The Watchtower — March 1, 1959

What Do You Live For?

VINCENT VAN GOGH might be singled out as an example of the type of person who fiercely dedicates himself to a personal interest. He had the ability to paint and the consuming desire to perfect that ability. Painting came first in his life, even to the point of crowding out natural concern for his health and well-being. It was the thing he lived for. But can it be said that he acted wisely? What did he gain from his acquired skill? It did not bring him happiness, contentment and peace of mind. He committed suicide.

The nineteenth century was not unique in having men who lived for the arts or for some other personal interest. There are many in this twentieth century. While some, like van Gogh, are consumed with a love for painting, others dedicate their life energies to music, to the theater, to science or to business. These are the things that occupy their every waking moment. These are the things around which they shape their life and for which they live.

There certainly is nothing wrong in developing skill in the arts and sciences, but is it right to make them your primary interest in life? Is it wise to live just for them? True happiness and peace of mind do not come from being wrapped up in personal interests. They come from being dedicated to God’s interests. His interests are of vital concern to us all because they will affect the entire earth. They will bring about a complete change in the system of things for the good of mankind. Since this will come about by means of his kingdom, it is wisely written: “Keep on, then, seeking first the kingdom and his righteousness.” (Matt. 6:33) This is the course of true wisdom because it is the way to eternal life.

What good is a great skill in painting or in music if a person cannot continue living so he can exercise that skill? With the gift of eternal life he could enjoy for eternity the arts he loves. Is that not better than wrapping up his life in the arts for the few years he may live now? When death comes what can his artistic skill, for which he lived, do for him? The wise course is for him to dedicate himself to the great Life-giver, Jehovah God. He should concentrate his energies on obeying and serving God. That is the way to receive lasting benefits of which not even death can deprive him.

Jehovah will do what he has promised for those who put his interests first. “So my word that goes forth from my mouth will prove to be. It will not return to me without results.” (Isa. 55:11) By living for God’s interests you will not only benefit yourself but will be able to help mankind.

The Ancient Pattern of Jehovah’s Unusual Work

“Jehovah will rise up just as at Mount Perazim, He will be agitated just as in the low plain near Gibeon, that he may do his deed—his deed is strange—and that he may work his work—his work is unusual.”—Isa. 28:21.

1. Why are Jehovah’s deeds and works not what men expect or want to believe?

JEHOVAH is capable of doing strange deeds and of working unusual works. The thoughts of fallen mankind are not His thoughts, and his ways are not their ways. (Isa. 55:8) Since he proceeds according to his thoughts and he works according to his way, his deeds and works are not what men expect or want to believe.

2. How did the “throne of Jehovah” become established on Mount Zion in the Middle East, and what did the Philistines determine to do about this?

² Two of his strange and unusual acts, which have a prophetic meaning for our generation, occurred in the eleventh century before the Christian era, over in the Middle East. David, the former shepherd of the town of Bethlehem, had been anointed king over all twelve tribes of Israel in 1077 B.C. Shortly afterward he led his troops to the city of Jerusalem and captured the city stronghold called Zion. Finding it to be more suitable as the seat of government and moving under the guidance of his God Jehovah, King David transferred his capital from the southern city of Hebron to the citadel of Zion. Thus Jerusalem became the capital. The Philistines, the non-Jewish enemies on the seacoast to the west, observed all this and became disturbed. David, whom they knew quite well, had been set up as king over all Israel in the mountain stronghold of Zion, and this was a danger to them. Jehovah God had chosen David for the kingship over Israel and had ordered him to be anointed to that position. So now up there on Mount Zion David sat on what was called “the throne of Jehovah,” reigning as the visible representative of the real Ruler, Jehovah. The enemy Philistines resented this established kingdom of God. They determined to oust King David and overturn God’s typical kingdom.

3. How did Jehovah break up the first movement of the Philistines against King David, and thus what fact was established concerning godship?

³ Was the Most High God of heaven interested? He was. The Bible record tells us how matters worked out, when the Philistines’ armies came to the valley of Rephaim south of Jerusalem. “And David began to inquire of Jehovah, saying: ‘Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you give them into my hand?’ At this Jehovah said to David: ‘Go up, for I shall without fail give the Philistines into your hands.’ So David came to Baal-perazim [meaning, Master of Breakings Through] and David got to strike them down there. At that he said: ‘Jehovah has broken through my enemies ahead of me, like a gap made by waters.’ That is why he called the name of that place Baal-perazim. Consequently [the Philistines] left their idols there and so David and his men took them away.” “So David said the word and they were burned in the fire.” (2 Sam. 5:17-21; 1 Chron. 14:8-12; Deut. 7:5, 6) The pagan Philistines had brought along their gods, their idol images, with them for a successful war; but these gods, these idol images, proved to be nothing but lies, false hopes for the Philistines. Jehovah turned out to be the truth, the real God. By a strange deed involving waters he gave victory to his anointed king, David, and thus preserved the typical kingdom of God with its capital in Zion. The false gods perished.

4, 5. (a) What were Jehovah’s instructions for breaking up a second movement of the Philistines against King David? (b) How did the battle turn out, and over what stretch of territory did it take place?

⁴ However, the Philistines had not learned their lesson. In hatred for God’s kingdom with David seated on the throne on Zion, they made another raid into the kingdom territory. “The Philistines came up once again and tramped about in the low plain of Rephaim. At that David inquired of Jehovah, but he said: ‘You must not go up. Go around to the rear of them and you must come against them in front of the baca bushes. And let it occur that when you hear the sound of a marching in the tops of the baca bushes at that time you act with decision, because at that time Jehovah will have gone out ahead of you to strike down the camp of the Philistines.’ Accordingly David did that way, just as Jehovah had ordered him.” “And they went striking down the camp of the Philistines from Gibeon to Gezer. And David’s fame began to go out into all the lands and Jehovah himself put the dread of him upon all the nations.”—2 Sam. 5:22-25;1 Chron. 14:13-17.

⁵ This time David under divine orders made no frontal attack on the enemies of God’s kingdom. He got behind baca bushes on the flank or to the rear of the Philistines. Then when the rushing wind in the tops of the bushes sounded like a marching army, which could doubtless drown out the sound of his own attacking army, David pounced down upon the Philistines. Jehovah too had moved in upon the Philistines, and they broke camp and fled. King David and his troops pursued them and kept striking them down for a distance of about sixteen miles, or from the city of Gibeon to Gezer.

6. In King David, what had Jehovah laid in Zion, and, despite the Philistines, how long did David sit on Jehovah’s throne?

⁶ Beginning at Gibeon, Jehovah here performed an unusual work against those Philistines. He worked to defend his typical kingdom and his anointed king on Zion. In King David Jehovah had laid in Zion the foundation for a royal ruling class, a dynasty of kings, that was to reach the apex of its glory in Jesus Christ. The Philistines were bent on dislodging that royal stone from Mount Zion and overthrowing the “throne of Jehovah.” But Jehovah’s will was otherwise. His typical kingdom triumphed. His king, David, continued reigning on Zion for thirty-three years, till Solomon his son was anointed as king on Zion and seated on the “throne of Jehovah” there. King David thus kept the Philistines underfoot.

7. In what way does Philistinism exist today, and where does it persist, and so what strange thing has Jehovah decreed according to Isaiah 10:21-23?

⁷ Those two strangely won victories of Jehovah served as excellent historic references for Jehovah God in describing his purposes for the future, even for our own day. Today also there is Philistinism or malicious opposition to the real kingdom of God like that of the ancient Philistines. It exists and persists in Christendom, which claims to be in a new covenant with God. Hence he has decreed something very strange, an extermination, something decided upon, from which he will not change. Isaiah was used as a prophet to tell about it, saying: “A mere remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty God. For although your people, O Israel, would prove to be like the grains of sand of the sea, a mere remnant among them will return. An extermination decided upon will be flooding through in righteousness, because an exterminating and a strict decision the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies, will be executing in the midst of the whole land.”—Isa. 10:21-23.

8. Upon whom first did that extermination come, but how does Paul locate a larger fulfillment of it in times future from his day?

⁸ Extermination came upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem and of Judah in the next century after Isaiah. However, the Christian apostle Paul locates a larger fulfillment of the extermination in times future from his own day by quoting from Isaiah and saying: “Moreover, Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: ‘Although the number of the sons of Israel may be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved. For Jehovah will make an accounting on the earth, consummating it and cutting it short.’ . . . at the present season also a remnant has turned up according to a choosing [by Jehovah God] due to [his] undeserved kindness.”—Rom. 9:27, 28; 11:5.

9. When was there a second extermination, and now what will there be in our day?

⁹ That “accounting on the earth” was made by Jehovah on the land of Judah and Jerusalem and resulted in the extermination of the Jews that was executed by the Roman soldiers in the year 70 (A.D.). Now in our day there will be a final extermination.

Warnings of Jehovah’s Unusual Work

1, 2. (a) How did Christendom and Judah and Jerusalem have warning examples of coming extermination? (b) How did Isaiah sound out the warning?

CHRISTENDOM today has a warning example of what is about to befall her in what befell Judah and Jerusalem. In turn, ancient Judah and Jerusalem had their warning example of the extermination that was coming upon them in the extermination that came upon the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel, whose main tribe was Ephraim and whose capital city was Samaria. The name Ephraim was in fact used to designate the entire ten-tribe kingdom of Israel. The extermination upon Ephraim and its capital city Samaria occurred in the days of the prophet Isaiah, in 740 B.C. Before ever it came, Isaiah was used to sound out a warning, saying:

² “Woe to the eminent crown of the drunkards of Ephraim, and the fading blossom of its decoration of beauty that is upon the head of the fertile valley of those overpowered by wine! Look! Jehovah has someone strong and vigorous. Like a thunderous storm of hail, a decimating storm, like a thunderous storm of powerful, flooding waters, he will certainly do a casting down to the earth with force. With the feet the eminent crowns of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trampled down. And the fading flower of its decoration of beauty that is upon the head of the fertile valley must become like the early fig before summer, that, when the seer sees it, while it is yet in his palm, he swallows it down.”—Isa. 28:1-4.

3. (a) When Samaria was made the national capital, what was the religious condition of Israel? (b) On what were its drunkards drunk, and what kind of decoration did they wear?

³ Toward the western end of a fertile valley rises the 300-foot-high hill with steep sides called Samaria or “watch mountain.” The city of Samaria was built there. Its position was one of great beauty and charm, and, according to ancient methods of warfare, it was a strategic military stronghold that was able to be reduced only by being starved out. When the city of Samaria was made the capital of the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel, the nation had already fallen away from Jehovah and had become the enemy of Judah and Jerusalem. It even joined in an alliance with non-Jewish Syria against Jehovah’s kingdom in Judah. There were continual wars between Israel and Judah. The capital city Samaria, the seat of Baal worship, was full of drunkards, particularly political drunkards. They became drunk not merely on literal wine but also on political wine. This latter wine was the wine of political independence from Judah and also wine of political alliance with the Syrians and other enemies of Jehovah’s kingdom in Judah. At their wine bouts they crowned their heads gaily with a wreath or garland of flowers. It was a decoration of beauty; but it was made of blossoms that fade and die. It was a fading crown that was worn by those drunkards that were overpowered by wine. It was a fading crown that the entire capital city Samaria wore while it was drunk with the pleasures of independent political power, backed by political alliances.

