Chapter 8

The Divine Choosing According to the “Eternal Purpose”

1. What question arose as to the offspring of the man to whom God renewed his covenant promise?

JEHOVAH GOD chose to renew to Isaac the covenant promise made to his father Abraham. (Genesis 26:1-5, 23, 24) Although married at forty years of age, Isaac had to become sixty years old before he had children—twins. Would Jehovah, who answered Isaac’s prayer for children, make a choosing with regard to those twin boys?

2. How did Jehovah reveal which one of the twins he would choose?

² Jehovah indicated his choosing during Rebekah’s pregnancy after she had prayed and asked him about her condition: “Jehovah proceeded to say to her: ‘Two nations are in your belly, and two national groups will be separated from your inward parts; and the one national group will be stronger than the other national group, and the older will serve the younger.’” Esau proved to be the firstborn, and Jacob the second twin. (Genesis 25:20-23) Jehovah thus indicated that he would not make one nation out of these twin sons of Isaac, a two-tribe nation. Rather, there should be two national groups, with the national group from the older twin being weaker and serving the national group of the younger twin. This reversed the natural right of the firstborn son to the preeminence. Thus Jehovah revealed whom he would choose.

3. Did the choosing there depend upon human works or upon the one who does the calling?

³ The Almighty, All-Wise God had a right to do this, according to his purpose for the blessing of all mankind. Regarding this, a first-century Bible commentator wrote: “When Rebekah conceived twins from the one man, Isaac our forefather: for when they had not yet been born nor had practiced anything good or vile, in order that the purpose of God respecting the choosing might continue dependent, not upon works, but upon the One who calls, it was said to her: ‘The older will be the slave of the younger.’ Just as it is written: ‘I loved Jacob, but Esau I hated.’”—Romans 9:10-13; quoting also from Malachi 1:2, 3.

4. Why did Jehovah have less love for Esau than for Jacob, even before their birth?

⁴ Certainly the Almighty, All-Wise God did not make a bad choice. Doubtless He, being able to read the genetic pattern of the twins in Rebekah’s womb, foresaw how the two boys would work out the direction of their lives. So He chose the right twin, even though this one happened to be the younger twin. Despite his choice according to his purpose, Jehovah did not force matters. He did not plan for the older Esau to sell his birthright for a mere bowl of lentil stew to his younger brother Jacob on a critical day of decision. Evidently, however, Jehovah foresaw that the unborn Esau would not have the appreciation and love for spiritual things such as Jacob would have. For this reason he had less love for Esau than for Jacob and made his choice accordingly, even while the twins were yet unborn in their mother’s womb.—Genesis 25:24-34.

5. Did Jehovah plan how Jacob should get the spoken blessing of Isaac, and did He reverse it?

⁵ Jehovah did not plan the tactics that Jacob and his mother Rebekah used finally with regard to getting the spoken blessing through Isaac, but Jehovah permitted the aged blind Isaac to pronounce the birthright blessing upon Jacob, as Jacob deserved to get it. (Genesis 27:1-30) Jehovah did not let Isaac reverse that blessing, but, when Jacob was fleeing from the murderous wrath of his twin brother Esau, God confirmed Isaac’s blessing upon Jacob. This upheld God’s choice of Jacob before his birth. How so?

6. How was God’s choice of Jacob upheld in the dream that Jacob had of the ladder used by angels?

⁶ At the place called Bethel in the Promised Land, the fugitive Jacob “began to dream, and, look! there was a ladder stationed upon the earth and its top reaching up to the heavens; and, look! there were God’s angels ascending and descending on it. And, look! there was Jehovah stationed above it, and he proceeded to say: ‘I am Jehovah the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land upon which you are lying, to you I am going to give it and to your seed. And your seed will certainly become like the dust particles of the earth, and you will certainly spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and by means of you and by means of your seed all the families of the ground will certainly bless themselves. And here I am with you and I will keep you in all the way you are going and I will return you to this ground, because I am not going to leave you until I have actually done what I have spoken to you.’”—Genesis 28:12-15.

7, 8. (a) This divine statement meant what for Messiah’s line of descent? (b) Unlike Esau, Jacob distinguished himself for whose worship?

⁷ According to this irreversible statement of the God who does not lie, the Abrahamic Promise set forth in Genesis 12:1-7 was to be carried out by God through Jacob’s descendants or seed.

⁸ This meant that the Messiah, the “seed” of God’s heavenly “woman,” was to come through Jacob’s line of descent. That is why we specialize on following the history of Jacob’s descendants rather than on the history of the nations and the families of the ground who are yet to be blessed by the Messianic “seed.” Also, the God of Abraham and Isaac came to be called the “God of Jacob.” This cannot be said for Esau (or, Edom), who did not distinguish himself in the worship of Jehovah and whose descendants became enemies of the worshipers of Jehovah. The idol Qos was the ‘god of Edom.’ (2 Chronicles 25:14; Ezekiel, chapter 35 thirty-five) The temple built later on at Jerusalem came to be called “the house of the God of Jacob.” (Isaiah 2:3) As an example for us now in these troublous days, the inspired psalmist says: “Jehovah of armies is with us; the God of Jacob is a secure height for us.”—Psalm 46:11.

CHOICE OF THE ROYAL TRIBE

9. (a) Why are Jacob’s descendants called Israelites? (b) At what place did Jacob become father to his twelfth son?

⁹ While away for twenty years in Paddan-aram in the Mesopotamian valley, Jacob married into the family relationship approved by his father Isaac and became the father of eleven sons. Then God told him to return to the Promised Land, from which he had fled. (Genesis 31:3) It was while Jacob was on his return journey that he was given the surname Israel. God’s angel said to him: “Your name will no longer be called Jacob but Israel, for you have contended with God and with men so that you at last prevailed.” (Genesis 32:28) Thereafter Jacob’s descendants were called Israelites. (Exodus 17:11) Later, when Jacob or Israel was on his way back from a revisit to Bethel, where he had had the ladder dream, he became father to his twelfth son, Benjamin. But at the delivery of this her second son, Jacob’s beloved wife Rachel died. As recorded at Genesis 35:19, “thus Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath, that is to say, Bethlehem.”

10. During Jacob’s further stay in the Promised Land, what disqualifications did Reuben come under?

¹⁰ After Jacob’s return to the Promised Land in 1761 B.C.E., he continued living there as an alien resident for thirty-three years. During that time a number of significant things happened, but not according to any plan by God. Jacob’s father, Isaac, died at the age of one hundred and eighty years. (Genesis 35:27-29) Jacob’s oldest son, Reuben, sexually violated his father’s concubine, Bilhah the maidservant of Rachel. (Genesis 35:22) This disqualified Reuben from enjoying the right of firstborn to his father Jacob and also from having the royal Messiah come through his line of descent. This certainly was not planned by Jehovah God, for He is no party to such incestuous fornication.—Genesis 49:1-4.

11, 12. (a) How did Simeon and Levi disqualify themselves from any opportunity as to the Messianic line? (b) What must God now do as to the choosing?

¹¹ Prior to Rachel’s death and to Reuben’s act of shocking immorality, Jacob’s daughter Dinah was sexually violated by an inhabitant of the Promised Land, namely, Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, who lived in the city of Shechem. There was great indignation among Jacob’s sons because of this “disgraceful folly against Israel.” So, when the male inhabitants of Shechem were incapacitated because of their compliance with the requirement of circumcision, Jacob’s second son Simeon and his third son Levi took swords and massacred all such unsuspecting male Shechemites, after which the city was plundered.

¹² Jacob as God’s prophet disapproved of this violence. He told Simeon and Levi that they had thereby made him a “stench to the inhabitants of the land” and had exposed him and his household to annihilation by the more numerous peoples of the land. (Genesis 34:1-30) Because of such cruel slaughter in anger and fury, Simeon and Levi disqualified themselves of either one of them having his line of descent lead down to the Messianic “seed.” So this honorable privilege must now go to some other son aside from Simeon and Levi and the natural firstborn son Reuben. (Genesis 49:5-7) Certainly Jehovah God had not planned matters that way. He now had to adapt himself to the new set of circumstances. His choice among the yet remaining sons of Jacob He would yet indicate by means of his prophet, Jacob or Israel.

13, 14. How did Jacob and his household come to move down into Egypt to be with Joseph there?

¹³ The firstborn son of Jacob’s beloved second wife, Rachel, was the eleventh son of the family, namely, Joseph. Jacob displayed special affection for this son of his old age. For this reason Joseph’s half brothers became jealous of him. Without the knowledge of their father, they managed to sell Joseph to traveling merchants who were on their way down to Egypt. They led Jacob their father to believe that Joseph had been killed by a wild beast.

