Aiding the “Desire of All Nations” to Come In

“THE path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.” (Prov. 4:18, RS) A thrilling prophecy illustrating this truth is that found at Haggai 2:7 and which reads: “And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts.”a This prophecy could at best have had only a miniature fulfillment as regards Zerubbabel’s temple, regarding which it was first uttered, for the apostle Paul quotes it and applies it to a future time.—Heb. 12:26-28.

There was a time when Jehovah’s people thought that this desire of all nations was God’s kingdom, but since Bible prophecy shows that the Kingdom would first be established and then the shaking would take place it could not refer to the Kingdom. Then it was thought that Christ Jesus was the desire of all nations, but since the expression is obviously in the plural, for which reason modern translations render it as the desirable, choicest, precious things or “the treasures of all the nations,” it could not apply to him. Then to whom does this prophecy refer and when does it find fulfillment?

Other prophecies relating to our time and giving similar promises give us the understanding. Thus Isaiah 66:10-14 (AS) tells of God’s extending to his organization “the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream”; and Isaiah 61:1-7 tells of strangers and foreigners serving God’s ministers as plowmen and vinedressers, as a result of which these ministers would feed on the wealth of the nations and boast themselves in the glory of the nations. Also Isaiah 60:1-16 is to the point which tells of the prosperity of Jehovah’s people and that even kings would minister to them. Prophecies such as these, together with the physical facts in fulfillment of them, help us to identify the desire of all nations as the great crowd of praisers now flowing to Jehovah’s organization at the rate of 50,000 a year and that were present in such large numbers at the 1953 Yankee Stadium convention. And certainly in view of their love of truth and righteousness, their humility and unselfishness, they are the treasures, the choicest, the precious things of the nations.

What has caused the treasures of the nations to flow to God’s organization, and how can we aid the desire of all nations to come in? It has been the preaching of the good news of God’s established kingdom that has caused these to come in, and to aid them we must engage in this Kingdom-publishing activity, bringing to all of good will who are conscious of their spiritual need the truth about Jehovah, his qualities, attributes and purposes and about the established kingdom which will soon destroy all wickedness and usher in on this earth a condition of peace and prosperity, health and life. Aiding them means not only bringing them the truth in printed form but then regularly calling back to help them to understand the printed word, instructing them so that their faith can grow and become strong. Only then will they feel compelled to “come in.”

Today hundreds of thousands constituting the “desire of all nations” are coming to God’s organization and filling his house with glory by their sincere heart devotion and Kingdom service as well as by contributions of a material kind. Are you doing all you can in the privilege of aiding the “desire of all nations” to come in?

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Dance!

Bazaar!

Beano!