• God’s Mercy on Display at Har–Magedon
    The Watchtower—1976 | March 1

    • THOSE “NOT MY PEOPLE”

      16. (a) What will Christendom’s rejection as being no part of Jehovah’s people mean for her? (b) What was the second son of Hosea’s wife called, and why?

      16 Now before the outbreak of the “great tribulation” in the near future, is the time for us to avail ourselves of Jehovah’s mercy. Let us never forget: Christendom is to be shown no mercy during the coming tribulation. Hence, we should want to dissociate ourselves from her. At that time her being rejected as being no part of Jehovah’s people will be made known beyond all denial. That will mean destruction for her! She is the Lo-ruhamah (Unpitied One) of today. (Hos. 1:6) Her total rejection was foreshadowed in the further marriage affairs of the prophet Hosea. He refers to his wife Gomer when he says: “And she gradually weaned Lo-ruhamah, and she proceeded to become pregnant and give birth to a son. So He [Jehovah] said: ‘Call his name Lo-ammi, because you men are not my people and I myself shall prove to be not yours.’” (Hos. 1:8, 9) With those words the first chapter of Hosea’s prophetic book ends in Jewish Bible translations and in editions of the Greek Septuagint Version of Hosea.

      17. Why was Lo-ammi a fitting name for Gomer’s second son, and so what did Jehovah say to the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel in that connection?

      17 The second son of Hosea’s wife Gomer is also understood to be not of Hosea’s fatherhood, but a child of Gomer’s adultery. Hosea does not say that Gomer bore this second son to him. So there was good reason for Jehovah to have the boy called Lo-ammi, for the name means “Not My People.” It had prophetic meaning. In explaining his reason for giving the boy such an ominous name, Jehovah addressed himself to the ten-tribe “house of Israel,” when he said: “Because you men are not my people and I myself shall prove to be not yours.” With such words Jehovah declared himself to be no longer the Heavenly Husband of the covenant-breaking “house of Israel.”

      18. When and how did Jehovah let it be known that the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel was not his people?

      18 Jehovah let it plainly be known that he was no longer the God and spiritual Husband of the apostate “house of Israel.” This Jehovah did when he permitted the capture of Israel’s capital city Samaria by the Assyrians in 740 B.C.E. Thus that “house of Israel” was no longer His people; it was, as he said, Lo-ammi, or, “Not My People.” Like a divorced wife, that people went off into exile in Assyria. That spiritually adulterous “house of Israel” had despised the opportunity offered to it in the Mosaic Law covenant of becoming to Jehovah a “kingdom of priests.”​—Ex. 19:5, 6.

      19. Jesus Christ will let Christendom know that she has no part in fulfilling the purpose of the new covenant, when what words of his come true?

      19 Jehovah’s “new covenant,” as mediated by Jesus Christ the Greater Moses, has a similar purpose. That purpose will not be realized in Israel’s modern counterpart, Christendom. She has tried to reign on earth in this present system of things by serving as religious consort to political rulers of this world. Jesus Christ will let her know that she is not in line for joint heirship with him in the heavenly kingdom, when his words come true: “Not everyone saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will. Many will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many powerful works in your name?’ And yet then I will confess to them: I never knew you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness.”​—Matt. 7:21-23.