FOR SO long has wickedness ruled in the earth, and to such greatness of organized power and strength has it attained now, that oppressed men without true knowledge cannot see how there could be a change for righteousness. They give up in despair. Those with knowledge of God's promise and with love for his Theocracy know for a certainty that that terrifying growth of wickedness and violence in this generation is a proof that the utter end thereof is near and the change for glorious new conditions is at hand. The suddenness thereof shall be "strange" and surprising to the wicked, but delightful to lovers of
The Theocracy. "When the wicked spring as the grass, arid when all the workers of iniquity do flourish, it is that they shall be destroyed for ever: but thou, LORD, art most high for evermore. For, lo, thine enemies, O LORD, for, lo, thine enemies shall perish: all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered. But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil." (Psalm 92:7-10) Faithful Job of old had confidence in and hope of such a change.
21 Self-righteous Zophar, conscious of his own physical and material well-being, had finished with his argument that "the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite [the godless] but for a moment" during "this present evil world". (20:5) Job, striving hard to retain his integrity, denies this by calling the attention of Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar to his own present state and then asking: "Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?" They increase in riches and become choked with the cares of this life, and forget God. "Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways." (21:7-14) Hence those who have a sound mind and who want to be always mindful of and dependent upon God pray to Him: "Remove far from me vanity and lies; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me; lest I be full, and deny thee, and say,
Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain." — Proverbs 30: 8, 9; Exodus 20: 7.
To this day the candle or lamp burns brightly in the dwellings of wickedness. Job's three persecutors argue that it is quickly snuffed out, but Job questions the truth of their argument, saying, "How oft is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out? that their calamity cometh upon them? that God distributeth sorrows in his anger?" (21:17, Am. Rev, Ver.) During the time of uninterrupted rule of Satan the wealthy, prosperous and powerful wicked ones, surrounded by many heirs, have died much the same as those embittered by disappointment in this life. However, at the ending of Satan's uninterrupted rule and at the beginning of the "time of the end" and at the judgment of the nations with Armageddon just ahead as the climax, then first the Supreme and Almighty Power deals with ALL the wicked. Hence Job puts the question: "Do ye not know their tokens, that the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction? they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath." (21:29, 30) In this hope there is comfort, but in religion's answers to questions "there remaineth falsehood". — 21: 34.
22 The venom, bitterness and maliciousness of Job's three fraudulent "friends" increase with the argumentation, their third set of accusations being the harshest and sharpest.
This plainly bespeaks that the persecutions of Jehovah's faithful ones by the demons and their human agents shall increase in severity the nearer the world gets to the battle of Armageddon. 'What do YOU mean to God?' says Eliphaz to Job, in effect. That is to say, Is God's vindication bound up with whether you are faithful or wicked? (22:2-4) Eliphaz' evil suspicions of Job now harden into conviction and he comes to believe his own lies, as he asks: "Is not thy wickedness great?" (22:5) He becomes an outright slanderer and draws a lying picture about Job's private life in support of his charges as to the cause of Job's sufferings. According to Eliphaz, Job in his wicked practices was saying, 'Is there a God to see and know that I am wicked and to punish me for it?' (22:6-17) As Christ Jesus was hung between two thieves for public effect, so religionists classify Jehovah's witnesses with the wicked, and in their newspapers they imbed lying reports about the witnesses right in between news about actual criminals, to create a bad impression about God's faithful ones. "Holier-than-thou" Eliphaz then uses "good words and fair speeches" in a final attempt to convert Job to religion, saying: 'Get acquainted with religion and you will get along peaceably with the world and also prosper in the world, in answer to your selfish prayers and purposes.' — 22: 21-30.
23 Struck with such a heavy blow of outrageous libel delivered with such bitterness by a professed "friend", Job entered protest or "complaint". (23:2) Seeing it impossible to get justice from religionists, Job expressed longing to know where in this world he could find that which represented the Lord God or possessed the Lord's spirit that he might there plead his case with assurance of a fair, unbiased hearing. Such place is not to be found, not even in the seat of religion in "Christendom"; whether you go back and forth, look on the right hand or the left, you will not perceive it. (23: 3-9) The years of hard experience of Jehovah's witnesses show that; and it will be more so the case when the demons shall have driven all of "Christendom" into a federated and totalitarian unity against The Theocracy.
