I shall also give it into the hand of the despot of the nations. Without fail he will act against it. According to its wickedness I will drive it out. And strangers, the tyrants of the nations, will cut it down, and people will abandon it upon the mountains; and in all the valleys its foliage will certainly fall, and its branches will be broken among all the stream beds of the earth. And out from its shade all the peoples of the earth will come down [from the mountain] and abandon it.

Ezek. 31:10-14.

9. How does Jehovah designate those who will cut down the “cedar in Lebanon,” and should mention of them have affected nations sheltered under it?

⁹ The skyscraping “cedar in Lebanon” high up on the mountainside was to be cut down by a team of woodchoppers. ‘Impossible!’ the “populous nations” dwelling under its shade might say, but Jehovah God would see to it that his words are carried out. He would send against this symbolical “tree” what he calls “the despot of the nations.” This composite “despot” would be made up of foreign nations not dwelling under the symbolic “cedar,” namely, “strangers, the tyrants of the nations.” All the “populous nations” dwelling under the “cedar” would not be able to prevent these international terrors from cutting down the sheltering structure over them. Since those tree fellers are said to be “the despot of the nations,” “the tyrants of the nations,” the bare mention of them should have struck terror into the hearts of those dwelling under the tall, long-branched “cedar.”

10. Who was the “despot of the nations” used by Jehovah as his executional ax, and finally what threat did the “cedar” cease to offer?

¹⁰ God Almighty, who does not lie, fulfilled his prophecy upon that symbolic cedar of ancient times. He sent against “Pharaoh the king of Egypt and . . . his crowd” the newly risen world power, the Babylonian Empire. This “despot of the nations” was no friend of Pharaoh and his crowd, but was made up of “strangers” to them. Such hostile ones acted toward the Egyptian “cedar” like “the tyrants of the nations.” These were out to dominate the world, tyrannically, and Jehovah used them as the executional ax in His hand. When Pharaoh the king of Egypt and his military crowd tried to come to the aid of beleaguered Jerusalem at the appeal of King Zedekiah, they were beaten back by the tyrannical Babylonians. So, in the year 607 B.C.E. Pharaoh and his forces witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem and its sacred temple. Some sixteen years later Jehovah gave the land of Egypt to King Nebuchadnezzar as a compensation for his service as an executioner in divine hands. (Ezek. 29:17-20) Then, indeed, the strong arms of Pharaoh were broken beyond repair and never again offered the threat of world domination.​—Ezek. 30:20-26.

11, 12. What fear-inspiring bloc of nations comes to mind, but why is it not the modern “despot of the nations” used by God?

¹¹ However, that is all history of more than two and a half millenniums ago. What interests us today is, Who is the modern “despot of the nations,” and who are the “strangers, the tyrants of the nations”? They are the fear-inspiring Communist bloc of nations, are they not?

¹² To this we flatly answer, No! For the Communist nations dwell under the spreading boughs of the symbolic “cedar in Lebanon” as much as the liberal, democratic nations do. They are a part of this world and operate according to the man-made political structure of this system of things. They are nationalistic and worship the political State and are bent on dominating all the earth with their political ideology and methods. Hence, we could not expect them to cut down the symbolic “cedar in Lebanon,” the modern counterpart of ancient Pharaoh of Egypt and his crowd. They will never put themselves out of business! Daniel 11:40 through 12:1 indicates that they will be caught with all others in the “time of distress such as has not been made to occur since there came to be a nation until that time.”

13. Why are Jehovah’s Christian witnesses not the ones whom he will use to accomplish a work like that of the “despot,” or “tyrants,” of the nations?

¹³ So, then, for cutting down the symbolic “cedar in Lebanon” that still dominates the earth, who will be Jehovah’s instrument that will do a work like that of the “despot of the nations,” or the “strangers, the tyrants of the nations,” back in the prophet Ezekiel’s day? It will not be Jehovah’s Christian witnesses, who today number just some two million scattered among 210 lands around the globe. They are not despotic, not tyrannical, and strike no terror in people’s hearts, for which reason they are openly persecuted as a helpless, defenseless religious minority. Not a puny earthly instrument, but a mighty heavenly instrument is what Jehovah will use.

14, 15. Whom, then, will Jehovah use, as indicated by Jesus in Matthew 24:29-31?

¹⁴ Jehovah’s instrument is the glorified Jesus Christ and his armies of heavenly angels. Hardheaded politicians of today may laugh at such a thought. But the ancient King Sennacherib of Assyria could likewise have laughed at the idea that in one night the angel of Jehovah would kill off 185,000 of his crack troops. (2 Ki. 19:35, 36) So, in his prophecy on the “conclusion of the system of things,” Jesus Christ said:

¹⁵ “The powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will beat themselves in lamentation, and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send forth his angels with a great trumpet sound.”​—Matt. 24:29-31.

16. Into whose hands has God given the “cedar” and all those taking shelter under it, and what must we do in order not to perish with it?

¹⁶ The entire “system of things,” together with all the worldly nations that have taken refuge under it, Jehovah has given into the hands of his Son, Jesus Christ, the “Lord of lords and King of kings.” He, with his heavenly angels, will cut down the pretty-looking “cedar in Lebanon.” (Rev. 11:15; 17:14; 19:11-16)