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The World Was Not Worthy of ThemThe Watchtower—1987 | January 15
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13. (a) “Mockings and scourgings” were suffered by whom? (b) Who experienced “bonds and prisons”?
13 If we have faith, we will be able to endure persecution. (Read Hebrews 11:36-38.) When we are persecuted, it is helpful to remember the resurrection hope and to realize that God can sustain us as he did “others [who] received their trial [or, test of faith] by mockings and scourgings, indeed, more than that, by bonds and prisons.” The Israelites “were continually . . . mocking at his prophets, until the rage of Jehovah came up against his people.” (2 Chronicles 36:15, 16) By faith, Micaiah, Elisha, and other servants of God endured “mockings.” (1 Kings 22:24; 2 Kings 2:23, 24; Psalm 42:3) “Scourgings” were known in the days of Israel’s kings and prophets, and opponents “struck” Jeremiah, not merely slapping him as an insult. “Bonds and prisons” may remind us of his experiences as well as those of the prophets Micaiah and Hanani. (Jeremiah 20:1, 2; 37:15; 1 Kings 12:11; 22:26, 27; 2 Chronicles 16:7, 10) Because of having similar faith, Jehovah’s modern-day witnesses have been able to endure comparable sufferings “for the sake of righteousness.”—1 Peter 3:14.
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The World Was Not Worthy of ThemThe Watchtower—1987 | January 15
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15. Who suffered “ill-treatment” and “wandered about in deserts”?
15 Others “died by slaughter with the sword,” as, for example, Elijah’s fellow prophets of God who were “killed with the sword” in the days of wicked King Ahab. (1 Kings 19:9, 10) Elijah and Elisha were among those with faith who “went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, while they were in want, in tribulation, under ill-treatment.” (1 Kings 19:5-8, 19; 2 Kings 1:8; 2:13; compare Jeremiah 38:6.) Those who “wandered about in deserts and mountains and caves and dens of the earth” as objects of persecution must include not only Elijah and Elisha but also the 100 prophets that Obadiah hid by 50’s in a cave, supplying them with bread and water when idolatrous Queen Jezebel started to “cut off Jehovah’s prophets.” (1 Kings 18:4, 13; 2 Kings 2:13; 6:13, 30, 31) What integrity keepers! No wonder Paul said: “The world [unrighteous human society] was not worthy of them”!
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