And it must occur in that day,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘that you will call me My husband [Hebrew: ishi], and you will no longer call me My owner [baali].’” (Hos. 2:14-16) Or, to quote Leeser’s translation of verse sixteen: “And it shall happen at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me Ishi [my husband], and shalt not call me any more Baʼali [my lord].”​—Hos. 2:18; Leeser; Rotherham.

She accepted Jehovah’s invitation to become his wifelike organization by entering into the Mosaic Law covenant with Him. Similarly to this, the repentant remnant in ancient Babylon responded in favor of renewing the marriage ties between Israel and her Heavenly Husband, Jehovah. In proof of renewal of this marriage relationship, Jehovah used the typical Messiah, Cyrus the Great, and returned the faithful Israelite remnant to the land of Judah and Jerusalem.

27. What course did the remnant now take toward Baal worship, and what did the wifelike organization evidence by calling Jehovah “My husband”?

²⁷ Never again did the restored covenant people of Jehovah turn back to the worship of Baal or other forms of idol worship. The reinstated remnant zealously restored the worship of Israel’s Heavenly Husband as their God in the land that he had given to them. They felt deep gratitude and appreciation just as did their forefathers when these were delivered from Egypt and its military hosts. Israel’s Heavenly Husband seemed closer, more intimate, to them. Spontaneously the wifelike organization addressed Jehovah in more intimate and affectionate terms. So the organization called him, spiritually speaking, “My husband,” rather than “My owner.” No longer did she want to feel just “owned,” as belonging to a slave-master. She wanted to feel like a helper to him, just as the first woman Eve was meant to be to her husband, Adam. (Gen. 2:19-24) How beautiful all that was!

28. What like that ancient display of divine mercy is just as beautiful today?

²⁸ Beautiful, too, is the modern-day parallel of that in our twentieth century. What marvelous effects are produced even today by Jehovah’s mercy to which his loyalty to his spiritual marriage covenant moves him! Happy are those who now experience his mercy!

Reconciliation Through God’s Mercy Before Har–Magedon

1. How can the results of Jehovah’s reconciliation with the remnant of spiritual Israelites since 1919 C.E. be illustrated?

WHEN a wayward and estranged wife is mercifully taken back by her legal husband, what kind of attitude ought she to have toward him? And when, after he takes her back, he bestows all sorts of loving expressions upon her, how ought she to view him, to feel toward him? There ought to be high esteem of him for his undeserved kindness. She has reason to draw closer to him than ever before. There is a basis for respecting him more highly and for her to make the renewed marriage ties with him inviolate, unbreakable. Wifelike responses just like those did result from Jehovah’s reconciliation with his covenant people on earth. And now since the year 1919 C.E., the results have been the same with respect to the reconciled remnant of spiritual Israelites.

2. The change from calling her husband “Ba’ali” to “Ishi” would indicate what regarding the wife, and how did this become true with respect to the Israelite remnant after 537 B.C.E.?

² For a wife during ancient Bible times to call her marriage mate “My husband” instead of “My owner,” it certainly required a change of attitude, a deepening of appreciation on her part. In Hebrew she would call him “Ishi” instead of “Ba’ali.” (Hos. 2:18, Leeser) In early times Sarah showed respect for the patriarch Abraham by calling him “My lord,” or, in Hebrew, A·do·niʹ. She was his legal wife, and she honored Abraham as her husband. She did not consider herself his slave, a slave like her bought Egyptian servant girl Hagar, who had to be dismissed from Abraham’s household. (Gen. 18:12; 1 Pet. 3:6) For Sarah’s devoted cooperation with her God-fearing husband, Jehovah rewarded her miraculously with her one and only son when she was ninety years old. (Gen. 21:1-7) Respect like that of Sarah toward Abraham was what the reconciled remnant of Israelites showed toward Jehovah after he released them from Babylon in 537 B.C.E. The remnant felt again like a real organizational wife to Jehovah. His mercy moved the remnant to call him Ishi, “My husband.”

3, 4. (a) Since 1919 C.E., the remnant of spiritual Israel showed more appreciation for what relationship, and what covenant had they long misunderstood? (b) What article did The Watchtower publish in 1934?

³ In the twentieth-century parallel of this, the repentant remnant of spiritual Israelites was released from Babylon the Great in 1919 C.E. Down till then, these spiritual Israelites had given overbalanced importance to the Messiah Jesus and his Bride, the Christian congregation. But now they began showing more appreciation for Messiah’s heavenly Father, Jehovah God. His relationship as Heavenly Husband to spiritual Israel had been left out of the picture, particularly since 1892 C.E. His new covenant was misunderstood!

⁴ “Who Will Honor Jehovah?” That was the title of the leading article published in the Watch Tower issue of January 1, 1926. From then on, interest in the God of spiritual Israel intensified. Came the year 1934 and, with it, the publication in the columns of The Watchtower of a serial article entitled “His Covenants.” From April 1 through July 15, 1934, the eight parts of this article were served to Watchtower readers. Strikingly this serial article recalled to the remnant of spiritual Israel that Jehovah’s new covenant as mediated by the Messiah Jesus applied to them.

5. (a) Later in 1934, what book was published reproducing the material of the article “His Covenants”? (b) Jehovah’s mercy moved the recipients thereof to call him what with respect to his organization?

⁵ Shortly thereafter, on November 15, 1934, the book entitled “Jehovah” came off the printing press of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society at Brooklyn, New York. Its chapters 4 through 11 reproduced the article “His Covenants,” which had been published earlier in the year in The Watchtower. Yes, the remnant of spiritual Israel was in the new covenant with Jehovah! Gradually thereafter the husbandly relationship of Jehovah to spiritual Israel kept claiming attention. In response to all the merciful treatment that he had given to the liberated, reconciled remnant of spiritual Israel the wifelike organization was moved to call him Ishi, “My husband.” His organization, not Satan’s organization, was the only rightful organization to which to belong. Exclusive devotion belonged to Jehovah as the Universal Sovereign. This the remnant recognized.

7. Why did the restored remnant no longer choose to call the Heavenly Husband of Israel “Ba’ali,” and to what worship did they never return?

⁷ If the restored remnant, after their return from exile in Babylon, were to continue calling Jehovah Ba’ali, “My owner,” it would remind them of their own sin or that of their forefathers in worshiping the Baal images. Jehovah’s dealings with the repentant remnant created in them a disgust for the Baals, and thus he removed the names of the Baal images from their mouths. They no longer chose to remember them by their foul names. Logically they chose not to call the Heavenly Husband of the Israelite nation by the designation “My Baal,” or Ba’ali. (Hos. 2:16, New English Bible; Jerusalem; Leeser) In keeping with that aversion to Baal, they never did return to the adoration of man-made, materialistic images.