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Separation and ReunificationBy John Plunkett
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I'm a happy man this morning. I'm soon to be a new grandfather! My daughter Susanne, back in Victoria, will soon be having a baby. So lately we've been thinking a lot about childbirth.
We've been thinking about the huge difference between the nine months that the baby spends in the controlled environment of its mother's womb and, at the separation from the mother, the vast transition that happens to that little baby when it comes into a new existence in the world outside. We discussed a little about the concept of this comparatively violent separation between a mother and a tiny little baby.
Some ladies have post-partum depression, and we wondered if some of the sadness that takes place after the delivery of a baby is something to do with the unique relationship the mother and baby have shared for nine months; and this relationship abruptly, in a matter of minutes or hours, is irreversibly changed forever. The mother, all of a sudden, has to share her little baby with the world; this baby she previously had all to herself.
I would like to discuss the twin subjects of separation and reunification, specifically in connection with the symbolism of these fall Holy Days.
Let us take a look at some every day human examples of separation.
Jesus used the concept of childbirth ? the separation and the pain of childbirth ? as an illustration to his disciples who were stricken with grief because they knew that Jesus was soon going to be separated from them.
John 16:20-22 "Verily, verily I say unto you, that you shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and you shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come..."
Johns 16:23 "And you now therefore have sorrow..."
The disciples did have sorrow. They came to the point where they were weeping and lamenting because of their separation from Jesus Christ, whom they had come to love.
Separation is one of the saddest aspects of our human existence. Perhaps it is the very saddest aspect of our human existence. But there is good as well as bad separation, even in the human realm.
For instance, what would be the future for my little grandchild if he or she could not be separated from Susanne's womb? What would happen to Susanne if the little baby kept on growing?
Another example: all of us parents get teary eyed and sad when our children separate themselves ? when they leave the nest ? to get married, to go to college or to go to university. But that's the way it should be. That's the way God planned it. Jesus Christ Himself said, "For this cause shall a man leave father and mother" ? separate himself from father and mother. ? "and shall cleave" ? unify himself ? "to his wife and they two shall be one flesh."
Susanne married Warren a couple of years ago. They separated themselves 2,900 miles away from our family home. My daughter Joanne, and Ben were married. They separated themselves to Portland, Oregon. And then, of all things, they moved to Charlotte, North Carolina—3,100 miles away! Who'd want to move there? My daughter, Linda, married Dan this last winter and they too separated themselves, but only 300 miles away, to Olympia, Washington. My wife, Trish, and I can't complain, though, because shortly after we were married, we separated ourselves 6,000 miles away from our family home in England to move to the west coast of Canada.
There are other examples of human separation. Of course, the most somber is the one at the other end of the life span—when loved ones are separated by death. This separation obviously causes deep sadness. We know that there are brethren in the room today that, in the past year and even in the past couple of weeks, have lost loved ones very close to them. And that really is separation! We should pray for the bereaved, for their comfort. But like it or like it not, every single one of us is subject to that separating enemy which we call "the first death."
What does the Bible say about separation? Of the word "separation" and its derivatives there are about eighty-eight mentions in the Bible. We can only concentrate on a few today and try to keep them relevant to the fall Holy Days.
During the Feast of Tabernacles and the Last Great Day, God commands us to physically and geographically separate ourselves from the world. So we make a temporary move every fall when we travel to the location where God has placed His name.
Today with our modern modes of transport, we can speedily go to the Feast site.
Back in Bible times, the majority of people who were going to the Feast of Tabernacles—those who were also going to attend the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Trumpets—would arrive at the Feast site a lot earlier. Those who lived a long way away from the site may have been on the road ? may have separated themselves from the world ? for a whole month around this time of year!
Our separation at the Feast is symbolic in different ways. I think one of the most important is that it symbolizes the compliance of God's people with His commands to separate ourselves from this wicked world. Jesus Christ clearly told us that we must remain in the world, but that we must be spiritually separate from it.