In 1918 Jehovah the Supreme Judge sent his Messenger and Deputy to the temple for judgment of the "house of God". (Malachi 3:1) The longing which his remnant and their companions do not find fulfilled in the ecclesiastical, military and law courts of "Christendom" they find satisfied only at the temple where Jehovah's Judge Christ Jesus presides and judges righteously according to truth. "But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined. Neither have I gone back from the com-
mandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food." (23:10-12) They have been willing to suffer hunger in order to do the witness work the Lord commands; and to the opposing worldly officials they have said: "We ought to obey God rather than men." (Acts 5: 29; 4:19, 20) The great Judge is present, and the Job class know the Lord minds one thing as of all importance and is using them to perform his appointed work for them. (23:13,14) Therefore they are anxious, fearing to displease him, knowing that the Lord did not permit them to be cut off in death just that they might serve for the vindication of his name while the powers of darkness rule.
24 Job's next question raised is very pertinent in this late day when religious-totalitarian aggression increases against the law-abiding and the peaceful. The question is: Since Almighty God does not hide from himself the appointed times for action and knows the exact time for the Armageddon battle to begin, wherefore do not those like Job who know Jehovah God see before NOW the days of the execution of His vengeance upon the wicked and the stoppage of their demoniacal works? The religious-totalitarian "king of the north" crowd continue to "remove the landmarks" by invading the countries without warning and assaulting the long-established institutions of human
freedoms. They drive out millions of people and make them refugees wandering unfed, ill-clothed, unhoused, and grab up all the products of their hard labor to satisfy totalitarian greed and covetousness. And the great religious head at Vatican City, who claims to stand on earth in the place of God, refuses to protest and "layeth not folly to them". (24:1-12) Instead, the totalitarian-spirited Hierarchy act as a "fifth column". They send mobs and other dupes and allies to invade the rights, liberties and peaceful assemblies of Jehovah's witnesses who expose totalitarian rule. They try to drive them out publicly like brute beasts and to snatch away the fruits of their hard labors in spreading the light of the Kingdom gospel.
The doers of such misdeeds are "of those that rebel against the light" and refuse to know the way of truth. (24:13) Many of Jehovah's witnesses they have killed, and against all such they show the hate which is the spirit of the murderer. Those religious committers of adultery with the world dread the light of investigation and of open discussion and disguise themselves with sanctimonious skirts, long robes and crucifixes. They mark those who seek the truth and violate their homes to break up their Bible studies and thus try to steal away their faith, love and contributions from Jehovah God and to monopolize it for themselves. Now the swift waters of truth are overflowing
their hiding-place, or refuge of lies. God's message of his vengeance as proclaimed by his witnesses declares God's curse upon those willful sinners, and Sheol ("the grave") awaits them at the latest at Armageddon. The remembrance of them shall perish. (24:14, 20) While the wicked rise up in power against the mighty democratic and other institutions, "no man is sure of [his] life." (24: 22) But only "for a little while" shall they enjoy their self-exaltation, and then they shall be cut down like the heads of wheat with the sweeping sharp sickle of destruction at Armageddon. Therefore Jehovah's witnesses ask: "And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth?" (24:24,25) The official censoring and suppressing of the message and declaring it illegal will not prove the message of God's kingdom and of his vengeance a worthless lie.
25 With political phrase Bildad the Shuhite makes the final verbal attack on Job's integrity, being spurred on by his religious ally Eliphaz. These think they are doing God a service by persecuting Job and charging up the Devil's crimes to Jehovah God and to his dominion and armies of heaven. It is true that God knows the weaknesses and uncleanness inherited by man from forefather Adam, but that is not at issue here. Bildad denies Jesus could be born clean, miraculously, though born of an imperfect descendant
of Adam. He denies that man can be justified by faith in God's provision and by devotion to his Theocracy as Bildad's own ancestor, Abraham, was. He denies that man can, by God's grace, keep himself clean from this world and thereby hold on to his integrity toward God. (25:4) Bildad did not have the spirit of a vindicator of God and His cause, and Bildad and his kind never serve for the vindication of God's name. In belittling a man of integrity unto a worm having no bearing on the primary issue Bildad takes his side with the Devil.
"PUTTING ON MORE STEAM"
26 Job always came back at his opposers with a message. He refused to be silenced by fear of men or devils, and this final time he came back with a greater witness than before. Neither does the fear of religionists or of the demons silence Jehovah's witnesses in this day. They endure the persecutions and continue to bear testimony to Jehovah's name and Theocracy as commanded by him and his King, and they continue on the offensive against religion or demonism. Like the religious "goats" of "Christendom" who fail to help the remnant or "least" of Christ's brethren, Bildad had failed to give comfort and strength to a servant of Jehovah God and to stir up his spirit to keep integrity and continue serving God. — 26: 2-4.
