PREPARING TO MEET THE THREAT

5, 6. (a) Describe Sennacherib’s advance. (b) What assurance did Jehovah give, and why is this of interest today?

⁵ The Assyrian hordes were on the move. Outwardly, it may have appeared in that ancient day of nationalistic strife that King Sennacherib was swinging into action against Egypt, his sole rival to world domination. But the cities of Judah lay in his line of march. One by one these were overwhelmed by the totalitarian flood. Isaiah 10:28-32 describes his fearsome advance, city by city, from Aiath to Nob, and now, within sight of the walls of Jerusalem, “he waves his hand threateningly at the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.” Are the people of Jerusalem dismayed? No, for “the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies,” himself has given marvelous assurance:

⁶ “Do not be afraid, O my people who are dwelling in Zion, because of the Assyrian, who with the rod used to strike you and who used to lift up his own staff against you in the way that Egypt did. For yet a very little while—and the denunciation will have come to an end, and my anger, in their wearing away.” (Isa. 10:24, 25) In the face of the modern-day threat of nationalism, we also may draw comfort from this prophetic assurance.

7, 8. (a) By what conspiracy did Satan move against the restored remnant? (b) In harmony with what other prophecy did Jehovah’s witnesses labor in preparation to meet the assault?

⁷ And why? In modern times, no sooner had the reigning King, Jesus Christ, restored the anointed remnant of Jehovah’s witnesses to their land of theocratic worship, in the year 1919, than Satan began to bring vicious opposition to bear upon them. Though the Germanic “king of the north” had suffered a severe head wound in World War I, he very soon became the leading partner in a new Satanic conspiracy to seize world domination and wipe out true worship in the earth. (Rev. 13:3) The history of the 1920’s and the 1930’s reveals the rise of the Nazi-Fascist-Catholic Action power that not only tried to overthrow the democratic nations, as pictured by the Egyptian “king of the south,” but also moved against the small, zealous group of Jehovah’s witnesses.

⁸ These worshipers of the true God had faith that the words of another of God’s prophets would be fulfilled: “And he [Christ] will certainly bring about deliverance from the Assyrian, when he comes into our land and when he treads upon our territory.” So they labored hard in the ministry, “to raise up against him seven shepherds, yes, eight dukes of mankind”—sufficient dedicated overseers, and more, to take the lead in worship. (Mic. 5:1, 5, 6) Moreover, by 1938, the theocratic structure had been fully restored in the congregations of Jehovah’s witnesses world wide, so that they were prepared, by Jehovah’s undeserved kindness, to withstand any “Assyrian” assault.

9. How did Hezekiah ward off the immediate threat, and of what significance may this be today?

⁹ Of the invasion in Hezekiah’s day, the record tells us: “And in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib the king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and proceeded to seize them.” In warding off the immediate threat, Hezekiah agreed to pay tribute to Sennacherib, and he even cut off the overlaid doors and doorposts from Jehovah’s temple, in order to make this payment. (2 Ki. 18:13-16) No doubt this was part of Hezekiah’s theocratic war strategy, a move to gain time, and to put him in a better position to grapple with the enemy. Likewise, today, there are occasions when Jehovah’s witnesses have to move cautiously in preserving their God-given right to true worship. In strongly nationalistic countries, open house-to-house or magazine witnessing is not always possible, and Jehovah’s people may have to yield this door of service to the enemy. However, by incidental witnessing, park witnessing, back-calling and studying with those known to be interested, and by other means, they continue their precious service to Jehovah, often at great personal cost.

10, 11. (a) What other wise steps did Hezekiah take, and why? (b) In the fulfillment, how have the remnant acted today?

¹⁰ But Hezekiah took other wise steps looking to the preservation of Jehovah’s city and temple of worship. “When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come with his face set for war against Jerusalem, then he decided with his princes and his mighty men to stop up the waters of the springs that were outside the city; and so they helped him. Accordingly many people were collected together, and they went stopping up all the fountains and the torrent that floods through the middle of the land, saying: ‘Why should the kings of Assyria come and actually find a great deal of water?’” (2 Chron. 32:1-4) Instead, these precious water supplies were tunneled into the city.—2 Ki. 20:20.

¹¹ In like manner, following the reactivation of true worship in 1919, the anointed remnant of Jehovah’s witnesses, representing Christ Jesus here on earth, has paid attention to the supplies of Kingdom truth, as provided by Jehovah through his Son. These refreshing waters of truth do not flow for the benefit of the willful opposers of Almighty God. They must be covered over against enemy interference. But through the building of factories, and the carrying out of printing activity throughout the earth, whether above ground or underground, the remnant has fulfilled its prophetic mission as “the faithful and discreet slave” by seeing that spiritual provision is made available “at the proper time” for all of God’s household on earth, and this despite bitter opposition in police states.—Matt. 24:45-47.

12, 13. (a) What was pictured by Hezekiah’s further courageous action? (b) Why may Jehovah’s servants now be glad?

