that we can be sure of in God’s heavenly government. Even the angel messenger, who was sent as a slave of God through Jesus to bring this revelation, would not let any homage be paid to him. Even though he had this great privilege and the superior power and glory that an angel has with relationship to a man on earth, he would not take any of the praise of a man or even let John worship God relatively through him. John, one of the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ, will be one of the 144,000 members of God’s government. This was a fine example set before him by the angel, repeating a caution already given earlier, in Revelation 19:10. It makes us happy to know this; it makes us happier still to read the words of this scroll and get ourselves in harmony with it without delay.

The Bible points out that those who will be with Christ in the heavens as members of God’s heavenly universal government will reign as kings and priests with him. They will be immortal, incorruptible. (Rev. 20:6; 1 Cor. 15:53, 54) Then there will be no flaw, for God has placed them there because of their proved loyalty and has made them in the image of his Son Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. 15:49; Phil. 3:21) Furthermore, even the angels, who will be slaves of God and of Christ, serving under this government, are also of unquestionable moral integrity and will carry out the orders of the government in completeness and perfection. They will see that the righteous earthly princes serving under the heavenly Kingdom carry out pure righteousness on earth.​—Ps. 45:16; Isa. 32:1.

A HAPPY OUTLOOK

Then the directives given by the government will be right, the judgments pure and holy in every way, through and through, spiritually, morally and physically. (Ps. 19:7-9) There will be no wrong directive; no flaw will be taken up by any of the earthly subjects and multiplied among them. There will be no injustice, no failure to enforce God’s clean, righteous laws, no cause for disrespect of his government. That is how clean God’s everlasting government will be and how clean it must be to endure. Perfect confidence in the government will pervade mankind. How the eyes of the people under it will shine! How happy are those now who have this faith, and how happy all mankind will be to sing: “Happy is the one who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in Jehovah his God, the Maker of heaven and earth, of the sea, and of all that is in them, the One keeping trueness to time indefinite. Jehovah will be king to time indefinite, your God, O Zion, for generation after generation. Praise Jah, you people!”​—Ps. 146:5, 6, 10.

An Abundance of Holidays

Probably there is not a year that goes by in which you do not have your schedule or activities interrupted by some holiday you forgot. Had you lived in ancient Rome during the days of Julius Caesar your problems with an overabundance of holidays would have been worse. In the 40’s B.C.E. the Romans had over one hundred holidays each year, often involving religious offerings and sacrifices. How the hardworking Christians must have stood in contrast after 33 C.E., since the only day during the year that they celebrated was the annual observance of Christ’s death!.​—Luke 22:19.