the one made at Mount Sinai, which was given as a guide for the Israelites until the promised Seed arrived. Jeremiah foretold this new covenant and said it would be a different covenant. Instead of being put on stone tablets it would be put on hearts.—Jer. 31:31-33, AS.

28. What did the Jewish remnant experience?

²⁸ The remnant of the Jewish nation that exercised faith were taken into this new covenant. They experienced circumcision of the heart. Their heart’s desire was to obey God in all he required of them. They had an inward motivation to do what was right in his eyes. With the accurate knowledge they had gained of God’s written Word and with this desire to do God’s will they did not need a law of many negative commandments telling them what not to do. Thus when the new covenant was inaugurated at Pentecost, A.D. 33, the old law covenant given at Mount Sinai was no longer binding on them. It had been abolished. Christ had brought it to an end by fulfilling its purpose.

29. How was the new covenant validated, and why is it superior to the law covenant?

²⁹ As with the old covenant, so with the new covenant: a sacrifice was necessary to validate it. It was validated with something better than the blood of animals, however. It was validated with the perfect life-blood of Christ. This made the new covenant superior to the old covenant. It was also superior by having a better priesthood, a perfect mediator and better promises. “But now Jesus has obtained a more excellent public service, so that he is also the mediator of a correspondingly better covenant, which has been legally established upon better promises.”—Heb. 8:6.

30, 31. Who are the true seed of Abraham, and why could they be likened to sand on the seashore?

³⁰ Now those persons brought into this covenant are the true Israel of God, the true seed of Abraham. The promise given to Abraham, which is recorded at Genesis 22:17, 18, applies to them and not to the fleshly descendants of Abraham, who, as a nation, have not listened to God and have not shown the faith and obedience of that patriarch. The promise foretells how they would be associated with the chief Seed of Abraham, Christ Jesus, as a royal family.

³¹ Since it was not God’s will to make known in Abraham’s day the number of persons who would form spiritual Israel, he left it as an indefinite number. It was undisclosed. He said: “I shall surely multiply your seed like the stars of the heavens and like the grains of sand that are on the seashore.” As the stars and sands are uncountable, so spiritual Israel was uncountable because God had not as yet disclosed their number.

32. Where is the number of spiritual Israel indicated in the Bible?

³² It was not until after the new covenant was inaugurated that this secret was made known. The number is recorded for us at Revelation 14:1. The spiritual Israelites are described there as being with the chief Seed, Christ Jesus, on heavenly Mount Zion. “And I saw, and look! the Lamb standing upon the mount Zion, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand having his name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads.” Thus spiritual Israel is formed by no more than 144,000 members under the High Priest, Christ Jesus. Only these are brought into the new covenant and form a new nation bearing Jehovah’s name.

33. Does the casting off of the Jewish national house of worship mean individual Jews cannot gain God’s favor? Why?

³³ God’s favor now rests upon this new nation and not upon natural Israel. But the casting off of the Jewish national house of worship does not mean that individual Jews cannot come into God’s favor. The rejecting of that nation did not mean the rejecting of every individual in it, for a remnant of the nation exercised faith and was brought into the new covenant. (Rom. 9:27) As this remnant gained God’s favor by exercising faith in him and his Son, so individual Jews today can gain it by the same means. They must acknowledge that God has replaced the old law covenant with a new and better covenant. They must recognize its better sacrifice, Christ’s humanity, and how inherited sin from Adam is permanently cleansed by means of his blood. They must recognize Christ as God’s appointed King, and they must recognize spiritual Israel as the true Israel of God. In other words, individual Jews can gain God’s favor in the same manner that non-Jews can.

34. What conclusion must we draw regarding fleshly Israel?

³⁴ In view of what we have considered it is evident that fleshly Israel does not have a favorable standing with God. Instead of being his holy nation it has been cast off, abandoned by him, because of its stubbornness, disobedience and rejection of his acts of loving-kindness. The Israel that does have a good standing with him is spiritual Israel. Because those chosen to make up spiritual Israel have shown the faith and obedience of Abraham, they are the true sons of Abraham. It is, therefore, not fleshly Israel but all spiritual Israel that will be saved. They are the ones who receive the blessing of being God’s special property, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.

Grafting from the Wild Olive Tree

“However, if some of the branches were broken off but you, although being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became a partaker of the olive’s root of fatness, do not be exulting over the branches.”—Rom. 11:17, 18.

1, 2. Why are dead branches on a fruit tree undesirable, and how did John the Baptist use this in an illustration?

WHICH are more desirable, dead branches on a fruit tree or live ones? The answer is obvious. Fruit is not produced by what is dead. A fruitgrower will therefore trim off dead, unproductive branches, that a tree’s production will not be hindered. In ancient Palestine the fruitgrower was interested in productive trees not only because of the income they brought him but also because fruit trees were taxed. He could not afford to have unfruitful trees taking up valuable space or have a tree filled with unproductive