Difference between revisions of "Page:Hope-of-a-tree-1934.djvu/11"

Fesrvary 1, 1934 hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his ecounsellor?’’ (Rom. 11:34) ‘‘Who hath directed the spirit of the Lord [Jehovah], or being his counsel- lor hath taught him? With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding?’’ (Isa. 40: 13, 14) No one gave Jehovah instruction, and he took counsel with no one. That covenant by sacrifice and the purpose to make it was seeret unto all until God’s due time to reveal it. ‘‘Which things the angels desire to look into.”’ (1 Pet. 1:12) Doubtless this ineluded the Logos, the chief of all angels. ‘‘The seeret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and his covenant to make them know it.’’ (Ps, 25:14, margin) This text and others strongly support the conclusion that the covenant by sacrifice was not known to any creature in the universe until the time for making it. The covenant is sacred to Jehovah. He says: ‘‘My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.’’—~ Ps. 89: 34. The coyenant and its outworking required the serv- ice of a high priest to perform the sacrificial duties in the priest’s office. ‘‘And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is ealled of God, as was Aaron.’’ (IIeb. 5:4) If ro man could take the saeri- ficial offiee of priest upon himself, much less could the creature propose the covenant with Jchovah by sacrifice, The proof is thercfore conclusive that it was Jehovah alone who originated the covenant by sacri- fice and made it known in his own good time. What was the occasion for this extraordinary cove- nant? Not any desire on the part of God for blood. With him is the fountain of life. (Ps. 36:9) He did not need blood for self-gratifieation. “If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?’’ (Ps. 50:12,13) ‘‘To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifiecs unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.’’ —Isa. 1:11. The oceasion was love and grace exercised by Je- hovah. The honor of Jchovah’s name was involved, and love and grace acted with wisdom to provide the need. Life of man is a saered riglit or privilege. (Gen. 9:5) Adam violated the sacredness of God-given life. Now Jehovah would afford a sacrificial course to be taken by some one, that the sinner might have that sacred gift of life renewed. Jehovah required no one to sacrifice; therefore the sacrificial arrangement was the outgrowth of love. The sacrifice would be just as much on the part of God as on the part of the other party to the covenant, because God alone provided and arranged for the sacrifice. The entire arrangement must be of God’s own volition and by the voluntary agreement on the part of the other one to the cove- She WATCHTOWER. 43 nant. For this reason the covenant was the only ar- rangement that could fitly serve the purpose of pro- viding a basis for man’s reconciliation. The liberty and free moral agency of the one sacrificed is not interfered with. In determining where the covenant by sacrifice was made, the purpose of the covenant may be said to con- trol the conclusion, A perfect man had sinned and lost his right to life. God now would have that right to life purchased by another perfect man. Tis law required a life for a life. (Deut. 19:21) That man with a human life must be the one that should be sacrificed. A spirit ercature could not enter into a covenant by sacrifice and redeem a human creature, because that would not be a corresponding price. It is truc that the life of the Logos was transferred from the spirit to human, but there is no Seriptural evi- dence that a covenant by sacrifice was known to the Logos at the time of the transfer. Being fully con- formable to Jehovah’s will, he eame to earth in har- mony with his will, being made a perfect man. He was begotten, not by fallen man, but by the power of Jehovah, When he reached his majority as a man he doubtless knew that he was to do somcthing in connection with man’s recovery to life. Whatsoever the will of his Father might be in that respect or any other, he was ready to do it. This is shown by his use of the words: ‘‘Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will.’ (Ps. 40:7,8) Paul fixes the time of the eovcnant as at the Jordan when the words above quoted were made effective. (I[cb. 10: 5-7) There Jesus eame into the world as a mature man and must determine whether or not he would be of the world. Prior to that time, although he was the heir, his position was nothing different from that of a servant, because he was under the discipline of the law eovenant.—(al. 4: 1, 2. When ‘the appointed time of the Father’ arrived there was a feature of God’s will to be carried out which prior to that time was sceret to all, At the Jordan, which fixes the time of the consecration of the man Jesus, was the appointed time of the Father. That clearly, therefore, seems to be the proper and due time for the making of the eovenant which re- sulted in the sacrifice of the man Jesus. The uncon- ditional agreement there on the part of Jesus was to do his Father’s will, whatsoever that might be; and if it meant that he must dic, he was agreeable to that. The sacrifice was primarily the sacrifice of Jehovah, because it was Jehovah who gave his dearly beloved Son, him who belonged to Jchovah exclusively, to be sacrificed. This was shown in the picture on Mount Moriah when Abraham, representing Jehovah, offered his only son Isaac, who at that time represented Jesus. It was the love of God that provided the sacrifice which the sacrifice on Mount Moriah pictured. This is further proved by the words: ‘‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but