Jesus' John 17 prayer is an incredible prayer! When Jesus Christ communicates with His Father, there is electricity there that is absolutely astounding!
John 17:14-15 "I have given them thy word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world [because they are spiritually separate from it], even as I am not of the world. I pray not that you should take them out of the world [in physical separation], but that you should keep them from the evil."
And then He repeats this because it is so important:
John 17:16 "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. [We will come back to this]
The members of the Old Testament church of Israel were told to separate themselves from the rest of the world.
Leviticus 20:24 "But I have said unto you, You shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that flows with milk and honey: I am the Eternal your God, which has separated you from other people."
Yes. They were separated. In the following verse, God tells them that they were to separate the clean and unclean animals. This was symbolic of Israel's separation from the Gentile world.
God repeated His requirement for separation over and over again, but the pleasure-loving house of Israel (and the pleasure-loving house of Judah, eventually) quickly forgot the need to separate themselves from the world.
Rather, what they did was that they separated themselves from their God! Who did they unite with? They united themselves with the heathen world and its ways.
God repeated His warnings to them in His patience and His mercy. He gave them warning after warning. Eventually He sent both the house of Israel and the house of Judah into captivity. He separated them from their homeland.
After Judah's separation time was complete, He sent a remnant back—He returned them to their homeland. Some of these returned exiles, when they came back, recognized the reasons why they'd been punished ? why they'd been separated from their beloved homeland.
God had to keep repeating these requirements. At that time they recognized that it was a great sin not to separate themselves, but that soon wore off again and, eventually, God had to separate Himself from them and divorce them.
Coming now into the era of the New Testament, we know that a big change takes place. Now, I don't whether I am a pure Israelite or not. I think I might have a little of Dan and a little of Ephraim, but there might be all kinds of others in there too! However, it is not necessary for true Christians who might be of Israelite lineage to separate themselves from true Christians of Gentile lineage. The apostle Paul had the authority to castigate Peter for doing so. You can read about that in the second chapter of Galatians. Paul repeated over and over again that, in God's church, spiritually, from God's point of view (when He looks down on us), there is neither Jew nor Greek.
The separation that is required for the New Testament Israel of God is not from physical Gentiles, but rather from Satan's sinful Babylonish system:
Revelation 18:2, 4 "And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of the every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, [come out of her!] that you be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues."
So it is quite clear what we must do.
Did Jesus Christ Himself, when He walked the earth, obey His own laws that He gave regarding separation? You bet He did! Of course He did! The author of Hebrews wrote (of Jesus Christ): "For such a High Priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners."
Jesus Christ was separate from sinners!
He was a great High Priest of the Melchizedech order—like the Levites and the Aaronic priests in some respects. The Levites and the Aaronic priests had an extra layer of separation, even from the rest of Israel, because their lives were totally dedicated to God's service.
Much separation is caused by sin.
Jesus Christ went through terrible agony in Gethsemane. There were a couple of reasons for that agony. I believe that one of them was because He had striven all His life, with all the power He had, to maintain a separation from the sin of the world. (Have you ever tried to push two powerful magnets together and you found that it is virtually impossible ? that they will just fly apart?)
And then, all of a sudden, every sin of the world was laid on His head. Nay! They were crammed onto Jesus Christ's sinless head.
At the same time, He was separated from God the Father because the Father cannot stay were sin is, even if that sin was on the head of His Holy Son.
We're reminded of this each year during the spring Holy Days and again on the Day of Atonement. That separation was caused by our sins—by the sins of all mankind. All humanity ? every one of us ? is to some extent separated from God due to sin. Isaiah wrote: "Your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear."
Throughout the Bible, there are many other accounts of painful separations caused by sin. Among the few examples I have time to mention are these: The separation between Abram and Lot caused by sinful strife between their herdsmen. There is the story of the young Joseph who was violently separated from his family by the sinful jealousy of his brothers. There is the account of the young Church of God, the very early Church, being scattered by some great persecution that happened back then.
