Chapter 4

The Temple to Remain as Nations Are Rocked

1. How long was it now after the Jews had acted on Haggai’s preceding prophecy, and what festival was being completed at Jerusalem?

NOT QUITE a lunar month had passed since the Jews had acted on Haggai’s preceding prophecy, namely, on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month (Elul) of the second year of the reign of Darius I (Hystaspis), king of Persia, or 520 B.C.E. The seven-day Festival of Booths (or, Tabernacles) had begun on the fifteenth day of the following month, the seventh month, Tishri, and had reached the seventh day, which was the twenty-first day of Tishri. On the following day, Tishri 22, there was to be a solemn assembly of all the celebrators at Jerusalem. All twenty-four divisions (or, courses) of the Aaronic priesthood were expected to be present at this Festival of Booths in the capital city. Interestingly, it was during the celebration of the Festival of Booths that King Solomon the son of David inaugurated the temple of Jehovah’s worship that he had finished building.​—1 Kings 8:62-66; 6:37, 38; 2 Chronicles 7:7-10.

2. What else was the Festival of the Booths called, and what were to be the features of it?

² This festival of the seventh month, five days after the Day of Atonement, was also called the Festival of Ingathering. In view of the ingathering of the agricultural products of the ground the Israelites were commanded: “You must rejoice before Jehovah your God seven days. And you must celebrate it as a festival to Jehovah seven days in the year. As a statute to time indefinite during your generations, you should celebrate it in seven days. All the natives in Israel should dwell in the booths, in order that your generations may know that it was in the booths that I made the sons of Israel to dwell when I was bringing them out of the land of Egypt. I am Jehovah your God.”​—Leviticus 23:33-43; Numbers 29:12-38; Deuteronomy 16:13-17.

3, 4. (a) Over what could those Jews rejoice during that Festival of Ingathering, and how did their dwellings compare with that of Jehovah? (b) Why was it the appropriate occasion for an encouraging message from Jehovah, and how did this message begin?

³ That the repatriated Israelites had much of an ingathering in 520 B.C.E., we have little reason to believe, in view of what the prophet Haggai said in his first prophecy. (Haggai 1:5, 6, 9-11; 2:16, 17) But what they did gather into their garners was because of Jehovah’s mercy and forbearance. On this account they had good cause to rejoice in Jehovah their God for the seven days of the Festival of Ingathering. And, dwelling in the temporary booths as they did during the festival, in and around Jerusalem, they did not then have paneled, well-roofed houses for themselves any more than Jehovah then had a house for his worship at Jerusalem. They had by now done much of the preliminary work toward getting at the rebuilding of the temple again. They needed further encouragement. Tishri 21 being still a festival day, Jerusalem would be thronging with worshipers of Jehovah, including the governor of Judah and all the priesthood, and it would be a fine time for an inspired message to be given to them. Jehovah saw to it that it was given, as we now read:

⁴ “In the seventh month [Tishri or Ethanim], on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of Jehovah occurred by means of Haggai the prophet, saying: ‘Say, please, to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak the high priest, and to the remaining ones of the people, saying, “Who is there among you that is remaining over who saw this house in its former glory? And how are you people seeing it now? Is it not, in comparison with that, as nothing in your eyes?”’”​—Haggai 2:1-3.

5. (a) Jehovah’s form of questioning indicated what concerning those present on this occasion? (b) In view of the comparison made, what was really the big question?

⁵ All that those thus questioned could see, at most, was the groundwork of the temple, the foundation that had been laid sixteen years previously, back in 536 B.C.E. (Ezra 3:8-13) The form of questioning indicates that there were some very old persons there who had been deported to Babylon and who had seen the temple built by Solomon before it was destroyed by the Babylonians in 607 B.C.E., more than eighty-seven years previously. They could recall how gorgeous that divinely designed temple of Solomon had looked. They alone were able to make a full comparison of it with what they now saw. What now lay before their eyes on the former temple location was as nothing in comparison. What, then, could be expected with regard to a temple that would have such a humble, lowly start? So, would it be worth while for those God-fearing Israelites to carry forward the rebuilding of the temple? But, since the temple was to be Jehovah’s house, the big question was, Could Jehovah of armies make something impressive, something suitable, out of nothing?

6. The matter of rebuilding the temple actually rested with whom, and who therefore would really be building it, and how?

⁶ The matter really rested with the God who was to be worshiped at the proposed house. Was it His will that the house be rebuilt for his glory and the promoting of the spiritual interests of the nation of Israel? Since it was His will, then the builders would be doing His will and His work. They would therefore have his approval and his backing and support, no matter who and how many were against them. He, in fact, would be building the house through the Israelite builders as his instrumentalities. This was all-important, just as it is stated by Solomon in Psalm 127:1, where he remarks: “Unless Jehovah himself builds the house, it is to no avail that its builders have worked hard on it. Unless Jehovah himself guards the city, it is to no avail that the guard has kept awake.”

7. (a) Who was most concerned with the rebuilding of that house, and why? (b) That they might not be fearful because of the enemies, what did Jehovah now say through Haggai?

⁷ As the matter concerned the pure worship of the one living and true God, Jehovah himself was involved as being that God. He was the One who would do the building. In view of that they did not need to be weakened through fear of the overwhelming numbers of the enemies. That is why he inspired his prophet Haggai to say: “‘But now be strong, O Zerubbabel,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘and be strong, O Joshua the son of Jehozadak the high priest.’ ‘And be strong, all you people of the land,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘and work.’ ‘For I am with you people,’ is the utterance of Jehovah of armies. ‘Remember the thing that I concluded with you people when you came forth from Egypt, and when my spirit was standing in among you. Do not be afraid.’”​—Haggai 2:4, 5.

8. In what respect did those temple builders have to be strong, and how was a similar thing true of the apostle Paul in Corinth?

⁸ That Israelite remnant, who were charged with the rebuilding of the temple, had to be strong in faith. They would show their faith by their work at temple building. Why not? For Jehovah of armies was with them. As the Jewish Christian apostle Paul later on said to the congregation at Rome, Italy: “What, then, shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who will be against us?” (Romans 8:31) Such a divine assurance is very strengthening, as this same Paul experienced when doing God’s work in the Grecian city of Corinth in the first century C.E. Concerning this, the account in Acts of the Apostles tells us: “Moreover, by night the Lord said to Paul through a vision: ‘Have no fear, but keep on speaking and do not keep silent, because I am with you and no man will assault you so as to do you injury; for I have many people in this city.’” Did Paul show faith and do as told? The account says: “So he stayed set there a year and six months, teaching among them the word of God.”​—Acts 18:9-11.

9. (a) Likewise, in what quality should those temple builders be strong, and under whose leadership? (b) What was it that God concluded with their forefathers that they should remember, and why now?

⁹ Just so, too, the repatriated Israelite remnant needed to be strong in their reliance upon Almighty God and do His work. The foremost officials among them, Governor Zerubbabel and High Priest Joshua, were responsible to take the lead, and the rest of the remnant would follow along and work with them. They should remember the covenant that Jehovah had concluded with their forefathers when He was leading them away from Egypt. It was very fitting for them to be reminded of this by Haggai, for during their forty-year journey from Egypt to the Promised Land their forefathers had lived in tents or booths, and, look here! the Israelite remnant at Jerusalem were celebrating the Festival of Booths in remembrance of that experience of their forefathers. Their forefathers had encountered enemies along the way; but Jehovah had delivered his people and had kept his covenant and brought them into the Promised Land. The same God of deliverances was with the Israelite remnant at the Festival of Booths there in Jerusalem. They should not be afraid.

GRANDER GLORY FORESEEN

10, 11. (a) Why should those temple builders not be discouraged at the comparative look of things? (b) To build up their expectations, what did Jehovah now say through Haggai?

¹⁰ The Israelite remnant were not to be discouraged because what they were now starting with was like nothing in comparison with the magnificent world-famous temple of Solomon. They might have expected nothing outstanding or deserving of notice to result from their efforts at temple building. But Jehovah saw something simply surpassing for the product of their labors of faith. So, in order to spur them on, to cheer them on with the highest of expectations, Jehovah now explained why they should not be afraid but be strong in faith and should work, by saying through the prophet Haggai:

¹¹ “For this is what Jehovah of armies has said, ‘Yet once​—it is a little while—​and I am rocking the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry ground.’ ‘And I will rock all the nations, and the desirable things of all the nations must come in; and I will fill this house with glory,’ Jehovah of armies has said.”​—Haggai 2:6, 7.

12. Despite the universal rocking, what would remain, and who was it indicated would turn to Jehovah?

¹² Was that not a thrilling prospect for that Israelite remnant to entertain with respect to the house of worship that they were about to build? Jehovah of armies himself was setting that prospect before them, and it was therefore certain to be realized. There was to be a universal shaking. He would cause it. Things high and low with respect to their earth would be rocked​—out of their place, if not also to their destruction! But, through all this rocking, one thing was bound to remain standing​—that house that the Israelite remnant had built! That meant that the pure worship of Jehovah was to endure, even as His house endured. His house of worship He would fill with glory, for the desirable things of all the nations would come into it. Those desirable things would be borne there by all those who had turned to worshiping Him from among all the nations. That house of divine worship would become the most important and famous house on earth. Not alone would natural Israelites worship Jehovah there, but also non-Jewish peoples from all the nations!

13. What were the workers thus assured this time about their temple building, and so what was there incentive for them to do?

¹³ This assured that Israelite remnant that this time they would complete the building of the temple of Jehovah at Jerusalem. No matter what world-shaking events might take place around them, this goal would be gloriously attained. Let all the rest of the world be disturbed, frightened and preoccupied by the shaking and rocking that unsettled them, the work of building the house of worship to Jehovah must go forward​—to glorious completion! And then would come the jubilant inauguration of it! (Deuteronomy 20:5) Jehovah of armies has given his word for it, and so it must come to pass! So, then, to the work, with His strength! There is every incentive to work!

14, 15. The expression “yet once” is in relation with what​—where and when?

¹⁴ When, though, is this to be? Jehovah of armies said: “Yet once​—it is a little while—​and I am rocking the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry ground.” (Haggai 2:6) “Yet once”​—in relation to what previous? When, previous to this, did he do a rocking of things? This must have been down south at Mount Sinai in the third lunar month (Sivan) in the year of the exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt, the year 1513 B.C.E. On the first day of that month (Sivan) they encamped in front of Mount Sinai, the mountain at which Jehovah by means of his angel had appeared to the prophet Moses by miraculous manifestation of the burning bush that did not get consumed. On the third day of their encampment there, what happened? Let us read the account in Exodus 19:16-19:

¹⁵ “And on the third day when it became morning it came about that thunders and lightnings began occurring, and a heavy cloud upon the mountain and a very loud sound of a horn, so that all the people who were in the camp began to tremble. Moses now brought the people out of the camp to meet the true God, and they went taking their stand at the base of the mountain. And Mount Sinai smoked all over, due to the fact that Jehovah came down upon it in fire; and its smoke kept ascending like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain was trembling very much. When the sound of the horn became continually louder and louder, Moses began to speak, and the true God began to answer him with a voice.”

16, 17. (a) What warning was then issued, after which there were given what? (b) What request did the Israelites now make about hearing God speak directly to them?

¹⁶ Then, after issuing instructions for the Israelites to take care and keep a respectful distance from the mountain so as not to touch it, Jehovah, by means of his angel, pronounced the Ten Commandments from the top of Mount Sinai. (Exodus 19:20 to 20:17) After that divine expression, did the Israelite people care to hear the voice of Jehovah directly anymore? Moses tells us, saying:

¹⁷ “Now all the people were seeing the thunders and the lightning flashes and the sound of the horn and the mountain smoking. When the people got to see it, then they quivered and stood at a distance. And they began to say to Moses: ‘You speak with us, and let us listen; but let not God speak with us for fear we may die.’ So Moses said to the people: ‘Do not be afraid, because for the sake of putting you to the test the true God has come, and in order that the fear of him may continue before your faces that you may not sin.’ And the people kept standing at a distance, but Moses went near to the dark cloud mass where the true God was.”​—Exodus 20:18-21.

18. (a) When did Moses later refer to these experiences at Mount Sinai, and what did David say about it in Psalm 68? (b) What relation did that shaking have with the building and inaugurating of the sacred tabernacle?

¹⁸ In farewell talks almost forty years later to the younger generation of Israelites, the prophet Moses referred back to these experiences at Mount Sinai. (Deuteronomy 4:9-14; 18:15-19) Even the psalmist David was inspired to tell about it in a melodious song, saying: “O God, when you went forth before your people, when you marched through the desert—. . . the earth itself rocked, heaven itself also dripped because of God; this Sinai rocked because of God, the God of Israel.” (Psalm 68:7, 8, NW; RS; JP) This shaking of an entire mountain was something not soon forgotten. Interestingly, also, this making of Mount Sinai rock took place nine months before the Israelites finished making the sacred tent of meeting, the tabernacle. After this the inaugurating of this holy tabernacle occurred on the first day of the first lunar month (Nisan) of the following year, 1512 B.C.E. Thus the shaking and rocking preceded the start of the worship of Jehovah at this tabernacle erected in the wilderness of Sinai.​—Exodus 39:42 to 40:37.

19. According to Haggai 2:6, Jehovah was to do another rocking, but this time of what?

¹⁹ According to his declaration in Haggai 2:6, Jehovah purposed to do another shaking or rocking of the earth, this to be accompanied by a rocking also of the heavens and the sea and the dry ground. When? “Yet once​—it is a little while,” said He.

20. As regards the literal rebuilt temple at Jerusalem, during what period of time would that rocking have to occur as a primary fulfillment of Haggai 2:6-9?

²⁰ It was on Tishri 21 of the year 520 B.C.E. that he said this. The rebuilding of the temple was not finished until the third day of the twelfth lunar month (Adar 3) of the sixth year (515 B.C.E.) of the reign of the Persian Darius I. That was more than four years four lunar months later than Jehovah’s prophecy of Haggai 2:6-9. After that would come the inauguration of the rebuilt temple. Following that, Jehovah would fulfill his word and fill that sacred house with glory. (Ezra 4:24; 6:14, 15) Hence the shaking and rocking of things to fulfill his prophecy in connection with that literal rebuilt temple at Jerusalem would have to occur during that period of time (520-515 B.C.E.), as a primary fulfillment of the prophecy. The records of history would have to show how the prophecy was fulfilled in the international affairs of that particular time. It was indeed a time of considerable disturbance for the Persian Empire.

21. Why should we today be interested in a larger fulfillment of the prophecy of Haggai 2:6-9?

²¹ However, we must remember that the rebuilt temple at Jerusalem was typical. It was a small-scale representation of Jehovah’s greater temple, his spiritual temple where his dedicated people worship him today. So the larger and final fulfillment of Haggai 2:6-9 is the fulfillment in which we today should be interested.

THE CERTAINTY OF A MODERN FULFILLMENT

22. Since what year have modern nations been unsteady, and what question arises?

²² All informed persons will readily agree that, ever since the fourteenth year of our twentieth century, something out of the ordinary has been happening to the nations. World War I, which began in 1914 C.E., unloosed a chain of events that have sent all the nations reeling today. All their efforts to steady themselves, even with the aid of the United Nations organization for world peace and security, continue to fail. What is the meaning of it all? How will it at last turn out? Political forecasters of events and world historians have no reliable answer. But is there no answer?

