The nations shall know that I am Jehovah-How (1971)
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"The Nations Shall Know
THAT I AM JEHOVAH"
—How?
N
LANDS ASSOCIATED WITH BABYLON In Ezekiel's Day
"The Nations Shall Know THAT I AM JEHOVAH" How?
"And the nations shall know that I am Jehovah." —Ezekiel 36:23; 39:7, A5.
COPYRIGHT, 1971
by
WATCH TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY
OF PENNSYLVANIA
First Printing: 2,000,000 Copies
Second Printing: 2,000,000 Copies
PUBLISHERS
WATCHTOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY
OF NEW YORK, INC.
INTERNATIONAL BIBLE STUDENTS ASSOCIATION
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, U.S.A.
Made in the United States of America
Dedicated to the Sanctifying of the Divine Name Among God's "Men of Goodwill" of All the Nations
CONTENTS
CHAPTER AND SUBJECT PAGE
1 Nations Long Ago Had to Know Who He Is . . . 7
2 His Own People Had to Know Who He Is . . . 21
3 God's Chariot Is on the Move! . . . 35
4 Commissioned to Speak in the Divine Name . . . 54
5 Appointed as a Watchman to Christendom . . . 72
6 The Days of Christendom Are Numbered . . . 92
7 Christendom Will Know—at Her End . . . 114
8 Detestable Religious Things over Which to Sigh . . . 142
9 Marking Foreheads of Those to Be Spared . . . 162
10 Christendom's Fiery Destruction from the Celestial Chariot . . . 182
11 Disappointment in Store for Overconfident Ones . . . 194
12 "Until He Comes Who Has the Legal Right" . . . 213
13 Christendom's Associates Turn upon Her! . . . 237
14 Hypocritical Religionists Stunned at the News . . . 264
15 The Watchman Lives to Get the Report . . . 278
16 A Shepherd-King for All Mankind . . . 293
17 A "Garden of Eden" for the Sake of His Name . . . 312
18 Resurrection to Unity in a "Garden of Eden" . . . 335
19 Defeat Awaits Attack by Nations under Gog . . . 349
20 Land of Magog No More to Threaten Mankind . . . 368
21 Life in Security under Messiah's Reign . . . 382
22 Human Happiness in Paradise under Divine Government . . . 399
Subject Index . . . . .
Nations Long Ago Had to Know Who He Is
JUST as nations of long ago did not like him, the nations of today do not like him. Neither do they like his name. By not mentioning his name they seek to ignore his existence, to let him become a person unknown, to let his name fade from memory. Strangely, though, the nations have proved unable to blot his name out of human history. They have not kept his name from being heralded far and wide throughout the earth, in our twentieth century. Obviously the Bearer of that name must be greater than all the nations. His is the greatest name in all the universe. It is the oldest name on record. It is immortal! It adorns the greatest One in all heaven and earth. It is just as imperishable as its Bearer is. Nations of the past got to know it. Present-day nations, as political organizations, will likewise get to know that incomparable Name. Shortly they will perish, but not the Name! Before they perish they shall know the superiority of the One bearing that Name.
2 In this regard history will have to repeat itself, but on a far grander scale. Recorded history of the past justifies us in expecting that name to be put in its rightful place among all who dwell on earth. The vindication of it as the name of the One who really lives, who is almighty and supreme, will strike the nations with awe.
Even though unwillingly, they will have to recognize the One whose name has been unjustly reproached and downgraded among men. They will know that he is and that he has spoken and that what he has spoken never fails to occur. The significance of this to all nations is of the highest concern to every member of this present generation of mankind right now.
To us of today any event that occurred in the year 1513 before our Common Era occurred a long time ago. Nearly three thousand five hundred years ago! But to the Eternal One whose name must be vindicated such a time period is not calculated according to the earth's daily spinning on its axis and its yearly movement around the sun. Those three and a half millenniums are viewed as but three and a half of our days. And what is a mere half a week of time to Him? To Him it was just half a week ago that he confronted the first-class political power of the sixteenth century before our Common Era. So it was no mere poetic outburst when an inspired songwriter of that day said to Him: "A thousand years are in your eyes but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch during the night."*
To Him it did not matter that that first world power had the latest military equipment in great quantity and could dominate the then inhabited earth. Its highly prized wisdom and its high degree of civilization made no difference to Him. The great number of its religious gods and goddesses did not overawe Him but showed how ignorant and misguided that highly civilized world power was in a religious way. What counted with Him then was that this world power had got into difficulty with him. How?
Have we ever seen an inoffensive people being oppressed by a powerful, militarized, nationalistic political government in this twentieth century? Such a question turns our minds to a number of oppressed peoples and racial groups. So, then, we can appreciate the tyrannical oppression that had gone on for scores of years upon an innocent people in a land in which they were alien residents. According to the three great branches into which our human family is divided, these alien residents were of the Semitic branch and were dwelling in a Hamitic land. The oppression upon them finally became so extreme that it attempted what is called "genocide" nowadays, to bring about the disappearance of that particular family of Shemites that had now grown to the size of an outstanding people, a nation populous indeed but having no active part in the government of that Hamitic land.
Seemingly it was a racial issue that troubled the Hamitic land, for that large body of alien residents of another race might even furnish a military threat to this first-rate world power. But if we study the situation more deeply, we can discern that there was an issue of importance even greater than that of the racial issue. It was a religious issue. The records of ancient history prove beyond denial by our irreligious scientifically educated modernists that religion played a dominant part in the life of the nations, even of the rulers. A remarkably different religion was identified with that alien people residing in that world-famous Hamitic land. That was why the hard core of that people refused to join in worshiping the many gods of the land. So the wiping out of this people of Shemitic stock would mean the wiping out of this religion. This was, according to the priests of the gods of the land, the more desirable thing.
Just like with hundreds of millions of East Indians of this twentieth century, it seemed strange to those ancient worshipers of the many Hamitic gods that this alien people in their midst should worship but one God, who was believed to be the One Creator of all heaven and earth. But to those worshipers of many ancient gods and goddesses this One God of that alien resident people could not be a true, living, all-powerful God. Otherwise, why would he let them be oppressed as mere slaves for more than a hundred years? Why would he let their oppressors proceed with the nationalistic plan of wiping out his worshipers and his religion from the earth? Why had he not before now delivered his worshipers from their polytheistic oppressors and slave masters? Those were good questions. If he were the God that these oppressed people worshiped him as being, then he ought to answer those questions. He ought to make himself known to that Hamitic nation! By doing this, too, he could make himself known to all nations!