In recent years our former leaders followed Old Testament Israel's bad example and separated themselves from God's truth and God's way of life. They preferred rather to join with the world's churches, complete with all their heathen trappings.
This sin led to other separations. Members who formerly dwelt together in the relative unity of fair-sized groups, good sized churches, (our church in Victoria at one time was almost the same size as the congregation here today, around 350 people. I'm sure that many of you belonged to even larger congregations) separated and scattered into tiny little groups—ones and twos and families—under various corporate banners around the world.
Some separated even further and became self-styled, independent Christians. You have to be careful of being (if you think you can be) an independent Christian.
Jude 19 "These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit."
Many members and unbaptized young people as well, separated themselves from the Church of God altogether.
Separation from the New Testament Church of God (the Israel of God) is a very similar error as the one some of the people of the Old Testament Church of Israel committed when they separated themselves from the nation of Israel to follow their own sinful desires. We have to be careful, brethren. To separate ourselves from spiritual Israel is to separate ourselves from God.
Hosea 9:10 "I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers at the firstripe in the fig tree at her first time: but they went to Baal-peor, and separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved."
You see brethren, when one separates himself from God, when somebody separates from God's people and God's ways, he must ally himself to something. These people allied themselves to false gods and false ways and, of course, that is nothing else but idolatry. Nehemiah also points out strongly that there is a great danger in separation from our fellow members.
We have been blessed. We may have small congregations, but we have been blessed with friends—good friends. Some have been blessed with relatives and family in God's church. We've been blessed with right teaching. If you have that, stay with it! Value that closeness and fear to jeopardize that closeness!
A final separation example is with regards to the time pictured by the Last Great Day. The unrepentant will be separated by the second death.
Matthew 25:31-34, 41, 46 "When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory. And before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats: And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: Then shall He say unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed [separation!], into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal."
Now let us turn from the subject of separation to its very opposite. The antonyms of separation sound a lot more positive. They are: unification, combination, consolidation, melding, merging. We might also add the term atonement, or at-one-ment.
When it follows a period of separation, unification is called reunification or regathering. All of the fall Feasts, when they're grouped together, are called the Feast of Ingathering.
The Fall Feasts, especially the Feast of Tabernacles and the Last Great Day, are joyous opportunities that we enjoy every year of reunifications between family and old friends. With the new friends we make each year, we have new unifications.
Now that two of my daughters are living far away, it's great to be able to have this reunification every year. My second daughter Susanne, and her husband Warren, are not able to be here at this time but in their case, there's going to be a special unification soon with our new family member.
I would like to come back to that topic again; to this new baby who's on the way and who we're all so excited about. We started off today discussing the possibility of a mother's sadness after her baby is born.
The mother's sadness after her baby is born is replaced by a new and different joy, a different relationship, and a joyous relationship that's ignited as soon as the baby is born. Immediately a relationship begins to grow and to blossom:
John 16:21 "A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembers no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world."
Jesus' real topic here was not really the joy of childbirth, but the separations and reunifications that were coming very soon between Himself and His disciples.
Let us go back to John 16:16. Even though it was a solemn time, you can see humor in what Jesus said here.
John 16:16-22 "A little while, and you shall not see me [There is a separation!]: and again, a little while, and you shall see me, because I go to the Father [Reunification!]. Then said some of his disciples among themselves, What is this that He says unto us, A little while, and you shall not see me: and again, a little while, and you shall see me: and, Because I go to the Father? They said therefore, What is this that He says, A little while? We cannot tell what He says. Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask Him, and said unto them, Do you inquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and you shall not see me: and again, a little while, and you shall see me? Verily, I say unto you, That you shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and you shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail has sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembers no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And you therefore have sorrow: [because of the separation!] but I will see you again, [at the reunification!] and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man takes from you."
Shortly after Jesus said these words, the disciples were sorrowful at the violent separation. But three days later, there was great joy when they were reunited—after His resurrection.