23. The answer is contained in what message out of the sixth century B.C.E.?

²³ The answer is contained in the words that come ringing out to us from Jerusalem of the sixth century before our Common Era: “This is what Jehovah of armies has said, ‘Yet once​—it is a little while—​and I am rocking the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry ground.’ ‘And I will rock all the nations, and the desirable things of all the nations must come in; and I will fill this house with glory,’ Jehovah of armies has said.”​—Haggai 2:6, 7.

24. What questions arise as to the application of those prophetic words?

²⁴ How, though, do we know that those thrilling words transmitted to us by Jehovah’s prophet Haggai do not just apply back there in that prophet’s time or a “little while” after? How can we be sure that those same words have a modern application in our own day?

25. (a) The answer is indicated for us in what quotation made later to people of the same race? (b) Why did those people need to be careful because of an impending catastrophe?

²⁵ We know, because, a long while after Haggai’s prophecy, in fact, about 580 years after, those prophetic words were quoted under divine inspiration and were given a future application, to the end of this international system of things. As with Haggai’s prophetic words, this quotation of his words was made to Hebrews, to the descendants of the patriarch Abraham the Hebrew, only these latter Hebrews had become Christians in the first century of our Common Era. (Genesis 14:13; Hebrews 1:1, 2; 2:16) The quotation from Haggai’s prophecy was made to them about ten years before the destruction of Jerusalem and its rebuilt temple by the Romans in the year 70 C.E. Consequently a great change was impending, and the Christianized Hebrews had to be careful now that they did not suffer harm and loss along with those unbelieving Hebrews who still clung to the earthly Jerusalem and its material temple.

26. For those Christianized Hebrews to avoid loss, what did the writer say to them, with a reference to Esau?

²⁶ Telling the Christianized Hebrews how to avoid irreparable loss by pursuing the right course with proper appreciation of spiritual values, the inspired writer said to them: “Pursue peace with all people, and the sanctification without which no man will see the Lord, carefully watching that no one may be deprived of the undeserved kindness of God; that no poisonous root may spring up and cause trouble and that many may not be defiled by it; that there may be no fornicator nor anyone not appreciating sacred things, like Esau, who in exchange for one meal gave away his rights as firstborn. For you know that afterward also when he wanted to inherit the blessing he was rejected, for, although he earnestly sought a change of mind [in his father Isaac] with tears, he found no place for it [in Isaac].”​—Hebrews 12:14-17.

27. (a) Why was the condition of these Christianized Hebrews more serious than that of their forefathers at Mount Sinai? (b) How could they avoid being like Esau?

²⁷ For those Christianized Hebrews things had changed tremendously since they became followers of the Messiah, Jesus the descendant of King David and of the patriarch Abraham. Those Hebrews faced a bigger and more serious set of circumstances than did their forefathers, when these were led to the mountain of Sinai by the prophet Moses in 1513 B.C.E. Bigger things were at stake and could be permanently lost, with destruction finally for the losers. As the patriarch Isaac the son of Abraham refused to repent in spite of the tears of his materialistic son Esau, so Jehovah God would not repent if these Christianized Hebrews lost their appreciation of His undeserved kindness to them through the Lord Jesus Christ. Instead of being like Esau, who placed a cheap value on the spiritual opportunities that were open to him as a grandson of Abraham, they should avoid profaneness by showing full appreciation for sacred things and holding fast to these. That is why the inspired writer went on to say to these Christianized Hebrews who had now been brought into a new covenant through Jesus Christ:

28. According to the writer, what had those Christianized Hebrews not approached?

²⁸ “For [that is to say, In view of what I have just said in the preceding sentences] you have not approached that which can be felt [like Mount Sinai] and which has been set aflame with fire, and a dark cloud and thick darkness and a tempest, and the blare of a trumpet and the voice of words; on hearing which voice the people implored that no word should be added to them. For the command was not bearable to them: ‘And if a beast touches the mountain, it must be stoned.’ Also, the display was so fearsome that Moses [the mediator] said: ‘I am fearful and trembling.’

29. But what had those Christianized Hebrews approached and what set of circumstances?

²⁹ “But you have approached a Mount Zion and a city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem, and myriads of angels [not just those angels back there at Mount Sinai], in general assembly, and the congregation of the firstborn [Christian firstborn sons of God who are greater than Isaac’s firstborn son Esau] who have been enrolled in the heavens [not on Isaac’s earthly family record], and God the Judge of all [not God’s representative angel as at Mount Sinai], and the spiritual lives of righteous ones who have been made perfect [not condemned sinners like the Hebrews at Mount Sinai], and Jesus the mediator of a new covenant [better than the Law covenant mediated by Moses], and the blood of sprinkling, which speaks in a better way than Abel’s blood [it being the blood of Jesus Christ].”​—Hebrews 12:18-24; Galatians 3:19; Acts 7:37, 38.

30. So, now, what can we appreciate more about the position of those Christianized Hebrews?

³⁰ When we consider all those bigger things to which the Christianized Hebrews had approached, we can appreciate that they were in a situation more serious than that of their Hebrew forefathers in front of Mount Sinai of Arabia in the year 1513 B.C.E. They had more to lose. Eternal destruction was possible for them by becoming like Isaac’s firstborn son Esau and losing their appreciation of the sacred things connected with the spiritual firstborn sons of God who are enrolled in the heavens.

31. The same thing holds true for whom today, and so what should these be eager to do?

³¹ The same thing holds true for people of today who claim to be Christians, regardless of whether they are converted Jews or converted Gentiles. We should recognize who it is that is speaking to us​—God—​through his inspired Word, the sacred Bible. We should be eager therefore to listen to the additional things that he has said to us through the Mediator Jesus Christ and his disciples who were inspired to write sacred scripture. We should not fail to appreciate fully these most highly important things. We should not excuse ourselves from listening and paying attention to them. Hence the inspired writer to the Christian Hebrews goes on to say:

32. Hence, what did the writer go on to say about begging off?

³² “See that you do not beg off [excuse yourselves] from him who is speaking. For if they did not escape who begged off from him who was giving divine warning upon earth, much more shall we not if we turn away from him who speaks from the heavens. At that time his voice shook the earth [but did not shake Mount Sinai to pieces], but now he has promised, saying: ‘Yet once more I will set in commotion not only the earth but also the heaven.’”

33. Where did God make such a promise, and why did the writer now quote it as fitting?

³³ Where did Jehovah God make such a promise? Why, in the prophecy of Haggai, chapter two, verse six, given in ancient Jerusalem, in these words: “For this is what Jehovah of armies has said, ‘Yet once​—it is a little while—​and I am rocking the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry ground.’” But that divine promise was not completely fulfilled in “a little while” after the prophet Haggai uttered them. That is why the writer to the Christianized Hebrews makes this further inspired comment on that divine promise about shaking the heavens as well as the earth:

34. What comment does the writer make on his quotation of Haggai 2:6?

³⁴ “Now the expression ‘Yet once more’ signifies the removal of the things being shaken as things that have been made, in order that the things not being shaken may remain. Wherefore, seeing that we are to receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us [unlike Esau] continue to have undeserved kindness, through which we may acceptably render God sacred service with godly fear and awe. For our God is also a consuming fire [as destructive as the fire with which Mount Sinai was set aflame].”​—Hebrews 12:25-29.

35. To what time does the writer apply the expression “Yet once more,” and so what must be close as regards the shakable, made things?

³⁵ Have we noticed? The writer to the Christianized Hebrews applies the divine expression “Yet once more” to the future and explains that the only unshakable thing is the kingdom that the Christians who render sacred service to God in an acceptable manner will receive. Also, that the removal of all the made things that are shaken will leave room for that kingdom, a government that will remain standing and in operation. The shakable made things have not yet been removed, although they may be already set in commotion and be rocking and shaking. Evidently, then, according to the interpretation placed on things by the inspired sacred Scriptures, the prophecy of Haggai 2:6, 7 has a modern, twentieth-century application and the fulfillment of the prophecy to the point of completion is yet ahead of us, but very close!

HOW?

36. What question now arises regarding a modern, twentieth-century fulfillment of Haggai 2:6, 7?

³⁶ The literal heavens, earth, sea and dry ground will not be removed and perish. Certainly this was not the case in any small-scale first fulfillment of the prophecy in or a little while after Haggai’s day. So, how is it that the divine promise is carried out in modern, twentieth-century fulfillment? “For this is what Jehovah of armies has said, ‘Yet once​—it is a little while—​and I am rocking the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry ground.’ ‘And I will rock all the nations, and the desirable things of all the nations must come in; and I will fill this house with glory,’ Jehovah of armies has said.”​—Haggai 2:6, 7.

37. To what is the rocking of all the things mentioned to lead up, and what must happen to the things that oppose and hinder this?

³⁷ Who is there that cannot see that the rocking and shaking of all the things mentioned is to lead up to the glorification of the Temple of Jehovah God? That means the beautification and exaltation of the pure worship of the one living and true God, not at a literal house of worship on earth, but at his true Temple, namely, the realm of the worship of Him with spirit and with truth, within the framework of his special arrangement. (John 4:21-24) Jehovah must be given his rightful place of worship in all the living universe. All things that have opposed and hindered this right and pure worship must be removed from all existence. According to the inspired writer in Hebrews 12:26, 27, the rocking and shaking of all those things signifies the removing of them, their being shaken to pieces.

38. As regards the rocking or shaking, what about the things to which the anointed Christians have approached (Hebrews 12:22, 23)?

³⁸ The “city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem,” will not be shaken and removed. Neither will its heavenly location, “Mount Zion.” Nor will the holy “myriads of angels, in general assembly,” nor the “congregation of the firstborn who have been enrolled in the heavens,” nor the “spiritual lives of righteous ones who have been made perfect.” (Hebrews 12:22, 23) These things to which the dedicated, baptized, anointed Christians have approached are not things perishable. These are not associated with or dependent on a typical, material temple here on earth, like the temples built in the earthly Jerusalem by King Solomon and Governor Zerubbabel and High Priest Joshua the son of Jehozadak. These imperishable things have to do with Jehovah’s greater temple, his spiritual temple, which is the only temple that can contain him in its Holy of Holies (heaven itself). (1 Kings 8:27; Isaiah 66:1; Acts 7:48-50; 17:24, 25; Hebrews 9:23, 24) Also, those imperishable, irremovable things have to do with Jehovah’s “kingdom that cannot be shaken.”​—Hebrews 12:28.

39. So, are the “heavens” that are rocked literal or symbolic, and why?

³⁹ What, then, are the “heavens” that are to be rocked and shaken and removed? Jehovah, the great Rocker and Shaker and Remover, makes the answer plain to us. In that marvelous book of “signs,” the Revelation, which He gave to the Hebrew-Christian apostle John, He gives us a symbolic picture of the removing of those heavens. In Revelation 20:11 he inspired the apostle John to write: “And I saw a great white throne and the one seated on it. From before him the earth and the heaven fled away, and no place was found for them.” That fugitive heaven was replaced, for, in Revelation 21:1, 2, John goes on to say: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea is no more. I saw also the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God and prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” Just as here the “holy city, New Jerusalem,” is a sign picturing “the bride, the Lamb’s wife” (Revelation 21:9), so the “former heavens,” the “heavens” that fled away from before God on his great white throne, are a “sign” or symbol.

40, 41. What does Revelation 12:3-5, 7-12 say to give us a clue as to what “the heavens” signify?

⁴⁰ A “sign” of what? Evidently of some invisible, spiritual heavenly organization that dominated over mankind. Revelation chapter twelve gives us the clue to this. It tells us: “And another sign was seen in heaven, and, look! a great fiery-colored dragon, with seven heads and ten horns and upon its heads seven diadems; and its tail drags a third of the stars of heaven, and it hurled them down to the earth. . . . And war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels battled with the dragon, and the dragon and its angels battled but it did not prevail, neither was a place found for them any longer in heaven. So down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth; he was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven say:

⁴¹ “‘Now have come to pass the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ, because the accuser of our brothers has been hurled down, who accuses them day and night before our God! And they conquered him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their witnessing, and they did not love their souls even in the face of death. On this account be glad, you heavens and you who reside in them! Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing he has a short period of time.’”​—Revelation 12:3-5, 7-12.

42. From this account the “heavens” are seen to be pictorial of what?

⁴² From this account in sign language it can clearly be seen that the symbolic “heavens” picture the invisible spirit organization of Satan the Devil and the demon angels under him. With these wicked demon angels Satan the Devil has misled the “entire inhabited earth.” Jesus Christ called him the “ruler” of the world of mankind. (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11) The Christian apostle Paul identifies him as “the god of this system of things” who blinds the minds of the unbelievers. Paul also speaks of him as “the ruler of the authority of the air, the spirit that now operates in the sons of disobedience.” (2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2) The apostle John calls attention to Satan’s influence on the world of mankind by saying: “We [Christians] know we originate with God, but the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.” (1 John 5:19) Satan and his demon angels are the ones whom Ephesians 6:12 speaks of as “the wicked spirit forces in the heavenly places.” They are the unseen heavens now dominating evil mankind.

43. What can be said as to whether those “heavens” have already begun to be shaken?

⁴³ Thanks be to Almighty God that they are not a permanent “heavens” over the human race. Shortly now, after the coming “great tribulation” upon all mankind, those “heavens” must flee from before the face of Jehovah God seated upon his “great white throne.” (Revelation 20:11) So they are removable “heavens.” They are heavens that can be shaken to their complete destruction. The shaking of them has already begun. At what time? After God’s Messianic kingdom was born in the heavens when the “times of the Gentiles” or “appointed times of the nations” ended in early fall of the year 1914 C.E. Then the enthroned Jesus Christ, acting as the heavenly Michael, the “great prince” who stands in behalf of God’s people, began waging war upon Satan the Devil and his demon organization. As a consequence those wicked spirit forces were shaken out of their heavenly position and were made to fall to the vicinity of our earth.

44. What has that shaking of the “heavens” from contacts above resulted in, and when will the shaking be brought to a finish?

⁴⁴ Their chagrin at being shaken loose from former heavenly contacts has resulted in increased “woe” for mankind and also persecution upon Jehovah’s dedicated, baptized people, the spiritual Israelites, here on earth. (Revelation 12:5-13, 17; Daniel 12:1) But with this debasement the shaking of them is not all over. The final shaking to a finish must come after the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Har–Magedon and must cause their fall into the prisonlike abyss, where they will be restrained for the thousand years of Christ’s uninterrupted reign over redeemed mankind. Thus those wicked “heavens” now will disappear and will give way to the “new heavens” in which righteousness will dwell forever.​—2 Peter 3:7-13; Revelation 20:1-3.

45. That initial shaking of those “heavens” has affected affairs where, and what must be said as regards a shaking and removal of our literal earth?