Jehovah, however, stirs up those who are weak like dead ones unto life and activity in his service, even though overwhelmed by the waters of the "sea" of humanity alienated from God. (26: 5) Yea, those who still exist in the memory of God he resurrects from "hell" (Sheol; the death condition) unto life, and he knows too those who have gone to destruction undeserving of a resurrection. (26: 6) His power hangs our earthly globe on nothing in space and suspends clouds heavy with water above the earth. Heaven is his throne, and he covers it with clouds to cause darkness before night. (26: 9) This he will do at Armageddon and will there reveal to all creation his power to enforce his universal domination. He will reprove and shake down to destruction Satan's wicked old "heavens" and will garnish or glorify the "new heavens". He will divide and break the power of the "sea" of humanity that upholds Satan's organization and will smite through his proud ones, and will pierce and shatter the "crooked serpent" of Satan's dragon organization, which shall then be in flight. (26:11-13) The thunder of his mighty deeds shall pound into all ears Jehovah's own final testimony that He is God. They SHALL hear!
27 The above parable describing God's "strange act" at the FINAL END Job continued as a final warning to Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar before Job's Vindicator stood
up in the oncoming storm. Although Jehovah had permitted Job's judgment to be taken away by the religionists and his life to be vexed by the demons, yet as long as God permitted him to breathe on earth Job was determined not to justify religion or demonism, nor its practicers. He would not utter its wicked reproaches of God or its deceitful doctrines and traditions. The righteous course he would stick to as marked out by Jehovah God, by witnessing to God's name and promised Government, thereby maintaining his integrity. (27:2-6) This is the unchangeable mind of Jehovah's witnesses today. The enemies of The Theocracy are their enemies, and with these they will make no compromise. — 27: 7.
Let the great religious harlot gain the hoped-for seat atop the "beast" of the coming federation of this world; suddenly and shortly thereafter God's Armageddon "act" will unseat the Hierarchy and take away their life though they cry and call upon God. (27: 8-10) Next thereafter the political and commercial allies and all supporters of the religious organization shall also be destroyed in the world's last and greatest tribulation. World domination by the wicked shall pass violently away, and what they prepared for their own future selfish enjoyment shall become spoil and booty for the just and innocent before God. Armageddon's storm shall hurl the wicked out of their place of power,
and though they fain would flee they shall not escape God's unsparing hand. God's servants shall clap their hands in triumphant joy and shall hiss at the wicked in their overthrow. (27:13-23) Till then they keep on walking in their integrity.
28 Wisdom from above is worth more than all the gold, silver, oil, and other minerals that the nations are fighting for. Man, with his technical skill and machinery, digs mines and puts an end to the darkness in the bowels of the earth in search of precious jewels, coal, and valuable metals. He digs therefor to the roots of the mountains, whither the fowls and beasts have not penetrated. Yet such treasure-hunters never uncover the hid treasures of God's Word, because they do not worship or have the fear of Jehovah God. (28:1-13) All material things of preciousness are not to be compared with true wisdom and understanding. The source thereof is not beneath, but above, with Jehovah God, the Creator of the winds, the rain, the lightning and the thunder. "And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom: and to depart from evil is understanding." (28:28) Nations of "Christendom" are not wise and understanding. They fear the "beast" and evilly oppose Jehovah's Theocracy.
PRAYER FOR THEOCRACY
29 Continuing his parable, Job gives vent to his yearning for his "change" that the reproach upon Jehovah's name might be lifted. The "secret of God" (29:4) with which Job was acquainted was the knowledge of Jehovah's "holy covenant" concerning His Theocracy. "The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant." (Psalm 25:14) In referring back to the days of his prosperity (Job, chapter one) Job is not bragging on his past conduct, but is exposing the false charges (Job 22:5-14). He is offering for the record, for the consideration of the great Judge of Appeal, the true, attested facts of his life as a faithful servant of God. He thus describes the blessings and joys of Theocratic rule.
Job here praying for Theocracy pictures the faithful followers of the Greater Job, Christ Jesus, praying for the restoration of the condition that existed when it was announced on earth, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand," and, "The kingdom of God is in the midst of you." (Matthew 4:17; 10:7; Luke 17:21, A.R.V., margin) That was when Christ Jesus was on earth as the anointed Ruler of the Theocratic Kingdom. Then he delivered the poor from the oppressions of the religious clergy. The apostles like princes in line for the kingdom sat at his feet, and quietly listened to him. The multi-
tudes waited for him and followed him, and "the common people heard him gladly" and the great multitude thereof waved palm branches and hailed him as King as he rode into Jerusalem and proceeded to the temple, the place of anointing kings. (Mark 12: 37; 11:7-11) Now the prayer of the Job class has been answered; The Theocracy was born in 1914; the enthroned King has come to the temple as rightful Ruler of the new world; through the revealed Bible he teaches the faithful remnant in line for the Kingdom; and the multitude of his "other sheep" from among the common people are with swelling voice hailing him as Jehovah's King! He sits Chief, as King of the armies of heaven equipped and ready for the Armageddon fight; and by his faithful remnant and their companions on earth He is the One "that comforteth the mourners". — Job 29:25; Isaiah 61: 2, 3.
