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Get Out from Under That “Pretty” Tree!The Watchtower—1977 | May 15
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24. The rocking of the nations at the downfall of the “cedar in Lebanon” will mean what respecting them?
24 Having in mind that the “cedar in Lebanon” pictures “Pharaoh the king of Egypt and . . . his crowd,” Jehovah goes on to say: “At the sound of its downfall I shall certainly cause nations to rock when I bring it down to Sheʹol with those going down into the pit.” (Ezek. 31:16) As it were, the downfall of the symbolic “cedar in Lebanon” causes so great a thud as to make the earth quiver and the shock waves reach all the nations. The rocking of the nations that have preferred the sovereignty of the “present wicked system of things” will mean their downfall also, their being laid low in ruins and being removed. Thus territorial claims would be wiped out. National sovereignties would disappear. (Heb. 12:26, 27; Hag. 2:6, 7) In this way there will be a forced abandonment of the pretentious “cedar in Lebanon.”—Ezek. 31:12.
25. When will this abandonment of the “cedar in Lebanon” by the nations occur?
25 When will this occur? During a time of war, not a third world war with nuclear weapons between rival blocs of militarized nations, but “the war of the great day of God the Almighty” at the battlefield of Har–Magedon. Warfare is symbolized by “the sword.” The symbolic “cedar in Lebanon” will be made a bed partner with the nations and world powers that have perished by the sword. This is called to our attention by Jehovah’s statement: “And in the land down below all the trees of Eden, the choicest and the best of Lebanon, all those [trees] drinking water, will be comforted.
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Get Out from Under That “Pretty” Tree!The Watchtower—1977 | May 15
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27. How will the national organizations already in the land down below be comforted at the downfall of the “cedar in Lebanon”?
27 So they have ceased to be as symbolic trees, although the overall system of things continues to go on, ever drawing closer to its own destruction. When it itself is cut down and suffers its permanent downfall, this will be a great comfort to all the other symbolic trees in the land down below, the general “pit,” Sheʹol or realm of the dead. We all know that “misery loves company,” and these symbolic “trees” that have already been cut down by the “sword” of violence will be very glad to have the company of the magnificent “cedar in Lebanon” with them in the death state. They will be comforted in seeing how this world-dominating system of things proves to be just as weak as they were before Jehovah’s “sword” of execution.—Compare Isaiah 14:9-12.
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