¹² “Furthermore, [Hezekiah] took courage and built up all the broken-down wall and raised towers upon it, and on the outside another wall, and repaired the Mound of the city of David, and made missiles in abundance and shields.” (2 Chron. 32:5) In the fulfillment, Christ Jesus has built up the organization of Jehovah’s witnesses for spiritual warfare, and has repaired the breaches made by Christendom’s apostate course over the centuries, as well as by their own failure to preach boldly during World War I. Moreover, the King has equipped his followers with “the large shield of faith” and “the sword of the spirit, that is, God’s word,” and has revivified them for theocratic service.—Eph. 6:16, 17.

¹³ Having this spiritual armor and an abundant supply of waters of truth, the remnant and their companion worshipers are indeed blessed, and so they may be glad, as were the sons of Korah who sang at Jehovah’s temple in Hezekiah’s day: “There is a river the streams of which make the city of God rejoice, the holiest grand tabernacle of the Most High. God is in the midst of the city; it will not be made to totter. God will help it at the appearance of morning.” (Ps. 46:4, 5) How true, in ancient times and also today!

14, 15. (a) What timely encouragement was next provided? (b) What similar provision has been made today, and with what result?

¹⁴ Hezekiah now proceeded to assemble the people, and to “speak to the heart of them, saying: ‘Be courageous and strong. Do not be afraid nor be terrified because of the king of Assyria and on account of all the crowd that is with him; for with us there are more than there are with him. With him there is an arm of flesh, but with us there is Jehovah our God to help us and to fight our battles.’ And the people began to brace themselves upon the words of Hezekiah the king of Judah.” (2 Chron. 32:6-8) What a grand assembly of encouragement that must have been! As at assemblies of Jehovah’s witnesses today, so then, words of upbuilding counsel went right to the hearts of the Judeans, encouraging them to be fearless in the face of the nationalistic threats of those who can do no more than “kill the body.”—Matt. 10:28.

¹⁵ As the modern-day Nazi-Fascist-Catholic Action threat increased, Jehovah continued to provide timely encouragement through his channel on earth. The Watchtower magazine of November 1, 1933, published most strengthening information in the article, “Fear Them Not.” And as Jehovah’s witnesses in Germany and other totalitarian lands began to suffer concentration-camp imprisonment and torture, articles on Daniel’s prophecy in the October, November and December, 1934, issues of The Watchtower strengthened them to endure in the ‘crucible’ of persecution and to survive the “lions’ pit.” The flood of totalitarian nationalism was powerless to breach their Christian integrity, even as it is powerless to do so today, thirty years later.

THE ISSUE DRAWN

16. (a) What situation now existed in Judah? (b) What demonic purpose lies behind Satan’s propaganda today?

¹⁶ But now Sennacherib has devastated many of the cities of Judah. He is encamped against Lachish, one of the last outposts, some thirty miles to the southwest of Jerusalem, “and all his imperial might with him.” (2 Chron. 32:9) Likewise in modern times, Satan the Devil has invaded the land of Jehovah’s worship, and he has gathered “the kings of the entire inhabited earth” to fight against God’s people and to take Satan’s side in “the war of the great day of God the Almighty,” at Har–Magedon. In furtherance of this purpose, Satan has whipped up demonic propaganda, which proceeds not only from his own dragon mouth but also “out of the mouth of the wild beast [the animalistic political system of earth] and out of the mouth of the false prophet [the loudmouthed Anglo-American Empire].” (Rev. 16:13, 14, 16) All this croaking in support of the tottering nationalistic governments, the divided UN and other human agencies, is, in effect, the mouthing of opposition to Jehovah’s established kingdom by Christ.

17. How does the modern Rabshakeh try to get through to Jehovah’s witnesses with his propaganda?

¹⁷ Ah, but the intent of Satan’s propaganda is also to break down and intimidate those who are truly serving God on earth at his place of worship. And how well this is pictured by Sennacherib’s sending Tartan, Rabsaris and Rabshakeh with a heavy military force to taunt the Judeans shut up in Jerusalem! Rabshakeh, whose name appears to be a title signifying “Chief Cupbearer,” is spokesman for the group, the one entrusted with pouring out a potion of Assyrian propaganda for the Jews. He is a renegade Jew, according to Josephus, and able to speak “the Jews’ language.” And, like Rabshakeh, Satan’s cupbearers today try to get through to Jehovah’s witnesses with intimidating words that will, they hope, swerve these from their integrity to God.

18. What hateful actions resulted from the propaganda of World War II years, but did these succeed in their purpose?

¹⁸ This corresponds well with the critical late 1930’s and early 1940’s, when Satan’s propagandists, including Christendom’s clergy, whipped up white-hot hatreds against Jehovah’s witnesses, demanding that they pay homage to the swastika, or whatever other flag might be the local emblem of nationalism. Under the dictatorships, Jehovah’s witnesses were thrown into prison camps and killed. In democratic lands, they were set upon by howling mobs, their homes and meeting places broken into and wrecked, and their children expelled from the schools—and all as a result of nationalistic propaganda. But with all his threats, the modern-day “Rabshakeh” failed to dent the integrity of God’s witnesses. They zealously continued their service to God, with the result that the 71,509 ministers reporting service in the year before World War II broke out, in 1939, increased to 141,606 in 1945, the year the war ended.