¹⁴ Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt, but by the favor of the God whom he faithfully worshiped and obeyed he was raised to be food administrator and prime minister of Egypt under Pharaoh. In the year 1728 B.C.E. Joseph became reconciled with his repentant half brothers, who had come down to Egypt for food supplies during the world famine. Thereafter, by Joseph’s arrangements, his father Jacob or Israel moved with all his household down to Egypt and settled in what was called the Land of Goshen. There Jacob continued to live for seventeen years.—Genesis, chapters 37-47.

15, 16. Jacob then entered Egypt as still heir of what, and how is this called to attention in Psalm 105:7-15?

¹⁵ It was at God’s instructions that Jacob left the Promised Land and went down to Egypt at Joseph’s invitation. (Genesis 46:1-4) He went down there as still the heir of the Abrahamic Promise and the one to pass it on. Psalm 105:7-15 points to this fact and says:

¹⁶ “He is Jehovah our God. His judicial decisions are in all the earth. He has remembered his covenant even to time indefinite, the word that he commanded, to a thousand generations, which covenant he concluded with Abraham, and his sworn statement to Isaac, and which statement he kept standing as a regulation even to Jacob, as an indefinitely lasting covenant even to Israel, saying: ‘To you I shall give the land of Canaan as the allotment of your inheritance.’ This was when they happened to be few in number, yes, very few, and alien residents in it. And they kept walking about from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people. He did not allow any human to defraud them, but on their account he reproved kings, saying: ‘Do not you men touch my anointed ones [in Hebrew the plural number of ma·shiʹahh, or messiahs], and to my prophets do nothing bad.’”—Marginal reading.

17. Why did Jehovah speak of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as being “prophets” and as being his “anointed ones”?

¹⁷ Thus Jehovah called Abraham, Isaac and Jacob his prophets, and this they really were. (Genesis 20:7) A prophet could be spoken of as being anointed because of being designated and appointed, even without the pouring of official oil upon him. (1 Kings 19:16, 19; 2 Kings 2:14) Likewise, although Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were not anointed with oil in the way that Jacob anointed the pillar at the place called Bethel, they were properly called “anointed ones” because of Jehovah’s action toward them. (Genesis 28:18, 19; 31:13) The fact that Jehovah called them “my anointed ones” indicates that he appointed them, he chose them. Moffatt’s Bible translation renders Psalm 105:15: “Never touch my chosen, never harm my prophets.” (Also 1 Chronicles 16:22) Jehovah chooses whom he wants to; there is a purpose behind his choice.

18. Accordingly, the nation that was to come through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was also how designated, and why appropriately so?

¹⁸ Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were Jehovah’s “messiahs,” and it is in harmony with this that the Messianic nation came through them. The Holy Scriptures speak of this chosen nation as Jehovah’s “messiah” or “anointed one.” In Psalm 28:8, 9, the psalmist David says: “Jehovah is a strength to his people, and he is a stronghold of the grand salvation of his anointed one [Hebrew: ma·shiʹahh]. Do save your people, and bless your inheritance; and shepherd them and carry them to time indefinite.” Later, the prophet Habakkuk said to Jehovah in prayer: “You went forth for the salvation of your people, to save your anointed one [ma·shiʹahh].” (Habakkuk 3:13) It was in line with this that, through this “anointed” people or nation, there was to come in God’s appointed time the real Messiah, the “seed” of God’s heavenly “woman.”—Genesis 3:15.

19. Being heads of twelve tribes, the sons of Jacob were called what?

¹⁹ It was down in Egypt that Jacob’s descendants grew to be a numerous people, ready for nationhood. It was concerning the time that Jacob was on his deathbed (in 1711 B.C.E.) and gave his farewell words to his sons that it was said: “All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke to them when he was blessing them. He blessed them each one according to his own blessing.” (Genesis 49:28) By becoming each one the head of a tribe, these twelve sons of Jacob were called “patriarchs,” or ‘heads of the fathers.’ As a speaker before the Jerusalem Sanhedrin once said: “He then gave him the covenant of circumcision, and so, after Isaac was born, he circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob the twelve patriarchs. The patriarchs out of jealousy sold Joseph into slavery in Egypt, but God was with him.” (Acts 7:8, 9, New English Bible) Properly, the Greek-speaking Jews spoke of “Abraham the patriarch,” and also of “the patriarch David.”—Hebrews 7:4; Acts 2:29, NEB.

20. Was a religious patriarchate thus set up in Israel?

²⁰ This does not mean, however, that a religious patriarchate was set up among Jacob’s descendants there in Egypt. After Jacob’s death in the land of Goshen, Joseph as the prime minister of Egypt for Pharaoh did not set himself up as the patriarchal head of the “twelve tribes of Israel,” even though his father’s final blessing upon him indicated that the right of firstborn had been transferred to Joseph.—Genesis 49:22-26; 50:15-26.

21. (a) Jacob indicated that the right of firstborn was now transferred to whom? (b) Choice of the head one of the line leading to the Messianic king depended upon whom?

²¹ By his prophetic blessings upon his twelve sons the patriarch Jacob disclosed more than that the birthright or right of the firstborn had been transferred from Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn son by his first wife Leah, to Joseph, the firstborn son of his second wife Rachel. (Genesis 29:21-32) Before selling Joseph into slavery in Egypt, his half brothers resented the thought that he might become king over them. (Genesis 37:8) But long previous to this, when God gave to the patriarch Abraham the covenant of circumcision, God foretold that kings would come out of Abraham, and this by means of his wife Sarah, whose name God then changed from Sarai to Sarah, meaning “Princess.” (Genesis 17:16) Also, when God changed Jacob’s name to Israel, he promised that kings would come out of Jacob. (Genesis 35:10, 11) However, the right of the firstborn son of the family did not automatically carry with it the right and honor to be the ancestor to the line of kings that would lead up to the Messianic King, the “seed” of God’s heavenly “woman.” This vital matter depended upon God’s choice. He caused Jacob to point out which son would be ancestor to such King.

22. In a blessing, over which son did Jacob refer to a “scepter” and a “commander’s staff”?

²² After expressing his disapproval of Reuben, Simeon and Levi, the dying Jacob said with reference to his fourth son by his first wife Leah: “As for you, Judah, your brothers will laud you. Your hand will be on the back of the neck of your enemies. The sons of your father will prostrate themselves to you. A lion cub Judah is. From the prey, my son, you will certainly go up. He bowed down, he stretched himself out like a lion and, like a lion, who dares rouse him? The scepter will not turn aside from Judah, neither the commander’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and to him the obedience of the peoples will belong.”—Genesis 49:8-10.

23. All those features, scepter, commander’s staff, obedience of the peoples, comparison with a lion, bespeak what for Judah?

²³ Let us note Jacob’s comparison of Judah with a lion. Micah 5:8 likens a lion to an animal king of the forest. Ezekiel 19:1-9 likens the kings of the kingdom of Judah to lions. So Jacob’s comparison of Judah with a lion goes well with the fact that the scepter was not to “turn aside from Judah,” this implying that Judah already had the scepter and would not lose it or be deprived of it. That this was the scepter of kingship is bolstered up by the fact that the scepter was linked with the “commander’s staff,” which also was not to turn away from Judah before Shiloh would come. Furthermore, to Judah, as represented by this Shiloh, “the obedience of the peoples will belong.” (Genesis 49:10) All these features about Judah bespeak royalty!

24, 25. (a) What does the name Shiloh mean, and to whom does it apply? (b) Why will the royal scepter not have to turn aside from Judah?

²⁴ The name Shiloh is understood to mean “The One Whose It Is.” The ancient Latin Vulgate, which was translated from the original Hebrew text of the day, reads: “Until he comes who is to be sent.”

²⁵ The coming of this Shiloh (“The One Whose It Is”) refers to the same one whose coming is foretold in the words of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah to the last Judean king of Jerusalem: “A ruin, a ruin, a ruin I shall make it. As for this also, it will certainly become no one’s until he comes who has the legal right, and I must give it to him.” (Ezekiel 21:27) This undoubtedly refers to the coming of the Messianic King, the “seed” of God’s figurative “woman,” for with his coming there is no need of a further succession of kings after him. Then the kingdom in the tribe of Judah reaches its culmination and remains forever in the hands of Shiloh. This is the Messianic King that will sit at Jehovah’s right hand in the heavens and will be a king like Melchizedek, to whom the patriarch Abraham paid the tithes of the spoils of victory. (Psalm 110:1-4) Thus the royal scepter would not turn aside from Judah.

26. (a) How does 1 Chronicles 5:1, 2 show right of firstborn to be one thing and royal connections another? (b) Despite unplanned developments, Jehovah was free and able to do what?

²⁶ That the right of the firstborn son of the family was one thing and the assignment of royal leadership was another thing, and that God through the dying patriarch Jacob assigned the royal leadership to Judah, is plainly stated in Scripture. In 1 Chronicles 5:1, 2 we read concerning the sons of Jacob: “And the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel—for he was the firstborn; but for his profaning the lounge of his father his right as firstborn was given to the sons of Joseph the son of Israel, so that he [Reuben] was not to be enrolled genealogically for the right of the firstborn. For Judah himself proved to be superior among his brothers, and the one for leader was from him [and the prince descended from him (Leeser); and of him came he that is the prince (Jewish Publication Society)]; but the right as firstborn was Joseph’s.” We cannot here say that the Almighty, All-Wise God planned it this way, for he did not induce the misdeeds of Reuben, Simeon and Levi and the consequences thereof. Rather, according to the way that the unplanned developments worked out he was free to make choice of Judah. Regardless of what happened he was able to stick to his original purpose and to work it out without change.

27, 28. (a) Upon what nation, then, shall we keep our eyes trained, and upon which part thereof in particular? (b) By acting upon the evidence that God furnishes, what benefits shall we enjoy?

²⁷ God’s choices and movements serve as a sure guide for us as we consider His “eternal purpose” that he formed in connection with the Anointed One, the Messiah. From the prophetic words that he inspired the dying patriarch Jacob to pronounce over Judah, we know the course for us to follow. We must keep our eyes trained, not merely upon the twelve tribes of Israel in general, but upon the tribe of Judah in particular because of its direct relationship with Jehovah’s Messiah, the “seed” of His heavenly “woman.” More and more evidence is accumulating to aid us to identify this Messianic King with whom God’s “eternal purpose” is wrapped up.

²⁸ Acting upon the evidence as the Sovereign Lord Jehovah furnishes it to us, we shall avoid becoming followers of a disappointing false Messiah. We shall, instead, experience the joy of recognizing the true Messiah from God and following the one by means of whom all the nations of the earth will procure an eternal blessing.

Chapter 9

A Nation That Entered a Covenant with God

1. Nations today are too materialistic to form a treaty organization with whom?

IN INTERNATIONAL affairs it is customary for one state to enter a treaty with another state for mutual defense or peaceful relations or cultural exchanges or other considerations. A number of political states may enter an organization under a treaty, such as, today, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Warsaw Treaty Organization (or, Warsaw Pact), or the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). But what political state or nation today is in a covenant with God? Nations today are too materialistic to form a treaty organization with an invisible heavenly Being as a party to the treaty.

2. What questions do we want answered about a nation that entered a covenant with God?

² Anciently, however, there was a real, live nation on earth that entered a covenant with the Most High God of heaven. This meant a covenant between an earthly party and a heavenly party, a visible party and an invisible party. Every covenant has a stated purpose. What was the purpose of that historic covenant between a nation on earth and the one living and true God in heaven? How was such a seemingly unbalanced covenant made? These are questions that we now want to get answered.

3. Who would be the proper one to arrange for the terms, mediator, conditions and time of such a covenant?

³ Being all-wise and all-powerful, the Most High God would be the proper One to offer or even to propose such a covenant with a nation of imperfect, sinful people. Under the circumstances, it would be fitting for Him to state the purpose of the covenant and to dictate its terms and to appoint a mediator to act between Him and men. He would set forth the conditions on which the covenant would continue and also choose the time for establishing such a covenant or compact. The time fixed by God long beforehand was in the sixteenth century before our Common Era (or B.C.E.).

4. On the occasion of making a formal covenant with Abraham over sacrifice, what time period did God foretell for his seed?

⁴ God had made a formal covenant over sacrifice with the forefather of this whole nation that was to be taken into a national covenant in due time. It was after Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the Most High God, pronounced a blessing upon the militarily victorious Abraham that God brought Abraham into this formal covenant with Him over sacrifice. When giving Abraham strong assurance that the divine promise would be fulfilled upon Abraham’s descendants, God said to him: “You may know for sure that your seed will become an alien resident in a land not theirs, and they will have to serve them, and these will certainly afflict them for four hundred years. But the nation that they will serve I am judging, and after that they will go out with many goods. As for you, you will go to your forefathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age. But in the fourth generation they will return here, because the error of the Amorites has not yet come to completion.”—Genesis 15:13-16.

5. The long time that was to pass before Abraham’s seed would occupy the Promised Land allowed for what to take place?

⁵ Thus the taking over of the land by the natural seed of Abraham was put off for more than four hundred years. This long period of time would allow for the chosen natural seed of Abraham to grow to a people of many members, numerous enough to displace the Amorite occupants of Canaanland who were going from bad to worse in the “error” of their pagan ways. Although Abraham’s natural seed would grow to a people of great size in a land foreign to Canaanland, yet God would hold the land in reserve for them until the “error” of the promised land’s inhabitants had become so bad that they deserved to be purged out of the land. That God would give the territory to Abraham’s natural seed at the time ripe for it, Jehovah now guaranteed with a formal covenant.

“On that day Jehovah concluded with Abram a covenant, saying: ‘To your seed I will give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates: the Kenites and the Kenizzites and the Kadmonites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Rephaim and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Girgashites and the Jebusites.’”—Genesis 15:18-21.

6. Would the national covenant cancel out the Abrahamic Promise, and what purpose would it serve as regards Abraham’s descendants?

⁶ In contrast with that divine covenant with but one man, Abraham, the covenant that God had in view was to be with a great nation of descendants from Abraham through the chosen line of descent. That national covenant was to be added to the Abrahamic Promise, which became binding when Abraham crossed the Euphrates River to the north and entered the territory that was included within the boundaries stated in God’s formal covenant with Abraham over sacrifice. (Genesis 12:1-7) The making of the covenant with the nation of Abraham’s descendants did not cancel out the Abrahamic Promise but was merely added to it. Wisely so, for not all the fleshly descendants of Abraham would prove suitable to share in the Abrahamic Promise as regards its fulfillment for the blessing of all the nations and families of the ground. Hence, the added national covenant would serve well as an aid or means to prepare the worthy ones to receive and loyally follow the true Messiah, the promised “seed” of God’s heavenly “woman,” when God sent and anointed this one.

7. For what reasons would God not conclude the covenant with Abraham’s descendants before the end of those four hundred years?

⁷ The making of that additional national covenant would not take place before the passing of more than four hundred years from when God concluded this covenant with Abraham over sacrifice, because at that time Abraham did not have any offspring at all by his then barren wife, Sarah. Furthermore, God would not make a covenant with Abraham’s descendants when they were in servitude and being afflicted by a foreign nation. Especially so, when the making of the covenant called for that type of sacrifices that were detestable and objectionable to the nation afflicting them and enslaving them. (Exodus 8:25-27) First after God had judged adversely the oppressive nation and delivered his people and made them free to undertake a covenant with Him would God establish a covenant with them. This would be at the end of the foretold “four hundred years.” Thus we note that Jehovah God has marked off his own periods of time for the working out of his “eternal purpose” in connection with his Anointed One, Messiah.

8, 9. (a) What time period began at the weaning of Isaac, and how so? (b) The end of that time period was the time for what regarding Abraham’s natural seed?

⁸ Twenty-five years after Abraham entered the Promised Land, or at the age of one hundred years, he became father to his one and only son by his true wife, Sarah, this being, of course, by a divine miracle. This was in the land that did not yet belong to Abraham or to his son Isaac. It was when Isaac was weaned that affliction began upon the natural “seed” through whom the Messiah was to come. This was when Isaac’s nineteen-year-old half-brother Ishmael disrespectfully poked fun at the newly weaned Isaac. Such conduct showing jealousy could develop into a threat to the life of Abraham’s God-given heir, Isaac.—Genesis 16:11, 12.

⁹ According to time measurements, this beginning of the afflicting of the “seed” of Abraham in a land that was not theirs occurred when Abraham was one hundred and five years old and Isaac was five years old. That was in the year 1913 B.C.E. (Genesis 21:1-9; Galatians 4:29) Accordingly, the “four hundred years” of affliction upon the natural “seed” of Abraham would end in 1513 B.C.E. That would be the year for Abraham’s seed to go out from the land of the oppressive nation and start to return to the land of its forefathers, the Promised Land. That was the due time for God to establish the national covenant with Abraham’s “seed,” that he might bring them into the Promised Land as a nation in a binding covenant with Him. The time for this, at the end of the four hundred years, was also four hundred and thirty years after Abraham crossed the Euphrates River and the Abrahamic Promise took effect.—Exodus 12:40-42; Galatians 3:17-19.

ESTABLISHMENT OF A NATIONAL COVENANT

10. To what extent did Abraham’s natural seed grow in Egypt, but finally under what condition?

¹⁰ From when Abraham’s grandson Jacob moved with his household out of the land of Canaan, and down to the end of the four hundred years, Jacob’s descendants, the twelve tribes of Israel, found themselves in the land of Hamitic Egypt (not Arabic Egypt, as of today). As foretold by Jehovah God, affliction had come upon Abraham’s natural “seed” and had now grown very severe. The objective of this was to exterminate the people of God’s friend, Abraham. In spite of this, they had increased to become like the stars of the heavens and like the grains of sand on the seashore, innumerable, as God had promised. Finally, they were able to muster up “six hundred thousand able-bodied men on foot,” fit for military service. (Exodus 12:37) No, God had not forgotten his covenant with his friend Abraham. He also kept to his announced time schedule. So He was ready for due action at the due time.

11. Whom did God raise up to be a leader for Israel, and how had this one tried to show himself a leader?

¹¹ Who should now be their visible leader? God did not choose the chieftain of the tribe of Judah as if that were obligatory because of the Kingdom blessing that Jacob had pronounced upon Judah. (Genesis 49:10; 1 Chronicles 5:1, 2) Instead, the Most High God, with his inherent right of choice, selected a fit man of the tribe of Levi, Moses the great-grandson of Levi. (Exodus 6:20; Numbers 26:58, 59) Forty years prior to the end of the four hundred years, Moses decided against the court life of Pharaoh of Egypt and threw in his lot with his Israelite brothers and offered himself to them as their leader to lead them out of slavery. “He was supposing his brothers would grasp that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not grasp it.” God had then not sent Moses to deliver the enslaved people. Moses was obliged to flee from Pharaoh’s effort to kill him. He took refuge in the land of Midian and married and became a shepherd for his father-in-law.—Exodus 2:11 through 3:1; Acts 7:23-29.

12. When and where did Moses become Jehovah’s “anointed one,” and with what mission?

¹² Forty years passed, and Moses became eighty years of age. Then while Moses was shepherding on the Sinai Peninsula, God’s angel made a miraculous manifestation to Moses at the foot of Mount Horeb, about two hundred miles southeast of the present-day Suez Canal. Here, at Horeb, Jehovah God spelled out his name, as it were, to Moses, saying: “‘I Shall Prove To Be What I Shall Prove To Be.’ . . . This is what you are to say to the sons of Israel, ‘I Shall Prove To Be has sent me to you.’” (Exodus 3:2-14) Thus God appointed Moses as His prophet and representative, and Moses could now correctly be called an “anointed one,” or “messiah,” the same as his forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. (Psalm 105:15; Acts 7:30-35; Hebrews 11:23-26) Jehovah indicated that Mount Horeb was where He would bring Moses’ people into a covenant with Him, for Jehovah said that Moses would bring them out of Egypt to this mountain, there to serve Him.—Exodus 3:12.

13. How was Pharaoh brought to the point of ordering the Israelites to leave Egypt?

¹³ Because of Pharaoh’s repeated refusals to let the Israelites go free, Jehovah brought a series of plagues upon him and his people. The tenth and last plague was the one that broke the stout heart of Pharaoh and his resistance. This plague laid low in death all the firstborn ones of the Egyptian families and of their domestic animals. The Israelites were spared from the death of their firstborn because they obeyed Jehovah God and celebrated the Passover meal, their first one, in their homes. Jehovah’s angel of judgment, beholding the blood of the Passover lamb splashed on the doorposts and upper crossbeam of their homes, passed them by, and death did not invade the family circle. Nahshon, the father of Salmon, of the tribe of Judah, was spared alive, also Nadab, the firstborn son of Moses’ older brother, Aaron. But Pharaoh’s firstborn son died. In grief and under insistence by the bereaved Egyptians, Pharaoh ordered the unharmed Israelites out of the country.—Exodus 5:1 to 12:51.

14. What time periods ended on that first Passover day, and what did God order with respect to that night?

¹⁴ That eventful Passover night of the year 1513 B.C.E. brought to an end simultaneously a number of marked periods of time. The four hundred years of the afflicting of Abraham’s natural seed in a land not theirs ended. Two hundred and fifteen years of residence in Egypt from the entry of the patriarch Jacob ended. Four hundred and thirty years counted from when Abraham crossed the Euphrates River and began dwelling in the Promised Land ended. No wonder we read: “And the dwelling of the sons of Israel, who had dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. And it came about at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, it even came about on this very day that all the armies of Jehovah went out of the land of Egypt. It is a night for observance with regard to Jehovah for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. With regard to Jehovah this night is one for observance on the part of all the sons of Israel throughout their generations.”—Exodus 12:40-42.

15. How did God deliver the Israelites from the pursuing Egyptians, and what did they then sing?

¹⁵ As a piece of strategy, Jehovah by means of Moses led his liberated people to the shore of the upper western arm of the Red Sea. Imagining that the Israelites were trapped, Pharaoh and his charioteers and horsemen went in pursuit and closed in upon their escaped slaves. But Almighty God caused a passageway to open up and during the night the Israelites went through the dried seabed to the shores of the Sinai Peninsula. When the Egyptians were permitted to drive into the escape corridor, God brought back the waters of the Red Sea upon them and drowned them and their horses. God’s word had not failed, that He would judge that nation of oppressors of the natural “seed” of Abraham. (Genesis 15:13, 14) Safe on Sinai’s shores, the witnesses of the judgment of Jehovah sang: “Jehovah will rule as king to time indefinite, even forever. . . . Sing to Jehovah, for he has become highly exalted. The horse and its rider he has pitched into the sea.”—Exodus 15:1-21.

16. What did God propose to encamped Israel at Horeb, and what was the purpose thereof?

¹⁶ It marked a special day when the Israelites came, in the third lunar month (Sivan) after leaving Egypt, into the wilderness of Sinai and encamped at the base of the “mountain of the true God,” Horeb. That is where Jehovah told Moses that they were to serve him. (Exodus 3:1, 12; 19:1) The prophet Moses was now called upon to act as the mediator between God and the encamped people. Jehovah now proposed a covenant between Himself and the people and set forth the purpose of the covenant. To Moses, up on Mount Horeb, He said: “This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and to tell the sons of Israel, ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, that I might carry you on wings of eagles and bring you to myself. And now if you will strictly obey my voice and will indeed keep my covenant, then you will certainly become my special property out of all other peoples, because the whole earth belongs to me. And you yourselves will become to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’”—Exodus 19:3-6.

17. What procedure shows whether Jehovah forced the covenant upon the saved Israelites?

¹⁷ The Most High God did not force this covenant upon the Israelites. He left them free to choose whether to enter a covenant with him or not, even though he had saved them from Egypt and the Red Sea. Become a “special property” to Jehovah? Become “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” to Him? Yes, that is what the Israelites then desired to do. Hence, when Moses told the representative men of the people about God’s proposed covenant, then, as we read, “all the people answered unanimously and said: ‘All that Jehovah has spoken we are willing to do.’” Moses now reported the decision of the people to Jehovah, who then proceeded with the establishing of the covenant as agreed to.—Exodus 19:7-9.

18. On the third day therefrom, what did God declare to Israel?

¹⁸ On the third day after that Jehovah, by means of his angel on Mount Sinai there in Horeb, declared to the assembled Israelites the Ten Words or Ten Commandments. These commandments we can read for ourselves in Exodus 20:2-17.

A GREATER MEDIATOR FORETOLD

19. (a) Because of the spectacle, what did the Israelites request of Moses? (b) What did Moses say in response?

¹⁹ The occasion was a spectacular one! “Now all the people were seeing the thunders and the lightning flashes and the sound of the horn and the mountain smoking. When the people got to see it, then they quivered and stood at a distance. And they began to say to Moses: ‘You speak with us, and let us listen; but let not God speak with us for fear we may die.’” (Exodus 20:18, 19) The response of God in compliance with this request of the frightened Israelites is set out more fully in Deuteronomy 18:14-19. There, after telling the Israelites that God had not given them magicians and diviners as go-betweens between Him and them, Moses continued on to say:

“But as for you, Jehovah your God has not given you anything like this. A prophet from your own midst, from your brothers, like me, is what Jehovah your God will raise up for you—to him you people should listen—in response to all that you asked of Jehovah your God in Horeb on the day of the congregation, saying, ‘Do not let me hear again the voice of Jehovah my God, and this great fire do not let me see anymore, that I may not die.’ At that Jehovah said to me, ‘They have done well in speaking what they did. A prophet I shall raise up for them from the midst of their brothers, like you; and I shall indeed put my words in his mouth, and he will certainly speak to them all that I shall command him. And it must occur that the man who will not listen to my words that he will speak in my name, I shall myself require an account from him.’”

20, 21. (a) Was it easy for Israel to believe there would be another prophet like Moses? (b) In what way was this future prophet to be like Moses, and on what scale?

²⁰ A prophet like Moses, with whom God spoke, as it were “face to face”? It may have been hard for the Israelites to accept such an idea, when Moses himself told them what God had said. Yet, that is what Almighty God said that he would raise up for his people. ‘Like Moses’ would not mean merely equal to Moses. The promised prophet could be like Moses, and yet be greater than Moses.

