Why did not Abraham, Isaac and Jacob look at life materialistically and think of all the comforts and opportunities of the cultured city of Ur of the Chaldeans and give up the rough life of tenters in a foreign land and go back to that earthly city? No matter how long they tented in the land of Canaan, they did not realize God’s promise to give them that land. Why, O why did they observe God’s call to Abraham and at last die, each one in a foreign land? Hebrews 11:13-16 tells us why:

24. What does Hebrews 11:13-16 say was the reason that they did not leave Canaan and go back to Ur?

²⁴ “In faith all these died, although they did not get the fulfillment of the promises, but they saw them afar off and welcomed them and publicly declared that they were strangers and temporary residents in the land. For those who say such things give evidence that they are earnestly seeking a place of their own. And yet, if they had indeed kept remembering that place from which they had gone forth, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they are reaching out for a better place, that is, one belonging to heaven. Hence God is not ashamed of them, to be called upon as their God, for he has made a city ready for them.”

25. (a) What would it have meant if they had gone back to Ur? (b) What really is the “city” for which they were reaching out, and how now will they be brought into touch with it?

²⁵ What if they had gone back and become a part again of the Chaldean city of Ur? They would have forfeited Jehovah’s promises to them. It would have meant abandoning relationship with him, and this would have meant the destruction of their souls. Their faith kept them away from Ur and obedient to Jehovah’s call and guidance of them. They looked forward, not backward. They reached out for a place better than the earthly city of Ur. They looked for a city belonging to heaven, a heavenly government, God’s kingdom by means of the Messianic Seed of His “woman.” What is Ur of the Chaldeans today? Just a mass of ruins dug up by archaeologists not long ago. But what about God’s kingdom, the heavenly city made ready for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? It is in power in the heavens since A.D. 1914. Shortly, after it destroys this old worldly system of things and takes absolute control of the whole earth, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob will be resurrected from the dead and live under that heavenly government, because God is not ashamed of them.—Luke 20:37, 38.

OF WHAT SORT ARE WE?

26. In comparison with the foregoing ancient men, what questions do we ask ourselves, and why do we desire Hebrews 10:38, 39 to answer for us?

²⁶ What sort of persons are we today? If we are Christian witnesses of Jehovah, are we persons like profane Esau (Edom)? God forbid! Then are we persons like those Hebrew witnesses of Jehovah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who never turned back? If we are, then, after we have come this far since when we first believed, no matter how far back that may be, we will not now turn back to this old world of materialism and false religion. Let it be for us also that Hebrews 10:38, 39 speaks when it affirms: “‘My righteous one will live by reason of faith,’ and, ‘if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.’ Now we are not the sort that shrink back to destruction, but the sort that have faith to the preserving alive of the soul.”

27. In what, therefore, is our interest, and what would our shrinking back mean for us?

²⁷ Our interest is in that God’s soul should have pleasure in us. We desire to have a righteous standing with him and to prove worthy of living by reason of our faith. Faith does not allow for us to shrink back. Shrinking of a person is understood to be an instinctive recoil at something that is painful or unpleasant, so as to avoid it. Shrinking is due to fear. In Hebrews 10:38, 39 the word for shrinking back is used by ancient Greek writers for fearing, and for withdrawing or hiding oneself through fear.b For us to shrink back would lead to destruction of our soul forever.—Matt. 10:28.

28, 29. (a) Where is the danger in shrinking back, and how may it start? (b) What does Hebrews 5:11 to 6:3 say to those doing that?

²⁸ The shrinking back may be like a small contraction, producing a wrinkle. In this very fact there lies danger for us, because we hardly notice our start toward eternal destruction of our soul. The shrinking back or withdrawing may be in the form of refusing to make progress because self-exertion is required. It is as in the case of a child that does not want to grow up and shoulder responsibilities but wants to remain a carefree child with others obliged to take the responsibility for it. For instance, why did the writer to the Hebrews have to go to such lengths in explaining things that were more advanced, more involved than such Bible doctrines as repentance from sin, faith toward God, baptisms, laying of the hands on chosen ones, resurrection, everlasting judgment by God? It was because those Hebrew Christians wanted to stay spiritual babies able to feed only on doctrinal milk, so dull in hearing that they did not understand what was said or taught. So Hebrews 5:11 to 6:3 tells them:

²⁹ “We have much to say and hard to be explained, since you have become dull in your hearing. For, indeed, although you ought to be teachers in view of the time, you again need someone to teach you from the beginning the elementary things of the sacred pronouncements of God; and you have become such as need milk, not solid food. For everyone that partakes of milk is unacquainted with the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to mature people, to those who through use have their perceptive powers trained to distinguish both right and wrong. For this reason, now that we have left the primary doctrine about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying a foundation again, namely, repentance from dead works, and faith toward God, the teaching on baptisms and the laying on of the hands, the resurrection of the dead and everlasting judgment. And this we will do, if God indeed permits.”

