Part 33—“Your Will Be Done on Earth”
With the overthrow of the Nazi-Fascist Axis Powers at the close of World War II in 1945 the ruling factors of Communist Russia undertook the role of the “king of the north,” whose long history is set forth in Daniel’s prophecy, chapter eleven. This symbolic king of the north defies not only the king of the south, the Anglo-American dual world-power, but also the God of gods, namely, Jehovah the God of the prophet Daniel. Verses 41-43 of Da 11 (JP) go on to say: “He shall enter also into the beauteous land, and many countries shall be overthrown; but these shall be delivered out of his hand, Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries; and the land of Egypt shall not escape. But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt; and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.” What does this mean?
59. In Daniel 8:9, 23-25 what did we find the “beauteous land” to symbolize, and hence in Daniel 11:41 who are forewarned of a final assault by the king of the north?
59 In Daniel’s earlier vision, Daniel 8:9, 23-25 (JP) speaks of the “beauteous land” toward which the “little horn” or “king of fierce countenance” would extend his power in the latter time of worldly kingdoms, where we are now. In that prophecy the “beauteous land” took on a spiritual meaning. It pictured, not Palestine, but the earthly condition of Jehovah’s sanctuary class in their relationship to Jehovah by his new covenant. Likewise, in the final activities of the king of the north, this spiritually “beauteous land” of the sanctuary class is the realm that he invades. He has already tried to profane the sanctuary. (Dan. 11:31, JP) But now at God’s appointed time for the Armageddon fight the king of the north sets out to destroy the “beauteous land” to wipe it off the earth. In this course he acts as an earthly instrument of Gog of Magog, who is Satan the Devil. Ezekiel 38:14-17; 39:1-6 (JP) foretells that Gog with his earthly hordes actually invades this “beauteous land” of restored spiritual Israel. This becomes the time for Jehovah to begin the war of his great day. Consequently, in Daniel 11:41, the sanctuary class are forewarned against the final assault of the king of the north under the unseen leadership of Gog of Magog.
60. What meaning, therefore, must Edom, Moab and the chief of the children of Ammon here take on, and so whom do they picture?
60 To balance in a proper way the spiritual meaning of the “beauteous land” of spiritual Israel, the lands of Edom, Moab and the chief of the children of Ammon must take on a spiritual meaning, rather than refer to modern Jordan the capital of which is Amman (ancient Rabbath Ammon). The sanctuary class of Jehovah is not in the Republic of Israel of today, although a few members might be found there. The remnant of the sanctuary class are found all around the earth, and their “land” or earthly condition is flourishing with the beauty of spiritual prosperity. Hence as Edom, Moab and Ammon in ancient times bordered on the land of Jehovah’s people, so the symbolic Edom, Moab and Ammon of the prophecy must picture those whose lives touch upon and have to do with Jehovah’s sanctuary class of today. Ancient Edom, Moab and Ammon were long-time, unchanging enemies of Jehovah’s faithful people. For this reason they came under God’s condemnation. (Jer. 48:1 to 49:22; Ezek. 25:1-14; 35:1-15, AS) Reasonably, then, they picture the hard-set enemies of Jehovah’s sanctuary class, his spiritual Israel, of today.
61. So why does the king of the north not stretch out his hand upon them, as he does upon other “countries”?
61 Naturally the enemies of the sanctuary class would be the friends or be on the side of the king of the north. So he would not stretch out his hand against those symbolized by Edom, Moab and Ammon. These modern organizations would be delivered or would escape out of his hand, whereas many other “countries” or modern earthly organizations, institutions or situations would “be overthrown.”
62. Out of whose hand will symbolic Edom, Moab and the chief part of the children of Ammon not be delivered, and where?
62 Although the symbolic Edom, Moab and Ammon may escape from the hand of the Communist king of the north, they will not be delivered from Jehovah’s hand at Armageddon. In ancient time Ammon, Moab and people of Mount Seir (Edomites) marched against Jerusalem in the days of King Jehoshaphat but were thrown into confusion by Jehovah’s strange power and were maddened into killing one another off. So at the coming battle of Armageddon, Jehovah will by his irresistible power throw the symbolic Edomite, Moabite and Ammonite enemies of his sanctuary class into disorder and confusion. They will turn their destructive weapons against one another. (2 Chron. 20:1-24) Any who escape this self-slaughter will be pursued and be destroyed by Jehovah’s angelic armies under Christ. His sanctuary class in the “beauteous land” will be protected and survive.
