Ezekiel 19—The Lion's Whelps

Ezekiel 19—The Lion's Whelps19:1.Moreover, take thou up a lamentation for the princes of Israel.—Chapter 19 has the form of a dirge. It represents in antitype the downfall, in the Time of Trouble, of ecclesiasticism pictured first, as two roaring lions which are taken captive; and secondly, as a vine destroyed by fire of internal origin. The princes of Israel are the clergy.19:2.And say, What is thy mother? A lioness: she lay down among lions, she nourished her whelps among young lions.—As the father and the mother of Isaac were Abraham and Sarah, and the spiritual father and mother of the true Church are Jehovah and His Covenant of Grace (Gal. 4:22-28), so the spiritual father and mother of ecclesiasticism, priestcraft, are the Devil and his covenant with death. (Gen. 3:4; Isa. 28:18.)“The Devil goeth about like a roaring lion.”(1 Pet. 5:8.) Their nourishment has been“doctrines of devils.”19:3.And she brought up one of her whelps; it became a young lion, and it learned to catch the prey; it devoured men.—Ecclesiasticism divided into two classes; one higher, richer, more educated than the other—“one of her whelps.”They learned to devour men, make them their prey.19:4.The nations also heard of him; he was taken in their pit, and they brought him with chains unto the land of Egypt.—The unbelieving peoples heard them; they, the clergy, were taken in the pit of corrupt doctrine; they were captivated, taken captive, into worldliness, the wisdom of this world, of“Egypt.”19:5.Now when she saw that she had waited, and her hope was lost, then she took another of her whelps, and made him a young lion.—Another class of ecclesiasticism was developed, under the same false covenant with death, into a full-fledged lion, an embodiment and child of the eternal torment, trinity, inherent-immortality teachings.19:6.And he went up and down among the lions, he became a young lion, and learned to catch the prey, and devoured men.—This was the popular evangelist well trained in catching men and shekels.19:7.And he knew their desolate palaces, and he laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fulness thereof, by the noise of his roaring.—The revivalists caught men by thousands, and“the fulness thereof,”great contributions for a few weeks of noisy evangelism.[pg 455]19:8.Then the nations set against him on every side from the provinces, and spread their net over him; he was taken in their pit.—Then the“unconvertible”people, anarchists, Socialists, etc., spread the net of their teachings. The people, indignant at their sufferings from wars and high cost of living, declined further support.19:9.And they put in ward in chains, and brought him to the king of Babylon: they brought him into holds, that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel.—Revolution and anarchy will place a complete restraint upon the revivalists, and bring them to their end.19:10.Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood, planted by the waters: she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.—The false covenant-mother of ecclesiasticism is a system of thought, in the very blood; it is part and parcel of the existence of ecclesiasticism. It is“the vine of the earth,”of Rev. 14:19. This system of error was once fruitful in gaining adherents.19:11.And she had strong rods for the sceptres of them that bare rule, and her stature was exalted among the thick branches, and she appeared in her height with the multitude of her branches.—The vine had seeming strong authority for the rulership“of them that bare rule,”the clergy,“lords over God's heritage.”(1 Pet. 5:3.) To a mighty and lofty height did the vine of the earth grow.19:12.But she was plucked up in fury, she was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up her fruit: her strong rods were broken and withered; the fire consumed them.—But in the fury of the world-wide war she will be“cast down to the ground.”The truths arising from the presence of the dawning Sun of Righteousness will dry up the support of her fruit (church members). Her authority—rod—will be broken, withered, and destroyed in anarchy.19:13.And now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty ground.—In a world of hostile doctrines of Socialism and anarchy, in a world-wide drought of the water of the Word of God, the old system of sophistries will soon be in the wilderness condition, in a state of complete ostracism.19:14.And fire is gone out of a rod of her branches, which hath devoured her fruit, so that she hath no strong rod to be a sceptre to rule. This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.—The savage application in the world-wide war of the rod of the Divine authority of rulers will cause revolt, revolution and anarchy to spring up, like a fire, which will bring to an utter end the denominational clusters, the fruit of the vine of the earth.[pg 456]Ezekiel 20—The Hypocritical Ecclesiastics20:1.And it came to pass in the seventh year, in the fifth month, the tenth day of the month, that certain of the elders of Israel came to inquire of the Lord, and sat before me.—The elders of Israel came to confer with Ezekiel, but he would not be interviewed by them, because of their idolatrous tendencies. The Hebrews had always had such propensities. God had refrained from destroying them in order to preserve His own good name among the heathen peoples; but now He was about to punish them, until the appointed time should come when He would regather them. The destruction of Judaism is here pictured as a fire in a forest. This chapter introduces another group of prophecies against Christendom, ending with Chapter 24. Some of the prominent ecclesiastics will read up or consult Pastor Russell and his writings, and the“Truth people,”ostensibly to learn what they can.20:2, 3.Then came the Word of the Lord unto me, saying, Son of man, speak unto the elders of Israel, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Are ye come to inquire of Me? As I live, saith the Lord God, I will not be inquired of by you.—Present Truth will refuse any favorable answer to ecclesiasticism.20:4.Wilt thou judge them, son of man, wilt thou judge them? cause them to know the abominations of their fathers.—Instead, it will pronounce judgment upon them. It will cause them to realize the abominations in doctrine and in life of professed Christians, as a result of the teachings of the Dark Ages.20:5.And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God: in the day when I chose Israel, and lifted up Mine hand unto the seed of the house of Jacob, and made Myself known unto them in the land of Egypt, when I lifted up Mine hand unto them, saying, I am the Lord your God.—First viewed as God's people“in the world,”Egypt, God chose them, made Himself known to them, and lifted up for them the hand of His power.—Z. '94-357.20:6.In the day that I lifted up Mine hand unto them, to bring them forth of the land of Egypt into a land that I had espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands.—He promised to bring them in[pg 457]the resurrection, if faithful, into the“mansion”prepared for them—Heaven itself, the most glorious condition in God's Universe.20:7.Then said I unto them, Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.—God had told them to cast away all filthiness of the flesh and the spirit (2 Cor. 7:1), to do away with the desire of things seen with the fleshly eyes (1 John 2:16), and no longer to defile themselves spiritually with cravings for earthly power. But while professing Christ's name, they rebelled in their heart against God, and would not listen to Him.20:8.But they rebelled against Me, and would not hearken unto Me: they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt: then I said, I will pour out My fury upon them, to accomplish My anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.—Over and over, throughout the Gospel Age, God was indignant enough to bring destruction upon them; but He did not, in order that His name and reputation might not come into disrespect among the worldly people, who were taught by professing Christians that God was with them.20:9, 10.But I wrought for My name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, among whom they were, in whose sight I made Myself known unto them, in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt. Wherefore I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness.—God's Word views professing Christians also as in the wilderness condition of separateness from and ostracism by the worldly—as“brought forth out of the land of Egypt.”20:12.Moreover also I gave them My sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctifieth them.—He gave them the privilege of entering in advance of the world into His sabbath (Millennial) rest—the rest of peace with God by faith, of justification freely given through the blood of the[pg 458]Son of God. The Lord Himself set them apart for His holy service.20:13.But the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness: they walked not in My statutes, and they despised My judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; and My sabbaths they greatly polluted: then I said, I would pour out My fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them.—As a class, professed Christians have rebelled against being in the wilderness condition of separateness from and ostracism by the worldly. They have lived not according to the Law of Divine Love, but have despised the opportunities of the trial period. They have despised the Scriptural doctrine of the Millennium, and have made a common thing of the rest of faith by introducing all kinds of penances, masses, alms, and other deeds whereby to earn the peace with God, freely offered through faith in Jesus' atoning Sacrifice. Often was God indignant enough to destroy them.20:14.But I wrought for My name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, in whose sight I brought them out.—But for His own name's sake, not theirs, God refrained from permitting the Time of Trouble to come before the appointed time, that the people of this world might not belittle Him and His protecting power.20:15, 16.Yet also I lifted up My hand unto them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands; because they despised My judgments, and walked not in My statutes, but polluted My sabbaths: for their heart went after their idols.—Yet the Word of God has made it plain that those in the wilderness condition who have not given their whole heart to God shall not be changed to the spirit nature and brought to the Heavenly plane of being.20:17-21.Nevertheless Mine eye spared them from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness. But I said unto their children in the wilderness, Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols: I am the Lord your God; walk in My statutes, and keep My judgments, and do them; and hallow My sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God. Notwithstanding, the children rebelled against Me; they walked not in My statutes, neither kept My judgments to do them, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; they polluted My sabbaths: then I said, I would pour out My fury upon them to accomplish My anger against them in the wilderness.—God[pg 459]did not at once destroy those in the wilderness condition, but gave the same fatherly admonition to those who succeeded them, all in vain.20:22-24.Nevertheless I withdrew Mine hand, and wrought for My name's sake, that it should not be polluted in the sight of the heathen, in whose sight I brought them forth. I lifted up Mine hand unto them also in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the heathen, and disperse them through the countries; because they had not executed My judgments, but had despised My statutes, and had polluted My sabbaths, and their eyes, were after their fathers' idols.—God repeated His forbearance, in not scattering them back into the world, nor destroying them.20:25.Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live.—At last God gave them up“to their own heart's desires”(Psa. 81:12), to“worship the hosts of heaven,”their own pulpit stars (Acts 7:42), who“changed the truth of God into a lie,”into“human traditions,”and“worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator”(Rom. 1:25)—following evil statutes,“customs,”and enduring worldly trials and temptations, bringing them, not life, but death.20:26.And I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to pass through the fire all that openeth the womb, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am the Lord.—God gave them up to doctrinal pollutions, in that they believed in and worshipped the eternal torment god, Moloch, the Devil, and singed, scorched spiritually, with the fear of“the hot place,”all their children, those young in nominal Christianity. (Jer. 32:35.) This caused them to be desolate, deserted, abandoned by the true God, like the heathen without God—though not that God might ultimately destroy them; for in the Times of Restitution they will by contrast appreciate the true God.20:27-28.Therefore, son of man, speak unto the house of Israel, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Yet in this your fathers have blasphemed Me, in that they have committed a trespass against Me. For when I had brought them into the land, for the which I lifted up Mine hand to give it to them, then they saw every high hill, and all the thick trees, and they offered there their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their offering: there also they made their sweet savour, and poured out there their drink offerings.—The Christian's course was typed by the experience of the Hebrews in the land of Canaan (Isa. 57:5), in the blessedness of Divine favor and[pg 460]in the abundance of God's gifts. When brought into this condition of favor, instead of being thankful and giving their whole hearts to God in devoted consecration, the great mass of professing Christians committed the same abominations that the heathen were guilty of—union of church with worldly power, making the high ones the heads of the church, as the King of England and the Czar of Russia; doing homage to all of earth's great ones (the thick trees); rendering service and obedience (sweet savor) to traditions of men; and preaching (pouring out) strong doctrines, intoxicating wine of their mixed teachings (drink offerings).20:29.Then I said unto them, What is the high place whereunto ye go? And the name thereof is called Bamah unto this day.—In verse 29 Ezekiel speaks with contempt of the Hebrew apostasy. He uses a play upon words, not apparent in the English translation. He asks them,“Mah ba”(Where go?), and answers,“Ba-mah”(the high places) is the name to this day. Pastor Russell frequently spoke with contempt—deserved, from the Divine viewpoint—of the“high-place,”nominal church, her clergy and her laity, always going to the“high ones.”20:30.Wherefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; Are ye polluted after the manner of your fathers? and commit ye whoredom after their abominations?—Again, in the phase of captivity in“Babylon,”the Lord's people were guilty of doctrinal and moral pollution and of illicit union of church and earthly power.20:31.For when ye offer your gifts, when ye make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with all your idols, even unto this day: and shall I be inquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, saith the Lord God, I will not be inquired of by you.—God will not even listen to the prayers of such professed Christians.20:32.And that which cometh into your mind shall not be all, that ye say, We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.—Their heart's real desire to become good-fellows in the world's fellowship (Jer. 44:17) shall fail.20:33.As I live, saith the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you.—God began at the appointed time, 1914, to punish the accumulated sins of Christendom“with a mighty hand (power) and with a stretched out arm”(Christ present the Second time, Isa. 53:1), and with fury poured out“a great Time of Trouble such as never was”(Dan. 12:1), and which the Lord declared would never require a repetition.[pg 461]20:34.And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out.—But even this tribulation will be done in a Father's love and for the good of His erring children, to cleanse them. Through this trouble God will search out all professed Christians, make them manifestly separate from the openly worldly.—Z. '94-76.20:35.And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face.—God will bring them into a wilderness condition of separateness from the world and of ostracism and persecution by the revolutionary and anarchistic masses, and face to face He will plead with the nominal church to forsake evil and idolatry.20:36.Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God.—As He did with the Hebrews in their trial time in the Wilderness of Sinai.20:37.And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant.—God will cause His people, all those not utterly devoid of the Holy Spirit—“the Great Company”in the churches—to pass under the rod of correction and to resume their fidelity to their vow of consecration.20:38.And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against Me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the Lord.—He will permit conditions of persecution by Socialists, revolutionists, syndicalists, nihilists and anarchists, against persons professing Christianity (“the religion that got the world into trouble”), such that every person not possessing the Holy Spirit will renounce all pretense of being Christian and will get out of the deplorable condition (country) wherein the true Christians will be. This outcast class, being entirely“of the earth, earthy,”shall not enter the spiritual phase of the Kingdom.20:39.As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God; Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, and hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto Me: but pollute ye My holy name no more with your gifts, and with your idols.—Let who will then serve their idols; but they shall no longer associate themselves with God's children, nor falsely bear the name of Christ, nor pollute God's holy name nor His Church with their presence or their practices.“If the Lord be God,follow Him; if Baal, followhim.”