the full length of the western shore of the Dead Sea and extended westward to the Mediterranean Sea.

59. How did the tribe of Judah prove to be like a lion cub?

⁵⁹ So the tribe of Judah was like a lion among the beasts of the forest. (Mic. 5:8) With all fitness the patriarch Jacob could say: “A lion cub Judah is.” The tribe of Judah provided the permanent dynasty or family of kings for the nation of Israel. David became the head of this dynasty of kings, because Jehovah God made with him a covenant for an everlasting kingship in his family. At first the tribe of Judah may have been like a lion cub, when King Saul of the tribe of Benjamin ruled all Israel, and David, the giant killer, became an officer in King Saul’s army. But God decided against continuing the kingship over Israel in the family of Saul because of Saul’s willful disobedience; and so in 1070 B.C.E., after King Ish-bosheth the son of Saul died, all twelve tribes of Israel made David of the tribe of Judah their king.

60, 61. (a) How did David live up to the name of his tribe, and what relation did he have with Jesus Christ? (b) On what must we readers wait for a further examination of Jacob’s prophecy?

⁶⁰ Thus on a grand scale Jacob’s prophecy was fulfilled, that Judah’s brothers would laud him and would prostrate themselves to him. (2 Sam. 4:5 to 5:5) For the most part, David, whom the tribe of Judah provided as the national leader, behaved himself in a laudable way. He became a prophetic type of the coming King to whom the united obedience of all the people would belong, as foretold by Jacob. In fact, David became the illustrious ancestor of that foretold One, Jesus Christ; and from King David Jesus Christ inherited the right to rulership over Israel.—Luke 1:26-33.

⁶¹ However, for a further examination of Jacob’s prophecy concerning this One to whom the obedience of all the people belongs we must wait for the publication of the article “Fellow Rulers with the ‘Lion of the Tribe of Judah.’”

(See the issue of The Watchtower as of July 1, 1962.)

Churches “Self-centered”

In the book Saints on Main Street, Peter Day, editor of Living Church magazine, states that the typical neighborhood church is “self-centered.” He says clergymen concentrate on “church work” rather than “the work of the church” in the outside world. Maintaining that many churches give little thought to serving others, he writes: “This is a great period of prosperity in the life of the parishes. Most of them are growing according to every index of success. Their membership is on the rise, the Sunday School is bursting at the seams, old debts are being paid off, new ones are easily floated for ambitious new building projects, men and women are active in parish groups, financial contributions are increasing, and people are praying, studying and working harder than ever before. There is, however, a curiously introverted quality about the entire enterprise. Typically, the parish measures its progress not according to the norms of its service to community and world, but according to the norms of its own size and financial strength. Similarly, it measures the usefulness of its members not by their service to mankind but by their service to the parish itself.”