Every Sunday our pastors encourage those who attend the service live and those online to reach out to others who are not able or willing to go very far. Many of our brothers and sisters in Christ have been in isolation for a long time. They are lonely and needing fellowship. My husband and I take precautions, obey the guidelines, have been triple-vaccinated, and feel free to attend the live service. We go for groceries and run errands, but know others who are either more fearful or have other reasons for greater caution. When I call anyone, they are always glad for the contact and most of them will chat for a long time.
A day is coming when God will GATHER His people and we will be together forever. In the meantime, we have biblical promises of that happening on earth in the past and in the future. This pandemic has increased my awareness of the importance of those promises.
In the OT, several words describe people gathering. One of them is used to describe God’s gathering of people or nations and of these, most are about gathering His people Israel back to the land from which they were taken.
Deuteronomy 30:3. “Then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you.”
Isaiah 54:7. “For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you.”
Jeremiah 31:8. “Behold, I will bring them from the north country and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, the pregnant woman and she who is in labor, together; a great company, they shall return here.”
Isaiah 40:11 compares this process to a shepherd: “He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.”
God will also gather the nations to witness Israel’s temporary judgment because of their unfaithfulness to Him: Ezekiel 16:37 says: “Therefore, behold, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated. I will gather them against you from every side and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness.” However, these nations will be gathered and judged also, just as promised in dozens of OT prophecies and NT promises.
In the NT, gather is often used to describe harvesting or gathering crops and gathering fish in nets. Harvesting is a biblical metaphor for mission work, so gathering is used in that context too. For example: John 4:36 says, “Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.”
As for God doing the gathering, this is implied in Acts 4:31, “And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness” and in many other passages. We come together because this is put in our hearts by the power of God and for His purposes.
GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. Fellowship with other Christians is about gathering. The Bible says we must “not neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encourage one another . . . .” Facetime, Twitter, Facebook, Messenger, Skype, and the telephone all have their place, yet seeing one another face-to-face fills an empty place in our hearts that even the best technology fails to do. Also, one of the sad things about sin is that it separates people as well. In other words, our sense of ‘being with’ is missing concerning both God and other believers. It is that ‘loneliness in a crowd’ sensation, the feeling of being invisible even when gathered with others. The implication is that I need to always keep short accounts with God regarding my sins of attitude, words and deeds, and always be transparent with others, confessing my failures to them when necessary. This is an important part of that wonderful connection God builds as He gathers His people to worship together in fellowship and true communion.