33:21. And it came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, in the fifth day of the month, that one that had escaped out of Jerusalem came unto me, saying, The city is smitten.—In 24:25-27, after having cited the skepticism of the Jews as to Ezekiel's message, it was stated that from the time of Jerusalem's fall until the tidings of the fall should arrive, Ezekiel was to be dumb, having no new message to be heard by the people. The intervening prophecies, chapters 26 to 32 are not against the Hebrews, but against the heathen nations. The city fell in the eleventh year of Zedekiah's reign, the fourth month, the ninth day (2 Kings 25:2, 3), from which to the coming of the tidings of the city's fall, on the twelfth year, tenth month and fifth day, was one year, five months, twenty-six days. On that momentous day came the tidings, “The city is smitten!” Pastor Russell's voice was stilled in death on October 31, 1916. If an application of Ezekiel's period of dumbness is valid here as a time feature, the tidings, the realization that Christendom is smitten by the onslaughts of revolution, might be expected to flash throughout the world on or about April 27, 1918, a year, five months and twenty-six days after the death of God's great watchman. As in Ezekiel 24:27, this would be a sign, an indication to Christendom of the truth of Pastor Russell's commission from the Almighty.
33:22. Now the hand of the Lord was upon me in the evening, afore he that was escaped came; and had opened my mouth, until he came to me in the morning; and my mouth was opened, and I was no more dumb.—The Lord made good His promise while the news was approaching; and removed Ezekiel's dumbness half a day before, in the evening, before the morning when the tidings arrived. It was on the same day; for in the Hebrew system of time, the evening began the day. This signifies that perhaps half a year prior to the general realization of Christendom's downfall, Pastor Russell, though dead, shall again speak through this, the seventh volume of his Studies in the Scriptures—for this is but the completion of his great work of admonition and warning for the Church and for Christendom.
33:23, 24. Then the Word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, they that inhabit those wastes of the land of Israel speak, saying Abraham was one, and he [pg 531]inherited the land: but we are many; the land is given us for inheritance.—After Jerusalem had been sacked and King Zedekiah captured, as related in 2 Kings 25, “the captain of the guard left of the poor of the land to be vine-dressers and husbandmen.” These (“those inhabiting those wastes of the land of Israel”) imagined that “the land is given to us for an inheritance.” They thought they would be left in undisturbed possession, but certain of them came into further conflict with the Assyrians. Then the land was made utterly desolate. This signifies, in fulfillment, that while the revolution overthrowing ecclesiasticism will make quite a clean sweep, there will still remain some of the more lowly adherents of ecclesiastical systems, who will imagine that they and their ideals are to prosper and spread even to the control of the revolutionary order of things.
33:25, 26. Wherefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Ye eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes toward your idols, and shed blood; and shall ye possess the land? Ye stand upon your sword, ye work abomination, and ye defile every one his neighbor's wife; and shall ye possess the land?—But God knows their hearts, and is against them, for their continuance in the evil ways of ecclesiasticism.
33:27. Say thou thus unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; As I live, surely they that are in the wastes shall fall by the sword, and him that is in the open field will I give to the beasts to be devoured, and they that be in the forts and in the caves shall die of the pestilence.—A sad awakening awaits them. As Jehovah lives, those tares then surviving the ravages of revolution shall be slain by the sword of anarchy, and shall have taken away all pretense of being Christians. Those that have the spirit of earthly ambition shall be given to be destroyed by the savagery of anarchy; and those in the strongholds and in the protected conditions of revolution shall die literally of pestilence and be destroyed religiously by the pestilential teachings of those evil days.
33:28. For I will lay the land most desolate, and the pomp of her strength shall cease; and, the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, that none shall pass through.—God purposes to utterly desolate this evil order of things and to completely abase the last vestiges of its pride and pomp, and to cause the governments of this Age, even in their changed forms of revolution, to pass away.
33:29. Then shall they know that I am the Lord, when I have laid the land most desolate, because of all their abominations which they have committed.—Then at last [pg 532] the people that remain will realize that the war, revolution and anarchy, were the righteous judgments of the Almighty against the spiritual, political and economic abominations of Christendom.
33:30. Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the Word that cometh forth from the Lord.—Reverting to the present time, about contemporary with the realisation that Christendom is smitten, the hypocrisy of professed Christians is spoken against. The tares in their churches (houses) will talk of Pastor Russell and his works and words—they will read this book, and will urge one another to “hear what is the Word that cometh from the Lord.”
33:31. And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as My people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them; for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.—They will come in numbers, apparently “as My people;” and like all tares, imitation Christians, they will listen respectfully to God's Words urging haste in consecration for the coming Kingdom; but they will not do the things they hear. They will manifest with their mouths great love for God, but will at heart be the self-seekers they always were!
33:32. And lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not.—To these people, in their insincerity and hypocrisy, Pastor Russell's works will be scarcely a grade higher than an entertainment, a beautiful song, “the song of Moses and the Lamb,” well played on the many-stringed harp, the Bible, but not heeded as of solemn import.