SPIRIT POURED OUT FROM ON HIGH

17, 18. (a) As respects the spirit, how did Jehovah not fail his people after their desolating experience in World War I? (b) How did Jehovah indicate this beforehand in Isaiah 32:12-16?

¹⁷ Jehovah, the Source of holy spirit, has not failed his worshipers in this critical “time of the end,” in which we have been since the World War year of 1914. Faithfully he has put holy spirit in action in behalf of his dedicated, baptized people. He foretold that he would do so. World War I of 1914-1918 C.E. was marked by worldwide hardship and a desolating persecution upon these conscientious students and proclaimers of God’s written Word, the Holy Bible. That God was wise and correct in letting such a disciplinary trial come upon them, we do not question for a moment. It was even foreshadowed by what befell the ancient kingdom of Judah with its capital at Jerusalem. In chapter thirty-two of Isaiah’s prophecy, Jehovah described the lamentable devastation that was to come upon his delinquent people and what would follow when they repented and turned back to Him. He said:

¹⁸ “Beat yourselves upon the breasts in lamentation over the desirable fields, over the fruit-bearing vine. [Why?] Upon the ground of my people merely thorns, spiny bushes come up, for they are upon all the houses of exultation, yes, the highly elated town [Jerusalem]. For the dwelling tower itself has been forsaken, the very hubbub of the city has been abandoned; [the eminence] Ophel and the watchtower themselves have become bare fields, for time indefinite the exultation of zebras, the pasture of droves; until upon us the spirit is poured out from on high, and the wilderness will have become an orchard, and the orchard itself is accounted as a real forest. And in the wilderness justice will certainly reside, and in the orchard righteousness itself will dwell.”​—Isa. 32:12-16.

19. What was the national calamity to which Isaiah was there referring?

¹⁹ Can we today identify the national calamity that the prophet Isaiah here described more than a century in advance? Ah, yes, it was the desolating of the land of the kingdom of Judah for seventy years, during which time the deported Israelites were kept as exiles in the pagan land of Babylon. They were the survivors of the shocking destruction of the holy city of Jerusalem and its temple by the Babylonians in 607 B.C.E. That must certainly have been a dispiriting experience for those survivors to go through. As they languished in an idolatrous country, Jehovah’s temple of worship lay in ruins, Jerusalem was a dead city without any hubbub, and their once productive land was a thornbush-infested wilderness, and a playground for wild zebras, without molestation by man.

20. (a) How did ancient Babylon misjudge her power as a prison keeper of Jehovah’s people? (b) In the strength of what did the repentant Israelites return, with what effect on their homeland?

²⁰ In defiance of Jehovah God, idol-worshiping Babylon held the Israelite exiles as in a prison. As the Third World Power on the ancient world stage, she felt strong enough to keep the desolated land of Judah from ever again being occupied by the worshipers of the rival God, Jehovah. She did not believe that Jehovah could raise up the Persian conqueror, Cyrus, whom he had named long before. At the time due, this conqueror appeared on the scene. Just as had been foretold, Cyrus broke the merciless prison keeper’s power and released the Israelite prisoners. Thus, in 539 B.C.E., the desolator of the earthly estate of Jehovah’s people was toppled from the high position of World Power. Then Jehovah’s spirit was poured out from on high upon the repentant Israelite exiles in 537 B.C.E. In the strength and under the guidance of that active force from the Most High God, the repentant Israelite remnant left Babylon and trekked back to their desolate homeland to rebuild Jerusalem and its holy temple. Their reoccupied land gradually lost its desolate appearance as they converted it into a most fruitful land, the beauty of which approached that of Paradise, the Garden of Eden.

21. How does that event back there figure as to the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, chapter thirty-two?