19, 20. (a) How did Rabshakeh speak in mockery of Jehovah? (b) In the fulfillment, how are his boasts partly true, partly false?

¹⁹ Rabshakeh spoke in mockery of the true God, Jehovah: “This is what Sennacherib the king of Assyria has said, ‘In what is it that you are trusting while sitting quiet under siege in Jerusalem? Is not Hezekiah alluring you so as to give you over to die by famine and by thirst, saying: “Jehovah our God himself will deliver us out of the palm of the king of Assyria”? . . . Who was there among all the gods of these nations that my forefathers devoted to destruction that proved able to deliver his people out of my hand, so that your God should be able to deliver you out of my hand? And now do not let Hezekiah deceive you or allure you like this and do not put faith in him, for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of my hand and out of the hand of my forefathers. How much less, then, will your own God deliver you out of my hand?’”—2 Chron. 32:10-15.

²⁰ How true, in the fulfillment, that the gods and religions of the peoples of earth have not been able to preserve them from falling victims to nationalism! In time of crisis, Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Buddhists and others have all been caught up into the mesh of nationalistic war machines. But real Christians, the spiritual Judeans who trust in Jehovah and the God-strengthened Christ, are not frightened by taunting threats. Patiently, they wait on Jehovah.

21, 22. (a) What tempting offer did Sennacherib next make? (b) How did the people respond, providing what precedent for us today?

²¹ The king of Assyria offered a tempting reward at the price of compromise: “Make a capitulation to me, and come out to me, and eat each one from his own vine and each one from his own fig tree and drink each one the water of his own cistern, until I come and I actually take you to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil-olive trees and honey; and keep living that you may not die. And do not listen to Hezekiah, for he allures you, saying, ‘Jehovah himself will deliver us.’” Why, even neighboring Israel has fallen! However, “the people kept silent and did not answer him a word, for the commandment of the king was, saying: ‘You must not answer him.’”—2 Ki. 18:31-36.

²² Likewise, today, Jehovah’s witnesses do not wrangle or debate with Satan’s propagandists. Rather, they heed the example of Hezekiah and his illustrious forefather, King David, who said: “I will set a muzzle as a guard to my own mouth, as long as anyone wicked is in front of me.”—Ps. 39:1.

23. How did modern-day Jehovah’s witnesses turn back a Sennacherib-like offer?

²³ The Assyrian’s offer resembles that made by the Nazis to Jehovah’s witnesses while in German concentration camps. After these Christians had been imprisoned for years because of their refusal to heil the Nazi “god,” they were offered their freedom—on the condition that they sign a renunciation of their faith. What was their reply? An eyewitness writes: “They could have been immediately freed if they had renounced their faith. But, on the contrary, they did not cease resistance, even succeeding in introducing books and tracts into the camp, which writings caused several among them to be hanged.”a Even with the danger of death, they held to true worship and kept integrity to Jehovah, the Supreme Sovereign and God of resurrection.

24. (a) Why was Hezekiah grieved, and how did he act? (b) What is pictured today in Hezekiah’s turning to the prophet Isaiah?

²⁴ Hezekiah was grieved at heart on hearing the words of Rabshakeh. Was this because of fear of those who might now “kill the body” or of the cruel tortures that the sadistic Assyrians might inflict upon him and his fellow Judeans? Not at all! Hezekiah was grieved because of the vile reproaches heaped upon Jehovah’s name. So “he immediately ripped his garments apart and covered himself with sackcloth and came into the house of Jehovah.” He sought communion with Jehovah at his place of worship. (2 Ki. 19:1) And today the anointed remnant of Jehovah’s witnesses and their companions, who serve under the Greater-than-Hezekiah, Christ, find strength and comfort in times of stress in zealous service to God and association together as his temple worshipers. Moreover, they inquire for the right course from the “faithful and discreet slave” organization of Jesus’ anointed followers on earth. In the same way, in the crisis involving Jehovah’s name, Hezekiah looked for counsel to Jehovah’s channel of communication—the faithful prophet Isaiah.—2 Ki. 19:2.

25, 26. (a) For what do God’s people have ‘no power in the day of distress’? (b) But what assurance did Isaiah give?

²⁵ Humbling themselves in sackcloth, Hezekiah’s household officials and the elder priests proceeded to say to Isaiah: “This is what Hezekiah has said, ‘This day is a day of distress and of rebuke and of scornful insolence; for the sons have come as far as the womb’s mouth, and there is no power to give birth. Perhaps Jehovah your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his lord sent to taunt the living God, and he will actually call him to account for the words that Jehovah your God has heard. And you must lift up prayer in behalf of the remnant that are to be found.’” (2 Ki. 19:3, 4) In their own strength, Jehovah’s people are powerless to survive the threat of nationalism. But what of Jehovah’s strength? What assurance did Isaiah give in this regard?

²⁶ “Then Isaiah said to them: ‘This is what you should say to your lord, “This is what Jehovah has said: ‘Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard with which the attendants of the king of Assyria spoke abusively of me. Here I am putting a spirit in him, and he must hear a report and return to his own land; and I shall certainly cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.’”’”—2 Ki. 19:5-7.