30 The Job class, Jehovah's witnesses, are as old as time from Abel onward. The religious sects of "Christendom" are much younger than that, the Roman Catholic Hierarchy thereof being only about 1500 years old. These religionists hold Jehovah's witnesses in derision, but the traditional fathers of their own religious sects are in the Bible spoken of as "dumb dogs" unable to bark out God's straight warning to the wicked, hence not fit to be shepherd dogs of God's flock. (30:1) These religionists and
their so-called "fathers" suffered and do still suffer from spiritual "want and famine" because rejecting God's Word as proclaimed by his witnesses, and continue hunting around in the worldly wilderness and dwelling in the earthly organizations. (30:2-8) They treat Jehovah's witnesses like Job, who testifies that he was mobbed, spit upon, tripped in walking, the religionists then stirring up the youth element to do the dirty work and treating Job like mire, dust and ashes. (30: 9-19) They presume upon God's permission of them to do this and show themselves up as "goats", servants of Satan, but it is a test of the integrity of God's servants. Jehovah's witnesses know he will try them even to the point of being "faithful unto death": "For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living." (30: 23) They themselves comfort all that mourn, yet are given no help and comfort by the religionists, and are left to cry in protest like mournful dragons (jackals) and owls, blackened by persecution. — 30:25-31.
31 Job was not a natural Israelite, but he had consecrated himself to Jehovah God, to look steadfastly forward to the coming Theocracy and to be blind to all else. "A covenant I solemnised for mine eyes; how then could I gaze upon a virgin?" (31:1, Rotherham) As foretold at Isaiah 42:19: "Who is blind, but my servant?" Jehovah's servant
has no desire to commit spiritual adultery or uncleanness with this world and its religion, politics and commerce, no matter how pure such may be whitewashed to appear: "If mine heart have been deceived by a woman; or if I have laid wait at my neighbour's door." (31: 9) God's servant class know of his judgment directed to those who touch the unclean organization: "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." (James 4:4) The servant class know that God sees their ways and counts all their steps, and therefore they walk circumspectly before him and humbly with him and anxiously strive to keep in the way of integrity so as to be "blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ". (1 Corinthians 1:8) They know that they too are in a covenant with the Lord God, and that if they break covenant with him by taking their eyes off his Theocracy and committing wickedness and lawlessness with the workers of iniquity it shall mean their destruction, together with Satan's organization, his "woman".
Jehovah's witnesses, the Job class, are ever mindful that they must meet his divine requirements if they would gain everlasting life: "For destruction from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his highness I could not endure [if refusing or failing to
meet his requirement]." (Job 31:23) Job was not unaware that if he broke his covenant and spoiled his integrity it would bring upon him due punishment and retribution from God; but if he were such a wicked sinner, then he would be willing to undergo the suffering therefor without objection, realizing he deserved it.
Out of a clean conscience Job did meet the divine requirements and keep covenant in all integrity. He did not commit adultery with the world. (31: 9,10) He was humble and merciful, even to "strangers", and was no dictatorial boss. (31:13-15) He was generous and helpful in use of the provisions God gave him, including the testimony concerning the coming Theocracy. (31:16-22) He was not covetous nor a lover of money, selfish gain, nor priding himself therein. (31:24,25) He did not worship animate or inanimate creatures instead of the Creator, and did not move his arm and hand in salute to any creation: " If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness, and my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand: this also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above." (31:26-28) Job was not malicious nor sadistic. (31:29,30) He was hospitable, also to strangers calling in the neighborhood. (31: 31,32) He was not a hypocrite sinner like Adam. (31:33) He did not fear crea-
tures and become frightened off from going forth with God's message in his service. (31: 34) He did not grab the lands of others or exploit the workers and keep them back from their due. (31:38,39) The Job class today meet Jehovah's like requirements.
Let now the adversary write a book, or "indictment". The Job class would consider it an honor to bear its reproaches for Jehovah's sake. (Job 31: 35-37; 1 Peter 4:14-16) Trusting Him for vindication, Job concludes: "The words of Job are ended." (31:40) Thereafter he speaks with and to God, and refrains from arguments with religious "friends".