30. How is God indeed permitting us to do so, and consequently what should spiritual babes do?

³⁰ God is indeed permitting us, to the extent that he lets us live on and does not destroy this world. Since God mercifully permits it, will we “press on to maturity”? Will we take advantage of the further time to grow up spiritually and become able to teach others not just the “primary doctrine about the Christ” or the “foundation” beliefs but also the things “hard to be explained”? In view of the length of time that we have known the truth, are we ashamed that we do not know or understand more than doctrinal “milk” of the Bible or that by now we do not have our “perceptive powers trained” to enable us to be teachers of others, not only in the congregation, but in the homes of interested people not yet belonging to the congregation? If we honestly feel such shame at not yet being grown up spiritually, then by all means, as long as God indeed permits it, let us do something about it, something positive. To do so means our living.

31, 32. (a) What will positive action on the part of spiritual babes mean? (b) Warning us of such a bad custom what does Hebrews 10:23-27 tell us?

³¹ Taking positive action will certainly not be by further retarding our spiritual progress, or by directly drawing back, shrinking back because something difficult is ahead of us requiring constancy in effort and action. Positive action will mean more than just pushing on with our personal Bible study privately. It will also require attending meetings for study with the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses, taking consideration of them. If we unnecessarily miss meetings with the modern Christian witnesses of Jehovah, it will be the start of our shrinking back. Persisted in, it will finally become a custom with us. Hebrews 10:23-27 tells us not to do that. It tells us the reason for not doing that. It says:

³² “Let us consider one another to incite to love and fine works, not forsaking the gathering of ourselves together, as some have the custom, but encouraging one another, and all the more so as you behold the day drawing near. For if we practice sin willfully after having received the accurate knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice for sins left, but there is a certain fearful expectation of judgment and there is a fiery jealousy that is going to consume those in opposition.”

33. If we willfully miss meetings, what are we doing as regards Hebrews 2:1, and how can we prevent our drifting away?

³³ When we willfully miss meetings where incitement to love and good works is given, what are we doing? Are we doing what Hebrews 2:1 tells us to do, namely, paying more than the usual attention, or are we paying less than the usual attention to the things heard from God’s Son? Certainly less, not more, even if we do a lot of home Bible study by ourselves. To prevent our drifting away toward destruction, we need to pay attention to God’s Son because of his superior importance.

34. To have our faith perfected, to whom must we look and why therefore could not the ancient Hebrews have their faith perfected?

³⁴ If we desire to have our faith perfected to the preserving of our souls alive forever, we really do have to pay due attention to God’s Son Jesus. We have to look to him as the “Perfecter of our faith.” Prior to his coming nineteen centuries ago, the ancient Hebrews had faith in Messiah’s coming and looked forward to it. But their faith respecting him was very lacking in many regards because of their not understanding the then unfulfilled prophecies about him. Even the angels of heaven were inquisitive as to how the prophecies would actually be worked out regarding the Messiah or the Christ. (1 Pet. 1:10-12) Hence their faith was not yet perfected.

35, 36. With whose coming did faith really arrive, and how was that so?

³⁵ However, when Jesus Christ came, preached, died and was resurrected to heavenly life and returned to God his Father and sat down at God’s right in the heavens, the prophecies about him that were hitherto not understood were fulfilled in detail. Then the faith concerning the Messiah or Christ became filled in with historic facts. Thus with the Christ faith really arrived, that is, corrected belief about him and his relationship with God. Therefore to the Hebrews once under Moses’ law but now Christians, Galatians 3:23-25 says:

³⁶ “Before the faith arrived, we were being guarded under law, being delivered up together into custody, looking to the faith that was destined to be revealed. Consequently the Law has become our tutor leading to Christ, that we might be declared righteous due to faith. But now that the faith has arrived, we are no longer under a tutor [the Mosaic law].”

37. What, therefore, was Jesus as regards our faith and so what really began with him?

³⁷ Because of this fact Jesus is really the Leader, the Pioneer, the Chief Agent of our faith. As such, he undertook to do God’s will and to bring Messianic prophecies to fulfillment and thus to clarify for us our faith in those Bible prophecies. Correct faith or belief began with Jesus Christ—nineteen centuries ago.

38. How has he, since back there, been perfecting the faith of his followers?

³⁸ Down till the festival day of Pentecost, fifty days after his resurrection, in the year 33, when he poured down holy spirit from God’s right hand in heaven upon his Hebrew disciples in Jerusalem, Jesus worked toward perfecting their faith in him. When, in the year 36, he poured down holy spirit upon the first non-Hebrew uncircumcised believers, he brought still more to perfection their faith respecting him. (Heb. 2:4) As far as he dealt from heaven with his disciples on earth down till the apostle John wrote his Gospel and letters and the Revelation or Apocalypse to John, Jesus was bringing their faith to perfection, sufficiently for them to be saved. Now by what he has been doing during the past ninety years or so, to fulfill prophecy toward his disciples on earth, he has been perfecting our faith to meet the needs of our time, for our eternal salvation.

