(12) Hosea prophesied food in abundance for the beasts of the field and the fowls of heaven with the creeping things of the ground; and that the Lord will break the bow and sword and the battle out of the earth, and make all to lie down safely; and that it shall come to pass in that Day that Jehovah will hear the new powers of spiritual control and they shall hear the cries of men (Hos. 2:18, 21); that the people shall fear the goodness of the Lord in the latter days (Hos. 3:5); that after the fifth and sixth thousand-year Days are past the people will be raised up and live in the Lord's sight (Hos. 6:2); and He will ransom them from hell and redeem them from death, and destroy hell altogether.—Hos. 13:14.
(13) Joel prophesied that the Lord will cause the pastures to spring, the tree to bear her fruit and the fig tree and the vine to yield their strength, and whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered.—Joel 2:22, 32.
(14) Amos was the next one of the holy Prophets; and we have an inspired comment on one of his prophecies by the Apostle James in Acts 15:14-18. James says, “Simeon [St Peter] hath declared how God at the first [in the conversion of Cornelius] did visit the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name [the Bride of Christ]. And to this agree the words of the Prophets [Amos 9:11, 12]; as it is written, After this [after the Bride of Christ has been selected], I will return and will build again the tabernacle [the house, royalty or dominion] of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up [re-establish the Kingdom of God on earth]; that the residue of men [all the rest of the world of mankind] might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom My name is called, saith the Lord who doeth all these things. Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world.”
(15) Obadiah was the next one of the holy Prophets; and in the last verse of his short prophecy he says, “And saviors [it is in the plural and refers not only to Jesus the Head, but to the Church, the members of His Body] shall come up on Mount Zion [come up into the Heavenly phase of the Kingdom], and shall judge the mount of Esau” [judge the world]. “Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world?”
(16) Jonah was the next one of the holy Prophets; and in the fourth chapter we have an interesting picture of events now transpiring before our eyes. Jonah walked into the city of Nineveh and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” The prophecy was fulfilled in forty literal years. But when Jonah saw that things were not coming out as he expected, he was very angry and said to the Lord, “That is just what I might have expected; for I knew that Thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; and I said so before I left my own country.” Jonah went out, sat in the hot sun on the outside of the city, and began to sulk. The Lord took pity on him and caused a gourd to grow up over him, to shelter him from the hot rays of the sun. And Jonah was exceeding glad because of the gourd. Then the Lord prepared a worm to smite the gourd; and a strong east wind blew up and the gourd withered. Jonah's shade was gone, and he was angrier than ever. The Lord said, “Doest thou well to be angry?” and he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, even unto death.” Then the Lord said, “Jonah, thou hast had pity on the gourd that sprung up in a night and perished in a night; and should not I spare Nineveh, that great city wherein are more than six score thousand [pg 092] persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand?”
We live in a day when a class have been preaching that the world is to be destroyed; and, like Jonah, they have not properly understood their message. The kind of world that is to be destroyed is Satan's world, Satan's empire, arrangement, or order of things—not our literal earth. The word world does not always refer to our literal earth. For instance, when the Apostle James says, “The tongue is a world of iniquity,” he does not mean that we have inside our jaws a little planet that turns over every twenty-four hours, that has spring, summer, fall, winter, snowstorms, rainstorms, and a moon revolving about it, with once in a while a comet and a shower of meteors thrown in for good measure. When they think about the Panama Canal, and the wonderful works of irrigation which are causing the desert to rejoice and blossom as the rose, and all the other wonderful achievements of our day, these people are beginning to see that they have made a mistake and are now about where Jonah was when he said, “That is what I might have expected, for I know that Thou art a just God, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.” They are now outside the city, and the scorching light of Present Truth is pretty hot. Meantime the church trust is growing up to keep off the heat. We are not to have anything to do with this church federation. “Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy.” “Take counsel together, and it shall come to naught; speak the word and it shall not stand; for God is with us.” (Isa. 8:10, 12.) Pretty soon something will happen to the church trust, and their shade will be gone. Then the Lord will say to them, “Oh, you need not feel so badly! You are not the first people that ever made a mistake. You have made lots of them, to be sure. You have had pity on the church trust which grew up in one year and blew up in another year; and should not I spare the poor world, that as far as their knowledge of right and wrong is concerned do not know the difference between their right hand and their left hand?”
(17) Micah has written of the coming of the Kingdom of God in the earth, accompanied by the rebuking of strong nations afar off; that then they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks; that nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree [not the landlord's]; and none [be they doctors, landlords, employers, sheriffs, or undertakers] shall make them afraid; that all people [pg 093] will walk in the name of our God, and that the first dominion [lost by Adam in Eden] will be restored to Christ, the Tower of the Flock.—Micah 4:1-5, 8.
(18) Nahum was the next one of the holy Prophets; and after prophesying in the last verse of the preceding chapter about the coming of the King with His good tidings of peace to the sin-burdened earth, he next tells (Nahum 2:3-6) of an interesting thing that will be a matter of common everyday experience at the time the Kingdom is established. He describes a railway train in motion [not an automobile, as some think], and if we will be at the trouble to put ourselves in the Prophet's place we can see just what he saw in his vision and what he has so interestingly described. First, the Prophet stands looking at the engine coming toward him, and then says, “The shield [the thing ahead of this great warrior—the headlight] is made red [shines brilliantly], the valiant men [the engineer and the fireman] are dyed scarlet [when the flames from the firebox illuminate the interior of the cab at night, as the fireman opens the firedoor to throw in the coal]. The chariots [the railway coaches] shall be with [shall be preceded by locomotives that, at night, have the appearance of] flaming torches, in the Day of Preparation.”
Next the Prophet takes his place in the train and looks out of the window, and, seemingly, “The fir trees shall be terribly shaken [the telegraph poles alongside the track seem to be fairly dancing]. The chariots shall rage in the streets (19) Habakkuk was the next one of the holy Prophets, and in Hab. 2:14 he says, “The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” In places, the water in the Pacific Ocean is seven miles deep. Imagine a condition in which the knowledge of the glory of God is like that in the earth! It will be as impossible for a man not to know about God as it would be for one to be down at the bottom of the ocean without getting wet.