4. How was there to be woe to the perishable crown of those drunkards, and what was the “strong and vigorous” one whom Jehovah used for executing divine wrath?

⁴ Woe to that perishable crown! declared Jehovah God through Isaiah, for it was to be trampled on the ground. The glory of being a kingdom was to be soiled. The drunken state of self-indulgence as a kingdom was to be abruptly interrupted. The sobering experience of being overturned and of being subjugated by a mighty world power was to bring Samaria and Ephraim to a sensing of the stern realities of the situation. This was to come as a shock upon Samaria’s drunkards, because their kingdom had rejected Jehovah and had turned to worshiping the golden calves and the false god Baal and had fought continually against Jehovah’s anointed king who sat on the “throne of Jehovah” on Mount Zion. In order to overthrow the apostate kingdom belonging to Samaria, Jehovah God had a “strong and vigorous” one for executing the divine wrath. Who was it? The world power of Assyria, whose capital city was Nineveh. Like the flooding Euphrates River, Assyria’s conquering armies would tramp through the land, ravaging it and destroying Samaria the capital. (Isa. 7:17-20; 8:7, 8) Quickly, as when an early summer fig is gobbled up as soon as it is spied, the beauty of the decorating crown of Samaria’s drunkards would be blighted.

5. What should the drunkards of Jerusalem and Judah have observed and done, and how, through them, did Jehovah give a warning to modern Christendom?

⁵ However, Judah and Jerusalem had their drunkards also. These should have observed what happened to God-forsaking, idolatrous, power-drunk sots of Ephraim and Samaria and should have taken the warning example to heart and should have sobered up. To alert Judah and Jerusalem to what was in store for them unless they came to their senses, Jehovah inspired Isaiah to point to what was due to befall the neighbor-kingdom of Ephraim and Samaria. At the same time, by doing this, Jehovah was giving a warning to modern-day Christendom of what is in store for her soon at Armageddon.

6. Whom does Isaiah then identify as drunkards of Judah and Jerusalem, and how have their tables become?

⁶ Referring now to the drunkards of Judah and Jerusalem, the inspired Isaiah said: “And these also—because of wine they have gone astray and because of intoxicating liquor they have wandered about. Priest and prophet—they have gone astray because of intoxicating liquor, they have become confused as a result of the wine, they have wandered about as a result of the intoxicating liquor, they have gone astray in their seeing, they have reeled as to decision. For all the tables themselves have become full of filthy vomit—there is no place without it.”—Isa. 28:7, 8.

7. (a) As regards the Levite priests of Jerusalem, what did the obligations of their office require? (b) As regards the prophets of Jerusalem, what did the requirements of their office call for?

⁷ The king and people looked to the priests and prophets of Jerusalem for spiritual guidance and religious services. These men should have exercised self-control and kept from getting drunk. Levite priests were under God’s command to drink no intoxicants at all before entering upon their religious services. They had to keep their senses and be careful that they did not become presumptuous toward the things of God, break the laws of God and the limitations that he placed upon them and get killed for it. (Lev 10:1-11) They needed to keep their heads clear in order to call to mind readily God’s Word and teach it to His people. They should be steady examples for his holy people to follow. Similarly with the prophets of Jerusalem. It was disgraceful and reproachful to God and a degrading example to his people for these prophets to get intoxicated. The requirements of their high office as Jehovah’s mouthpieces called for them to keep their vision clear and their powers of discernment sharp in order to see the will of Jehovah. They needed balanced heads in order to express the decisions of Jehovah. Their tongues could not be numbed and thickened with overmuch intoxicants and also explain God’s message understandably.

8. Whom, though, did those men of holy office imitate, and with what result?

⁸ Sad to say, they imitated the drunkards of Ephraim and Samaria. Instead of God’s Word pouring forth from their mouths, filthy vomit belched out. It splashed over everything. Drunkenly they fell into it and slapped around in it. In doing so, did they return to their vomit and lap it up? No; they returned to their wine that they might keep on the spree. Hence their judgments were warped. They saw false things for God’s holy nation. They reeled unsteadily in the way that they went. No one could they guide safely or to a certain destination. They could be expected only to commit the same mistakes that the drunkards of Ephraim and Samaria did. For themselves and their nation that followed them they were laying up an end like that which came to Ephraim and Samaria. Woe to those drunk priests and prophets of Jerusalem! They were not rightly directing the people of Jehovah to the preserving of His typical kingdom that he had set up among them. They were in no fit condition to be spiritual counselors to the king who sat on the “throne of Jehovah.”

9. Whom of today do they well picture, and what intoxicated effect do certain other things besides actual wine and liquor produce?

⁹ How well they pictured the spiritual drunkards of Christendom at the present time! Besides actual wine and intoxicating liquors, there are other things to intoxicate the priests and preachers in Christendom so as to induce drowsiness in them, to make them reel, to confuse things before their religious vision, to induce them to belch out the vomit of spiritually filthy things and to be dull and feelingless toward the dangers confronting the religious world and toward the true interests of God’s Messianic kingdom.

10. Referring to such things causing spiritual drunkenness, what did Jehovah call out through Isaiah?

¹⁰ Referring to such things causing spiritual drunkenness, Jehovah called out through the prophet Isaiah: “Linger, you men, and be amazed; blind yourselves, and be blinded. They have become drunk, but not with wine; they have moved unsteadily, but not because of intoxicating liquor. For upon you men Jehovah has poured a spirit of deep sleep; and he closes your eyes, the prophets, and he has covered even your heads, the seers. And for you men the vision of everything becomes like the words of the book that has been sealed up, which they give to someone knowing the writing, saying: ‘Read this out loud, please,’ and he has to say: ‘I am unable, for it is sealed up’; and the book must be given to someone that does not know writing, someone saying: ‘Read this out loud, please,’ and he has to say: ‘I do not know writing at all.’” For that reason they had drawn near to God with only their mouths, but not with their hearts; they followed men’s commands, not God’s. Hence he said: “Therefore here I am, the One that will act wonderfully again with this people, in a wonderful manner and with something wonderful; and the wisdom of their wise men must perish, and the very understanding of their discreet men will conceal itself.” (Isa. 29:9-14) This drunkenness is more detestable to Jehovah God than physical drunkenness.

11. (a) In Scripture what was wine used to symbolize? (b) What spiritual kingdom vineyard has Jehovah rejected, but what spiritual vineyard does he cultivate and safeguard?

¹¹ In ancient Israel vineyards were cultivated for the production of wine. In Scripture wine was used to symbolize the power of God’s kingdom to induce joy and stimulation. Because ancient Israel was not true to him as God’s typical kingdom, he rejected unfaithful Israel as the typical kingdom vineyard that he was cultivating. However, in the Christian congregation that is loyal to the interests of his kingdom, Jehovah God has a spiritual vineyard that he cultivates and safeguards, and over it he rejoices. Jesus Christ is the Vine; his anointed followers who abide in him are branches, and this vineyard bears much fruit to glorify Jehovah. (Isa. 5:1-7; 27:2-6; John 15:1-8) But Christendom has turned out to be a vine that is strange, foreign to Jehovah. The wine of her priests and prophet-preachers is not the spirit of God’s kingdom, a spirit that induces pure, godly joy and enthusiasm. It is not the wine together with milk that Jehovah God invites us through Isaiah to come and buy, “even without money and without price.”—Isa. 55:1.

12, 13. (a) What is the figurative wine of Christendom’s clergy, and how does it affect them? (b) After vomiting, to what do they return, and how are they a warning example to Jehovah’s witnesses?

¹² The wine of the priests and prophet-preachers of Christendom is the spirit of the kingdoms of this world. It induces them to find joy and stimulation in the politics and controversies of earthly kingdoms under Satan the “ruler of this world.” (John 12:31; Matt. 4:8, 9) It excites them to compromise with this world and enter into alliances with it and pray for it and give it moral support. The priests and prophet-preachers get a lot of pleasure out of it and out of the honors, plaudits, friendships, favors and protection that come from the kingdoms of this world. They overindulge themselves in this kind of drink and get intoxicated with the spirit of this world. They get filled up and vomit out filthy utterances.

¹³ This vomit does not mean that they reject what they have filled themselves with, but shows that they have indulged themselves to an excess, to drunkenness. That is why they return to the wine of this world, seeking it yet again, never sobering up spiritually. Hence they see nothing straight regarding God’s kingdom about which Jesus preached. They see blurry, confused, and so cannot be safe guides to God’s kingdom or to his new world. They are a warning example to those who are spiritual overseers among Jehovah’s witnesses of today. Overseers should not become befuddled through literal wine and liquor. They must become no spiritual alcoholics addicted to the spiritual, religious wine of the kingdoms of Satan’s world. That is not the kind of wine that makes God’s heart and the heart of men of good will glad.—Judg. 9:12, 13; Eph. 5:18.

SATIRICAL RIDICULE

14. In ridicule, what rhyme did the drunkards jingle off in objection to Isaiah’s talk?

¹⁴ In Isaiah’s day the drunken priests and prophets objected to his criticisms, warnings and advices. In ridicule they raised their voices, saying: “Whom will one [like Isaiah] instruct in knowledge, and whom will one make understand what has been heard? Those who have been weaned from the milk, those moved away from the breasts? For it is ‘command upon command, command upon command, measuring line upon measuring line, measuring line upon measuring line, here a little, there a little.’” Or, according to the margin of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, they jingled off this little rhyme: “For it is tsaw latsáw tsaw latsáw, qaw laqáw qaw laqáw, z^eeir sham z^eeir sham!”—Isa. 28:9, 10.

15. What is the force of the objections of those drunkards to Isaiah, in their indignation?

¹⁵ In other words, ‘Whom does this Isaiah think he’s talking to? Whom does he think he’s trying to instruct in knowledge or to make understand what he says he’s heard? Does he think he’s talking to babies who are still in their diapers, mere children who have just been weaned from mother’s milk and taken away from mamma’s breast to start eating mushy food? For Isaiah just keeps up this repetitious preaching. He keeps on drumming the same things into our ears: “This is what Jehovah has commanded, and that is what Jehovah has commanded! This is Jehovah’s standard by which to measure one’s conduct and teaching, and that is Jehovah’s standard of measurement! It’s here in Jehovah’s Word that you find it, and it’s there in Jehovah’s Word that you find it; it’s here a bit of advice, and it’s there a bit of advice!” It is just jargon to us. It is like baby talk. It is not talk for us adult men. We are educated and well versed in the affairs of this world. We are smart enough to make decisions that are able to help us get out of trouble and to save us from disaster. Isaiah must take us for mere babies. It is to laugh!’