[pg 462]20:40.For in Mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, saith the Lord God, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve Me: there will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings, and the first fruits of your oblations, with all your holy things.—God wounds to heal. In the real“high places,”the Kingdom of God now at hand, planned for man's blessed restitution, all who are truly God's shall serve Him, some in the spiritual phase of the Kingdom, some in the earthly phase. (Mal. 3:3, 4.) There God will accept all comers,“The Spirit and the Bride say, Come ... and whosoever will, let him take of the Water of Life freely”(Rev. 22:17.) There God will accept their offerings of themselves in heartfelt consecration, and the first and best of their offerings and all their possessions, then hallowed by the influences of the Kingdom of Love.20:41.I will accept you with your sweet savour, when I bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the countries wherein ye have been scattered, and I will be sanctified in you before the heathen.—God will accept their heart's best endeavors (incense), when He gathers His children—His spirit children and His earth children—out from the prison-house of death, and out from the dark shadows of a world-wide heathenism. Then God win be seen to be holy, sanctified, in His children, in the sight of all the Satan-blinded idolaters of earth.20:42.And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for the which I lifted up Mine hand to give it to your fathers.—God's children, who have not known Him as He is, will know Him then as the God of infinite Justice, Wisdom, Love and Power,—when they shall be established in the Kingdom, in whatever phase they are fitted for—the Kingdom whose earthly phase God promised to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the Ancient Worthies (Psa. 45:16), and whose Heavenly phase He covenanted to give to the spirit class of the Gospel Age.—Heb. 11:40.20:43.And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed.—Then those who have not loved the God of Love as they should shall remember their former ways and loathe themselves for the evil done against such Love Divine.20:44.And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have wrought with you for My name's sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord God.—They will humbly,[pg 463]thankfully and with fervent gratitude and love know that Jehovah, who is Love (1 John 4:8), dealt with them, for the carrying out of His all holy purposes, and not as Justice might have called for in connection with their ways.20:45, 46.Moreover the Word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face toward the south, and drop thy word toward the south, and prophesy against the forest of the south field.—The words of Ezekiel return to the impending destruction of Jerusalem—of Christendom. Pastor Russell was to speak, as from the Divine viewpoint (the North) against the multitudes (trees in the forest) in the earthly phase (the south) of the Kingdom of God, already established invisibly by God in 1878-1914. Jerusalem (ecclesiasticism) was in a southerly direction (belonging to the earth, earthy), from the Prophet's point of view.20:47.And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the Lord; Thus saith the Lord God; Behold I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.—God permitted in 1914 the kindling of the present unquenchable conflagration of war, and of revolution and anarchy to come. Righteous (green tree) and wicked (dry tree) alike are to suffer in the fiery trials of the trouble time. All who are of the earth, earthy (of the south, earthly phase of the Kingdom), but who pretend or claim to be of the spiritual phase, to have the Holy Spirit (look toward the north, the spiritual), are to be burned, as the tares are burned after the gathering of the wheat into the Heavenly garner.—Matt. 13:30.20:48.And all flesh shall see that I the Lord have kindled it: it shall not be quenched.—All mankind will understand, before the Time of Trouble is over, that“the strange work”is of Jehovah.20:49.Then said I, Ah Lord God! they say of me, Doth he not speak parables?—The people of ecclesiasticism, misled by the clergy, are unable to understand Pastor Russell's teachings regarding the trouble, or to get the Divine viewpoint.“There are great truths that pitch their shining tentsOutside our walls, and though but dimly seenIn the gray dawn, they will be manifestWhen the light widens into perfect day.”[pg 464]Ezekiel 21—The Thrice-Doubled Sword21:1, 2.And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel.—The Lord has drawn the sword against Jerusalem and sharpened and pointed it in fury. (21:1-17.) The king of Babylon (Satan) uses divination as to the route by which to bring the sword against Jerusalem; the Jews deride such a method (21:18-24), but the Hebrew crown is to be overturned. (21:25-57.) The Ammonites (aggressive worldly believers), too, are to be given to the sword.—21:28-32.21:3.And say to the land of Israel, Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I am against thee, and will draw forth My sword out of its sheath, and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked.—Jehovah is against Christendom, has drawn against it both the literal weapons of war, in warfare and revolution, and the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. (Eph. 6:17.) He will cause both righteous and wicked to die in the Time of Trouble; and by His Word He will bring about conditions such that all wicked professing Christians will abandon all pretense of Christianity, and the righteous will“come out of her”(Rev. 18:4) and be gathered as wheat into the Divine garner—Heaven.21:4.Seeing then that I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall My sword go forth out of his sheath against all flesh from the south to the north.—Cannon, rifle, shot, shell, bomb and torpedo shall be unleashed and turned against all flesh, from those of the earthly (of the south) to those having the Holy Spirit (of the north). The Word of God will be taken out of its sheath of mystery and plainly show the meaning of this trouble, and that it is to be upon all.21:5.That all flesh may know that I the Lord have drawn forth My sword out of its sheath: it shall not return any more.—All the people shall know that the trouble has come from Jehovah, and that its consummation is a certainty.21:6.Sigh therefore, thou son of man, with the breaking of thy loins; and with bitterness sigh before their eyes.—Pastor[pg 465]Russell and the Truth people have carried a heavy heart burden in this message of the ills coming upon Christendom.21:7.And it shall be, when they say unto thee, Wherefore sighed thou? that thou shalt answer, For the tidings, because it cometh. And every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water: behold, it cometh, and shall be brought to pass, saith the Lord God.—For the days are near when even the strongest shall falter.21:8, 9.Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus saith the Lord; Say, A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also furbished.—Modern weapons of destruction are brought to a hitherto unknown efficiency, as is the Sword of the Spirit in the hands of the“feet”members of Christ.—Isa. 52:7.21:10.It is sharpened to make a sore slaughter; it is furbished that it may glitter: should We then make mirth? it contemneth the rod of My Son, as every tree.—The weapons of war will make a frightful slaughter among men; and the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, will cause millions to cast off Christianity. It glitters with flashes of enlightenment reflected from the risen Sun of Righteousness, which to its idolatrous enemies are gleamings of trouble and distress. Who could rejoice over the trouble? Not the Lord's people; for it presages the destruction of the power (rod) of all professing to be of the Son of God, together with all their institutions.21:11.And he hath given it to be furbished, that it may be handled: this sword is sharpened, and it is furbished, to give it into the hand of the slayer.—It is given, bright and sharp, to be swung in the hand of skillful slayers.21:12, 13.Cry and howl, son of man; for it shall be upon My people, it shall be upon all the princes of Israel: terrors by reason of the sword shall be upon My people: smite therefore upon thy thigh. Because it is a trial, and what if the sword contemn even the rod? it shall be no more, saith the Lord God.—The destruction by the weapons of war and by the Word of God shall be upon“My [professed] people,”upon all the clergy (princes). Fear shall take hold of churchianity.21:14.Thou therefore, son of man, prophesy, and smite thine hands together, and let the sword be doubled the third time, the sword of the slain: it is the sword of the great men that are slain, which entereth into their privy chambers.—Pastor Russell was to give expression to the final wrath of Jehovah. The destruction will be of double[pg 466]severity three times—in war, revolution and anarchy. The Sword of the Spirit was to be wielded by Pastor Russell twice three times, in his six volumes ofStudies in the Scriptures. The weapons of destruction will pursue all the great ones of earth, penetrating into all their most secret places. The Sword of the Spirit will search out all the lords of God's heritage (1 Pet. 5:3), the clergy, exposing their inmost ideas contrary to Jehovah and His Plan.21:15.I have set the point of the sword against all their gates, that their heart may faint, and their ruins be multiplied: ah! it is made bright, it is wrapped up for the slaughter.—The point of the sword against ecclesiasticism, revealing its true nature and imminent fall, is the present exposition of the prophecies of Revelation and Ezekiel. The Hebrew says that it is made“lightning brightness.”It is an illumination of the whole Babylonish system, for ages wrapped in the mystery of types and symbolisms. How gladly the clergy would have destroyed these two books of the Bible, had they known what they taught!21:16.Go thee one way or the other, either on the right hand, or on the left, whithersoever thy face is set.—Wheresoever Pastor Russell and the Truth people set their face to go, it is authorized for them by the Lord.21:17.I will also smite Mine hands together, and I will cause My fury to rest: I the Lord have said it.—God will manifest His anger and cause His fury to rest upon ecclesiasticism.21:18, 19.And the Word of the Lord came unto me again, saying, Also, thou son of man, appoint thee two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon may come: both twain shall come forth out of one land: and choose thou a place, choose it at the head of the way to the city.—There were two ways that the weapons of war, revolution and anarchy might strike; in either way the blow would come from Satan, the king of anarchy. It was to come from Riblah, the fork of the roads. Riblah means“desolate.”Since 1878 the worldly churches, and since 1914 the worldly governments, have been“left desolate”(Matt. 23:38) and subject, the one to desolation by the Sword of the Spirit, the other to desolation by carnal weapons.21:20.Appoint a way, that the sword may come to Rabbath of the Ammonites, and to Judah in Jerusalem the defenced.—The sword might go east of Jordan against the Ammonites (Amos 1:14; Jer. 49:2), or west of Jordan, directly at Jerusalem, first of all. It might strike the Great (Rabbath) Company (Rev. 7:9) of“fellow companions”(Psa. 45:14) (Ammonites), or directly and first strike against churchianity (Judah) and ecclesiasticism proper—“the[pg 467]fenced off,”exclusive, superior,“best”people, hitherto so thoroughly defended from harm.21:21.For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the liver.—The forces that will overthrow Christendom are thoroughly under the influence and guidance of evil spirits—as is suggested by the shuffling of arrows named for the two cities, by the consulting of idols (theories), and by the looking in the liver (spiritism), by interpretation. The Devil chooses bitter words (arrows) (Psa. 64:3), consults evil spirits (images), and is guided even in his opposition to Jehovah by his own interpretations of Scripture.—Matt. 4:6; 2 Cor. 11:14.21:22.At his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem, to appoint captains, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to appoint battering rams against the gates, to cast a mount, and to build a fort.—The proof from the Scriptures shows that the evil spirits directed that the revolutionary and anarchistic movement should proceed first to the destruction of Christendom. The ex-Czar of Russia was a spiritualist, and maintained mediums for consultation. Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, for years prior to the great war, followed the guidance of a demon which spoke to him clairaudiently, urging him to his present course. A surprising number of prominent men consult spirit mediums. The voice of the spirits was for war by every conceivable means, nation against nation, but destined to effect the desolation of ecclesiasticism as well.21:23.And it shall be unto them as a false divination in their sight, to them that have sworn oaths: but He will call to remembrance the iniquity, that they may be taken.—In the sight of those that have sworn allegiance to ecclesiasticism's god, the father of lies, this true prediction of the downfall of the nations will seem an erroneous expectation—as it has appeared to all the great ones of Christendom. They have thought that this war would be as other wars. But the end of the Age (world) has come; and ecclesiasticism's iniquities shall no longer go unpunished.21:24.Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because ye have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are discovered, so that in all your doings your sins do appear; because, I say, that ye are come to[pg 468]remembrance, ye shall be taken with the hand.—Universal muck-raking by Socialists, Anarchists, magazine writers, social surveyors and reformers has caused Christendom's forgotten iniquities to be freshly remembered, and her transgressions uncovered, so that there is no department—commercial, financial, political or religious—in which her sinful practices do not appear. These things God has permitted to be made manifest that she may be taken red-handed.21:25.And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end.—The profane and wicked prince of the Jews was Zedekiah, their last king. (A. 248; Z. '04-343.) The antitype is churchianity's lordly class, the clergy, profaning the holy Temple of God, the Church, the Body of Christ, with doctrines of devils (1 Tim. 4:1), as wicked in the sight of God as were their prototypes, the scribes, doctors and Pharisees, with their hypocritical pretense of holiness. Their time has come—1918—when iniquity in the House of the Sons of God shall have an end.21:26.Thus saith the Lord God; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high.—Thus says Almighty God: Remove the mitre (mistranslated“diadem”). The mitre was a band of linen about the forehead, typing the righteousness of Christ, supposed to be in the minds of the clergy, but no more actually in them as a class than in whited sepulchres. (Matt. 23:27.) The king wore a golden crown on his head, held there by a white linen mitre. (A. 248; B. 76, 79; Z. '98-359.) The clergy, the lords of God's heritage, have crowned themselves with the rulership of earth, in the person of the pope and in the general desire of clergymen to rule in the affairs of men, a lordship based upon their supposed righteousness (mitre). This great crisis will not be like the temporary setbacks of ecclesiasticism in past centuries. The lowly, revolutionary, anarchistic masses will exalt themselves to power in the Time of Trouble, and the lofty clergy shall be utterly abased.—Matt. 23:12.21:27.I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more, until He come whose right it is; and I will give it Him.—In warfare, revolution and anarchy Jehovah will triply overthrow Christendom until Christ in great power will take the crown and rule the affairs of earth.—E.147, 133; A. 248; B. 76, 79; Z. '05-253; H. 61.21:28.And thou, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord God concerning the Ammonites, and concerning their reproach; even say thou, The sword, the[pg 469]sword is drawn: for the slaughter it is furbished, to consume because of the glittering.—Nor will the openly worldly, professing Christian escape, for war, revolution and anarchy are abroad—“the sword is drawn”—to consume the worldly, too.21:29.While they see vanity unto thee, while they divine a lie unto thee, to bring thee upon the necks of them that are slain, of the wicked, whose day is come, when their iniquity shall have an end.—Destruction will come even when the worldly-wise are mistakenly asserting that it will not come nigh them.21:30.Shall I cause it to return into his sheath? I will judge thee in the place where thou wast created, in the land of thy nativity.—The tribulation shall not be quieted—the sword shall not“return unto his sheath;”for God will condemn the worldly Christian also, in the condition of unbelief wherein they have been.21:31.And I will pour out Mine indignation upon thee; I will blow against thee in the fire of My wrath, and deliver thee into the hand of brutish men, and skilful to destroy.—God will pour out His wrath upon the worldly professing Christians. He will blow upon them fiery blasts of war, revolution and anarchy. They shall be delivered into the hands of a revolted soldiery, brutal, destructive, pitiless, skilled in the arts of slaughter, taught by Teutons and Allies to know the utmost efficiency in war. The Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, too, will be in the hands of consecrated ones, seemingly but not actually cruel, skilled through Divine power to use it with telling effect.21:32.Thou shalt be for fuel to the fire; thy blood shall be in the midst of the land; thou shalt be no more remembered: for I the Lord have spoken it.—Institutions Divinely condemned shall be as fuel for the fires of bloody anarchy and pass into oblivion. The war is the melting-pot of ecclesiasticism.“Beautiful hands are they that doThe work of the noble, good and true,Busy for them the long day through;Beautiful faces—they that wearThe light of a pleasing spirit there,It matters little if dark or fair;And truly beautiful in God's sight,Are the precious souls who love the right.”[pg 470]