²¹ From the Israelite prophets after Moses and all the way down to Malachi there was no prophet like Moses and none greater than Moses. (Deuteronomy 34:1-12) But what about the promised Anointed One, the Messiah, who would be the “seed” of God’s heavenly “woman”? (Genesis 3:15) God was evidently speaking about this one when, at Mount Sinai, he spoke to Moses about a future prophet like Moses. Like Moses, this Messianic “seed” would be a Mediator between God and men, but greater than Moses. Certainly the worshipers of the one living and true God need to have more done for them now than was done for ancient Israel by Moses. So Moses prefigured the Greater Prophet of Jehovah who was to come.

22. Why would the coming prophet like Moses be against using images in worshiping God?

²² At that time Jehovah God also said to Moses: “This is what you are to say to the sons of Israel, ‘You yourselves have seen that it was from the heavens I spoke with you. You must not make along with me gods of silver, and you must not make gods of gold for yourselves.’” (Exodus 20:22, 23) Beyond all denial, this is a command against using lifeless, speechless, man-made images in the worship of the God who has spoken from heaven itself. It strongly emphasizes what God said in the second of the Ten Commandments, as stated in Exodus 20:4-6. The Messianic Prophet like Moses would be against such use of religious images.

23. Why is that covenant with Israel commonly called the Law Covenant?

²³ Before the establishing of the covenant by means of his mediator Moses, God gave him other laws in addition to the Ten Commandments. These were set out in Exodus, chapters twenty-one through twenty-three. They were written down in a scroll or “book,” which was on hand when the covenant was to be formally established. Since this covenant was specially marked by the giving of divine law for God’s chosen people to keep, it was a covenant of law and is commonly called the Law Covenant. Its law code or set of laws in arranged form is Scripturally spoken of as “the Law.”

24. How long after the Abrahamic covenant was the Law covenant made, and is the Abrahamic Promise still valid?

²⁴ Since the Law of this covenant with Israel was introduced in the form of the Ten Commandments just about fifty or fifty-one days after the Passover night in Egypt, it could properly be said that the Law “has come into being four hundred and thirty years later [after the Abrahamic covenant of 1943 B.C.E.].” The giving of the Law to Israel after such a long interval did not invalidate the Abrahamic covenant, “so as to abolish the promise.” (Galatians 3:17) God’s promise to bless all the nations and families of the ground in Abraham’s “seed” still stands. It will not fail!

25. Upon whom was the Law covenant made binding, and by the application of what to it?

²⁵ Let us be sure to note that the Law covenant with Israel was made valid, solemnly binding upon the parties to the covenant, by the applying of the blood of the sacrificial victims. The record in Exodus 24:6-8 tells us: “Then Moses [as the mediator] took half the blood and put it in bowls, and half the blood he sprinkled upon the altar. Finally he took the book of the covenant and read it in the ears of the people. Then they said: ‘All that Jehovah has spoken we are willing to do and be obedient.’ So Moses took the blood and sprinkled it upon the people and said: ‘Here is the blood of the covenant that Jehovah has concluded with you as respects all these words.’”—Note also Exodus 24:3.

26. What was represented by the applying of the blood to God’s altar, and what by the sprinkling of the people with the blood?

²⁶ The altar that Moses had built at the base of Mount Sinai represented Jehovah God, to whom the sacrifices had been offered upon this altar. Hence, by the applying of half the blood of the animal victims to the altar, Jehovah God was representatively brought into the covenant and bound by it as a party to it. On the other hand, by the sprinkling of the other part of the sacrificial blood upon the people, they also were brought into the covenant as the other party thereto and were solemnly bound by it to fulfill those terms of it that applied to them. Thus by the blood the two parties, God and the nation of Israel, were united in a covenant.

27. What, in connection with the establishment of the Law covenant, proves that the Israelites did not walk into it ignorantly or under compulsion?

²⁷ The nation of Israel did not walk into this covenant ignorantly or under pressure and compulsion. The day before the solemnizing of the covenant with blood they had had God’s words and decisions related to them and had accepted these. As Exodus 24:3 states: “Then Moses came and related to the people all the words of Jehovah and all the judicial decisions, and all the people answered with one voice and said: ‘All the words that Jehovah has spoken we are willing to do.’” The following day, after Moses read the “book of the covenant” in the hearing of all the people, they repeated their acceptance of God’s Law, after which they were sprinkled with the sacrificial blood. Now it was obligatory upon the whole nation of Israel to do what God had stated when proposing the covenant, saying: “Now if you will strictly obey my voice and will indeed keep my covenant, then . . . ”—Exodus 19:5, 6.

28. Which party to the Law covenant was put in question as to loyalty to its terms, and, to be holy, what was required?

²⁸ Almighty God could be expected to be faithful to His part of this bilateral covenant, for He does not change. (Malachi 3:6) It was the Israelites who were put in question. Would they be loyal to God in carrying out what they expressed willingness to do? Would they be among the loyal ones that were to be gathered to Jehovah, in fulfillment of Psalm 50:4, 5: “He calls to the heavens above and to the earth so as to execute judgment on his people: ‘Gather to me my loyal ones, those concluding my covenant over sacrifice’”? (NW; NEB) Not as individuals, but as a whole people, as a nation, they had made this Law covenant over a set of sacrifices that were for all the people. Would they prove themselves to be “a holy nation”? To do this they must keep clear from this world.

29, 30. (a) Just by entering the Law covenant was Israel made a “kingdom of priests,” or what was the arrangement for priests? (b) What were fit males of the other families of the tribe of Levi made?

²⁹ Just because of entering into this covenant with the Most High God they were not at once a “kingdom of priests.” They were by no means then a kingdom in which every male member was a priest to God in behalf of all the other nations of the earth. The prophecy of Isaiah 61:6 was not yet fulfilled toward them: “As for you, the priests of Jehovah you will be called; the ministers of our God you will be said to be. The resources of the nations you people will eat, and in their glory you will speak elatedly about yourselves.” Rather, according to the terms of the Law covenant, the qualified male members of only one family in Israel were made the priests, to serve in behalf of all the rest of the nation. This was the family of Moses’ older brother, Aaron, of the tribe of Levi. He was made God’s high priest, and his sons were made the underpriests. So they made up an Aaronic priesthood.

³⁰ The fit male members of all the rest of the families of the tribe of Levi were made ministers to the Aaronic priesthood, to aid them in carrying on the religious services at the house of God, or tent of meeting, that was provided for in the Law covenant.—Exodus 27:20 through 28:4; Numbers 3:1-13.

31. Why were the Aaronic priests not also made kings in Israel?

³¹ Thus the tribe of Judah had no share in the priesthood of ancient Israel, because from this tribe was to come the Messianic “leader,” the one called “Shiloh” to whom “the obedience of the peoples will belong.” (Genesis 49:10; 1 Chronicles 5:2) So, in ancient Israel, the kingship and the priesthood were kept separate. Aaron and his sons were not made king-priests, thus being unlike Melchizedek.

32. What festivals were to be celebrated annually by Israel?

³² According to the Law covenant, three national festivals were to be celebrated by all the people at the tent or tabernacle of worship each year. “Three times in the year every male of yours should appear before Jehovah your God in the place that he will choose: in the festival of the unfermented cakes and in the festival of weeks and in the festival of booths, and none should appear before Jehovah empty-handed. The gift of each one’s hand should be in proportion to the blessing of Jehovah your God that he has given you.” (Deuteronomy 16:16, 17; Exodus 34:1, 22-24) The festival of the unleavened cakes was held in connection with the annual Passover supper that commemorated Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. The festival of weeks was held on the fiftieth day, that is, after the passing of seven weeks beginning Nisan 16; and the firstfruits of the wheat harvest were presented to Jehovah on that fiftieth (or, Pentecostal) day. The festival of booths (or, tabernacles) was also called the “festival of the ingathering” at the turn of the year. These annual festivals had their prescribed sacrifices to Jehovah.—Leviticus 23:4-21, 33-43.

33. When was the Day of Atonement held, and why did its sacrifices have to be repeated year after year?

³³ Five days before the celebration of the festival of booths began, the annual “day of atonement” (Yom Kippur) was to be held, on the tenth day of the seventh lunar month as counted from the spring month of Nisan or Abib. That would be on Tishri 10. On this day an atonement would be made for the sins of the whole nation in covenant relationship with Jehovah, this being the one day of the year when the Aaronic high priest would go into the Most Holy of the tent of meeting and sprinkle the blood of the atonement victims (a bull and a goat) before the sacred ark of the covenant, which contained the written Law of Jehovah. (Leviticus 23:26-32; 16:2-34) Of course, the death and sprinkled blood of these subhuman animal victims could not really take away the sins of humans to whom such animals were put in subjection. It was for the very reason that the death and blood of those sacrificed animals did not actually take away the sins of the human kind that the Atonement Day sacrifices had to be repeated year after year.

34. What did the Law covenant show that God required for taking away human sin, and why could no Israelite offer what was required?