63. Since Daniel 11:42, 43 speaks of the “costly things of Egypt,” when was literal Egypt a rich country?
63 Jehovah’s angel foretold further aggressions by the Communist king of the north before his end in Armageddon: “And he will stretch forth his hand against some countries, and the land of Egypt will not escape. And he will have control over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the costly things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians will follow at his steps.” (Dan. 11:42, 43, Le) Back in the days of the Ptolemaic kings Egypt was a rich country. Its seaport and capital, Alexandria, was second city to Rome, and was a great commercial as well as cultural center.
64. When did modern Egypt gain its independence, and what led up to the formation of the United Arab Republic as a neutral country?
64 As for modern Egypt, it gained its full independence A.D. 1936 and the erstwhile British High Commissioner was taken away and British troops were withdrawn from the land, except that those guarding the Suez Canal and the British naval base at Alexandria continued. During World War II the British troops prevented the Nazi king of the north from reaching and taking over the Suez Canal and Alexandria and overrunning Egypt. In 1945 Egypt proved to be one of the fifty-one original members of the United Nations. In 1952 King Farouk was expelled and governmental changes took place. Finally Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser became president of the Republic. The British withdrew from Alexandria and from the Suez Canal by June 13, 1956. The dangerous Suez Canal incident took place later in 1956, but President Nasser came forth with enhanced prestige throughout the Arab world. February 1, 1958, the republics of Egypt and Syria joined together as a unified state called the United Arab Republic. For this union President Nasser thanked Allah. March 8, 1958, the kingdom of Yemen joined the U.A.R. to form the United Arab States, and President Nasser prayed to Allah in behalf of this enlarged union. He strongly proclaimed his determination to steer his country on the course of “positive neutrality” toward the Communist Eastern bloc and the democratic Western bloc.
65. Why is Egypt to be viewed symbolically in Daniel 11:42, 43, and in what way is the king of the north selfishly interested in this symbolic Egypt?
65 In the angelic prophecy to Daniel, Egypt was the seat of the king of the south. Hence the attack upon Egypt from the north, to push back the king of the south. In the fulfillment of the prophecy today this does not have reference to the literal land of Egypt, for the “beauteous land” to the north has taken on a spiritual or symbolic meaning. So, too, Egypt must be viewed spiritually, as in the last book of the Bible, which says of Jehovah’s “two witnesses”: “Their corpses will be on the broad way of the great city which is in a spiritual sense called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was also impaled.” (Rev. 11:8) Since Jesus Christ the Lord was actually put to death at Jerusalem in Judea, he could have been impaled in “Egypt” only in the spiritual sense that Egypt symbolized this world of which Jesus said that he and his faithful followers were no part. (Luke 13:33, 34; John 15:18, 19; 17:14-16) It is this world in which the Communist king is bent on winning the dominant position. He now claims that he can capture world domination without general war, but by an ideological, commercial, scientific, cultural campaign. He is out, not only to win over the neutral bloc of nations, but also to pull in or subvert the nations that adhere to the democratic king of the south, the Anglo-American dual world power. So he continues to “stretch forth his hand against some countries [or earthly realms of interest] “ by various means.
