Studies in the Scriptures, Volume 7: The Finished Mystery

Vast will be the slaughter, complete the devastation, heart-rending the ruin and the desolation of the hopes and aspirations of Christendom in the dark and gloomy valley of the Day of Vengeance of Jehovah. It will indeed be a valley—a cast down, humbled, lowly condition, in which the people of proud Christendom will suddenly find themselves, a condition full of the memories of ruined hopes, (bones) (Mal. 4:1.) The valley is full of dried-up hopes (bones): (1) the twelve tribes of Israel in death; (2, 3) the Hebrews in captivity to literal and mystical Babylon; and (4) the hopes of Christendom.

37:2. And caused me to pass by them round about: and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and lo, they were very dry.—The hopes of the Hebrews, held out to them in Scripture, were very many, but until the regathering out of literal and mystical Babylon, and from the dead, were and shall be lifeless. Pastor Russell, in Volume IV of Studies in the Scriptures, compassed the entire range of the afflictions and desolated hopes of mankind in war, revolution and anarchy of the great Time of Trouble.

37:3. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live! And I answered, O Lord God, Thou knowest.—“Is there any hope for the scattered people of Israel, that they will ever be restored as a nation? Can the good hopes of Christendom, ruined by war, revolution and anarchy, be revived?” “O Jehovah God, Thou knowest and hast foretold the answer by the mouths of Prophets and Apostles, and Thine own Son!”

37:4. Again He said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the Word of the Lord.—And God says about the Scriptural hopes of both Jews and of Christendom, whose fall, ignominy and captivity in literal Babylon, in mystic Babylon, in the Adamic death and in the Time of Trouble have caused, and will cause, so great sufferings and so many tears. “Hear the good Word of Jehovah concerning thy ruined hopes.”

37:6. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord.—God will make their hopes strong; for His Word encourages their realization; and He gives them power, form and substance and protection, and will finally give them vitality, and they shall live, shall become a bright and vital reality. Then with thanksgiving they shall know Him truly as Jehovah.—E. 341, 316.

37:7. So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.—While Ezekiel was speaking there began “a shaking”—the commotion incident to the fall of Babylon and the transfer of the empire to the Medes and Persians, typifying the coming Time of Trouble. And while Pastor Russell was preaching there began—in 1914—the shaking of Christendom, in wars, revolutions and anarchy, preparatory to the transfer of the rulership from Mystic Babylon, Christendom, to the two-phase, spiritual and natural, Kingdom of God; also the Zionistic hopes of the Jews began to assume definite, connected and Scriptural form. In due time, after the hopes of Christendom shall have been utterly ruined in the trouble, there will be “a noise,” as of the rushing wind of a second Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit “upon all flesh.” It will be upon all Christendom, where men will be awaiting it with prayer and supplication. And behold! all Christendom will be shaken with emotion and with a revival of hope; and all the good hopes of Christendom, whose realization hitherto had been vague and disconnected, will be seen in their proper and Divinely appointed relation (bone to his bone).—Z. '99-191.

37:9. Then said He unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.—Ezekiel was commissioned to say, as the Word of God Himself, concerning the operation of the Holy Spirit (wind, ruach) or power of God, that the whole power (four winds) of God as concerned the Hebrew nation in captivity in literal Babylon should be exercised to cause the revival of their national and Messianic hopes. “The words that I speak, they are Spirit.” The whole Word of God (four winds, the whole Spirit) foretold the regathering of the willing and obedient of the Hebrews from Babylon to Jerusalem, after seventy years' captivity. Pastor Russell, as Ezekiel's antitype, was commissioned to say to the Hebrews, scattered throughout the world in captivity in Mystic Babylon, Christendom, that the whole Word of God pointed to two great blessings: (1) the revival of their Zionist hope and its realization in the regathering of many Hebrews to Jerusalem, and the founding there of the world-wide Hebrew dominion over the whole world, into which should be gathered, out of Mystic Babylon, all the Hebrews in the world, wherever they might remain; and (2) the regathering of the Hebrews of all ages from the captivity of death—the tomb—to live on earth again in the earthly phase of the Kingdom of God, under the invisible spiritual dominion of Christ, Head and Body, and under the visible earthly rulership of the resurrected Ancient Worthies. Beginning in October, 1910, Pastor Russell called the attention of Hebrews by thousands, throughout the world, to the fact that the whole Old Testament foretold this as the legitimate aspiration of the Hebrews. For the Christian people of the world Pastor Russell has a similar message:

37:10. So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.—From paying attention to Ezekiel's message, the Hebrews captive in Babylon realized their hopes at the end of the seventy years captivity. As a result of Pastor Russell's teaching, Zionistic hopes have gained new vitality; and in due time the Hebrew dead will come forth from the Adamic death in multitudes. From his teachings to the true Church, captive in Mystic Babylon, Christendom, the Scriptural hopes of the Church were clearly seen, and vitalized for those in Present Truth. From his teachings hope will grow afresh in the hearts of the survivors of desolated Christendom; and as a result of their prayers the dead of Christendom will come forth, an exceeding great army.—E. 341, 316.

37:11. Then He said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.—The dried bones represent all the Hebrews, Fleshly Israel, and all the professing Christians, Spiritual Israel. As outlined foregoing, they say that their hopes are lost, and that they are cut off from Divine favors for their evil course in life.—Isa. 49:14; Z'99-191.

37:13, 14. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up out of your graves, And shall put My Spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord.—They shall all know that God is the Jehovah of infinite Justice, Wisdom, Love and Power, when the wonderful power of God has thus wrought in them for their blessing.—E. 341, 316; Z. '99-190.

37:15. The Word of the Lord came again unto me, saying.—Verses 15-28 recount the separation of the Hebrews into two distinct kingdoms; Israel, the corrupt ten tribes; and Judah, the less corrupt two tribes. In antitype it represents corrupt Catholicism, the larger branch of Christendom, and Protestantism, the smaller and less corrupt.

37:16, 17. Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel and his companions: And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand.—By the power of God the two were to be made one nation in the return of the Hebrews from Babylonia, and again will be made one in their return from Mystic Babylon, Christendom, to Palestine. Likewise the denominational divisions of Christian people have been obliterated among those gathered out of Mystic Babylon into Present Truth, as they will yet be in the regathering of the dead of Christendom in the resurrection, and in the unifying influences that will work among the survivors of Christendom's trouble. All these are to have as their Prince forever, the Beloved (David, beloved) of God, The Christ in glory.

37:18. And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt Thou not show what Thou meanest by these?—Both Jews and Christians have long inquired what God has signified by this prophecy.

37:19. Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in Mine hand.—The reuniting of the Hebrews and of the divisions of Christians will be by the power of God, and they shall remain one.

37:20. And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes.—The uniting of the Hebrews was apparently due to the prophecy of Ezekiel. That to come—of the Hebrews and of the Christians—will be in accordance with the teachings of Pastor Russell.

37:21, 22. And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.—In 536 B. C. God regathered the Natural Israelites into Palestine as one nation, and will soon regather them out from all the nations of the world. He will gather true Spiritual Israel into the Heavenly phase of the Kingdom, where they shall ever be one people in mind in Christ, no longer separated as Little Flock, loving Heavenly things, and Great Company, loving the earthly. He will regather nominal Spiritual Israel from the dead and from their hopeless earthly condition, into the earthly phase of the Kingdom, no longer divided as Catholic and Protestant.—Jer. 50:4-6.

37:23. Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will save them out of all their dwelling places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be My people, and I will be their God.—God will cleanse them all from everything relating to this present evil age and will save them out of their dwelling-places—the spirit children from their corrupt bodies; the Great Company from their spiritual bondage; the nominal Christians from their sects; and the Jews from their domiciles in all nations; and all classes from the sleep of death. They shall all be truly God's people; and Jehovah, Just, Wise, Loving and Powerful, their God.

37:25. And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob My servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they and their children, and their children's children for ever: and My servant David shall be their prince for ever.—The promise to Jacob is to be understood as both spiritual and earthly, a place spiritually typifying a condition. The Jews, living and resurrected dead, shall dwell forever in Palestine, given by God to Jacob, wherein their fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, dwelt. The Little Flock and the Great Company will dwell forever in the Heavenly condition, where their great Father dwells. The nominal Christians will dwell in the whole earth, wherein their then Father. The Christ, Head and Body, dwelt in bodies of humiliation and sacrifice. The Christ shall forever be their King.