27. How will prophecy be fulfilled in the breaking of the nationalistic kings and the destruction of Satan’s organization?

²⁷ Ah, here was positive assurance that Sennacherib would at last be led back in abject defeat! And today, through his word of prophecy, Jehovah has likewise assured his integrity-keeping witnesses that Satan and his armed hosts will be finally crushed. As for the nationalistic “king of the north,” it is foretold that “there will be reports that will disturb him,” reports from the direction of Jehovah and his King, and conveyed through the anointed witnesses on earth, that will goad this “king” into rage against God’s people. But then Jehovah will act! The totalitarian “king of the north” will perish, “and there will be no helper for him.” The “king of the south” will also be broken “without hand.” (Dan. 11:44, 45; 8:25) The entire earthly organization of Satan will be “hurled into the fiery lake” of eternal destruction. What comforting assurance from Jehovah!—Rev. 19:20.

28. What provision did Jehovah make, and how did His witnesses answer the challenge of nationalism?

²⁸ But what of the crisis that faced Jehovah’s witnesses as the clouds of World War II threatened? With nationalism now the issue in democratic as well as totalitarian lands, Jehovah lovingly strengthened his people with “food at the proper time.” The article “Neutrality” in The Watchtower of November 1, 1939, helped many to chart an uncompromising course through the nationalistic storms of World War II. Jehovah’s witnesses refused the doctrine that they should slay their fellow Christians who happen to live in a different nation. At the cost of reproaches, imprisonments and even life itself, they held to their Christian neutrality, displaying a ‘love among themselves’ that transcended all nationalistic barriers. They proved themselves to be “no part of the world” of the modern Sennacherib. Their resolute stand on behalf of Bible principle provided a complete answer to the propagandists. Jehovah’s name was honored!—John 13:34, 35; 17:14.

29. (a) Corresponding to the type, what temporary relief did Jehovah’s witnesses gain at the close of World War II? (b) But why must we expect further difficulties?

²⁹ From the record it appears that Sennacherib did not immediately follow through on Rabshakeh’s boastful challenge. This may have been due to a temporary reverse suffered at the hands of Tirhakah, ruler of Egypt to the south. This could well correspond to the democratic nations’ swallowing up the totalitarian “river,” spewed out by Satan with the prime intent of engulfing the anointed remnant, who represent Jehovah’s womanlike organization on earth. But this relief gained at the close of World War II is at most only temporary. Gog of Magog is still on the loose! The prophecy says of him: “And the dragon grew wrathful at the woman, and went off to wage war with the remaining ones of her seed, who observe the commandments of God and have the work of bearing witness to Jesus.” (Rev. 12:15-17) And the final outcome? This we shall now see!

Sanctifying “the Holy One of Israel”

“And my holy name I shall make known in the midst of my people Israel, and I shall no more let my holy name be profaned; and the nations will have to know that I am Jehovah, the Holy One in Israel.”—Ezek. 39:7.

1. What situation now confronts mankind, and Jehovah’s witnesses in particular?

THOUGH two world wars have passed, bringing untold distress to mankind, the communistic “king of the north” and the democratic “king of the south” have again filled the earth with nationalistic propaganda. As they glare at each other over their respective nuclear stockpiles, they now ‘engage in a pushing’ through “cold” and “vest-pocket” wars. (Dan. 11:40) They croak about competitive coexistence, but each is determined that the other will cease to exist. As tensions heighten, nationalistic loyalties are whipped to a frenzy around the earth. The mastermind behind it all, the debased Satan, or “Gog of Magog,” thus maneuvers into position for his final assault upon the anointed witnesses of Jehovah, the representatives on earth of “the town of the grand King,” the heavenly Jerusalem where Jehovah resides by his spirit.—Ps. 48:2.

2. How did Sennacherib renew his threat against Jerusalem?

² Turning to the record at 2 Kings 19:8-10, we find that the king of Assyria has moved closer to Jerusalem and is “fighting against Libnah,” only twenty-five miles distant. Now he sends threatening letters to Hezekiah, telling his messengers, “This is what you men should say to Hezekiah the king of Judah, ‘Do not let your God in whom you are trusting deceive you, saying: “Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”’”

3. (a) What bullying tactics has the communistic “king of the north” adopted? (b) According to one commentator, what has resulted from the persecutions of Jehovah’s witnesses in the Soviet Union?

³ Likewise, in this post-World War II era, Satan’s boastful propagandists not only continue to gather all nations to Har–Magedon, but they also try to bully Jehovah’s faithful worshipers into compromising their stand before their God. The “king of the north,” now predominantly Communist, has been particularly bitter in his attacks on Jehovah’s witnesses. They have been subjected to a cruel propaganda. Moreover, it appears that up until April 1951 as many as 7,000 of Jehovah’s witnesses were arrested in the western republics of the Soviet Union and deported to slave labor camps in the Urals, Siberia, Vorkuta and Kazakhstan. How did they meet this threat to their Christian integrity? In his book, Religion in the Soviet Union, Walter Kolarz writes:

This was not the end of the ‘Witnesses’ in Russia, but only the beginning of a new chapter in their proselytising activities. They even tried to propagate their faith when they stopped at stations on their way into exile. In deporting them the Soviet government could have done nothing better for the dissemination of their faith. Out of their village isolation the ‘Witnesses’ were brought into a wider world, even if this was only the terrible world of the concentration and slave labor camps. There they met a large number of disillusioned and maltreated people and many were predisposed to accept their promises of a total change in the world’s political structure within the lifetime of the present generation.

