announcing jehovah's kingdom - Watchtower Archive

108 SEeWATCHTOWER. BROOKLYN, N. Y.
the King and serve them. Being clothed with white robes
symbolically identities them as lovers of that which is pure
and as righteous. They are also pictured under the symbol
of having palms in their hands, which they wave while they
hail Jehovah's Anointed and say: ''\Ve hail Christ the King
and the Vindicator of Jehovah!" All creation that loves and
serves Jehovah God joins in the song of praise to His name.
(Re\1. 7: 10.12) That symbolic vision shows that the faithful
servants of God today, like John of old, could not identify
the great multitude until after the members of the remnant
of the 144,000 had been gathered by the Lord to his temple
and enlightened by him, thus coming to full unity in Christ.
(Eph. 4: 12, 13) It was in the year 1935 that God's "faithful
servant" class on earth was tirst permitted to identify
the great multitude of Revelation 7.
That agreed with John's experience, who writes: "And
one of the elders answered, saying unto me, 'What are these
which are arrayed in white robes 1 and whence came they1
And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me,
These are they which came out of great tribulation, and
have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood
of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God,
and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that
sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall
hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the
sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in
the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them
unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away
all tears from their eyes." (Rev. 7: 13-17) Thus the "great
multitude" is detinitely identitied as being composed of
persons of good-will toward Jehovah God and as the "other
sheep" of the Good Shepherd Jesus Christ. (John 10: 16)
Appreciating the privilege of devoting themselves to Christ
the King and serving him continuously to the praise of the
Most High God, they have their tears of grief at the world's
wickedness wiped away.
Since the multitude at the temple was great, and since
they are pictured as waving palm branches while they hail
Jehovah's anointed King, it draws our attention to the
Jewish "feast of tabernacles". This ...vas a seven-day feast
that the Israelites were commanded to observe in the seventh
month 'when they gathered their fruits of the field', for
which reason it was also called the "feast of ingathering".
(Ex. 23: 16; Lev. 23: 39) Other scriptures called it "the
feast of Jehovah", and well so, for it foreshadowed a feast
of rejoicing in the vindication of Jehovah's name. It being
the feast of "ingathering", its fulfillment in our day takes
place at the time that the Lord Jesus gathers his elect
followers to the temple condition of unity, and then begins
to gather to himself his "other sheep" forming the "great
multitude". Thus the antitypical fulfillment of the feast of
ingathering pictures the gathering of this "great multitude".
This :feast is now in course of fulfillment.
Nineteen centuries ago, it was at the feast of ingathering
or "feast of tabernacles" that .Jesus showed the clear distinction
between Jewish religionists, who were on the side
of the Devil their father, and Jews of honest heart that took
the side of Jesus. (John 8: 43, 44) The religious Jews not
only rejected Jesus, but sought to kill him. Many of the
common people believed on him, and Jesus assured them
that if they continued in the truth they should be made free.
(John 8: 31, 32, 36) By associating himself with the feast
of ingathering Jesus proved conclusively that he fulfilled
the type back there in a small-scale way, but, of course, its
fulfillment in completeness begins now, while his remnant
are on the earth and during the time that these are at the
temple in a gathered condition due to the Lord. As the Chief
Officer of his Father, Jesus boldly cried out to the people at
the last of the feast of ingathering: "If any man thirst, let
him come unto me, and drink." (John 7: 2, 14, 37) So now,
the Lord Jesus is at the temple in spirit, and to those who
would be of his "other sheep" he says: "But Jehovah is in
his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him."
-Hab. 2: 20, Am. Stan. Ver.
At the feast of ingathering the feasters waved palm
branches and were required to dwell in booths, that is to
say, in temporary dwellings reminding the feasters of those
used by the Israelites in the forty-year trek through the
wilderness. In symbol, this means that the people who are
now gathered to the Lord, that is to say, Christ's "little
flock" and his "other sheep", are not of this wicked world
over which Satan exercises power, but are for God's kingdom
and are temporarily dwelling in the present world·
condition, waiting for the inbringing of the permanent new
world. They do not bow down to men and man-made things
and worship them, but their allegiance, worship and devo·
tion are wholly to Jehovah God and his kingdom. They
recognize Jehovah God and Christ Jesus as the "Higher
Powers" to whom to be subject, and they refuse to compromise
with any part of Satan's world organization.-Rom.
13: 1-4.
ASSOCIATION WITH HIS BRETHREN
In the wilderness the tabernacle of worship, built under
Moses' direction and by men under God's command, had but
one court to which all the people at definite times had access.
(Lev. 1: 1-9) The same was true with the later temple at
Jerusalem. After the destruction of that temple the prophet
Ezekiel had a vision of a great temple, or organization,
where all those assembling will worship Jehovah God after
his establishment of the kingdom by Christ Jesus, hence
from and after A.D. 1914. In that vision the multitudes of
worshipers are pictured as in the "outer court". This court
was trodden by both priests and people in general who
worship Jehovah God. This is another prophetic picture of
the "great multitude" assembled before the throne of God
and worshiping him and his Christ, after Christ comes to
the temple as Jehovah God's representative or messenger.
-Ezek. 40: 17; 46: 3, 9, 21-24.
In a miniature fultillment of Malachi's prophecy concerning
the coming of Jehovah's messenger to the temple, Jesus
Christ came to the temple of Jerusalem in the spring of
A.D. 33. On his way thither Jesus rode on the back of an
ass into the city of Jerusalem, presenting himself to the
Jews as their King. God had foretold this by his prophet of
old. (Zech. 9: 9; Matt. 21: 5) Great multitudes of the common
people hailed Jesus as he rode along, waving palm
branches and saying: "Blessed is he that cometh in the name
of the Lord." (Matt. 21: 8, 9; Ps. 118: 26) In this event
another prophetic picture was made, foretelling the coming
of Christ Jesus the King into the active power of his kingdom,
at which time he gathers to himself his "other sheep"
forming the "great multitude". Accordingly, at Revelation