A “Sign” Set Among the Nations

8, 9. (a) To his glory Jehovah has carried out his purpose after having produced what things and after what wartime experience of his people? (b) How did he set out his purpose in Isaiah 66:19, 20?

⁸ To his international glory this Almighty God has carried out his unalterable purpose as to what would take place after he caused “a land” to be “brought forth with labor pains in one day” and after he caused “a nation” to be “born at one time.” As we read his words set out in Isaiah 66:19, 20, we can call to mind what he has gloriously done since the birth of the “nation” made up of the remnant of spiritual Israelites in 1919 after having ceased to be an organized people during World War I, and entertaining little hope or expectation of surviving that world conflict.

And they will actually bring all your brothers out of all the nations as a gift to Jehovah, on horses and in chariots and in covered wagons and on mules and on swift she-camels, up to my holy mountain, Jerusalem,’ Jehovah has said, ‘just as when the sons of Israel bring the gift in a clean vessel into the house of Jehovah.’”

To that end Jehovah gathered together the remnant of spiritual Israelites who had been scattered by the fierce persecution during World War I.

12. (a) Who were to be added to the remnant that had survived World War I? (b) When, especially, did the sending forth of “those who are escaped” begin to take place?

¹² Also, there were still others who were to be brought and added to those spiritual Israelites who survived World War I, so as to make up the full membership of the remnant of Christ’s spiritual “brothers” at this time. (Matthew 25:40)

13. In fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, who are gathered out of all the nations, and, as it were, by what means faster than by walking?

¹³ In fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, all of this resulted in a grand gathering of the remnant of the spiritual brotherhood, as it were, by all means of conveyance or transportation much faster than by walking. Jehovah had said that he would send “some of those who are escaped” even to far distant lands, and this he did by sending those who had “escaped” alive from the first world war and the famines, pestilences and earthquakes that marked the death-dealing period of 1914-1918 CE, and particularly the persecution that raged against the dedicated Bible students who were cooperating zealously with the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society worldwide. The persecution in particular caused the spiritual death of some, so that they did not join in the regathering of the surviving remnant after World War I, especially when the call to united action began to be issued through the printed publications of the Society and through its traveling representatives who visited the congregations.

15. Those spiritual “brothers” who are brought as a “gift to Jehovah” must keep themselves in what spiritual state, and why?

¹⁵ All those whom the “escaped” ones brought as their spiritual “brothers” they brought “as a gift to Jehovah,” not to some human leader of a religious sect or to some earthly political world power that was vying for popular support. For the “gift” to be acceptable to Jehovah, it had to be clean. That is why the prophecy describes the bringing of the living “gift” as being “just as when the sons of Israel bring the gift in a clean vessel into the house of Jehovah.” (Isaiah 66:20) That is why those spiritual “brothers” who make up the “gift” must be no part of this world, yes, they must keep themselves “without spot from the world.” (James 1:27) They must keep themselves neutral toward the defiling politics of this unclean system of things. That is why Jehovah said they would be brought “up to my holy mountain, Jerusalem.” This does not signify the modern-day Jerusalem, the capital of the political State of Israel. The nation of which it is the capital is 85 percent Jewish and it is a member of the United Nations organization for maintaining world peace and security.

16. Why does Jehovah have nothing in the Middle East today that could be called his “holy mountain”?

¹⁶ Modern Jerusalem in the Middle East does not have any “holy mountain” that Jehovah could call his own in a religious sense. Why not? Because what was once his “holy mountain” over there is now crowned by a Muhammadan shrine, the Dome of the Rock. This is for worshipers, not of Jehovah, but of Allah, a deity without a personal name.

17. So what is the “holy mountain, Jerusalem,” to which those spiritual “brothers” are brought since the birth of the nation in 1919?

¹⁷ All pertinent things being honestly considered, a significant fact becomes evident: In the modern fulfillment of Isaiah 66:20 “my holy mountain” refers to a motherlike organization for spiritual Israelites, namely, “Jerusalem above,” spoken of in Galatians 4:26. It is the Zion that has “given birth to her sons,” according to Isaiah 66:8. Those “sons” make up the “nation” that was “born at one time,” in the postwar year of 1919. In view of that fact, those spiritual “brothers” that were brought by the “escaped” ones since that birth of the “nation” were brought “as a gift to Jehovah” and were put in touch with his royal organization, the “Jerusalem above,” this being typified by the rebuilt earthly Jerusalem of old. These being brought forth as her “sons,” they were brought into the visible earthly part of Jehovah’s universal organization, to be spiritual Jerusalemites.