"To the ShrewMice and the Bats"

How will idol worshipers view their idols during Jehovah's great day?  Isaiah answers:  "People will enter into the caves of the rocks and into the holes of the dust because o the dreadfulness of Jehovah and from his splendid superiority, when he rises up for the earth to suffer shocks.  In that day  the earthling man will throw his worthless gods of  silver and his valueless gods of gold . . .to the shrewmice and to the bats, in order  to enter into the holes in the rocks and into the clefts of the crags, because of the dreadfulness of Jehovah and from his splendid superiority, when he rises up for the earth to suffer shocks.  For your own sakes, hold off from the earthling man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for on what basis is he himself to be taken into account?" -Isaiah 2:19-22.

Shrewmice live in holes in the ground, and bats roost in dark and desolate caves.  Moreover, where a large number of bats roost in one place, there is a repulsive smell and a buildup of thick layers of droppings. Casting idols into such places is fitting.  A place of darkness and uncleanness is all that they deserve. As for the people, they will seek refuge in caves and clefts in the rock on the day of Jehovah's judgment.  So the fate of the idols and their worshipers will be the same.  True to Isaiah's prophecy, lifeless idols saved neither their worshipers nor Jerusalem from Nebuchadnezzar's hands in 607 B.C.E.

During the coming day of Jehovah's judgment upon Christendom and other segments of the world empire of false religion, what will people do?  Faced with deteriorating conditions earth wide, most will likely come to realize that their idols are valueless.  In place of these, they may well seek refuge and protection in nonspiritual, earthly organizations, perhaps including the United Nations, the "scarlet-colored wild beast" of Revelation chapter 17.  It is "the ten horns" of that symbolic wild beast that will destroy Babylon the Great, the world empire of false religion, of which Christendom is a significant part. -Revelation 17: 3, 8-12, 16, 17.

Although the devastating and burning of Babylon the Great may be the direct work of those symbolic ten horns, it is, in fact, the execution of Jehovah's judgment.  Concerning Babylon the Great, Revelation 18:8 states: "That is why in one day her plagues will come, death and mourning and famine, and she will be completely burned with fire, because Jehovah God, who judged her, is strong."  So to Jehovah God, the Almighty, goes the credit for liberating mankind from domination by false religion. As Isaiah states, "Jehovah alone must be put on high in that day.  For it is the day belonging to Jehovah of armies." -Isaiah 2:11b, 12a.

Next time: 'Leaders Are Causing You to Wander'

From the Book Isaiah's Prophecy Light for all Mankind