37:26. Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting Covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set My Sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.—God will make effective with the Jews the everlasting New Covenant, guaranteeing eternal earthly blessings to the willing and obedient; and the nominal professing Christians will come under the benefits of the Covenant. He will make effective the complete fulfillment of the Covenant of Grace for the Church in the spirit phase of the Kingdom. He will set both classes up in power—the Church as spiritual Kings and Priests unto God; and the Jews as the rulers of the earth. He will multiply their numbers by the resurrection. He will dwell in the spiritual class, making them His Sanctuary to the earthly class.

37:27. My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be My people.—God's abode will be in the spiritual class; and they will be God's Temple or Dwelling-place, from which the Law of Love shall proceed for the earthly class.

37:28. And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when My Sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.—Then will follow the conversion of the heathen peoples of the earth—“the residue of men, even all the Gentiles.”—Acts 15:17.

38:7. Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.—The foregoing and their savage multitudes of revolutionists are to be the vanguard of the evil host. These people symbolize also those after the 1,000 years whose heart condition will be like the actual state of these savages.

38:8. After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.—After the career of the Ezekiel class is terminated in the flesh, the nations of Europe (and after the thousand years are finished the hosts of Satan, unbound) shall be called to do their dreadful work. At the close of the turbulent revolutionary era Europe shall come against Palestine, then living in a peace contrasting with their turbulence; and, at the close of the Millennium Satan shall come against the Millennial order of things, abounding in holiness and peace.

38:9. Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.—They shall make the attack in vast numbers.

38:10. Thus saith the Lord God; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought.—At the end of the revolutionary era turbulent Europe and Africa will be obsessed with an idea full of evil for them and for the Hebrews; and at the close of the Millennium Satan and the hosts in sympathy with his deceptions will dream of seizing the established Kingdom of God.

38:11. And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates.—They shall say that they will go up against Palestine, against the Hebrews living in unwonted peace in a turbulent world.—D. 553.

38:12. To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.—They will seek to plunder their property, to turn their weapons against once desolate Palestine, against the regathered Hebrews, enjoying some measure of prosperity. In like manner the hosts of Satan will seek to seize the restored Kingdom of God, at the close of the 1,000 years.

38:13. Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?—The people surrounding Palestine (D. 556), with their soldiers, will join in the plunder. After the Millennium all classes not in heart harmony with “the camp of the saints,” will seek to capture the Kingdom, to take captive the power of the Little Flock and the Great Company (silver and gold), and the masses of perfect humanity (cattle, etc.).

38:14. Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord God; In that day when My people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?—When God's people, the Hebrews, are living peacefully in Palestine, the fact will be well known by revolutionary Europe and Africa. After the Millennium Satan and his former associates, the apostate clergy of Christendom and the Hebrew Pharisees, bound for a thousand years, and loosed for a short time, will behold the prosperity of restored mankind.

38:15. And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army.—Europe's hosts shall come from the countries north (D. 555) of Palestine with many people, riding on horses, motor cars and railroad trains, a vast and mighty army. And a thousand years later, Satan will appear, permitted to come by the spiritual phase of the Kingdom (the north), with many new, lying doctrines (horses) to deceive the people.

38:16. And thou shalt come up against My people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against My land, that the heathen may know Me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.—The revolutionists will come against the Hebrews in the closing years of the Time of Trouble, just at the outbreak of anarchy (D. 555). This invasion will be permitted by God, that the peoples may know that Jehovah is God, when His mighty power shall perform a dreadful work upon these wicked peoples, raised up and set apart (sanctified) for the enhancing of Divine prestige. It will also be to demonstrate the Divine attributes that the Satanic hosts will be permitted later to conspire against “the camp of the saints.”

38:18. And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord God, that My fury shall come up in My face.—The Divine wrath of furious retribution will be against these classes.

