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$he WAICHTOWIER ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH'S KINGDOM Vou. LX Apri. 15, 1939 No. 8 DRAMA OF VINDICATION PART 6 “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine.’-—Ex. 19:5. righteous. His name could not be vindicated if he would approve anything that is unrighteous. The eyes of Jehovah are pure, and he cannot look upon lawlessness. (Hab. 1:13) Willful disobedience of his commandments is iniquity or lawlessness. The creature that receives God’s approval must be obe- dient. That unchangeable rule applies to all of his creatures. When God made a covenant with Israel he emphasized the necessity for full and complete obedience. Israel, in the covenant of faithfulness, pictured the spiritual Israelites in the covenant for the kingdom. Those chosen of God to he associated in heaven with his beloved Son are a peculiar peo- ple, and their approval must be preceded by full obedience to the Lord. The words, therefore, uttered by Jehovah to natural Israel apply with even greater force to spiritual Israel, to wit: “If ye will obey my voice indeed [that is, emphatically, to a certainty, wholly or completely], and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine.” There is nothing in the earth to which man has an inherent right as against God. Everything that man receives is by God’s favor. That is particularly true with refer- ence to those in the covenant with Jehovah. It is Jehovah’s purpose that He is carrying forward, not man’s purpose. What God has purposed, that he will do, and no creature will be permitted to pursue his own selfish course contrary to God’s purpose and at the same time receive God’s approval. In due time everything that willfully takes a course con- trary to God’s will shall be destroyed. Repeatedly the Word of God emphasizes the absolute necessity for the creature to be obedient to God the Creator. There could be no exception to that divine rule, and there is none. ? Jehovah’s unchangeable rule requiring obedience was emphasized in the prophetic drama of vindica- tion which Jehovah caused to be played by his cove- nant people Israel under the command of Joshua. J sisntons. name stands for everything that is The same rule is emphasized in the fulfillment of the drama, which God reveals to his people who are now under the command of the Greater Joshua, Christ Jesus. Jehovah had just performed two great miracles: one, the bringing of the Israelites across the swollen waters of the Jordan, and the other, the miraculous overthrow of Jericho; and by these miracles he had fully demonstrated to Israel his own supremacy. Why should any Israelite, while those two miraculous things were fresh in mind, dare take a course contrary to the commandment of the Most High? Joshua had uttered the commandment, but that was the commandment of Jehovah, and the Israelites had no reason to doubt that fact.

• The avaricious man has an inordinate desire for

material gain, either of money or of fame or honor for himself. Achan, of the tribe of Judah, was that kind of person. The facts show that there have been persons in line for the kingdom of heaven and who have fallen by reason of their inordinate desire for personal gain. That part of the prophetic drama here considered shows that very thing, and it was recorded and is now made clear for the aid and benefit of those who have agreed to do the will of God and who would avoid pitfalls and walk in the way that Jehovah has pointed out: “But the chil- dren of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing; for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the Lord was kin- dled against the children of Israel.”—Josh. 7:1. “In reality only one man of the tribe of Judah committed that trespass, but God here shows that he deals with his people collectively as an organi- zation and that willful wrongdoing in any part thereof will not be overlooked and left unnoticed or unpunished. To permit a wrongful act to go un- noticed would put in danger the entire organization and bring reproach upon Jechovah’s name.

• The “aceursed thing” at that time was Jericho,

and at the present time it is the religious organi- 115