16. How, in similar fashion, do Christendom’s clergy regard Jehovah’s modern witnesses?

¹⁶ In the days of Jesus Christ and his apostles the religious leaders of Jewry were like that. In this day the religious clergy of Christendom are like that toward Jehovah’s witnesses. They regard Jehovah’s modern witnesses the same as the Jewish Sánhedrin looked at the apostles Peter and John on the witness stand, “men unlettered and ordinary.” (Acts 4:13) The clergy regard themselves as the lettered men, men out of the ordinary and hence obligated to dress differently and to be addressed with titles, men specially trained for religious leadership and to be recognized as authorities never to be challenged or questioned. They feel that Jehovah’s witnesses, who have not been taught in the theologies of Christendom but who are so bold in their speech, are treating Christendom’s clergy like immature babies, uneducated, inexperienced, lacking in judgment, unable to take care of themselves. Jehovah’s witnesses do not speak to them their language, the language of the sectarian creeds, the language of higher criticism, the language of philosophy. Our Bible preaching is to the clergy a foreign tongue, a jargon of our own, like the uncultured language of barbarians.

17. Regardless of what the clergy think, what is it that decides whether Jehovah’s witnesses are superior in their religious education?

¹⁷ Regardless of what these learned, highly educated clergy of Christendom think, the deciding question is, Are Jehovah’s witnesses nevertheless what Isaiah 54:13 says, “persons taught by Jehovah”? Is the school of Jehovah’s witnesses really higher in plane? Is it specializing on God’s Word and teaching what his Word says, and not what self-opinionated men say? Does their school point to “here a little, there a little” in God’s Word as it has to do with any matter of religious discussion?

18. According to Isaiah 28:11-13, what answer did Jehovah have in store for those drunken ridiculers?

¹⁸ Proverbs 26:5 says: “Answer someone stupid according to his foolishness, that he may not become someone wise in his own eyes.” Jehovah had his answer for the drunken ridiculers who said Isaiah talked like a barbarian that seemed to stammer or like a man of a different language than theirs. “For,” said Isaiah regarding Jehovah, “by those stammering with their lips and by a different tongue he will speak to this people, those to whom he has said: ‘This is the resting place. Give rest to the weary one. And this is the place of ease,’ but who were not willing to hear. And to them the word of Jehovah will certainly become ‘command upon command, command upon command, measuring line upon measuring line, measuring line upon measuring line, here a little, there a little,’ in order that they may go and certainly stumble backwards and actually be broken and ensnared and caught.”—Isa. 28:11-13.

19. How did Jehovah begin to talk to them by stammerers, according to his prophecy through Jeremiah, and who came through this experience with profit?

¹⁹ In the next century after Isaiah, Jehovah did begin to talk by means of stammerers of a different tongue to the drunken priests and prophets of Jerusalem. Jehovah talked to them by means of real barbarians, who spoke what sounded like gibberish, meaningless sounds, barbaric language, namely, the Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar. Some years before the king of Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and its glorious temple, Jeremiah prophesied, saying: “‘Here I am bringing in upon you men a nation from far away, O house of Israel,’ is the utterance of Jehovah. ‘It is . . . a nation whose language you do not know, and you cannot hear understandingly what they speak. Their quiver is like an open burial place; all of them are mighty men. . . . They will shatter with the sword your fortified cities in which you are trusting.’” (Jer. 5:15-17; compare Ezekiel 3:5, 6) The Jews did not listen to God’s warning advice through Isaiah. Isaiah spoke their own language with no stammer, but the spiritual drunkards refused to understand his speech, as if it were in a foreign tongue. So now Jehovah God spoke to them by hard discipline at the hands of the Babylonians, who did speak a different tongue in a style that sounded like a stammer. For almost seventy years, or from 607 B.C., when they were carried away captive to Babylon, until Babylon’s destruction in 539 B.C., the exiled Jews had to listen to the Babylonian’s commands and measuring standards, and to obey them as their slaves. A remnant of faithful Jews came through this discipline with profit.

20. Whom has Jehovah raised up as his executioner like Nebuchadnezzar, and how did the Jews treat the warning by Jesus?

²⁰ Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians have long been dead as a nation. Today, however, Jehovah has raised up his great Servant as the Executioner of divine judgments, his anointed Son, the King Jesus Christ. This Anointed One, or Christ, is the Head of the anointed congregation of sheeplike followers. In the first century of the Christian era the Jews of Judah and Jerusalem treated Jesus Christ as the ancient drunkards had treated Isaiah. They did not take to heart Jesus’ prophetic warning concerning the coming destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman legions in the year 70 (A.D.). Only a sheeplike remnant, a “little flock,” turned to Jesus Christ, the Greater Isaiah, and received advice on how to escape the coming destruction of Jerusalem and the province of Judah. The greater number of the Jews followed their spiritually drunk priests and prophets, who rejected God’s kingdom of his Messiah and who cried out: “We have no king but Caesar.”—John 19:15.

21, 22. (a) How did the Jews treat the warning by Jesus’ followers, and how did God back up their message? (b) To whom was this divine miraculous backing for a sign?

²¹ To these Jews, the Messiah Jesus Christ and his faithful followers were talking as in a foreign tongue not understandable. The Jews stopped their ears to the warning. During the years that followed Jesus’ death in 33 (A.D.), the disciples kept preaching the day of God’s vengeance that was to come upon the Jews. To give additional weight to the message, God even gave to those early disciples the miraculous gift of speaking in foreign languages. The purpose of this the apostle Paul explains:

²² “Brothers [in Christ], do not become young children in powers of understanding, but be babes as to evil; yet become full-grown in powers of understanding. In the Law [at Isaiah 28:11] it is written: ‘“With the tongues of foreigners and with the lips of strangers I will speak to this people [Israel], and yet not even then will they give heed to me,” says Jehovah.’ Consequently, tongues are for a sign, not to the believers [Christians], but to the unbelievers.” (1 Cor. 14:20-22) That is to say, tongues were a sign to unbelievers who were like the Jews that were transported to Babylon in 607 B.C. and that needed to hear Babylonish speech in Babylon itself in order to believe that Isaiah told the truth and was a true prophet of Jehovah.

23. Since Paul carries forward the application of Isaiah’s prophecy, when does it have its complete, concluding fulfillment, and is not the gift of miraculous tongues needed to make the message “different”?

²³ Thus the apostle Paul carried the application of Isaiah’s prophecy into this Christian era. Isaiah’s prophecy did not cease applying after the Jewish remnant returned from the long exile in Babylon and Jerusalem’s first desolation ended. Likewise Isaiah’s prophecy did not cease applying after Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in the year 70, at which time the surviving Jews were led captive into all the Gentile nations to be talked to, no, not by Jewish-speaking Christians, but by Gentiles whose lips seemed to stammer in speaking a non-Jewish or foreign tongue. Hence Isaiah’s prophecy has its complete and concluding application in our day since 1914. True, Jehovah does not speak now by his Christian witnesses by means of the gift of foreign tongues as he did on the day of Pentecost nineteen centuries ago. Such a miraculous gift of foreign tongues is not needed today for the purpose of winning unbelievers from Jewry and Christendom. Our message from Isaiah does not need to be in a foreign tongue to be called “different.”

24. Like Jerusalem, what does Christendom face, and what resting place has she ignored though it was called to her attention?

²⁴ As with Jerusalem in the apostles’ day, so with Christendom in this “time of the end” of this world. She faces execution by Jehovah’s great Servant at Armageddon. Since the beginning of the “time of the end” in 1914 she has had her attention called to what the resting place provided by the Lord God is, the place to rest our hope and to seek ease from the weariness of Satan’s world. This place of rest and ease relieves us of the fears of this world and gives us a safe abiding place and refuge. This place is God’s kingdom in the hands of his Anointed Son, Jesus Christ, who now reigns on the royal height of the heavenly Zion.

25. Why has Christendom shown herself “unwilling to hear,” and how does the message as delivered sound to her?

²⁵ Repeatedly Christendom has been urged and encouraged to lead the people to the established kingdom of God in order to “give rest to the weary one.” However, because Jehovah has called the matter to her attention by his remnant of anointed witnesses, Christendom is stubborn and proud. Also because she is obsessed with her own theology and schemes and is drunk with the wine of political-religious relationships with their world, she has shown herself “unwilling to hear.” She has not sought this Kingdom resting place herself, and she has not taken up the preaching of the good news of God’s kingdom as a witness to all the nations. In rejection of God’s King and kingdom she has fought Jehovah’s witnesses and tried to destroy them and to put a stop to their Kingdom preaching. To Christendom, Jehovah’s witnesses are stammering in a foreign tongue a very strange message, at which she scoffs in ridicule.

26. What thing should Christendom know for certain as regards Jehovah’s speaking to her by his witnesses?

²⁶ Let Christendom know one thing for certain. Jehovah God is not forever going to exercise his long-suffering with her. He is not forever going to speak to her by means of his peaceful, harmless witnesses, who take persecutions at her hand. As soon as he decides that their preaching about his reigning kingdom and about the day of his vengeance has gone on long enough, he will take action by his executional forces at the battlefield of Armageddon.

27. Then what is it that Christendom will hear, and what will her religious leaders do, to their annihilation?

²⁷ Then what Christendom will hear amid the roar of battle of the “great day of God Almighty” will be his carrying into effect the command upon command, the measuring line upon measuring line, the here a little and there a little. Then in the hard way Christendom will find out that Jehovah’s witnesses spoke His message and that it was nothing to scoff at drunkenly with tsaw latsáw tsaw latsáw, qaw laqáw qaw laqáw, z^eeir sham z^eeir sham! We witnesses of Jehovah have warned Christendom and urged her to repent; but she has kept on her drunken spree and will keep on it till God executes his sentence of destruction. Then her religious leaders and their sectarian flocks will “go and certainly stumble backwards and actually be broken and ensnared and caught.” That means annihilation!

28. Unsilenced, what stern proclamation of the prophet Isaiah do Jehovah’s witnesses repeat?

²⁸ Jehovah’s witnesses refuse to be silenced by all the scoffing and ridicule. They repeat this stern proclamation of the prophet Isaiah: “Therefore hear the word of Jehovah, you braggarts, you rulers of this people who are in Jerusalem [foreshadowing Christendom of today]: Because you men have said: ‘We have concluded a covenant with Death, and with Sheol we have effected a vision; the overflowing flash-flood, in case it should pass through, will not come to us, for we have made a lie our refuge and in falsehood we have concealed ourselves’; therefore this is what the Lord Jehovah has said: ‘Here I am laying as a foundation in Zion a stone, a tried stone, the precious corner of a sure foundation. No one exercising faith will get panicky. And I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the leveling instrument; and the hail must sweep away the refuge of a lie, and the waters themselves will flood out the very place of concealment. And your covenant with Death will certainly be dissolved, and that vision of yours with Sheol [the common grave] will not stand. The overflowing flash-flood, when it passes through—you must also become for it a trampling place. As often as it passes through, it will take you men away, because morning by morning it will pass through, during the day and during the night.’”—Isa. 28:14-19a.