With the proclamation of the Soviet amnesty in 1955, both the ‘Witnesses’ of long standing and their new converts either returned to their homes or remained as free laborers in their places of banishment. In this way the Jehovists . . . spread to many parts of the Soviet Union. They reappeared in all the Western Soviet Republics. They established new organizations in the former forced labor areas such as the Far East and the Komi Republic, where there are Jehovist branches along the ill-famed Pechora Railway line with its terminus at Vorkuta. The Jehovists also invaded Siberia and Kazakhstan, where they are particularly numerous. . . . A Jehovist organization was also established in Daghestan. . . . In short, the Russian branch of the Jehovah’s Witnesses may be regarded as one of the strongest in the world, and there is certainly no branch anywhere which receives so much adverse publicity from the secular power. . . .

Only the future will show whether Khrushchev has been more successful in fighting the ‘Jehovist’ danger than either Hitler or Stalin.

Hitler, Stalin and Khrushchev have now all had their day, but the reviled spiritual Judeans in the lands of the “king of the north” continue to expand their worship, to Jehovah’s praise.

4. (a) How did Sennacherib continue to reproach Jehovah? (b) How have the Communist propagandists followed a similar patern, and with what outcome?

⁴ Another account summarizes the second violent propaganda attack on Jerusalem in these words: “And [Sennacherib’s] servants spoke yet further against Jehovah the true God and against Hezekiah his servant. Even letters he wrote to reproach Jehovah the God of Israel and to talk against him, saying: ‘Like the gods of the nations of the lands who did not deliver their people out of my hand, so the God of Hezekiah will not deliver his people out of my hand.’” (2 Chron. 32:16, 17) In like fashion, the Communist propagandists have written books, including one of 159 pages entitled “Going by the Name of Jehovah God,” have published denunciations in Pravda and Trud and illustrated magazine articles, such as one in Krokodil on “The Spiders,” and have distributed derogatory films, two of these being entitled “Armageddon” and “Apostles Unmasked”—in an all-out effort to reproach Jehovah’s name and berate the preaching activities of His witnesses. But have Jehovah’s witnesses flinched in the face of the Communist assault? Reports from inside Russia say, No! The following is typical:

Being situated, as it were, at the factual heart of the “king of the north,” our brothers have sacrificed for Jehovah and his truth their entire life and all their possessions and belongings and are standing devotedly and loyally at the side of Jehovah God, the Great Sovereign and Theocrat. In this decisive and bitter fight for the faith they are battling in favor of their God Jehovah. The message of God’s kingdom is triumphing from the Carpathians to the Kuril Islands.a

5. What follies have the Communists committed, in line with the blasphemy of Sennacherib’s propagandists?

⁵ The blasphemous insults continued: “And they kept calling with a loud voice in the Jews’ language to the people of Jerusalem that were upon the wall, to make them afraid and to disturb them, in order that they might capture the city. And they went on speaking against the God of Jerusalem the same way as against the gods of the peoples of the earth, the work of man’s hands.” (2 Chron. 32:18, 19) Pitiable, blind propagandists! They think that our God is no stronger than the gods of clay and stone, the useless images of the nations. And though the Communists may have awakened to the hypocrisy behind the icons that their forefathers worshiped, what folly for them now to give glory to national heroes and the military “god of fortresses,” and to brag of their scientific accomplishments! (Dan. 11:38) How senseless for them to say, “There is no Jehovah,” because they have spotted no floating image of God from their tiny spaceships!—Ps. 14:1.

6. Who now joins in the propaganda campaign, and so where do Jehovah’s witnesses look for help?

⁶ And now, with the worsening world situation, the democratic nations of the “king of the south” are starting to churn out their own brand of nationalistic propaganda. At the height of the crisis, what will Jehovah’s witnesses do, who belong neither to the “north” nor to the “south”? Why, exactly what Hezekiah and Isaiah did! “Hezekiah the king and Isaiah the son of Amoz, the prophet, kept praying over this and crying to the heavens for aid.” (2 Chron. 32:20) What a fine example for Jehovah’s people today!

TRUST IN JEHOVAH

7, 8. (a) What plea did Hezekiah make? (b) Why would his prayer, as also that in Psalm 83, not go unheeded?