³⁴ We can see the reason for this. In the Law covenant God plainly commanded: “If a fatal accident should occur, then you must give soul for soul, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, branding for branding, wound for wound, blow for blow.” (Exodus 21:23-25; Deuteronomy 19:21) In other words, like should go for like, something of equal value for something of equal value. So an uncondemned human life would have to go for a human life that had come under condemnation. This is why it is written in Psalm 49:6-10: “Those who are trusting in their means of maintenance, and who keep boasting about the abundance of their riches, not one of them can by any means redeem even a brother, nor give to God a ransom for him; (and the redemption price of their soul is so precious that it has ceased to time indefinite) that he should still live forever and not see the pit. For he sees that even the wise ones die.” There must be a corresponding ransom, and none of the sin-laden Israelites could provide that in order to redeem the perfect life that was forfeited by Adam.

35. What has happened to the Aaronic priesthood, and so where should the redemptive ransom sacrifice be looked for?

³⁵ The Aaronic priesthood that offered mere animal sacrifices at the sacred house of God passed away nineteen centuries ago, in the year 70 C.E. when Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed by the Roman armies. There is nothing else to do but look to the Messianic King whom Jehovah God swore to make a “priest to time indefinite according to the manner of Melchizedek!” (Psalm 110:1-4) This one should be the “seed” of God’s heavenly “woman,” the seed whom God appoints and enables to bruise the head of the wicked one symbolized by that “serpent” in Eden. If this one were not to provide the redemptive ransom for all mankind, then there is no help for us humans, no outlook for eternal life in a righteous new order under Jehovah God. So, then, the animal sacrifices that were offered on Israel’s “day of atonement” down to the first century C.E. must be pictorial; they must picture prophetically the needed ransom sacrifice that was to be offered by the Messiah who becomes the Melchizedekian priest, the Bruiser of the serpent’s head.

36. Likewise, how must the festivals held under the Law covenant be viewed?

³⁶ Likewise with those annual festivals that God’s covenant imposed upon ancient Israel. They were not mere meaningless occasions for national entertainment and relaxation. They had prophetic significance. Being happy occasions, they pictured the future happy provisions that God has made for mankind. The blessed meaning of them God makes known in his due time according to his “eternal purpose.”

A NATION WITH WONDERFUL OPPORTUNITIES

37. What opportunity did the Law covenant offer to Israelites?

³⁷ However, could any Israelite gain eternal life for himself by keeping the Law of the covenant with God perfectly, without breaking even the slightest part of it? The Law covenant offered each Israelite the opportunity to prove that he could do so. In Leviticus 18:5 this opportunity is referred to, in these words: “You must keep my statutes and my judicial decisions, which if a man will do, he must also live by means of them. I am Jehovah.” So, if any Israelite kept the Law flawlessly and gained eternal life by his own works, he did not need the benefit of the sacrifices of the Law covenant. Neither would he need the blessing of the Abrahamic Promise. (Genesis 12:3; 22:18) Such a perfect Law keeper would establish his own righteousness and life merit.

38, 39. (a) What shows whether any of the Israelites gained life by keeping the Law perfectly? (b) Whose priestly services before God are therefore needed?

³⁸ However, even the prophet Moses died. Even the high priest Aaron died. And every other Israelite from the establishment of the Law covenant down to the passing away of the Aaronic priesthood in the year 70 C.E., yes, down till today, has died. Even nineteen centuries since the destruction of Jerusalem’s temple by the Romans the orthodox Israelites of today go through a form of celebrating the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur. This in itself is an admission of their need of cleansing from sin, yes, their inability to keep the Law perfectly and gain eternal life by their own righteous works. And if they could not do this under the Law covenant, how could any of the rest of us imperfect humans do so?

³⁹ In view of what the Law covenant made plainly manifest, we all stand condemned before the God whose activity is perfect. (Deuteronomy 32:4) As the prophet Isaiah said more than seven hundred years after the Law covenant was made with Israel: “All our righteousnesses are as a polluted garment.” (Isaiah 64:5, JPS) We all need the services of the promised Melchizedekian Priest, who is to be a priest forever.

40. What did Moses do on Nisan 1, 1512 B.C.E., with regard to God’s worship, and what then happened?

⁴⁰ Turn back now to the year of the establishment of that covenant between Jehovah God and Israel by means of the mediator Moses. That lunar year ended, and Nisan 1 of the calendar year 1512 B.C.E. arrived. On that day Moses obeyed God’s command and had the “tabernacle of the tent of meeting” set up for God’s worship thereat to begin. Then Moses clothed his older brother Aaron and Aaron’s sons with their official garments and anointed them with the holy anointing oil to serve as high priest and underpriests. “So Moses finished the work. And the cloud began to cover the tent of meeting, and Jehovah’s glory filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to go into the tent of meeting, because the cloud resided over it and Jehovah’s glory filled the tabernacle.”—Exodus 40:1-35.

41. Of what was that manifestation an evidence, and when was the installation of the priesthood completed?

⁴¹ There was the visible evidence that Jehovah had accepted this structure of worship and had sanctified it to His purpose. On the seventh day of that first month of Nisan (or, Abib) the installing and empowering of the Aaronic priesthood was completed, and thereafter they could officially supervise all features of divine worship at the sacred tabernacle.—Leviticus 8:1 through 9:24.

42. Besides being their God for worship, what else was Jehovah then to Israel, without need of a visible representative?

⁴² Jehovah was the God whom that nation of Israel was commanded and under obligation to worship. He was not alone their God. He was also their royal Ruler, their King, to whom they owed submission and loyalty. Disobedience to His laws and commandments would therefore be insubordination and disloyalty. Confirming that fact, in Deuteronomy 33:5 the prophet Moses refers to the nation of Israel as Jeshurun or “Upright One” because of its entering into the Law covenant and says: “And there was a king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people were gathered, all the tribes of Israel together.” (Translation by The Jewish Publication Society of America) And, says the editorial footnote on that verse by the late Dr. J. H. Hertz, C. H.: “Thus began God’s Kingdom over Israel.” (Pentateuch and Haftorahs, Soncino Press, page 910) Jehovah was their invisible heavenly King. He needed no earthly visible human king to represent Him in Israel.—Genesis 36:31.

43, 44. How uniquely had ancient Israel been favored in comparison with all other earthly nations, and how could they therefore praise Jehovah?

⁴³ How highly favored was this nation that was made up of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Israel) and that had been brought into a covenant with the one living and true God! They had his true worship and enjoyed the prospect of becoming to Him a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

⁴⁴ Said the prophet Amos: “Hear this word that Jehovah has spoken concerning you, O sons of Israel, concerning the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt, saying, ‘You people only have I known out of all the families of the ground.’” (Amos 3:1, 2) It was an accurate comparison that the psalmist expressed in one of the Hallelujah psalms, saying: “He is telling his word to Jacob, his regulations and his judicial decisions to Israel. He has not done that way to any other nation; and as for his judicial decisions, they have not known them. Praise Jah, you people!” (Psalm 147:19, 20) The favored nation indeed had good reason to praise Jehovah by keeping his covenant. Whether they did so was now to be shown during what might be called the Era of the Law Covenant that had now begun.

Chapter 10

A Covenant for a Kingdom Made with David

1. What time period is marked off in 1 Kings 6:1, and why is this time measurement appropriate?

GOD marks off his own time periods according to His “eternal purpose.” One such time period is marked off for us in the book of 1 Kings, chapter six, verse one, where it is written: “And it came about in the four hundred and eightieth year after the sons of Israel came out from the land of Egypt, in the fourth year, in the month of Ziv, that is, the second month, after Solomon became king over Israel, that he proceeded to build the house to Jehovah.” This was an appropriate measurement of time, for it was from when the Israelites were delivered from Egypt, shortly after which they began to build the house of worship in the wilderness of Sinai, to when King Solomon the son of David began to build the temple at Jerusalem. This was from Nisan 15, 1513 B.C.E., to 1034 B.C.E., Ziv (or, Iyyar) 1.—Numbers 33:1-4; 1 Kings 6:37.

2, 3. (a) Why did the Israelites wander so long in the wilderness of Sinai? (b) How long were they in subduing the Promised Land, after which how were they ruled for centuries?

² Of course, much had happened during those almost five centuries. Because of a lack of faith in God’s ability to subdue the nations that then inhabited the Promised Land, the Israelites were obliged to wander in the wilderness of Sinai for almost forty years. During that time the older Israelites who had revolted against invading the Promised Land under God’s leadership in the second year of their exodus died off. (Numbers 13:1 through 14:38) At the end of forty years God miraculously brought them across the flooding Jordan River into the Promised Land, the land of Canaan.