19:1.Moreover, take thou up a lamentation for the princes of Israel.—Chapter 19 has the form of a dirge. It represents in antitype the downfall, in the Time of Trouble, of ecclesiasticism pictured first, as two roaring lions which are taken captive; and secondly, as a vine destroyed by fire of internal origin. The princes of Israel are the clergy.

19:2.And say, What is thy mother? A lioness: she lay down among lions, she nourished her whelps among young lions.—As the father and the mother of Isaac were Abraham and Sarah, and the spiritual father and mother of the true Church are Jehovah and His Covenant of Grace (Gal. 4:22-28), so the spiritual father and mother of ecclesiasticism, priestcraft, are the Devil and his covenant with death. (Gen. 3:4; Isa. 28:18.)“The Devil goeth about like a roaring lion.”(1 Pet. 5:8.) Their nourishment has been“doctrines of devils.”

19:3.And she brought up one of her whelps; it became a young lion, and it learned to catch the prey; it devoured men.—Ecclesiasticism divided into two classes; one higher, richer, more educated than the other—“one of her whelps.”They learned to devour men, make them their prey.

19:4.The nations also heard of him; he was taken in their pit, and they brought him with chains unto the land of Egypt.—The unbelieving peoples heard them; they, the clergy, were taken in the pit of corrupt doctrine; they were captivated, taken captive, into worldliness, the wisdom of this world, of“Egypt.”

19:5.Now when she saw that she had waited, and her hope was lost, then she took another of her whelps, and made him a young lion.—Another class of ecclesiasticism was developed, under the same false covenant with death, into a full-fledged lion, an embodiment and child of the eternal torment, trinity, inherent-immortality teachings.

19:6.And he went up and down among the lions, he became a young lion, and learned to catch the prey, and devoured men.—This was the popular evangelist well trained in catching men and shekels.

19:7.And he knew their desolate palaces, and he laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fulness thereof, by the noise of his roaring.—The revivalists caught men by thousands, and“the fulness thereof,”great contributions for a few weeks of noisy evangelism.

19:8.Then the nations set against him on every side from the provinces, and spread their net over him; he was taken in their pit.—Then the“unconvertible”people, anarchists, Socialists, etc., spread the net of their teachings. The people, indignant at their sufferings from wars and high cost of living, declined further support.

