things must occur so that the nations of the Earth might see His glory. This display of God's greatness was not just a display of God's power and judgment upon the Egyptians but also his mercy upon the Israelites. God had humbled the proud (the Egyptian empire) and exalted the humble (the Israelite slaves). Jesus' mother Mary would later extol of God's modus operendi in the Magnificat of Luke 1:46-55 when she stated "...he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble." That is the significance behind God's spreading His people to all corners of the Earth. It was not just to show that God's mercy was now open to the heathen Gentile, but expose that God's mercy has always been open to the humble amongst all people (Jewish and non-Jewish). Much of Scripture had heretofore divided people into two sections Jewish and Gentile with the Jews being God's chosen and the inheritors of Abraham's promise. However the greater distinction amongst Men is between the Humble and the Proud... and it is the humble among all nations that Abraham finds his true children by faith. It is the meek that inherit the Earth. Whether it be the Jews like Daniel who were taken from Palestine in the Babylonian Captivity or the later Jewish Christians like the Apostles who were driven from Jerusalem by religious persecution, God sent believers all over and spread the message of His goodness to the Gentiles. Isaiah 66 depicts how these children of God would go out and make new brothers and sisters of the former enemies of God.
If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.
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- Romans 11:17-21
Yes boys and girls, we've come to that part of the show where we connect things in the Old Testament to other things that the Apostle Paul said in the New Testament. And how befitting, seeing that he was known as the "Apostle to the Gentiles." If anyone had an opinion on how the Gentiles fit into God's plan it was St. Paul. In describing how Gentile Christians fit into Salvation History he uses the image of an Olive Tree. Olive trees have the ability to graft and merge into each other, whereby two trees become one. Likewise, Gentile believers (of which I am one) have been grafted into the story of the family of Faith in Scripture. They are not a separate story, side story or greater story. Jewish and Gentile believers are all part of the same story: an older brother and a younger adopted brother that are equal heirs to God's mercy. It is all part of God's plan since the Fall of Mankind in the Garden of Eden to unite all of Mankind in one redeemed family. A gathering of all believers into one people, inheriting the fruit of their one faith. This is the same faith that saved Abraham and brought Him away from Ur in search for a true homeland.
I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
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- Revelation 21:2
Thus is the journey of all the faithful: whether they be Jew or Gentile, Ancient or Contemporary: all are pilgrims in search of a land whose foundations were not laid by Man but by God. Starting with Adam and Eve, Scripture as a whole is the story of the Diaspora and Homecoming of the Human Race. Like Israel, Christ himself was God's child who went abroad (from Heaven) and found suffering in await to return home... and return home with new brothers and sisters. ***Spoiler Alert: I am skipping to the end of the Bible and Human History.*** Revelation 21: reveals that more than a geographic location this homeland, The New Jerusalem, is a people. It is adorned as a bride awaiting union with Christ. It is the people that he was born into this world to redeem and died to save. They are the children of God. They are the children of Abraham. They are the meek. They are the Body of Christ. They are the Church. The City of God where the Lord reigns and gathers the diaspora of believers together is the People of God. If you are long to know God, welcome home.
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