For that matter, what about making himself known to His own worshipers? Even to many of these He may have appeared as an unknown God.* Under the distressing circumstances of that sixteenth century before our Common Era, did they have to know that He is, that he has a name different from the names of all the gods and goddesses of their oppressors, and that he is their God who recognizes them as his people? Yes! He had been no unknown God to their forefathers of earlier centuries. These had even known his personal name, but had especially come to appreciate him as "God Almighty" because of what he did in their favor. Why, then, should they not worship this God of their forefathers?
He had made wonderful promises to their forefathers, promises not only of interest and importance to them as descendants but of greatest interest and importance to all mankind. He had foretold the affliction such as came upon them in this Hamitic land. Could he be unaware of the affliction when it actually came upon them? Not consistently so! For a fact, he was clocking the time of this affliction, because he had predetermined and foretold when that affliction would end and should end. They had the records of the time lengths of the lives of their forefathers in succession and of the generations involved. If they had consulted these and had made correct calculations, they would have known that now was the time for their deliverance. It was the time marked by their God to make himself known to them as their Deliverer and to crown his name with never-fading glory. It was the time for Him to prove with deeds that he makes no sworn declaration that is impossible for him to carry out. He is still God Almighty despite the passing of centuries. As his time had come, he could be expected to give to his name a place in human history above all other names.
HOW WILL HE DO IT?
10 The question before those who still had faith in the unbreakable promises of God was, How will he do it? How will he prove himself to be no mythical god? How will he vindicate his very existence? How will he make his name to be respected, indeed, to be feared by all the nations of the earth? Not by some ordinary means that could be explained by our modern-day scientists. No, but by something that even twentieth-century scientists cannot account for despite all their laboratory experiments, by things so humanly unbelievable that doubters would call them merely mythical and legendary.
But how else than by such a demonstration of his superior power and scientific intelligence could it be proved to even this generation of mankind that he is the one God Almighty? One who is a God should be able to do things that ordinary men of any century of time could not do. Otherwise, how can he rank as God? Reasonably, he should be expected to do things that the magic-practicing priests of all the false gods could never do. He should distinguish himself by doing inexplainable things, miracles!
11 How, though, would these miraculous feats of power be identified with this one living and true God, so as to be unmistakably attributed to him as the true Source? Especially so, when he is invisible and has no visible, material idol or image to represent him to the eyes and touch of men? Simply by having these miraculous performances announced beforehand and having them performed in his name, and this by means of a living human representative, spokesman or prophet, whom he sent to speak and perform in His name. It was not necessary for this invisible, almighty God to present himself in person to fleshly human creatures who were too frail in eyesight and bodily makeup to endure a direct confrontation with the heavenly Maker of the sun and all the billions of galaxies of stars and sources of cosmic rays. In fulfillment of the predictions made by human spokesmen in his name, he could perform the specified miracles by remote control, and this would be safest for puny human creatures with their limited abilities to endure only so much without being destroyed. All this would show divine consideration for mere human creatures of our tiny earth!
14The idol gods of that ancient Hamitic land had their magic-practicing priests and other official representatives, among whom were the notable men Jan'nes and Jam'bres.* Who, then, was the historic figure whom the non-idolatrous God sent to speak and act in his personal name?
He was no stranger to the land. In fact, he had been born in that southern Hamitic land eighty years previously. Thus he was now an old man, likely too old to be recognized as a fugitive from the land for forty years, a man whom they might have felt justified in killing as a manslayer. They had wanted to have him killed even as a newborn baby by having him hurled into their sacred river, which they worshiped as a god. But as he was floating in a handmade bulrush ark on the waters near the shore, he was rescued by the compassionate daughter of the then ruler of the land. She was moved to adopt this beautiful baby boy, and fittingly she gave him the name meaning "Drawn Out," or, "Saved out of Water," that is to say, Mosheh', or, as we would pronounce the name today, Moses. This meant a defeat for the river god that had not been permitted to swallow him down.†
15 Seemingly without knowing that she was being maneuvered, the ruler's daughter gave over the suckling baby to his own mother, Joch'e-bed, to nurse and rear until the child should be old enough to be brought into the ruler's palace. With greatness of heart she was acting contrary to her father's cruel policy of genocide against the enslaved alien residents of her land. In this way the endangered child was shielded against death at the hands of the oppressors of his people and he received instruction in the worship, not of the many false gods of the land, but of the God of his father Amram. Strong family and religious attachment to his people remained deep-seated in this child, who was evidently marked out for an important role in history, until he was forty years old, even in spite of spending most of those years at the king's court and being instructed in all its worldly wisdom.
Then, because of being so indignant at the harsh treatment meted out to his enslaved people, he attempted to lead a liberation movement. There was bloodshed, and he had to flee for his life.*
14 What or who could have induced him now as an aged man of eighty years to leave the land of his fugitive existence and to return to the land of the oppressors of his people, who had sought his life? Had he not already failed once as a liberator? Yes! But now it would be his God who would act as the Liberator of those who worshiped Him notwithstanding their longtime affliction. By now he was almost a stranger to his own people, but his older sister, Miriam, and brother, Aaron, were still alive down there in the land of enslavement. To a large extent he would have to identify himself to them. "What brings you back? Who sent you?" they would ask him. To present himself to them as their liberator in his own name would not work with them now any more than it had worked in the first place. Only if he came in the name of their God as Liberator would they be inclined to accept him as their visible leader. Yet, what was the name of this God who had sent him? How could he prove that this God had sent him to lead them to freedom? Had this God changed his name?
15 The divine Sender of Moses knew that his doubting people were wondering why the God of their forefathers had permitted for so long this wickedness practiced upon them, and he knew that they would ask Moses these questions. By means of a miraculous manifestation, not in some mythical land, but at the foot of Mount Horeb in the wilderness of Sinai of the Arabian Peninsula, God gave orders verbally to Moses to return to the land of the oppressive slave drivers.