19:9.And they put in ward in chains, and brought him to the king of Babylon: they brought him into holds, that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel.—Revolution and anarchy will place a complete restraint upon the revivalists, and bring them to their end.

19:10.Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood, planted by the waters: she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.—The false covenant-mother of ecclesiasticism is a system of thought, in the very blood; it is part and parcel of the existence of ecclesiasticism. It is“the vine of the earth,”of Rev. 14:19. This system of error was once fruitful in gaining adherents.

19:11.And she had strong rods for the sceptres of them that bare rule, and her stature was exalted among the thick branches, and she appeared in her height with the multitude of her branches.—The vine had seeming strong authority for the rulership“of them that bare rule,”the clergy,“lords over God's heritage.”(1 Pet. 5:3.) To a mighty and lofty height did the vine of the earth grow.

19:12.But she was plucked up in fury, she was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up her fruit: her strong rods were broken and withered; the fire consumed them.—But in the fury of the world-wide war she will be“cast down to the ground.”The truths arising from the presence of the dawning Sun of Righteousness will dry up the support of her fruit (church members). Her authority—rod—will be broken, withered, and destroyed in anarchy.

19:13.And now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty ground.—In a world of hostile doctrines of Socialism and anarchy, in a world-wide drought of the water of the Word of God, the old system of sophistries will soon be in the wilderness condition, in a state of complete ostracism.

19:14.And fire is gone out of a rod of her branches, which hath devoured her fruit, so that she hath no strong rod to be a sceptre to rule. This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.—The savage application in the world-wide war of the rod of the Divine authority of rulers will cause revolt, revolution and anarchy to spring up, like a fire, which will bring to an utter end the denominational clusters, the fruit of the vine of the earth.

Ezekiel 20—The Hypocritical Ecclesiastics20:1.And it came to pass in the seventh year, in the fifth month, the tenth day of the month, that certain of the elders of Israel came to inquire of the Lord, and sat before me.—The elders of Israel came to confer with Ezekiel, but he would not be interviewed by them, because of their idolatrous tendencies. The Hebrews had always had such propensities. God had refrained from destroying them in order to preserve His own good name among the heathen peoples; but now He was about to punish them, until the appointed time should come when He would regather them. The destruction of Judaism is here pictured as a fire in a forest. This chapter introduces another group of prophecies against Christendom, ending with Chapter 24. Some of the prominent ecclesiastics will read up or consult Pastor Russell and his writings, and the“Truth people,”ostensibly to learn what they can.20:2, 3.Then came the Word of the Lord unto me, saying, Son of man, speak unto the elders of Israel, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Are ye come to inquire of Me? As I live, saith the Lord God, I will not be inquired of by you.—Present Truth will refuse any favorable answer to ecclesiasticism.20:4.Wilt thou judge them, son of man, wilt thou judge them? cause them to know the abominations of their fathers.—Instead, it will pronounce judgment upon them. It will cause them to realize the abominations in doctrine and in life of professed Christians, as a result of the teachings of the Dark Ages.20:5.And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God: in the day when I chose Israel, and lifted up Mine hand unto the seed of the house of Jacob, and made Myself known unto them in the land of Egypt, when I lifted up Mine hand unto them, saying, I am the Lord your God.—First viewed as God's people“in the world,”Egypt, God chose them, made Himself known to them, and lifted up for them the hand of His power.—Z. '94-357.20:6.In the day that I lifted up Mine hand unto them, to bring them forth of the land of Egypt into a land that I had espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands.—He promised to bring them in[pg 457]the resurrection, if faithful, into the“mansion”prepared for them—Heaven itself, the most glorious condition in God's Universe.20:7.Then said I unto them, Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.—God had told them to cast away all filthiness of the flesh and the spirit (2 Cor. 7:1), to do away with the desire of things seen with the fleshly eyes (1 John 2:16), and no longer to defile themselves spiritually with cravings for earthly power. But while professing Christ's name, they rebelled in their heart against God, and would not listen to Him.20:8.But they rebelled against Me, and would not hearken unto Me: they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt: then I said, I will pour out My fury upon them, to accomplish My anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.—Over and over, throughout the Gospel Age, God was indignant enough to bring destruction upon them; but He did not, in order that His name and reputation might not come into disrespect among the worldly people, who were taught by professing Christians that God was with them.20:9, 10.But I wrought for My name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, among whom they were, in whose sight I made Myself known unto them, in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt. Wherefore I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness.—God's Word views professing Christians also as in the wilderness condition of separateness from and ostracism by the worldly—as“brought forth out of the land of Egypt.”20:12.Moreover also I gave them My sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctifieth them.—He gave them the privilege of entering in advance of the world into His sabbath (Millennial) rest—the rest of peace with God by faith, of justification freely given through the blood of the[pg 458]Son of God. The Lord Himself set them apart for His holy service.20:13.But the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness: they walked not in My statutes, and they despised My judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; and My sabbaths they greatly polluted: then I said, I would pour out My fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them.—As a class, professed Christians have rebelled against being in the wilderness condition of separateness from and ostracism by the worldly. They have lived not according to the Law of Divine Love, but have despised the opportunities of the trial period. They have despised the Scriptural doctrine of the Millennium, and have made a common thing of the rest of faith by introducing all kinds of penances, masses, alms, and other deeds whereby to earn the peace with God, freely offered through faith in Jesus' atoning Sacrifice. Often was God indignant enough to destroy them.20:14.But I wrought for My name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, in whose sight I brought them out.—But for His own name's sake, not theirs, God refrained from permitting the Time of Trouble to come before the appointed time, that the people of this world might not belittle Him and His protecting power.20:15, 16.Yet also I lifted up My hand unto them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands; because they despised My judgments, and walked not in My statutes, but polluted My sabbaths: for their heart went after their idols.—Yet the Word of God has made it plain that those in the wilderness condition who have not given their whole heart to God shall not be changed to the spirit nature and brought to the Heavenly plane of being.20:17-21.Nevertheless Mine eye spared them from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness. But I said unto their children in the wilderness, Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols: I am the Lord your God; walk in My statutes, and keep My judgments, and do them; and hallow My sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God. Notwithstanding, the children rebelled against Me; they walked not in My statutes, neither kept My judgments to do them, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; they polluted My sabbaths: then I said, I would pour out My fury upon them to accomplish My anger against them in the wilderness.—God[pg 459]did not at once destroy those in the wilderness condition, but gave the same fatherly admonition to those who succeeded them, all in vain.20:22-24.Nevertheless I withdrew Mine hand, and wrought for My name's sake, that it should not be polluted in the sight of the heathen, in whose sight I brought them forth. I lifted up Mine hand unto them also in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the heathen, and disperse them through the countries; because they had not executed My judgments, but had despised My statutes, and had polluted My sabbaths, and their eyes, were after their fathers' idols.—God repeated His forbearance, in not scattering them back into the world, nor destroying them.20:25.Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live.—At last God gave them up“to their own heart's desires”(Psa. 81:12), to“worship the hosts of heaven,”their own pulpit stars (Acts 7:42), who“changed the truth of God into a lie,”into“human traditions,”and“worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator”(Rom. 1:25)—following evil statutes,“customs,”and enduring worldly trials and temptations, bringing them, not life, but death.20:26.And I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to pass through the fire all that openeth the womb, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am the Lord.—God gave them up to doctrinal pollutions, in that they believed in and worshipped the eternal torment god, Moloch, the Devil, and singed, scorched spiritually, with the fear of“the hot place,”all their children, those young in nominal Christianity. (Jer. 32:35.) This caused them to be desolate, deserted, abandoned by the true God, like the heathen without God—though not that God might ultimately destroy them; for in the Times of Restitution they will by contrast appreciate the true God.20:27-28.Therefore, son of man, speak unto the house of Israel, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Yet in this your fathers have blasphemed Me, in that they have committed a trespass against Me. For when I had brought them into the land, for the which I lifted up Mine hand to give it to them, then they saw every high hill, and all the thick trees, and they offered there their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their offering: there also they made their sweet savour, and poured out there their drink offerings.—The Christian's course was typed by the experience of the Hebrews in the land of Canaan (Isa. 57:5), in the blessedness of Divine favor and[pg 460]in the abundance of God's gifts. When brought into this condition of favor, instead of being thankful and giving their whole hearts to God in devoted consecration, the great mass of professing Christians committed the same abominations that the heathen were guilty of—union of church with worldly power, making the high ones the heads of the church, as the King of England and the Czar of Russia; doing homage to all of earth's great ones (the thick trees); rendering service and obedience (sweet savor) to traditions of men; and preaching (pouring out) strong doctrines, intoxicating wine of their mixed teachings (drink offerings).20:29.Then I said unto them, What is the high place whereunto ye go? And the name thereof is called Bamah unto this day.—In verse 29 Ezekiel speaks with contempt of the Hebrew apostasy. He uses a play upon words, not apparent in the English translation. He asks them,“Mah ba”(Where go?), and answers,“Ba-mah”(the high places) is the name to this day. Pastor Russell frequently spoke with contempt—deserved, from the Divine viewpoint—of the“high-place,”nominal church, her clergy and her laity, always going to the“high ones.”20:30.Wherefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; Are ye polluted after the manner of your fathers? and commit ye whoredom after their abominations?—Again, in the phase of captivity in“Babylon,”the Lord's people were guilty of doctrinal and moral pollution and of illicit union of church and earthly power.20:31.For when ye offer your gifts, when ye make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with all your idols, even unto this day: and shall I be inquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, saith the Lord God, I will not be inquired of by you.—God will not even listen to the prayers of such professed Christians.20:32.And that which cometh into your mind shall not be all, that ye say, We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.—Their heart's real desire to become good-fellows in the world's fellowship (Jer. 44:17) shall fail.20:33.As I live, saith the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you.—God began at the appointed time, 1914, to punish the accumulated sins of Christendom“with a mighty hand (power) and with a stretched out arm”(Christ present the Second time, Isa. 53:1), and with fury poured out“a great Time of Trouble such as never was”(Dan. 12:1), and which the Lord declared would never require a repetition.[pg 461]20:34.And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out.—But even this tribulation will be done in a Father's love and for the good of His erring children, to cleanse them. Through this trouble God will search out all professed Christians, make them manifestly separate from the openly worldly.—Z. '94-76.20:35.And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face.—God will bring them into a wilderness condition of separateness from the world and of ostracism and persecution by the revolutionary and anarchistic masses, and face to face He will plead with the nominal church to forsake evil and idolatry.20:36.Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God.—As He did with the Hebrews in their trial time in the Wilderness of Sinai.20:37.And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant.—God will cause His people, all those not utterly devoid of the Holy Spirit—“the Great Company”in the churches—to pass under the rod of correction and to resume their fidelity to their vow of consecration.20:38.And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against Me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the Lord.—He will permit conditions of persecution by Socialists, revolutionists, syndicalists, nihilists and anarchists, against persons professing Christianity (“the religion that got the world into trouble”), such that every person not possessing the Holy Spirit will renounce all pretense of being Christian and will get out of the deplorable condition (country) wherein the true Christians will be. This outcast class, being entirely“of the earth, earthy,”shall not enter the spiritual phase of the Kingdom.20:39.As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God; Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, and hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto Me: but pollute ye My holy name no more with your gifts, and with your idols.—Let who will then serve their idols; but they shall no longer associate themselves with God's children, nor falsely bear the name of Christ, nor pollute God's holy name nor His Church with their presence or their practices.“If the Lord be God,follow Him; if Baal, followhim.”[pg 462]20:40.For in Mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, saith the Lord God, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve Me: there will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings, and the first fruits of your oblations, with all your holy things.—God wounds to heal. In the real“high places,”the Kingdom of God now at hand, planned for man's blessed restitution, all who are truly God's shall serve Him, some in the spiritual phase of the Kingdom, some in the earthly phase. (Mal. 3:3, 4.) There God will accept all comers,“The Spirit and the Bride say, Come ... and whosoever will, let him take of the Water of Life freely”(Rev. 22:17.) There God will accept their offerings of themselves in heartfelt consecration, and the first and best of their offerings and all their possessions, then hallowed by the influences of the Kingdom of Love.20:41.I will accept you with your sweet savour, when I bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the countries wherein ye have been scattered, and I will be sanctified in you before the heathen.—God will accept their heart's best endeavors (incense), when He gathers His children—His spirit children and His earth children—out from the prison-house of death, and out from the dark shadows of a world-wide heathenism. Then God win be seen to be holy, sanctified, in His children, in the sight of all the Satan-blinded idolaters of earth.20:42.And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for the which I lifted up Mine hand to give it to your fathers.—God's children, who have not known Him as He is, will know Him then as the God of infinite Justice, Wisdom, Love and Power,—when they shall be established in the Kingdom, in whatever phase they are fitted for—the Kingdom whose earthly phase God promised to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the Ancient Worthies (Psa. 45:16), and whose Heavenly phase He covenanted to give to the spirit class of the Gospel Age.—Heb. 11:40.20:43.And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed.—Then those who have not loved the God of Love as they should shall remember their former ways and loathe themselves for the evil done against such Love Divine.20:44.And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have wrought with you for My name's sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord God.—They will humbly,[pg 463]thankfully and with fervent gratitude and love know that Jehovah, who is Love (1 John 4:8), dealt with them, for the carrying out of His all holy purposes, and not as Justice might have called for in connection with their ways.20:45, 46.Moreover the Word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face toward the south, and drop thy word toward the south, and prophesy against the forest of the south field.—The words of Ezekiel return to the impending destruction of Jerusalem—of Christendom. Pastor Russell was to speak, as from the Divine viewpoint (the North) against the multitudes (trees in the forest) in the earthly phase (the south) of the Kingdom of God, already established invisibly by God in 1878-1914. Jerusalem (ecclesiasticism) was in a southerly direction (belonging to the earth, earthy), from the Prophet's point of view.20:47.And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the Lord; Thus saith the Lord God; Behold I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.—God permitted in 1914 the kindling of the present unquenchable conflagration of war, and of revolution and anarchy to come. Righteous (green tree) and wicked (dry tree) alike are to suffer in the fiery trials of the trouble time. All who are of the earth, earthy (of the south, earthly phase of the Kingdom), but who pretend or claim to be of the spiritual phase, to have the Holy Spirit (look toward the north, the spiritual), are to be burned, as the tares are burned after the gathering of the wheat into the Heavenly garner.—Matt. 13:30.20:48.And all flesh shall see that I the Lord have kindled it: it shall not be quenched.—All mankind will understand, before the Time of Trouble is over, that“the strange work”is of Jehovah.20:49.Then said I, Ah Lord God! they say of me, Doth he not speak parables?—The people of ecclesiasticism, misled by the clergy, are unable to understand Pastor Russell's teachings regarding the trouble, or to get the Divine viewpoint.“There are great truths that pitch their shining tentsOutside our walls, and though but dimly seenIn the gray dawn, they will be manifestWhen the light widens into perfect day.”

20:1.And it came to pass in the seventh year, in the fifth month, the tenth day of the month, that certain of the elders of Israel came to inquire of the Lord, and sat before me.—The elders of Israel came to confer with Ezekiel, but he would not be interviewed by them, because of their idolatrous tendencies. The Hebrews had always had such propensities. God had refrained from destroying them in order to preserve His own good name among the heathen peoples; but now He was about to punish them, until the appointed time should come when He would regather them. The destruction of Judaism is here pictured as a fire in a forest. This chapter introduces another group of prophecies against Christendom, ending with Chapter 24. Some of the prominent ecclesiastics will read up or consult Pastor Russell and his writings, and the“Truth people,”ostensibly to learn what they can.

20:2, 3.Then came the Word of the Lord unto me, saying, Son of man, speak unto the elders of Israel, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Are ye come to inquire of Me? As I live, saith the Lord God, I will not be inquired of by you.—Present Truth will refuse any favorable answer to ecclesiasticism.

20:4.Wilt thou judge them, son of man, wilt thou judge them? cause them to know the abominations of their fathers.—Instead, it will pronounce judgment upon them. It will cause them to realize the abominations in doctrine and in life of professed Christians, as a result of the teachings of the Dark Ages.

20:5.And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God: in the day when I chose Israel, and lifted up Mine hand unto the seed of the house of Jacob, and made Myself known unto them in the land of Egypt, when I lifted up Mine hand unto them, saying, I am the Lord your God.—First viewed as God's people“in the world,”Egypt, God chose them, made Himself known to them, and lifted up for them the hand of His power.—Z. '94-357.

20:6.In the day that I lifted up Mine hand unto them, to bring them forth of the land of Egypt into a land that I had espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands.—He promised to bring them in[pg 457]the resurrection, if faithful, into the“mansion”prepared for them—Heaven itself, the most glorious condition in God's Universe.

20:7.Then said I unto them, Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.—God had told them to cast away all filthiness of the flesh and the spirit (2 Cor. 7:1), to do away with the desire of things seen with the fleshly eyes (1 John 2:16), and no longer to defile themselves spiritually with cravings for earthly power. But while professing Christ's name, they rebelled in their heart against God, and would not listen to Him.

20:8.But they rebelled against Me, and would not hearken unto Me: they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt: then I said, I will pour out My fury upon them, to accomplish My anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.—Over and over, throughout the Gospel Age, God was indignant enough to bring destruction upon them; but He did not, in order that His name and reputation might not come into disrespect among the worldly people, who were taught by professing Christians that God was with them.

20:9, 10.But I wrought for My name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, among whom they were, in whose sight I made Myself known unto them, in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt. Wherefore I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness.—God's Word views professing Christians also as in the wilderness condition of separateness from and ostracism by the worldly—as“brought forth out of the land of Egypt.”

20:12.Moreover also I gave them My sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctifieth them.—He gave them the privilege of entering in advance of the world into His sabbath (Millennial) rest—the rest of peace with God by faith, of justification freely given through the blood of the[pg 458]Son of God. The Lord Himself set them apart for His holy service.

20:13.But the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness: they walked not in My statutes, and they despised My judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; and My sabbaths they greatly polluted: then I said, I would pour out My fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them.—As a class, professed Christians have rebelled against being in the wilderness condition of separateness from and ostracism by the worldly. They have lived not according to the Law of Divine Love, but have despised the opportunities of the trial period. They have despised the Scriptural doctrine of the Millennium, and have made a common thing of the rest of faith by introducing all kinds of penances, masses, alms, and other deeds whereby to earn the peace with God, freely offered through faith in Jesus' atoning Sacrifice. Often was God indignant enough to destroy them.

20:14.But I wrought for My name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, in whose sight I brought them out.—But for His own name's sake, not theirs, God refrained from permitting the Time of Trouble to come before the appointed time, that the people of this world might not belittle Him and His protecting power.

20:15, 16.Yet also I lifted up My hand unto them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands; because they despised My judgments, and walked not in My statutes, but polluted My sabbaths: for their heart went after their idols.—Yet the Word of God has made it plain that those in the wilderness condition who have not given their whole heart to God shall not be changed to the spirit nature and brought to the Heavenly plane of being.

20:17-21.Nevertheless Mine eye spared them from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness. But I said unto their children in the wilderness, Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols: I am the Lord your God; walk in My statutes, and keep My judgments, and do them; and hallow My sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God. Notwithstanding, the children rebelled against Me; they walked not in My statutes, neither kept My judgments to do them, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; they polluted My sabbaths: then I said, I would pour out My fury upon them to accomplish My anger against them in the wilderness.—God[pg 459]did not at once destroy those in the wilderness condition, but gave the same fatherly admonition to those who succeeded them, all in vain.

20:22-24.Nevertheless I withdrew Mine hand, and wrought for My name's sake, that it should not be polluted in the sight of the heathen, in whose sight I brought them forth. I lifted up Mine hand unto them also in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the heathen, and disperse them through the countries; because they had not executed My judgments, but had despised My statutes, and had polluted My sabbaths, and their eyes, were after their fathers' idols.—God repeated His forbearance, in not scattering them back into the world, nor destroying them.

20:25.Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live.—At last God gave them up“to their own heart's desires”(Psa. 81:12), to“worship the hosts of heaven,”their own pulpit stars (Acts 7:42), who“changed the truth of God into a lie,”into“human traditions,”and“worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator”(Rom. 1:25)—following evil statutes,“customs,”and enduring worldly trials and temptations, bringing them, not life, but death.