66. Since World War II, how has the king of the north pushed his offensive wherever possible?
66 During the past he distinguished himself by infiltrating Communist spies and subversive agents, by bribery and corruption, by trade agreements, by offering loans and technical assistance, by threatening retaliation to nations seeking to defend themselves, by taking the initiative in propaganda to put his opponents in a bad light, this by radio, by political conferences on various levels clear to the summit, and by speeches even in the United Nations Assembly. He has posed as the champion of the forces of peace and has made peace proposals. He has promised liberation from colonialism, from imperialism and from warmongering capitalism. He has led off in the field of missiles and put up the first and second sputniks into outer space by means of intercontinental ballistic missiles during the 1957-1958 International Geophysical Year.a He has waged a terrific “cold war” and has warred also to capture the minds of men. He has vehemently attacked with words the defense alliances of nations, such as the NATO and the SEATO and the Baghdad Pact. He has paid official courtesy visits to neutral nations and has supplied military equipment to those refused by the king of the south. In all directions he has pushed his offensive.
67. Over what does Daniel 11:43 predict the king of the north to gain control, and in what way will the Libyans and Ethiopians be “at his steps”?
67 How far the king of the north will have got when he reaches his “time of the end” the future alone will tell. But he is predicted to gain control over the treasures of gold, silver and all the precious things of this commercialized, materialistic world, including oil. Those who are neighbors to this world, pictured by Egypt’s neighbors, the Libyans and Ethiopians, will be “at his steps,” following the king of the north, either by compulsion or willingly for selfish reasons. This turns out to be, of course, with considerable loss to the king of the south in various ways.
68. Does Daniel’s prophecy indicate that the king of the north will destroy the king of the south, or that he himself will come to his end by the king of the south?
68 He does not destroy the king of the south, nor does the king of the south destroy him. What, then, causes the king of the north to take the final step to his own destruction? Jehovah’s angel throws light on this by the prophecy: “But reports out of the east and out of the north will terrify him; and he will go forth with great fury to destroy, and to exterminate many. And he will pitch the tents of his palace between seas and the glorious holy mountain [the beauteous holy mountain, JP]; and he will come to his end, without one to help him.”—Dan. 11:44, 45, Le.
69. From whom could those terrifying reports not come to the king of the north?
69 The terrifying reports out of the east and north could not be reports from the king of the south. Neither are they from his own kingdom of the north. The reports must come from outside the realms of the king of the north and the king of the south, between whom this earth is divided. Neutral nations do not count much, because of not being nuclear nations. Although the symbolic Gog of Magog is prophesied to come down from the “farthest ends of the north” (Ezek. 39:2, Le), yet the terrifying reports do not come from Satan the Devil, for this symbolic Gog of Magog leads both the king of the north and the king of the south in his train. From whom, then, do the reports come with terrifying effect?
70. In coming from the east and the north, from whom, then, must the terrifying news come, and what does the news contain?
70 In the prophecy of Daniel the king of the north had pushed south, penetrated into Egypt, grabbed control over its precious things and influenced the southern peoples, the Libyans and the Ethiopians, to follow at his steps. From this strategic southern location of the king of the north the “beauteous land” or land of Judea was to his north and east, or northeast, just as ancient Judea was northeast of Egypt. The terrifying reports must therefore come from Jehovah’s sanctuary class in the “beauteous land” of spiritual prosperity. Up to now the sanctuary class, supported by the great crowd of “other sheep,” have been reporting on Jehovah’s universal sovereignty, on the establishment of his kingdom by Christ at the close of the “appointed times of the nations” in 1914, and on the coming “war of the great day of God the Almighty” commonly called the battle of Armageddon. What contents the reports will finally bear so as to infuriate him to go forth to bring the sanctuary class and their fellow worshipers to ruin and to devote them to destruction, Jehovah now knows and will yet determine.
71. Besides the news, what else will come from the north and the east against the king of the north, and so how long will the news keep coming to him?
71 Since the reports really issue forth from Jehovah and through his reigning King Jesus Christ, it is Scripturally well said that the reports are out of the north and the east. The Scriptures locate Jehovah God relatively in the north. (Ps 75:6, 7; 48:2) He the King of eternity and his reigning King Jesus Christ are symbolically spoken of as the “kings from the rising of the sun” or from the east, who move against the organization foreshadowed by Babylon on the Euphrates River. (Rev. 16:12) Jehovah speaks of calling his reigning King from the east or sunrising. (Isa. 46:10, 11) So, not merely the reports, but also the forces of destruction will come from those directions upon the king of the north. As the reports must reach this king by means of Jehovah’s visible earthly channel of newsreporting, so as to infuriate the king to his ruinous course, this prophecy makes one thing clear: Jehovah’s sanctuary class and their great crowd of fellow worshipers will persist in obeying Matthew 24:14 by preaching “this good news of the kingdom” in all the inhabited earth down to the “time of the end” of the king of the north. He will not stop them!
