Who is the Assyrian?
The article entitled SEVEN SHEPHERDS, EIGHT DUKES—WHAT THEY MEAN FOR US TODAY in the Watchtower of the 15th November 2013 contained this important warning in paragraph 16: “In the near future, Jehovah’s apparently vulnerable people will come under attack from the modern-day “Assyrian,” whose intent will be to wipe them out.” it goes on to say: “What ‘secret weapon’ does Micah’s prophecy indicate Jehovah would raise up against that implacable foe—“the Assyrian”? A very unlikely one—“seven shepherds, yes, eight dukes”! (Mic. 5:5) The shepherds and dukes (or, “princes,” NEB) in this implausible army are the congregation elders. (1 Pet. 5:2) Today, Jehovah certainly has provided an abundance of spiritual men to shepherd his precious sheep, to strengthen his people for the future attack of the modern-day “Assyrian.” Micah’s prophecy states that they will “shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword.” (Mic. 5:6) Yes, among ‘the weapons of their warfare,’ you will find “the sword of the spirit,” God’s Word.—2 Cor. 10:4; Eph. 6:17 .” Who is the “Assyrian” and who are “seven shepherds, eight dukes? Let's see. Does the “Assyrian” refer to an internal or external entity? Notice that the elders are there to shepherd Jehovah's precious sheep. Micah's prophecy states that the shepherds will “shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword”. The word “shepherd” here indicates not an external entity but rather an internal one. When you go out in the house to house ministry you do not call it shepherding but when you visit a brother or sister for encouragement, it is a shepherding call. Now that we identified the Assyrian as an internal entity we can go on to the next characteristic in order to identify the Assyrian. Jehovah initially gave the Assyrian authority over his people. Isaiah 10:5 says: “Aha! the Assyrian, the rod to express my anger and the staff in their hand for my denunciation!” The rod indicates the authority that the Assyrian received from Jehovah. (See also 2 Kings 18:25 ) The “faithful and discreet slave” received such authority from Jehovah. (Matthew 24:45) At the time of the article, the governing body consisted of eight members who collectively make up the “faithful and discreet slave”. Today there seven elders who are on the governing body. The Governing Body therefore are both the "Seven Shepherds, Eight Dukes" and the Assyrian. When Jehovah indicates by his spirit that he wants to shepherd them we must trust that he has a better view of the situation. This is not a case of personal opinion or choice. The Watchtower in paragraph 17 gave the following reminder: “At that time, the lifesaving direction that we receive from Jehovah’s organization may not appear practical from a human standpoint. All of us must be ready to obey any instructions we may receive, whether these appear sound from a strategic or human standpoint or not.” From the heavenly part of Jehovah's organization he warns us using the Watchtower article quoted above of the attack of the “Assyrian”. Consider the following illustration. The pilot of a commercial aircraft becomes sick just before he is about to land the aeroplane. The situation is such that if he continues the fly the aeroplane he will crash it into the ground and all the passengers on board will die. The fact that the pilot safely flew them thus far does not change the situation. In fact he becomes the biggest danger to the passengers on board if he continues to fly the plane. The pilot may even reason that he has everything under control but the fact is that he is not in a state to make a decision on whether he is able to fly or not. This is the situation we are also faced with and we received a fair warning and instruction from our control tower, the heavenly part of Jehovah's organization. The best choice for the pilot would be to releive himself of his duty difficult as it may be. We therefore request that the governing body members are given this information while we wait on them to step down.