RACE!

39. What, then, is the vital thing for us to do, and in harmony with that what does Hebrews 12:1-4 tell us to do?

³⁹ The vital thing for us to do, then, is not to shrink back or even to look back. The soul-preserving thing for us to do is to look forward and race! “So, then,” Hebrews 12:1-4 tells us, “because we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also put off every weight and the sin that easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, as we look intently at the Chief Agent and Perfecter of our faith, Jesus. For the joy that was set before him he endured a torture stake, despising shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Indeed, consider closely the one who has endured such contrary talk by sinners against their own interests, that you may not get tired and give out in your souls. In carrying on your contest against that sin [of lack of faith] you have never yet resisted as far as blood.” No, you have not yet shed your lifeblood as a faithful witness of Jehovah.

40. What ancient Hebrew among those pre-Christian witnesses should we remember, and why?

⁴⁰ Remember, among that “great cloud” of pre-Christian witnesses who because of their faith pleased God, the faithful patriarch Abraham. He did not settle down in any city or build a city as a permanent dwelling place in this old system of things. He looked forward to the city having foundations of permanence, the city then to be built and created by God. Hence he kept living here and there in tents, identified with no earthly city.—Heb. 11:9, 10, 15, 16.

41. What about Jesus in this respect and what are we resolved to do according to Hebrews 13:12-15?

⁴¹ Neither did God’s Son make any city his permanent city, not even the then earthly Jerusalem with its temple and altar. As we look to him, let our own resolution of what we are going to do be found stated in Hebrews 13:12-15: “Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Let us, then, go forth to him outside the camp, bearing the reproach he bore, for we do not have here a city that continues, but we are earnestly seeking the one to come. Through him let us always offer to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips which make public declaration to his name.”

42. Because of our approaching what should we do that all the more so now?

⁴² All the more so let us do that now. That “city to come,” that “city that continues,” is at hand! It is God’s kingdom, the heavenly Jerusalem, established in the year 1914 at the end of the Gentile Times. More true of us today, therefore, are the words written nineteen centuries ago: “You have approached a Mount Zion and a city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem, and myriads of angels, in general assembly, and the congregation of the first-born who have been enrolled in the heavens, and God the Judge of all, and . . . Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and the blood of sprinkling, which speaks in a better way than Abel’s blood.” (Heb. 12:22-24) This heavenly kingdom to which we have approached is a “kingdom that cannot be shaken.” It will remain all through this “time of the end” of this world, when Jehovah God is shaking heaven and earth in order to remove this old faithless order of things.—Heb. 12:26-28.

43. How can we now pay more than the usual attention to God’s Son as respects Matthew 24:14?

⁴³ In fulfillment of Jesus’ own prophecy, the good news of this established kingdom is being preached in all the inhabited earth as a witness to all the nations before these are rocked to pieces and removed forever. (Matt. 24:14; Mark 13:10) To that prophecy spoken by God’s Son let us pay more than the usual attention by taking as full a direct part in it as we possibly can. Do so in faith. Preach!

44. What quality is this specially the time for us to have, and with what lasting good result?

⁴⁴ Of all times this is the time to have faith, to mature our faith by increasing our knowledge and understanding, and to prove our faith by teaching it to others. Our faith undergoing perfection will never let us draw back to eternal disaster, the destruction of our souls. Our faith in perfection will lead to God’s preserving of our souls alive forever. Where? In the new order of things, with its “new heavens” and with its “inhabited earth to come” subjected, not to mere angels, but to God’s Son of sons, Jesus Christ, the Chief Agent and Perfecter of our faith.

We Need Jehovah’s Organization

IT WAS with good reason that Jesus Christ likened the worshipers of Jehovah to gregarious sheep. Like sheep, they need one another and the loving oversight of a shepherd. That it is Jehovah’s will for them to be together in one flock instead of being scattered, having a separate spiritual existence, is made evident by what Jesus said in the tenth chapter of John. In the eleventh verse Joh 10:11 he identifies himself as their shepherd, saying: “I am the fine shepherd; the fine shepherd surrenders his soul in behalf of the sheep.” Then in verse sixteen Joh 10:16 he states: “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; those also I must bring, and they will listen to my voice, and they will become one flock, one shepherd.” This gathering of worshipers of Jehovah into one flock shows that it is his purpose for them to be in close association with one another.

Jesus would not have likened Christians to sheep in one flock and one fold if it were not God’s purpose for them to be together in an organization. His spirit is where the Fine Shepherd and the flock are. How can a person expect to continue under the influence of that spirit if he separates