According to the Insight Book on the topic : "The House of Israel"
"All the descendants of Jacob, collectively, at any one time. As the offspring and descendants of Jacob’s 12 sons, they were quite often called “the sons of Israel”; less often, “the house of Israel,” “the people of Israel,” the “men of Israel,” “the state of Israel,” or the “Israelites.”
The Modern Day governing body, makes the Arrogant and Foolish claim that they (The Self Proclaimed 144,000) are the "House of Israel" with whom the New Covenant has been made.
In order to support this They state "the Law covenant was between God and natural Israel, while the new covenant is between Jehovah God and spiritual Israel."
The governing body of the watchtower uses Jeremiah 31 to support their claim of Covenant-ship.
If you review the Whole chapter of Jer 31 it is clear that it is referring to Natural Descendants of Abraham.. I.E. The House of Israel.
Just a few paragraphs of Jer 31 shoot down any possibility of the witnesses being under the new covenant ..
Jer 31:31 “Look! The days are coming,” declares Jehovah, “when I will make with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah a new covenant."
(It does not say the Symbolic Israel of God.. It says house of Jacob / house of Judah)
Jer 31:32 " It will not be like the covenant that I made with their forefathers"
(Forefathers = "a member of the past generations of one's family or people; an ancestor." Again not Symbolic - Literal Lineage.)
Jer 31:35,36 "This is what Jehovah says, Who gives the sun for light by day, The laws of the moon and the stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea and makes its waves boisterous, Whose name is Jehovah of armies: 36 “‘If these regulations should ever fail,’ declares Jehovah, ‘Only then would the offspring of Israel cease as a nation before me always."
(The Watchtower loves to claim "Hyperbole".. This here is True Hyperbole.. Sooner would the Laws of Nature, The Moon, The Stars & The Sea fail, then would God disown The OFFSPRING Of Israel. - God made a covenant with Israel, and he does not relent on his Word.)
The Regathering of Israel has been underway for many years now, and the Signs are Literal, and Visible. They are not invisible & symbolic as the Cult leaders of the Watchtower claim.
Quotes from an 1882 Watchtower on this Subject :
"Yes, Earth’s winter time, with its cold, and blight, and storms, is nearly over; the gracious, and fruitful and beautiful Summer is nigh. Spring has come; the fig tree is “putting forth”; yet we must look for more storms, more trouble, just as in nature, the Spring equinoxial storm is one of the most severe. Jacob (Israel after the flesh) is to be delivered during a great “time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation.” It is even the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it. (Jer. 30:7; Dan. 12:1.)
It is very remarkable that Christian people cannot appreciate Paul’s statement, that the fleshly house were cast off from God’s favor during the time his favor had been manifest to the spiritual house. How strange that they cannot see from this return of favor to “Jacob,” that the end of favor toward the spiritual house has come—that the end (“harvest”) of the Gospel age is now upon us.
Like some of old, the church today cannot “discern the signs of the times.” (Matt. 16:3.) But it was then, as now, the nominal church which discerned not. Those truly taught of God are, to that extent, not in darkness. “Ye brethren, [brethren in Christ, holding communion with God through his Word, which is able to make wise] are not in darkness.” (1 Thes. 5:4.)
The great mass of the Church sees the signs now taking place, but are so blinded by their creeds and traditions that they cannot “discern” or understand them. How clear to the unfettered and discerning mind are the words of Paul: “I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery .... that blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in, and so [then] all Israel shall be saved.” [No one can question that Paul refers to the blinding of fleshly Israel, and consequently to the saving, or bringing back to God’s favor, of that people. But one of the most pointed things in this expression is, that this saving of fleshly Israel, will not be “until the fullness”—full number “of the Gentiles be come in.”
But as Israel was thirty-seven years in falling, viz. (from A. D. 33, when Jesus gave them up and left desolate their house, to A. D. 70, when their national existence ended; so we expect that they will be thirty-seven years in rising, or from 1878 to 1914, the end of the times of the Gentiles. This time of their re-gathering and restitution to favor, will be a time of great trouble—it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be delivered out of it. As when they came out of Egypt over three thousand years ago, it was in the midst of great trial and distress; so now their deliverance will be, not without its distress, as it is written—“According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I show unto him marvelous things: the nations shall see and be confounded at all their might.” (Micah 7:15.)
But we are also told, that the exodus now from among all nations, will be so much more a marked manifestation of God’s favor than that from Egypt, that the latter, which has heretofore been the great and marked feature of Israel’s history, will sink into comparative insignificance, when compared with the coming deliverance from among the nations. Thus we read: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord that it shall no more be said, The Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, The Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north [Russia], and from all the lands whither he had driven them. And I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.” Jer. 16:14, 15." - End Quote
interesting