⁷ The account in 2 Kings (also, Isaiah chapter 37) describes the course of events in greater detail. “Then Hezekiah took the letters out of the hand of the messengers and read them, after which Hezekiah went up to the house of Jehovah and spread it out before Jehovah. And Hezekiah began to pray before Jehovah and say: ‘O Jehovah the God of Israel, sitting upon the cherubs, you alone are the true God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You yourself have made the heavens and the earth. Incline your ear, O Jehovah, and hear. Open your eyes, O Jehovah, and see, and hear the words of Sennacherib that he has sent to taunt the living God.’”—2 Ki. 19:14-16

⁸ In what was Hezekiah interested primarily—self-salvation, or removing the reproach cast on Jehovah’s name? Let his prayer concerning the Assyrian answer: “And now, O Jehovah our God, save us, please, out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Jehovah, are God alone.” (2 Ki. 19:19) This reminds of another well-known prayer, which includes “also, Assyria itself”: “O may they be ashamed and be disturbed for all times, and may they become abashed and perish; that people may know that you, whose name is Jehovah, you alone are the Most High over all the earth.” (Ps. 83:8, 17, 18) These are prayers that do not go unheeded!

9, 10. (a) What answer did Jehovah give through his channel, and whom does this channel typify? (b) How do the remnant triumph against Satan’s taunts? (c) Who really is to be taunted, and why?

⁹ Will Jehovah prove his Godship? Will he sanctify his name before all the nations? The reply that he gave Hezekiah through his prophet Isaiah leaves no room for doubt. And this well typifies the message that Jehovah proclaims through his modern-day channel, “the faithful and discreet slave”—the remnant of his anointed witnesses on earth: “The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you, she has held you in derision. Behind you the daughter of Jerusalem has wagged her head. Whom have you taunted and spoken of abusively? And against whom have you lifted up your voice and do you raise your eyes on high? It is against the Holy One of Israel!”—2 Ki. 19:21, 22.

¹⁰ Try as they may, Satan and his dupes must learn that all their efforts to break down the integrity and worship of God’s people on earth are doomed. Taunts and abuse will avail nothing. The remnant of Jehovah’s witnesses continue to maintain Christian virginity, proving themselves worthy of espousal to Christ. (2 Cor. 11:2) It is the boastful Satan that is really to be taunted. What a fall he suffered when he essayed to exalt himself above the newborn Kingdom, only to have Christ hurl him down, with his demons, to become Gog of the land of Magog! (Rev. 12:1-9; Isa. 14:12-15; Ezek. 38:2) Gog’s schemings against “the virgin daughter of Zion” mark him for ignominious destruction. He cannot ravish her by carnal warfare. His final, vicious assault only shows he is actually fighting “against the Holy One of Israel,” Jehovah God himself.

11. What boast does the modern Assyrian make, but how does Jehovah answer him?

¹¹ To the boastful Assyrian, nothing appeared too hard to attain, whether it be lopping down the lofty cedars of Lebanon or drying up the canals of the Nile. Likewise, the modern Gog, with his nuclear armaments of both the “north” and the “south,” considers no conquest to be beyond him. Only Jehovah has the answer for this tyrant. And it has been expressed with unswerving purpose through his prophets from times of old: “Have you not heard? From remote times it is what I will do. From bygone days I have even formed it. Now I will bring it in.” (2 Ki. 19:25) Even with the Satanic backing of Gog, no individual or organization on this earth can stand against the expression of Jehovah’s righteous judgments.

12. What fate awaits false religion and its adherents, at the hand of the armies of the “Assyrian”?

¹² The “king of the north” under Gog will assuredly play his part in devastating the modern-day world empire of false religion. Revelation chapter 17 makes this plain, showing that Jehovah will use the “ten horns,” or complete number of national rulers on earth, in carrying out “his thought” or purpose, including the destroying of these religious systems. (Rev. 17:16, 17) In the same way that ancient Assyria devastated the “fortified cities” of demon-worshiping nations, so the armies of the modern “Assyrian” will share in wreaking havoc on false religion today. And as these nationalistic systems go crashing to their ruin, all who have sought refuge in them will indeed become “feeble-handed . . . terrified . . . ashamed.” They will perish as “vegetation of the field and green tender grass, grass of the roofs, when there is a scorching before the east wind.” (2 Ki. 19:25, 26) See also Revelation 18:9-19.

13, 14. (a) Wherein did the Assyrian make his big mistake? (b) What did Jehovah now declare, and what assurance do Jehovah’s witnesses thus have today?

¹³ But the Assyrian monarch himself has now made his big mistake! He has planted himself in the land that Jehovah gave to his true worshipers. He has closed in on Libnah, and Jerusalem—so he thinks—will be next. It has come to a showdown: Sennacherib versus “the Holy One of Israel.” Jehovah has the measure of his enemy, and he taunts the Satanic Gog: “Your sitting quiet and your going out and your coming in I well know, and your exciting yourself against me, because your exciting yourself against me and your roaring have come up into my ears.” (2 Ki. 19:27, 28) Rage as Gog may in the close confines of the land of Magog, he has met his match!

