Wanderers among the nations.
Whether or not there was present to the mind of the prophet the actual fate which has overtaken his countrymen, it seems plain that the Spirit within him uttered in these words a doom of which long centuries have beheld the awful fulfillment. We see here—
I. NATIONAL CONTINUITY. The Hebrews were, and are, treated as one people. God visited, and still visits, the sins of the fathers upon the children. The Israelites who apostatized were one generation; the Israelites who suffered the ills and privations of captivity were another generation. Generation after generation of Israel's sons have been "scattered," "wanderers among the nations"—a fate incurred by the obstinate unbelief of their forefathers, who rejected and crucified the Son of God. This is no doubt a very mysterious arrangement of Providence; but we must acknowledge it as an indisputable fact.
II. DIVINE RIGHTEOUSNESS. God is a Ruler, a moral Governor, who never abdicates his regal and judicial functions. The prophets were inspired to insist upon this great fact with emphasis and with repetition. A covenant God, a God delighting in mercy, yet threatens his chosen people thus: "I will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto me: and they shall be wanderers among the nations." People, hearing from preachers of the gospel much about the pity and the love of God, sometimes scarcely believe in the equity and the moral sway and reign of him who is supremely just. Nevertheless, he will vindicate his government, he will assert his authority, and under his rule the wicked "shall not go unpunished."
III. DIVINE TRUTHFULNESS AND FORESIGHT. The language of the text has been so exactly verified that it might have been written after the event. Inspiration) only could have written it before. Human sagacity might have predicted the captivity; only Divine foreknowledge could have predicted the dispersion. Thus in the process of time God's Word becomes its own warrant.
IV. PURPOSE AND PREPARATION FOR NATIONAL RESTORATION' AND RETURN. Why are the Jews kept separate from the peoples in whose lands they dwell? Surely "he who scattereth will gather them"! It is the expectation of some that the Jews shall be restored to the land of promise; it is the belief of all that the ingathering of the Jews into the Christian fold shall one day be brought about, and that their union with Gentiles, in subjection to the one Divine Lord and Savior, shall be as "life from the dead."—T.
HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS