‘Here I am making Jerusalem a bowl causing reeling to all the peoples round about; and also against Judah he will come to be in the siege, even against Jerusalem.

3, 4. Why have the natural, circumcised Jews been unable to come up with an explanation of Zechariah 12:1-6 that applies to the history of their nation?

³ Those words of Zechariah 12:1-6 are a puzzle to the natural circumcised Jews of today. They have tried to find a fulfillment of those prophetic words in the ancient history of their nation between the time of this “pronouncement” in the sixth century before our Common Era (about 518 B.C.E.) and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman legions in the year 70 C.E. But they have been unable to come up with anything authentic in verification of the prophecy. Why not? It is because the fulfillment of the “pronouncement” reaches its culmination or climax in an Israel and Jerusalem of a higher order than that of natural, fleshly Israel and earthly Jerusalem. Thus when the earthly Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed in 70 C.E. there was a Jerusalem that then remained. Not an earthly one, of course. It was the one of which the writer of Hebrews 12:22-24 speaks. Although writing about 61 C.E., about nine years before earthly Jerusalem was demolished in 70 C.E., he writes to Christianized Hebrews:

⁴ “But you have approached a Mount Zion and a city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem, and myriads of angels, in general assembly, and the congregation of the firstborn who have been enrolled in the heavens, and God the Judge of all, and the spiritual lives of righteous ones who have been made perfect, and Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and the blood of sprinkling, which speaks in a better way than Abel’s blood.”

5. What was the “congregation of the firstborn” to which those Christianized Hebrews had approached by about 61 C.E., and what city did this “congregation” have?

⁵ “The congregation of the firstborn who have been enrolled in the heavens” to which those Hebrew Christians had approached was not the congregation of natural, fleshly Israel, of which they had been a part until their conversion to Christianity. Rather, it was the “congregation” of spiritual Israel and it had been brought into the “new covenant” that Jesus the mediator had validated with his own “blood of sprinkling” that speaks in a better way than did the blood of Abel the first martyr of Jehovah. In a perfect match with these facts, this spiritual Israel had a higher Jerusalem, the “city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem.”

6. What did earthly Jerusalem as Jehovah’s throne city picture, and when and to what was there a transfer of the thing thus pictured?

⁶ The earthly Jerusalem was where the line of kings in David’s royal family had had its throne, which was called “Jehovah’s throne” because the occupant thereof represented Jehovah God who was the real and invisible King of Israel. Since Jehovah had covenanted with King David for an everlasting kingdom with a permanent heir of him in the throne, Jerusalem as the throne city stood for the God-given right to a kingdom in the hands of a descendant of King David. (1 Chronicles 29:23; 2 Samuel 7:14-16) Jesus Christ, “son of David, son of Abraham,” was that Permanent Heir. Consequently, when Jesus Christ, resurrected from the dead, made his ascent to heaven and appeared in God’s presence and sat down at his right hand, his heirship and his unforfeited right to the kingdom went along with him. Thus that Kingdom right was transferred from the earthly Jerusalem to the “heavenly Jerusalem” in the year 33 C.E.​—Acts 2:29-36; Psalm 110:1, 2; Hebrews 10:12, 13.

7. In view of the overturning of the Davidic kingdom in earthly Jerusalem in 607 B.C.E., when was it that Jehovah made Jerusalem a “bowl causing reeling to all the peoples” (Zechariah 12:2)?

⁷ In the year 607 B.C.E. the Babylonians overturned the kingdom of David at earthly Jerusalem, and the kingdom was to become no one else’s “until he comes who has the legal right,” at which time God would give it to that one. (Ezekiel 21:25-27) When did that one with the “legal right” come and receive the kingdom from Jehovah the great Theocrat? It was in 1914 C.E., at the end of the Gentile Times about October 4/5 (Tishri 15). Then Jehovah enthroned his Son Jesus Christ in the “heavenly Jerusalem.” Then, too, in fulfillment of Psalm 110:1, 2 Jehovah sent the rod of Christ’s strength out of the heavenly Mount Zion, saying: “Go subduing in the midst of your enemies.” By that act and at that time the Great Creator of heaven and earth carried out his pronouncement and made Jerusalem, the “heavenly Jerusalem,” to be a “bowl causing reeling to all the peoples.”​—Zechariah 12:1, 2; Revelation 11:15.

8. (a) When King David made Jerusalem his throne city, what did the Philistines try to do, and with what result? (b) When and how did notice begin to be served on Christendom as regards Christ’s enthronement at the end of the Gentile Times?