What was he to say when he presented himself first to his own people? By means of an invisible angel at a miraculously burning thornbush of the wilderness God told him what to say. According to The New English Bible published in a land far westward from the Sinaitic Peninsula, 3,482 years later (in 1970 C.E.), Moses was to say in explaining his mission:
10 "You must tell the Israelites this, that it is JEHOVAH the God of their forefathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, who has sent you to them. This is my name for ever; this is my title in every generation. Go and assemble the elders of Israel and tell them that JEHOVAH the God of their forefathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has appeared to you and has said, 'I have indeed turned my eyes towards you; I have marked all that has been done to you in Egypt, and I am resolved to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt, into the country of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.' They will listen to you, and then you and the elders of Israel must go to the king of Egypt."—Exodus 3:15-18.
17 Courageously Moses obeyed this God of his forefathers, Jehovah. By miraculous signs that Jehovah instructed Moses to perform, Moses proved that Jehovah the God of liberation had indeed sent him to be their leader into liberty. Their liberation could have come in an easy way for the Egyptians, if these, on demand of Jehovah, would lift their oppression upon the Israelites and let them go free to their Promised Land of milk and honey. But what is there to be done when the king Pharaoh of Egypt scorns the demand made upon him in the name of the living and true God and gives the challenging answer: "Who is Jehovah, so that I should obey his voice to send Israel away?"
To back up his defiance of Jehovah as if he were a mere Nobody, the idol-worshiping Pharaoh of Egypt added: "I do not know Jehovah at all and, what is more, I am not going to send Israel away." And when Pharaoh, the commander of the finest military forces in that ancient world, sticks to his decision, what else is there to do but to make him Jehovah, to force him to know that the God making the demand upon him for the releasing of His people is Jehovah? Pharaoh asked for it!
18 Do any of the political rulers of this twentieth century take the attitude of that Pharaoh of 1514/1513 B.C.E., as recorded in Exodus 5:1, 2? The national situation that developed away back there called forth for the first time the divine declaration that served notice upon the political nations of Bible times concerning God's purpose to make them know who he is. But the nations of this modern world need to heed this ancient declaration of God's purpose as also applying to them. They might well consider very seriously whether they are typified or prefigured by the ancient land of the Pharaohs, when Jehovah said to Moses: "The Egyptians will certainly know that I am Jehovah when I stretch out my hand against Egypt, and I shall indeed bring the sons of Israel out from their midst."—Exodus 7:1-5.
19 Also, to the disobedient Pharah of Egypt Moses was ordered to say: "By this you will know that I am Jehovah. Here I am striking with the rod that is in my hand upon the water that is in the Nile River, and it will certainly turn into blood." It did so. This proved to be the first of the ten plagues by means of which the tough, resisting Egyptians learned to know in a way disastrous to them that the true God is Jehovah.
—Exodus 7:17-25.
20 That first plague, that of turning the Nile River and its canals into blood, was not directly aimed at Moses' people, who dwelt separate in the northeastern part of Egypt known as Goshen. But they felt the effects of this plague that afflicted the whole land of Egypt for seven days. However, they knew that Jehovah was not meaning to punish them by this plague, and by suffering with the Egyptians they were enabled to feel how real a blow it was to the oppressive Egyptians. The same thing was true of the second plague, that of frogs overrunning the land of Egypt, not even the land of Goshen being spared. (Exodus 7:19 to 8:15) Pharaoh may have drawn some comfort from the fact that Moses' own people were obliged to suffer from those plagues the same as did the Egyptians. He may have doubted that Jehovah was able to protect his own people, the Israelites, from those plagues which Egypt's magic-practicing priests seemed to imitate. So the situation was a challenging one for Jehovah. Was he able to meet it?
21 The first two plagues did not soften Pharaoh's heart sufficiently. In fact, Jehovah's yielding to Pharaoh's cries for relief really hardened the defiant ruler. A third plague upon Egypt was now in order. It produced swarms of gnats all over Egypt. The magic-practicing priests were unable to duplicate it. They could not credit the plague to any of their demon gods. So to Pharaoh they were obliged to say: "It is the finger of God!" Notably, they did not say: "It is the finger of Jehovah!" Did they deliberately sidestep saying God's true name? At any rate, their ignoring of the true God's name did not hide the facts, nor did it save them.—Exodus 8:16-19.
PROTECTION THROUGH WORSHIPING THE TRUE GOD
22 Is there any protection possible through worshiping the true God, even this God with the unliked name? The way in which the fourth plague upon Egypt was maneuvered answered this question in a positive way. Listen to the historic record, in Exodus 8:20-24:
23 "Then Jehovah said to Moses: 'Get up early in the morning and take a position in front of Pharaoh. Look! He is coming out to the water! And you must say to him, 'This is what Jehovah has said: 'Send my people away that they may serve me. But if you are not sending my people away, here I am sending upon you and your servants and your people and into your houses the gadfly; and the houses of Egypt will simply be full of the gadfly, and also the ground upon which they are. And on that day I shall certainly make the land of Goshen upon which my people are standing distinct, that no gadfly may exist there; in order that you may know that I am Jehovah in the midst of the earth. And I shall indeed set a demarcation between my people and your people. Tomorrow this sign will take place.'"' And Jehovah proceeded to do so; and heavy swarms of gadflies began to invade the house of Pharaoh and the houses of his servants and all the land of Egypt. The land came to ruin as a result of the gadflies."
24 Thus hardhearted Pharaoh was further made to know that the true God is Jehovah on two counts, by the plague of gadfies itself, which also could be said to be "the finger of God," and by the miraculous separating of Jehovah's people, the Israelites, and protecting them from the plague of gadfies. If Pharaoh had sent to the land of Goshen, he would have found this to be so, just as he did in connection with the very next plague, which struck all sorts of livestock of the Egyptians with pestilence so that they died.
Concerning Pharaoh's checkup as to whether Jehovah had really made a distinction between the livestock of the Israelites and the livestock of the Egyptians, we read: "Then Pharaoh sent, and, look! not so much as one of Israel's livestock had died." (Exodus 9:7) But even this was not enough knowledge of Jehovah for unteachable Pharaoh. It was only after the tenth and last plague had killed off his firstborn son and the firstborn sons of all his Egyptian subjects that he relented enough to let Jehovah's people go. It was his own fault that he learned to know Jehovah in only the hard way for Egypt.
