But at the close of the Gentile Times in 1914 C.E. the time for Jesus Christ to keep waiting at his heavenly Father’s right hand ended. At that time the Sovereign Lord Jehovah installed his Son Jesus Christ on the throne in the “heavenly Jerusalem,” on the heavenly Mount Zion. In this way the royal line of David was again exalted to the throne, and the Messianic kingdom was born.

17. Were men and nations first asked before God took action, and how was the right reaction illustrated by the twenty-four elders?

¹⁷ The world of mankind was not asked about this first. The earthly nations, with their national sovereignties, were also not asked first about this move on God’s part. The Most High God went right ahead at his appointed time and established the heavenly Messianic kingdom, in accord with his own right of universal sovereignty. (Dan. 4:35) The right response for people to make to God’s rightful expression of sovereignty was illustrated in the action of the twenty-four elders who bowed in worship before Him and said: “We thank you, Jehovah God, the Almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and begun ruling as king.”​—Rev. 11:16, 17.

18. What, though, was the reaction of the nations, and how was this foretold by the twenty-four elders?

¹⁸ How, though, about the worldly nations? Ah, they were too interested in fighting out their first world war for world domination. Because of trying to regiment all the peoples to their support in total war, they persecuted wrathfully those true Christians who took their stand for the sovereignty of the Lord God and his Christ. This was just as it had been foretold by those twenty-four elders, who went on to say: “But the nations became wrathful, and your own wrath came, and the appointed time for the dead to be judged, and to give their reward to your slaves the prophets and to the holy ones and to those fearing your name, the small and the great, and to bring to ruin those ruining the earth.”​—Rev. 11:18.

19. (a) This is the appropriate time for us to ask ourselves what questions regarding sovereignty? (b) Our following the example of the nations would mean what for us?

¹⁹ To this very day the nations continue wrathful toward Jehovah’s “holy ones and to those fearing [His] name, the small and the great.” So it is the appropriate time for each one of us to ask himself, ‘What about me? Am I going to let the course of the worldly nations guide me as an example? Or, am I going to be like those twenty-four elders of Revelation 11:16, 17 and thank God for expressing his sovereignty and taking his great power to reign?