him for an approved covenant relationship with Him. (Ps. 50:5) They found “David their king,” namely, the now enthroned Jesus Christ, reigning as the empowered King in the heavens since the end of the Gentile Times in 1914. With holy enthusiasm they took up the fulfilling of his timely prophecy in Matthew 24:14. So, what have they been doing ever since? This: Preaching “this good news of the kingdom” earth wide “for a witness to all the nations” before the outbreak of the “great tribulation” that reaches its grand finale at Har–Magedon. This has resulted in God’s mercy being extended to a “great crowd” of sheeplike persons who are also seeking the one true God, Jehovah, and his Messianic King, the Greater David, particularly since 1935.

28. When will Jehovah’s mercy, already in operation toward the remnant and “great crowd,” reach its greatest brilliance? And how?

²⁸ Already, down till now, Jehovah’s mercy has been great and marvelous toward his reconciled remnant and the “great crowd” of Messiah’s sheeplike subjects. But his mercy will reach its greatest brilliance when he spares the remnant and the “great crowd” through the global “great tribulation” clear to its end at Har–Magedon. As objects of his unparalleled mercy on display before all the universe, he will bring them into his post-Har–Magedon New Order! “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of tender mercies and the God of all comfort.”​—2 Cor. 1:3.

Nineveh​—Proud Assyrian Capital

AS CAPITAL of the vast and ruthless Assyrian Empire, Nineveh was hated among the subjugated peoples. They longed for the day when the power of Nineveh would be shattered, never again to impose its oppressive yoke on others.

Today two mounds, Quyunjiq and Nebi Yunus, on the east bank of the Tigris River mark the site of what was once mighty Nineveh. A modern village occupies Nebi Yunus, standing, as it were, atop the grave of ancient Nineveh. On the larger mound, Quyunjiq, there are a few strips of cultivated land and a little grass, on which flocks may be seen grazing in the spring. The words of the Hebrew prophet Zephaniah concerning Nineveh have been fulfilled: “In the midst of her, droves will certainly lie stretched out. . . . This is the exultant city that was sitting in security, that was saying in her heart, ‘I am, and there is nobody else.’ O how she has become an object of astonishment.”​—Zeph. 2:14, 15.

Little did such haughty Assyrian monarchs as Sennacherib, Esar-haddon and