[§16] "Signal with a trumpet upon the earth." The lofty word, which rouses the hearer, which prepares him for the war against the passions, for the war against the workings of the adversaries, which prepares him for the heavenly feasts—for it is spoken with reference to both of these—is taken as a trumpet. In Numbers such a word is a trumpet; for instance, the word commands me, and if it is given to anyone else (it is given to the one who wishes and who has sought the meaning of the Scriptures), it commands to make "trumpets of hammered silver." Thus the word says: "Signal with a trumpet upon the earth, and cry aloud; say: Gather together and let us enter into the walled cities." The word of God does not wish us to enter into an unwalled city, but into the church of the living God, walled about by the word of the Lord (for this is the wall)—† it stands in the seventeenth Psalm, that God also is a wall.
"Take up your baggage and flee to Zion"; as many of you as are outside Zion, "take up your baggage and flee to Zion; hasten, do not stand still," you who are in progress hasten to the Watchtower, "for I bring evils from the north and great destruction"—of the evils brought "from the north," from the north of the adversary, as has often been said; and whoever is found not to have hastened, nor to have entered "into the walled cities," not having come to be in "the churches of God," but standing outside, he himself, being seized by the enemies, will be destroyed. And who is the enemy? Let us see from what follows in what manner it is said: "A lion has gone up from his lair, destroying he has cut off nations." This is the enemy, whom we must flee. A lion pursues us. Who is this? Peter teaches us, saying: "Your adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour; resist him, firm in the faith." And according to the ninth Psalm, "he lies in wait in secret, he lies in wait like a lion in his lair." And this lion lies in wait not by day, but when night comes; for according to the hundred and third Psalm: "You appointed darkness, and it became night. In it all the beasts of the forest will pass through, young lions roaring to seize and to seek their food from God."
[§17] "A lion has gone up," then, "from his lair." Where? When? He is fallen below, he has gone down into the lowest parts of the earth. "A lion has gone up from his lair." You are a man, you are higher than the devil; for you are stronger than he, whatever sort you may be; he, because of his wickedness, is below. "A lion has gone up," then, "from his lair, destroying he has cut off nations"; having gone up "from his lair," from the place proper to his own punishment, "destroying he has cut off nations; he has gone forth from his place to make your land a desolation." He wishes to enter into your land, concerning which we were speaking a little while ago. He wishes to feed upon each of us. He comes, then, "to make your land a" desolation, that the lion may trample down the seeds, that he may make your land desolate. "And your cities shall be pulled down so that they are not inhabited. For these things gird yourselves with sackcloth." Since, then, a lion has gone up and a lion threatens you and wishes to destroy your land, gird yourself with sackcloth, weep and mourn, through prayers entreat God, that he may utterly destroy this lion from you and that you may not fall into his mouth. For "just as when the shepherd snatches out of the mouth of the lion two legs or a lobe of an ear"—this lion seeks to take you by the ears, so that through your greediness, casting false words upon you, he may remove you from the truth; he wishes to snatch your feet away from the truth and devour them. But do you gird yourselves with sackcloth and beat your breast and weep and wail, seeing the enemy who is at hand, that "the fierceness of the Lord's anger" may be turned away from you, and, when the wrath has been turned away, you may be able, coming to be in freedom from care, the lion no longer creeping in upon you, because you have entered into the walled city, to glorify God who delivers you in Christ Jesus, to whom is the glory and the might unto the ages of the ages. Amen.