38:19. For in My jealousy and in the fire of My wrath have I spoken, Surely In that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel.—In jealous love for His beloved people and in jealous destructive (fire) wrath against their assailants (D. 527) has God foretold a world-shaking holocaust of the hosts of evil in the land of Palestine, and a thousand years later of the minions of the Devil.

38:20. So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at My presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.—The result will be that the men (fishes, C. 214) not under religious restraint (Z. '86:1), the most execrable of the people of the world (fowls, C. 162), the revolutionary governments (beasts, A. 261), and all the lowest of mankind shall be thrown into revolutionary commotion; and the nations (mountains, A. 318) shall be overthrown in anarchy, together with all the civil powers (walls, D. 40) of the world.

38:21. And I will call for a sword against him throughout all My mountains, saith the Lord God: every man's sword shall be against his brother.—God will do His dreadful work of ending this present evil world, and will call for the universal arming of mankind with destroying weapons, so that every man's weapons will be against every other man.

38:22. And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.—God will fight miraculously against the hosts of evil with pestilence and death, and will overwhelm them with a flood of Truth—with hard facts, to smite their hearts—and with anarchy, destruction, utter and complete. So also will the Almighty deal with the rebels of a thousand years later.

38:23. Thus will I magnify Myself, and sanctify Myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord.—So will God magnify His reputation as the One to be reverenced, and the fame of His power will spread throughout the world.

39:6. And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the Lord.—God will (a, b) send anarchy (fire) among the peoples of the revolutionary republics (isles); and literal miraculous annihilation upon the second uprising of Satan and his deceived followers.

39:7. So will I make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel; and I will not let them pollute My holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel.—Through this miraculous deliverance (a) the Hebrews shall be converted to the Truth, so that they shall never again be a discredit to God's name; and (b, c) all mankind also shall thereby learn fully to know God.

39:8. Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord God; this is the day whereof I have spoken.—It shall surely come; it shall be done; thus shall be the day of the end of evil and the final establishment of right, whereof God has spoken in His Word.

39:9. And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves, and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years.—The regathered Hebrews of Palestine (a) shall be seven years burning and destroying the weapons of war of this evil rabble, (a) The hosts of heaven and of earth (b, c) shall eternally (seven years) recount the lesson of the utter end of Satan's deceptive doctrines, of credulity (shield) of hatred (bows), evil-speaking (arrows) and other evil character-fruits.

39:10. So that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests; for they shall burn the weapons with fire: and they shall spoil those that spoiled them, and rob those that robbed them, saith the Lord God.—So numerous will be the weapons of war (a) of those Divinely vanquished armies that the Hebrews will need no other firewood, but will burn the weapons. They shall plunder those that plunder them. The innumerable sophistries (b, c) by which Satan's legions shall seek to grasp the Kingdom power, and their miraculous overthrow, shall forever furnish lessons to help the inheritors of the Kingdom.

39:12. And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land.—For seven months (a) the Hebrews shall be burying the crusaders, that they may cleanse the land defiled by the dead. And then, and after the Millennium (b, c), for many years shall the spiritual members of the Kingdom be neutralizing the sophistries of Satan, that they may thoroughly cleanse the Kingdom of its spiritual defilement.

39:13. Yea, all the people of the land shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown the day that I shall be glorified, saith the Lord God.—Yea (a) all the nations shall bury the dead; and the day of pride's (Gog's) overthrow shall be a celebrated day among them. All the people of the Kingdom (b, c) shall loyally assist in cleansing their beloved Kingdom of the spiritual defilement. It will always be a day to be remembered.—Mal. 4:1.

39:14. And they shall sever out men of continual employment, passing through the land, to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search.—After the seven months (a) men shall be hired regularly to search through the land, in cooperation with any travelers, for any dead remaining on the earth, to thoroughly cleanse the land. And then, and after the thousand years (b, c) spiritual teachers shall be detailed to remove any remaining spiritual defilement, by teaching the Truth.

39:15. And the passengers that pass through the land, when any seeth a man's bone, then shall he set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamon-gog.—Any travelers (a) passing by, that see even a human bone, shall mark it for the buriers to bury in the Valley of Pride's Multitude. And then, and a thousand years later (b, c) any one noticing any vestige of death-dealing error shall mark it for the special teachers to cleanse away with truth.