REFUGE IN A LIE

29. Why do the spiritually drunk rulers of Christendom feel cocksure, and how did the bragging rulers of Samaria and of Jerusalem foreshadow that?

²⁹ The bragging, scoffing, spiritually drunk rulers of Christendom feel cocksure. They think they have made all provisions and taken proper safeguards against the day of divine wrath, in order to avoid what happened to ancient Samaria and Jerusalem. They say they have secured themselves against getting killed and being buried. How? By taking refuge in what Jehovah’s witnesses say is a lie, and by concealing themselves in what we witnesses say is a falsehood. In Isaiah’s day did the drunken, bragging rulers of Samaria and of Jerusalem take refuge in the lies of a trinity doctrine, the hell-fire doctrine of eternal torment, the doctrine of the fiery end of our earth and universe, and similar doctrines? In the face of being attacked, besieged and destroyed by the world power of Assyria and then that of Babylon, did they conceal themselves in such false doctrines? No; Samaria turned for help to a protective alliance with Syria. And Jerusalem, in her turn, appealed first to Assyria and finally, when that failed, Jerusalem took refuge in Egypt and concealed herself behind Egypt’s horses, chariots and armies. When the Babylonian besiegers once withdrew because Pharaoh’s army was approaching, the pro-Egyptian rulers and priests and prophets of Jerusalem felt sure that they had a safe refuge and place of concealment to which the enemy could never get.

30. Similarly, in this time of the end, in what has Christendom taken refuge and concealed herself?

³⁰ Likewise in this time of the end, when Jehovah’s witnesses are particularly warning Christendom concerning the coming of God’s executional forces at Armageddon. Now her rulers, backed by her priests and prophets, take refuge, not in Jehovah’s provided resting place and place of ease, but in worldly alliances. First, Christendom proposed and took refuge in the League of Nations, from 1919 down to 1939. Then, from 1945 till now, she has concealed herself behind the world-peace-and-security organization, the United Nations. Heedless of Jehovah’s witnesses, Christendom in effect says:

31. What, in effect, does Christendom say self-assuringly and in defiance to Jehovah’s witnesses?

³¹ ‘You witnesses, with your message of the day of vengeance of your God Jehovah, can’t scare us. The Death and Sheol that you predict for us won’t touch us or harm us. We have got on good terms with Death so it will not touch us by those executional forces of your Jehovah God. We’ll survive and you won’t. We have come to a good understanding with Sheol, which you witnesses say is the common grave. We have a vision with it; we see alike as to the outcome of matters. Sheol will not open its mouth or enlarge itself to receive us, and you witnesses of Jehovah will never bury our bones after what you call Armageddon. Ha, ha! We once made our refuge the League of Nations and the Court of International Justice. Since World War II we have concealed ourselves behind the United Nations, its security forces, its Committee for Disarmament, its International Court of Justice, and all the defensive alliances and pacts that have been formed within the framework of the United Nations. So those forces of destruction about which you witnesses of Jehovah are doing such sensational preaching will never reach us or sweep us into Death and Sheol. They will be swept back, and our Egyptian refuge and place of concealment will hold out. They are our last and only hope, but they will not fail us. They will prove true to us, and you witnesses will prove to be calamity howlers, false prophets such as we have all along said that you were.’

32, 33. (a) In what do we witnesses of Jehovah say that Christendom’s rulers have made their refuge, as proved by Psalms 62:8, 9 and Ps 33:17-19? (b) As a refuge and concealment place, what did the League of Nations prove to be, and what will the United Nations prove to be?

³² But, standing on God’s sure Word, we witnesses of Jehovah say that Christendom’s rulers political and religious have made their refuge a lying, deceptive arrangement. They have concealed themselves in what will prove false to them—in false gods, in undependable allies, in what is unequal to meeting the forces operating at the time of divine execution. We quote Psalm 62:8, 9: “God is a refuge for us. . . . Indeed the sons of earthling man are an exhalation, the sons of mankind are a lie. When laid upon the scales they are all together lighter than an exhalation.”

³³ We witnesses also quote Psalm 33:17-19: “The horse [of Egypt for warfare] is a deception for salvation, and by the abundance of its vital energy it does not afford escape. Look! the eye of Jehovah is toward those fearing him, to those waiting for his loving-kindness, to deliver their soul from death itself, and to preserve them alive in famine.” Today Christendom has a symbolic “image of the wild beast.” Each member of the United Nations has joined in setting it up or in maintaining it for worship as an idol image for worship by the worldly nations. Concerning it we quote Jeremiah (10:14, 15): “His molten image is a falsehood, and there is no spirit in them. They are vanity, a work of mockery. In the time of their being given attention they will perish.” Hence we witnesses say: The war horses of antitypical Egypt will not avail Christendom. The Devil-inspired, man-made images symbolizing peace and security now worshiped by the nations will prove to be no gods. The alliance of Christendom’s religions with this political world is an unclean, ungodly deception. As a refuge and place of concealment the League of Nations proved to be a lie, even without the coming of the battle of Armageddon. Not less so now, when the actual “war of the great day of God the Almighty” is impending, the United Nations is a lie and a falsehood! Jehovah says so through his Word.

34. Where has Jehovah laid the basis of a stable, enduring government, and when did he lay this basis there?

³⁴ Mankind’s only hope, our one refuge and concealment place, is in Zion, God’s heavenly kingdom. There Jehovah has laid as the basis of a stable, enduring government his Son, his tried Stone, his precious Stone of a sure foundation, Jesus Christ the King. (Isa. 28:16; 1 Pet. 2:4-6; Rom. 9:32, 33; 10:6-11) Jesus is the one whom Jehovah has anointed and tried and tested and who proved faithful to the divine sovereignty. In spite of Jesus’ being rejected as king by Jewry in the year 33, Jehovah raised him from the dead and laid him in the heavenly Zion; and there is where the apostle John, in the Revelation to him, saw Jesus standing with his congregation of 144,000 faithful anointed followers.—Rev. 14:1-5.

35. When did Jehovah lay his precious Stone in Zion in an undisputable sense, and why then?

³⁵ Christendom made a similar rejection of Jesus Christ at the climax of World War I in 1918. Yet Jehovah has laid his precious Stone in the heavenly Zion in an undisputable sense. Why so? Because by 1918 Jehovah’s anointed enthroned King Jesus Christ had proved himself precious to God. He proved successful under test and trial during the war that broke out in heaven in 1914 and that resulted in freeing God’s heaven of the Devil’s presence and in the casting of him and his demon angels down to the neighborhood of this earth, to be reserved here for a short period of time before he is abyssed at Armageddon.

36. For what has Christendom made her choice, and why has she been panicked into taking refuge and concealment there?

³⁶ Christendom has rejected Jehovah’s enthroned King. Both before World War II and since then, she has made her choice. It has been for worldly alliances, not for Jehovah’s royal Stone laid irremovably in heavenly Zion. In spite of the failure of the League of Nations, the Catholic and Protestant churches of Christendom still do not see the royal Stone on Mount Zion, whom Jehovah’s witnesses have advertised so loudly specially since 1926.a Those religious systems that profess Christ chose and rested their hope in the United Nations. Faced with the threat of world communism and the destruction of modern, materialistic civilization of the twentieth century, Christendom has been panicked into taking refuge and concealing herself in the United Nations. Her last hope is in this organization made up of many nations of different political ideologies and different religious beliefs, Christian, Jewish, Mohammedan, pagan and Communist.

37. Why have Jehovah’s witnesses not been panicked into the United Nations, and where do we invite all sheeplike persons to take refuge and concealment, and why?

³⁷ However, even under international hatred and persecution, Jehovah’s witnesses have not been panicked into the United Nations. In 1918-1919 they put faith in Jehovah’s thoroughly tried and precious Stone in Zion. They refused to worship the League of Nations but declared its doom. Now we refuse to worship and trust in the United Nations, and we likewise declare its coming doom. We rest on the royal Stone in Zion for refuge and concealment, and we do not share in the world’s fear, distress and anguish. We are still here, immovably resting upon Jehovah’s precious Stone, and we preach and invite all sheeplike persons all around the earth to take refuge and find concealment against Armageddon in Jehovah’s Stone. Our hope is in Jehovah’s kingdom by Christ. As a refuge, that kingdom is no lie; it is the truth. As a concealment place, that kingdom is no falsehood; it is a dependable reality. That kingdom will last as long as the truth lasts—forever!

[Footnotes]

When Jehovah Rises Up to His Unusual Work

1. How does Isaiah describe the situation of those trying to take careless ease in worldly arrangements for peace and security, and why?

THIS is no time for careless ease or for self-satisfaction within worldly arrangements for peace, security, prosperity and survival. Anyone that stretches himself out on a bed of ease provided by this world finds the bed too short to keep his feet from sticking out into the cold. If he doubles himself up to conform to the shortness of the bed and gets his knees under his chin, then the bedsheet or covering proves to be too narrow for wrapping himself in to keep his whole body warm. So, under the darkening shadows of Jehovah’s deed and work during the oncoming battle of Armageddon, the situation of mankind in trying to take worldly ease and rest becomes bloodchilling. It gives one the shivers. “For,” says Isaiah (28:20, 21), “the couch has proved too short for stretching oneself on, and the woven sheet itself is too narrow when wrapping oneself up. For Jehovah will rise up just as at Mount Perazim, he will be agitated just as in the low plain near Gibeon, that he may do his deed—his deed is strange—and that he may work his work—his work is unusual.”

2, 3. (a) In the century following Isaiah’s prophecy, why was the situation one that allowed for something strange and unusual by Jehovah? (b) When did Jehovah accomplish that unbelievable work, and how did he show that he was not unwilling to repeat it?

² During the century that followed the utterance of those words Jehovah rose up in a first fulfillment of them. Jerusalem had never been destroyed before. Its throne of the house of David had never been overthrown before. Its awe-inspiring temple to Jehovah had never been burned and razed to the ground before. That such a thing would occur was unbelievable, to the Jews. That Jehovah would become responsible for such a thing was too strange, too unusual, for Jews to think possible. Yet, by means of the prophet Habakkuk (1:5-9, RS), Jehovah warned the doubting Jews: “Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told. For lo, I am rousing the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize habitations not their own. Dread and terrible are they; their justice and dignity proceed from themselves. Their horses are swifter than leopards. . . . They all come for violence.”

³ In 607 B.C. Jehovah accomplished that work. What is more, Jehovah was not unwilling to repeat that seemingly unbelievable work. About A.D. 44, or about twenty-six years before the second destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, the apostle Paul preached in an Asian synagogue to many unbelieving Jews. He warned them against the consequences of rejecting Jehovah’s King on Zion by quoting Habakkuk’s words (LXX): “Behold it, you scorners, and wonder at it, and vanish away, because I am working a work in your days, a work which you will by no means believe even if anyone relates it to you in detail.” (Acts 13:14-41) Scornful Jews turned against this message. Just the same, Jehovah worked the destruction of Jerusalem and her temple by means of the Roman legions in the year 70, shocking the religious feelings of the Jews world-wide.

