Reading those words, it at once became apparent to me that Nehemiah’s assessment of the Israelite’s waywardness, perfectly encapsulated our sorry state of affairs at this very moment in time. I could immediately envision rewriting Nehemiah’s sage pronouncement in this way:
‘So here we are today—a new technologically superior generation of man—but slaves!….yes, slaves upon this awesome green earth that you, Jehovah, gave to our forefathers to eat its fruitage and its good things. But what is it we have reaped instead? The earth’s abundant produce has been co-opted by those we derisively call PTB—‘The Powers that Be’—leaders you have allowed to be over us because of our sins. They rule over our bodies and our livelihoods as they see fit, and yes, we are in great distress!’
In that instance recorded for us in the Bible, the people who listened and heard Nehemiah were moved to repent to a forgiving God and recommit themselves to him, and after recommitting themselves to Jehovah in writing, they gained His favor in their restoring the Temple and pure worship to Him.
Yet is it not true that those of mankind who are not ‘listening’ or ‘hearing’ the warning admonishment of Jehovah God’s ‘witnesses’, are now reaping the same unremitting windstorm of great distress?
According to the Bible record, we know that some 400 years after Nehemiah’s time, the Judeans and Israelite’s turn-away from Jehovah was so prevalent that they were destined for both the destruction of their restored (later again desecrated) Temple—‘no stone left upon a stone’—and themselves as a nation. That prophecy came to fulfillment in 70AD, when the Roman Empire besieged and destroyed for the final time, their great Temple in Jerusalem. Their Era had come….and gone.
Likewise, the end of our era is near.
continue to pt3