It seems so backward.
To scatter for the purpose of gathering. To shatter, only to restore. To enslave, only to set free. To strike with sickness—only to eventually heal. Why go through all the pain and trouble?
It’s the cyclical nature of life. From death, comes life. From pain, comes gain. Without having to FIRST endure hardship and difficulty, even abject suffering, there can be no relief—no deliverance.
This is a cycle that God’s people have known well. Throughout Israel’s history, God led them INTO seasons of suffering only to prove Himself to be their Jehovah Mephalti—the LORD, our Deliverer.
“The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer (Mephalti); My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” (Psalm 18:2 and 2 Samuel 22:2)
Israel was dramatically delivered FROM Egypt—we all know that story. But it’s important to remember that before the Exodus could happen, Israel had to be FIRST delivered TO Egypt. Delivered into the hands of what would one day become their bitter enemy.
Think about it: God set up the circumstances from the beginning. First Joseph, and then the entire family of Israel, had to leave their land where they roamed free, only to move them en masse to Egypt where they all lived as subjects to Pharoah. It didn’t look like a surrender—but that’s what it was. They surrendered their rights—to live in freedom, to care for their own flocks, to raise their own grain—only to be “delivered” lock-stock-and-barrel into the hands of a tyrant. Their new “home” was a strange pagan land, with an uncertain future, where everything belonged to Pharoah.
What GOOD could possibly come from THAT? Well, we know the end of the story. They were starving, and the relocation literally saved the Jewish race from extinction, just three generations from its birth.
But more than that, research is uncovering that, after Joseph was delivered to Egypt, it may well have been he that devised the first written Hebrew alphabet. That alphabet, with roots in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, would’ve had to exist before Moses was born. How else could God command Moses in Exodus 17:14 to “write this as a memorial in a book …” if there hadn’t already existed an alphabet in Hebrew to write with? Who else but Joseph, 400 years before, would’ve had the knowledge of God, the social standing, the access to previous writings, and the pure genius to be able to craft such a thing? A whole new and pure alphabet?
Out of the darkness, and brokenness, of slavery came the light of the written Word of God, allowing that light to shine on through countless generations. It had to be this way: Israel had to first be delivered TO Egypt so that they could later be delivered FROM Egypt in power and glory.
There is “a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them.” (Ecclesiastes 3:5 GWT)
God will, in order to fulfill His perfect plan, scatter and gather at different times. Through the prophet Jeremiah, God announced that He does just that—scatters today and gathers tomorrow: “I scattered My people, but I will gather them and guard them as a shepherd guards his flock.” (Jeremiah 31:10 GNT).
“The point is this: To God, gathering is a purposeful and overt reversal of the current situation. Upon seeing Israel’s changed (or changing) attitude—her repentance—God reciprocates by altering His own course, backing out the scattering He imposed earlier. ‘If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will fetch you.’ (Deuteronomy 30:4 RSV). He will go where He needs to go to gather them.” —Forerunner Commentary, bibletools.org
If you are feeling fragmented and broken—your world blown to bits—know that this is not coincidental or necessarily a punishment, but part of God’s purpose. We may see our lives totally upended, and the contents scattered, but wait! The LORD will do whatever is necessary to sort it out. Jehovah Mephalti will not fail—He has a method to His deliverance. We may not understand it because our present vision is so limited. But God has a way of rending to reset—of breaking apart to bring together—of scattering to gather.
Be encouraged. We are walking into HOPE. We may feel disconnected, but we are never discarded. God may be reassembling, but He is not scrapping us altogether. At times, He may set us aside, yes, but He isn’t throwing us away. We are His precious clay vessels, and though marred, we were marred IN HIS HANDS! (Jeremiah 18:4) His purpose is to reform and reshape—not to reject—us into vessels of honor. Filled with hope.
Prayer: I will “sing unto the LORD … for his anger endureth but a moment; weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. I cried to thee, ‘O LORD, What profit is there in my (suffering)?’ (But) Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness; to the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.” (Psalm 30 KJV)