³ Then, under the leadership of Joshua, the successor of Moses, there began years of warfare for subduing the land. According to the words of faithful Caleb, the son of Jephunneh of the tribe of Judah, at the time of apportioning out the occupied land to the families of Israel, the Israelites were six years in subduing the land and dispossessing its inhabitants. (Joshua 14:1-10) After that God gave the now settled Israelites a line of judges for centuries until a change in the form of the national government was introduced in the days of the prophet Samuel. A Jewish chronologer of nineteen hundred years ago briefly measured out this period for us. Speaking one sabbath day in a synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia, Asia Minor, this chronologer said:

4, 5. (a) What time period did that Bible chronologer mark off in Israel’s history before they had judges? (b) With what events did that time period begin and end?

⁴ “Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, hearken. The God of this people Israel chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they sojourned in the land of Egypt, and with a high arm led he them forth out of it. And for about the time of forty years suffered he their manners in the wilderness. And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land for an inheritance, for about four hundred and fifty years [all that during about four hundred and fifty years, NW]: and after these things he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. And afterward they asked for a king; and God gave unto them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for the space of forty years.”—Acts 13:14-21, English Revised Version Bible, published in England in 1884 C.E. See also the Douay Version Bible, published in 1610 C.E. Also, The Emphasised Bible, by J. B. Rotherham, published in 1897 C.E.

⁵ The allotting of the land to Caleb and the other Israelites for an inheritance took place in the year 1467 B.C.E. If we measure back “about four hundred and fifty years” it brings us to the year 1918 B.C.E. This was the year in which Isaac, the son of Abraham by Sarah, was born and God chose Isaac instead of Ishmael, the older son of Abraham by Sarah’s Egyptian maidservant Hagar. With a sworn oath God had confirmed to Isaac the covenant He had made with Abraham for the possession of the land of Canaan, and now here at the end of this four-hundred-and-fifty-year period God was allotting to Isaac’s offspring for an inheritance that Promised Land. In faithfulness Jehovah God was adhering to his “eternal purpose” for blessing all mankind.

6. (a) How did Judge Gideon show loyalty to God’s sovereignty? (b) How did Gideon’s son Abimelech fare as a king?

⁶ During the period of the fifteen judges from Joshua to Samuel, the men of Israel tried to persuade the sixth judge, Gideon, the son of Joash of the tribe of Manasseh, to set up a dynasty of rulers in his family, instead of having Jehovah God as King. But Gideon was loyal to the Sovereign Ruler of Israel and turned down the offer of rulership, saying: “I myself shall not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. Jehovah is the one who will rule over you.” (Judges 8:22, 23) One of Gideon’s many sons, named Abimelech (meaning “My Father Is King”), influenced the landowners of Shechem to install him as king over them. He came under God’s adverse judgments and, after he had reigned for three years, a woman brought about his death in battle.—Judges 9:1-57.

A KING OVER ALL ISRAEL

7. When and how did Israel come to have a human king chosen by God, and how long did he reign?

⁷ In the old age of the fifteenth judge, Samuel the prophet, the elders of Israel came to him with the request: “Now do appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” Samuel took this as a rejection of him as God’s appointed judge, but Jehovah said to him: “Listen to the voice of the people as respects all that they say to you; for it is not you whom they have rejected, but it is I whom they have rejected from being king over them.” God told Samuel to warn the Israelites of all the hardship that it would mean for them to have a visible human king, but they still expressed preference for such a king. God, as the Sovereign Lord over Israel, did the choosing of the man to be Israel’s first human king. He sent Samuel to anoint Saul the son of Kish of the tribe of Benjamin to be the king. In the year 1117 B.C.E. Saul was installed as king at the city of Mizpah. “The people began to shout and say: ‘Let the king live!’” Saul reigned for forty years.—1 Samuel 8:1 through 10:25; Acts 13:21.a

8. (a) In the eleventh year of Saul’s reign, what birth occurred in Bethlehem? (b) What did Micah prophesy about Bethlehem?

⁸ In the eleventh year of Saul’s reign there occurred a seemingly insignificant event in the city of Bethlehem in the territory of the tribe of Judah. Jesse the Bethlehemite became father to an eighth son, whom he named David. Little did King Saul or anyone else in Israel know that this newborn baby would one day become so illustrious that his birthplace, Bethlehem, would one day be called “the city of David.” No one then knew that, some three hundred years later, it would be prophesied concerning that city of David: “But thou, Beth-lechem Ephratah, the least though thou be among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from olden times, from most ancient days.” (Micah 5:1, Leeser; JPS; Mic 5:2, NEB; NW) This prophecy the Jewish religious leaders of the first century before our Common Era understood to apply to the Messiah. So the “seed” of God’s “woman” was to be born in Bethlehem.

9. In view of Saul’s indiscretion, what did God have Samuel tell Saul about the kingdom, and whom would God choose for the throne?

⁹ However, prior to this, after King Saul had reigned for two years, he yielded to a lack of faith and acted presumptuously, indiscreetly, in office. “At this Samuel said to Saul: ‘You have acted foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of Jehovah your God that he commanded you, because, if you had, Jehovah would have made your kingdom firm over Israel to time indefinite. And now your kingdom will not last. Jehovah will certainly find for himself a man agreeable to his heart; and Jehovah will commission him as a leader over his people, because you did not keep what Jehovah commanded you.’” (1 Samuel 13:1-14) The “man agreeable to [God’s] heart” was not yet born, for those words were spoken years before the birth of David at Bethlehem. This made it evident that the Most High God would exercise his power and right and make his own choice of an Israelite to succeed King Saul. In doing so he would stick to his “eternal purpose” in connection with the Messiah.

10, 11. (a) How was David designated to be the future king of Israel? (b) How did David incur Saul’s murderous jealousy, and where did he first become a king?

¹⁰ When David was just a teen-age shepherd boy at Bethlehem, God designated him as the man agreeable to his heart. Although David was not Jesse’s firstborn but was merely the eighth son, God sent Samuel to Bethlehem to anoint David to become the future king of Israel.

¹¹ David came into the spotlight when he alone of all the Israelites volunteered to meet the challenging Philistine giant Goliath on the field of battle and killed him with a slingstone aimed at Goliath’s forehead. (1 Samuel 16:1 through 17:58) David was taken into King Saul’s army, and his popularity with the people grew beyond that of the king. This made Saul very jealous and he tried to kill David and thus prevent him from supplanting one of his own sons on the throne of Israel. Eventually a fatal wound in battle, followed by his falling upon his own sword to speed his death, ended Saul’s kingship. Ish-bosheth, the surviving son of Saul, was made king by those cleaving to Saul’s family line, but only over eleven tribes of Israel. The tribesmen of Judah anointed David king over them in Hebron in the territory of Judah. That was in the year 1077 B.C.E.—2 Samuel 2:1-11; Acts 13:21, 22.

12. When and how was David made king over all Israel, and what question arises now as to the “scepter” and “commander’s staff”?

¹² Saul’s son Ish-bosheth lasted on the throne of Israel possibly for seven years and six months and then he was assassinated by subjects of his. (2 Samuel 2:11 through 4:8) All the tribes now recognized David as Jehovah’s chosen one and they anointed David as king over all Israel, at Hebron. This was in the year 1070 B.C.E. (2 Samuel 4:9 through 5:5) Thus, in harmony with Jacob’s deathbed prophecy as recorded in Genesis 49:10, the “scepter” and the “commander’s staff” had come to the tribe of Judah. On what basis, now, would those emblems of royalty not “turn aside from Judah . . . until Shiloh comes”?

13. How was David really an “anointed one,” and of whom was he made a prophetic type?

¹³ Because of three anointings for kingship, King David could really be called an “anointed one” or “messiah” (Hebrew: ma·shiʹahh), as in 2 Samuel 19:21, 22; 22:51; 23:1. Outstandingly, David was used as a prophetic type of the preeminent Messiah, the “seed” of God’s heavenly “woman.” (See Ezekiel 34:23.) In fact, God saw good to choose David to be in the line of descent that culminated in the Messiah of God’s “eternal purpose.” How did this occur?

14. What city did David make the capital of all Israel, and what sacred object did he then locate there?

¹⁴ Shortly after being anointed king over reunited Israel in 1070 B.C.E., David captured the city of Jebus from the Jebusites and called it Jerusalem. There he moved his government and made this lofty city his capital, it being more centrally located than Hebron, for it was at the borderline between the territories of Judah and Benjamin. (Judges 1:21; 2 Samuel 5:6-10; 1 Chronicles 11:4-9) Not long after that, King David gave consideration to the sacred Ark of Jehovah. For decades it had been allowed to be displaced from the Most Holy of the tent of meeting at Shiloh in the territory of Ephraim. (1 Samuel 1:24; 4:3-18; 6:1 through 7:2) David felt that the Ark should be in the capital city. So he had it brought up and lodged in a tent near his palace.—2 Samuel 6:1-19.