4, 5. (a) What, then, should Christendom not think that Jehovah would never do, and why so? (b) Like whom, at what battle, will Jehovah rise up and treat Christendom like Philistines?

⁴ Why, then, should Christendom with her thousand religious systems think that Jehovah God would never repeat his strange deed or his unusual work upon her in a final, culminating fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy? What is there Christian about Christendom? At the grandest opportunity of all her history, at the climactic occasion of all her sixteen centuries of existence, she belies her name and rejects Jehovah’s King enthroned on Zion. She refuses to proclaim the saving good news of His kingdom, and chooses the League of Nations and the United Nations. What is there Christian about that? She and her religious crowd are mere spiritual Philistines; and Jehovah will treat them as he long ago treated the Philistines at the hand of David, Jehovah’s king on the ancient earthly Mount Zion.

⁵ What is strange and unusual to unbelievers, Jehovah God will do; and this time it will be to Christendom, the imitator of ancient Jerusalem and Judah. At Armageddon’s day and hour Jehovah, the God of angelic armies, will rise up as he did at Perazim. By means of his armies under his Greater David he will break forth upon Philistine Christendom like an irresistible flood of water pouring out through a gap in a crumbling dam. When Christendom’s vast organization is broken up and her adherents are sent scattering, they will leave behind them their false gods to be burned up by Jehovah’s forces.

6. How will Jehovah become agitated in spirit against Christendom’s Philistines as at Gibeon, and what will his unusual work result in?

⁶ Whatever individual survivors there may be of this strange deed of wiping out the blasphemously false Christian organization, they will not be able to conceal themselves and escape to survive Armageddon. For against these dismayed but unrepentant Kingdom opposers, now unmasked, the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies, will be agitated in spirit, just as he was at Gibeon long ago. At that place King David, from behind the cover of the baca bushes and beneath the roar of the heavy winds sweeping through the bush tops, swooped down upon the Philistine camp. Then he pursued them for a distance of sixteen miles, all the way to Gezer, striking down those who were against his kingship. So by his Greater David on Zion, Jehovah will come upon Christendom’s Philistines like a thief at an unexpected hour. He will perform his unusual work to the point of wiping out the last ones of Christendom’s adherents. Her great temples of religion will suffer the ruin that Jerusalem’s polluted temples did.

7, 8. (a) Having in mind Perazim and Gibeon, Jehovah likens his Greater David to what? (b) What will the symbolic storm and flooding waters do, and the mere reporting about it will become a reason for what?

⁷ Since Jehovah had in mind his exploits at Perazim and Gibeon, it is not strange that Jehovah likens his Greater David, the King Jesus Christ, to a “thunderous storm of hail, a decimating storm, like a thunderous storm of powerful, flooding waters.” Jehovah therefore calls Jesus Christ “someone strong and vigorous.” Leading his angelic army to victory, Jehovah will remember the measuring line by which he meted out justice, or what was justly due, to Samaria at the head of the fertile valley of Ephraim. He will also remember the leveling instrument by which he executed righteousness, or what was rightly due, upon unfaithful Jerusalem in 607 B.C. and A.D. 70. (2 Ki. 21:11-15) At Armageddon he will make justice his measuring line and righteousness his leveling instrument. His “strong and vigorous” one, his King Jesus Christ, followed by his angelic army, “must sweep away the refuge of a lie.” Surging onward to reach every part of the hypocritical organization, “the waters themselves [or, Jehovah’s strong, vigorous King and his holy angels] will flood out the very place of concealment.”

⁸ Down will go the peace-and-security organization, any United Nations, and all the worldly alliances that Christendom has built up for her protection against the day of reckoning! Her rulers will find their imagined “covenant with Death” dissolved by Jehovah’s mighty King in action. Death will lay them low. Their false vision that they thought they had effected with Sheol will not stand up against Jehovah’s King and his army. The graves reserved for the armies of Gog of Magog will open their mouths wide to receive them. When Jehovah’s symbolic “overflowing flash-flood” passes through the realm of Christendom, her rulers and their armies will become a trampling place under the feet of Jehovah’s King and his angel warriors. Those religious hypocrites will be swept away; for morning by morning, day after day, during both daylight and nighttime, the heavenly armies will pass through to take away every last one of the Kingdom opposers. Those who hear of what has already overtaken some of their crowd will find it to be a cause of their own selves to tremble when they try to make others understand what they have heard in advance.

9. (a) Why will that indeed be a “different war”? (b) To add to the strangeness and unusualness of it all, what may Jehovah God do in that universal war?

⁹ This will be indeed a “different war.” It will be different from any international conflict, where “massive retaliation” by the attacked bloc of nations may be used against the attacking bloc. Even with the help of Satan the Devil and his demons, Christendom will be unable to launch a massive retaliation against Jehovah God and his executional forces under his King Jesus Christ. To add to the strangeness of this deed of God and to the unusualness of this work of God, Jehovah may unleash natural physical forces with which the scientists of Christendom have been making us acquainted since around 1914—cosmic rays with all their varied effects upon earth and man, electric currents in the upper air with intensities of as much as ten million amperes, and other physical wonders yet to be discovered by scientists before Armageddon or yet to be revealed during that universal war itself, comparable to the surprising novelty of the flood of Noah’s day.

10. Primarily, the unusualness and strangeness of God’s activity will be owing to what fact?

¹⁰ Yet the strangeness, the unusualness of God’s deed and work, need not necessarily be due to the method or means by which he destroys. It will be primarily owing to the fact that his vengeance is wreaked upon templed Christendom, which claims to be God’s visible organization, yes, his church built upon the rock, against which the gates of Hades or Sheol cannot prevail.—Matt. 16:18.

11. What warning is given to those who scoff at this prophetic description of Jehovah’s deed and work?

¹¹ Even though we go into no detailed description of the astounding doings of Jehovah by Christ at Armageddon, this Scriptural explanation may seem overdrawn, fantastic, extremely sensational. It may provoke scoffing in religious circles in Christendom. Yet God’s warning word is to be taken seriously, together with his illustrations drawn from actual recorded history. Isaiah (28:22) warns: “And now do not show yourselves scoffers, in order that your bands may not grow strong, for there is an extermination, even something decided upon, that I have heard of from the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies, for all the land.” Those who scoff and refuse to turn from Christendom’s unfaithful, worldly course will only harden themselves in unbelief and antagonism to Jehovah’s King and kingdom. Their bands, which doom them to execution at Armageddon, will become all the stronger and tighter, making it more certain that the scoffers will be destroyed by Jehovah’s strange deed and unusual work.

12. Will Jehovah turn aside from his decision against Christendom, and why should the discipline already received be enough for those who are inclined to scoff?

¹² The Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies, has decided upon an extermination of Christendom and her hundreds of millions. He will no more turn aside from his announced decision than he turned aside from exterminating ancient Jerusalem and her temple in 607 B.C. and A.D. 70. Why should anyone scoff and be beaten still more during this “short period of time” before Armageddon? Why should anyone have Jehovah of armies become drastic and ride over him with a symbolic rollered wagon on the threshing floor of Armageddon and crush him out of all existence? The discipline already received should be enough. Cease from scoffing unbelievingly in pride. Turn to Jehovah’s King and kingdom in faith, humility and devotion.—Isa. 28:23-29.

JEHOVAH AS A CROWN AND A GARLAND

13. Only by doing what now can we hope to be spared from execution by Jehovah’s deed and work, and what will be very “precious” to us at that time?

¹³ How blessed it is now to prove ourselves true Christians! Only by divorcing ourselves from Christendom and her imitation Christianity and by becoming true followers of the reigning King Jesus Christ can we hope to be spared from execution with Christendom by Jehovah’s strange deed and unusual work in the “war of the great day of God the Almighty.” He has announced to all Christendom and her spiritual drunkards that their trust is misplaced, and that he has laid a precious royal Stone, one completely tried out and tested, as a “corner of a sure foundation” in his governmental height of heavenly Zion. All persons who see the lie and falsity of worldly arrangements and alliances and who rest themselves upon Jehovah’s precious royal Stone, Jesus Christ the King of the new world, will take refuge and conceal themselves in the true and dependable Protector. By exercising faith in him they will be preserved from any panic into which the world is stampeded to its destruction. Hence that royal Stone in Zion is “precious” to us believers now, whether we are of the remnant of his “little flock” of Kingdom joint heirs or are of the “great crowd” of his other sheep. How “precious” that royal Stone will be to us when all of God’s destructive forces are in operation during the war of Armageddon!

14. What will it mean to the eminent crown and decoration of the spiritual drunkards, but what will the remnant of Kingdom joint heirs have as their decoration?

¹⁴ The prophet Isaiah says that it means woe to the “eminent crown of the drunkards of Ephraim” and to the “fading blossom of its decoration of beauty” that encircles the head of the fertile valley of the tipsy rebels against Jehovah. Why? Because their “eminent crowns” will be trampled down by the overflowing hosts of destruction. Their beautiful head-decoration will prove to be composed merely of fading flowers that will be made to wither and die as quickly as an early ripe fig appearing before summer is greedily gobbled up by the one who discovers it on the fig tree. However, the loyal remnant of Kingdom joint heirs, who exercise faith in Jehovah’s tested royal Stone, will have an undying crown of glory. “In that day,” says the prophet Isaiah, “Jehovah of armies will become as a crown of decoration and as a garland of beauty to the ones remaining over of his people, and as a spirit of justice to the one sitting in the judgment, and as mightiness to those turning away the battle from the gate.”—Isa. 28:5, 6.

15. Particularly since when has God’s name been glorified respecting us as his witnesses, and what will happen to this decorative crown and beautiful garland at Armageddon?

¹⁵ Particularly since 1926 the spiritual remnant have been honoring Jehovah and publishing his name, so that in 1931 they felt it Scripturally appropriate for them to embrace the distinguishing name “Jehovah’s witnesses.” Since then a growing “great crowd” of other sheep have also embraced that name. What an honor it has been to bear the name of the only living and true God, Jehovah of armies, and thus to be identified with the glorious Supreme One of all the universe! His name upon us does not fade in glory; but because of all that he has done for his witnesses during World War II and till now, he has glorified his name upon us still more. He has protected and guided us; he has wrought all our works for us. So he is our unfading “crown of decoration” and our “garland of beauty” that will never be trampled down. When he glorifies his name to a dazzling brilliance by his victory over all Satan’s organization at Armageddon and preserves his witnesses clear through that universal conflict, how much more gloriously our divine “crown of decoration” and “garland of beauty” will sparkle!

16. Who is the one sitting in judgment in Zion, and as what kind of spirit does Jehovah become to him and with what result?

¹⁶ His royal Stone in Zion sits in the judgment that is to be executed at Armageddon. To him the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies, has become a “spirit of justice.” Instead of being overcome by the intoxicating spirits of worldly alliances like Christendom’s drunkards who go astray in seeing and who reel unsteadily in making their decisions, Jesus Christ is filled with Jehovah’s spirit to keep him steady and to direct him in clear-sighted decision. Through him Jehovah will “make justice the measuring line and righteousness the leveling instrument.” The drunken Kingdom enemies will be overwhelmed in destruction, whereas justice will be done to Jehovah’s holy name and universal sovereignty, vindicating these.

