The books of the Hebrew prophets contain detailed judicial denunciations of numerous nations of the ancient world, but more especially the prophets directed God's judgments and counsel to the only physical nation on earth that Jehovah God has ever called his own--- Israel . Jehovah was their Lawgiver, King, and Judge. And judge them he did on numerous occasions.

Over the many years that the Watchtower has been teaching Jehovah's Witnesses God's Word, the overwhelming tendency has been to cast ourselves in the best possible light by applying all of Jehovah's scathing rebuke to Christendom, and all of the positive aspects of prophecies to ourselves. On the rare occasion that we do admit that a certain prophetic censure applies to us as an organization, we invariably connect it to the past period of 1916-1919. In deflecting and nullifying God's own Word directed against his spiritual organization, we have tragically blinded ourselves to Jehovah's coming judgments upon his people.  

Jehovah describes our present pitiful plight at Isaiah 28:20. "For the couch has proven too short for stretching oneself on, and the woven sheet itself is too narrow when wrapping oneself up." Because we have no doctrinal basis for anticipating Jehovah's coming judgments, it is as if we are trying to find our repose on a couch that's just too short to stretch out upon, and we are trying to wrap ourselves with a sheet that's too narrow to cover us completely. Consequently, we have made ourselves even more deserving of God's reprimand.  

What Jehovah's Witnesses have lost sight of is the fact that God disciplines his people. The Hebrew Christians in Paul's day similarly forgot just how God deals with his children, which is why the apostle felt the need to remind them: "but you have entirely forgotten the exhortation which addresses you as sons." Paul went on to write to them, and us, saying: "My son, do not belittle the discipline from Jehovah, neither give out when you are corrected by him; for whom Jehovah loves he disciplines; in fact, he scourges every one whom he receives as a son."  

As an example, the Watchtower Society would never assent to applying the prophecies of Isaiah's 28th and 29th chapters to Jehovah's Witnesses, yet there is every reason that we should humbly do so. Consider the not-so-flattering description of Ephraim in the first few verses of the 28th chapter of Isaiah. "Woe to the eminent crown of the drunkards of Ephraim, and the fading blossom of its decoration of beauty that is upon the head of the fertile valley of those overpowered with wine!"  

Naturally we imagine that this is describing Christendom, but is it? If the above verse applies to the corrupt denominations of Christendom, then we must conclude that at one time Christendom stood before God as a beautiful floral decoration, which has now become wilted and lost its beauty. That doesn't seem reasonable. Ah, but spiritual Israel did indeed have a glorious beginning in the 1st century, just as did physical Israel when it came into the decorative Promised Land. But, the question is what will be the condition of Jehovah's spiritual nation when God makes his inspection of it at the close of the Christian era? Well, that seems to be what Isaiah is describing.  

In many respects the Watchtower Society fits the description of a once-beautiful "fading blossom" of decoration.  We, who once fearlessly announced Jehovah's coming judgments upon Satan's world, must now contend with the embarrassing reality that the system has not ended so promptly as we had advertised. To our shame, the courageous stand Jehovah's Witnesses took half a century ago against Nazi tyranny is now overshadowed by the Watchtower's unseemly NGO affiliation with the United Nations. We, who have chided Christendom for her dwindling numbers, must acknowledge that many churches have experienced a revival. Instead of Babylon 's religious waters of support drying up, it is we who must reckon with low meeting attendance and a public that no longer responds to our not-so-urgent-as-before kingdom message. Inasmuch as Jehovah's Witnesses used to gloat over Christendom's corrupt condition, in recent years it is we who have been forced to acknowledge that our own house is not in order. Not so many years ago we used to boast that divorce was unheard of among Jehovah's Witnesses, now the sad truth is that a large percentage of our marriages end in breakup. We even immodestly refer to ourselves as "Jehovah's clean people" in spite of the well-known fact that every year tens of thousands of Jehovah's Witnesses are disciplined as immoral fornicators, while countless others live double lives. Whereas we used to pour out our derision upon the Catholic Church for shuffling her pedophile priests from parish to parish, now, the Watchtower must contend with the public relations nightmare of having been accused by many of our members of covering up child abuse in the congregations. No wonder our God addresses himself to the not-so-humble leaders of his spiritual nation in the following manner: "Therefore hear the word of Jehovah, you braggarts, you rulers of this people who are in Jerusalem ." (Isaiah 28:14)  

