20. How did the modern counterpart of that take place in the case of the International Bible Students in the first postwar year of 1919?

²⁰ Is there a modern counterpart of the “birth” of the restored Israelites as a “nation” in 537 BCE? Yes, for in the year following the first world war of 1914-1918 a spiritual “nation” was born, under the Greater Cyrus, the enthroned King Jesus Christ! How so? Well, during the war the headquarters of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, the publication agency of the International Bible Students, had been dismantled at Brooklyn, New York, and moved back to smaller quarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Its latest pieces of literature had been banned in Canada and the United States of America, and the Society’s president, its secretary-treasurer, and six other members of the headquarters’ staff of workers had been sentenced in 1918 to long terms of imprisonment. The intent of the enemies behind all of this was like that expressed in Psalm 83:4: “Let us efface them from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more.” But in the spring of 1919, to the shocking surprise of Christendom, there came release! That same year the persecuted International Bible Students held their first postwar convention in Cedar Point, Ohio. To the conventioners the publication of a new magazine, in addition to the Watch Tower magazine, was announced, namely, The Golden Age (now called Awake!).

21. Thus, five years after the end of the Gentile Times, what was born, to serve in what capacity, and how so on a newborn “land”?

²¹ Thus, five years after the end of the “times of the Gentiles” in 1914, and the establishment of God’s kingdom in the hands of the Greater Cyrus, Jesus Christ, a new “nation” came into existence, a spiritual “nation.” The members of this new “nation” were to serve as ambassadors of God’s kingdom newly born in the heavens and as witnesses bearing his name. He has put the “nation” in its rightful “land,” its earthly realm of activity, its symbolic “land,” now that the Gentile Times for trampling his visible organization underfoot have ended.​—Luke 21:24, AV.

22. What questions did Jehovah raise as to his ability to become Father to the “nation,” and, in answer, how did he act in the ancient type and in the modern antitype?

²² Jehovah God the Almighty was responsible for that remarkable birth, and he was determined that nothing should obstruct it. In Isaiah 66:9 he had said: “‘As for me, shall I cause the breaking through [the amnion or amniotic sac] and not cause the giving birth?’ says Jehovah. ‘Or am I causing a giving birth and do I actually cause a shutting up [of the womb]?’ your God has said.” His first response to those challenging questions was his releasing his people from Babylon in 537 BCE and then causing Jerusalem to be built and to teem with Jewish residents as her children. God’s modern-day, antitypical response to his own questions was his making the antitypical Jerusalem, his heavenly organization, fruitful so that she brought forth a spiritual “nation,” on earth. This was under the direction of the Greater Cyrus, the newly enthroned King in heaven. This birth took place in the postwar year of 1919, and it produced a people, the “sons” of Zion, who were wholly devoted to the interests of God’s established kingdom and who maintained strict neutrality toward the political governments of this world. Almighty God has allowed nothing to obstruct the complete outworking of his purpose from 1914 onward till right now!

What Birth of the Nation Has Meant for Mankind

1, 2. (a) Does Jehovah directly answer his own questions at Isaiah 66:9? (b) According to Isaiah 66:10-14, what call does he give?

INSTEAD of answering his own questions recorded at Isaiah 66:9 with a plain No! God moved Isaiah to express this triumphant call:

² “Rejoice with Jerusalem and be joyful with her, all you lovers of her. Exult greatly with her, all you keeping yourselves in mourning over her; for the reason that you will suck and certainly get satisfaction from the breast of full consolation by her; for the reason that you will sip and experience exquisite delight from the teat of her glory. For this is what Jehovah has said: ‘Here I am extending to her peace just like a river and the glory of nations just like a flooding torrent, and you will certainly suck. Upon the flank you will be carried, and upon the knees you will be fondled. Like a man whom his own mother keeps comforting, so I myself shall keep comforting you people; and in the case of Jerusalem you will be comforted. And you will certainly see, and your heart will be bound to exult, and your very bones will sprout just like tender grass. And the hand of Jehovah will certainly be made known to his servants, but he will actually denounce his enemies.’”​—Isaiah 66:10-14.

