Troublesome Topic“Gathered the Chosen Ones”

Matthew 24:31

Translation

And He will send His angels with a great trumpet, and they will gather

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the chosen ones from the four winds,

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from one end of the sky to the other end.

Paraphrase

Then He will send forth His angels in a way that will get everyone’s attention, and they will gather the ones who have answered God’s call to be His special people from every place on earth where they may be found, and from every part of the sky, none will be missed.

In order to punish and reward, there must first be a distinction made between the righteous and the wicked; they must be separated so that the punishment of the wicked does not also harm the righteous. In the history of the Jewish people there were times when the righteous were spared from the punishment of the wicked, and there were times when everyone suffered together, even the righteous. This was probably because the righteous had not done enough to influence their culture for God in an effort to reverse the downward spiral into godlessness. However, for the final judgment, the two groups will be separated.

There will indeed be a gathering of the righteous, but I don’t see any evidence that it will happen before seven years of extra-ordinary persecution. It is depicted in the text as happening just prior to the rendering of judgment upon all people.

The next lesson is: The Illustration of the Fig Tree

Footnotes

1: “Gather”

This is not the word for “harvest” as you might expect, rather it is a word that means “assemble together.” Either way the end result is similar.

2: “the four winds”

The idea communicated by this word picture pertains to the origin of the winds. When the wind comes from the South, where does it originate? Do you know where it starts? It must be a long ways away, in some unknown, distant place. That is true of every angle the wind may come from. We do not know its origin. Thus the ancients used this word picture to indicate all places on earth, even those we have never seen or maybe never even heard about.