of the Right Shepherd. With softened hearts they receive the message proclaimed by the witnesses. They let it sink deep into open ears of understanding, and with eyes of faith they see how Jehovah is using his witnesses to accomplish his work. So they abandon doomed Christendom, turn to Jehovah and associate with the theocratic organization of His witnesses and get healed.

FOR HOW LONG?

14. What question did Isaiah ask? How did God answer for him and for us?

¹⁴ Would you not wonder how long you should go on witnessing in the face of the hardheartedness of Christendom? Isaiah got the answer for us. “Then said I, Lord,e how long? And he answered, Until cities be waste without inhabitant, and houses without man, and the land become utterly waste, and Jehovah have removed men far away, and the forsaken places be many in the midst of the land.” (Isa. 6:11, 12, AS) Thus without setting a date, Jehovah does set the practical limit for our work amid the people of unhealed Christendom. We must carry on until Christendom is reduced to the devastated state described here prophetically and which was illustrated in the devastation of Jerusalem and Judah in 607 B.C. Isaiah did not personally bear witness until that event. He died over a hundred years before then. But his fellow witnesses did testify till then, Jeremiah continuing to prophesy in prison in Jerusalem even while the city was under siege by the Babylonians. Released at the city’s fall, Jeremiah continued to preach after that until the remaining people fled in terror to Egypt, taking him forcibly along, so leaving the land forsaken of man and domesticated beast.

15. (a) How will Christendom be thus desolated? (b) What must we do till then and thereafter?

¹⁵ The time is getting closer when the “ten horns” of the beast, backed by the whole body of that beast, will turn on Christendom’s whorish system of Babylonish religion and will wreck it. All her religious systems will be affected. Their adherents will be taken captive or destroyed by the worldly elements that fight against religion and God’s kingdom, so leaving organized religion desolate. That will be the beginning of the battle of Armageddon, but at the grand climax Jehovah’s heavenly hosts under his King Jesus Christ will execute his righteous judgments against all the ungodly elements, religious, political, social and commercial. This divine execution will rid the earth of them. This is what Christendom will have come on her for shutting her eyes, dulling her ears and fattening her heart toward the testimony of the witnesses whom Jehovah sent. So despite the siege conditions which the anti-God forces may bring upon Christendom, we must carry on with the Kingdom message and declare the “day of vengeance of our God”. After she falls at Armageddon, we must do like Ezekiel, preach the Kingdom and the divine vengeance upon all systems outside of Christendom, till the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” destroys them and his universal sovereignty stands vindicated forever. By his help, strength and protection there will be no stopping us till then. His command to us will be carried out fully.

16, 17. What did Jehovah finally say regarding a tenth in the land, and how is this fulfilled?

¹⁶ After such a message of divine vengeance, our stirred emotions impel us to ask, Will any get through alive? Jehovah through Isaiah gives us the assurance of such. In the closing words of his commission to that prophet at the temple he says: “Yet still shall there be in it a tenth, though it again be consumed,—like an oak and like a terebinth which, when felled, have a stock in them, a holy seed shall be the stock thereof.”—Isa. 6:13, Ro; AS.

¹⁷ That “tenth” appears to be the faithful spiritual remnant of Jehovah’s witnesses, who were pictured by the faithful Jewish remnant that returned to the land of the formerly unfaithful Judah and Jerusalem and renewed the pure worship of God there. The remnant, who are the last of God’s “holy nation” on earth, are a “holy seed”, “a sacred race” (Mo). Just as an oak or a turpentine tree which is felled leaves a stump that will sprout again at the scent of water, so this holy seed will remain like a stock in the earth and will sprout again after the devastations of Armageddon. (Job 14:7-9) Surviving with them will be the great flock of “other sheep”, who have turned to Jehovah and his kingdom by Christ and who have been healed, to correspond with Ebed-melech and the Rechabites who survived Jerusalem’s first destruction with Jeremiah. Thus Jehovah’s pure worship will sprout again under most favorable conditions after Armageddon and will spread to the ends of the earth. Then ‘the whole earth will be full of Jehovah’s glory’, just as the seraphs at the temple foretold.

18. In view of His commission, what is the course for us?

¹⁸ In view of our divine commission from the temple there is no stopping for us as his witnesses until Armageddon strikes Christendom and the opportunity for her adherents to repent is up. On we go, then, proclaiming the message, while we “consider the patience of our Lord as salvation”, both for ourselves and for those who hear us.—2 Pet. 3:15, NW.

African Chieftain Recognizes Shepherd’s Voice

● Hearing that there was to be a great assembly of the people from different places at the kraal [native community] of one of the Paramount chiefs and that he was to be present also, I arranged with some brothers to witness to the people gathered there. While witnessing an official whom I knew arranged for me to be among the speakers that were to address the assembly the following Sunday. Sunday we came and gathered outside the kraal’s yard. There was an attendance of more than 600 people. We were surprised to see representatives of various creeds and denominations present. The first to deliver some talks were the Abafundisi [local religious cult]. They dealt with the resurrection of Christ, as it was Easter Sunday with them. I was then called upon. I stood up and gave my talk, “Peace on Earth, When?” First of all I noticed that they were surprised that I had chosen this topic instead of one having to do with Easter. Afterward they all attentively listened and some of them nodded their heads. When I looked at the Paramount chief I noticed that he was smiling—it was apparent that he is a man who likes Bible facts. It seemed that the time would not allow me to finish my talk. While I was still talking, the chief indicated that I should be given more time. After I concluded two others spoke. After that the chief stood up and summarized the talks. First he thanked me for coming and for telling his people the truth. He then told the audience that I was the only one who was able to convince those who, like himself, love the Bible truth. He then discounted what the Abafundisi told the people by stating that the Bible showed that these were misleading the people. He also gave us an invitation to speak at a great gathering that was to be held at his royal kraal.

—Mbabane, Swaziland