36 She WATCHTOWER.
Christ, engaged in the work of vindicating Jehovah’s
name and in which work he associates with himself
his faithful followers on the earth. The death of
Moses and the transfer of authority to Joshua pic-
tures the transition period from the “Elijah work”
of the Lord to the “Elisha work” of the church un-
der the direction of its Head, Christ Jesus. Joshua
had been the ‘minister of Moses’, just as, thereafter,
Elisha was minister to Elijah. (Ex. 24:13) Before
his death Moses, at God’s command, had invested
Joshua with authority as his successor to lead the
Israelites into the promised land. (Num. 27: 12-23;
Deut. 31:14) Likewise Elijah, in obedience to God’s
command, designated Elisha as his successor. (1 Ki.
19: 13-21) The name Moses means “drawing” or “res-
cued”, as he was rescued from the waters of the Nile,
and the suggestion is also that of God ‘taking out
a people for his name’ during the period of time
from A.D. 1878 to 1918. The death of Moses was due
to his disobedience of God. (Num. 20: 7-12, 24) This
pictured the death of the Filijah work, which work
came to an end because of the ‘lawlessness of lip’ of
Jehovah’s servant class on the earth and fleeing for
fear, as Elijah fled from before Jezebel. (Isa. 6: 5, 7;
1 Ki. 19: 1-3) The prophetic picture and the physical
facts exactly fit, and therefore we are certain we
have the right understanding.
- Moses died in the last month, that is to say, the
twelfth month of the fortieth and last vear of Israel’s wilderness journey. Israel mourned thirty days from his death, and at the end thereof only three days remained before the host of Israel must cross the river Jordan, which they did on the tenth day of Nisan or tenth day of the new year, that is, the forty- first year after their leaving Egypt. (Deut. 34:7, 8; Josh. 1:10,11; 4:19) The period of mourning for Moses well pictures the period or duration of time during which the witness work was stopped by the acts of the enemy in the spring of 1918 and when some of the witnesses of the Lord were imprisoned and “appointed to die”. That period of time is there pictured as ‘a half hour of silence in heaven’. (Rev. 8:1) This period or pause was shown in the pro- phetic picture when, after Flijah had been taken away, Elisha returned to the Jordan and stood over on its eastern banks just opposite from Jericho, at the same place where Joshua had crossed the Jordan centuries before.—2 Ki. 2: 4-8, 11-15.
- In fulfillment of the picture the events began
to come to pass in A.D. 1918, Thus it appears that the covenant people at the end of the world (1914) would not cross over their Jordan, nor did they do so, before or during the year 1918. Moses, leading the Israelites, reached Moab on the east side of the Jordan at the end of forty years and came over opposite Jericho, and Moses still lived. So Jehovah’s Brooxuyy, N. Y. covenant people during the Elijah work survived until the end of A.D. 1918, when the Elijah work came to an end. Israel’s victory over Sihon the Amorite and Og, the king of Bashan, was accom- plished before the death of Moses and, of course, before the time of crossing the Jordan; so, while the Elijah work was yet alive and active, the Greater Moses, the Lord Jesus Christ, gained the victory over Satan in a “war in heaven” and cast Satan and his angels to the earth, and this was accomplished between 1914 and 1918. (Rev. 12:1-9) The Devil tried to prevent the Israelites from crossing the Jordan, by causing the unfaithful Balaam to curse Israel and by turning some of the Israelites to the devilish religious practice of Baal-peor. (Numbers, chapters 22 to 25) Satan has made similar efforts against Jehovah’s witnesses to prevent their cross- ing the antitypical Jordan and moving against the modern-day Jericho, and Satan has failed in this.
- At the end of forty years, as it is written, “it
came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua.” At that time a settled place had been assigned to the Israelites by Jehovah, which country was on both sides of the Jordan river, and that part on the east side of the Jordan was already occupied by some of the tribes. Unlike Abraham and other faithful prophets of Israel, who “looked for a city which hath foundations”, having faith in the com- ing kingdom of God under the Messiah, the Israel- ites were now certain of their assigned place, and in their assigned territory pictured the faithful fol- lowers of Christ Jesus who, in 1918, had arrived at the kingdom country represented by Jesus’ com- ing to the temple. (Mal. 3:1-3) The King, Christ Jesus, was enthroned in 1914, and in 1918 appeared at the temple, and the journey of the antitypical Israelites unto the kingdom had come to an end. The time of the fulfillment of the prophetic pic- ture here made is therefore definitely fixed. This, however, we could not see, understand and appre- ciate until after the facts had been performed and came to mind which exactly fit the prophecy and thus show its fulfillment.
- The original name of Joshua was Hoshea or
Oshea. (Deut. 32:44, margin) Moses, as the repre- sentative of the Lord God, had given Joshua a new name, to wit, “Joshua,” which means “Jehovah the Savior”. (Num. 13: 8, 16) That “new name” was given to Joshua at the time Moses sent twelve spies into Canaan. The change of name shows that Joshua would magnify and celebrate the name of Jehovah God. Likewise Jehovah’s people, the faithful follow- ers of Jesus Christ, originally known at times as “Bible Students”, received the “new name”, Jehio- vah’s witnesses, and they must magnify the name of Jehovah God. (Rev. 2:17; Isa. 62:2; 65:15) At