25 Despite all of this, the God of miracles was not through with forcing Pharaoh and his subjects to know that he is Jehovah. Some days after the departure of the Israelites with all their firstborn of man and livestock with them, they encamped by the Red Sea, on its western bank, near the head of the Gulf of Suez, and "in view of Baal-zephon ("Lord of the North, or, of the Watchtower")." Near this geographical spot Jehovah purposed to make himself known still more to his enemies. It was just as Jehovah said to Moses: "Then Pharaoh will certainly say respecting the sons of Israel, 'They are wandering in confusion in the land. The wilderness has closed in upon them.' So I shall indeed let Pharaoh's heart become obstinate, and he will certainly chase after them and I shall get glory for myself by means of Pharaoh and all his military forces; and the Egyptians will certainly know that I am Jehovah."—Exodus 14:1-4.
26 Really, then, it was not the Israelites that were trapped at the Red Sea with the Egyptian military forces fast bearing down upon them, but it was the Egyptians themselves that fell into a trap for their destruction. By this there was one final lesson that was to be given to the Egyptians in knowing Jehovah.
This would settle his accounts with them. When Jehovah now told Moses that he would open up a corridor through the bed of the Red Sea for the Israelites to go forward to the eastern bank and to deliverance, he disclosed to Moses the purpose of this, saying: "As for me, here I am letting the hearts of the Egyptians become obstinate, that they may go in after them and that I may get glory for myself by means of Pharaoh and all his military forces, his war chariots and his cavalrymen. And the Egyptians will certainly know that I am Jehovah when I get glory for myself by means of Pharaoh, his war chariots and his cavalrymen."—Exodus 14:15-18.
27 That night, under the light of the Passover moon, the hundreds of thousands of Israelites passed across the bed of the Red Sea with the miraculously parted waters of it on each side of them. Toward morning Jehovah permitted the Egyptian military forces to enter the dried seabed in pursuit of the Israelites. When the God of Israel began to hamper the progress of their pursuers, the Egyptian military forces sensed danger and began to feel that they were fighting against Jehovah. At last making an acknowledgment of Him by name, they said to one another: "Let us flee from any contact with Israel, because Jehovah certainly fights for them against the Egyptians." But it was too late to flee, for Jehovah sprang the trap upon them. We read:
28 "All the while the Egyptians were fleeing from encountering it [the sea], but Jehovah shook the Egyptians off into the midst of the sea. And the waters kept coming back. Finally they covered the war chariots and the cavalrymen belonging to all of Pharaoh's military forces and who had gone into the sea after them. Not so much as one among them was let remain.
As for the sons of Israel, they walked on dry land in the midst of the seabed, and the waters were for them a wall on their right hand and on their left. Thus on that day Jehovah saved Israel from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel got to see the Egyptians dead on the seashore."—Exodus 14:21-30.
Chapter 2
His Own People Had to Know Who He Is
TRULY Egypt must have taken a slump as the leading military power of that ancient day. When the news of this disaster reached the Egyptians who had been left back home, they should have known at last that the God of their former slaves was Jehovah, the one living and true God. As for the liberated Israelites, at this triumphant hour they were able to appreciate what their God had said to Moses concerning them: "I shall certainly take you to me as a people, and I shall indeed prove to be God to you; and you will certainly know that I am Jehovah your God who is bringing you out from under the burdens of Egypt." (Exodus 6:7) Now they could appreciate God's name as even their forefathers had never been able to appreciate it, just as he had also said to Moses: "I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty. But I did not let myself be known to them by my name JEHOVAH."—Exodus 6:2, 3, New English Bible of 1970.
2 Now the responsibility was upon those liberated Israelites to serve as witnesses to their descendants. They had come under obligation to serve as Jehovah's witnesses to their offspring, just as he had said to Moses before striking Egypt with the eighth plague, the plague of locusts: "Go in to Pharaoh, because I I have let his heart and the hearts of his servants become unresponsive, in order that I may set these signs of mine right before him, and in order that you may declare in the ears of your son and your son's son how severely I have dealt with Egypt and my signs that I have established among them; and you will certainly know that I am Jehovah." (Exodus 10:1, 2) Good reason there now was for him to say to that nation, through his prophet Isaiah about eight hundred years later:
"And now this is what Jehovah has said, your Creator, O Jacob, and your Former, O Israel: 'Do not be afraid, for I have repurchased you. I have called you by your name. You are mine. In case you should pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not flood over you. In case you should walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, neither will the flame itself singe you. For I am Jehovah your God, the Holy One of Israel your Savior. . . You are my witnesses,' is the utterance of Jehovah, 'even my servant whom I have chosen, in order that you may know and have faith in me, and that you may understand that I am the same One. Before me there was no Göd formed [by the idolatrous nations], and after me there continued to be none. I—I am Jehovah, and besides me there is no savior. I myself have told forth and have saved and have caused it to be heard, when there was among you no strange god. So you are my witnesses,' is the utterance of Jehovah, 'and I am God.' "'—Isaiah 43:1-12.
As matters turned out, the liberated nation of Israel had yet to go through the fiery desert on their way to the Promised Land. As this wilderness was no "land of milk and honey," as the Promised Land was reported to be, the nation of his witnesses needed to learn to know Jehovah as the One who could provide for their needs all along the way. Think of providing food and water supplies for several millions of people and their livestock out in the wilderness of the Sinai Peninsula! About a month after they had left Egypt and the people were disposed to murmur about the matter of food, Jehovah declared that he would not let his name be reproached in this regard by saying to Moses: "I have heard the murmurings of the sons of Israel. Speak to them, saying, Between the two evenings you will eat meat and in the morning you will be satisfied with bread; and you will certainly know that I am Jehovah your God.'" Thus they learned to know him as their Provider and Sustainer when he sent an abundant supply of quail in the evening and the miraculous manna in the morning. (Exodus 16:1-18) Throughout the four decades of their journey to the Promised Land of milk and honey, Jehovah regularly provided for them the life-sustaining manna. It was no ordinary bread.