⁸ Two thousand nine hundred and eighty-three years before that, King David had captured earthly Jerusalem and made it his capital city. On hearing that, his bitter enemies the Philistines came up against Jerusalem and tried to unseat David. Two successive miraculous defeats sent the assailants reeling back to Philistia. (2 Samuel 5:17-25; Psalm 2:1-6) What, then, do we find in the case of the “heavenly Jerusalem” with its newly enthroned King Jesus Christ, the Permanent Heir of David? For decades prior to 1914 C.E., even since the year 1876 C.E., the nations and peoples of the world had been notified that the Gentile Times would close in that year.a Dedicated, baptized Christians, like Charles Taze Russell who became president of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, were used to serve this notice, especially upon the nations of Christendom. These professed Christian nations spurned the notification and launched their first world war July 28, 1914.

9. During World War I, how did those embattled nations gather around “heavenly Jerusalem” as around a drinking “bowl” for their pleasure?

⁹ During this war the embattled nations took advantage of martial law and wartime hysteria and nationalistic fervor to persecute these dedicated, baptized, spirit-anointed Christians who had served notification upon them and who had taken their stand for Jehovah’s established Messianic kingdom. Thus the nations gathered around them as around a drinking bowl, to take draughts of pleasure and glee at venting their opposition to God’s Kingdom representatives. As these dedicated, anointed Christians were part of the “congregation of the firstborn who have been enrolled in the heavens,” those nations were, in effect, gathered around the “heavenly Jerusalem” as around a drinking “bowl.” For a time those nations did experience great exhilaration, as foretold in Revelation 11:7-10.

10, 11. How, after World War I, did “heavenly Jerusalem” come to be under siege by the nations, and were these also “against Judah”?

¹⁰ After World War I ended on November 11, 1918, the worldly nations did not cease their hostility to God’s established Messianic kingdom as set up in the “heavenly Jerusalem.” In the following years they adopted the League of Nations as a substitute for God’s heavenly kingdom. They thus began a figurative siege of the “heavenly Jerusalem.” This siege expressed itself in the nations’ opposition and persecution against the anointed remnant of the “congregation of the firstborn” who proclaimed the Messianic kingdom of the “heavenly Jerusalem.” Inasmuch as these disciples of Jesus Christ upheld him as “the Lion that is of the tribe of Judah, the root of David,” they were spiritual Judeans, or spiritually of the tribe of Judah. So, along with the heavenly Jerusalem, these spiritual Judeans were under siege by the anti-Kingdom nations. It was just as it had been foretold, in Zechariah 12:2:

¹¹ “Here I am making Jerusalem a bowl causing reeling to all the peoples round about; and also against Judah he will come to be in the siege, even against Jerusalem.” (NW) “Lo, I am about to make Jerusalem an intoxicating bowl unto all the peoples around. Moreover, the cities of Judah will be under siege along with Jerusalem.” (AT) “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a fearful place to all the people round about her, also there shall be a siege both against Judah together with Jerusalem.” (Lamsa) “Lo, I am making Jerusalem a cup of reeling to all the peoples round about, and also against Judah it is, in the siege against Jerusalem.”​—Yg.

12. How did the spiritual Judeans manifest a different spirit from what they had shown during World War I, thus taking what apostolic stand?

¹² Whereas in 1919 C.E. the worldly nations adopted the League of Nations as an international organization for world peace and security, the anointed remnant of the spiritual Judah started proclaiming as never before the good news of the kingdom of the “Lion that is of the tribe of Judah, the root of David.” So from then on the worldly nations began laying siege against this spiritual Judah on earth, prolonging and persisting in their endeavors to overpower the resistance and nonconformity of these spiritual Judeans. Quite differently from their general course of action during World War I, these spiritual Judeans refused to be put in fear by the nations. They discerned their commission from the Most High God more clearly than previously, and they chose the apostolic course: “We must obey God as ruler rather than men.” (Acts 5:29) They stuck to this course even amid World War II. They stuck to an absolute Christian neutrality toward the international controversies, such as they had openly declared on November 1, 1939. The nations were quite stunned at the strictly neutral stand of these Christian witnesses of Jehovah.​—See The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom, as of November 1, 1939, pages 323-333.

13. By what course have the nations got “severe scratches for themselves,” and why?

¹³ The intransigent stand of Jehovah’s Christian witnesses for neutrality, their courageous resort to the legal courts of the land to maintain their civil rights, their steadily increasing preaching of the good news of Jehovah’s Messianic kingdom, all this has sent the nations reeling.