⁴⁵ This abasing and restraining of the demonic heavens to the neighborhood of the earth for a “short period of time” till their drop into the “abyss” takes place tremendously affected the affairs of mankind on the earth, since 1914 C.E. But how is it that Jehovah God fulfills his promise to rock, shake and set in commotion the “earth” as well as the “heavens”? (Haggai 2:6; Hebrews 12:26) Well, just as the “heavens” to be shaken are not the literal visible heavens over mankind, so the “earth” that is set in contrast to those heavens is not the literal earth under man’s feet. Concerning the literal earth and its permanence, Psalm 104:5 speaks of God’s creation and says: “He has founded the earth upon its established places; it will not be made to totter to time indefinite, or forever.” In harmony with this, our literal earthly globe will not be made to rock and shake with a view to its removal.

46. What, then, is the “earth” that is shaken and removed, and when did it come into existence?

⁴⁶ Logically, then, it is the symbolic “earth” that Jehovah has promised to rock and set in commotion with a view to its removal. Just as the associated “heavens” are made up of intelligent living creatures (the spirit demons under Satan the Devil), so the symbolic “earth” is made up of intelligent living creatures, namely, human society that is lying in the power of the wicked one, Satan the Devil. This ungodly human society came into existence sometime after the flood of Noah’s day and now includes practically all the world of mankind. (Revelation 12:9; 1 John 5:19) This symbolic “earth” and the associated “heavens” over it make up the “heavens and the earth that are now” and that, by the word of God, “are stored up for fire and are being reserved to the day of judgment and of destruction of the ungodly men,” as 2 Peter 3:7 tells us. Before the Sovereign Lord Jehovah destroys this symbolic “earth” as by consuming fire, how is it that he makes it rock, shakes it, puts it into commotion?

MAKING THE “EARTH” TO ROCK

47. How did God begin to do the shaking of the symbolic “earth”?

⁴⁷ This He begins to do by exerting his claim to sovereignty over the dwelling place of human society, namely, the literal earth. This He does in a way that he never did before. Selfish, self-centered human society claims to own the earth and to have the right to do with the earth and its seas just what it cares to do. This leaves earth’s Creator out of consideration and is wrong as well as shortsighted. The Sovereign Lord Jehovah let this view and its application prevail uninterruptedly and unchallenged until the close of the Gentile Times or “appointed times of the nations” in 1914 C.E. Then he put life into his own rightful claim by bringing to birth in the heavens his Messianic kingdom. This invisible heavenly government, pictured in Revelation 12:5 as a “child,” the “son” of God’s “woman,” is appointed to “shepherd all the nations with an iron rod.” Jehovah’s assertion of his universal sovereignty in this way shook the symbolic “earth,” ungodly human society, loose from its long quiescent state of being settled down, its being permitted by Jehovah God to treat the literal earth as its own, and misusing it as if they were responsible to nobody.

48. How would the symbolic unspiritual “earth” be jarred by the invisible heavenly action by the Universal Sovereign Jehovah?

⁴⁸ How, though, would earthly human society be rocked or shaken by this invisible heavenly action of the Universal Sovereign if human society was unaware of it? How would unspiritual human society feel it, feel jarred by it? This would be by his having them notified that the Gentile Times, “the appointed times of the nations,” had ended in 1914, the year in which World War I began. Their long world domination had now ended, for now it could be said to the Sovereign Lord Jehovah: “We thank you, Jehovah God, the Almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have taken you great power and begun ruling as king. But the nations became wrathful, and your own wrath came.” (Revelation 11:17, 18) The notifying of the earthly human society concerning this universal change in the status quo was done by the ambassadors on earth of that now reigning Sovereign, Jehovah God the Almighty.

49. Who are those “ambassadors” that serve the notification, and why is their mission now more urgent than ever?

⁴⁹ Who are these “ambassadors”? These are the dedicated, baptized, spirit-anointed Christians who are described by the apostle Paul’s words in his second letter to the 2 Corinthians, chapter five, verses nineteen and twenty: “God was by means of Christ reconciling a world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses, and he committed the word of the reconciliation to us. We are therefore ambassadors substituting for Christ, as though God were making entreaty through us. As substitutes for Christ we beg: ‘Become reconciled to God.’” Now that Jehovah God the Almighty had taken to himself his great power and begun to reign by means of his newborn Messianic kingdom in the heavens, it was more urgent than ever for earthly human society to become reconciled to God. The complete removal of the entire worldwide system of things was now impending, and its “time of the end” had begun. (Daniel 12:4) The question is, Who will escape destruction with it?

50. How did the symbolic “earth” react to the notification served upon it by the Kingdom ambassadors?

⁵⁰ How did the symbolic “earth,” the war-afflicted human society, react to the notification served upon it by the “ambassadors” of God’s established kingdom in the hands of His Christ? Did the earth quiet down, in peaceful reaction to the invitation to become reconciled to Jehovah’s newborn kingdom by Christ? The history of those years of World War I answers No! The war-torn “earth” was rocked, shaken, set in commotion by such notification. As Revelation 11:18 foretold: “The nations became wrathful,” that is, against the Kingdom ambassadors. They tried to use the earth-wide wartime conditions to suppress these Kingdom ambassadors. They even resorted to violent persecution, in some cases even to the death of ambassadors. This was the experience of the dedicated, baptized, anointed Christians then known as International Bible Students, but today known as Jehovah’s Christian witnesses.

51. (a) What may be said further about this serving of notice by the Kingdom ambassadors and the effects thereof? (b) How has the cause of this been just as stated in Hebrews 12:26?

⁵¹ On the pages of history stands written the shameful record that the symbolic “earth” made for itself as it rocked, shook, became filled with violent commotion in hostility to Jehovah’s Kingdom ambassadors. The notification served by the faithful ambassadors of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has continued to this day, on an ever-widening scale, and the symbolic “earth” is still being rocked, shaken, set in commotion by the notification and its challenging significance. As a proof that this notification tells the truth we see fulfilled the things that Jesus Christ said would mark this “time of the end”: “There will be great earthquakes, and in one place after another pestilences and food shortages; and there will be fearful sights and from heaven great signs.” (Luke 21:11) But in a symbolic way it has been just as Hebrews 12:26 says concerning Jehovah’s presence at Mount Sinai when giving the Ten Commandments: “At that time his voice shook the earth.” In these days the delivery of the message from his written Word by means of his Kingdom ambassadors has shaken the symbolic “earth.”

52. What is pictured by the “sea” and by the “dry ground” that are also to be rocked?

⁵² All elements of human society on earth have been made to rock and shake. It is just as the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “Yet once​—it is a little while—​and I am rocking the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry ground.” (Haggai 2:6) On the upper crust of our earthly globe there appear the sea and the dry ground; the sea being constantly in motion and the dry ground being quite stable, except for a local earthquake. The prophecy of Haggai 2:6 having a symbolic meaning, as in the case of the “heavens and the earth,” the symbolic “sea” would be that part of human society that is unsettled, restless, tossing up, as it were, “seaweed and mire,” unpeaceable, desirous of radical changes, continually beating against the “dry ground.” (Isaiah 57:20) In contrast, the symbolic “dry ground” would be that part of human society that is settled, stable, conservative, trying to keep the status quo, opposed to radical changes.

53. How is it shown whether these two elements of human society have been rocked?

⁵³ Nevertheless, both of these elements of human society desire rule of the earthly globe by men rather than by God, the Sovereign Lord Jehovah. Hence they also have been rocked by the serving of notice upon them by the spiritual ambassadors, announcing that the “appointed times of the nations” have expired and that Jehovah’s kingdom by Christ now reigns in the heavens and that the time fast approaches for the utter removal of this whole earthly system of things in a great tribulation such as mankind has never experienced before. (Matthew 24:3-22; Mark 13:4-20) Showing that they are being rocked by the message from God’s Word, both elements of human society, the conservative and the radical, have become “wrathful” against the proclaimers of the divine message, the Kingdom ambassadors.

Chapter 5

“The Desirable Things of All the Nations Must Come In”

1. What does Haggai 2:7 go on to say about what follows the rocking of the nations, and so what should we not want to do as respects Jehovah’s worship?

IT IS apparent that the outworking of the prophecy of Haggai 2:6 has been going on since Jehovah God the Almighty took over his universal sovereignty in that war-marked year of 1914 C.E. But the prophecy goes on to tell us what will result from the rocking of all the nations, besides the total removal of the man-made system of things on earth. In Haggai 2:7 the Sovereign Lord Jehovah continues on to say: “‘And I will rock all the nations, and the desirable things of all the nations must come in; and I will fill this house with glory,’ Jehovah of armies has said.” In view of this divine promise, showing that Jehovah of armies is pleased to glorify his temple or house of pure worship, who are we that we should despise and downgrade the true worship of Him in these troublous days?

2. How, since 1914 C.E., has Jehovah rocked the nations, and why must there be a final reaction on their part?

² In faithfully carrying out this prophecy, Jehovah of armies has rocked all the nations. Since 1914 C.E. he has sent his Kingdom ambassadors to notify all the nations of the critical change that has taken place in the universal status quo. The outcome has been just as Jesus Christ predicted in his prophecy on the “conclusion of the system of things”: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:3-14) All the nations are obliged to confess that they have become wrathful against the Kingdom ambassadors. The historic record testifies against the nations. But the being wrathful on the part of the nations is not yet over. In the decisive showdown that is yet ahead, the Kingdom ambassadors will continue to stick to Jehovah’s universal sovereignty and to live up to their God-given message. Therefore, as foretold in God’s prophetic Word, the wrath of all the nations is due to burst forth in a final expression.

3. To what extent will Jehovah rock the nations, and hence what about any religious tolerance by them at present?

³ The hostility of the political nations of earth will be shown to its fullest, and accordingly Jehovah of armies will rock all those nations until they crumble in ruin and are removed forever. Hence any religious tolerance of the nations toward the Kingdom ambassadors at the present is merely temporary. Let no one be deceived by it.

4. Have the nations, as whole political establishments, fulfilled the prophecy of Haggai 2:7, and what proves whether?

⁴ Before the final outburst of wrath on the part of all the nations and then their violent removal, what are we to expect, according to the prophecy of Haggai 2:7? This: “‘The desirable things of all the nations must come in; and I will fill this house with glory,’ Jehovah of armies has said.” Well, then, what do the historic facts show regarding the fulfillment of this prophecy up until now? They do not show that all the political nations as whole nations, as political establishments, have come into Jehovah’s true temple of worship and have brought with them as voluntary gifts the desirable things of their nations. After all that has happened since 1914 C.E., the nations still do not renounce their own earthly sovereignty and come out in favor of Jehovah’s universal sovereignty. After the end of World War II in 1945 they set up the United Nations as the international organization for world peace and security. To this they tenaciously hold, in desperation, down till this day. That international organization stands in outright opposition to Jehovah’s sovereignty.

5. How have individual citizens within the rocking nations reacted, and with whom have they associated themselves?

⁵ Yet, what about individual citizens in all the nations that have been going through a strong rocking during which they have been trying to hold themselves together? Well, down till now there have been tens of thousands of individuals who have reacted to the Kingdom preaching in a way different from that of their political governments and that of religious organizations mixed up in politics. They have come to see that there is no happy, peaceful, prosperous future for themselves under such man-made political governments. They have come to see that the only hope of being saved from destruction with the political nations of this system of things is the Messianic kingdom of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah. They keenly feel that Satan the Devil is the “god of this system of things” and they do not want to worship that false god by worshiping the political nations. They recognize that all sovereignty rightfully belongs to the Most High God. Hence they have dedicated themselves wholly to the Sovereign Lord Jehovah to worship him at his true house of worship. They have associated themselves with His ambassadors.

6. In beholding such modern-day advocates of Jehovah’s sovereignty and worship, what prophecy of Isaiah are we seeing fulfilled?

⁶ In beholding such modern-day advocates of Jehovah’s universal sovereignty and worship we are beholding a thrilling fulfillment of that often-quoted prophecy of Isaiah 2:2-4: “It must occur in the final part of the days that the mountain of the house of Jehovah will become firmly established above the top of the mountains, and it will certainly be lifted up above the hills; and to it all the nations must stream. And many peoples will certainly go and say: ‘Come, you people, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will instruct us about his ways, and we will walk in his paths.’ For out of Zion law will go forth, and the word of Jehovah out of Jerusalem. And he will certainly render judgment among the nations and set matters straight respecting many peoples. And they will have to beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning shears. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn war anymore.”

7. When did this begin to occur, and by what kind of people?

⁷ Not in the forepart, but in the “final part of the days” of this “time of the end” this international throng has begun to stream to the most highly exalted worship of Jehovah, “the God of Jacob [or, Israel].” Coming as they do from “all the nations,” they are not spiritual Israelites, as the Kingdom ambassadors are.

8, 9. The fulfillment of the prophecy observedly began in what year, and after what events?

⁸ When did these individuals out of “all the nations” begin to stream up the symbolic “mountain of Jehovah” to worship unitedly at the “house of the God of Jacob”? It was observable after the publication of the two-part article entitled “Great Multitude” in the issues of the Watchtower magazine under date of August 1 and 15, 1935, four years before the outbreak of World War II. The material set out in this article was earlier presented to a general assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses at Washington, D.C., U.S.A., Friday afternoon, May 31, 1935. The speech and the printed article were in explanation of the “great multitude” that was foreseen and foretold in Revelation 7:9, 10, in the following words:

⁹ “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.”​—Authorized Version Bible of 1611 C.E.

10. Of whom is this unnumbered “great multitude” made up?

¹⁰ This unnumbered “great multitude” was distinguished from the spiritual Israelites who were pictured in the preceding five verses (Revelation 7:4-8) and who were to be sealed with the seal of the living God. This international “great multitude” is made up of recent disciples of Christ who are not sealed with God’s seal for association with Jesus Christ as kings and priests in God’s spiritual temple. (Revelation 20:4-6) They are dedicated, baptized disciples of Christ who are not thus sealed but who follow Jesus Christ as the Fine Shepherd. By him they are led to an earthly destiny, to eternal life in a paradise earth under the heavenly kingdom of Jesus Christ and his 144,000 sealed disciples. These unsealed disciples belong to the “other sheep” whom Jesus Christ mentioned in John 10:16, saying: “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; those also I must bring, and they will listen to my voice, and they will become one flock, one shepherd.” Every year since 1935 these “other sheep” being gathered in have increased in number to form a “great multitude” indeed.

THE “DESIRABLE THINGS” PRESERVED

11, 12. (a) What must be said as to whether they are things to be desired at Jehovah’s temple of worship? (b) What shows whether they are among the things to be rocked to ruin?

¹¹ Are such dedicated, baptized “other sheep” desirable at the house devoted to pure worship of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah? Most truly, Yes! These are really “the desirable things of all the nations” who, as Jehovah of armies foretold, would come in for worship at his temple. It is not material gifts and financial contributions that Jehovah desires from all the nations. Rather, it is beautiful living worshipers like this numberless “great crowd” from all nations, tribes, peoples and languages. (John 4:23, 24) These are not things that will be rocked and shaken to pieces, destroyed, in the coming “great tribulation” upon the worldwide system of things. Such sheeplike believers in the Lamb Jesus Christ are to be preserved through that destructive tribulation. This is emphasized in the following question and answer:

¹² “And in response one of the elders said to me: ‘These who are dressed in the white robes, who are they and where did they come from?’ So right away I [John the apostle] said to him: ‘My lord, you are the one that knows.’ And he said to me: ‘These are the ones that come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’”​—Revelation 7:13, 14.