5 What if we of today were to have forty years of private experience with God our Creator just as the Israelites had it back there in that Middle Eastern wilderness? Would our hearts then become warmed with affection for the knowledge that God imparted? Would our eyes get to the point of seeing with understanding and appreciation what God was doing and would our ears hear what God says with an inclination to obey? Would we feel that now we knew God our Creator? We ought to do so. And yet, toward the end of the forty years of wandering in the wilderness, the prophet Moses summed up the effect of God's dealings upon the Israelites, when Moses said to them:
"And yet Jehovah has not given you a heart to know and eyes to see and ears to hear down to this day. 'While I kept guiding you forty years in the wilderness, your garments did not wear out upon you, and your sandal did not wear out upon your foot. Bread you did not eat, and wine and intoxicating liquor you did not drink, in order that you might know that I am Jehovah your God.'" —Deuteronomy 29:1-6.
Early in this forty years of intimate experience with God they should have learned to know him as their Protector against violent enemies. In the second month of their journeying by stages in the wilderness they came to Rephidim. There they could have made the observation that, although they themselves might fight in self-defense, it is their God that gives them the victory over their foes. How so? What happened there? Let us read:
8 "The Amalekites came and attacked Israel at Rephidim. Moses said to Joshua, 'Pick your men, and march out tomorrow to fight for us against Amalek; and I will take my stand on the hill-top with the staff of God in my hand.' Joshua carried out his orders and fought against Amalek while Moses, Aaron and Hur climbed to the top of the hill. Whenever Moses raised his hands Israel had the advantage, and when he lowered his hands Amalek had the advantage. But when his arms grew heavy they took a stone and put it under him and, as he sat, Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on each side, so that his hands remained steady till sunset. Thus Joshua defeated Amalek and its people to the sword. The LORD said to Moses, 'Record this in writing, and tell it to Joshua in these words: 'I am resolved to blot out all memory of Amalek from under heaven.'" Moses built an altar, and named it Jehovah-nissi and said, 'My oath upon it: the LORD is at war with Amalek generation after generation!."—Exodus 17:8-16, New English Bible.
(The name "Jehovah-nissi" means "Jehovah Is My Signal Pole.")
It took generations, in fact, centuries, as history shows, to wipe out the last of the Amalekites, the traditional enemies of God's people. Jehovah's resolve against them was not frustrated. So history proves that it is better to gather to Jehovah as our Signal Pole rather than to rally to the aid of those who are the foes of Him and his people. We will do this if we know him.
THE SORT OF GOD THAT HE IS
10 All these historical experiences help us to appreciate what kind of God this Jehovah is. On one critical occasion he gave to Moses a description of what sort of God he is. This happened in about the fourth month after the Israelites had left their slavery in Egypt. While still at Mount Sinai thousands of the Israelites broke the first two of the Ten Commandments by committing idolatry with a golden calf. Moses as the mediator for the nation had to intercede for them to make sure that God's presence would continue with them in their journey through the wilderness. Then, while up in the mountain with God's angel, Moses made a request, and God favored Moses with a special revelation concerning the divine Name. As regards this, we read:
11 "And Moses prayed, 'Show me thy glory.' The LORD answered, 'I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will pronounce in your hearing the Name JEHOVAH. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.' . . . And the LORD came down in the cloud and took his place beside him and pronounced the Name JEHOVAH.
Then the LORD passed in front of him and called aloud, 'JEHOVAH, the LORD, a god compassionate and gracious, long-suffering, ever constant and true, maintaining constancy to thousands, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin, and not sweeping the guilty clean away; but one who punishes sons and grandsons to the third and fourth generation for the iniquity of their fathers!"—Exodus 33:18 to 34:7, New English Bible. (In this Bible where the expression "The LORD" occurs it also stands for the Hebrew name of God, "Jehovah.") Also, see Acts 7:37, 38, 53; Galatians 3:19.
12 The above-given qualities distinguish Jehovah from all the so-called gods whom men and nations have worshiped. Moses was deeply moved to worship such a God as Jehovah. What reasonable person, with a proper appreciation, would not want to worship a God such as Jehovah is? He deserves to be worshiped. He has the exclusive and just right to command to be worshiped by all his creatures in heaven and on earth. He required of the Israelites whom he had liberated from oppressive Egypt to worship him. He had a sacred tent of meeting constructed at which his chosen people could worship him out in the wilderness. He provided a priesthood for them in the family of Aaron, the brother of Moses. He prescribed a list of sacrifices that they could offer to him on certain occasions and for certain reasons, these sacrifices having a special meaning and pointing forward to the Great Sacrifice that Jehovah would provide in due time to take away the sin of the whole world of mankind. Concerning this sacred tent of meeting and its priesthood, God said to Moses:
18 "And I will present myself there to the sons of Israel, and it will certainly be sanctified by my glory.
And I will sanctify the tent of meeting and the altar; and I shall sanctify Aaron and his sons for them to act as priests to me. And I will tabernacle in the midst of the sons of Israel, and I will prove to be their God. And they will certainly know that I am Jehovah their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I may tabernacle in the midst of them. I am Jehovah their God."—Exodus 29:43-46.
14 This transportable tent of meeting was replaced centuries later by a stationary temple built on Mount Moriah in the city of Jerusalem. King Solomon, the son of David of Bethlehem, was the builder of it, during the years 1034-1027 before our Common Era. Jehovah sanctified this temple as a place of worship just as he had done with the tent of meeting constructed by Moses. (1 Kings 6:1-38) King Solomon prayed that this might be so, and concerning the divine response to his prayer, we read, in 1 Kings 9:2, 3:
15 "Then Jehovah appeared to Solomon the second time, the same as he had appeared to him in Gibeon. And Jehovah went on to say to him: 'I have heard your prayer and your request for favor with which you requested favor before me. I have sanctified this house that you have built by putting my name there to time indefinite; and my eyes and my heart will certainly prove to be there always.'"
16 For that reason the name of Jehovah became associated with that temple at Jerusalem, and even far distant nations came to know this. Properly Jehovah was highly interested in what went on there at that temple, forasmuch as this would reflect upon his holy name. It was no light offense for anyone to defile his temple.