²¹ However, did that event of more than 2,500 years ago provide all the fulfillment that there was to be to that prophecy of Isaiah, chapter thirty-two? No! What there was of fulfillment back there was just a miniature fulfillment to illustrate a future full-scale fulfillment during our own twentieth century. This major and final fulfillment has now come upon those who are today the approved people of the same God, Jehovah.

22. During World War I, what kind of weapons were used in warring upon Jehovah’s Christian witnesses, and why were the nations wrathful against them?

²² Since the year 1931 C.E., these restored Christians have been known as Jehovah’s Witnesses. But years before that, there was that spiritual calamity that befell them during World War I. Simultaneously with that gory war with death-dealing weapons, a war was waged upon them by the symbolic “wild beast” that had received its power and throne and great authority from the “dragon,” Satan the Devil. However, this war was carried on without lethal weapons, for the attacked Christian Bible Students were a harmless, unarmed people. Instead, political and judicial weapons were put to use, even to the imprisonment of peaceable, innocent Christians. (Rev. 13:3-7) The war-inclined nations, who make up the symbolic “wild beast,” were moved to wrath because these Christian witnesses of Jehovah were proclaiming his kingdom by Christ to be the only rightful rule for all the earth now, forasmuch as the appointed “times of the Gentiles” had ended in early autumn of the year 1914 C.E.​—Luke 21:24, Authorized Version; Rev. 11:15-18.

23. By whom were the war-minded nations egged on, and by what mighty trio was the remnant of Kingdom proclaimers overpowered?

²³ The wrathful nations were egged on by the religious leaders who belonged to Babylon the Great, the world empire of false religion that has its roots in ancient Babylon. In that religious empire Christendom took the lead in stirring the nations to act and to persecute the small remnant of spiritual Israelites. Being a harmless, unarmed minority, the remnant was overpowered by the triple alliance of the “wild beast,” the “false prophet” and the “dragon.” This powerful trio combined forces in bringing the remnant of Kingdom proclaimers into bondage to Babylon the Great. What now followed and how Isaiah’s prophecy, chapter thirty-two, thus underwent its final fulfillment we shall find set out on the succeeding pages.

The Activity of the Spirit Poured Out from on High

1. Before World War I ended in 1918, the spiritual estate of the remnant of spiritual Israel had been reduced to what condition?

BEFORE World War I ended on November 11, 1918, the spiritual estate of the persecuted remnant of spiritual Israelites became desolate. Spiritually, it became like a wilderness, in which the ‘fruits of the kingdom’ were not being brought forth publicly through a bold preaching of “this good news of the kingdom” on the part of the anointed remnant. (Matt. 21:43; 24:14) Uncertainty and despondency settled down upon the internationally hated, oppressed remnant of Kingdom ambassadors.

2. What indicated whether the desolated condition of the remnant was to keep on indefinitely, and what was needed to alter the situation?

² Did Jehovah God approve of having this desolate condition of his dedicated people keep on forever? No. In pre-Christian times he decreed that Jerusalem and the land of Judah should lie desolate for a limited time, for no longer than seventy years. The Babylonian Empire was not to glory over its victims, Jerusalem and Judah, for all time. So, too, God did not purpose that the victims of Babylon the Great, namely, the remnant of spiritual Israel, should be left in a desolate state indefinitely. Well, then, what was now needed to alter the situation to the glory of their God, Jehovah? A special operation of holy spirit toward them!

3. According to Isaiah 32:15, 16, the desolated condition of Jehovah’s people was to continue until what occurred?

³ In Isaiah 32:15 Jehovah assured his people that their lamentable desolated condition would last only “until upon us the spirit is poured out from on high.” After that, what? “And,” as the prophecy goes on to say, “the wilderness will have become an orchard, and the orchard itself is accounted as a real forest. And in the wilderness justice will certainly reside, and in the orchard righteousness itself will dwell.”​—Isa. 32:15, 16.

4, 5. (a) So, what was to take place upon the remnant of spiritual Israelites? (b) How was this confirmed to the remnant in the vision given to Ezekiel showing a valley full of dead bones?

