God, not Satan, scatters His people, and He does so because of sin. Scripture shows a consistent pattern: He scatters as a result of disobedience (Leviticus 26:33). He claimed responsibility for dividing Israel from Judah (I Kings 12:24), and the later scattering of both nations came from the same hand. Satan has no power God does not give him, as the opening of Job and his need to ask permission to sift Peter (Luke 22:31) show. The prophets, especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Amos, warned repeatedly that repentance was the way to escape this judgment, yet Israel and Judah did not believe it until it happened to them. The church is under the same principle to an even greater degree, since from everyone to whom much is given, much is required (Luke 12:48). Blaming Satan for the church's scattering shifts responsibility away from sin, though iniquities separate us from God (Isaiah 59:2). It is inconsistent to say God punished Israel but the Devil afflicts the Israel of God. God's scattering of the church is both reactive, answering its loss of focus on Him, and proactive, disciplining His children and instilling His character. It formalized divisions that already existed. Because it came from God, it is the best possible result, and the proper response is to seek God, discover how we have been separated from Him, and turn back.

Scattering, as an act of God, is a powerful and deliberate action throughout history. God scattered His people over the whole earth, beginning with the descendants of Ham, Japheth, and Shem. Later, He used the Assyrian as His agent to scatter the House of Israel. Subsequently, He employed the Babylonian to disperse the folk of Judah, leaving only the poorest of the land. Finally, He utilized the Romans to scatter the Jews from Jerusalem and surrounding territories, leading to the destruction of the city and the commencement of the diaspora. Through the prophet Jeremiah, God declares that He scatters today but will gather tomorrow, demonstrating His authority over both actions. In Deuteronomy, the narrative reveals God's future scattering, uprooting Israelites from their land during the time of Jacob's Trouble due to their apostasy, a furious act of dispersal into a dry and thirsty land.

The impending scattering of modern-day Israel during the time of Jacob's Trouble will be uniquely severe, unlike any previous exile in history. This scattering, as described through various Hebrew verbs such as puwts, naphats, and nuwa, conveys intense fragmentation and violence. Puwts, often translated as scatter, can imply a violent dashing to pieces, likened to a hammer crushing rock into fragments. Naphats suggests widespread dispersion combined with disintegration, as if breaking a vase into shards. Nuwa, translated as sift, portrays Israel as a flock of sheep scattered in every direction, pursued by predators, each individual isolated and endangered. Historically, scatterings of God's people involved deportation in relatively large groups or chunks, as seen in the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles, or even in modern times with enclaves in places like the State of Israel or New York City. However, the future scattering will involve extreme fragmentation, reducing these chunks to powder, with Israelites spread thin, isolated as lone fugitives or wandering vagabonds. Ezekiel's prophecy of scattering to every wind, with individuals fleeing a pursuing sword, awaits fulfillment, contrasting with historical exiles where genocide or total atomization was not the norm. Scriptures describing Israel's regathering further support this granular scattering, as Isaiah depicts God gathering His people one by one, and Jeremiah speaks of finding individuals in isolated situations to return them to Zion. This pulverization, an intense level of fragmentation, marks the unique characteristic of the future scattering, setting it apart as a new and unprecedented ordeal. National Israel will eventually face this pulverization on a magnified scale, with survivors of war, famine, and disease forced into highly isolated situations, alienated from kinfolk, and hated by all, becoming fugitives in a state of utter desolation. Yet, God will bring unifying order out of this chaos, collecting each scattered grain one by one, restoring them to His fold in a restoration so astonishing it will overshadow the first exodus.

God has not yet scattered Israel among all nations. The prophecies of Deuteronomy 28:64, Ezekiel 20:23-24, and Amos 9:8-9 speak of a global dispersion, like grain sifted evenly over a whole surface, and they are still future. Assyria resituated Israel south of the Caspian Sea, and later migrations moved Israelites into localized, isolated lands such as northern Europe, the British Isles, North America, Australia, and New Zealand. Meanwhile most Gentiles live in separate areas, and few Israelites live among them. When the scattering comes, the present plight of Israelites in South Africa will become the common plight everywhere. Scriptures such as Ezekiel 5:12 link the scattering with Israel's fall and Jacob's Trouble. That verse gives no explicit sequence, so some scattering could begin before national destruction, even in relative peace and prosperity. Globalism's open borders may be the vehicle. Famine, drought, terrorism, or nuclear attack could trigger flight, and governments might even encourage emigration by treaty. Scripture records famine-driven migrations by Abram, by Elimelech, and in Amos 4:8. Daniel 12:4's "many shall run to and fro" covers such movement. Migration will be two-way, with Gentiles flowing into Israelite lands and gaining political power through democratic majorities, fulfilling Deuteronomy 28:43-44. Present resistance to immigration, as in Denmark and California, does not rule this out, since God can override public will. At last God will regather Israel from the ends of the earth, and that second gathering will be remembered more than the exodus from Egypt (Jeremiah 16:14-15).

Scattering is the outcome of mankind's attempt to make a name for itself. The builders at Babel wanted a city and a tower reaching the heavens so that they would be remembered and would not be scattered over the face of the whole earth. Their project was an effort to rise above their creatureliness and make themselves equal to God, and they imagined a tower big and strong enough to keep them safe from another flood. Only God legitimately makes a name for Himself, as He did by bringing Israel out of Egypt and through the Red Sea. So God came down, confused the languages, halted the building, and scattered them abroad over all the earth, just as they had feared. He then gave the place a true name, Babel, meaning confusion, because He names things for what they are. Man without God, or man trying to take God's place, produces chaos, disorder, turmoil, and mayhem. When people try to make a name for themselves, it ends in disaster and a curse, in scattering and division. In contrast, God chooses a place to make His name abide, and in Jerusalem He gathers His people around His presence rather than scattering them.