17. (a) For us in our spiritual warfare, what will Jehovah become as toward the assault forces of Gog of Magog? (b) With whom is it the right thing to have a covenant and a vision, in contrast with the spiritual drunkards?

¹⁷ Victory over this satanic world is assured to us, for the Isaian promise is that Jehovah of armies will be “as mightiness to those turning away the battle from the gate.” So, as we fight on in our spiritual warfare in the “complete suit of armor from God,” Jehovah’s mightiness will turn away “from the gate” the assault forces of Gog of Magog, and Jehovah’s visible organization founded on his precious royal Stone will stand. Jehovah’s strange deed and his unusual work will obliterate the organization of Christendom, and the destruction of all her worldly allies will follow. Zion will remain triumphant, founded upon the royal Stone who has the “keys of death and of Hades [or, Sheol].” This is the one with whom to have a covenant and to have a vision of seeing things alike, with just one objective, one aim, that is, Jehovah’s divine will. Jesus Christ the King is the very reverse of Sheol and death, for he is the “resurrection and the life.”—Rev. 1:18; John 11:25.

18. (a) Why will we not fear, and what will be our earnest prayer? (b) What privilege do we want to continue ours, and thus what will everybody know concerning what comes to pass?

¹⁸ Thus we witnesses of Jehovah, who laid this royal Stone in Zion, stand insured against any future developments in heaven and on earth. We will not fear. Strange though Jehovah’s deed may prove to be, and unusual though his approaching work may be, our sincere, earnest prayer is that His will may come to pass. Oh may it continue to be our privilege to tell to all the nations about the extermination and the thing that Jehovah has decided upon as a warning! Then, when it comes to pass, it will be known by everybody that Jehovah of armies, “our crown of decoration” and “garland of beauty,” has done it to his own vindication by Jesus Christ. So be it! Amen!

Explaining God’s Signs and Wonders

THIS is a day of signs and wonders. Satan has his signs and wonders, foremost of which is the United Nations organization with its headquarters in New York city. The “false prophet” and others draw attention to this wonder as man’s only hope for world peace.

Jehovah God also has his signs and wonders. Among such in our day was the recent Divine Will International Assembly, which brought upward of 145,000 dedicated servants of Jehovah daily together from the four corners of the earth to New York city’s leading ball parks for eight days of pure worship and Christian fellowship. And what a sign it was, attracting the attention of the whole world with reverberations still being heard far and wide!

Chief of God’s signs and wonders in the earth today is the remnant itself, the remaining ones of the children that Jehovah gave to the Greater Isaiah, Jesus Christ, even as the prophet Isaiah foretold: “Look! I and the children whom Jehovah has given me are as signs and as wonders in Israel from Jehovah of armies, who is residing in Mount Zion.” (Isa. 8:18) Foretelling the purpose of their being signs and wonders is our text for the month of March: “You who set signs and tokens in the land of Egypt down to this day and in Israel and among men, that you might make a name for your own self, just as at this day.”—Jer. 32:20.a

These children given by Jehovah to the Greater Isaiah have names that identify them and their work: Shear-jashub means “A mere remnant will return”; and Maher-shalal-hash-baz means “Hasten, O spoil! He has come quickly to the plunder.” They are indeed a mere remnant that returned from captivity to antitypical Babylon, and though their number today is small, but some 15,000 (according to our latest Yearbook), they stand forth as living proof that Jehovah is able to deliver and save his people from the enemy. They truly are signs and wonders.

It is a great privilege thus to serve Jehovah. Noah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Jonah and especially Christ Jesus all served as signs and wonders. For one so to serve he must get out where he can be seen, even as Jesus did, going from house to house and city to city. However, not to call attention to himself but to his message and the meaning of his presence. This the remnant have been doing particularly since their restoration, and as a result of their efforts others began joining them until today there is a great crowd of “other sheep,” upward of 700,000, that have joined the remnant in their work.

And why has Jehovah set these as signs and wonders in the earth? ‘That he may make a name for himself.’ That means that these signs and wonders and their goodwill companions must first of all publish the fact that the name of the Most High, the one and only true God, is Jehovah. In keeping with their name Maher-shalal-hash-baz, they must also call attention to the fact that God’s kingdom is hastening to spoil Satan’s system of things at Armageddon. In view of what Jesus said in his great prophecy, our preaching of this message is proof that this world’s end is near.

True, this exposes us to persecution, and this persecution will doubtless increase in intensity against all of us when Gog of Magog attacks. But need we fear? No, because Immanuel is with us, which name means “With us is God.” That being so, let us go forward in spite of all opposition, confident that in Jehovah’s power we shall complete the work he has given us to do and that in his appointed time.

[Footnotes]

What Is Eventuality?

EVENTUALITY is a Bible teaching. No, this is not the same as fatalism, which teaching claims that an individual’s life course, his every experience and final destiny are subject to fate and thus are all predetermined. Rather, eventuality means that certain events without fail are due to occur ultimately. These eventualities are determined by a superior who governs times and seasons. There are eventualities of condemnation and eventualities of favor bringing blessings. Before those eventualities fall due, individuals have great freedom of choice, which determines the outcome for them as to whether they are to remain under condemnation into annihilation or are worthy to share in future eventualities of favor.

Man, created in the image of God, was originally granted the possibility of everlasting life on a paradise earth. For Adam’s rebellion against Jehovah’s sovereignty he and his offspring were placed under an eventuality of death. (Rom. 5:12) This condemnation now gave them a time-bounded life span, a limitation as originally designed for the beasts of the field, who were not created in the image of the everlasting God. “For there is an eventuality as respects the sons of mankind and an eventuality as respects the beast, and they have the same eventuality. As the one dies, so the other dies.”—Eccl. 3:19.

This eventuality of death is no respecter of persons, whether they be true or false worshipers, rich or poor. “One eventuality there is to the righteous one and the wicked one, the good one and the clean one and the unclean one, and the one sacrificing and the one that is not sacrificing. The good one is the same as the sinner . . . This is what is calamitous in all that has been done under the sun, that, because there is one eventuality to all, the heart of the sons of men is also full of bad, and there is madness in their heart during their lifetime, and after it—to the dead ones.”—Eccl. 9:2, 3.

Man’s striving to advance his own selfish works eventuates in futility. The handicaps involved under this great eventuality of death cannot be overcome whether one be wise in his practical wisdom or one be stupid in his foolishness. “As regards anyone wise, his eyes are in his head, but the stupid one is walking on in sheer darkness. And I have come to know, I too, that there is one eventuality that eventuates to them all. And I myself said in my heart: ‘An eventuality like that upon the stupid one will eventuate to me, yes, me.’ Why, then, had I become wise, I overmuch so at that time? And I spoke in my heart: ‘This too is vanity.’ For there is no more remembrance of the wise one than of the stupid one to time indefinite.” (Eccl. 2:14-16) Forgotten in the dust of time are all the accomplishments and self-works of the ancient wise ones and the fools. But a man who seeks to follow a course of dedication to God, performs worth-while works that eventuate for him in future life and blessings.—1 Cor. 15:58.

For the Christian faithful to his dedication, amazingly grand eventualities of favor lie ahead, future certainties. Eventually the Kingdom government will rule this earth for a thousand years. Eventually peace will bathe this globe. Eventually death will be wiped away. Eventually physical and spiritual healing of the peoples will restore human perfection. Eventually the earth will become a paradise. Wonder of wonders, eventually there will be resurrections of the dead. Jehovah’s sovereign supremacy eventually will be vindicated at the end of the thousand years when most of restored mankind will prove their integrity in the final test. Eventually they will receive the gift of everlasting life. Men and women then will be adopted by Jehovah as his earthly sons and daughters forever.

What hope these eventualities for a course of Christian integrity bring to faithful servants of Jehovah in these days of the world’s end! These eventualities do not make Jehovah’s witnesses fatalists. No, these amazing eventualities yet to be realized but sharpen our interest to become worthy of the gift of everlasting life from God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Rom. 6:23) It may be that the eventuality of death will overtake one before Armageddon, before the termination of death’s long rule. So make good use of every day you are alive before the universal war of Armageddon to build a good record with your God. Give praise to Jehovah the appointer of due eventualities to the wicked and to the good while you yet have breath. Make sure of the eventuality that Jehovah God assigns to those who do his will.—1 John 2:17.

Part 9—“Your Will Be Done on Earth”

As stated earlier in this Chapter 3 of the book “Your Will Be Done on Earth,” Man’s Creator started off the human family in an earthly sanctuary, the holy garden of Eden or Paradise of Eden, where he held communion with his innocent creatures, Adam and Eve. Because of losing their innocence by breaking their heavenly Father’s commandment, Adam and Eve lost the earthly sanctuary of Eden for their offspring, the human family. During the global flood of Noah’s day that garden sanctuary was destroyed. Centuries later Jehovah God instructed his prophet Moses to have the Israelites in the wilderness of Mount Sinai erect a portable sanctuary for carrying on His worship. This was finally carried by the Israelites into the Promised Land of Palestine. When Solomon became king of Israel, he replaced this tent sanctuary with a glorious stationary temple built on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. In course of time the Jews profaned this temple to such an extent that Jehovah God decreed and permitted its destruction by the pagan Babylonians in 607 B.C.

EARTHLY SANCTUARY RESTORED

38, 39. (a) How long did Jehovah time it for the temple site to lie desolate? (b) According to Isaiah’s prophecy, whom did Jehovah raise up, and what decree did this one issue?

³⁸ Just as Jeremiah had prophesied, the site of Solomon’s temple lay desolate for seventy years. Meanwhile those thousands of Jews who had survived the overthrow of Jerusalem and her temple were mostly captive in Babylon, prisoners whom heartless Babylon gave no other hope than that of dying far from home. But Jehovah was in his heavenly sanctuary. He was watching what was going on, with full consideration for his name and his worship. “For he has looked down from his holy height, from the very heavens Jehovah himself has looked even at the earth, to hear the sighing of the prisoner, to loosen those appointed to death.” (Ps. 102:19, 20) He was timing all his movements toward his own people and their oppressors. He raised up the very conqueror whom he had foretold through Isaiah, King Cyrus of Persia: “I, Jehovah, am doing everything, . . . the One saying of Cyrus: ‘He is my shepherd, and all that I delight in he will completely carry out’; even in my saying of Jerusalem: ‘She will be rebuilt,’ and of the temple: ‘You will have your foundation laid.’” (Isa. 44:24, 28; 45:1-5, 11-13) In 539 B.C., to the surprise of all the nations, mighty Babylon fell before the Medes and Persians, drinking the cup of shame that she had made the nation of Jehovah’s people drink. In the seventieth year of Jerusalem’s desolation, in 537 B.C., the king of the Persian Empire issued the decree for the rebuilding of Jehovah’s sanctuary.