⁴ Ah, yes, for the remnant of spiritual Israelites there was to be an outpouring of spirit, along with release from Babylon the Great. This bright prospect was confirmed to them by the vision that Jehovah gave to his prophet Ezekiel, while this prophet was still an exile in ancient Babylon. In the vision he saw a low valley plain that was full of the disjointed bones of countless dead Israelites.

⁵ For those dead Israelites in the vision, the case looked hopeless. For the living Israelites exiled in ancient Babylon many hundreds of miles away from the desolate homeland, the case looked equally hopeless. Not hopeless, though, from Almighty God’s standpoint. He is the God who can even resurrect the dead. Centuries earlier he had used his prophets Elijah and Elisha to resurrect literally dead persons, by means of holy spirit. So, in the vision to Ezekiel he did re-create and reanimate all those dead Israelites. In explaining the meaning of the vision, Jehovah said: “You will have to know that I am Jehovah when I open your burial places and when I bring you up out of your burial places [in Babylon], O my people. And I will put my spirit in you, and you must come to life, and I will settle you upon your soil; and you will have to know that I myself, Jehovah, have spoken and I have done it.”​—Ezek. 37:13, 14.

6. How did a spiritual resurrection take place, and what did onlooking nations say in amazement at what they observed?

⁶ True to this prophecy, Babylon ceased to be the burial place of the Jewish nation. A spiritual resurrection took place. As by a miracle, in 537 B.C.E. a band of exiled Israelites and their attendants marched out of Babylon and settled in their homeland. They set themselves to rebuilding Jerusalem and its temple and making their long-desolate homeland like a paradise. No longer was there any reason for them to beat themselves upon the breasts in “lamentation over the desirable fields, over the fruit-bearing vine,” that had been left to desolation by the Babylonian conquerors in 607 B.C.E. What a manifestation there then was of holy spirit in action! The onlooking pagan nations were amazed! Psalm 126:2 reports that they said: “Jehovah has done a great thing in what he has done with them.”

7. In our twentieth century the worlds of Psalm 126:2 were said with regard to whom, and why?

⁷ The same thing has been said in our own twentieth century. With regard to whom? Not with regard to the natural Jews who settled in Palestine after World War I and later fought with “a military force” to establish the Republic of Israel, in 1948. No, but the prophetic words of Psalm 126:2 were said with regard to the internationally hated and persecuted Bible Students, who were liberated from bondage to Babylon the Great in the postwar year of 1919. Upon such restored Christians, who were spiritual Israelites, there came an outpouring of spirit from on high. It reminded Bible Students of the Pentecost of 33 C.E., although it was not accompanied by visible “tongues as if of fire” that sat upon the heads of the disciples miraculously enabling them to speak different, unlearned foreign languages.​—Acts 2:1-4; Joel 2:28, 29; Isa. 32:15.

DEFENSE AGAINST “EXPRESSIONS INSPIRED BY DEMONS”

11. What are the dragon, the wild beast and the false prophet croaking about, but, nevertheless, what are the remnant and the “great crowd” causing to be heard?

¹¹ Today the anointed remnant and the “great crowd” unitedly face the devilish “dragon,” the nuclear-powered “wild beast” and the political “false prophet.” Revelation 12:17 makes it plain that the “dragon,” Satan the Devil, has gone forth to wage war with the anointed remnant. In doing this he uses his political “wild beast” and the Anglo-American “false prophet” here on earth. So the demon-inspired froglike expressions out of their mouths go on, about worship of the State, about national sovereignty, about materialism, about world peace and security through the United Nations. Nevertheless, Jehovah’s Witnesses have caused the good news of God’s Messianic kingdom to be heard world wide. This Kingdom message has penetrated into more than two hundred lands and islands of the sea. Obviously the croaking dragon, the wild beast and the false prophet would like to drown out the Kingdom message. Religious Babylon the Great, especially Christendom, would like to do this, as Christendom claims that she alone speaks for God.

