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