¹⁴ The kings of Assyria were accustomed to lead captive kings back to Nineveh by a hook piercing the nose. But now it is Gog’s turn! Jehovah declares: “And I shall certainly put my hook in your nose and my bridle between your lips.” The dastardly attempt to beat Jehovah’s faithful witnesses into submissive compromise fails! They have prayed to Jehovah, and made him their trust. Let the modern Assyrian mass all his forces. Let him conscript men by the hundreds of millions for the final assault on the citadel of true worship that Jehovah by Christ has built up in the earth. Jehovah’s witnesses will still hold fast to their Christian neutrality. They will not fall to nationalistic propaganda. They will remain secure in their strong tower, Jehovah, and nothing will succeed in blocking the song of praise and worship that they raise to his name. Jehovah’s word to the archenemy is final: “And I shall indeed lead you back by the way by which you have come.”—2 Ki. 19:28.

“THE SIGN FOR YOU”

15, 16. What sign did Jehovah give his people, and how must they act in harmony therewith?

¹⁵ Jehovah next says through his prophet Isaiah: “And this will be the sign for you: There will be an eating this year of the growth from spilled kernels, and in the second year grain that shoots up of itself; but in the third year sow seed, you people, and reap, and plant vineyards and eat their fruitage. And those who escape of the house of Judah, those who are left remaining, will certainly take root downward and produce fruitage upward. For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go forth and those who escape out of Mount Zion. The very zeal of Jehovah of armies will do this.”—Isa. 37:30-32; 2 Ki. 19:29-31.

¹⁶ It was already long past seedtime. Due to the Assyrian invasion, there was no possibility of a harvest that year. So Jehovah gave a “sign” in that he made a miraculous provision for his people. He caused an abundance of food to spring forth from the kernels spilled during the harvest of the previous year. But that was not all! The following year was to be a sabbath year, in which faithful Judeans must demonstrate reliance on Jehovah by letting their fields lie fallow. Would Jehovah provide? Surely faith in Him would have its reward, in a further “eating” of grain that grew of itself! And in the third year, the Judeans would again enjoy the fruitage of their own labor.

17. How has the first part of the sign been fulfilled in modern times?

¹⁷ This “sign” has had a marvelous fulfillment since 1914 C.E. At the time when the proud “Assyrian” and his mob make the holy city of Jehovah’s worship the “daughter of an invasion,” Jehovah sends forth his Son as ruler out of Bethlehem, his heavenly House of Bread, with bounteous supplies of life-sustaining spiritual food. (Mic. 5:1, 2) Gog and his hordes are powerless to stop up this miraculous provision, and it is assured, also, as long as Jehovah’s anointed people continue to keep sabbath through faith and by daily obedience to their God. This remnant of spiritual Judeans will be nourished to the end of Satan’s warfare against them here on earth, and beyond that. It will be shown that they are firmly rooted in the land of God’s true worship, and they will be established as eternal fruit bearers in the kingdom of God. Just such a remnant is to go forth in victory “out of Jerusalem,” and all of this will serve as a “sign” in connection with the sanctification of Jehovah’s name. “The very zeal of Jehovah of armies will do this.”—2 Ki. 19:31.

18, 19. What is pictured in the final part of the “sign,” and how do we see this in fulfillment today?

¹⁸ And as the final part of the “sign,” Isaiah prophesied concerning the king of Assyria: “He will not come into this city nor will he shoot an arrow there nor confront it with a shield nor cast up a siege rampart against it. By the way by which he proceeded to come, he will return, and into this city he will not come, is the utterance of Jehovah. And I shall certainly defend this city to save it for my own sake and for the sake of David my servant.” (2 Ki. 19:32-34) What comfort these words do provide for the anointed remnant and their companions today! However much Gog and his totalitarian hordes may threaten and revile, they may come only so far. It appears that, in their final approach, Sennacherib’s invading forces never got closer to Jerusalem than Libnah, some twenty-five miles distant. Oh, they howled their threats and shook their fists at distant Jerusalem, and Sennacherib sent his reproachful propagandists to browbeat and intimidate Hezekiah and his people. But in vain! Assyria was powerless to impose any real threat to the citadel of true worship.

¹⁹ As the modern Assyrian maneuvers to plant his nationalistic tents in the land devoted to Jehovah’s praise, so he, too, finds himself impotent as an opposer of the divine will. His prisons and concentration camps, whether Nazi, Soviet or Chinese Communist, have discovered no formula for “brainwashing” Jehovah’s witnesses. These have invincible faith. Individually and collectively, they stand impregnable against the enemy. Jehovah has cleansed the organization of his people from false, demonic religion and from the immoral ways of the world, and never will he permit the demon-controlled nationalistic rulers to break into and contaminate the true worship that is holy to Jehovah. For the sake of his great name, and of his Kingdom covenant which now centers in the Greater David, Christ Jesus, Jehovah defends the earthly representatives of his holy city. (Ps. 89:34-37) He prepares to lead the modern Assyrian back where he belongs.

20, 21. What dramatic reversal now took place before Libnah?

²⁰ But look, now, at the drama that unfolds before Libnah! Sennacherib’s lackeys have returned to camp after serving final notice on Hezekiah. The ultimatum has been given! And there, sprawled out on the Shephelah, lies the flower of Assyria’s might, its grand army that knows no defeat—the sledgehammer that is raised to deliver the knockout blow on Jerusalem. The pride of Assyrian militarism is about to pluck one of its richest plums of conquest, “the town of the grand King,” Jehovah. Night settles down. All is quiet. It is like the calm before a storm.