12. Thus the situation today is like what situation of King Ahab and his false prophets and Jehovah’s prophet Micaiah?

¹² The situation is like that of Jehovah’s prophet Micaiah and the false prophets of Ahab the king of Israel, about 920 B.C.E. The false prophets predicted military victory for King Ahab. But Micaiah predicted calamity for him. He pointed out that, by Jehovah’s permission, King Ahab was being fooled to his own ruin by a deceptive inspired expression in the mouths of his false prophets. A false prophet named Zedekiah objected to that. To quote 1 Kings 22:24, he “now approached and struck Micaiah upon the cheek and said: ‘In just which way did the spirit of Jehovah pass along from me to speak with you?’” Yet Jehovah had indeed spoken by Micaiah, for King Ahab never came back alive from the war.​—1 Ki. 22:20-38.

13. In what way did the anointed remnant of spiritual Israel prove to be like the prophet Micaiah?

¹³ There is a modern parallel of that incident, particularly since the year 1919, when the victorious military allies of World War I adopted the proposal for a League of Nations to safeguard world peace and security. The anointed remnant of spiritual Israelites have been like the prophet Micaiah. Holy spirit had been poured out upon them from on high, and, as foretold, the effect upon them was that they prophesied, declaring the prophecies of Jehovah’s inspired Bible. (Joel 2:28, 29) Fearlessly they foretold from Bible prophecies that the League of Nations would fail. Also, they declared a warning message against the kings or political rulers of Christendom, who correspond with King Ahab of apostate Israel.

14. What message concerning Christendom’s rulers have the clergy resented, and how have they acted like Queen Jezebel?

¹⁴ The remnant declared that in the coming “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Har–Magedon those professed “Christian” rulers would suffer defeat and be destroyed by God’s execution of judgment against them. This will occur despite the fact that Christendom’s clergy, like Zedekiah and his band of false prophets, have blessed the governments and military forces of Christendom’s rulers. The clergy claim the exclusive right to speak for God and to have His spirit. Hence, they resent the calamitous message that the anointed remnant have proclaimed concerning the political rulers and armies upon whom they, the clergy, have prayed the divine blessing. They have tried to suppress the preaching done by the anointed remnant, as if this was not authorized by God and was not being done by means of Jehovah’s spirit. They have stirred up violent persecution against the anointed remnant, just as Ahab’s wife, Queen Jezebel, persecuted Elijah and one hundred other prophets of Jehovah.​—1 Ki. 18:13.

15. When will Christendom’s clergy have it made plain whether they ever had God’s spirit, and why will they not see victory gained by Christendom’s rulers?

¹⁵ Thus, in effect, Christendom’s clergy have struck the anointed remnant in the face and said: “In just which way did the spirit of Jehovah pass along from me to speak with you?” (1 Ki. 22:24) Not before very long now the clergy will have it made plain to them whether they ever had Jehovah’s spirit. They will never see victory gained by Christendom’s rulers and armies. In fact, neither will they live to see the destruction of their political and military friends in the “war of the great day of God the Almighty.” Why not? Because, before ever that war at Har–Magedon begins, those yet friendly political elements, who today are an active part of the United Nations organization, will turn to hating Christendom’s clergy and the other religious leaders of Babylon the Great and will annihilate them.​—Rev. 16:14, 16; 17:3-18.

16. What, though, will the Micaiah-like remnant see?

¹⁶ What, though, about the anointed remnant, upon whom Jehovah has poured out his spirit from on high? They have survived the blow that was inflicted on their cheek by Christendom’s clergy. They will see the message that God’s spirit imparted to them from the Bible come true. Yes, indeed, they will see the destruction of the world rulers who were led to Har–Magedon by the froglike propaganda belched forth by the dragon, the wild beast and the false prophet.