Two Myriads Of Myriads

How can there be two myriads of myriads of this cavalry? A myriad is literally 10 -200 million. Happily, there are now millions of Kingdom proclaimers, but their number is far short of hundreds of millions! Remember, though, Moses' words at Numbers 10:36: "Do return, O Jehovah, to the myriads of thousands of Israel." (Compare Genesis 24:60) That would mean, literally, 'do return to the tens of millions of Israel.' Israel, however, numbered only about two to three million in Moses' day. What, then, was Moses saying? No doubt he had in mind that the Israelites should be unnumbered as "the stars of the heavens and like the grains of sand that are on the seashore," rather than be counted. (Genesis 22:17; 1Chronicles 27:23) SO he used the word for "myriads" to indicate a large but unspecified number. Thus, The New English Bible renders this verse: "Rest, Lord of the countless thousands of Israel." This agrees with a second definition of the word for "myriad" found in Greek and Hebrew dictionaries: "and innumerable multitude," a "multitude." -The New Thayer's Greek-English Lexion of the New Testament; Gesenius' A Hebrew and English Lexion of the Old Testament, translated by Edward Robinson.

Nevertheless, those of the John class still remaining on earth number fewer than 10,000-less than one literal myriad. How could they be likened to countless thousands of cavalry? To become myriads even in a symbolic sense, would they not need reinforcements? That is what they have needed, and by Jehovah's undeserved kindness, that is what they have received! From where have these come from?

From 1918-1922, the John class began to hold out to distressed humanity the happy prospect that "millions how living will never die." In1923 it was also made known that the sheep of Matthew 25:31-34 would inherit life on earth under God's Kingdom. A similar hope was held out in the booklet Freedom for the Peoples; released at the international convention in 1927. In the early 1930's the upright Jehonadab class and the 'men sighing and groaning' over Christendom's sorry spiritual condition were shown to be identical with the symbolic sheep having earthly life prospects. (Ezekiel 9:4; 2 Kings10:15, 16) Directing such ones to the modern-day "cities of refuge," The Watchtower of August 15, 1934, stated: " Those of the Jonadab class have heard the sound of God's trumpet and have heeded the warning by fleeing to God's organization and associating with God's people, and there they must abide." -Numbers 35:6

In 1935, those of this Jonadab class were specially invited to attend the convention of Jehovah's Witnesses in Washington D.C., U.S.A. There, on Friday, May 31, J.R. Rutherford gave his famous talk "The Great Multitude," in which he clearly showed that this group of Revelation 7:9 (King James Version) was the same as the sheep of Matthew 25:33-a dedicated group with earthly hopes. As a harbinger of things to come, at that convention 840 new Witnesses were baptized, most of them being of the great crowd.

Next time: Continue with the above subject.