any missiles known to man. Who knows what cosmic or other forces Jehovah will call into play in destroying the wicked? “Have you entered into the storehouses of the snow, or do you see even the storehouses of the hail, which I have kept back for the time of distress, for the day of fight and war?” (Job 37:5; 38:1, 3, 22, 23) Oh, may we all maintain our dedicated stand within Jehovah’s New World society down to Armageddon, and right through that wondrous time of battle!—1 Cor. 16:13; Ps. 46:1, 2.

28. (a) What is pictured by God’s rewarding Job? (b) What do attentive praisers of Jehovah now sing?

²⁸ As Job was richly rewarded for being attentive to God’s wonderful works, and particularly Elihu’s message concerning Jehovah’s vindication, so the spiritual remnant of Jehovah’s witnesses today have entered into a marvelous prosperity. They have been blessed with a multitude of “children,” who expect to live forever on this earth and who are beautiful indeed in their world-wide service to God. (Job 42:12-15) All praise Jehovah in one harmonious unity, rejoicing together in the prospect of survival into his new world. Happily they sing: “Jehovah is great and very much to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. Generation after generation will commend your works, and about your mighty acts they will tell. The glorious splendor of your dignity and the matters of your wonderful works I will make my concern.” (Ps. 145:3-5) All together they hold integrity in attentiveness to the wonderful works of God.

Honoring Jehovah

“Now to the King of eternity, incorruptible, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever.”—1 Tim. 1:17.

1. How only may the creature gain a right perspective on personal honor?

OF WHAT value is personal honor, if Jehovah’s name is not honored? What merit is there to worldly honor that ignores Jehovah’s right principles? Only by honoring Jehovah, the King of eternity, and the Source of all true honor and glory, may the creature gain a right perspective on personal honor. In honoring Jehovah, he will not seek to make a name for himself. Rather, he will be like-minded with the loyal Son of God, Christ Jesus, who declared: “I honor my Father . . . I am not seeking glory for myself . . . If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father that glorifies me.” (John 8:49-54) Self-honor and worldly glory are empty and vain. True honor is to be found in humbly witnessing to the name and kingdom of the great God, Jehovah. “Those honoring me I shall honor.”—1 Sam. 2:30.

2, 3. What does history show concerning human regard for personal honor?

² Throughout history, earthling man has striven for an undying name and glory. Deeds of heroism have become part of the folklore of most nations. In many parts of the earth, vindicating personal honor has been held in great store. There was el valor Español in classic Spain and die Ehre in medieval Germany. In some places, a person’s name was cleared of insult by dueling with sword or pistol, and in the case of those unskilled in the use of lethal weapons, this used to amount to virtual suicide. But it meant saving face. Webster’s New International Dictionary says “save face” means “to preserve one’s dignity or standing before others.”—Page 2223, column 2.

³ In the Orient suicide has long been regarded as a means of clearing one’s name, the classic example being that of the forty-seven ronin (lordless knights) in Tokyo of the early 1700’s. These paid an account of honor by secretly slaying the high court official who had caused their master’s death. However, this brought them into disfavor with the ruler of Japan. They could redeem their honor only by carrying out seppuku (stomach-cutting), and this they did, all forty-seven disemboweling themselves at the one time. Thus they gained for themselves a name that has been honored by song, dance and pilgrimage down to this day.

4. How extensive is regard for name and honor in modern times?

⁴ The sensitive regard for name and honor is to be found also in this twentieth century. The Oriental businessman still suicides rather than face the dishonor of failing to pay his debts at the year’s end. Throughout the earth there are those who wear professional pride, distinction of caste or of social standing, and who are slaves to etiquette. With many, their way of life is governed by the thought: How will I look before the local community? In Western lands this sensitiveness often results in living beyond one’s means, in order to be in fashion with the latest model car and the latest home contraptions. Honesty is often sacrificed in order to “keep up with the Joneses.”

5. What does pride in personal honor actually amount to, and what does it result in?

⁵ What does all this amount to? It amounts to an unjustifiable pride in one’s personal honor. It means that one must make an outward show of respectability, of “being someone,” regardless of the facts. It is an emotional regard for a proud name, even at the cost of sacrificing all principle. It is a matter of putting on face, keeping face and saving face. The unbalanced craving of a good reputation, without regard to honoring Jehovah, has led to speaking and living a lie. It has led to crime and much unhappiness. When practiced in the Christian congregation, face-saving endangers the creature’s relationship to his Creator, and may result in the loss of eternal life. As the Bible record shows, face-saving has no place with God’s true people.

