CORRECTING WRONG CONCLUSIONS DRAWN BY NATIONS

26. How will Jehovah make his protective power glorious, to whom will He show his hand, and what wrong conclusions as to why His people suffered mistreatment by the nations will be corrected?

²⁶ Consequently, what Jehovah does to the embattled Gog’s crowd will be no disgrace to Him. His protective power over his restored people will then become glorious, and the nations under Gog will be made to see it. He will show them his “hand,” and it will be all-powerful; and they will feel it when he places it down among them. The nations formed wrong conclusions because Jehovah’s Christian witnesses appeared to have no divine protection when they were persecuted during World War I and came under temporary bondage to Babylon the Great. They mistook this to mean that the God of these witnesses was no God or that he was too weak to protect and deliver his witnesses from the hands of the nations who worshiped gods different from Jehovah. The nations did not appreciate that Jehovah was merely disciplining his people for their shortcomings and lack of faith, their error, uncleanness and transgressions even if of an unwitting kind. Hence he concealed his face of favor and approval from them and let the “hand of their adversaries” take hold of them and mistreat them.

27. Have the nations had to wait till Gog’s attack to see that Jehovah has turned his face toward his people?

²⁷ The nations do not need to wait until Jehovah performs his magnificent deliverance of his people from Gog’s attack. Before then they have had proof that he had turned his face of favor toward his repentant people and was showing supernatural power toward them. Because of the wrong conclusions drawn by the nations concerning Jehovah’s disciplining of his people, then in exile in Babylon, he stated his purpose to the prophet Ezekiel as follows:

28. How did Jehovah then say that he would show jealousy for his name and sanctify himself with respect to the “house of Israel” even before Gog’s attack?

²⁸ “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘Now is when I shall bring back the captive ones of Jacob and actually have mercy upon all the house of Israel; and I will show exclusive devotion for my holy name. And they will have borne their humiliation and all their unfaithfulness with which they have acted toward me, when they dwell on their soil in security, with no one to make them tremble. When I bring them back from the peoples and I actually collect them together out of the lands of their enemies, I will also sanctify myself among them before the eyes of many nations.’”—Ezekiel 39:25-27.

29. How did Jehovah show jealousy for his name in 1919 C.E., and how did he make it manifest before the eyes of the nations that he was sanctifying himself among the remnant of spiritual Israel?

²⁹ As with ancient Israel in the year 537 B.C.E., so Jehovah showed that he had jealousy or exclusive devotion for his holy name in the year 1919 C.E. How? In that first postwar year of this “time of the end” he liberated them from their bondage to Babylon the Great and her political and military paramours. After that the holiness of Jehovah became plainer and plainer to the restored remnant of spiritual Israel, so that they appreciated that this called for greater religious and moral cleanness on their part and more clear-cut separation of them from this unholy world. Inasmuch as Jehovah caused this by the greater unfolding of his Holy Bible to them and the operation of his holy spirit upon them, he sanctified himself among these obedient spiritual Israelites while the eyes of the many nations among whom they preached the good news of God’s kingdom looked on. To such nations it should then have become manifest that the God of these spiritual Israelites was at work among them in a holy way.

30. Who on earth should already know that Jehovah stands for no compromise or defilement with this world, and how did He say to Ezekiel that he would bring about this knowledge?

³⁰ Even now, before his wondrous vindication of his universal sovereignty upon the attacking hordes of Gog occurs, the nations should have come to know that Jehovah, the God of the remnant of spiritual Israel, is a living God, a God who is jealous for his name and who stands for no compromise and defilement with this unclean world. Jehovah’s Christian witnesses have come to know this already, just as their God foretold through Ezekiel, saying: “‘And they will have to know that I am Jehovah, their God, when I send them in exile to the nations and actually bring them together upon their soil, so that I shall leave none of them remaining there any longer. And I shall no longer conceal my face from them, because I will pour out my spirit upon the house of Israel,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”—Ezekiel 39:28, 29.

31. How is it evident that he no longer conceals his face from spiritual Israel, and what shows that he has poured out his spirit upon them?

³¹ Today, more than half a century after their liberation from Babylon the Great in 1919 C.E., the anointed remnant of spiritual Israel appreciate the freedom that they enjoy in their spiritual estate to which Jehovah has restored them. They rejoice to overflowing at the condition like that of the “garden of Eden” to which their spiritual estate has been rehabilitated. They jubilate in that the one whom Jehovah calls “my servant David” is their heavenly Shepherd-King. As he instructed them to do, they have prayed for more of the spirit of Jehovah their God, and this prayer has been abundantly answered. He has poured out his spirit upon these spiritual Israelites. This is notably evident from the “fruitage” of Jehovah’s spirit, namely, the qualities of a godly personality like that of Jesus Christ. (Luke 11:13; Galatians 5:22, 23; Ephesians 4:20-24) Because he has thus dealt so mercifully and lovingly just as he foretold by His prophets, they know that he is Jehovah their God. They have now been gathered in worldwide Christian unity, bound together by love, that fruit of God’s spirit which is “a perfect bond of union.”—Colossians 3:14.

32. Who have accepted the message of God’s kingdom preached by the spiritual Israelites, where do they now reside, and to whose victory do they joyfully look forward?

³² Accepting the message of God’s Messianic kingdom that these spiritual Israelites proclaim under God’s spirit, a “great crowd” of sheeplike seekers of the true God have come out of all nations and taken up residence with them in their spiritual Paradise. There they are worshiping the same God, Jehovah, under His Shepherd-King, Jesus Christ. (Revelation 7:9-17; Matthew 25:31-40, 46; John 10:16) Forewarned, they await together the coming attack by Gog of Magog and his international hordes. Full of faith, they joyfully look forward to Jehovah’s resounding victory over that wicked enemy Gog for the vindication of Jehovah’s sovereignty and of his holy name.

Chapter 21

Life in Security under Messiah’s Reign

1. Who already “dwell in security” under divine protection, but after what event will security be enjoyed much more fully in all respects?

LIFE in security on earth under a righteous government! Such a desirable thing will be more certain for mankind than ever previously after the attack by Gog and his greedy hordes has been smashed and the “land of Magog” has been wiped out. The people who became the target of Gog’s unprovoked attack were already “dwelling in security” under divine protection in their God-given estate on earth before Gog’s attack was launched. O how much more fully they will dwell in security in all respects after Jehovah vindicates his universal sovereignty and restores his full control over earth by gloriously triumphing over Gog of Magog! (Ezekiel 38:11, 14) This will signify that there will be complete freedom everywhere on earth to worship the victorious God who makes all nations to know that he is Jehovah!