chronology is of no concern to us. It is natural that we should be interested in it, since God has seen fit to make it an integral part of his inspired Word. Of the ancient prophets, the apostle Peter says that “they kept on investigating what particular season or what sort of season the spirit in them was indicating . . . when it was bearing witness beforehand about the sufferings for Christ and about the glories to follow these.”​—1 Pet. 1:10, 11.

²⁷ We today are rightly concerned to know what “season” we are now in, and God provides us with that needed information. God’s prophets of old had absolute faith in the certainty of the fulfillment of all that God had said. Though not knowing certain details or time factors, we can and should have that same solid faith in the unchangeableness of God’s purpose. God’s Son has provided us with powerful reason to stay alert to the outworking of that purpose, as the following article shows.

A Solid Basis for Confidence

1. What is the situation of Jehovah’s people as to connections with this world?

THOSE who have become dedicated, baptized servants of God have committed their souls to him. Everything that they have, everything that they are or will be, is in the hands of God​—their present, their future, their entire lives and hope of life in God’s new system of things to come. They have, in effect, “burned their bridges behind them,” giving up any “lease” or hope they might have had in this world’s system now or what it may bring about in the days ahead.

2. How did Paul feel, even though ridiculed by the world and also by some professed “brothers”?

² About this, an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ said, in spite of the fact that he was then in prison, and that ridicule and opposition had made some of his so-called Christian “brothers” turn away from him: “I am also suffering these things, but I am not ashamed. For I know the one whom I have believed, and I am confident he is able to guard what I have laid up in trust with him until that day.”​—2 Tim. 1:12.

3. What confidence can Christians have as to the coming of Jehovah’s “day” and their entering into God’s “rest”?

³ “That day” is the day that Christians have universally looked for, when God will clean up the earth and bring to pass the doing of his will “as in heaven, also upon earth.” (Matt. 6:10) We have God’s word on this. This time will certainly be one of relief, or rest, to humankind. What confidence can we have that we will enjoy it? The very strongest, for the Bible tells us that “God rested on the seventh day from all his works,” and he promises to obedient ones that they may enter into his rest. (Gen. 2:2; Heb. 4:1, 4, 9) Do we really believe that promise?

4. What opportunity was set before the Israelites on coming out of Egypt, but how did they view God’s word about it?

⁴ The Israelites, on being delivered from slavery in Egypt, had the promise of entering into God’s rest, and of having, during their lifetime in the Promised Land, a