everlasting life,” said Jesus the Judge.—Matt. 25:31-46.

25. Because of what work do we suffer reproach, but should we be like Jeremiah when under his reproach?

²⁵ Just as with Jeremiah, so with the anointed remnant and their companions, those righteous sheeplike ones. Heavy is the reproach that they bear because of their work of uprooting, pulling down, destroying and tearing down the old world by means of preaching the day of Jehovah’s vengeance. But should we, on that account, stop filling ourselves with Jehovah’s Word and quit preaching his hard message? We cannot, even as Jeremiah said he could not: “Take note of my bearing reproach on account of your own self. Your words were found, and I proceeded to eat them; and your word becomes to me the exultation and the rejoicing of my heart, for your name has been called upon me, O Jehovah God of armies.”—Jer. 15:10, 15, 16.

26. By whom are we opposed and obstructed even because of our constructive work, but when it comes to stopping speaking, how are we like Jeremiah?

²⁶ Even because we do a building and planting work in favor of God’s new world, the lovers and supporters of the old world oppose us and try to force us to stop. But fired as we are with God’s Word, how can we stop speaking? To quote Jeremiah: “The word of Jehovah became for me a cause for reproach and for jeering all day long. And I said: ‘I am not going to make mention of him, and I shall speak no more in his name.’ And in my heart it proved to be like a burning fire shut up in my bones; and I got tired of holding in, and I was unable to endure it. . . . Sing to Jehovah, you people! Praise Jehovah! For he has delivered the soul of the poor one out of the hand of evildoers.”—Jer. 20:8, 9, 13.

27. While expressing the theme of our preaching, how does Jehovah strengthen us not to fear the enemies’ faces, and, true to his deliverances when ancient Jerusalem perished, what will Jehovah do?

²⁷ Therefore, in expression of the theme of our preaching, Down with the old world! Up with the new world! The Almighty God of the new world bids us not to be afraid of the enemies’ faces: “They will be certain to fight against you, but they will not prevail against you, for ‘I am with you,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘to deliver you.’” (Jer. 1:19) True to his promise, he delivered Jeremiah and the Rechabites and Ebed-melech when Jerusalem perished. True to that prophetic picture, Jehovah of armies will deliver us the remnant and the other sheep when, at Armageddon, he fulfills what we have preached and he brings down the old world and brings up his righteous new world.

“His Own Purposes”

The following is a passage from Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural speech (March 4, 1865): “Both [North and South] read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes his aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces. . . . The prayers of both could not be answered. . . . The Almighty has his own purposes.”