13, 14. (a) How, then, is the further part of Haggai 2:7 fulfilled, “And I will fill this house with glory”? (b) How was this foretold in Revelation 7:15?

¹³ It is by the incoming of these “other sheep” who come out of all the nations that Jehovah of armies fulfills the further part of his promise, saying: “And I will fill this house with glory.” (Haggai 2:7) An empty temple, barren of worshipers, would be no glory to Jehovah of armies. But to have his place of worship thronged with worshipers in washed white robes and waving palm branches and crying out: “Salvation we owe to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb,” this would fill Jehovah’s house with glory more than all kinds of material decorations. That His house of worship is thus filled with glory was foretold in the further part of the answer to John’s question:

¹⁴ “That is why they are before the throne of God; and they are rendering him sacred service day and night in his temple; and the One seated on the throne will spread his tent over them.”​—Revelation 7:15.

15. (a) Where is it, as it were, that this increasing “great crowd” are serving God day and night? (b) Who are they, on earth, who stand in awe at how Jehovah thus fills his temple with glory?

¹⁵ Hundreds of thousands of this “great crowd” of “other sheep” are already at the spiritual temple of Jehovah God, who is now enthroned in his universal sovereignty. Day and night they are rendering sacred service to him there by everywhere proclaiming his Messianic kingdom and salvation for all mankind through the blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. Not being the sealed spiritual Israelites, they are, as it were, in the Court of the Gentiles such as was a part of the temple at Jerusalem in the days of Jesus Christ and his apostles. It is at this great spiritual temple also that a remnant of the spiritual Israelites are today serving as underpriests under the High Priest Jesus Christ. Because of this, the remnant of spiritual Israelites who serve as spiritual underpriests are now having loving association with this increasing “great crowd” of “other sheep” who sincerely join in the pure worship of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah. Such underpriests stand in awe at how God has thus filled his temple with glory.

16. (a) With a view to preserving them through the “great tribulation,” what does Jehovah do? (b) What does the Lamblike Shepherd do for them?

¹⁶ With a view to preserving the “great crowd” of sheeplike worshipers through the coming “great tribulation,” it is promised: “And the One seated on the throne will spread his tent over them.” That they will not be rocked to destruction and removed from the earth is assured to them in the further words about this “great crowd” at Jehovah’s spiritual temple: “They will hunger no more nor thirst anymore, neither will the sun beat down upon them nor any scorching heat [in divine displeasure], because the Lamb, who is in the midst of the throne, will shepherd them, and will guide them to fountains of waters of life. And God will wipe out every tear from their eyes.”​—Revelation 7:15-17.

17. (a) Has anything like this occurred at Jehovah’s spiritual temple before? (b) How is worship of Him at his temple assured to Him forevermore?

¹⁷ Never before has such a marvelous thing as this taken place at the spiritual temple of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah. Never before has it been filled with glory by the coming in of so many “desirable things” out of all the nations. The worship of Jehovah at his spiritual temple is assured to Him forevermore. When the present rocking and shaking of all nations, yes, of the symbolic heavens, earth, sea and dry ground, reaches its grand climax in the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Har–Magedon and then the abyssing of Satan, his spiritual temple in which he thrones will remain unshaken. His worshipers there will enjoy loving protection under His tent and will be preserved for his sacred service for all time to come.

THE GREATER GLORY OF THE LATER HOUSE

18. What is the thing of greatest value that the “desirable things of all the nations” can give to the Creator, and why?

¹⁸ The thing of greatest value that the “desirable things of all the nations” can give to the great Creator is their pure worship of Him as their God. The religious systems of Christendom and of Jewry and of other dominant religions have filled their houses of worship with gold and silver and other material treasures of high earthly value. But such material wealth is not what the one living and true God desires from his worshipers. He is the Owner of all material things by reason of his being the Creator.

19. (a) Can we enrich God by material gifts? (b) Why did the temple builders back in Haggai’s day not need to worry about expenses?

¹⁹ Nobody can enrich God the Creator by bringing such material valuables into a building dedicated to some kind of religion. One’s giving to the Creator what is already the Creator’s does not enrich him, although it may make the priests of the different religions richer. So in filling Jehovah’s house with glory such material things are not the required things. As Haggai’s prophecy goes on to say: “‘The silver is mine, and the gold is mine,’ is the utterance of Jehovah of armies.” (Haggai 2:8) Back there in Haggai’s day, in 520 B.C.E., did the temple builders at Jerusalem need to worry about expenses? No! Not with such a rich God.

20. How would the Creator see to it that all needed expenses were provided, and why did the builders not need to be discouraged at the unpromising look of things at the start?

²⁰ Back there, Jehovah of armies as Creator was the Owner of all the material things that the temple builders needed. He could be depended upon to provide all financial backing that was needed to start and finish the rebuilding of the temple of his worship. He could see to it also that, by His spirit, certain possessors of material riches would make contributions toward the rebuilding work. The fact that he promised to fill the proposed new house of worship with glory was a divine guarantee that the rebuilding of the house could be started in full confidence. It would be completed and to it worshipers would come. The unpromising look of things at the start was therefore no reason for the temple builders to become discouraged. Jehovah would not encourage them to start something that they would be obliged later on to leave uncompleted. The richest person in all the living universe was behind them!

21. Of what statement published in Zion’s Watch Tower does that remind us?

²¹ This reminds us of the statement printed in the second issue of the Watch Tower magazine under date of August, 1879, page 2, under the heading “Do You Want ‘Zion’s Watch Tower’?”

Do not suppose these remarks to be an appeal for money. No. “Zion’s Watch Tower” has, we believe, JEHOVAH for its backer, and while this is the case it will never beg nor petition men for support. When He who says: “All the gold and silver of the mountains are mine,” fails to provide necessary funds, we will understand it to be time to suspend the publication.

That was published in the then 6,000 copies of the magazine.

22. Why did the temple builders need extraordinary faith, and what was the outlook that they needed to have?

²² When undertaking to rebuild Jehovah’s temple at Jerusalem, Governor Zerubbabel and High Priest Joshua the son of Jehozadak and the rest of the Israelites needed to exercise extraordinary faith in God, especially as the official ban of the Persian Empire was still in effect upon rebuilding Jehovah’s house of worship. Besides that, the builders needed to fight off discouragement because the humble beginning of the work appeared like nothing when compared with the former glorious temple built by King Solomon. They needed to have Jehovah’s outlook to encourage them onward. So Jehovah used his prophet Haggai to reveal what the divine outlook was, in these words: “‘Greater will the glory of this later house become than that of the former,’ Jehovah of armies has said. ‘And in this place I shall give peace,’ is the utterance of Jehovah of armies.”​—Haggai 2:9.

23. As regards the ‘glory of the later house being greater than that of the former one,’ what must we remember with regard to Jehovah’s true temple?

²³ Toward understanding those prophetic words, we must remember that Jehovah’s spiritual temple has as its Holy of Holies the holy residential place of Jehovah God in the invisible heavens and that this spiritual temple of His was not destroyed by the Babylonian armies in the year 607 B.C.E., when all of Jerusalem was laid desolate. Only the typical representation of it on earth was destroyed. The real spiritual temple of Jehovah was yet to come into existence and would not need to be rebuilt. So this then future spiritual temple has endured till today and the final and complete fulfillment of Jehovah’s prophecy in our day applies to that one spiritual temple of the one living and true God.

24. In Haggai’s day, what was the “later house” and what was the “former” one, and how did the glory of the one become greater than that of the other?

²⁴ Back there in Haggai’s time, more than 2,490 years ago, a new and second temple at Jerusalem needed to be constructed. It would be the “later house,” whereas the destroyed Solomon’s temple was the “former” temple. Both those houses were “the typical representations of the things in the heavens.” (Hebrews 9:23) According to Jehovah’s assurance in Haggai 2:9, the glory of the temple built under the supervision of Governor Zerubbabel and High Priest Joshua at Jerusalem was to be greater than that of King Solomon’s temple. How did this come to be true? For one thing, it continued in use longer, from 515 B.C.E. to 70 C.E., or for 584 years, whereas Solomon’s temple stood for 420 years. So the “later house” lasted till Messiah’s coming, and he himself taught there. Furthermore, in the year 17 B.C.E. King Herod the Great of the Roman Province of Judea began the gradual rebuilding of Zerubbabel’s temple, expending much money upon it and making it have a magnificence that rivaled that of Solomon’s temple. But what would count more with God is appreciation of His house by worshipers.

25. What did the greater glory of the “later house” mean in the way of worshipers at the temple?

²⁵ Doubtless, then, more worshipers flocked to Jehovah’s rebuilt house of worship at Jerusalem than in the case of Solomon’s temple. Especially so over a longer period of time. Also, since the temple was rebuilt more than ninety years after the dispersion of the Jews to many parts of the earth as exiles and fugitives, the worshipers came from more widespread parts of the earth than in the case of the former temple. On the day of Pentecost of 33 C.E. there were natural Jews and proselytes there at Herod’s temple in Jerusalem from Parthia, Media, Elam, Mesopotamia, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, which is toward Cyrene, Rome, Crete, Arabia, as well as from Judea. (Acts 2:1-11) In this way the later house had a greater religious patronage and hence a greater glory, in the typical fulfillment of the prophecy.

26. What glory did Jehovah’s spiritual temple get from its typical representations built by men on earth?

²⁶ How, though, is Jehovah’s prophecy fulfilled with respect to the spiritual temple, which is only one indestructible temple, never having a rebuilding or replacement? In this way: During the time that those material temples as built by Solomon, Zerubbabel and Herod were standing, Jehovah’s real spiritual temple was having attention called to it by those typical representations of it upon the earth at Jerusalem. Even the visionary temple as miraculously seen by the prophet Ezekiel in the year 593 B.C.E. typically called attention to Jehovah’s spiritual temple. (Ezekiel 40:1 to 47:2) Such mundane, earthly temples, though awe-inspiring to the human beholder, could never give the worshipers therein full discernment of the indescribable glory of Jehovah’s true, spiritual temple. This typing of the realities continued on until Jesus the Son of God was baptized in water and anointed with Jehovah’s spirit in 29 C.E. to be the promised Christ or Messiah.​—Matthew 3:13-17; John 1:29-34.

27. How, in 29 C.E., did Jehovah’s true temple begin to have more than a typical representation of it on earth?

²⁷ From that event onward Jehovah’s spiritual temple began to have more than just a typical representation of itself at Jerusalem. From then on it actually took on reality, by Jesus’ being anointed with God’s spirit to be a “high priest according to the manner of Melchizedek.” (Hebrews 6:20; Psalm 110:4) Jesus Christ was brought into the spiritual condition as pictured by the first compartment or Holy of the temple, where the golden lampstand, the table of loaves of presentation and the golden incense altar were located. Also, he had come into the condition pictured by the temple courtyard for the priests, where the copper altar was located, and he had approached God’s altar equivalent for presenting his perfect human body as an atoning sacrifice for the “sin of the world.” So the antitypical Day of Atonement with respect to the real, spiritual temple of Jehovah had begun. (Hebrews 8:1 to 10:10) This procedure went on for three and a half years, till 33 C.E.

HEAVENLY TEMPLE GLORIFIED

28. How and when did Jesus Christ pass the barrier that was illustrated by the temple’s inner curtain, and for what purpose?

²⁸ On Nisan 14 of the year 33 C.E., Jesus Christ as a spiritual high priest completed his sacrifice on earth, his dead body of flesh being entombed. On the third day therefrom, on Nisan 16, 33 C.E., he was resurrected from the dead as a spirit person, thus passing beyond the barrier that was pictured by the temple veil between the Holy and the Most Holy, namely, his flesh. Thus he was able to enter into the real Most Holy, into the presence of Jehovah God in heaven itself, there as high priest to present the value of his human sacrifice and make atonement for humankind.​—Hebrews 9:23-28; 6:19, 20; 10:19, 20.

29. How was a glory imparted to Jehovah’s true temple by Jesus Christ’s appearance in God’s presence?

²⁹ When this Jesus Christ entered into the real Most Holy of God, this imparted a glory to Jehovah’s real spiritual temple that it had never had before. For, look! now in His most holy presence there stood His everlasting High Priest, raised “in glory,” immortal, invested with the “power of an indestructible life”!​—1 Corinthians 15:42-57; Hebrews 7:15-24.

30. When were others ushered into the condition pictured by the Holy of the temple, and how many will finally pass beyond the barrier pictured by the inner curtain?

³⁰ On the festival day of Pentecost, Sivan 6, 33 C.E., the glorified Jesus Christ was used by Jehovah God to pour out the holy spirit upon his faithful disciples. (Acts 2:1-38) By this means they became spirit-begotten children of God and were anointed to be spiritual underpriests of the High Priest Jesus Christ. (John 3:3, 5; 2 Corinthians 1:21; 1 John 2:20-27; 3:1, 2; 1 Peter 2:9) In accord with this they were brought into the priestly spiritual condition pictured by the Holy of the temple at Jerusalem to enjoy the light of the antitypical golden lampstand and the table of the loaves of presentation and to offer up the incense of prayer on the golden incense altar. (Hebrews 9:1, 2; Luke 1:8-12, 21, 22) The congregation of spiritual Israelites will finally number 144,000 spiritual underpriests, and at their resurrection from the dead they will be raised up each with a spiritual body, “in glory,” clothed upon with immortality, after Christ’s kingdom is established.​—Romans 6:5; 2 Corinthians 5:1-5.

31. How will this add to the glory of Jehovah’s spiritual temple?

³¹ By thus participating in the “first resurrection,” they will be ushered into the heavenly Most Holy; and “they will be priests of God and of the Christ, and will rule as kings with him for the thousand years.” (Revelation 7:4-8; 14:1, 3; 20:4-6) By Jehovah’s granting these faithful spiritual Israelites such a glorious entrance into the Most Holy of his own presence, he will add a further glory to his spiritual temple such as it did not have before while the material temple of Zerubbabel as renovated by Herod was functioning on earth as a type.

32. What was the case of the outer courtyards of those typical man-made temples at Jerusalem, and till when?

³² In the days of those typical temples at Jerusalem their courtyards, outside the courtyard of the priests, were crowded with worshipers coming from far and near. (Psalm 84:1, 2, 10; Luke 1:21) Since the year 70 C.E. the throngs of worshipers stream up no more to the courtyards of Jehovah’s house of worship at Jerusalem, for the typical material temple for divine worship has vanished forever. (John 4:20-24; Acts 21:26-28; Matthew 24:1, 2; Luke 21:5-7, 20-24) The glory of the typical temples made with men’s hands has faded for all time, for now we are no longer living in the time of the shadows of good things to come. We are living in the days of the glorious realities that are enduring. (Colossians 2:16, 17; Hebrews 10:1-4, 10) But what of the courtyards of the true temple?

33. With regard to Jehovah’s spiritual temple, what are we in this time of rocking led to ask about the “desirable things of all the nations”?

