Explaining God’s Signs and Wonders

THIS is a day of signs and wonders. Satan has his signs and wonders, foremost of which is the United Nations organization with its headquarters in New York city. The “false prophet” and others draw attention to this wonder as man’s only hope for world peace.

Jehovah God also has his signs and wonders. Among such in our day was the recent Divine Will International Assembly, which brought upward of 145,000 dedicated servants of Jehovah daily together from the four corners of the earth to New York city’s leading ball parks for eight days of pure worship and Christian fellowship. And what a sign it was, attracting the attention of the whole world with reverberations still being heard far and wide!

Chief of God’s signs and wonders in the earth today is the remnant itself, the remaining ones of the children that Jehovah gave to the Greater Isaiah, Jesus Christ, even as the prophet Isaiah foretold: “Look! I and the children whom Jehovah has given me are as signs and as wonders in Israel from Jehovah of armies, who is residing in Mount Zion.” (Isa. 8:18) Foretelling the purpose of their being signs and wonders is our text for the month of March: “You who set signs and tokens in the land of Egypt down to this day and in Israel and among men, that you might make a name for your own self, just as at this day.”—Jer. 32:20.a

These children given by Jehovah to the Greater Isaiah have names that identify them and their work: Shear-jashub means “A mere remnant will return”; and Maher-shalal-hash-baz means “Hasten, O spoil! He has come quickly to the plunder.” They are indeed a mere remnant that returned from captivity to antitypical Babylon, and though their number today is small, but some 15,000 (according to our latest Yearbook), they stand forth as living proof that Jehovah is able to deliver and save his people from the enemy. They truly are signs and wonders.

It is a great privilege thus to serve Jehovah. Noah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Jonah and especially Christ Jesus all served as signs and wonders. For one so to serve he must get out where he can be seen, even as Jesus did, going from house to house and city to city. However, not to call attention to himself but to his message and the meaning of his presence. This the remnant have been doing particularly since their restoration, and as a result of their efforts others began joining them until today there is a great crowd of “other sheep,” upward of 700,000, that have joined the remnant in their work.

And why has Jehovah set these as signs and wonders in the earth? ‘That he may make a name for himself.’ That means that these signs and wonders and their goodwill companions must first of all publish the fact that the name of the Most High, the one and only true God, is Jehovah. In keeping with their name Maher-shalal-hash-baz, they must also call attention to the fact that God’s kingdom is hastening to spoil Satan’s system of things at Armageddon. In view of what Jesus said in his great prophecy, our preaching of this message is proof that this world’s end is near.

True, this exposes us to persecution, and this persecution will doubtless increase in intensity against all of us when Gog of Magog attacks. But need we fear? No, because Immanuel is with us, which name means “With us is God.” That being so, let us go forward in spite of all opposition, confident that in Jehovah’s power we shall complete the work he has given us to do and that in his appointed time.

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