3. Thus the restored Jewish exiles were likened to what, with what enjoyment, and whose hand would they see in this matter?

³ Thus those restored from exile were likened to newborn babes taking nourishment. To the Jewish exiles by the rivers of Babylon the references to sucking the breast and sipping the teat denoted that there would be another Jerusalem built on the site of the destroyed capital city; also that she would mother a population of many citizens or inhabitants and the many other citizens of her realm. (Compare Luke 13:34.) Like mothers then in the Middle East, rebuilt Jerusalem would have her children straddle her left or right thigh, to carry them; and, when seated, she would fondle them lovingly on her lap. Those Jews who loved Jehovah’s visible organization back there in the sixth century BCE would rejoice over this, and they would cease from mourning over the fact that for the seventy years of their exile in a pagan land there had been no Jerusalem as the capital city of Jehovah’s chosen people. Their joy was like that described in Psalm 126, as in contrast with the sorrow expressed in Psalm 137. Jehovah’s servants saw his hand in their deliverance.

4, 5. (a) How did the remnant react to the manifestation of God’s “hand” in their behalf, and what did they appreciate more than ever? (b) The time had then arrived for what other action? (c) How does Isaiah describe this?

⁴ This was no less the case with the members of the spiritual “nation” that was “born” in 1919 CE. After their astonishing liberation from the restrictions imposed during World War I and the threat of their being wiped out, they rejoiced with unbounded joy. Their mourning passed away. More keenly than ever before they came to appreciate that Jehovah is their God and that he has a visible organization, just as he has an invisible organization in the heavens that is like a wife to him. This invisible organization is, for the remnant, a “mother,” the “Jerusalem above.” (Isaiah 54:1-6; Galatians 4:26) So, coming together again from their disorganized state during World War I, they rejoiced to be nursed, borne along and fondled by this spiritual “mother,” the celestial “wife” of God their Father. As “servants” dedicated to him through their older Brother, Jesus Christ, they were comforted to know that the “hand” of Jehovah was operating in their favor. Opposite to this, the time had come for him to “denounce his enemies.” This included those who are hostile to the proclaimers of his newborn kingdom, for those who are enemies of his dedicated people are also his own personal enemies. Telling how he will carry out his denunciation, Jehovah goes on to say:

⁵ “‘For here Jehovah himself comes as a very fire, and his chariots are like a storm wind, in order to pay back his anger with sheer rage and his rebuke with flames of fire. For as fire Jehovah himself will for a fact take up the controversy, yes, with his sword, against all flesh; and the slain of Jehovah will certainly become many. Those sanctifying themselves and cleansing themselves for the gardens behind one in the center, eating the flesh of the pig and the loathsome thing, even the jumping rodent, they will all together reach their end,’ is the utterance of Jehovah. ‘And as regards their works and their thoughts, I am coming in order to collect all the nations and tongues together; and they will have to come and see my glory.’”​—Isaiah 66:15-18.

6. So how were the Israelites of Isaiah’s day breaking their covenant and befouling themselves?

⁶ In the days when Isaiah wrote those words, over a century before the destruction of Jerusalem in 607 BCE, the Israelites were grossly violating their national covenant with Jehovah, the law covenant mediated by the prophet Moses. They were sanctifying themselves and cleansing themselves for idolatrous worship in special gardens and were breaking God’s laws forbidding them to eat certain things. They defiled themselves and befouled themselves before the God of their covenant and did nothing for his glory.

7. (a) How did Jehovah act in line with his covenant terms to settle the controversy? (b) With whom does God have a like controversy today?

⁷ So he brought upon those covenant breakers his fiery, stormy judgments, in proper harmony with his covenant terms. He took up the “sword” of execution in settling the controversy that he had with all Jewish flesh. No wonder that merely a few thousand survived the merciless destruction of Jerusalem, only to be dragged off into long exile in pagan idolatrous Babylon. All the surrounding nations and language groups were obliged to witness this manifestation of the glory of Jehovah as the covenant-keeping God who does not lie. All of this solemnly reminds us that the same God has a controversy on a far larger scale with modern-day Christendom, which claims to have replaced ancient Israel as the people of Jehovah God. To his glory he will use his “sword” of vengeance to slay her utterly.

