Pagină:Drama-of-vindication-part-III-1939.djvu/3

ghe WATCHTOW ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH’S KINGDOM Vout. LX Marcu 1, 1939 No. 5 DRAMA OF VINDICATION PART 8 “Fear not; for I have redeemed [delivered] thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.” —Isa. 43:1. EHOVAH had expressed Lis purpose to have his J name declared throughout all the earth before exercising his power to destroy the enemy. (Exod. 9:16) His purpose must be performed in due time. It is to be expected that Jehovah will se- lect his witnesses and use them to declare his name throughout all the earth and that such selection would be done and the witnesses would be given their proper name by Jehovah before beginning the final witness just preceding the fall of Satan’s organization. In the drama of vindication there was done at the Jordan river a miraculous thing show- ing that Jehovah selects his own witnesses, gives them their new and proper name, commissions them to do their work, and sends them forth to perform the work previously purposed by him. After this is done, the revelation of these great truths to his people is another means of giving them strength and further shows that “whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scrip- tures might have hope”. (Rom. 15:4) These great truths now revealed to the remnant not only give them great comfort and joy, but also furnish food from the table of the Lord to the Jonadabs, who will compose the “great multitude”, and upon which food they must now feed while they sing the praises of the Most High and his King. The Jonadabs are now seeing and appreciating these truths and greatly rejoicing. All the witness work must be done with- out reference to fear of man or any creature.

• The Israelites, in obedience to the command

of the Lord given to them by their visible leader Joshua, had left their tents and had lined up for the march to the waters of the raging Jordan. It was the harvest time, and the Jordan was full. The Israelites must be very courageous and faith- fully obey instructions. “And it came to pass, when the people removed from their tents, to pass over Jordan, and the priests bearing the ark of the cove- nant before the people.’—Josh. 3:14.

• Referring now to the fulfillment of this part of

67 the drama: It was in the year 1922 that such ful- filment began. Preceding that time God’s covenant people were in a state of comparative inactivity in the service of the Lord, and that was pictured by the typical people of God resting in their tents just preceding receiving the order to move from their tents toward the Jordan. Leaving their tents “to pass over [the] Jordan” foretold that Jehovah’s modern-day servants must enter upon their herit- age, that is, must promote the kingdom interests and must go out after the enemies of the Lord and wipe out their religious domination of the prom- ised kingdom, which the religious institutions wrong- fully claim; that they must meet all opposition, exercising full faith and confidence in the Lord Jehovah and his King. There was an assembly in convention of God’s covenant people at Cedar Point, Ohio, in the year 1922, which marks the beginning of the energetic activity of those fully devoted to God and his King, and which marks the beginning of the march to the Jordan antitypically. ‘The priests of Israel, performing their part in the drama, carried the ark of the covenant upon their shoulders to the Jordan. They advanced to the point on the banks of the Jordan doubtless at the same location where later Elisha with the mantle of Elijah smote the waters of that river and was then miraculously taken over the river. When the Israelites moved to the Jordan it was the harvest time and the river was very high, as is usually the case at that season of the year. Its waters were rushing madly down to the Dead sea. “And as they that bare the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, (for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest).”—Josh. 3:15.

• In the fulfillment of this part of the drama, as

it appears from the well-known facts, the point of peculiar interest was reached on September 8, 1922, when the announcement was first publicly made that the Lord Christ Jesus was at his temple, and that the time had come when his servants must advertise