The Restoration Of Pure Worship

One thing that Jehovah has already restored is pure worship. In order to grasp what this means, let us briefly examine the history of the kingdom of Judah. Doing so will give us thrilling insight into Jehovah's restorative power at work. -Romans 15:4.

Just imagine how faithful Jews felt in 607 B.C.E. when Jerusalem was destroyed. Their beloved city was shattered, its walls torn down. Worse still, the glorious temple that Solomon built, the one center for pure worship of Jehovah in all the earth, was left in ruins. (Psalm 79:1) The survivors were taken into exile in Babylon, leaving their homeland a desolate haunt of wild animals. (Jeremiah 9:11) From a human standpoint, all seemed lost. (Psalm 137:1) But Jehovah, who had long foretold this destruction, provided hope that a time of restoration lay ahead.

In fact, restoration was a recurring theme in the writings of the Hebrew prophets. Through them, Jehovah promised a land restored and repopulated, fertile, protected from wild beasts and enemy attack. He described their restored land as a veritable paradise! (Isaiah 65:25; Ezekiel 34:25; 36:35) Above all, pure worship would be reestablished, and the temple would be rebuilt. (Micah 4:1-5) These prophecies gave the exiled Jews hope, helping them to endure their 70- year captivity in Babylon.

At last, the time of restoration came. Freed from Babylon, the Jews returned to Jerusalem and rebuilt Jehovah's Temple there. (Ezra 1:1, 2) As long as they adhered to pure worship, Jehovah blessed them and made their land fertile and prosperous. He protected them from enemies and from the wild beasts that had overrun their land for decades. How they must have rejoiced in Jehovah's restorative power! But those events represented only an initial, limited fulfillment of the restorative properties. A greater fulfillment was to come "in the final part of the days," our own time, when the long-promised Heir of King David would be enthroned. -Isaiah 2:2-4; 9:6, 7.

Shortly after Jesus was enthroned in the heavenly Kingdom in 1914, he addressed the spiritual needs of God's faithful people on earth. Just as the Persian conqueror Cyrus freed a remnant of of Jews from Babylon in 537 B.C.E., Jesus freed a remnant of spiritual Jews -his own footstep followers -from the influence of a modern-day Babylon, the world empire of false religion. (Romans 2:29; Revelation 18:1-5) From 1919 onward, pure worship has been restored to its proper place in the lives of genuine Christians. (Malachi 3:1-5) Ever since then, Jehovah's people have worshiped him in his spiritual temple -God's arrangement for pure worship. Why is this important to us today?

Next time: Spiritual Restoration - Why It Matters