7. According to Jehovah’s third promise, what was to indicate the life expectancy of Jerusalem’s people, and what was to mark her public squares?

⁷ But that was not all, for now comes a third promise of divine favor: “This is what Jehovah of armies has said, ‘There will yet sit old men and old women in the public squares of Jerusalem, each one also with his staff in his hand because of the abundance of his days.

Zechariah 8:4, 5.

8. That prophetic picture borders on the fulfillment of what prophecy in chapter sixty-five of Isaiah?

⁸ What a delightful picture this is of good physical health and peace and security and of a good population growth, unmarred by the sorrowful early death of infants! It borders on the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy as delivered more than one hundred and twenty-five years before the seventy-year-long desolation of Jerusalem and the land of Judah without man and domestic animal:

“For here I am creating new heavens and a new earth; and the former things will not be called to mind, neither will they come up into the heart. But exult, you people, and be joyful forever in what I am creating. For here I am creating Jerusalem a cause for joyfulness and her people a cause for exultation. And I will be joyful in Jerusalem and exult in my people; and no more will there be heard in her the sound of weeping or the sound of a plaintive cry.

“No more will there come to be a suckling a few days old from that place, neither an old man that does not fulfill his days; for one will die as a mere boy, although a hundred years of age; and as for the sinner, although a hundred years of age he will have evil called down upon him. And they will certainly build houses and have occupancy; and they will certainly plant vineyards and eat their fruitage. They will not build and someone else have occupancy; they will not plant and someone else do the eating. For like the days of a tree will the days of my people be; and the work of their own hands my chosen ones will use to the full. They will not toil for nothing, nor will they bring to birth for disturbance; because they are the offspring made up of the chosen ones of Jehovah, and their descendants with them.”​—Isaiah 65:17-23.

9. How does the spiritual estate on earth of Jehovah’s worshipers compare with the worldly nations as to peace and security today?

⁹ In these days, since the faithful remnant of spiritual Israel was restored to its God-given spiritual estate in the year 1919 C.E., what do we find? The political nations of the earth are putting on a show of trying to maintain world peace and security by means of the United Nations with now a membership of 132 member countries, but there is little security anywhere on earth. Also, the peace of all mankind is constantly under threat of nuclear warfare by the superpowers of the nations, democratic and communistic. However, within the spiritual estate of Jehovah’s worshipers there are to be found blessed peace and security. Even though the spiritual remnant has been joined, particularly since 1935 C.E., by a “great crowd” of dedicated, baptized disciples of Christ from “all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues,” yet there is no international rivalry or tension or conflict among them. Instead, brotherly love, the fruitage of God’s spirit, prevails among them.

10. How can we see a fulfillment of Jehovah’s promise in Zechariah 8:4, 5 in a physical sense and in a spiritual sense?

¹⁰ Since the end of World War I in 1918 till now it has been well over fifty years, and yet a number of the original remnant that survived the afflictions of that trialsome period have lived on, yes, even through World War II. By now they have literally grown old physically, yes, some even using a staff or cane when walking, because of the ‘abundance of their days.’ And many of these have raised up children, rearing them in the worship of the one living and true God. But, when we look for a spiritual fulfillment of this charming prophecy, we can see how the ‘old men and women sitting in the public squares of Jerusalem’ picture the members of the remnant of spiritual Israel who passed through the persecutions and disciplining of the first world war. The “boys and girls playing in her public squares” picture those members of that remnant whom Jehovah of armies added to the spiritual remnant from the postwar year of 1919 and onward. Together both old and young grow spiritually in faith, hope and love while enjoying together the peace and security of their spiritual estate.

Together both old and young grow spiritually in faith, hope and love while enjoying together the peace and security of their spiritual estate.