15. What covenant did Jehovah now establish toward David, and out of appreciation for what on David’s part?

¹⁵ However, David came to feel embarrassed, because he, a mere human king, dwelt in a royal palace whereas the Ark of Jehovah, the true God and real King of Israel, dwelt in a modest tent. To put matters in proper balance, David conceived the idea of building a worthy house, a temple, to the Most High God and Universal Sovereign. But Jehovah disapproved of David’s building such a temple. By His prophet Nathan he told David that a peaceful son of his would be privileged to build the temple at Jerusalem. Then, in appreciation for David’s heartfelt devotion to God’s pure worship, Jehovah did a wonderful thing with this man who was “agreeable to his heart.” Of His own accord, he established a covenant toward David for an everlasting kingdom. He said:

“Jehovah has told you that a house is what Jehovah will make for you. When your days come to the full, and you must lie down with your forefathers, then I shall certainly raise up your seed after you, which will come out of your inward parts; and I shall indeed firmly establish his kingdom. He is the one that will build a house for my name, and I shall certainly establish the throne of his kingdom firmly to time indefinite. I myself shall become his father, and he himself will become my son. When he does wrong, I will also reprove him with the rod of men and with the strokes of the sons of Adam. As for my loving-kindness, it will not depart from him the way I removed it from Saul, whom I removed on account of you. And your house and your kingdom will certainly be steadfast to time indefinite before you; your very throne will become one firmly established to time indefinite.”—2 Samuel 7:1-16; 1 Chronicles 17:1-15.

16. What prayer of gratitude did David offer to Jehovah for this?

¹⁶ David offered a prayer of gratitude and closed it, saying:

“And now, O Sovereign Lord Jehovah, you are the true God; and as for your words, let them prove to be truth, since you promise to your servant this goodness. And now take it upon yourself and bless the house of your servant for it to continue to time indefinite before you; for you yourself, O Sovereign Lord Jehovah, have promised, and due to your blessing let the house of your servant be blessed to time indefinite.”—2 Samuel 7:18-29; 1 Chronicles 17:16-27.

17. This covenant was also backed up by what on God’s part?

¹⁷ That covenant promise to David was backed by God’s oath:

“Jehovah has sworn to David, truly he will not draw back from it: ‘Of the fruitage of your belly I shall set on your throne. If your sons will keep my covenant and my reminders that I shall teach them, their sons also forever Will sit upon your throne.’”—Psalm 132:11, 12.

“To time indefinite I shall preserve my loving-kindness toward him, and my covenant will be faithful to him. And I shall certainly set up his seed forever and his throne as the days of heaven. . . . I shall not profane my covenant, and the expression out of my lips I shall not change. Once I have sworn in my holiness, to David I will not tell lies. His seed itself will prove to be even to time indefinite, and his throne as the sun in front of me.”—Psalm 89:28-36. See also Jeremiah 33:20, 21.

18. The prophecy of Isaiah declares that David’s kingdom would furnish the basis for what greater kingdom?

¹⁸ According to that covenant toward King David, his kingdom had to furnish the basis for the coming kingdom of the Greater Messiah. That is why the prophet Isaiah, centuries later, was inspired to prophesy: “For a child is born to us, a son given to us, and the rulership is upon his shoulder; and his name is called: Wonder, Counselor, Strong God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace; in order that the rulership may increase and there may be no end of peace upon the throne of David and in his kingdom; to rear it up and to support it through what is suitable and what is right from now on to forever. The zeal of the Eternal One of armies does such a thing.”—Isaiah 9:5, 6, according to the translation of the Hebrew scholar Rabbi Leopold Pheinkard Zunz, German, sixteenth edition of 1913 C.E. See Isaiah 9:6, 7, AV; RS; NEB; Jerusalem Bible.

19. According to Micah’s prophecy, this “child” was to be born in what city, and this as an identification mark of whom?

¹⁹ According to the prophecy of Micah 5:1 (Zunz; Mic 5:2, AV; NW), this Messianic child was to be born, this royal son was to be given, at Bethlehem in Ephrathah in the territory of Judah. This place of human birth was to be one of the identifying marks of the true Messiah, the “seed” of God’s figurative “woman.” Bethlehem, and not the royal city of Jerusalem, was the birthplace of his ancestor, King David, and hence came to be called David’s city.

A DYNASTY OF DAVIDIC KINGS

20. How long did David’s dynasty last on the throne, and how long did the Israelites have kings?

²⁰ In fulfillment of this kingdom covenant toward David, there followed a line of kings of Jerusalem all in the family line of King David. Counted from David’s kingship in Jerusalem in 1070 B.C.E. this kingdom with a dynasty of Davidic kings in Jerusalem lasted for 463 years, or till 607 B.C.E. So this means that, when we count from the year 1117 B.C.E., when the prophet Samuel anointed Saul as king over all Israel, the nation of Israel had visible kings for 510 years. However, Jehovah was the invisible King.

21. Did David ascend to heaven at death, and who did David prophesy would be invited to sit down at God’s right hand?

²¹ As the royal representative of God who had chosen and anointed him to be king over Israel, King David sat on “Jehovah’s throne” at Jerusalem. (1 Chronicles 29:23) But he did not sit at Jehovah’s right hand, for Jehovah’s throne is in the heavens. (Isaiah 66:1) At his death in 1037 B.C.E., David did not ascend into the spirit heavens and sit down at Jehovah’s right hand up there. He was not invited to do so; but down to the first century of our Common Era the Israelites could locate and identify David’s burial place. Rather, David himself was inspired by God to prophesy, in Psalm 110:1-4, that his Messianic descendant who would be like King-Priest Melchizedek would be the one whom Jehovah would invite to sit down at His right hand in the heavens.

22. How did Solomon and the majority of his successors on the throne turn out, and since when has Jerusalem not had a Davidic king on the throne?

²² David’s young son, Solomon, followed him upon the throne of Jerusalem, “Jehovah’s throne.” According to the divine promise, he was the one favored with building the temple on Mount Moriah at Jerusalem, completing it in the year 1027 B.C.E. (1 Kings 6:1-38) In Solomon’s old age he became unfaithful to the God whose temple he had constructed. The majority of his successors on the throne of Jerusalem also turned out bad. The last of these Davidic kings to sit on Jerusalem’s throne was Zedekiah. For his rebellion against the king of Babylon, who had made Zedekiah a tributary king, he was carried off captive to Babylon, but leaving the city of Jerusalem and its gorgeous temple behind in ruins. (2 Kings 24:17 through 25:21) Never since that tragic year of 607 B.C.E. has there been a Davidic king upon Jerusalem’s throne.

23. Had the kingdom covenant failed or been canceled, and what assurance did God give by Ezekiel about this?

²³ Did that signify that the kingdom covenant toward David had failed or had been canceled? By no means! God gave assurance against that. About the fourth year before the dethronement of Zedekiah and his being exiled in Babylon, God inspired his prophet Ezekiel to say to this last king on Jerusalem’s throne:

“As for you, O deadly wounded, wicked chieftain of Israel, whose day has come in the time of the error of the end, this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘Remove the turban, and lift off the crown. This will not be the same. Put on high even what is low, and bring low even the high one. A ruin, a ruin, a ruin I shall make it. As for this also, it will certainly become no one’s until he comes who has the legal right, and I must give it to him.’”—Ezekiel 21:25-27.

24. What was to be brought low, and when was the reverse of this to take place, and how?

²⁴ Do we get the drift of that? Jehovah himself would make a ruin of the kingdom of the royal family of David at Jerusalem. Things would not be the same as formerly. The Gentile ruling powers that had been low in God’s sight would be put on top, and the earthly kingdom of Jehovah’s chosen people would be brought low, in subjection to the Gentile world powers. The period of Gentile world supremacy without interference from a typical kingdom of God at Jerusalem would continue on until the coming of the one “who has the legal right,” that is to say, the promised true Messiah, and the Sovereign Lord Jehovah would give the kingdom to him. The Gentile world powers would then be no longer on top to dominate the earth. The Messianic kingdom would take world control. Thus, according to the covenant established toward David, his kingdom would be an everlasting government. His throne must stand forever!

25. Despite Jerusalem’s desolation in 607 B.C.E., what covenants and purpose still stood?

²⁵ So, even though down to this very day no Davidic throne has been reestablished at Jerusalem in the Middle East, all is not lost for those hoping in the promised Messiah, the “seed” of God’s heavenly “woman.” True, by the autumn of 607 B.C.E. the throne city of Jerusalem and its temple lay in ruins. The nearby city of Bethlehem, David’s city, lay in ruins at the hands of the Babylonian conquerors. Still, the Law covenant made with Israel at Mount Sinai in Arabia continued in operation. Also, the covenant for an everlasting kingdom as established toward David continued to apply. God’s “eternal purpose” in connection with his Messiah stood. God’s kingdom covenant will not fail. Neither his purpose!

[Footnotes]