³³ Speaking of his real spiritual temple, Jehovah of armies used his prophet Haggai to foretell the coming in of the “desirable things of all the nations” into his house of worship. This would be at a time when the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land would be rocked. We are now nearing the spectacular climax of that time of universal commotion. It is now timely to ask, Have those desirable things actually come in from all the nations before these are rocked to pieces and removed? Yes!

34. How, then, have the courtyards of Jehovah’s spiritual temple been filled with a glory that they never had before?

³⁴ Hundreds of thousands of them have “come in,” in the form of dedicated, baptized disciples of Jesus Christ. These he has brought in as his “other sheep” and made them to be “one flock” with the still surviving remnant of his spiritual underpriests at the courtyards of Jehovah’s temple. (John 10:16; Revelation 7:9, 10) As this unnumbered “great crowd” orderly render sacred service in the courtyards of Jehovah and ascribe their salvation to their enthroned God and to his Lamb, they are a sight that glorifies the Sovereign Lord Jehovah. They fill, not the churches and cathedrals of Christendom and the synagogues of Jewry, but the courtyards of Jehovah’s true spiritual temple with a glory that it has not had before. In very truth it has already come about that “the latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former.” (Haggai 2:9, RS) “The new glory of this Temple is going to surpass the old, says Yahweh Sabaoth.” (Je) “The future glory of this house shall be greater than the first.”​—By.

PEACE AMID THE ROCKING

35, 36. (a) With what comforting words did Jehovah close his second prophecy through Haggai? (b) Was Jerusalem’s temple disposed of peacefully, and where does peace on earth obtain today?

³⁵ Jehovah closed his second prophecy through Haggai with these consoling words: “‘And in this place I shall give peace,’ is the utterance of Jehovah of armies.”​—Haggai 2:9.

³⁶ In the year 70 C.E. the passing away of Jerusalem and the temple that had been built by Zerubbabel and renovated by King Herod was not peaceful, but occurred amidst a most horrible time of tribulation. (Matthew 24:1-22) But the real spiritual temple of Jehovah is a place of abiding peace. With regard to the correct carrying on of the meetings of true Christians at that spiritual house of worship, it is written: “God is a God, not of disorder, but of peace. . . . let all things take place decently and by arrangement.” (1 Corinthians 14:33, 40) This rule of conduct is observed at the meetings of Jehovah’s Christian witnesses, so that the spirit of peace does prevail among them.​—Galatians 5:22, 23.

37. Despite all the rocking round about, how is peace given in the courtyards of Jehovah’s house as regards the remnant and “great crowd”?

³⁷ Whereas Jehovah of armies rocks the symbolic heavens, earth, sea and dry ground, he gives peace in the earthly courtyards of his spiritual temple. The anointed remnant of His spiritual underpriests attend strictly to their duties at His house of worship and keep free from all embroilment in the controversies and conflicts of this world. The “great crowd” of the “other sheep” that has streamed up to the “mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob,” have figuratively done what Isaiah 2:2-4 foretold about them. They have beaten their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning shears. They learn carnal warfare no more. In the approaching “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Har–Magedon, they will not lift up a hand in any violence against God’s enemies. They will let it be His war to fight, confident in His glorious victory. (Revelation 16:14-16; 2 Chronicles 20:15) By this course they manifest God’s spirit and display the “wisdom from above.”​—James 3:17.

38. What prospect, once held before the frustrated temple builders in Haggai’s day, does the remnant of spiritual Israelites see being fulfilled world wide today, and what admonition is given to them?

³⁸ How grand is the peace that Jehovah’s Christian witnesses enjoy today at his spiritual house of worship! How gladdening to the eyes it is for us to see the glory of Jehovah filling his spiritual temple as the “desirable things of all the nations” continue coming in! Long ago the prospect of such an amazing thing was held before the hearts and minds of the once frustrated builders of a new temple at Jerusalem by Jehovah’s prophet Haggai. Today we are actually beholding the wondrous fulfillment of Haggai’s prophecy in these days when all the nations are being rocked, and this should spur on the anointed remnant of spiritual Israelites in their sacred service to Jehovah God at his spiritual house of worship. To this remnant the inspired exhortation applies for them not to forfeit the undeserved kindness of Jehovah as did the unappreciative Esau: “Wherefore, seeing that we are to receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us continue to have undeserved kindness, through which we may acceptably render God sacred service with godly fear and awe. For our God is also a consuming fire.”​—Hebrews 12:16, 17, 28, 29.

[Diagram on page 85]

(For fully formatted text, see publication)

TEMPLE REBUILT BY HEROD

(Ground Plan)

Tyropean Valley

Kidron Valley

Mt. of Olives to the east

Colonnades

Royal Colonnade

Solomon’s Colonnade

North Colonnade

Court of the Gentiles

Outer Court

Stone Barrier

Court of Women

Court of Israel

Court of Priests

Temple

City Wall

City Wall

Beautiful Gate

Gate

Gate

Gate

Gate

Gate

Gate

1. Most Holy

2. Holy

3. Altar of Burnt Offering

4. Molten Sea

5. Inner Gate of Temple

Chapter 6

Calling a Nation to Return to Jehovah

1. How long by now had Haggai prophesied alone, and what had Jehovah roused up the Jews to do?

AT LEAST ten days passed by from the time that the prophet Haggai gave his second prophecy at Jerusalem, on the twenty-first day of the seventh lunar month (Tishri), in the year 520 B.C.E. This was still in the second year of the reign of King Darius I of the Persian Empire. A faithful remnant of the worshipers of Jehovah God who had come back in 537 B.C.E. from the exile of the Jews in Babylonia were now back in their homeland for seventeen years. A ban that had been imposed by a preceding king of the Persian Empire against the rebuilding of the temple of Jehovah at Jerusalem was still in force. The rebuilding of the temple had got no farther than the laying of its foundation in the year 536 B.C.E. Then, without waiting for the official ban of a mere man against the rebuilding of his house of worship to be lifted, Jehovah God had raised up his prophet Haggai to rouse up repatriated Jews to resume their construction of the temple. This had occurred on the first day of the sixth lunar month (Elul). For two lunar months Haggai had continued alone as the only prophet urging the rebuilding work.

2. What did Jehovah now furnish to strengthen further the faith and courage of the temple builders?

² Although the prophesying of Haggai alone should have been sufficient and did stir the Jews to some action, yet it would be strengthening to faith and courage for the Jews to have a second witness of Jehovah to testify that now, without delay, was Jehovah’s time for the rebuilding of his temple at Jerusalem to be resumed. Considerately, Jehovah did raise up a second prophet at the critical time, a man named Zechariah. Concerning the ban on temple building and how and why it was defied by the temple builders in due time, we read this record:

3. What does Ezra say about how the building ban was enforced and how in due time the Jews defied it?

³ “Now after the copy of the official document of Artaxerxes the king had been read before Rehum and Shimshai the scribe and their colleagues, they went in a hurry to Jerusalem to the Jews and stopped them by force of arms. It was then that the work on the house of God, which was in Jerusalem, stopped; and it continued stopped until the second year of the reign of Darius the king of Persia. And Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the grandson of Iddo the prophet prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and in Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel who was over them. It was then that Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jehozadak got up and started to rebuild the house of God, which was in Jerusalem; and with them there were God’s prophets giving them aid.”​—Ezra 4:23 to 5:2.

4. When did Zechariah begin to prophesy?

⁴ When in that second year of King Darius I (520 B.C.E.) did Zechariah the grandson of Iddo begin to prophesy? Zechariah’s own book of prophecy informs us in its opening words, saying: “In the eighth month in the second year of Darius the word of Jehovah occurred to Zechariah the son of Berechiah the son of Iddo the prophet.”​—Zechariah 1:1.

5. (a) What day may it have been when Zechariah began to prophesy? (b) What shows his book to be important for us to examine today?

⁵ The eighth lunar month, of twenty-nine days, was called Heshvan, and was an autumn month. The day of the month is not given in the prophecy. Evidently it was the first day of Heshvan, the day of the new moon, when many Jews would celebrate in Jerusalem. If so, this would be exactly two months after Haggai began to prophesy. The translation by S. Byington here reads: “On the eighth new moon in the year two of Darius, Jehovah’s word came to the prophet Zechariah the son of Berekiah the son of ‛Iddo.” (Zechariah 1:1, By) Little did Zechariah know then that his book of prophecy would be so important that, hundreds of years later, inspired Christian writers would quote it to prove that the expected Messiah, the Christ or Anointed One, had come and had carried out the first part of his mission in behalf of all mankind. (Matthew 21:5; 26:15, 28, 31; 27:9; Mark 14:24, 27; Luke 22:20; John 12:15; 19:37; Revelation 11:2, 4) This proves, not only that the book of Zechariah is an inspired book of true prophecy, but also that it is important for us today to examine for modern-day fulfillments.

6. Zechariah was instructed to declare the utterances of whom, and what shows that it is important for us to bear Zechariah’s book in mind now as we near Har–Magedon?

⁶ From the start the utterances of God that Zechariah is instructed to declare are said to be the expressions of “Jehovah of armies,” a very significant phrase. Very appropriate for the time and situation, also. Fifty-two (52) times through Zechariah’s prophecy of fourteen chapters that forceful expression is used. The final chapter, verse three, shows that this is no idle designation of God, for this is what it foretells: “Jehovah will certainly go forth and war against those nations as in the day of his warring, in the day of fight.” (Zechariah 14:3) It is highly important to bear this prophecy in mind, in these days when the last book of the Holy Bible is being fulfilled regarding the march of all the nations to Har–Magedon for the “war of the great day of God the Almighty.” (Revelation 16:14, 16) This is the same God as the Jehovah of armies worshiped in the days of High Priest Eli and of the prophet Samuel and of the shepherd boy David, who went out “with the name of Jehovah of armies” to fight the heavily armored Philistine giant Goliath and killed him with a perfectly aimed stone from his sling.​—1 Samuel 1:3–4:4; 17:45.

ZECHARIAH’S OPENING PROPHECY

7. According to Zechariah 1:2, against whom had Jehovah grown very indignant, and why so?

⁷ The opening message of Jehovah of armies through his new prophet Zechariah was addressed to the repatriated Jews, “saying: ‘Jehovah grew indignant at your fathers​—very much so.’” (Zechariah 1:1, 2) Such “fathers” were their fathers and grandfathers who had been taken into exile in Babylon in the years 617 and 607 B.C.E. Jehovah of armies was very much indignant against these because they had profaned and polluted his holy temple at Jerusalem and had broken their national covenant with Him and had formed political alliances with worldly pagan nations. His indignation heated up to such a degree that he finally let Jerusalem and its temple be destroyed and the whole land of Judah become desolated without man or domestic animal for seventy years. At the root of the trouble was the Jews’ abandoning of the pure, undefiled worship of Jehovah of armies. This serious fact was something of which to remind the Jews who had been released from exile in Babylon to go home to Jerusalem to rebuild Jehovah’s temple there.

8. What was Zechariah then told to tell the Jews to do toward God?

⁸ To these Jews, already back in their homeland for seventeen years, the message to Zechariah went on to say: “And you must say to them, ‘This is what Jehovah of armies has said: “‘Return to me,’ is the utterance of Jehovah of armies, ‘and I shall return to you,’ Jehovah of armies has said.”’”​—Zechariah 1:3.

“RETURN,” IN WHAT SENSE AND WITH WHAT RESULTS?

9. In what sense were those restored Jews to “return” to Jehovah of armies, and why?

⁹ In what way did Jehovah mean for those restored Jews to “return” to Him? Had not Haggai the prophet already spoken to them with some resulting action? Yes! And the account says, after Haggai’s first prophecy: “And Jehovah proceeded to rouse up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak the high priest, and the spirit of all the remaining ones of the people; and they began to enter in and to do the work in the house of Jehovah of armies their God. It was on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of Darius the king.” (Haggai 1:14, 15) But in the more than a month since then there may have been a lag in their efforts and possibly some indifference on the part of a number of persons. This would make it very appropriate for another rousing exhortation to be given by another prophet as a corroboration.

10. How were those Jews to “return” to their God, and what would be the evidence of their full return?

¹⁰ The whole nation needed to return to Jehovah of armies with one heart and with one soul, and to do it without fear of the enemy. The return was to be in the form of again taking up the fearless, wholehearted worship of the one living and true God. In their case back there this would mean their giving visible expression of their return to their God by rebuilding his temple to a completion. That had been the main objective of their coming back to their homeland. (Ezra 1:1 to 4:3) Building their own private houses and running their farms and other material interests were of secondary importance. Only by having their completed temple at the city where God had put his name could those restored Jews fully carry out their worship of him according to his law given to them through the prophet Moses. (Haggai 1:3-9) So there was much to which to return in order for those Jews to worship their God in complete obedience to his law and arrangements.

11. For returning to him, how would Jehovah “return” to them?

¹¹ And if they did thus “return” in whole-souled worship, what? “‘I shall return to you,’ Jehovah of armies has said.” His return to them would signify the full restoration of his favor to them. He would bring to nothing the opposition of the enemy to their rebuilding of their central house of divine worship. He would take away from them the setbacks that they had been suffering in their material prosperity ever since they left off working at the restoration of the temple. He would bless them with material good things as well as unspeakable spiritual blessings.​—Zechariah 8:9-15.

12. So what was the work that the whole nation should unite for, in order to gain the divine favor?

¹² Total mobilization of the nation! The time had come for just such a thing as that​—under Jehovah’s direction, and with the encouragement of his prophets. All the restored Jews should get behind their most important work and bring Jehovah’s house of worship to its completion in all parts. This would make a name for Jehovah, and only then could the nation’s high priest, underpriests and all the Levites carry out their prescribed duties and services to the spiritual benefit of all the nation and of all the faithful proselytes out of all the nations. But minus the completed temple, the Jews from near and far could not celebrate their three annual festivals properly, nor their annual Day of Atonement. And, too, the Nethinim, the “gatherers of wood and drawers of water,” could not make their full contribution to the services at the temple. (Joshua 9:23; Ezra 2:43-58) So here now was a work for which the whole nation should unite, to gain divine blessing.

13. The outcome of the course of their fathers should have served as what to those restored Jews, and so what was called to their attention?

¹³ The course of their fathers and the outcome thereof should have served as a warning example to the restored Jews at this critical time. That is why Jehovah, speaking through the prophet Zechariah, continued on to say to them: “‘Do not become like your fathers to whom the former prophets called, saying: “This is what Jehovah of armies has said, ‘Return, please, from your bad ways and from your bad dealings.’”’ ‘But they did not listen, and they paid no attention to me,’ is the utterance of Jehovah. ‘As for your fathers, where are they? And as for the prophets, was it to time indefinite that they continued to live? However, as regards my words and my regulations that I commanded my servants, the prophets, did they not catch up with your fathers? So they returned and said: “According to what Jehovah of armies had in mind to do to us, according to our ways and according to our dealings, that is how he has done with us.”’”​—Zechariah 1:4-6.

14. (a) If the restored Jews followed the course of their fathers, what was to be expected? (b) Why did Jehovah ask them about their fathers’ condition, and was the like condition of the former prophets a reason for not listening to Haggai and Zechariah?