A “Sign” Set Among the Nations

8, 9. (a) To his glory Jehovah has carried out his purpose after having produced what things and after what wartime experience of his people? (b) How did he set out his purpose in Isaiah 66:19, 20?

⁸ To his international glory this Almighty God has carried out his unalterable purpose as to what would take place after he caused “a land” to be “brought forth with labor pains in one day” and after he caused “a nation” to be “born at one time.” As we read his words set out in Isaiah 66:19, 20, we can call to mind what he has gloriously done since the birth of the “nation” made up of the remnant of spiritual Israelites in 1919 after having ceased to be an organized people during World War I, and entertaining little hope or expectation of surviving that world conflict. Here is what he said:

⁹ “‘And I will set among them a sign [ōth, Hebrew; signum, Latin Vulgate], and I will send some of those who are escaped to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, those drawing the bow, Tubal and Javan, the faraway islands, who have not heard a report about me or seen my glory; and they will for certain tell about my glory among the nations. And they will actually bring all your brothers out of all the nations as a gift to Jehovah, on horses and in chariots and in covered wagons and on mules and on swift she-camels, up to my holy mountain, Jerusalem,’ Jehovah has said, ‘just as when the sons of Israel bring the gift in a clean vessel into the house of Jehovah.’”

10. What has the “sign” that God “set” among the nations proved to be?

¹⁰ What has proved to be the “sign” that Jehovah “set” among the nations since World War I? It was a living “sign.” Earlier, in Isaiah’s prophecy, this mouthpiece of Jehovah said: “Look! I and the children whom Jehovah has given me are as signs and as miracles in Israel from Jehovah of armies, who is residing in Mount Zion.” (Isaiah 8:18) In Hebrews 2:11-13 the Christian apostle Paul quotes from those prophetic words and applies them to Jesus Christ and his spirit-begotten disciples, saying: “For both he who is sanctifying and those who are being sanctified all stem from one, and for this cause he is not ashamed to call them ‘brothers,’ as he says: . . . ‘Look! I and the young children, whom Jehovah gave me.’”

11. What have those who make up that “sign” preached worldwide since 1914, and why did they need to be gathered?

¹¹ In agreement with that, the “sign” that Jehovah set up among the nations of earth, for whom “the times of the Gentiles” ran out in 1914, is the spiritual “nation,” the members of which have preached worldwide God’s kingdom that was born in the heavens at the close of the “appointed times of the nations” in 1914. (Luke 21:24, Authorized Version; New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures; Matthew 24:14) To that end Jehovah gathered together the remnant of spiritual Israelites who had been scattered by the fierce persecution during World War I.

12. (a) Who were to be added to the remnant that had survived World War I? (b) When, especially, did the sending forth of “those who are escaped” begin to take place?

¹² Also, there were still others who were to be brought and added to those spiritual Israelites who survived World War I, so as to make up the full membership of the remnant of Christ’s spiritual “brothers” at this time. (Matthew 25:40) Notably since the holding of the first general convention of the International Bible Students in Cedar Point, Ohio, USA, in the summer of 1919, Jehovah began to send “some of those who are escaped” of the original remnant “to the nations.” More strikingly did he do so at the 1922 convention of the IBSA at the same resort offshore from Sandusky, Ohio, when the president of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society climaxed his rousing discourse to the conventioners with the dramatic words: “Advertise, advertise, advertise, the King and his kingdom.” Thereafter the congregations of the remnant of spiritual Israelites geared themselves for the proclamation of God’s established kingdom, “for a witness to all the nations,” by having all members go forth into the field, “from house to house” and publicly. All were ambassadors of the kingdom!​—Acts 20:20.

13. In fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, who are gathered out of all the nations, and, as it were, by what means faster than by walking?