ISRAEL AND SYRIA WERE MADE TO KNOW WHO HE IS
27 Because the temple builder, King Solomon, turned unfaithful to Jehovah in his old age, God ripped ten of the twelve tribes of Israel away from Solomon's son and successor, Rehoboam. Thus he permitted a ten-tribe Kingdom of Israel to be set up with a different royal capital city. This new kingdom quickly turned away from the worship of Jehovah at his temple in Jerusalem and established the worship of golden calves at the cities of Dan and Bethel, in the year 997 B.C.E. Fifty-seven years later Ahab the son of wicked King Omri became king of those ten tribes of Israel. He went still farther in idolatry by marrying the daughter of a foreign priest of the false god Baal and setting up Baal worship in his capital city, Samaria. (1 Kings 16:29-32) Not desiring this ten-tribe kingdom to forget him completely, Jehovah sent his prophets to them and still gave the idolatrous kingdom reason to know that he is Jehovah the God of their forefathers.
18 In the days of King Ahab there came occasions for this. Ben-hadad the king of Syria, together with thirty-two kings in league with him, came with a tremendous military force and laid siege to the capital city of Samaria. After some unsatisfactory negotiations with King Ahab, the Syrians and allies set themselves to attack Samaria with full force. Then what happened?
19 "And, look! a certain prophet approached Ahab the king of Israel and then said: 'This is what Jehovah has said, "Have you seen all this great crowd? Here I am giving it into your hand today, and you will certainly know that I am Jehovah."'"—1 Kings 20:1-13.
20 Under the direct command of King Ahab, who was designated by Jehovah, the besieged Israelites moved out to the attack and were enabled to cause a great slaughter of the Syrians. King Ben-hadad of Syria managed to escape on horseback together with his horsemen. What a reason for the ten-tribe Kingdom of Israel to know that the God of victory is Jehovah! However, Jehovah knew that the Syrians had not learned their lesson but would misinterpret their humiliating defeat and that therefore King Ben-hadad would muster up new military forces and resume the attack on Samaria in the following year. By means of a prophet Jehovah mercifully forewarned King Ahab of this and told him to strengthen himself for this in advance.—1 Kings 20:22-25.
21 Jehovah's prophecy did not fail, for in the following year King Ben-hadad did come back with apparently overwhelming military forces, to fight against the God of Israel, this time on the level land. "And," says the historic record, "the sons of Israel went into camp in front of them like two tiny flocks of goats, while the Syrians, for their part, filled the earth. Then the man of the true God approached and said to the king of Israel, yes, he went on to say: 'This is what Jehovah has said, 'For the reason that the Syrians have said: 'Jehovah is a God of mountains, and he is not a God of low plains,' I shall have to give all this great crowd into your hand, and you men will certainly know that I am Jehovah.'" —1 Kings 20:28-28.
22 A week later the battle engagement took place, and the Syrians were proved wrong in their estimate of Jehovah. In one day the Israelites whom He was backing slaughtered a hundred thousand Syrian footmen and, by no mere accident, a wall of the city of Aphek to which the surviving Syrians had fled fell down upon twenty-seven thousand of them and killed them.
The defeated King Ben-hadad felt obliged to hand himself over to the victors and trust to their tender mercies. Because King Ahab did not put the finishing touch to this God-given victory by acting as Jehovah's executioner and killing the God-defying King Ben-hadad, Jehovah expressed his disapproval of King Ahab. Because King Ahab now had reason to believe that what Jehovah's prophet said would come in punishment for this failure, King Ahab returned to Samaria, not flushed with victory, but dejected. —1 Kings 20:29-43.
28 The national outcome to the ten-tribe Kingdom of Israel stands as a solemn warning to the nations of Christendom today. Because the Israelites failed to profit religiously from having learned that the God of salvation is Jehovah, they suffered national disaster in the year 740 B.C.E. In that year, because of their continuing to worship false gods and to violate the commandments of Jehovah, their ruin as an independent nation was consummated with the destruction of their capital city, not by the Syrians, but by the then Second World Power, Assyria. The surviving Israelites were carried off into exile in the distant provinces of Assyria, where the prophets of Jehovah did not visit them. Thus the Jehovah-forsaking Kingdom of Israel lasted for only 257 years. The nations of Christendom today have no reason for mistaking why this national calamity befall the ten-tribe Kingdom of Israel, for the inspired prophet and Bible writer (Jeremiah) states why, saying:
24 "Over the fact that they had not listened to the voice of Jehovah their God, but kept overstepping his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of Jehovah had commanded. They neither listened nor performed." —2 Kings 18:11, 12.
BABYLON AND OTHER NATIONS HAD TO KNOW HIM
25 The sister kingdom composed of the two remaining tribes of Judah and Benjamin, with capital at Jerusalem, continued on for 133 years more. In this kingdom of Judah Jehovah raised up his prophet Isaiah more than thirty-five years before the destruction of Samaria by Assyria, the Second World Power. Under inspiration of the spirit of Jehovah the prophet Isaiah foretold that in course of time Jerusalem also would be destroyed by the next world power, Babylon, and that the land of Judah would be left lying desolate because the surviving inhabitants would be carried off into exile in Babylonia. But in Jehovah's due time Babylon itself would be overthrown as the Third World Power, and the conquering king, Cyrus, whom Isaiah foretold by name, would let the Jewish exiles return to their homeland and cultivate it again to become like a paradise. The returned exiles were also to rebuild the holy city of Jerusalem and its temple for the worship of Jehovah. (Isaiah 44:24 to 45:7; 35:1-10) Using this bringing back of the Jewish exiles as a prophetic picture of something still greater to occur in our own twentieth century, Isaiah went on to say:
24 "This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: 'Look! I shall raise up my hand even to the nations, and to the peoples I shall lift up my signal. And they will bring your sons in the bosom, and upon the shoulder they will carry your own daughters. And kings must become caretakers for you, and their princesses nursing women for you. With faces to the earth they will bow down to you, and the dust of your feet they will lick up; and you will have to know that I am Jehovah, of whom those hoping in me will not be ashamed.'"—Isaiah 49:22, 23.