72. In his purpose to destroy, where will he pitch his palatial campaign tents, according to Jehovah’s angel?
72 The king of the north will sally forth to destroy and to exterminate many, but how far will he get with his destructive purpose? Where does he establish his base of operations? Jehovah’s angel prophesied that the king would pitch his palatial campaign tents “between the seas and the beauteous holy mountain.”—JP.
73. According to this campaign base, what would be the main point of attack by the king of the north, and by whom will he be finally joined in this attack?
73 From Daniel’s viewpoint, this tent location would be between the Mediterranean, the Great Sea, and the holy mountain of Jehovah’s sanctuary or temple. Because of its excelling greatness in comparison with the Palestinian Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee, the Mediterranean could, in Hebrew, be spoken of as “seas.” The king’s camp would therefore be in the land of Jehovah’s dedicated people, the “beauteous land,” and the king’s main point of attack would be against the “beauteous holy mountain,” where Jehovah’s sanctuary is and where his “holy nation” together with aliens of good will worship him. Plainly the king of the north is set to wipe out Jehovah’s worship, the sanctuary of which the king of the north profaned and trampled upon in times past. Its persistent survival and its unchecked growth, even in underground ways, irritates the king. The reports that the sanctuary class and the worshiping “other sheep” announce from house to house and publicly and unpublicly underground disturb the Communist dictatorial power. A campaign against these Kingdom publishers becomes more important than the king’s aggressive campaign against the king of the south. The relations between the king of the north and the king of the south are not so serious and threatening. In fact, the unseen mastermind, the symbolic Gog of Magog, maneuvers both kings into joining him in a final, full-scale assault upon Jehovah’s “beauteous land.”
74. Why is the goal of his attack the “beauteous holy mountain,” and what does prophecy say about the success of his attack?
74 The mountain upon which Jehovah’s material temple stood till A.D. 70 and which the kingdom of Jordan held fast because the Mohammedan Dome of the Rock has stood there is no longer holy to Jehovah God. Hence this earthly mountain in the Middle East is not the real goal of the infuriated king of the north. It is Jehovah’s remnant of the sanctuary class and the great crowd of “other sheep.” These worship Jehovah and refuse to worship the “image of the beast” or the self-deifying king of the north or the political State or the “god of the fortresses.” Will the king of the north succeed? Will he put an end to this disapproved, condemned banned worship? The voice of prophecy answers: “And he will come to his end, without one to help him.” He reaches his “time of the end,” and it comes at the “time appointed.”
75. Why does he carry his fighting too far, and why will he have none to help him?
75 He has not believed the “reports out of the east and out of the north” warning him of his destruction for fighting against Jehovah God and his kingdom. He carries his fighting too far in making his attack under Gog’s leadership upon Jehovah’s sanctuary at his “beauteous holy mountain.” He meets his end, his Armageddon, at Jehovah’s appointed time for it. He has none to help him, not even the king of the south, for this king also is destroyed at Armageddon: “he shall be broken without hand.” (Dan. 8:25, JP) The demonic Gog of Magog, Satan the Devil, together with all his demons, will prove unable to help the king of the north in his last fight of history, for Gog himself will be crushed in defeat.
76. How do we learn why he must “come to his end” at Armageddon in utter helplessness?
76 Why will this two-thousand-year-old “king of the north” thus “come to his end” there in utter helplessness? The continuing angelic prophecy gives the grand, inspiring answer.
(To be continued)
[Footnotes]
a On May 15, 1958, the Soviet Union launched its third sputnik, weighing 2,925.53 pounds (1,327 kilograms).