Jehovah's depiction of his own people as spiritual drunkards is an accurate one. The very fact that we are spiritually drunk inhibits us from grasping God's judgment of ourselves. That's because an inebriated person cannot reason very well. Oftentimes an intoxicated person is unaware of just how impaired they are, even though it is obvious to sober observers. In a similar manner, we have been unable to soberly evaluate our true spiritual condition in Jehovah's eyes. From God's standpoint his people are incapacitated in that we imagine that we understand God's Word, when in reality we do not. The Watchtower is intoxicated with the power of God in that we administer his judgments against everyone but ourselves. That's why God says: "Linger, you men, and be amazed; blind yourselves, and be blinded. They have become intoxicated, but not with wine; they have moved unsteadily, but not because of intoxicating liquor." (Isaiah 29:9)  

Because we have become habituated to the idea that Christendom is the spiritual drunkard of prophecy, Jehovah's Witnesses will chaff at the suggestion that it is actually we who are labeled by God as blind, spiritual drunkards. But reasoning upon the following question that Jehovah poses to us should help us to see things from God's vantage point: "Hear, you deaf ones; and look forth to see, you blind ones. Who is blind, if not my servant, and who is deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is blind as the one rewarded, or blind as the servant of Jehovah?" (Isaiah 42:18)

Those whom Jehovah is referring to as his servants, and the ones rewarded by him, are those whom God describes as deaf and blind. If, therefore, we claim to be an organization that is serving Jehovah, and if we in the past have been blessed and rewarded by him, then it is we whom he is describing as being deaf and blind. Indeed, the context of the 42nd chapter of Isaiah has to do with Jehovah repurchasing his people, whom he calls his witnesses, from the pitiable situation brought on by our now impending disaster. The fact that we are deaf, blind, and intoxicated prevents us from discerning the very future that we claim to be privy to.  

Now, perhaps, we may be in a better position to grasp what Jehovah is referring to back in the 28th chapter, where he says: "In that day Jehovah of armies will become as a crown of decoration and as a garland of beauty to the ones remaining over of his people, and as a spirit of justice to the one sitting in the judgment, and as mightiness to those turning away the battle from the gate."  

Who are those to whom Jehovah becomes a crown of decoration and beauty? He calls them "ones remaining over of his people."  But, how can that be? If Ephraim represents Christendom, who then is the remnant of his people whom Jehovah afterwards glorifies? Clearly, those in the prophecy who are described as "the ones remaining over of his people," are those whom Jehovah favors with salvation when he judges his spiritual nation. The fading flower of Ephraim that is trampled underfoot, swallowed down like a ripe fig, can only be the present-day Watchtower Society. (See article Was 1914 the End of the Gentile Times?)  

In our pronouncing this judgment against Christendom, we have inadvertently judged ourselves. No wonder God says the following of even the faithful ones: "And these also---because of wine they have gone astray and because of intoxicating liquor they have wandered about. Priest and prophet---they have gone astray because of intoxicating liquor, they have become confused as a result of wine, they have wandered about as a result of the intoxicating liquor; they have gone astray in their seeing, they have reeled as to decision. For the tables themselves have all become full of filthy vomit---there is no place without it." (Isaiah 28:7)  

The prophets and priests "have gone astray" in that we cannot accurately understand the meaning of the Bible's recorded prophecies. Our own faithful slave, while boasting of serving God's people nothing but the finest spiritual food, has unknowingly presented upon Jehovah's spiritual table dishes of disgusting vomit.  

That such is the case, consider the familiar prophecy in the 3rd chapter of Zephaniah where the prophet foretells that God "shall give to peoples the change to a pure language."  The Watchtower has taught us that we presently speak a pure language of spiritual truth. However, notice the context of Zephaniah as to when God makes such a change to a pure language. Zephaniah 3:8 says: "'Therefore keep yourselves in expectation of me,' is the utterance of Jehovah, 'till the day of my rising up to the booty, for my judicial decision is to gather nations, for me to collect together kingdoms, in order to pour out upon them my denunciation, all my burning anger; for by the fire of my zeal all the earth will be devoured."' The next verse says, "For then I shall give to peoples the change to a pure language"  

When is "then"? The change occurs when Jehovah pours out his wrath. Yet how is it that we claim to presently be speaking an exalted pure language of unadulterated truth when the prophecy clearly says that the change doesn't come until during the time of the outpouring of God's denunciation?  

That is just one example of our intoxication, of how our priestly teachers and our prophets have failed to grasp the meaning of the prophecies; how our leaders have become confused and have served up vomit while declaring it to be wholesome spiritual food. Just as in Isaiah, where Jehovah refers to the leaders of his people as "braggarts," so, too, the prophecy of Zephaniah reveals that part of the problem Jehovah must shortly remedy is the fact that some of those in responsible positions are apparently drunk with power and arrogance. That's why in the 11th verse Jehovah says: "for then I shall remove from the midst of you your haughtily exultant ones; and you will never again be haughty in my holy mountain."  

End of part one, part two continued in essay entitled: "WE HAVE CONCLUDED A COVENANT WITH DEATH"  

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Copyright © 2002, by Robert King
All Rights Reserved.