39:17. And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord God; Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to My sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood.—God says: (a) When the proud revolutionists shall set themselves in array against His people, to call to the most execrable of men (fowls) and to the revolutionary rulers (beasts); Come to the great destruction of hosts of rebellious humanity, where you, in anarchy, shall destroy these people; symbolically (b, c) a call to the far-sighted spiritual ones (eagles) and the believing ones of earth (beasts—members of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah) to gather themselves to feast upon, to destroy with the weapons of Divine Truth, the evil doctrines (flesh, as the flesh of Jesus symbolizes true doctrines) and the corrupting errors (blood) of Satan.

39:18. Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan.—They shall (b, c) consume the sophistries of Satan (the mighty), and annihilate the errors of earth's great false teachers and rulers—New Thought doctrines of devils relating to the attainment of perfection, to whatever kind and degree desired—to be as mature leaders (rams), among the sheep, as tender-charactered lambs, as self-willed, self-masters through thought-power (goats), or as perfect human beings (bullocks), all imagining themselves actually, fully developed (fatlings), under the delusions of Satan's fruitful mind (Bashan, fruitful).

39:19. And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of My sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.—They shall (b, c) with the Truth consume and destroy these false philosophies, until satiated with the glorious witness for God's Truth.

39:20. Thus ye shall be filled at My table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord God.—Thus (b, c) at God's table of spiritual food, His people shall have an abundant feeding upon the truths which shall destroy the errors of the Time of Trouble, the doctrines and the organizations actuated by these doctrines and the rulers, philosophies, teachers and workers in the cause of evil.

39:21. And I will set My glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see My judgment that I have executed, and My hand that I have laid upon them.—God will (a, b, c) make Himself renowned among all nations; and they shall realize that He shall have executed judgment upon them, and that it is His hand of Justice that has been laid upon them for their misdeeds.

39:22. So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day and forward.—Thus shall (a) the Hebrews and (b, c) all professing Christians know Jehovah as their God, from that time on forever.

39:23. And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity: because they trespassed against Me, therefore hid I My face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies; so fell they all by the sword.—The whole world shall know that the Hebrews (a) went into captivity to literal Babylon and to Mystic Babylon, and that the unfaithful professing Christians went into captivity (b) to Mystic Babylon and (c) to Satan's deceptions, because they sinned against God. For this reason He disfavored them and gave them over into the power of their enemies. So shall they fall, by literal weapons of destruction and (b, c) be slain by the Sword of the Spirit.

39:24. According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I done unto them, and hid My face from them.—According to their physical, mental, moral and spiritual pollution, and to their sinfulness, God will recompense and disfavor them.

39:25. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for My holy name.—Then when the punishment is over (D. 557), will God (a) release the Hebrews (A. 300) from their captivity in Mystic Babylon and in the tomb, and antitypically that of Christendom. He will show His mercy and love toward all the Hebrews, living and dead (D. 557), and (b, c), toward all of Christendom, the quick and the dead, and will vindicate His reputation for righteousness.

39:26. After that they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against Me, when they dwelt safely in their land, and none made them afraid.—After they (a) have thus (D. 558) endured their shame and the punishment for all their sins, wherein they have erred against the Lord, while the Jews were peacefully dwelling in Palestine (b, c) and the professing Christians in Christendom, and while no one made them afraid, the sure results shall follow.

39:27. When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies' lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations.—In Zionism (a) God shall regather the Jews and (b, c) bring Jews and Christians alike back from the great enemy, death, and by their holy, consecrated lives, He will be hallowed in the regard of the whole world.

39:28. Then shall they know that I am the Lord their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there.—Then shall they in humble thankfulness appreciate that God is the beloved Jehovah, the Just One, who shall have punished them with captivity among the nations, and then in infinite Wisdom, Power and Love shall have gathered all of them, living and dead, (a) back to their former homes in Palestine (b, c) and in Christendom, and shall have left not one in captivity any more.

39:29. Neither will I hide My face any more from them: for I have poured out My Spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God.—God will not disfavor them any more: for He will pour out upon them (a) Jews and (b, c) Christians together, His Holy Spirit, the Comforter, to abide in them forever.