¹⁴ According to this warning, if the restored Jews did become like their fathers who were taken into exile in Babylon, they could be sure of suffering Jehovah’s displeasure. The reason why he asked them where their fathers were was that their fathers were no more alive, because of the divine displeasure. They had refused to leave their bad ways and dealings and return repentantly to their God. However, the restored Jews could raise the question, ‘What about the prophets, like Jeremiah who specifically prophesied about the destruction of Jerusalem and the desolation of the land of Judah? “Did they continue to live?” Are they not dead the same as our disobedient fathers?’ Although the answer to this had to be Yes, still such a fact was no sound reason for the restored Jews to pay no attention to the prophets Haggai and Zechariah whom Jehovah was now raising up in that year 520 B.C.E.

15. (a) Rather than the mortality of those former prophets, what was the important, determining thing in connection with them? (b) So, in what was imitating their fathers’ course sure to result?

¹⁵ The mortal prophets, whom Jehovah used as his inspired mouthpieces to declare his words and his regulations, were not the things upon which to base a sound argument. What Jehovah inspired those prophets to say was the important thing, the determining thing. Did Jehovah’s words by them and his regulations or decrees that he decided upon come true? The fathers of the restored Jews were obliged to answer Yes! The fathers were forced to return or turn around in their thinking and to admit: “According to what Jehovah of armies had in mind to do to us, according to our ways and according to our dealings, that is how he has done with us.” Why, then, should the restored Jews put Jehovah to the test as to whether he meant exactly what he said, as their fathers had done? The outcome was sure to be just as with their fathers, Jehovah’s unfailing words and regulations or decrees would catch up with them; the fulfillment of such pronouncements of Jehovah would in course of time overtake them. Disaster would result. So, why not rather they return to Jehovah now, that he might return to them, as promised?

THE SIMILAR ISSUE IN MODERN TIMES

16. (a) What is the vital issue on which we must make our decision now? (b) So the question that the surviving remnant faced in the first postwar year of 1919 C.E. was in connection with what?

¹⁶ The vital question on which we must make our decision is, How do we stand with regard to the house of worship of the only living and true God, Jehovah? That is the question that early faced the generation of mankind that has survived from the year 1914 C.E. until now. World War I of 1914-1918 C.E. saw many religious buildings damaged or destroyed in the arena of international conflict. Quite a number of those churches were repaired or rebuilt in the postwar period. However, after that world conflict the thing that vitally concerned the true dedicated people of Jehovah God was not the building of any religious house or church, as in the case of the restored Jews back there in 537-520 B.C.E. Jehovah’s true spiritual temple had not been damaged or destroyed by any bombs from the air or other explosives used during World War I. It had not been touched. Hence the question in the first postwar year of 1919 C.E. was, How did the remnant of Jehovah’s dedicated people stand with regard to his true spiritual temple and the pure, undefiled worship that was due to be rendered therein?

17. Was there need for the dedicated, baptized International Bible Students who survived World War I to repent and return to Jehovah, and why?

¹⁷ During World War I the dedicated, baptized International Bible Students had had their work of witnessing to God’s kingdom seriously interfered with by war operations, governmental bans and violent persecutions. They had yielded in a measure to fear of men, which lays a snare for the fearful one. (Proverbs 29:25) They had tried to keep free from bloodguilt by undertaking, for the most part, noncombatant service, but had not kept a strict, total neutrality toward the conflicts of this world. In certain serious respects they needed to repent and return to Jehovah, that he might return with favor to them.​—Zechariah 1:3.

18, 19. It was the due time to take up what work again, and why?

¹⁸ The nations of this world had definitely entered their “time of the end”​—with the close of the Gentile Times in 1914. (Daniel 12:4) The stage of world affairs now certainly called for Jehovah’s appointed work to be taken up again, and that was that which his Son Jesus Christ had foretold:

¹⁹ “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come.”​—Matthew 24:14; Mark 13:10.

20. (a) In what way did that tremendous worldwide work need to be done? (b) What two organizations are there to take into account?

²⁰ Such a tremendous work of worldwide scope required to be done in a most organized way, with a fully united organization, under the supreme headship of the theocratic Ruler, Jehovah God, who was in his true spiritual temple. Jehovah must do the organizing. There are only two organizations that are operating universally, and the organization of the One should be well known to every intelligent creature. That is the Creator’s organization, Jehovah’s organization. The other is that of his chief adversary, the one to whom the prophet Zechariah himself refers, namely, Satan the Devil.​—Zechariah 3:1, 2.

21. What are the main parts of the Devil’s organization, and what makes it imperative that Kingdom preaching be done in an organized way?

²¹ The present system of things among men certainly represents an organization, and the Christian apostle Paul speaks of Satan the Devil as “the god of this system of things.” (2 Corinthians 4:4) In a letter to the Ephesians (2:2; 6:11, 12) he describes how highly organized the invisible spirit part of Satan the Devil’s organization is. Both the invisible part and the visible earthly part of Satan’s organization are opposed to the preaching of the good news of God’s Messianic kingdom. This makes it all the more imperative that the preachers of the Kingdom work in an organized way.

22. (a) Are Jehovah’s “armies” organized? (b) Till Jesus’ death, what was Jehovah’s visible earthly organization, and since Pentecost of 33 C.E., what has been his visible earthly organization, with what features?

²² Jehovah of armies certainly has all these armies organized. (Luke 2:13-15; Revelation 14:6, 7) The assignment to preach the Kingdom news on earth Jehovah of armies would give only to his visible earthly organization. From the days of the prophet Moses down to the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, the earthly nation of natural, circumcised Israel was the visible organization of Jehovah God. (Psalm 147:19, 20) But from the pouring out of God’s spirit upon the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ on the festival day of Pentecost in 33 C.E., the spiritual Israel with circumcised hearts has been God’s “holy nation” and his visible earthly organization. (Acts 2:1-40; Galatians 6:16; Romans 2:28, 29; 1 Peter 2:9) The spiritual Israel is thus the true Christian congregation made up of the dedicated, baptized, spirit-anointed disciples of the Messiah Jesus. Like the human body, it is highly organized, the many members of it having each one his individual part to perform. (Romans 12:4-8; 1 Corinthians 12:12-28; Ephesians 4:15, 16; Colossians 2:19) For special services the congregation has its appointed elders and ministerial servants.​—Philippians 1:1.

23. Besides Kingdom preaching, what other work has there been for Jehovah’s visible organization to do?

²³ In this “time of the end” for this present system of things the preaching of “this good news of the kingdom” for a witness to all the nations is not the only work of God’s visible earthly organization after the close of World War I. There has been a harvesting work in progress, in a spiritual sense. Jesus Christ foretold this. When explaining his parable of the wheat field that an enemy oversowed with darnel weeds, Jesus said:

24. What did Jesus say about the harvest and the reapers?

²⁴ “The sower of the fine seed is the Son of man; the field is the world; as for the fine seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; but the weeds are the sons of the wicked one, and the enemy that sowed them is the Devil. The harvest is a conclusion of a system of things, and the reapers are angels.”​—Matthew 13:37-39.

25. In 1919, into what was the surviving remnant of spirit-anointed servants of Jehovah gathered, but why was there yet a harvest to be carried out by His angels, and through whom?

²⁵ In the postwar year of 1919 C.E. and under angelic guidance the faithful remnant of Jehovah’s spirit-anointed people were gathered into his visible earthly organization, for the foretold Kingdom-preaching work. This fact was very manifest by the holding of the eight-day general assembly of the International Bible Students Association at Cedar Point, Ohio, in September of 1919. But the members of this faithful anointed remnant who had survived the severe trials and persecutions during World War I were not enough to complete the foreordained number of those who are anointed to reign with Jesus Christ in his heavenly kingdom. The full number of the joint heirs of Christ in his kingdom was foreordained to be 144,000. (Revelation 7:4-8; 14:1, 3; 20:4, 6) Consequently more of the “wheat” class had to be found and harvested by the angels and gathered into Jehovah’s visible earthly organization. As the invisible heavenly angels were working through the anointed remnant on earth, what did the harvest work now require?

26. What did this harvest work require the surviving members of the anointed remnant to do, and what must occur with those whom they baptize for these to become joint heirs of Christ?

²⁶ It required, from 1919 forward, that the surviving members of the joint heirs of Christ’s kingdom must do further work of making disciples, baptizing them and teaching them. Following their baptism as dedicated disciples of Jesus Christ, these new disciples must be anointed with God’s spirit to become “sons of the kingdom,” joint heirs of Jesus Christ. (Romans 8:15-17) Those thus collected during this “conclusion of the system of things,” together with all the other wheatlike Christians who had already proved faithful to the death, will complete the foreordained number of 144,000 “sons of the kingdom.” As regards all such faithful harvested ones, it is written: “Happy and holy is anyone having part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no authority, but they will be priests of God and of the Christ, and will rule as kings with him for the thousand years.”​—Revelation 20:4, 6.

SPIRITUAL UNDERPRIESTS IN THE TEMPLE’S “HOLY”

27, 28. (a) What relationship do these anointed ones hold to the High Priest Jesus Christ, and so what location do they occupy as regards Jehovah’s spiritual temple? (b) What special privileges do they enjoy in that special area?

²⁷ Note that these faithful anointed disciples are not merely to reign with Jesus Christ in the heavenly kingdom. They will also be “priests of God and of the Christ.” The 144,000 anointed ones are therefore underpriests of the High Priest Jesus Christ. While yet alive on earth, they hold this relationship with Jesus Christ their Head. That is why, nineteen hundred years ago, the apostle Peter wrote to his fellow anointed Christians and said: “You are ‘a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for special possession, that you should declare abroad the excellencies’ of the one that called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” As underpriests they are privileged “to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:9, 5) Accordingly, while yet on earth they are in a special relationship to Jehovah’s spiritual temple, the Holy of Holies of which is His exclusive residence in the holy heavens where the resurrected Jesus Christ presented the value of his perfect, human sacrifice.

²⁸ These underpriests, even while yet on earth in the flesh, are in the spiritual condition pictured by the first interior compartment of “Holy” of the temple at Jerusalem. And just as the Holy of the temple of Jerusalem held the golden tables of showbread or loaves of presentation, and the golden lampstands and the golden altar of incense, so the Christian underpriests in the spiritual Holy eat spiritual food, enjoy spiritual enlightenment and offer up the perfume of faithful prayers and zealous service to Jehovah while they are yet on earth. (Exodus 40:4, 5, 22-28; 1 Kings 7:48-50; 2 Chronicles 4:19-22) Although this may not be appreciated by persons who have no spiritual discernment and appreciation, there is a real sacred service that these spiritual anointed underpriests render in this Holy area of Jehovah’s great spiritual temple. From his exalted position in the Most Holy of this spiritual temple He can scrutinize the activities of these underpriests and can render judgment concerning them as to their service under His High Priest, Jesus Christ.​—Malachi 3:1-5.

29. (a) So, since 1919, what kind of work were the surviving anointed remnant doing? (b) How did this affect Jehovah’s spiritual temple?

²⁹ When we take these things into consideration, there is this fact that we can see: In the year 1919 C.E., the surviving anointed remnant of Christ’s disciples presented themselves for their part on earth in the harvest work under the superior direction of the “reapers,” the heavenly angels. In this way they were undertaking a work that affected the true spiritual temple of Jehovah. How so? Well, by doing their discipling work and thus collecting the “wheat” class under angelic reapers, they were working for the producing of more spiritual underpriests. They were colaboring with Jehovah God that he might put more underpriests, yes, the full complement of the spiritual underpriests, into the Holy of His great spiritual temple. They were thus working for an enlarged sacred service by more underpriests at Jehovah’s temple.

30. Was this the right time for the collecting of the wheatlike Christians, and how was this a building up of the working force in the temple “Holy”?

³⁰ Instead of this being a “gleaning work” such as followed a regular harvest in the ancient land of Israel,a this collecting work on the part of the surviving anointed remnant was the real harvest under the angelic “reapers.” The time of their doing this was the “conclusion of the system of things,” since the year 1914 C.E., and Jesus said that “the harvest is a conclusion of a system of things.” (Matthew 13:39; 24:3, 31) As a result of the spiritual harvesting work during the years that followed, the anointed remnant of wheatlike disciples of Christ grew in numbers, notably down to the year 1931 when the anointed remnant embraced the Scripturally backed designation “Jehovah’s witnesses.” Manifestly the number of spiritual underpriests in the Holy of Jehovah’s spiritual temple had increased, likely to include the full complement that was needed to complete the foreordained quota of 144,000 spiritual underpriests under the High Priest Jesus Christ. It was indeed a buildup of the working force in the Holy of Jehovah’s true temple.

31. In behalf of the temple work, how had they been liberated and restored in 1919 C.E.?

³¹ Here, then, was a spiritual temple work that began to be undertaken in the year 1919 C.E. by the surviving anointed remnant. By Jehovah’s loving-kindness through his Greater Cyrus, Jesus Christ, they had been released from bondage to Babylon the Great, the world empire of false religion, and its political paramours. They had been liberated and restored to their rightful estate on earth for the very purpose of applying themselves to this temple work.

32. How did what occurred in 1919 C.E. correspond with what occurred in 520 B.C.E.?

³² It was just like back in the year 520 B.C.E., when the prophets Haggai and Zechariah were raised up to encourage the restored Jewish remnant to take up again their work on the long-neglected temple at Jerusalem. In the year 1919 C.E. the columns of the Watch Tower magazine were used to rouse up and encourage the surviving anointed remnant to resume their open, public service of the Most High God in a fearless manner. His Messianic kingdom had been established in the heavens at the close of the Gentile Times in 1914 and it must now be announced world wide. This sacrifice of praise to God was now due to be offered up to him even in the presence of all His enemies.​—Hebrews 13:15; Psalm 138:1-3.

33. If the anointed remnant were to imitate the course of the fathers of the ancient Jewish remnant, what was due to happen, and so what did the anointed remnant do?

³³ In this way they were able to “return” to Jehovah, in view of which he would “return” to them with divine favor. If they were to become like the fathers of the ancient Jewish remnant against whom He had had very much indignation, they would suffer calamity just as did those fathers for not listening or paying attention to the warnings and counsel of Jehovah’s prophets. They also would have the prophetic words and decrees of Jehovah against the disobedient ones catch up with them in this “time of the end” Wisely, therefore, the anointed remnant began to “return” to Jehovah in 1919 C.E.

[Footnotes]

Chapter 7

Blessings and Good Rulership as the World Rocks

1. In the month following his opening prophecy, what did Zechariah see take place, and what did this move Jehovah to do?

THE OPENING prophecy of Zechariah in the eighth lunar month (Heshvan) in the second year of the reign of King Darius I of the Persian Empire was short, yet timely and pointed. (Zechariah 1:1-6) In the very next month the prophet Zechariah saw take place at Jerusalem significant action upon which the future welfare of the Jewish nation was hinged. On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth lunar month (Chislev) “the foundation of the temple of Jehovah was laid”! Zechariah’s companion prophet, Haggai, records that momentous fact. (Haggai 2:18) That action taken in the face of an imperial ban against the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem was of such religious importance that it moved Jehovah of armies to inspire Haggai to prophesy again.

2, 3. (a) To whom was Haggai’s first prophecy on Chislev 24, 520 B.C.E., addressed? (b) What start of a dialogue does Haggai 2:10-12 record?