20:26.And I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to pass through the fire all that openeth the womb, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am the Lord.—God gave them up to doctrinal pollutions, in that they believed in and worshipped the eternal torment god, Moloch, the Devil, and singed, scorched spiritually, with the fear of“the hot place,”all their children, those young in nominal Christianity. (Jer. 32:35.) This caused them to be desolate, deserted, abandoned by the true God, like the heathen without God—though not that God might ultimately destroy them; for in the Times of Restitution they will by contrast appreciate the true God.

20:27-28.Therefore, son of man, speak unto the house of Israel, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Yet in this your fathers have blasphemed Me, in that they have committed a trespass against Me. For when I had brought them into the land, for the which I lifted up Mine hand to give it to them, then they saw every high hill, and all the thick trees, and they offered there their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their offering: there also they made their sweet savour, and poured out there their drink offerings.—The Christian's course was typed by the experience of the Hebrews in the land of Canaan (Isa. 57:5), in the blessedness of Divine favor and[pg 460]in the abundance of God's gifts. When brought into this condition of favor, instead of being thankful and giving their whole hearts to God in devoted consecration, the great mass of professing Christians committed the same abominations that the heathen were guilty of—union of church with worldly power, making the high ones the heads of the church, as the King of England and the Czar of Russia; doing homage to all of earth's great ones (the thick trees); rendering service and obedience (sweet savor) to traditions of men; and preaching (pouring out) strong doctrines, intoxicating wine of their mixed teachings (drink offerings).

20:29.Then I said unto them, What is the high place whereunto ye go? And the name thereof is called Bamah unto this day.—In verse 29 Ezekiel speaks with contempt of the Hebrew apostasy. He uses a play upon words, not apparent in the English translation. He asks them,“Mah ba”(Where go?), and answers,“Ba-mah”(the high places) is the name to this day. Pastor Russell frequently spoke with contempt—deserved, from the Divine viewpoint—of the“high-place,”nominal church, her clergy and her laity, always going to the“high ones.”

20:30.Wherefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; Are ye polluted after the manner of your fathers? and commit ye whoredom after their abominations?—Again, in the phase of captivity in“Babylon,”the Lord's people were guilty of doctrinal and moral pollution and of illicit union of church and earthly power.

20:31.For when ye offer your gifts, when ye make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with all your idols, even unto this day: and shall I be inquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, saith the Lord God, I will not be inquired of by you.—God will not even listen to the prayers of such professed Christians.

20:32.And that which cometh into your mind shall not be all, that ye say, We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.—Their heart's real desire to become good-fellows in the world's fellowship (Jer. 44:17) shall fail.

20:33.As I live, saith the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you.—God began at the appointed time, 1914, to punish the accumulated sins of Christendom“with a mighty hand (power) and with a stretched out arm”(Christ present the Second time, Isa. 53:1), and with fury poured out“a great Time of Trouble such as never was”(Dan. 12:1), and which the Lord declared would never require a repetition.

20:34.And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out.—But even this tribulation will be done in a Father's love and for the good of His erring children, to cleanse them. Through this trouble God will search out all professed Christians, make them manifestly separate from the openly worldly.—Z. '94-76.

20:35.And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face.—God will bring them into a wilderness condition of separateness from the world and of ostracism and persecution by the revolutionary and anarchistic masses, and face to face He will plead with the nominal church to forsake evil and idolatry.

20:36.Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God.—As He did with the Hebrews in their trial time in the Wilderness of Sinai.

20:37.And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant.—God will cause His people, all those not utterly devoid of the Holy Spirit—“the Great Company”in the churches—to pass under the rod of correction and to resume their fidelity to their vow of consecration.

20:38.And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against Me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the Lord.—He will permit conditions of persecution by Socialists, revolutionists, syndicalists, nihilists and anarchists, against persons professing Christianity (“the religion that got the world into trouble”), such that every person not possessing the Holy Spirit will renounce all pretense of being Christian and will get out of the deplorable condition (country) wherein the true Christians will be. This outcast class, being entirely“of the earth, earthy,”shall not enter the spiritual phase of the Kingdom.

20:39.As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God; Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, and hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto Me: but pollute ye My holy name no more with your gifts, and with your idols.—Let who will then serve their idols; but they shall no longer associate themselves with God's children, nor falsely bear the name of Christ, nor pollute God's holy name nor His Church with their presence or their practices.“If the Lord be God,follow Him; if Baal, followhim.”

20:40.For in Mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, saith the Lord God, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve Me: there will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings, and the first fruits of your oblations, with all your holy things.—God wounds to heal. In the real“high places,”the Kingdom of God now at hand, planned for man's blessed restitution, all who are truly God's shall serve Him, some in the spiritual phase of the Kingdom, some in the earthly phase. (Mal. 3:3, 4.) There God will accept all comers,“The Spirit and the Bride say, Come ... and whosoever will, let him take of the Water of Life freely”(Rev. 22:17.) There God will accept their offerings of themselves in heartfelt consecration, and the first and best of their offerings and all their possessions, then hallowed by the influences of the Kingdom of Love.

20:41.I will accept you with your sweet savour, when I bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the countries wherein ye have been scattered, and I will be sanctified in you before the heathen.—God will accept their heart's best endeavors (incense), when He gathers His children—His spirit children and His earth children—out from the prison-house of death, and out from the dark shadows of a world-wide heathenism. Then God win be seen to be holy, sanctified, in His children, in the sight of all the Satan-blinded idolaters of earth.

20:42.And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for the which I lifted up Mine hand to give it to your fathers.—God's children, who have not known Him as He is, will know Him then as the God of infinite Justice, Wisdom, Love and Power,—when they shall be established in the Kingdom, in whatever phase they are fitted for—the Kingdom whose earthly phase God promised to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the Ancient Worthies (Psa. 45:16), and whose Heavenly phase He covenanted to give to the spirit class of the Gospel Age.—Heb. 11:40.

20:43.And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed.—Then those who have not loved the God of Love as they should shall remember their former ways and loathe themselves for the evil done against such Love Divine.

20:44.And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have wrought with you for My name's sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord God.—They will humbly,[pg 463]thankfully and with fervent gratitude and love know that Jehovah, who is Love (1 John 4:8), dealt with them, for the carrying out of His all holy purposes, and not as Justice might have called for in connection with their ways.

20:45, 46.Moreover the Word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face toward the south, and drop thy word toward the south, and prophesy against the forest of the south field.—The words of Ezekiel return to the impending destruction of Jerusalem—of Christendom. Pastor Russell was to speak, as from the Divine viewpoint (the North) against the multitudes (trees in the forest) in the earthly phase (the south) of the Kingdom of God, already established invisibly by God in 1878-1914. Jerusalem (ecclesiasticism) was in a southerly direction (belonging to the earth, earthy), from the Prophet's point of view.

20:47.And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the Lord; Thus saith the Lord God; Behold I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.—God permitted in 1914 the kindling of the present unquenchable conflagration of war, and of revolution and anarchy to come. Righteous (green tree) and wicked (dry tree) alike are to suffer in the fiery trials of the trouble time. All who are of the earth, earthy (of the south, earthly phase of the Kingdom), but who pretend or claim to be of the spiritual phase, to have the Holy Spirit (look toward the north, the spiritual), are to be burned, as the tares are burned after the gathering of the wheat into the Heavenly garner.—Matt. 13:30.

20:48.And all flesh shall see that I the Lord have kindled it: it shall not be quenched.—All mankind will understand, before the Time of Trouble is over, that“the strange work”is of Jehovah.

20:49.Then said I, Ah Lord God! they say of me, Doth he not speak parables?—The people of ecclesiasticism, misled by the clergy, are unable to understand Pastor Russell's teachings regarding the trouble, or to get the Divine viewpoint.

“There are great truths that pitch their shining tentsOutside our walls, and though but dimly seenIn the gray dawn, they will be manifestWhen the light widens into perfect day.”

“There are great truths that pitch their shining tents

Outside our walls, and though but dimly seen

In the gray dawn, they will be manifest

When the light widens into perfect day.”