¹³ In fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, all of this resulted in a grand gathering of the remnant of the spiritual brotherhood, as it were, by all means of conveyance or transportation much faster than by walking. Jehovah had said that he would send “some of those who are escaped” even to far distant lands, and this he did by sending those who had “escaped” alive from the first world war and the famines, pestilences and earthquakes that marked the death-dealing period of 1914-1918 CE, and particularly the persecution that raged against the dedicated Bible students who were cooperating zealously with the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society worldwide. The persecution in particular caused the spiritual death of some, so that they did not join in the regathering of the surviving remnant after World War I, especially when the call to united action began to be issued through the printed publications of the Society and through its traveling representatives who visited the congregations.

14. About what did the “escaped” ones who were sent forth tell, and even to places in what state of ignorance were they sent?

¹⁴ However, the faithful ones did as Jehovah had foretold, “tell about my glory among the nations.” (Isaiah 66:19) To all accessible lands and “nations” those obedient “escaped” ones went, even to “faraway islands,” telling about the glory of Jehovah’s kingdom that had now been established in the heavens in the hands of his reigning King, Jesus Christ. Many in those nations and distant islands had not even heard a report about the true God, Jehovah, and had never discerned that, according to the foretold signs of the times, his glorious kingdom had been born in the heavens.​—Revelation 12:1-5, 10.

15. Those spiritual “brothers” who are brought as a “gift to Jehovah” must keep themselves in what spiritual state, and why?

¹⁵ All those whom the “escaped” ones brought as their spiritual “brothers” they brought “as a gift to Jehovah,” not to some human leader of a religious sect or to some earthly political world power that was vying for popular support. For the “gift” to be acceptable to Jehovah, it had to be clean. That is why the prophecy describes the bringing of the living “gift” as being “just as when the sons of Israel bring the gift in a clean vessel into the house of Jehovah.” (Isaiah 66:20) That is why those spiritual “brothers” who make up the “gift” must be no part of this world, yes, they must keep themselves “without spot from the world.” (James 1:27) They must keep themselves neutral toward the defiling politics of this unclean system of things. That is why Jehovah said they would be brought “up to my holy mountain, Jerusalem.” This does not signify the modern-day Jerusalem, the capital of the political State of Israel. The nation of which it is the capital is 85 percent Jewish and it is a member of the United Nations organization for maintaining world peace and security.

16. Why does Jehovah have nothing in the Middle East today that could be called his “holy mountain”?

¹⁶ Modern Jerusalem in the Middle East does not have any “holy mountain” that Jehovah could call his own in a religious sense. Why not? Because what was once his “holy mountain” over there is now crowned by a Muhammadan shrine, the Dome of the Rock. This is for worshipers, not of Jehovah, but of Allah, a deity without a personal name.

17. So what is the “holy mountain, Jerusalem,” to which those spiritual “brothers” are brought since the birth of the nation in 1919?

¹⁷ All pertinent things being honestly considered, a significant fact becomes evident: In the modern fulfillment of Isaiah 66:20 “my holy mountain” refers to a motherlike organization for spiritual Israelites, namely, “Jerusalem above,” spoken of in Galatians 4:26. It is the Zion that has “given birth to her sons,” according to Isaiah 66:8. Those “sons” make up the “nation” that was “born at one time,” in the postwar year of 1919. In view of that fact, those spiritual “brothers” that were brought by the “escaped” ones since that birth of the “nation” were brought “as a gift to Jehovah” and were put in touch with his royal organization, the “Jerusalem above,” this being typified by the rebuilt earthly Jerusalem of old. These being brought forth as her “sons,” they were brought into the visible earthly part of Jehovah’s universal organization, to be spiritual Jerusalemites.

Restoration of the Pure Worship of Jehovah

18. Since Jehovah promised to take some of the newborn “nation” also “for the priests, for the Levites,” what was the most fitting thing for the “nation” to do in their realm of activity?

