-
When All Nations Collide, Head On, with GodThe Watchtower—1971 | October 15
-
-
Therefore that is what I shall do to you, O Israel. As a consequence of the fact that I shall do this very thing to you, get ready to meet your God, O Israel.
-
-
When All Nations Collide, Head On, with GodThe Watchtower—1971 | October 15
-
-
26. That was a challenge to what kind of confrontation and issued by what kind of person, and because the challenger was unseen why was it yet no ridiculous matter?
26 “Get ready to meet your God”! This is the challenging order of a military commander, “Jehovah the God of armies.” It is a call for a military confrontation! (As in Numbers 20:18, 20; 21:23, 33; 2 Samuel 10:9, 10, 17) Here the nation of Israel was challenged to meet an invisible God. It was not for that reason any joke, any ridiculous idea. This invisible One had visible works of creation like mountains to bear witness to his being a real God. He was higher than the highest mountains in the land of Israel. He could create winds and manipulate them, and he could cause storms early in the day to make the dawning light fade into obscurity.
27. What could this unseen God use in expressing his judgments upon the covenant-breaking nation, and what did he actually use and with what result?
27 He could use the armies of the enemies of Israel to serve as his visible agencies in executing his judgments upon that covenant-breaking nation, the polluters of the sacred God-given land. He did just that, in the years 609-607 B.C.E., bringing the armies of the Babylonian Empire against the land of Judah and Jerusalem. Get ready all they could, the Israelites were unable to meet “Jehovah the God of armies” as represented by the armies of Babylon. Jerusalem fell. The land of Judah was depopulated.
-