Ezekiel 21—The Thrice-Doubled Sword21:1, 2.And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel.—The Lord has drawn the sword against Jerusalem and sharpened and pointed it in fury. (21:1-17.) The king of Babylon (Satan) uses divination as to the route by which to bring the sword against Jerusalem; the Jews deride such a method (21:18-24), but the Hebrew crown is to be overturned. (21:25-57.) The Ammonites (aggressive worldly believers), too, are to be given to the sword.—21:28-32.21:3.And say to the land of Israel, Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I am against thee, and will draw forth My sword out of its sheath, and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked.—Jehovah is against Christendom, has drawn against it both the literal weapons of war, in warfare and revolution, and the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. (Eph. 6:17.) He will cause both righteous and wicked to die in the Time of Trouble; and by His Word He will bring about conditions such that all wicked professing Christians will abandon all pretense of Christianity, and the righteous will“come out of her”(Rev. 18:4) and be gathered as wheat into the Divine garner—Heaven.21:4.Seeing then that I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall My sword go forth out of his sheath against all flesh from the south to the north.—Cannon, rifle, shot, shell, bomb and torpedo shall be unleashed and turned against all flesh, from those of the earthly (of the south) to those having the Holy Spirit (of the north). The Word of God will be taken out of its sheath of mystery and plainly show the meaning of this trouble, and that it is to be upon all.21:5.That all flesh may know that I the Lord have drawn forth My sword out of its sheath: it shall not return any more.—All the people shall know that the trouble has come from Jehovah, and that its consummation is a certainty.21:6.Sigh therefore, thou son of man, with the breaking of thy loins; and with bitterness sigh before their eyes.—Pastor[pg 465]Russell and the Truth people have carried a heavy heart burden in this message of the ills coming upon Christendom.21:7.And it shall be, when they say unto thee, Wherefore sighed thou? that thou shalt answer, For the tidings, because it cometh. And every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water: behold, it cometh, and shall be brought to pass, saith the Lord God.—For the days are near when even the strongest shall falter.21:8, 9.Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus saith the Lord; Say, A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also furbished.—Modern weapons of destruction are brought to a hitherto unknown efficiency, as is the Sword of the Spirit in the hands of the“feet”members of Christ.—Isa. 52:7.21:10.It is sharpened to make a sore slaughter; it is furbished that it may glitter: should We then make mirth? it contemneth the rod of My Son, as every tree.—The weapons of war will make a frightful slaughter among men; and the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, will cause millions to cast off Christianity. It glitters with flashes of enlightenment reflected from the risen Sun of Righteousness, which to its idolatrous enemies are gleamings of trouble and distress. Who could rejoice over the trouble? Not the Lord's people; for it presages the destruction of the power (rod) of all professing to be of the Son of God, together with all their institutions.21:11.And he hath given it to be furbished, that it may be handled: this sword is sharpened, and it is furbished, to give it into the hand of the slayer.—It is given, bright and sharp, to be swung in the hand of skillful slayers.21:12, 13.Cry and howl, son of man; for it shall be upon My people, it shall be upon all the princes of Israel: terrors by reason of the sword shall be upon My people: smite therefore upon thy thigh. Because it is a trial, and what if the sword contemn even the rod? it shall be no more, saith the Lord God.—The destruction by the weapons of war and by the Word of God shall be upon“My [professed] people,”upon all the clergy (princes). Fear shall take hold of churchianity.21:14.Thou therefore, son of man, prophesy, and smite thine hands together, and let the sword be doubled the third time, the sword of the slain: it is the sword of the great men that are slain, which entereth into their privy chambers.—Pastor Russell was to give expression to the final wrath of Jehovah. The destruction will be of double[pg 466]severity three times—in war, revolution and anarchy. The Sword of the Spirit was to be wielded by Pastor Russell twice three times, in his six volumes ofStudies in the Scriptures. The weapons of destruction will pursue all the great ones of earth, penetrating into all their most secret places. The Sword of the Spirit will search out all the lords of God's heritage (1 Pet. 5:3), the clergy, exposing their inmost ideas contrary to Jehovah and His Plan.21:15.I have set the point of the sword against all their gates, that their heart may faint, and their ruins be multiplied: ah! it is made bright, it is wrapped up for the slaughter.—The point of the sword against ecclesiasticism, revealing its true nature and imminent fall, is the present exposition of the prophecies of Revelation and Ezekiel. The Hebrew says that it is made“lightning brightness.”It is an illumination of the whole Babylonish system, for ages wrapped in the mystery of types and symbolisms. How gladly the clergy would have destroyed these two books of the Bible, had they known what they taught!21:16.Go thee one way or the other, either on the right hand, or on the left, whithersoever thy face is set.—Wheresoever Pastor Russell and the Truth people set their face to go, it is authorized for them by the Lord.21:17.I will also smite Mine hands together, and I will cause My fury to rest: I the Lord have said it.—God will manifest His anger and cause His fury to rest upon ecclesiasticism.21:18, 19.And the Word of the Lord came unto me again, saying, Also, thou son of man, appoint thee two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon may come: both twain shall come forth out of one land: and choose thou a place, choose it at the head of the way to the city.—There were two ways that the weapons of war, revolution and anarchy might strike; in either way the blow would come from Satan, the king of anarchy. It was to come from Riblah, the fork of the roads. Riblah means“desolate.”Since 1878 the worldly churches, and since 1914 the worldly governments, have been“left desolate”(Matt. 23:38) and subject, the one to desolation by the Sword of the Spirit, the other to desolation by carnal weapons.21:20.Appoint a way, that the sword may come to Rabbath of the Ammonites, and to Judah in Jerusalem the defenced.—The sword might go east of Jordan against the Ammonites (Amos 1:14; Jer. 49:2), or west of Jordan, directly at Jerusalem, first of all. It might strike the Great (Rabbath) Company (Rev. 7:9) of“fellow companions”(Psa. 45:14) (Ammonites), or directly and first strike against churchianity (Judah) and ecclesiasticism proper—“the[pg 467]fenced off,”exclusive, superior,“best”people, hitherto so thoroughly defended from harm.21:21.For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the liver.—The forces that will overthrow Christendom are thoroughly under the influence and guidance of evil spirits—as is suggested by the shuffling of arrows named for the two cities, by the consulting of idols (theories), and by the looking in the liver (spiritism), by interpretation. The Devil chooses bitter words (arrows) (Psa. 64:3), consults evil spirits (images), and is guided even in his opposition to Jehovah by his own interpretations of Scripture.—Matt. 4:6; 2 Cor. 11:14.21:22.At his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem, to appoint captains, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to appoint battering rams against the gates, to cast a mount, and to build a fort.—The proof from the Scriptures shows that the evil spirits directed that the revolutionary and anarchistic movement should proceed first to the destruction of Christendom. The ex-Czar of Russia was a spiritualist, and maintained mediums for consultation. Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, for years prior to the great war, followed the guidance of a demon which spoke to him clairaudiently, urging him to his present course. A surprising number of prominent men consult spirit mediums. The voice of the spirits was for war by every conceivable means, nation against nation, but destined to effect the desolation of ecclesiasticism as well.21:23.And it shall be unto them as a false divination in their sight, to them that have sworn oaths: but He will call to remembrance the iniquity, that they may be taken.—In the sight of those that have sworn allegiance to ecclesiasticism's god, the father of lies, this true prediction of the downfall of the nations will seem an erroneous expectation—as it has appeared to all the great ones of Christendom. They have thought that this war would be as other wars. But the end of the Age (world) has come; and ecclesiasticism's iniquities shall no longer go unpunished.21:24.Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because ye have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are discovered, so that in all your doings your sins do appear; because, I say, that ye are come to[pg 468]remembrance, ye shall be taken with the hand.—Universal muck-raking by Socialists, Anarchists, magazine writers, social surveyors and reformers has caused Christendom's forgotten iniquities to be freshly remembered, and her transgressions uncovered, so that there is no department—commercial, financial, political or religious—in which her sinful practices do not appear. These things God has permitted to be made manifest that she may be taken red-handed.21:25.And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end.—The profane and wicked prince of the Jews was Zedekiah, their last king. (A. 248; Z. '04-343.) The antitype is churchianity's lordly class, the clergy, profaning the holy Temple of God, the Church, the Body of Christ, with doctrines of devils (1 Tim. 4:1), as wicked in the sight of God as were their prototypes, the scribes, doctors and Pharisees, with their hypocritical pretense of holiness. Their time has come—1918—when iniquity in the House of the Sons of God shall have an end.21:26.Thus saith the Lord God; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high.—Thus says Almighty God: Remove the mitre (mistranslated“diadem”). The mitre was a band of linen about the forehead, typing the righteousness of Christ, supposed to be in the minds of the clergy, but no more actually in them as a class than in whited sepulchres. (Matt. 23:27.) The king wore a golden crown on his head, held there by a white linen mitre. (A. 248; B. 76, 79; Z. '98-359.) The clergy, the lords of God's heritage, have crowned themselves with the rulership of earth, in the person of the pope and in the general desire of clergymen to rule in the affairs of men, a lordship based upon their supposed righteousness (mitre). This great crisis will not be like the temporary setbacks of ecclesiasticism in past centuries. The lowly, revolutionary, anarchistic masses will exalt themselves to power in the Time of Trouble, and the lofty clergy shall be utterly abased.—Matt. 23:12.21:27.I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more, until He come whose right it is; and I will give it Him.—In warfare, revolution and anarchy Jehovah will triply overthrow Christendom until Christ in great power will take the crown and rule the affairs of earth.—E.147, 133; A. 248; B. 76, 79; Z. '05-253; H. 61.21:28.And thou, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord God concerning the Ammonites, and concerning their reproach; even say thou, The sword, the[pg 469]sword is drawn: for the slaughter it is furbished, to consume because of the glittering.—Nor will the openly worldly, professing Christian escape, for war, revolution and anarchy are abroad—“the sword is drawn”—to consume the worldly, too.21:29.While they see vanity unto thee, while they divine a lie unto thee, to bring thee upon the necks of them that are slain, of the wicked, whose day is come, when their iniquity shall have an end.—Destruction will come even when the worldly-wise are mistakenly asserting that it will not come nigh them.21:30.Shall I cause it to return into his sheath? I will judge thee in the place where thou wast created, in the land of thy nativity.—The tribulation shall not be quieted—the sword shall not“return unto his sheath;”for God will condemn the worldly Christian also, in the condition of unbelief wherein they have been.21:31.And I will pour out Mine indignation upon thee; I will blow against thee in the fire of My wrath, and deliver thee into the hand of brutish men, and skilful to destroy.—God will pour out His wrath upon the worldly professing Christians. He will blow upon them fiery blasts of war, revolution and anarchy. They shall be delivered into the hands of a revolted soldiery, brutal, destructive, pitiless, skilled in the arts of slaughter, taught by Teutons and Allies to know the utmost efficiency in war. The Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, too, will be in the hands of consecrated ones, seemingly but not actually cruel, skilled through Divine power to use it with telling effect.21:32.Thou shalt be for fuel to the fire; thy blood shall be in the midst of the land; thou shalt be no more remembered: for I the Lord have spoken it.—Institutions Divinely condemned shall be as fuel for the fires of bloody anarchy and pass into oblivion. The war is the melting-pot of ecclesiasticism.“Beautiful hands are they that doThe work of the noble, good and true,Busy for them the long day through;Beautiful faces—they that wearThe light of a pleasing spirit there,It matters little if dark or fair;And truly beautiful in God's sight,Are the precious souls who love the right.”

21:1, 2.And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel.—The Lord has drawn the sword against Jerusalem and sharpened and pointed it in fury. (21:1-17.) The king of Babylon (Satan) uses divination as to the route by which to bring the sword against Jerusalem; the Jews deride such a method (21:18-24), but the Hebrew crown is to be overturned. (21:25-57.) The Ammonites (aggressive worldly believers), too, are to be given to the sword.—21:28-32.

21:3.And say to the land of Israel, Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I am against thee, and will draw forth My sword out of its sheath, and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked.—Jehovah is against Christendom, has drawn against it both the literal weapons of war, in warfare and revolution, and the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. (Eph. 6:17.) He will cause both righteous and wicked to die in the Time of Trouble; and by His Word He will bring about conditions such that all wicked professing Christians will abandon all pretense of Christianity, and the righteous will“come out of her”(Rev. 18:4) and be gathered as wheat into the Divine garner—Heaven.

21:4.Seeing then that I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall My sword go forth out of his sheath against all flesh from the south to the north.—Cannon, rifle, shot, shell, bomb and torpedo shall be unleashed and turned against all flesh, from those of the earthly (of the south) to those having the Holy Spirit (of the north). The Word of God will be taken out of its sheath of mystery and plainly show the meaning of this trouble, and that it is to be upon all.

21:5.That all flesh may know that I the Lord have drawn forth My sword out of its sheath: it shall not return any more.—All the people shall know that the trouble has come from Jehovah, and that its consummation is a certainty.