FACE-SAVING IN BIBLE TIMES

6. Where did pride and face-saving honor first appear, and how was it manifested?

⁶ Almost 6,000 years ago, that wily serpent, the Devil, introduced a false appraisal of honor into the paradise of Eden. The woman Eve was “thoroughly deceived” into thinking that she could make for herself a name, comparable to that of God. Her husband, Adam, became a transgressor with her. (Gen. 3:4-6; 1 Tim. 2:14) Sensing the shame of sin, the guilty couple now attempted to save face. They went to making clothes for themselves, and they hid from Jehovah, in between the trees of the garden. When called to account before Jehovah, the man tried to save face by blaming the woman, and the woman in her turn by blaming the serpent. However, the attempt to salvage personal honor could not bypass divine principle. Justly, Jehovah pronounced sentence in harmony with his previously stated law. Face-saving excuses could not save the pair from disgraceful banishment from Eden, nor from eternal death in the dust of the ground.—Gen. 2:17; 3:7-19.

7. How did Satan try to save face, and what is the proof that he failed?

⁷ However, what of that wily serpent, Satan the Devil? The Scripture record shows that God will have him crushed out of existence by the ‘seed of his woman,’ Christ Jesus. (Gen. 3:15) In the meantime Satan has tried to save face with the proud boast that, having caused Eve, and then Adam, to deflect from serving Jehovah, he could now turn all mankind away from God. Jehovah has convincingly answered the challenge through olden-time witnesses such as Job, through his perfect Son, Christ Jesus, and through his faithful Christian witnesses. (Job 1:6-12; 2:1-10; Heb. 11:1-12:2) Satan, for his part, has produced a proud “seed” of rebellious men, who have gloried in fame and self-honor, without regard to Jehovah’s name.

8. What has been fostered by desire for honor, and what was an early example?

⁸ From earliest times this desire for personal honor has fostered violence and dishonesty. Adam’s first-born, Cain, finding his sacrifice unacceptable to Jehovah, sought to save face by destroying his brother Abel. When Jehovah asked Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” he contemptuously lied in reply: “I do not know. Am I my brother’s guardian?” His face-saving pride brought only Jehovah’s curse, and ultimately eternal death.—Gen. 4:3-16.

9, 10. How was the seeking of name and fame confounded (a) in Noah’s day, and (b) following the Flood?

⁹ Within sixteen hundred years of the Edenic rebellion, the earth was overrun by a proud, God-dishonoring race of men, together with the hybrid offspring of wicked spirits and human females, “the mighty ones who were of that world, the men of fame.” “So God saw the earth and, look! it was ruined, because all flesh had ruined its way on the earth. After that God said to Noah: ‘The end of all flesh has come before me, because the earth is full of violence as a result of them, and here I am bringing them to ruin together with the earth.’” That proud world community maintained a smug face for a time, mocking Noah, his preaching and his boatbuilding, but it perished in dishonor as a world of the ungodly.—Gen. 6:4, 12, 13; 2 Pet. 3:5-7.

¹⁰ Following the Flood, Satan again put it into the hearts of imperfect men to seek a personal name and glory, rather than honor Jehovah. The great-grandson of Noah, Nimrod, “made the start in becoming a mighty one in the earth. He displayed himself a mighty hunter in opposition to Jehovah.” Men traveled east, to a valley plain in Shinar. “They now said: ‘Come on! Let us build ourselves a city and also a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a celebrated name for ourselves, for fear we may be scattered over all the surface of the earth.’” What did their “celebrated name” gain for them? In vindication of his own name, Jehovah confused their language and scattered them abroad upon the face of the earth.—Gen. 10:8, 9; 11:1-9.

11, 12. In the case of Egypt’s Pharaoh, how did Jehovah demonstrate the futility of pride in name and glory?

¹¹ More than eight hundred years after the Flood, Jehovah sent Moses to Egypt to deliver His people, Israel. When Moses stated his mission before Pharaoh, that proud ruler of Egypt declared: “Who is Jehovah, so that I should obey his voice?” Jehovah humbled Pharaoh by bringing a series of devastating plagues on Egypt. During the course of these plagues, Jehovah told Pharaoh: “But, in fact, for this cause I have kept you in existence, for the sake of showing you my power and in order to have my name declared in all the earth.” It is for this same reason that Jehovah has permitted the god of this wicked world, Satan the Devil, to continue in