²¹ But it remains quiet! With the break of dawn, an eerie stillness hovers over the camp. Nothing stirs. At last, some Judeans venture out from Libnah to investigate. Come all of you, and look! What a sight! For it happened “on that night that the angel of Jehovah proceeded to go out and strike down a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. When people rose up early in the morning, why, there all of them were dead carcasses.”—2 Ki. 19:35.

22. How does this foreshadow Jehovah’s action at Har–Magedon?

²² It will be the same when the night of Har–Magedon settles down on the earth. Jehovah’s archangel and Executioner, Christ Jesus, will come swiftly, quietly, thieflike. There will be no escape for Gog’s mob. Their last taunting challenge against the assembled remnant of Jehovah’s anointed people will be turned back as God’s King proceeds to smash them with a rod of iron, and to mash them in the winepress of the wrath of Almighty God. (Rev. 19:15) It will be just as in Hezekiah’s day: “And Jehovah proceeded to send an angel and efface every valiant, mighty man and leader and chief in the camp of the king of Assyria, so that he went back with shame of face to his own land.”—2 Chron. 32:21.

23. What final fate befell Sennacherib, and what does this picture?

²³ But is the arrogant “king of Assyria” to escape merely “with shame of face”? God’s righteous judgment decrees more than this. It is recorded concerning Sennacherib in God’s Word (and confirmed in the recently discovered prism of Esarhaddonb) that “later on he entered the house of his god and there certain ones that had come out of his own inward parts felled him with the sword. Thus Jehovah saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem out of the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria and out of the hand of all others and gave them rest all around.” (2 Chron. 32:21, 22) Satan, “the father of the lie,” will likewise find that his self-made religion is no protection. For Christ will surely bind him and hurl him down into the lifeless abyss, shutting and sealing it over him. (Rev. 20:2, 3) Only then will God’s true worshipers have “rest all around.”

24. As indicated in the type, how will Jehovah and Christ then be exalted in the eyes of many?

²⁴ What an occasion to praise Jehovah! The account at 2 Chronicles ends with the words: “And there were many bringing gifts to Jehovah at Jerusalem and choice things to Hezekiah the king of Judah, and he came to be exalted in the eyes of all the nations after that.” (2 Ch 32:23) And as the morning of God’s new order dawns after Har–Magedon, we can be certain that all who survive will offer sacrifices of praise in honor of Jehovah and his victorious Christ, the Greater-than-Hezekiah. All the earth will come to enjoy the sabbath rest of Christ’s 1,000-year Kingdom reign, and—marvelous prospect!—the Redeemer Christ will be exalted also in the yes of many from the nations of mankind who will be brought back from gravedom by a resurrection.—John 5:28, 29.

25. (a) In what triumph do Jehovah’s worshipers thus share? (b) What grand privilege is now to be enjoyed, and on what should we set our hearts?

²⁵ What a triumph for the heavenly Mount Zion! What joy to all who dwell securely behind its rampart, holding fast to true worship! “March around Zion, you people, and go about it, count its towers. Set your hearts upon its rampart, inspect its dwelling towers, in order that you may recount it to the future generation. For this God is our God to time indefinite, even forever.” (Ps. 48:12-14) How beauteous is this heavenly Zion, beloved of Jehovah! And how grand our privilege of recounting its glory to the “great crowd,” of the generation that will survive Har–Magedon and find everlasting life in an earth-wide sanctuary of praise! All together, may we set our hearts on the true worship of the one, true, eternal God, Jehovah. May the name of this “Holy One of Israel” be vindicated and sanctified forever!

[Footnotes]

Do Not Think More of Yourself than Is Necessary

“I TELL everyone there among you not to think more of himself than it is necessary to think; but to think so as to have a sound mind.”—Rom. 12:3.

Throughout God’s Word, the Christian is admonished to acquire and maintain a balanced perspective of himself. While it is necessary for the Christian to think of himself sufficiently to take care of his mind and body and use them in the right way, it is vital for him not to go beyond that. He is not to think more of himself than is necessary.

If a person thinks too much of himself, he will be in danger of becoming conceited, proud, unloving. He will be too interested in his own desires and will not be concerned enough about others. Then he will find it difficult to obey the divine command to “love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind” and to “love your neighbor as yourself.”—Matt. 22:37-39.

CULTIVATING RIGHT QUALITIES

Among the many qualities that help the Christian not to think more of himself than is necessary are submissiveness and humility. The submissive Christian is always learning from God’s Word and applying what he learns to his own life. He eagerly does God’s will as it is progressively revealed through Jehovah’s visible organization.

To be submissive to Jehovah and his arrangements, the Christian needs humility. Being humble is the opposite of being proud. A humble person does not have an inflated opinion of himself. He is not overly assertive in manner or spirit. He is moderate, not presuming too much, not being vain or conceited. He is kind, mild-tempered.

Thus, the person who has the right viewpoint of himself, God’s viewpoint, will cultivate humility, for that is the quality that makes submissiveness to Jehovah and his arrangements a pleasure. It is the proud, arrogant person who does