21:6.Sigh therefore, thou son of man, with the breaking of thy loins; and with bitterness sigh before their eyes.—Pastor[pg 465]Russell and the Truth people have carried a heavy heart burden in this message of the ills coming upon Christendom.

21:7.And it shall be, when they say unto thee, Wherefore sighed thou? that thou shalt answer, For the tidings, because it cometh. And every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water: behold, it cometh, and shall be brought to pass, saith the Lord God.—For the days are near when even the strongest shall falter.

21:8, 9.Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus saith the Lord; Say, A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also furbished.—Modern weapons of destruction are brought to a hitherto unknown efficiency, as is the Sword of the Spirit in the hands of the“feet”members of Christ.—Isa. 52:7.

21:10.It is sharpened to make a sore slaughter; it is furbished that it may glitter: should We then make mirth? it contemneth the rod of My Son, as every tree.—The weapons of war will make a frightful slaughter among men; and the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, will cause millions to cast off Christianity. It glitters with flashes of enlightenment reflected from the risen Sun of Righteousness, which to its idolatrous enemies are gleamings of trouble and distress. Who could rejoice over the trouble? Not the Lord's people; for it presages the destruction of the power (rod) of all professing to be of the Son of God, together with all their institutions.

21:11.And he hath given it to be furbished, that it may be handled: this sword is sharpened, and it is furbished, to give it into the hand of the slayer.—It is given, bright and sharp, to be swung in the hand of skillful slayers.

21:12, 13.Cry and howl, son of man; for it shall be upon My people, it shall be upon all the princes of Israel: terrors by reason of the sword shall be upon My people: smite therefore upon thy thigh. Because it is a trial, and what if the sword contemn even the rod? it shall be no more, saith the Lord God.—The destruction by the weapons of war and by the Word of God shall be upon“My [professed] people,”upon all the clergy (princes). Fear shall take hold of churchianity.

21:14.Thou therefore, son of man, prophesy, and smite thine hands together, and let the sword be doubled the third time, the sword of the slain: it is the sword of the great men that are slain, which entereth into their privy chambers.—Pastor Russell was to give expression to the final wrath of Jehovah. The destruction will be of double[pg 466]severity three times—in war, revolution and anarchy. The Sword of the Spirit was to be wielded by Pastor Russell twice three times, in his six volumes ofStudies in the Scriptures. The weapons of destruction will pursue all the great ones of earth, penetrating into all their most secret places. The Sword of the Spirit will search out all the lords of God's heritage (1 Pet. 5:3), the clergy, exposing their inmost ideas contrary to Jehovah and His Plan.

21:15.I have set the point of the sword against all their gates, that their heart may faint, and their ruins be multiplied: ah! it is made bright, it is wrapped up for the slaughter.—The point of the sword against ecclesiasticism, revealing its true nature and imminent fall, is the present exposition of the prophecies of Revelation and Ezekiel. The Hebrew says that it is made“lightning brightness.”It is an illumination of the whole Babylonish system, for ages wrapped in the mystery of types and symbolisms. How gladly the clergy would have destroyed these two books of the Bible, had they known what they taught!

21:16.Go thee one way or the other, either on the right hand, or on the left, whithersoever thy face is set.—Wheresoever Pastor Russell and the Truth people set their face to go, it is authorized for them by the Lord.

21:17.I will also smite Mine hands together, and I will cause My fury to rest: I the Lord have said it.—God will manifest His anger and cause His fury to rest upon ecclesiasticism.

21:18, 19.And the Word of the Lord came unto me again, saying, Also, thou son of man, appoint thee two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon may come: both twain shall come forth out of one land: and choose thou a place, choose it at the head of the way to the city.—There were two ways that the weapons of war, revolution and anarchy might strike; in either way the blow would come from Satan, the king of anarchy. It was to come from Riblah, the fork of the roads. Riblah means“desolate.”Since 1878 the worldly churches, and since 1914 the worldly governments, have been“left desolate”(Matt. 23:38) and subject, the one to desolation by the Sword of the Spirit, the other to desolation by carnal weapons.

21:20.Appoint a way, that the sword may come to Rabbath of the Ammonites, and to Judah in Jerusalem the defenced.—The sword might go east of Jordan against the Ammonites (Amos 1:14; Jer. 49:2), or west of Jordan, directly at Jerusalem, first of all. It might strike the Great (Rabbath) Company (Rev. 7:9) of“fellow companions”(Psa. 45:14) (Ammonites), or directly and first strike against churchianity (Judah) and ecclesiasticism proper—“the[pg 467]fenced off,”exclusive, superior,“best”people, hitherto so thoroughly defended from harm.

21:21.For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the liver.—The forces that will overthrow Christendom are thoroughly under the influence and guidance of evil spirits—as is suggested by the shuffling of arrows named for the two cities, by the consulting of idols (theories), and by the looking in the liver (spiritism), by interpretation. The Devil chooses bitter words (arrows) (Psa. 64:3), consults evil spirits (images), and is guided even in his opposition to Jehovah by his own interpretations of Scripture.—Matt. 4:6; 2 Cor. 11:14.

21:22.At his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem, to appoint captains, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to appoint battering rams against the gates, to cast a mount, and to build a fort.—The proof from the Scriptures shows that the evil spirits directed that the revolutionary and anarchistic movement should proceed first to the destruction of Christendom. The ex-Czar of Russia was a spiritualist, and maintained mediums for consultation. Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, for years prior to the great war, followed the guidance of a demon which spoke to him clairaudiently, urging him to his present course. A surprising number of prominent men consult spirit mediums. The voice of the spirits was for war by every conceivable means, nation against nation, but destined to effect the desolation of ecclesiasticism as well.

21:23.And it shall be unto them as a false divination in their sight, to them that have sworn oaths: but He will call to remembrance the iniquity, that they may be taken.—In the sight of those that have sworn allegiance to ecclesiasticism's god, the father of lies, this true prediction of the downfall of the nations will seem an erroneous expectation—as it has appeared to all the great ones of Christendom. They have thought that this war would be as other wars. But the end of the Age (world) has come; and ecclesiasticism's iniquities shall no longer go unpunished.

21:24.Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because ye have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are discovered, so that in all your doings your sins do appear; because, I say, that ye are come to[pg 468]remembrance, ye shall be taken with the hand.—Universal muck-raking by Socialists, Anarchists, magazine writers, social surveyors and reformers has caused Christendom's forgotten iniquities to be freshly remembered, and her transgressions uncovered, so that there is no department—commercial, financial, political or religious—in which her sinful practices do not appear. These things God has permitted to be made manifest that she may be taken red-handed.

21:25.And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end.—The profane and wicked prince of the Jews was Zedekiah, their last king. (A. 248; Z. '04-343.) The antitype is churchianity's lordly class, the clergy, profaning the holy Temple of God, the Church, the Body of Christ, with doctrines of devils (1 Tim. 4:1), as wicked in the sight of God as were their prototypes, the scribes, doctors and Pharisees, with their hypocritical pretense of holiness. Their time has come—1918—when iniquity in the House of the Sons of God shall have an end.

21:26.Thus saith the Lord God; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high.—Thus says Almighty God: Remove the mitre (mistranslated“diadem”). The mitre was a band of linen about the forehead, typing the righteousness of Christ, supposed to be in the minds of the clergy, but no more actually in them as a class than in whited sepulchres. (Matt. 23:27.) The king wore a golden crown on his head, held there by a white linen mitre. (A. 248; B. 76, 79; Z. '98-359.) The clergy, the lords of God's heritage, have crowned themselves with the rulership of earth, in the person of the pope and in the general desire of clergymen to rule in the affairs of men, a lordship based upon their supposed righteousness (mitre). This great crisis will not be like the temporary setbacks of ecclesiasticism in past centuries. The lowly, revolutionary, anarchistic masses will exalt themselves to power in the Time of Trouble, and the lofty clergy shall be utterly abased.—Matt. 23:12.

21:27.I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more, until He come whose right it is; and I will give it Him.—In warfare, revolution and anarchy Jehovah will triply overthrow Christendom until Christ in great power will take the crown and rule the affairs of earth.—E.147, 133; A. 248; B. 76, 79; Z. '05-253; H. 61.

21:28.And thou, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord God concerning the Ammonites, and concerning their reproach; even say thou, The sword, the[pg 469]sword is drawn: for the slaughter it is furbished, to consume because of the glittering.—Nor will the openly worldly, professing Christian escape, for war, revolution and anarchy are abroad—“the sword is drawn”—to consume the worldly, too.

21:29.While they see vanity unto thee, while they divine a lie unto thee, to bring thee upon the necks of them that are slain, of the wicked, whose day is come, when their iniquity shall have an end.—Destruction will come even when the worldly-wise are mistakenly asserting that it will not come nigh them.

21:30.Shall I cause it to return into his sheath? I will judge thee in the place where thou wast created, in the land of thy nativity.—The tribulation shall not be quieted—the sword shall not“return unto his sheath;”for God will condemn the worldly Christian also, in the condition of unbelief wherein they have been.

21:31.And I will pour out Mine indignation upon thee; I will blow against thee in the fire of My wrath, and deliver thee into the hand of brutish men, and skilful to destroy.—God will pour out His wrath upon the worldly professing Christians. He will blow upon them fiery blasts of war, revolution and anarchy. They shall be delivered into the hands of a revolted soldiery, brutal, destructive, pitiless, skilled in the arts of slaughter, taught by Teutons and Allies to know the utmost efficiency in war. The Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, too, will be in the hands of consecrated ones, seemingly but not actually cruel, skilled through Divine power to use it with telling effect.

21:32.Thou shalt be for fuel to the fire; thy blood shall be in the midst of the land; thou shalt be no more remembered: for I the Lord have spoken it.—Institutions Divinely condemned shall be as fuel for the fires of bloody anarchy and pass into oblivion. The war is the melting-pot of ecclesiasticism.

“Beautiful hands are they that doThe work of the noble, good and true,Busy for them the long day through;Beautiful faces—they that wearThe light of a pleasing spirit there,It matters little if dark or fair;And truly beautiful in God's sight,Are the precious souls who love the right.”

“Beautiful hands are they that do

The work of the noble, good and true,

Busy for them the long day through;

Beautiful faces—they that wear

The light of a pleasing spirit there,

It matters little if dark or fair;

And truly beautiful in God's sight,

Are the precious souls who love the right.”

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