³⁹ Said Cyrus’ decree: “All the kingdoms of the earth Jehovah the God of the heavens has given me and he himself has commissioned me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all his people, may his God prove to be with him. So let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of Jehovah the God of Israel—he is The true God—which was in Jerusalem.”—Ezra 1:2, 3; 2 Chron. 36:22, 23.

40, 41. (a) How were the sacrifices to Jehovah renewed at the right place? (b) When was the temple foundation laid, to make whose word come true?

⁴⁰ A remnant of about 50,000 faithful Israelites and slaves responded to the decree and eagerly journeyed back to Jerusalem. By the end of that seventieth year of Jerusalem’s desolation they were back on the sites of their former cities, reestablishing themselves. This was in absolute fulfillment of Jehovah’s prophecy through Jeremiah. On the first day of their seventh month, Ethanim, the month in which they were to celebrate the day of atonement and the festival of booths, they assembled with their Jewish governor, Zerubbabel, and they joined with their high priest, Jeshua, in rebuilding the altar of Jehovah in the courtyard space on Mount Moriah. “So they established the altar firmly upon its own site.” Then the sacrifices to Jehovah were renewed, according to what was due each day. They even held their week-long festival of booths, the first in seventy years. Besides this there was the “constant burnt offering,” or the “continual burnt offering,” the burnt offering that was made daily, morning and evening. (Ezra 3:1-5; Ex. 29:38-42; Num. 28:3-10) Thus a start was made in the renewing of the worship of Jehovah at the very place where he had put his name. What a joyous time that was for the liberated remnant of his people! The temple foundation had not yet been laid, but that followed seven months later, in 536 B.C., during the reign of Cyrus the Great.

⁴¹ Again Jehovah’s word had marvelously come true. About 185 years after Isaiah’s prophecy concerning, Cyrus, the temple of Jehovah was having its foundation laid, and the sanctuary of the God of ancient Israel was being rebuilt. Yet even more wonderful fulfillments of Jehovah’s prophecies are we beholding today!

42. What effect did enemy interference have upon temple building, and how did Jehovah take hold of the situation that resulted?

⁴² Jehovah’s sanctuary is a key target of attack, down to our own day. In the days of the Jewish rebuilders of his temple according to Cyrus’ decree, the people of the lands round about resented the restoration of this remnant of Jehovah’s people and the re-establishment of his temple and worship. They did everything they could, locally and at the court of the Persian rulers, to hinder the rebuilding of Jehovah’s sanctuary, to “frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus the king of Persia down till the reign of Darius the king of Persia.” (Ezra 4:1-5) The work on this second temple to Jehovah had actually been stopped under decree of a misinformed Persian king and by force of arms of the heathen opposers of Jehovah’s sanctuary. During this stoppage of temple building the Jews grew materialistic and Jehovah withheld his blessings. Then, to urge on his remnant of worshipers to carry through the main purpose for which he had brought about their release from Babylon, Jehovah raised up his prophets Haggai and Zechariah to point out their neglect and to build up their faith in Almighty God. Courageously, in the second year of Darius I, they resumed building Jehovah’s sanctuary. They refused to stop because of the objections of the enemy, and referred them to Jehovah’s decree through King Cyrus the Great. The sanctuary enemies appealed to King Darius I. The Persian king made investigation, proved the actuality of Cyrus’ decree for the Jews to rebuild Jehovah’s temple, and loyally ordered Cyrus’ decree to be enforced. So lay off from interfering, you foes of Jehovah’s house, or else be impaled on a stake and have your houses turned into public privies! In fact, lend Jehovah’s temple builders supplies in order to complete his house!—Ezra 6:6-12.

43. (a) When were the rebuilt temple inaugurated and the temple services renewed? (b) What was the purpose of Ezra’s visit to this temple, and what distinguished visitor was there in 332 B.C.?

⁴³ Thus with Jehovah’s power and spirit, with even the imperial backing of Persia’s ruler, the temple building went forward. In a little more than four years it was completed. “They completed this house by the third day of the lunar month Adar [February-March], that is, in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.” (Ezra 6:15) That was in the year 516 B.C. With joy Jehovah’s worshipers inaugurated his completed sanctuary. The next month, Nisan 14, they held the Passover. Temple services went forward in this sanctuary constructed by Governor Zerubbabel, as they had gone forward in the temple built by Solomon. Once again the daily sacrifice, or the “constant [continual] burnt offering,” was rendered up to Jehovah mornings and evenings. In 468 B.C., which was the seventh year of the Persian King Artaxerxes, the Jewish priest named Ezra, who was also a copyist of the law of God, went up from Babylon at the order of the king to this temple at Jerusalem for the purpose of bringing a large contribution that was made to the support of Jehovah’s sanctuary. (Ezra 7:1 to 8:36) In the following century, according to report, there was a visit of another historical character to this sanctuary at Jerusalem. This was the visit of the Macedonian or Grecian king, Alexander the Great, in 332 B.C., as he was on his expedition of conquest over Persia,a in fulfillment of prophecy.

44. How did this temple come to be rededicated in 165 B.C., and what festival did Jesus attend in celebration of this?

⁴⁴ About two centuries later this second temple experienced a rededication. The Syrian king, Antíochus IV Epíphanes, made a vicious attempt to stamp out the worship of Jehovah. In the year 168 B.C., he profaned Jehovah’s sanctuary by building an altar over the great altar of Jehovah and offering upon this an abominable sacrifice to the false god whom he worshiped, the Olympian Zeus (or Jupiter). This was on the 25th day of the Jewish month Chislev (November-December). He put a stop to the daily sacrifice or constant burnt offering at the temple. He ferociously persecuted the uncompromising worshipers of Jehovah. (1 Maccabees 1:20-64) This was what started the uprising of the Maccabees, the sons of the faithful priest Mattathias. Judas, the third son, being chosen leader, led his small forces to the defeat of the enemy, recaptured Jerusalem, and rededicated the temple on Chislev 25, 165 B.C., on the same day on which it had been desecrated by the Syrian king. Ever since then Jews have celebrated the feast of dedication, Hanukkah, on its anniversary. (1 Maccabees 4:36-59; 2 Maccabees 10:1-9; Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews, Book 12, Chapter 7, paragraph 7) This is referred to in John 10:22: “At that time the feast of dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was wintertime, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the colonnade of Solomon.” In Jesus’ days the Jews themselves were profaning this temple by their practices.

45. Who is reported to have invaded the Most Holy of this sanctuary, and what did Judea become in 63 B.C.?

⁴⁵ The world scene changed, and Rome became the world power. In the year 63 B.C. the Roman General Pompey captured the hill upon which Jehovah’s temple stood and made bold to enter the Most Holy of this sanctuary. He saw no sacred ark of Jehovah’s covenant there, for it had not been restored to the Most Holy.b General Pompey did not touch any of the temple treasures.c So he took possession of the city of Jerusalem, and Judea became a Roman province.

46. How did Herod the Great become king of Judea, and what did he try to do to Jesus?

⁴⁶ Years later, General Crassus carried off everything of value that he could find in the temple.d Now the Jews rose in rebellion, but Rome came off victorious. The year 40 B.C. saw the Roman Senate nominating the Edomite or Idumean, Herod the Great, to be the king of Judea. It was first in 37 B.C. that he stormed and took possession of Jerusalem and became king de facto. It is from this year that Herod’s kingship should be dated and counted. It is then found to overlap the birth of Jesus at Bethlehem about October 1, in 2 B.C. This wicked King Herod was the one that tried to murder the babe Jesus to prevent his growing up and becoming king.—Matt. 2:1-19.

47. To please the Jews, what did King Herod proceed to do, but how was all this brought to nothing in fulfillment of Jesus’ words?

⁴⁷ Herod, who came to be called Great, reigned for thirty-seven years. Toward the middle of his reign he laid plans to rebuild the temple that had stood from the time of Governor Zerubbabel. To please the Jews he wanted to rebuild it on a much grander scale. In 17 B.C. he got the building work started, and the work continued without interrupting the regular temple service. In a year and a half the temple sanctuary or náos was finished. It took eight years to finish the temple courts and the covered walks round about. The complete reconstruction of the temple took much longer. In fact, this was not realized by Herod the Great. At the Passover feast of 30 (A.D.) the Jews told Jesus that the temple work had been going on forty-six years; and so could he raise it up in three days of time? (John 2:13-22) Actually the temple was not completed in its reconstruction till A.D. 64. This was just six years before the Roman army under General Titus destroyed both temple and city, in fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy spoken in the spring of 33 (A.D.). (Matt. 24:1, 2) Those who had worshiped there were scattered to the ends of the earth.

48. What has made out of order the rebuilding of that earthly sanctuary, and with what promised government is this associated?

⁴⁸ The earthly sanctuary of Jehovah has never been rebuilt. This has been in full harmony with his will. The day for such a lifeless material sanctuary has long passed. Jehovah has turned his attention to a far more important sanctuary, a living sanctuary, and to it he has transferred his name and his holy spirit. When completed in the near future, it will stand to his everlasting universal glory. Through this unusual sanctuary he will pour out his blessings upon people out of all families and nations of mankind who do his will on earth. As the sanctuary on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem was associated with his kingdom over the nation of Israel, so his everlasting spiritual sanctuary is inseparably linked with his promised government, the kingdom of the heavens. It is built by One Greater than King Solomon and Governor Zerubbabel, not to mention King Herod.

CHAPTER 4

FOREGLEAMS OF GOD’S KINGDOM

1. Why did Jehovah God hold court in the sanctuary of Eden, and whose bruising in the head did he decree?

UNTIL sin made its outbreak, Jehovah God was the accepted Ruler over man in the sanctuary of Eden. When man broke the law of his rightful Ruler and man thus chose to have a new ruler and lawgiver, Jehovah God held court. He pronounced sentence upon man’s newly chosen ruler, Satan the Devil, who had now become a rival god symbolized by the serpent of deception. Judge Jehovah said: “I shall put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He will bruise you in the head and you will bruise him in the heel.” (Gen. 3:15) Many men have been bitten in the heel by a literal serpent, and many men have crushed the head of a serpent under the heel; but the brood of serpents has continued on down to this day. This has been no fulfillment of the divine judgment in Eden, for in his judgment God had really decreed that the “original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan,” should be bruised in the head.—Rev. 12:9.

2. What questions did God’s prophetic judgment there raise?

² The deadly wound was to be inflicted upon the Serpent by the promised “seed” or offspring of God’s woman, that is to say, his holy universal organization. It is as a wife to him and is able to provide children for his service. His prophetic judgment in Eden at once raised the question, not merely, Who will the Seed of God’s woman be? but, further, When will this Seed bruise the hated Serpent in the head and destroy him and his brood? When will this great act of deliverance come for mankind, the victims of the Serpent’s lie? Even the angels of heaven who make up the wifely organization which is God’s woman were interested to know.—1 Pet. 1:12.