² The first one of Haggai’s prophecies on that historical day was addressed to the Levite priests who were hoping to serve in Jehovah’s temple when completed. Those priests of the family of Aaron the Levite included the high priest, Joshua the son of Jehozadak. It impressed upon all those priests a lesson that is important for us in this late day. So let us read Haggai’s record of it and follow the dialogue that took place:

³ “In the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of Jehovah occurred to Haggai the prophet, saying: ‘This is what Jehovah of armies has said, “Ask, please, the priests as to the law, saying: ‘If a man carries holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and he actually touches with his skirt bread or stew or wine or oil or any sort of food, will it become holy?’”’”​—Haggai 2:10-12.

4. According to Malachi 2:7, why should those priests have been able to answer that test question, and yet what may have affected them?

⁴ The “law” here spoken of is the divine law given through the prophet Moses and has reference to ceremonial matters and to the priests who would be the ones that carried “holy flesh.” Of course, the priests should have been familiar with the Mosaic law, for it is said by the later prophet Malachi: “The lips of a priest are the ones that should keep knowledge, and the law is what people should seek from his mouth; for he is the messenger of Jehovah of armies.” (Malachi 2:7) Reasonably, then, the priests should have been able to answer correctly the test question put to them by means of Haggai. Or had their familiarity with the law been affected by seventy years of desolation of the land of Judah during which the Jews had been exiles in the land of Babylon, and also by the troublous seventeen years that had elapsed since the return of the faithful remnant to their homeland? So how did the priests answer?

5. What law may those priests have had in mind in giving their right answer, and so what should an unclean person not think about gaining holiness?

⁵ “And the priests proceeded to answer and say: ‘No!’” (Haggai 2:12) That is to say, “Holy flesh” of an animal victim that had been offered to Jehovah in sacrifice did not impart its holiness to any other foodstuff with which it might accidentally be brought in contact. For a guiding rule as to this answer, the priests may have had in mind what the Mosaic law says in Leviticus 7:19, 20: “The flesh that may touch anything unclean is not to be eaten. It is to be burned with fire. As for the flesh, everybody clean may eat the flesh. And the soul who eats the flesh of the communion sacrifice, which is for Jehovah, while his uncleanness is upon him, that soul must be cut off from his people.” According to this, an Israelite who was unclean for any reason (Leviticus 7:21) should not think that because he comes in touch with “holy flesh” by eating it he is thereby cleansed, that what he has eaten has imparted holiness to him. Wrong reasoning according to the Law!

6. What question did Haggai next propose, and with what answer?

⁶ The prophet Haggai did not say that the priests had reasoned wrong. So now he proposed a question that called for an opposite answer. “And Haggai went on to say: ‘If someone unclean by a deceased soul touches any of these things, will it become unclean?’ In turn the priests answered and said: ‘It will become unclean.’”​—Haggai 2:13.

7. The right answer of the priests proved that they knew what law about cleansing someone defiled by a dead body?

⁷ This correct answer of the priests proved that they knew Jehovah’s law that was stated in connection with the “water for cleansing.” This was water with which the ashes of the sacrificed red cow had been mingled and which was sprinkled upon persons defiled by contact with dead bodies. This law said: “Anyone touching the corpse of any human soul must also be unclean seven days. . . . Everyone touching a corpse, the soul of whatever man may die, and who will not purify himself, has defiled Jehovah’s tabernacle, and that soul must be cut off from Israel. Because the water for cleansing has not been sprinkled upon him, he continues unclean. His uncleanness is still upon him. And it must serve as a statute to time indefinite for them, that the one spattering the water for cleansing should wash his garments, also the one touching the water for cleansing. He will be unclean until the evening. And anything the unclean one may touch will be unclean, and the soul who touches it will be unclean until the evening.”​—Numbers 19:2-5, 11-13, 21, 22; Hebrews 9:13.

8. What did this illustrate with regard to uncleanness, and how did this apply with regard to one’s attitude toward the erection of Jehovah’s temple?

⁸ This illustrates how infectious an uncleanness can be​—not only physically, but also spiritually. A person who is bearing something holy may not be able to pass on holiness to another person automatically or easily, without effort. But an unclean, contaminated person can easily infect another person by mere association and contact with him. As the Christian apostle Paul said: “Do you not know that a little leaven ferments the whole lump?” (1 Corinthians 5:6; Galatians 5:8, 9) That is the way it could be with a person’s unclean attitude of indifference toward how the temple of Jehovah is being neglected. Such indifference and carelessness toward the pure worship of Jehovah and its full expression through a temple could act like spiritual leaven and infect the whole nation of Israel. Even after the erecting of Jehovah’s temple it became necessary for a later governor of Judah and Jerusalem to say: “We should not neglect the house of our God.” Worship there should be fully supported.​—Nehemiah 10:39.

9. What evidently had happened to the Jewish attitude since the remnant’s return seventeen years previously?

⁹ Undeniably the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem had lagged during the seventeen years since the return of the Jewish remnant to their homeland. The evidence indicated that there were indifference and unconcern on the part of many, and the original enthusiasm for the rebuilding of the temple had cooled off.

10, 11. (a) What shows that the Jewish remnant had lost the love that they first had? (b) According to Haggai 2:14, how did the nation and its works appear to Jehovah?

¹⁰ As with the Christian congregation at the close of the first century C.E. it could be said to the Jewish remnant: “You have left the love you had at first. Therefore remember from what you have fallen, and repent and do the former deeds.” (Revelation 2:4, 5) Without a question there was a need on the part of the Jewish remnant to “return” to Jehovah that he might “return” to them. (Zechariah 1:3, 4; Jeremiah 2:2, 3) At the time for the celebration of the festival of the booths (tabernacles) at Jerusalem, immediately after their return from Babylon, the Jewish remnant had erected an altar temporarily at the proper location and began offering up the proper sacrifices thereon. (Ezra 3:1-6) But was that enough? With just that and a temple foundation, how did the nation appear to their God? Listen:

¹¹ “Accordingly Haggai answered and said: ‘That is how this people is, and that is how this nation is before me,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘and that is how all the work of their hands is, and whatever they present there. It is unclean.’”​—Haggai 2:14.

12. So, how were the sacrifices that they presented at Jehovah’s altar affected, and in view of that could he bless them?

¹² It was as in the case of the Israelite who became unclean by touching a dead body: everything that he touched before he was cleansed by being sprinkled with the water containing ashes of the sacrificed red heifer was made unclean. Being unclean in Jehovah’s sight because of their neglect toward His house of worship, the restored nation of Israel contaminated the sacrifices that they presented to Jehovah on their temporary altar at Jerusalem. Under such circumstances, could Jehovah bless them, not just spiritually but also materially? Consistently, No.

NEED FOR MODERN-DAY CLEANSING

13. Similar to the Jewish remnant in 520 B.C.E., how was the Christian remnant unclean?

¹³ Similar to that was the situation that beset the anointed remnant of Christ’s dedicated, baptized disciples after World War I. Christendom, with its hundreds of sectarian churches, had besmeared itself with the blood of the millions who were slain in that bloodiest war up till 1914 C.E. The anointed remnant of Christ’s disciples had tried to keep clean from such bloodguilt and other unchristian conduct, but did not wholly succeed and bore a measure of community responsibility. Members of the anointed remnant had also yielded to fear of men in high places, with spiritual injury to themselves. “Trembling at men is what lays a snare, but he that is trusting in Jehovah will be protected.” (Proverbs 29:25) Hence to a large extent the remnant had refrained from boldly, publicly declaring the established Kingdom of God and His day of vengeance against this war-racked, bloodguilty system of things. In the postwar year of 1919, as the anointed remnant of spiritual underpriests in the “Holy” of Jehovah’s spiritual temple, how did they feel? Like Isaiah, who said:

14. How did Isaiah voice his uncleanness at the temple?

¹⁴ “Woe to me! For I am as good as brought to silence, because a man unclean in lips I am, and in among a people unclean in lips I am dwelling; for my eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of armies, himself!”​—Isaiah 6:5.

15. When was this temple vision of Isaiah called to the attention of the anointed remnant, and in what words of the keynote speech?

¹⁵ This prophetic outcry of the prophet was made when he had a miraculous vision of Jehovah at his temple. This vision was brought to the attention of the anointed remnant in the year 1922 C.E. It was on what was termed “The Day,” namely, September 8, 1922, of the second international assembly held by the International Bible Students Association at Cedar Point, Ohio, for eight days. Toward the climax of his speech on “The Day,” the key Scripture text of which was Matthew 4:17, the then president of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society said:

Why, then, deliver the message to those who do not understand? Will any one hear? The Prophet of the Lord answers: “ . . . Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen; that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no savior. I have declared, and have saved, and I have showed, when there was no strange god among you; therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God.”​—Isaiah 43:8-12.

Thus we see that those of the temple class are clearly designated as the Lord’s witnesses at this time, to bring a message of consolation to the people, that the kingdom of heaven is here, . . . Thus it is seen that God purposes that his name shall be magnified, that the people shall know that he is Lord. Thus we see that God purposes to have a people in the earth in this time of stress, clearly marked as separate and distinct from all others, standing as his witnesses, fearlessly crying out the message: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

. . . Since 1914 the King of glory has taken his power and reigns. He has cleansed the lips of the temple class and sends them forth with the message. The importance of the message of the kingdom cannot be overstated. It is the message of all messages. It is the message of the hour. It is incumbent upon those who are the Lord’s to declare it. . . .

. . . Be faithful and true witnesses for the Lord. Go forward in the fight until every vestige of Babylon lies desolate. Herald the message far and wide. The world must know that Jehovah is God and that Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords. This is the day of all days. Behold, the King reigns! You are his publicity agents. Therefore advertise, advertise, advertise, the King and his kingdom.​—The Watch Tower, as of November 1, 1922, pages 336, 337.

16. (a) What did those who accepted the cleansing of their lips desire now to do? (b) What back there shows whether all those associated with the anointed remnant were so disposed?

¹⁶ Many of the anointed remnant saw the need for their lips to be purged just as the prophet Isaiah had had his lips purged as by fire that he might declare the further message of Jehovah, who was at His temple. (Isaiah 6:6-10) They sincerely desired to have part in the further work of collecting those whom Jehovah God would make associate priests with Jesus Christ in the heavens, to bring the number of 144,000 underpriests to the full. But not all of the spiritual remnant were so disposed at that time. As an example of this, in that year 1922 and before the May 1 issue of The Watch Tower was published, one of the five men on the editorial staff of that magazine and his wife left the theocratic organization and sought other employment. There were others who took similar action at the time or later. Being a publicity agent of God’s kingdom and going from house to house as such in using one’s cleansed lips did not suit them. Other requirements of the spiritual underpriests in the Holy of Jehovah’s temple were too much for them. They became unclean because of their indifference, unconcern and return to worldly interests.

17. (a) How did such uncleanness affect the rest of Jehovah’s theocratic organization? (b) What attitude is it that He blesses?

¹⁷ Uncleanness of that kind, lack of devotion to the full worship of the true God at his spiritual temple, is a pollution to the rest of the theocratic organization. It results in Jehovah’s withholding his blessing. Wholehearted devotion to the furtherance of his pure worship brings a restoration of God’s favor and his promised blessings. This important fact was emphasized by God himself as he went on to say to the priests whom Haggai had questioned:

18. Before this day of Haggai’s prophecy, what had been the condition of the remnant economically, and why would Jehovah now bless them from this day forward?

¹⁸ “‘But now, please, set your heart on this from this day and forward, before there was the placing of a stone upon a stone in the temple of Jehovah, from when those things happened to be​—one came to a heap of twenty measures, and it proved to be ten; one came to the press vat to draw off fifty measures of the wine trough, and it proved to be twenty; I struck you people with scorching and with mildew and with hail, even all the work of your hands, and there was no one with you turning to me,’ is the utterance of Jehovah​—‘Set your heart, please, on this from this day and forward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day that the foundation of the temple of Jehovah was laid; set your heart on this: Is there as yet the seed in the grain pit? And as yet, the vine and the fig tree and the pomegranate tree and the olive tree​—it has not borne, has it? From this day I shall bestow blessing.’”​—Haggai 2:15-19.

THE DAY OF RETURN TO PROSPERITY

19. From that twenty-fourth day of Chislev the Jewish remnant could make a test of Jehovah in what regard, and what did His law covenant allow for them to expect?

¹⁹ It was now the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month (Chislev), and by that time there should have been increasing autumn rains, even some snow appearing on the mountaintops. That day the faithful Jewish remnant had begun work anew at the temple foundation, as if they were laying the foundation all over again. (Ezra 3:8-12) From that marked day the Jewish remnant could make a test of Jehovah as to whether he would fulfill his gladsome promise. Droughts would be a thing of the past, also the mildew, and the ruinous hail, and there would be no further shortages in the basic foodstuffs. And there is nothing in Bible history to indicate that things did not turn out that way. As they courageously stuck to the temple work to its completion, Jehovah faithfully stuck to his promise. Just as he had promised in His law covenant mediated by His prophet Moses, their whole-souled commitment of themselves to His worship would be rewarded with material prosperity on their God-given land.​—Deuteronomy 28:1-14.

20. What kind of prosperity was the anointed remnant entitled to expect for resuming work in behalf of Jehovah’s true worship, and how did such prosperity manifest itself?

²⁰ That must have been true of the temple-minded Jewish remnant back there, if what happened to them back there was a foreshadowing of what has happened to the anointed remnant of spiritual underpriests from 1919 C.E. onward. The resuming of the priestly responsibilities in the Holy of Jehovah’s true spiritual temple marked the turning point for the anointed remnant of Christ’s disciples who survived the trials and afflictions of World War I of 1914-1918 C.E. Being spiritual Israelites with a heavenly inheritance in view, they were not expecting material blessings for their faithfulness as the natural Israelites back in Haggai’s days were entitled to do. What the anointed remnant of spiritual underpriests expected according to God’s promises was spiritual prosperity. They were not disappointed. Their testing of the promises of God was not in vain. In spite of mounting resistance from the world and the anguish of the worldly nations who do not know the way out of their continual distress, the work of the anointed remnant in promoting true worship at Jehovah’s spiritual temple prospered, expanded, brought increasing results.

21. Where can one find a record of such spiritual prosperity of the faithful remnant, and what does this prove about Jehovah’s promise?

²¹ The adversaries​—religious, political, judicial and social—​have taken note of this inescapable fact. For a detailed record of the spiritual prosperity of Jehovah’s Christian witnesses, one has but to read the annual reports published in the columns of the Watch Tower magazine since 1919 and in the Yearbooks since 1927, presenting reports on the worldwide growth of the work in preaching “this good news of the kingdom” in all the inhabited earth and in making disciples of people of all the nations, as commanded by the Lord Jesus Christ, Jehovah’s High Priest. (Matthew 24:14; 28:18-20; Acts 1:8; Hebrews 2:17 to 3:1) The inerasable record of modern history testifies mightily to the fact that Jehovah God, who cannot lie, has kept true to his promise of blessings. We never serve Him in vain.​—Joshua 23:14; Psalm 138:2; 1 Corinthians 15:58.