There was another short separation on the wave sheaf day when Jesus Christ returned briefly to His Father. That must have been a wonderful reunification!
Then He returned to His disciples for a few days more ? another reunification. But then they were separated again when Jesus returned to heaven, where He has remained ever since.
This separation was not as painful as the first, for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that Jesus had promised to send the Holy Spirit. Through God's Holy Spirit, He and God the Father could be with them. In fact, Jesus told His disciples that if He didn't separate Himself from them and return to His Father, He would be unable to send that uniting Spirit to them.
The second reason was that now, when they had seen Him resurrected, they were totally convinced of the truth of the resurrection. They were convinced of His resurrection and they were convinced of their own resurrection and the future reunification with Jesus ? and with each other ? at the time of the first resurrection.
As they stood on the Mount of Olives watching Jesus' departure as He went up into heaven, He sent an angel to them with an encouraging reminder of that coming reunification. And we're going to be there! We're going to be at that reunification!
I Thessalonians 4:16-17 "For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."
We're going to be unified with Jesus Christ. We're going to be gathered together. We're going to be unified into the family of God. And we're going to be given a new name.
A bride receives a new name on her wedding day when she's married to [unified with] her husband. The Church of God will receive its new name when we are unified as the bride of Jesus Christ at the marriage of the lamb. There's going to be wonderful joy and anticipation.
We have anticipation now for the first resurrection because we know that it's the better resurrection.
But we must not forget the additional joy there's going to be at the second resurrection, because then we are going to be reunified with those people who were formally unconverted. When those unconverted people (some of you have had babies, children, other family members and friends—who haven't yet had the opportunity to know the plan of salvation), are converted, there is going to be a level of unity between them and us that is unimaginable in our physical lives today.
We saw earlier that sin is a great contributor to separation.
Now we can see that unity will increase in a ratio proportional to the amount of sin that is removed from the earth—partially, at the return of Jesus Christ in the first resurrection; more so at the time of Satan's imprisonment; even more at the second resurrection; even more at the third resurrection and the second death; and totally once the earth is completely purged and becomes fit for God the Father to come here to live with us:
Revelation 21:3 "And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them [God the Father will dwell with us!], and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, [what kind of unification is that going to be?], and be their God."
Total, one hundred percent unification, oneness, and unity! It's hard to comprehend in our physical minds now.
God the Father and Jesus Christ have always enjoyed total at-one-ment ? total unity ? with one another (except for those few infamous hours that we talked about earlier).
Please turn back to John 17. In this wonderful, absolutely incredible prayer, Jesus Christ, our Elder Brother yearned for the time—Think of it! He yearned for the time!—as He talked to His Father—when His brothers and sisters are going to be able to fully share their level of oneness. It's hard to believe, but it's going to happen. It is going to happen!
John 17:5, 10-11 "And now, O Father, glorify me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world was. And all mine are thine, and yours are mine; and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through your own name those whom you have given me, that they may be one, as we are."
What a promise! Was Jesus just talking about the disciples of that time? No!
John 17:20-24, 26 "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that you have sent me. And the glory which you gave me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one [He's repeating it because it's so important. It's so great a promise!]: I in them, and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that you have sent me, and have loved them, as you have loved me. [Astounding! God the Father loves you and me just like He loves His own Son!] Father, I will that they also, whom you have given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which you have given me: for you loved me before the foundation of the world. And I have declared unto them your name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."
Brethren, next Saturday night this wonderful, excellent Feast of Tabernacles — this Feast of Ingathering — will come to a sad end and we will have to be separated from our beloved brethren once again.
But the time is coming, and very soon, when we will not have to be separated any more. Once that time comes, we will be able to be together, forever; reunited with each other; reunited with our scattered brothers and sisters around the world; united in the family of God; united with Jesus Christ as His bride—with our new surname; united eventually with the great God, our wonderful Father.
JHP/dak/drm
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