3. What did that bruising call for, and why was this not accomplished at the Flood?

³ The bruising of the old Serpent in the head meant a battle of rulers. Satan the Devil had established himself as ruler over man by maneuvering man into obeying him rather than Jehovah God. It would require another mighty ruler to defeat and destroy Satan as a ruler. The flood of Noah’s day did not put Satan out of his rulership. It did wipe out the “ancient world,” the “world of ungodly people,” but it left Satan still in control over his demonic seed, the invisible spirits or fallen angels.—2 Pet. 2:5.

4, 5. (a) Where did rebellion begin after the Flood? (b) What had Noah not made himself toward his descendants, but how did Nimrod not follow his example?

⁴ In the postflood world Satan the Devil soon lured the greater number of Noah’s descendants into outright rebellion against Jehovah God, who had saved their ancestors, Noah’s family, through that world-destroying flood. This first flare-up of rebellion took place notably at the ancient city of Babylon on the banks of the Euphrates River, in the Mesopotamian land now known as Iraq. “Noah continued to live three hundred and fifty years after the deluge.” (Gen. 9:28) Yet in all that time he did not claim to be the promised Seed of God’s woman just because he had built the ark of salvation; neither did he set himself up as a king over his descendants, all mankind. Had he done so, he would have set up a world government, with himself as ruler of all humankind. But Noah’s great-grandson Nimrod did not follow his godly forefather’s example. Nimrod parted company with Noah. Though Noah still lived, Nimrod broke the rainbow covenant made by God with Noah to safeguard the sanctity of animal blood. Nimrod became a sports and military hunter and set himself up as king in opposition to Jehovah. We read:

⁵ “This is the history of Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. And the sons of Ham were Cush and Mizraim and Put and Canaan. And Cush became father to Nimrod. He made the start in becoming a mighty one in the earth. He displayed himself a mighty hunter in opposition to Jehovah. That is why there is a saying, ‘Just like Nimrod a mighty hunter in opposition to Jehovah.’ And the beginning of his kingdom came to be Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land he went forth into Assyria and set himself to building Nineveh and Rehoboth-Ir and Calah and Resen between Nineveh and Calah.”—Gen. 10:1, 6, 8-12.

(To be continued)

[Footnotes]

The Best Book and Better People

“I have always said, I always say,” once declared Thomas Jefferson, “that the studious perusal of the sacred Volume will make better citizens, better fathers, and better husbands.”

Day of Decision

What is the day of decision? Why should it concern you and your family? What will its end bring?

THE period since 1914 has been a critical time in the history of the human race. It has witnessed two world wars that were the most destructive of human life and property that mankind ever waged. It has seen atomic weapons make their entrance on the world stage with the spectacular destruction of two modern cities and has watched those weapons grow in destructive power to the point where all earthly life is threatened. It has seen the world become divided into two violently opposed camps, with each side poised and ready to wage an all-out atomic war.

This small moment in the great stream of time has been far from pleasant for the more than two and a half billion people inhabiting the earth. It has not brought them happiness, peace or a feeling of security. In spite of the phenomenal progress made by science during this period man feels less certain of the future than at any time in his past.

More than 1900 years ago Jesus Christ foresaw this turbulent period and prophesied about it. The things he foretold have come to pass. They mark this period as the time of the end for the present world or system of things. This is the time for a great change to take place. It will be a change for the good of mankind because it will be of God’s making. The prophet Daniel spoke of it when he said: “And in the days of those kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall the sovereignty thereof be left to another people; but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.”—Dan. 2:44, AS.

That kingdom will bring about the end of this present wicked system of things and will establish a new system of things that will bring perpetual peace and security to this war-torn planet. The fact that we are now living in the period when this change for the better is due to take place means we are in a day of decision. Everyone must decide whether he wants to live in that new system of things under the rule of God’s kingdom or cling to this old system of things and perish with it.

This is not a fanciful dream but a statement of fact. Consider it as a warning that is given for your own good. It is during this day of decision that God purposed that this warning should be proclaimed throughout the earth. He is giving earth’s teeming millions ample time to decide whether they want to live under the rule of his kingdom or not.

LIKE NOAH’S DAY

The situation in this period since 1914 is remarkably similar to that of the last days of the world before the great Flood. That world was also a wicked system that brought forth bad fruits. Its day of decision was during the period when Noah was warning of the flood. It was during that period that they were free to decide their own fate. They could choose to separate from that world and submit to the will of God, or they could cling to it and perish with it. Only eight persons made the wise decision. They were the ones who survived the end of that system of things.

Christ drew a parallel between that ancient day of decision and the one in which we now live. He said: “Moreover, just as it occurred in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of man: they were eating, they were drinking, men were marrying, women were being given in marriage, until that day when Noah entered into the ark, and the flood arrived and destroyed them all.” (Luke 17:26, 27) This modern age is manifesting the same indifference to the divine warning as did the age before the Flood.

This modern-day warning as well as the proclamation of the good news that God’s kingdom under Christ now rules from the invisible heavens is making available to earth’s inhabitants the necessary knowledge for making a right decision. It is actually separating them into two groups, just as the preaching of Noah produced two groups. One group heeds the warning and rejoices over the good news of the Kingdom’s establishment and of Christ’s enthronement in the invisible heavens. The other group rejects the proclamation and ignores it. They react to it just as the people of Noah’s day reacted to his message.

SHEEP AND GOATS

Christ gave an illustration that foretold how earth’s inhabitants would be divided by their attitudes toward the good news of the Kingdom and the proclaimers of it. He said: “When the Son of man arrives in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit down on his glorious throne. And all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will put the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left.” (Matt. 25:31-33) Thus the two groups that result from the world-wide preaching of the good news of the established Kingdom will be separated to Christ’s right hand of favor and to his left hand of disfavor.

This dividing work has to be done while the old system of things with its sea of mixed peoples is still existing. It is not something that can be done quickly; it requires a period of time, just as Noah’s preaching did. Since Christ revealed in his illustration that he, the King, would be the One to supervise the separating of the people, he must be ruling in Kingdom power during the time when it is being done. Thus he would rule for a period while his enemies are still in power, and that is precisely what he has been doing since the last days of this system of things began in 1914.

The separating of earth’s inhabitants by the good news of the Kingdom has been in progress for many years, but it will not continue beyond the lifetime of those who were living when it began shortly after 1914. Jesus made that clear when he said. “Truly I say to you that this generation will by no means pass away until all these things occur.” (Matt. 24:34) He meant the generation living when the world events that he foretold as marking the last days would be taking place.

As it is impossible to serve faithfully two masters who are enemies of each other so is it impossible to serve the King, Christ Jesus, and at the same time serve the interests of this corrupt world. The Bible writer James said regarding this: “Whoever, therefore, wants to be a friend of the world is constituting himself an enemy of God.”—Jas. 4:4.

A person has to decide whether he will stand with God’s kingdom under Christ and serve God’s interests as his “sheep” or stand with this corrupt world and serve its selfish interests and be classed with the “goats.” It is a serious decision that cannot be avoided.

EXECUTION OF JUDGMENT

Christ foretold that “this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations, and then the accomplished end will come.” (Matt. 24:14) As long as that preaching is being done earth’s inhabitants will continue under the King’s judgment, but when it ends his decision will be final. His judgment will then be executed. Regarding those who end up on the King’s left, in the goat class, God said through his prophet Isaiah: “I will destine you men to the sword, and you will all of you bow down to being slaughtered, for the reason that I called, but you did not answer; I spoke, but you did not listen; and you kept doing what was bad in my eyes, and the thing in which I took no delight you chose.”—Isa. 65:12.

This execution of divine judgment through the King, Christ Jesus, will take place at the coming battle of Armageddon. At that time God’s King will destroy this wicked system of things and all who are clinging to it. The words of Enoch will then be fulfilled: “Look! Jehovah came with his holy myriads, to execute judgment against all and to convict all the ungodly concerning all their ungodly deeds that they did in an ungodly way and concerning all the shocking things that ungodly sinners spoke against him.”—Jude 14, 15.

But what about those on the King’s right hand, those he judges as his sheep? Christ tells us in his illustration: “Then the king will say to those on his right: ‘Come, you who have my Father’s blessing, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the world’s foundation.’” (Matt. 25:34) They receive this favorable judgment because they made the right decision.

The period in which we live is critical not only because of an atomic-war threat but because all people are on trial before God’s enthroned King. They are under judgment with their lives at stake. That is why this day of decision is of vital concern to everyone.

Questions From Readers

● What did Jesus mean when he said, as recorded at John 3:13, that “no man has ascended into heaven but he that descended from heaven, the Son of man”? Since he was at that time still on earth, is he referring to occasions in his prehuman existence when as the Word of God he may have appeared as God’s angelic spokesman and then ascended to heaven?—F. B., United States.

No, the scripture at John 3:13 is not referring to his prehuman activity as the Word of God. We must take into consideration the context of the statement. At the time Jesus spoke these words he had descended from heaven, being born as a human, but he had not yet ascended, and this did not occur until forty days after his resurrection from the dead.

Observe, please, that John 3:13 begins with the word “and” in the King James Version and “moreover” in the New World Translation, so tying this statement in with the one that precedes it. Jesus is here speaking to Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews who came to him by night, and he has just explained the requirements for entering the kingdom of God. Although Nicodemus was a teacher of the people, he found it difficult to grasp how one could be born again to enter the heavenly kingdom. So Jesus answered him: “Are you a teacher of Israel and yet do not know these things? Most truly I say to you, What we know we speak and what we have seen we bear witness of, but you people do not receive the witness we give. If I have told you earthly things and yet you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? Moreover, no man has ascended into heaven but he that descended from heaven, the Son of man.” (John 3:10-13) In other words, Jesus was telling Nicodemus that he, whose dwelling had been in heaven with his Father from the beginning of creation, had descended from heaven and was in position to instruct him about heavenly matters; but if Nicodemus was not going to accept his instruction, then there was no other way he could gain the knowledge he wanted, because no man had at any time ascended to heaven in order to get such knowledge and come back down here with it. Jesus was not discussing any previous ascension on his own part.

The King James Version adds at the end of the verse the words “which is in heaven.” But Jesus was not in heaven when he made this statement; he was on earth conversing with Nicodemus. In harmony with this, in a footnote in his translation Ferrar Fenton points out that these words “are omitted by the best and oldest authorities.” For that reason they are omitted from such translations as the New World Translation, The Emphatic Diaglott, An American Translation, The Twentieth Century New Testament, and the translation by J. B. Rotherham.

Way of the World

“The way of the world,” once said American clergyman Nathaniel Howe, “is, to praise dead saints, and persecute living ones.”

Announcements

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“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES FOR THE WEEKS

April 5: The Ancient Pattern of Jehovah’s Unusual Work, and Warnings of Jehovah’s Unusual Work, ¶1-13. Page 132.

April 12: Warnings of Jehovah’s Unusual Work, ¶14-33. Page 138.

April 19: Warnings of Jehovah’s Unusual Work, ¶34-37, and When Jehovah Rises Up to His Unusual Work. Page 144.