REWARD OF A GOVERNING BODY’S BACKING CLEAN WORSHIP

22, 23. (a) Haggai’s final prophecy was addressed to whom, in expression of Jehovah’s appreciation of what? (b) In that prophecy, what did Jehovah promise to put out of action, and what would he do to Zerubbabel?

²² In the year 520 B.C.E., on the first day of the sixth lunar month (Elul), when the prophetic word of Jehovah first occurred to Haggai, it was directed to “Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah,” as well as to “Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest.” (Haggai 1:1) Almost four months later the final inspired prophecy of Haggai is addressed exclusively to the same governor of the Persian province of Judah, Zerubbabel. He had proved obedient to Jehovah’s encouragement through the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, and now, under his governorship, the work at the foundation of Jehovah’s temple in Jerusalem had been taken up again with fine courage in defiance of a misapplied ban by a misinformed king of Persia. (Ezra 4:17-24) Was Jehovah God appreciative of this? He was, and in expression of this he sent a personal message to Governor Zerubbabel. We read:

²³ “And the word of Jehovah proceeded to occur a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, saying: ‘Say to Zerubbabel the governor of Judah, “I am rocking the heavens and the earth. And I shall certainly overthrow the throne of kingdoms and annihilate the strength of the kingdoms of the nations; and I will overthrow the chariot and its riders, and the horses and their riders will certainly come down, each one by the sword of his brother.”’ ‘“In that day,” is the utterance of Jehovah of armies, “I shall take you, O Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, my servant,” is the utterance of Jehovah; “and I shall certainly set you as a seal ring, because you are the one whom I have chosen,” is the utterance of Jehovah of armies.’”​—Haggai 2:20-23.

24. Whose approval did Zerubbabel gain by taking his bold step on that twenty-fourth day of Chislev, and why was it this that mattered?

²⁴ On that twenty-fourth day of the ninth lunar month (Chislev) in the second year of the reign of King Darius I of Persia, Governor Zerubbabel had taken a bold step, apparently in defiance of the mighty Persian Empire. But he had taken a good and right step in obedience to Jehovah of armies. Now through the prophet Haggai he had gained the expression of approval of Jehovah of armies. So what did the disapproval or objections of men matter? He had approval from the Highest Source of authority, the Theocratic Ruler of the nation of Israel. This God as divine Ruler is to be obeyed rather than man-made rulers. Why, Israel’s Theocratic Ruler could rock both the heavens and the earth and remove them. What, then, could spirit creatures and human creatures who make up those heavens and earth do to thwart, frustrate, successfully oppose his declared purposes? Nothing! Devils and men, all combined, cannot triumph against him. He can rock them all.

25. What goes along with such rocking of the heavens and the earth, and why are the details of this fitting for such a person as Jehovah of armies to set out?

²⁵ What goes along with or results from this rocking of the heavens and the earth by the Universal Sovereign? Jehovah of armies explains, saying: “And I shall certainly overthrow the throne of kingdoms and annihilate the strength of the kingdoms of the nations; and I will overthrow the chariot and its riders, and the horses and their riders will certainly come down, each one by the sword of his brother.” (Haggai 2:22) How fitting it is here for the God who calls himself Jehovah of armies to speak of taking action against the military forces of the world of mankind! Such armed forces for offense and defense really constitute the “strength of the kingdoms of the nations.” The nations of this twentieth century C.E. proceed on that theory, and all the nations are arming themselves, some of them with the most fantastic weapons that modern science can devise. But such armaments and highly trained military forces are a vain hope for giving permanent stability to the throne or governmental seat of the kingdoms of the nations. Jehovah of armies can annihilate such “strength.”

26. What can be said as to whether Jehovah of armies has to put in personal appearance for his enemies to fight against him or for him to fight against them?

²⁶ The Persian Empire, as the Fourth World Power of Bible history, proved to be stable for little more than two hundred years. Its horses and chariots and their riders, even militarized elephants, did not save it from overthrow by Alexander the Great of Greece. Horses and chariots and their riders cannot fight directly against the invisible Jehovah of armies. Neither does Jehovah of armies have to put in personal appearance to fight against military forces on earth. Out of the invisible he can exert his invincible power and make them fight among themselves, either by fright causing panic or by bitter quarrels among themselves. He can produce anarchy among all his foes. He did it in previous times, and he promises to do it again. Governor Zerubbabel knew of such previous occasions. (Judges 7:19-22; 2 Chronicles 20:22-24) He had reason to believe that Jehovah of armies could foil the enemies of His people once again by causing them to turn their weapons against themselves.

27. How would the rocking of the heavens and the earth and the nations affect Zerubbabel as a seal ring on Jehovah’s hand?

²⁷ However, Jehovah of armies did not state it to be his purpose to rock his faithful, obedient people who devoted themselves to the rebuilding of His house of worship and to the carrying on of clean worship therein. Neither would Governor Zerubbabel be deposed by the Persian emperor for going ahead with temple building before he received official authorization from King Darius I. This could no more occur than for a seal ring to be taken off the right hand of Jehovah of armies. Let the heavens and the earth rock! Let the mightily armed nations rock! But the position of Governor Zerubbabel would be stable, unshaken. This was the force of the assurance that Jehovah now made to Zerubbabel:

28, 29. How opposite was Jehovah’s promise to Zerubbabel about the seal ring from His declaration about King Jehoiachin or Coniah?

²⁸ “‘In that day,’ is the utterance of Jehovah of armies, ‘I shall take you, O Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, my servant,’ is the utterance of Jehovah; ‘and I shall certainly set you as a seal ring, because you are the one whom I have chosen,’ is the utterance of Jehovah of armies.”​—Haggai 2:23.

²⁹ How opposite this divine prophecy was to what the prophet Jeremiah had been inspired to say respecting Jehoiachin (or, Jeconiah, Coniah), who had reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem in 618-617 B.C.E. and who was the grandfather of Zerubbabel! (1 Chronicles 3:17-19; 2 Chronicles 36:9, 10) Speaking of Jehoiachin as Coniah, Jeremiah said: “‘As I am alive,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘even if Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, happened to be the seal ring on my right hand, from there I would pull you off! And I will give you into the hand of those who are seeking for your soul and into the hand of those of whom you are scared and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans. . . . O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of Jehovah. This is what Jehovah has said, ‘Write down this man as childless, as an able-bodied man who will not have any success in his days; for from his offspring not a single one will have any success, sitting upon the throne of David and ruling anymore in Judah.’”​—Jeremiah 22:24-30.

30. (a) How precious was a seal ring to its owner? (b) Why was the official position of Jehoiachin to be respected, and why did Jehovah cast him away?

³⁰ From this divine decree against the grandfather of Zerubbabel it can be discerned that a seal ring was very precious to someone of high rank. It bore the name of its owner, and was used in official business for stamping the signature of the owner on a document to authenticate it. (Genesis 38:18-26; 41:42; 1 Kings 21:8) So if Zerubbabel’s grandfather, King Jehoiachin, had been like a seal ring on Jehovah’s right hand, he would have been very precious to Jehovah. As it was, he had been anointed to be king in Jerusalem and thus became “Jehovah’s anointed” and sat upon “Jehovah’s throne” in Jerusalem, even though for just three months and ten days. (1 Samuel 24:6, 10; Lamentations 4:20; 1 Chronicles 29:23) For this reason the person of King Jehoiachin deserved and commanded special respect, from men. Yet, despite his having an official connection with Jehovah, he became repulsive to Jehovah because he continued in the wicked ways of his father, King Jehoiakim. In indignation, Jehovah pulled him off and cast him away, letting him go captive to Babylon and to prison there.

31. Why was Zerubbabel’s being made governor of Judah in 537 B.C.E. not a contradiction of what Jehovah said about Zerubbabel’s grandfather in Jeremiah 22:30?

³¹ What, though, is this? Eighty years later, in 537 B.C.E., Jehoiachin’s grandson, Zerubbabel, is released from exile in Babylon and is made governor of the Persian province of Judah, to govern from Jerusalem. (Ezra 1:1 to 4:3) Was that not a contradiction of what Jehovah had said to Zerubbabel’s grandfather in Jeremiah 22:30? No, the captive Jehoiachin continued “childless” as far as having any of his sons to sit upon David’s throne at Jerusalem. In fact, his uncle, Mattaniah, whose name was changed to Zedekiah, succeeded him upon David’s throne, only to lose the throne in 607 B.C.E., at Jerusalem’s destruction by the Babylonians. David’s throne was overturned, never to be set up again in literal earthly Jerusalem. (Ezekiel 21:25-27) The 2,520 years of the Gentile Times began there, in 607 B.C.E., for Jerusalem or the Messianic kingdom of God that it symbolized to be trampled upon by the Gentile nations. True to prophecy, none of Jehoiachin’s several sons sat on Jehovah’s throne in Jerusalem as David’s royal descendant. His grandson Zerubbabel sat, not on David’s royal throne, but in the seat of a governor appointed by King Cyrus.

32. How did Zerubbabel act as a living seal ring on Jehovah’s hand, and why was he precious to Jehovah whereas his kingly grandfather was not?

³² Although inferior to his grandfather in official rank from man’s standpoint, Zerubbabel became something very precious to Jehovah, like a seal ring on the right hand of Jehovah of armies. It was for a reason opposite to that for which King Jehoiachin was not too precious to be thrown away, namely, his keeping Jehovah’s commandments and displaying courageous devotion to Jehovah’s clean worship at his temple. Like a living seal ring, he served Jehovah of armies in an official way, for the glory and praise of Jehovah’s holy name. Whereas the heavenly Commander in Chief of armies had rejected King Jehoiachin, he had “chosen” his faithful grandson Zerubbabel. The theocratic Sovereign of the universe might rock the heavens and the earth and all the worldly militarized nations, but he would not rock Governor Zerubbabel and remove him from an honored position of service in the visible theocratic organization. What he said later about Zerubbabel through the prophet Zechariah (4:6-10) confirmed this.

WIDER MEANING OF THE PROPHECY

33. (a) Why did the complete fulfillment of Haggai’s prophecy not end with Governor Zerubbabel in the sixth century B.C.E.? (b) Of whom is the antitypical Zerubbabel the Governor?

³³ Does the complete fulfillment of this prophecy end with Governor Zerubbabel of the Persian province of Judah in the sixth century before our Common Era? Evidently not! He was a type of someone greater. Of whom? Of the one of whom he became an honored ancestor, the one with whom his genealogical line in the Bible record ends, namely, Jesus Christ. (Matthew 1:1-16; Luke 3:23-27) This antitypical Zerubbabel is now the heavenly Governor in Jehovah’s visible theocratic organization on earth, namely, the anointed remnant of spiritual Israel. (Galatians 6:16; Romans 2:28, 29; Revelation 7:4-8) These were restored from spiritual bondage to Babylon the Great, as facts show, in 1919 C.E. Like the ancient remnant of Jewish exiles, they were released from the Babylonish world empire of false religion that they might apply themselves primarily to the things having to do with the clean worship of Jehovah at his spiritual temple.

34. How is that one the leading Promoter of the work in connection with Jehovah’s temple?

³⁴ The antitypical Zerubbabel, Jesus Christ, as heavenly Governor of spiritual Israel, is the leading Promoter of this work in connection with Jehovah’s temple. He arranges it that his anointed disciples have a place of service as spiritual underpriests in the Holy of that temple.​—John 17:17-19.

35. How can the name Zerubbabel, despite its meaning, be fittingly used respecting the heavenly Governor, Jesus Christ?

³⁵ The name Zerubbabel, which means “Seed of Babylon,” need not disturb us in being applied to the heavenly Jesus Christ as Governor. True, he himself was never in Babylon the Great. Nevertheless, the remnant of anointed disciples who survived the trials and persecutions during World War I were, during that time, brought into religious bondage to Babylon the Great and her political paramours. According to the rule that what is done to them is as if it were done to him, the greater Governor Zerubbabel (as represented in the anointed remnant) was in Babylon the Great to resemble ancient Zerubbabel, who was literally born in Babylon of old and who could therefore be called “Seed of Babylon.” He led the faithful anointed remnant of spiritual Israelites out of a Babylon greater than the ancient city on the Euphrates River, setting them free by his truth. (John 8:32) By him as Governor the visible earthly theocratic organization has good rulership.

36. How does the heavenly Governor compare with ancient Zerubbabel as to preciousness and courage, and who today on earth imitate him?

³⁶ This Governor like Zerubbabel is most precious to Jehovah God, like the seal ring on the right hand, that bears the divine name. He is most concerned about the sanctification of his heavenly Father’s name. (Matthew 6:9, 10; John 12:28; 17:6-12) He is fearless, like ancient Zerubbabel, Governor Zerubbabel was strengthened not to be afraid of defying the Persian Empire, the Fourth World Power of Bible history. Today the heavenly Governor of spiritual Israel is not afraid of the Seventh World Power of Bible history, namely, the British-American dual world power, nor of the Eighth World Power, namely, the international organization for world peace and security, now composed of the 132 members of the United Nations. (Revelation 17:7-17) Like their heavenly Governor, the anointed remnant of spiritual Israel do not fear those world powers either. Fearlessly they work on world wide in the interests of clean worship at Jehovah’s spiritual temple.

37. How is the antitypical Zerubbabel like a seal ring on Jehovah’s hand as to usage and preciousness?

³⁷ Was not an ancient seal ring used to affix the name of its owner to a document, thus to prove that it genuinely originated with him and that it expressed his will, purpose or instructions? Yes. In a like manner the antitypical Zerubbabel, Jesus Christ, is used by Jehovah of armies to fulfill the prophecies and promises and thereby prove that those recorded pronouncements really originated from the divine, infallible Source and are the divine truth. In this way, too, Jehovah’s name and word are vindicated through Jesus Christ, who is as precious to Jehovah as an official seal ring. “For no matter how many the promises of God are, they have become Yes by means of him. Therefore also through him is the ‘Amen’ said to God for glory through us [Christian disciples].”​—2 Corinthians 1:20.

38. Why does the Greater Zerubbabel have nothing to fear from the rocking of heaven, earth and the nations today, and how will he maintain good rulership for Jehovah’s worshipers?

³⁸ Since the close of the Gentile Times in 1914 C.E., the figurative heavens and earth have been made to rock. The nations of the world of mankind are rocking, unable to stabilize the worldly system of things. It is Jehovah of armies who is doing the rocking, just as he told Governor Zerubbabel of old time. The rocking, humanly uncontrollable, will reach its peak of agitation in the “great tribulation” that now appears to be very near, to be followed by the abyssing of Satan. (Matthew 24:21, 22) But the Greater Zerubbabel, Jesus Christ, has nothing to fear from the rocking. His position of heavenly governorship is unshakably fixed. His is “a kingdom that cannot be shaken.” (Hebrews 12:28) It will not be removed, but will be used by Jehovah of armies in removing Babylon the Great and the world powers of today, annihilating their military “strength” in the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Har–Magedon. (Revelation 16:13-16; 17:12-14; 19:11-21) Thereafter it will bless all the surviving worshipers of Jehovah God at his spiritual temple with good rulership forever.

39. Happy are we worshipers of Jehovah today​—for what?

³⁹ Happy are we worshipers at the true temple to be already enjoying divine blessings and the good rulership of Jehovah’s heavenly Governor as the world of false worshipers rocks.