27 By the restoring of the exiles that came in the year 537 B.C.E.
more than merely the earthly organization of His witnesses were to know that he is Jehovah. The pagan nations were also to know this. This spread of such important knowledge internationally was foretold by the prophet Ezekiel after the desolation of Jerusalem and of Judah occurred in 607 B.C.E. and while the displaced Jews were still exiles in Babylon. To the desolated "mountains of Israel" the prophet Ezekiel was inspired to say as the spokesman for Jehovah (according to the American Standard Version Bible):
28 "For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown; and I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it; and the cities shall be inhabited, and the waste places shall be built; and I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and be fruitful; and I will cause you to be inhabited after your former estate, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah." "Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I do not this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for my holy name, which ye have profaned among the nations, whither ye went. And I will sanctify my great name, which hath been profaned among the nations, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the nations shall know that I am Jehovah, saith the Lord Jehovah, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes."—Ezekiel 36: 8-11, 22, 23.
29 Is it important that this knowledge that he is Jehovah should be made so widespread? At least he thinks so! In the entire prophecy of Ezekiel alone the Sovereign Lord God indicates the importance of it by repeatedly declaring that nations and peoples and individuals must "know that I am Jehovah," making such a declaration sixty-two times. The last occurrence of this outstanding expression in the prophecy of Ezekiel is in Ezekiel 39:6, 7, where the Sovereign Lord God in all earnestness says:
30 "And I will send a fire on Magog, and on them that dwell securely in the isles; and they shall know that I am Jehovah. And my holy name will I make known in the midst of my people Israel; neither will I suffer my holy name to be profaned any more: and the nations shall know that I am Jehovah, the Holy One in Israel."—American Standard Version of the Bible. Note also Ezekiel 29:17, 21.
In these critical days of our twentieth century, when the nations have militarized themselves with the deadliest of war weapons, the words of the prophet Joel seem to fit as never before, even though his words were spoken and written down in the ninth century before our Common Era and hence before Ezekiel's prophecy: "Proclaim this, you people, among the nations, 'Sanctify war! Arouse the powerful men! Let them draw near! Let them come up, all the men of war! Beat their plowshares into swords and your pruning shears into lances.'" A conflict over world domination is impending. From its outcome, what will the people on the winning side learn? This: "You people will have to know that I am Jehovah your God, residing in Zion my holy mountain. And Jerusalem must become a holy place; and as regards strangers [worldly nations], they will no more pass through her."—Joel 3:9, 10, 17.
82 As regards the later prophet, Ezekiel, from start to finish he calls attention to the divine name. In the opening verses of his prophetic book he ascribes his prophecy to the inspiration of Jehovah. At the very end of his prophetic book, in the last two Hebrew words thereof, he gives the name of the Sovereign Lord God. According to the way that the New English Bible (1970) translates the very last verse, which foretells a remarkable city on earth, he says: "The perimeter of the city shall be eighteen thousand cubits, and the city's name for ever after shall be Jehovah-shammah."
This name means "Jehovah Himself is There."—Ezekiel 48:35; NEB; NW.
83 The prophet Ezekiel completed the book of his prophecy in 591 B.C.E., fifty-four years before the exiled Jews were restored to their homeland, which occurred in 537 B.C.E. (Ezekiel 29:17) This remarkable event made some impression on the pagan nations back there. After that, was it no longer important or necessary for the Sovereign Lord God to oblige the nations and peoples to know that he is Jehovah? In our day, the day of all days, does there not exist a need as never before for Him to cause all nations of the earth to know that He is Jehovah? Certainly ours is the day for the one living and true God to step forward and make himself known by his name to all nations and peoples. He needs to do this in vindication of his very existence, his Godship, his Creatorship, his truthfulness and his universal sovereignty. Yes! The very expression "Sovereign Lord Jehovah" occurs 215 times in Ezekiel's prophecy.
44 In this the last third of the twentieth century one thing must not be overlooked with respect to that last declaration of God's purpose, in Ezekiel 39:7, that "the nations shall know that I am Jehovah." What is that? This: the prophecy must come true "in the latter years," "in the final part of the days." (Ezekiel 38:8, 16, AS, NW) When we take into consideration all things since World War I, which broke out in 1914 C.E., more than fifty-six years ago, the foretold latter years and days, the final part of the years and days, ought to be upon us soon! All nations of today are on the brink of coming to a knowledge of this one living and true God, Jehovah, in a way that they never knew him before.
Not one of us can escape it. We are all part of those nations. Do we stand to gain or to lose when there is imparted to us that highly important knowledge of Jehovah?
35 Since He made so many declarations about what nations and peoples must come to know, then, whether we now like Jehovah and his name or not, it behooves us to peer into the prophetic book of Ezekiel. Thus we can observe how outstanding parts of it have had modern-day fulfillment. Many honest-hearted persons today are still confused about the Supreme Being, the Almighty God. They cannot do otherwise than benefit themselves by discovering his wise and timely counsel for today. Why be forced to know that he is Jehovah in the way that Pharaoh, ancient ruler of Egypt, was? Far better is it for us as lovers of life and happiness to accept his gracious invitation to come to know Him now in a peaceful, friendly way.
Chapter 3
God's Chariot Is on the Move!
TWO THOUSAND five hundred and seven years before the gasoline automobile began to be manufactured industrially (in 1895 C.E.), a self-moving or self-propelled chariot was seen in southwestern Asia. It was not of man's invention. It was no mere imagination. To the beholder it was awe-inspiring. Nothing like it has since been seen at the earth. It is beyond copying by man, although over the centuries a detailed description of it has been preserved for us.
It is the horseless chariot that was seen by a man whose name has gone down in history, Ezekiel the son of Buzi the priest, and he wrote down a vivid description of it for all generations to come, including our own today. What he saw was the chariot of God, and it was on the move, down from the north. Where was it headed—to somewhere in outer space or to some earthly destination? From there where did it go? Does it still exist, or something like it? Is it now on the move? Good questions these are for our locomotive twentieth century.
2 Our reporter, Ezekiel, recorded where he first saw this superhuman chariot of God, and the time and the circumstances. He was by one of the canals of ancient Babylon, which was located on the Euphrates River, the canal being named Chebar. Ezekiel was a priest, not of Marduk the principal god of pagan Babylon, but of the God whose chariot he saw in vision. What was Ezekiel doing there instead of being active at his duties as priest far west in the temple at Jerusalem, the capital of the Kingdom of Judah? Ezekiel was there in Babylon as an exile along with the former king of Jerusalem, namely, Jehoiachin the son of the late King Jehoiakim, along with princes and mighty, valiant men and craftsmen. King Jehoiachin had surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, who was besieging Jerusalem as a rebel city. The king of Babylon spared King Jehoiachin's life and carried him and all these others, including Ezekiel, into exile in Babylon. That was in the year 617 B.C.E., as we reckon time today.
