“Get ready to meet your God O Israel,” is no doubt a meaningless phrase to those who have no fear of God. Those who in their presumptuousness imagine that there will not be a day when Jehovah settles accounts with his people can only be described as faithless and apostate. But, for those who fear God the prospect of Jehovah’s impending judgment both fills one with dread and awe.
There have only been a few periods in history when Jehovah God initiated his judgments. So, it is a rare and special thing when the great God Jehovah intervenes in human affairs to set matters straight. As regards the difficulties within the Watchtower Society, a fact that should not be lost in the avalanche of accusations is that Jehovah holds the leaders of his people especially accountable. As Christ said in connection with his faithful slave: The one whom people put in charge of much, they will demand more than usual of him.
In the case of Israel, Jehovah allowed the nation to become extremely corrupt before he finally took decisive action in allowing the Babylonian armies to destroy Judah. And then, after approximately 1500 years into the Jewish system of things, Jehovah issued his final judgment through Christ, which completely dissolved Jehovah’s relationship with the Jews. At that point Jesus instituted a new nation founded upon the 12 apostles. Since that time an interval of nearly 2,000 years has lapsed during which time Jehovah has allowed things to develop before he issues his final edict upon the organization that Christ established.
During the last century, approximately, Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Watchtower Society have been instrumental in reviving the issues related to the worship of Jehovah God and the genuine Christian faith; this in preparation for the arrival of Christ and Jehovah’s final judgment upon spiritual Israel and ultimately the entire system of things. One of the crucial issues has to do with the Devil’s accusation that God’s faithful ones only worship him out of self-interest and that they will defect if enough pressure is brought to bear against them. So, Jehovah has allowed Satan considerable leeway in bringing various problems both upon the organization and the individuals within it, with the most difficult tests manifestly laying directly ahead.
Keeping in mind that in order to satisfy the Tempter Jehovah allowed Satan to thoroughly crush his beloved Son, who wasn’t at all deserving of such punishment, it should, then, not come as a surprise that Jehovah has foretold the meting out of an excruciatingly painful rebuke upon his people who have generally made a mess of things and brought reproach upon God’s name. So, the way it’s set up to go down, only those who know and trust Jehovah can weather his stern rebuke and survive with their faith intact. At some point each individual will have to demonstrate that they are not following men. That’s why Jehovah implores his people with words like these, which seem particularly relevant going forward:
For this is what Jehovah has said to the house of Israel, ‘Search for me, and keep living. And do not search for Bethel, and to Gilgal you must not come, and to Beersheba you must not pass over; because Gilgal itself will without fail go into exile; and as regards Bethel, it will become something uncanny. Search for Jehovah and keep living, that he may not become operative just like fire…O you who are turning justice into wormwood, and the ones who have cast righteousness to the earth itself.’
In view of the ongoing apostasy among Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the publicizing of corruption within Jehovah’s organization, coupled with the ominous developments in the world tending toward nuclear war, the prophet’s chilling admonition: Get ready to meet your God, O Israel seems particularly timely.
/ You Know