¹⁸ Did that newborn “nation” take up the full worship of the one living and true God, Jehovah, in their postwar realm of spiritual activity? To do so was most appropriate, now that they had been freed from domination by Babylon the Great, the world empire of false religion. And do so they did, in line with the action that Jehovah promised that he would take respecting the newborn “nation,” in Isaiah 66:21: “‘And from them also I shall take some for the priests, for the Levites,’ Jehovah has said.” We must remember that, in the case of the Israelites during the seventy years of their exile in ancient Babylon, from 607 to 537 BCE, they were without the active service of the Aaronic high priest and underpriests and of their servants, the Levites, inasmuch as the temple at which they had served was destroyed. With accuracy Jehovah had foretold this, at Hosea 3:4, 5, saying:

19. How had Jehovah foretold the restoration of his worship at Hosea 3:4, 5?

¹⁹ “It is because for many days the sons of Israel will dwell . . . without a sacrifice and without a pillar and without an ephod and teraphim. Afterwards the sons of Israel will come back and certainly look for Jehovah their God, and for David their king [the Messiah]; and they will certainly come quivering to Jehovah and to his goodness in the final part of the days.”

20. Such action by Jehovah would call for what to be built, and where, and this in behalf of what most vital needs?

²⁰ Thus, besides acting as their Liberator from Babylon, Jehovah would take care of their most vital needs, their spiritual needs. He would reinstate a legitimate high priest along with his underpriests, and these would be assisted by a body of Levites. This would call for the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem, at which these could carry on their services so important to the “nation” that would be born “at one time.” This would take place in the “land” that would be “brought forth with labor pains in one day,” their beloved homeland. Yes, unlikely though this might seem.​—Isaiah 66:8.

21. What similar thing took place in a spiritual sense in the case of the newborn “nation” from 1919 onward?

²¹ In a spiritual sense, the like thing has been true with the remnant of spiritual Israel since Jehovah God liberated them from Babylon the Great (the world empire of false religion) in the postwar year of 1919 CE. He saw to their spiritual needs first. He cleared up their understanding of the office of the Messianic King, Jesus Christ, as High Priest of God. He cleansed them from any religious defilements that still clung to them from association with Babylon the Great and bondage to her. As members of “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for special possession” with regard to the Most High God, they came to appreciate more distinctly than ever before how and why they needed to keep strict neutrality toward the political affairs of this modern world. They saw that the time had come for the one living and true God to ‘make a name for himself.’ And they awoke to their obligation to exalt God’s personal name, Jehovah, above all other names. They discerned their obligation to be witnesses to this God whose name had been overshadowed for centuries, and appropriately adopted the name “Jehovah’s witnesses” in the memorable year of 1931.​—1 Peter 2:9; Isaiah 43:12; 63:12.

22. Although it involves salvation of creatures, what is the most important issue, the most important teaching of the Bible, and why?

²² Although meriting due consideration in the inspired Bible, the salvation of the human race from sin and death and bondage to Satan the Devil and his organization is not the most important thing, the most important doctrine of the Holy Bible. As the leading article, entitled “Integrity,” appearing in the issue of August 15, 1941, of the Watchtower magazine, said: “Jehovah’s purpose to have the world ruled by his righteous Government is repeatedly emphasized in the Scriptures. His Government is the Theocracy over which he has made Christ Jesus the King. . . . The primary issue raised by Satan’s defiant challenge was and is that of UNIVERSAL DOMINATION.” (Paragraphs 1, 19) Hence, the chief purpose of the Most High God is to vindicate this universal sovereignty, which he alone exercises. This he will gloriously do shortly in “the war of the great day of God the Almighty” at the battlefield of Har–Magedon. (Revelation 16:14-16) It is the duty, the privilege, the honor of the “holy nation” of spiritual Israel to maintain its integrity toward Jehovah’s universal domination or sovereignty, so proving the Devil a liar.

23. The foiling of what efforts of the enemy nations is in fulfillment of Jehovah’s words at Isaiah 66:22?

²³ Down to this late date all efforts on the part of the worldly nations of Satan’s visible organization to wipe out Jehovah’s “nation” that was “born” in 1919 on its newly brought-forth “land” have failed. This is in faithful fulfillment of the assurance given by the Universal Sovereign in these words at Isaiah 66:22: “‘For just as the new heavens and the new earth that I am making are standing before me,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘so the offspring of you people and the name of you people will keep standing.’”