5 Accordingly, the year 613 B.C.E., the year in which Ezekiel first had the vision of the chariot of God, was the "fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin." Ezekiel himself was in the thirtieth year of life.
All that took place was, not imaginary or mythical, but actually historical, and so as a historian Ezekiel dated matters definitely in the opening words of his prophetic book, writing: "Now it came about in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month [the lunar month Tammuz], on the fifth day of the month, while I was in the midst of the exiled people by the river Chebar, that the heavens were opened and I began to see visions of God. On the fifth day of the month [Tammuz 5], that is, in the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiacin, the word of Jehovah occurred specifically to Ezekiel the son of Buzi the priest in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar, and upon him in that place the hand of Jehovah came to be." (Ezekiel 1:1-3) So this was near the close of spring of 613 B.C.E.
4 What Ezekiel now saw was no hallucination caused by the taking of some drug like LSD, but was presented to him in vision by the "hand" or applied power of Jehovah that here began to operate upon him. Evidently Ezekiel was looking northward at the time, and what he saw was something allowing for detailed description. What was seen indicated that a tempest was brewing against someone or something. What now emerged upon the scene unmistakably came from a divine source because of all the glory and fiery manifestations out of which it emerged. First of all Ezekiel draws our attention to those who are attending upon the chariot of God, as he writes this description:
"And I began to see, and, look! there was a tempestuous wind coming from the north, a great cloud mass and quivering fire, and it had a brightness all around, and out of the midst of it there was something like the look of electrum, out of the midst of the fire. And out of the midst of it there was the likeness of four living creatures, and this was how they looked: they had the likeness of earthling man.
And each one had four faces, and each one of them four wings. And their feet were straight feet, and the sole of their feet was like the sole of the foot of a calf; and they were gleaming as with the glow of burnished copper. And there were the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides, and the four of them had their faces and their wings. Their wings were joining one to the other. They would not turn when they went; they would go each one straight foward."—Ezekiel 1:4-9.
6 Later on, when Ezekiel describes his second vision of the chariot of God at a new location, he calls these "four living creatures" by the name of "cherubs," in Ezekiel 10:1-20; 11:22.
7 Cherubs first made their appearance to humankind at the east of the Garden of Eden to guard the entryway to that Paradise of Pleasure after the sinners, Adam and Eve, were driven out into the thorn-and-thistle-infested ground outside. (Genesis 3:17-24) As a priest Ezekiel may have here remembered that the carved cherubs of gold that were part of the lid of the sacred Ark of the Covenant in the Most Holy of the temple at Jerusalem had just two wings, stretched upward and forward to overshadow the golden cover of the Ark. (Exodus 25:18-22; 37:7-9) Since that golden lid surmounted by these cherubs pictured the throne of God, the words of Psalm 80:1, addressed to God, were appropriate: "O Shepherd of Israel, do give ear, . . . O you who are sitting upon the cherubs, do beam forth." It was therefore in nice keeping with their position and office that the four living creatures or cherubs should act as attendants upon God's chariot.
s Besides their upper couple of wings and their lower couple of wings and their straight feet like those of a calf, gleaming like burnished copper, there were other prominent features that marked the cherubs of Ezekiel's vision.
What about their heads? Ezekiel writes: "And as for the likeness of their faces, the four of them had a man's face with a lion's face to the right, and the four of them had a bull's face on the left; the four of them also had an eagle's face. That is the way their faces were. And their wings were spreading out upward. Each one had two joining to each other, and two were covering their bodies." —Ezekiel 1:10, 11.
The fact that these cherubs had the face of a man to the fore went nicely with the fact that they had the hands of a man under their wings and also that the cherubs had, in general, "the likeness of earthling man." The heavenly cherubs also have the God-given quality or attribute of love, just the same as earthling man has, the first man Adam having been created in the image and likeness of God. (Genesis 1:26-28) The face of a lion, in being on the right side of the head of each cherub, emphasized the quality of rightness, justice. This justice has power as its support, which is well pictured in that opposite the lion's face there was, to the left, a bull's face. This face well comports with the fact that the cherubs had straight feet (or limbs), the sole of each of which was "like the sole of the foot of a calf," gleaming with the "glow of burnished copper." In his later description of the cherubs, Ezekiel calls the bull's face the "face of the cherub." (Ezekiel 10:14) Doubtless, cherubs are creatures of great power, like that of the bull.
10 Inasmuch as God, at Job 39:27-29, calls attention to the farsightedness of the eagle, the eagle's face to the rear of the cherub's head points to wisdom, the heavenly wisdom, which corresponds with the heavens in which the high-flying eagle soars.
This face fits in nicely with the fact that the cherubs had each four wings, enabling them to match the eagle in its flight. The eagle's face, as well as the man's face, the lion's face and the bull's face, is found among the faces of the four cherubic living creatures that were seen in vision about seven hundred years later by the Christian apostle John, these latter cherubs being located around the stationary throne of God in heaven.—Revelation 4:6-9.
11 Thus, consistently, down through the centuries, the same symbols are adhered to in picturing God's wisdom (the eagle), power (the bull), justice (the lion) and love (the man). These four attributes, in perfect balance with one another, differentiate Jehovah from all the gods of mythology and false religions. He has gifted his heavenly creatures and his earthly human creatures with the suitable measure of these four attributes.
12 Having four faces to their heads, the cherubs did not have to turn themselves if they wanted to change the direction of their movement from straight forward to the right or to the left or to reverse and go backward. Having a face looking in each direction, toward the four cardinal points, they could change directions instantly and follow the face that looked in the desired direction where the quality or attribute that was symbolized by the particular face was to be exercised and applied. They could move with the speed of lightning. Their forms were outlined or bordered with a fiery brightness surpassing that of man-made fire as then made, so bright, in fact, as to generate lightning. With the help of God's spirit of inspiration Ezekiel describes these aspects of the four cherubic living creatures, writing: 13 "And they would go each one straight forward.
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