View source for Page:Drama-of-vindication-part-III-1939.djvu/7

<noinclude><pagequality level="1" user="" /></noinclude>Marcu 1, 1939 
flood waters of the Jordan river could never over- 
whelm God’s ark of his presence, and, believing 
and knowing this, there they firmly stood while the 
hosts of Israel marched over the bed of the river 
between them and the wall of water. All of the 
Israelites, crossing the Jordan under those condi- 
tions, must exercise full faith in the power of Je- 
hovah God. The Jordan valley, with its waters 
above standing in a great wall, well pictures the 
valley of the shadow of death through which God’s 
covenant people thereafter must pass: “Yea, though 
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death 
{by Satan and his servants], I will fear no evil; 
for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they 
comfort me.’—Ps. 23: 4. 
HIS WITNESSES 
*In the fulfillment of the prophetic drama at 
this point, mark Jehovah’s faithful servants begin- 
ning their march over the bed of the river in anti- 
type, and which began in the year 1922. How truly 
the words of Jehovah apply to them at this point! 
“Fear not; for I have redeemed [delivered] thee. 
I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When 
thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; 
and through the rivers, they shail not overflow thee; 
when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not 
be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. 
For I am the Lord thy God.”—Isa. 43: 1-3. 
In the fulfillment Jehovah was bringing his 
covenant people across the Jordan into the king- 
dom conditions, there to be his witnesses and to 
declare his name and his kingdom before Arma- 
geddon; and to them he further says: “Ye are my 
witnesses, saith the Lorp, and my servant, whom I 
have chosen; that ye may know and believe me, 
and understand that I am he; before me there was 
no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, 
even J, am the Lord; and beside me there is no 
saviour. I have declared, and have saved, and I have 
shewed, when there was no strange god among you; 
therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the Lorp, that 
I am God.”—-Isa. 43: 10-12. 
21The miraculous deliverance of the Israelites 
from the flood waters of the Jordan made a name 
for Jehovah, and to them his name therefore was 
famous. Likewise the bringing of his “faithful serv- 
ant” class across the antitypical Jordan into the 
kingdom conditions, and anointing them as his wit- 
nesses, made famous the name of Jehovah amongst 
those who believe on him. To his faithful servants 
he gave a “new name”, as he had promised: “And 
the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all 
kings thy glory; and thou shalt he called by a new 
name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name.” 
(Isa. 62:2) And that name is “Jehovah’s witnesses”. 
She WATCHTOWER, a 
Thus Jehovah does to “make himself an everlast- 
ing name”.—Isa. 63:12. 
2 It appears that practically the entire day wax 
occupied in taking the multitude of Israelites across 
the river; as it is written: “And all the Israelites 
passed over on dry ground, until all the people were 
passed clean over [the] Jordan.” That would include 
the “mixed multitude” (Exod. 12: 37, 38), all of which 
God took over or across the Jordan, before sundown, 
on the tenth day of Nisan. In the fulfillment of this 
part of the prophetic picture that “day” covered a 
much longer period of time. That period of time in 
the fulfillment began in 1922 and continued until the 
end of the year 1931 inclusive, by which time all 
the faithful servants of the Lord, that is, the “labor- 
ers” in the Lord’s “vineyard”, had been brought into 
the service among the people (pictured by the Jor- 
dan waters), and these servants were there paid the 
“penny” by receiving at the hands of the Lord the 
“new name”. (Matt. 20: 1-16; Isa. 62:2) Experienc- 
ing the miraculous protection of Jehovah in bring- 
ing them through the waters alive, they were then 
Jehovah’s witnesses and to them Jehovah said, and 
still says: “Ye are my witnesses ... that I am God.” 
From that time on they must fulfill their commis- 
sion by bearing testimony to others of and concern- 
ing Jehovah, his name, his purpose, his King, and 
his kingdom. 
**'The “mixed multitude” had been marching with 
the Israelites, which included the Midianites, Moses’ 
father-in-law and others. (Num. 10: 29-32; 11:4) 
That “mixed multitude” must have been with the 
Israelites at the Jordan, since it is written that 
‘all the people crossed clean over the Jordan’. The 
“mixed multitude” must have gone over with the 
others, That “mixed multitude” pictured those who 
compose the “great multitude”, which began to be 
made known first in 1931. It was in that year at the 
London convention, and at the Columbus (Ohio) con- 
vention the same year, that the Lord caused his 
people of good will to be identified as those de- 
scribed in the ninth chapter of Ezekiel as the ones 
who must be marked in the forehead that they might 
be spared at Armageddon, which marking the rem- 
nant must do. This seems clearly to indicate, as to 
the fulfillment, that the remnant of spiritual Isracl 
had by the latter part of 1931 gotten clear and safely 
over Jordan by proving themselves faithful to Jeho- 
vah up to that point, and this they did by their faith- 
ful, true and zealous service of the King and king- 
dom. The sign of their approval was the revelation 
to thei of the “new name”, that is, the paying of 
the “penny” which Jehovah had given them. (See 
The Watchtower 1931, page 279.) All of such now, 
who had passed over the antitypical Jordan, must 
be witnesses to the name of Jehovah. 
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