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.

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.

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.

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.