large and small. The positions occupied by Moses and the men whom he appointed were not merely empty and honorary, but were important and practical and for the specific purpose of righteous judgment. Concerning these theocratic appointments we read: “And Moses proceeded to choose capable men out of all Israel and to give them positions as heads over the people, as chiefs of thousands, chiefs of hundreds, chiefs of fifties and chiefs of tens. And they judged the people on every proper occasion. A hard case they would bring to Moses, but every small case they themselves would handle as judges.”—Ex. 18:25, 26, NW.

12. In respect to God’s law, what responsibility was borne by those of Israel?

¹² The rule of procedure controlling the Israelite organization was the law of Jehovah. The responsible ones in the organization taught the law to the people and the people had the responsibility of informing themselves concerning the law of God. They knew what the principles of worship were and they knew the detailed application of those principles, in regard to the matters with which the law dealt, matters national, family and personal. Provisions were made to atone for sins and weaknesses of the fallen Israelite flesh. The various features of the law were designed to keep the nation in harmony with God, worshiping him, always acknowledging him, and, furthermore, to keep alive and vital the quality of love of God and neighbor and the elements of virtue in all matters. Jehovah was not going to allow his worship and its good qualities to be eliminated from the earth, but, rather, to be preserved in typical Israel.

13, 14. What drastic measures were provided, and for what purpose?

¹³ Sometimes it was necessary for drastic measures to be taken for the preservation of these good qualities. There was no watering down of theocratic standards to please those who had a greater love for unrighteousness than they had for righteousness. Offenders, insisting on going beyond the atonement provisions, were killed, and the congregation of the Israelites had a direct responsibility in their death. Religion or worship was not separated from governmental and economic matters of the nation, because acknowledgment of Jehovah must be present in all features of their life. So the law provided, “In case a prophet or a dreamer of a dream should arise in your midst . . . saying, ‘Let us walk after other gods, whom you have not known, and let us serve them,’ you must not listen to the words of that prophet or to the dreamer of that dream, because Jehovah your God is testing you to know whether you are loving Jehovah your God with all your heart and all your soul. . . . And that prophet or that dreamer of the dream should be put to death, . . . and you must clear out what is evil from your midst.”—Deut. 13:1-5, NW.

¹⁴ The death penalty was not confined to the false prophet or dreamer because “in case your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or your cherished wife or your companion who is like your own soul, should try to allure you in secrecy, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ . . . you must not accede to his wish or listen to him, nor should your eye feel sorry for him, nor must you feel compassion, nor cover him protectively, but you should kill him without fail. Your hand first of all should come upon him to put him to death, and the hand of all the people afterward. And you must stone him with stones and he must die, because he has sought to turn you away from Jehovah your God, who has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves. Then all Israel will hear and become afraid and they will not do anything like this evil thing again in your midst.” (Deut. 13:6-11, NW) What if an entire community went bad and turned against the worship of the righteous God Jehovah? Then that entire community was to be annihilated.—Deut. 13:12-18.

15. Define virtue and show how religion is involved in its practice.

¹⁵ The foregoing was to ensure the preservation of Jehovah’s worship without pollution and the keeping of his righteous commandments, thereby also preserving the qualities of virtue in general. Virtue has reference to moral practice or action conformative to the standard of right, excellence and integrity of course, uprightness of conduct, rectitude, morality. It is not a mere abstaining from harm but it is an active quality or power, whether of physical or moral nature, of strength, courage and valor. It has reference to excellence of any kind, merit, worth, value, chastity, purity. Since the righteous God, Jehovah, is the author of all these virtuous elements, his worship is involved in them all, and a departure from his worship is a departure from all virtue. Therefore the extermination of devil worshipers from Israel by the death of those false religious practitioners served to preserve true worship and virtue.

16. The law relative to presumptuousness places what emphasis on pure worship?

¹⁶ The seventeenth chapter of Deuteronomy outlines procedures wherein Israelites must have courage to bear truthful witness against any detestable to Jehovah and also courage to put forth their hands first of all to kill the offenders, in which action they were to be followed by all the people, in order to “clear out what is bad from your midst.” (Deut. 17:7, NW) Those who disagreed with the righteous judgments of the priests were themselves to be killed. “In case a matter for judicial decision should be too extraordinary for you, . . . then you must rise and go up to the place that Jehovah your God will choose, and you must go to the priests, the Levites, and to the judge who will be acting in those days and you must make inquiry and they must hand down to you the word of the judicial decision. Then you must do in accordance with the word that they will hand down to you. . . . In accordance with the law that they will point out to you, and according to the judicial decision that they will say to you, you should do. You must not turn aside from the word that they will hand down to you, to the right or to the left. And the man who will behave with presumptuousness in not listening to the priest who is standing to minister there to Jehovah your God or to the judge, that man must die, and you must clear out what is bad from Israel. And all the people will hear and become afraid and they will not act presumptuously any more.”—Deut. 17:8-13, NW.

17. Through these strict features of the law to typical Israel, what good result was furthered?

¹⁷ This was not bloodthirstiness. It was action on Jehovah God’s part to preserve the line of the Seed of promise, which eventually came in the person of Christ Jesus. Through this provision of ransom and priestly office filled by this faithful servant of Jehovah there is set before men the possibility of everlasting life in the New World of righteousness. We thank God that he took positive action to preserve intact and uncontaminated the line of descent of the Seed of promise and preserved likewise upon the earth his worship in holy devotion to righteousness.

18. Were literal or symbolic transgressions forbidden, or both?

¹⁸ Among the personal sins or transgressions which were condemned by God in his law to Israel, and which had to be avoided by those who would worship Jehovah in purity and in truth, were robbery, adultery and drunkenness, to name just three. These literal violations of virtue not only were wrong in themselves but were adopted Scripturally as symbols of spiritual sins, that is, sins not in respect to material things affecting the individual’s relationship to Jehovah God, but in respect to unseen things affecting the individual’s relationship to Jehovah. The literal practices themselves, however, even after they came to stand for spiritual transgressions, were not permitted in Israel. This is emphasized in respect to the antitypical theocratic Christian organization that came on the scene at the termination of the Mosaic law covenant under which Israel was organized.

THE CHRISTIAN ANTITYPE

19. What great change did Jehovah provide through Christ Jesus?

¹⁹ Moving forward with his purposes looking to the complete vindication of his name, Jehovah came to the time when he would provide both the termination and the prophetic fulfillment of the law to Israel in his beloved Son Christ Jesus. Jesus began the development of some things new, different from the typical theocratic nation of Israel, namely, the real theocratic Christian organization. While the law covenant with Israel did terminate with Christ Jesus and has not been in effect since his impalement and ascension to heaven, nevertheless, the righteous principles of the law continue in full force, and, in fact, with even greater force and effect upon those of the Christian organization. With the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ as a basis, Jehovah developed the Christian congregation under the new covenant.

20. As to Christian virtue, what may be said with definiteness?

²⁰ “God . . . has indeed adequately qualified us to be ministers of a new covenant, not of a written code, but of spirit; for the written code condemns to death, but the spirit makes alive.” (2 Cor. 3:2-6, NW) It is noted that Paul is not saying that there is a letter of the law and a spirit of the law and that there is a contrast between the two and therefore we may violate the letter of God’s law but keep its spirit. That is not the situation. Rather, what Paul is pointing out here is that there is a difference between the written code of the law given to the Israelites through Moses and the spirit of God. The spirit of God upon Christians develops in them fruits of righteousness and enables them to remain separate from the ungodly condemned world. The written code condemned the Israelites to death, but the spirit of God, through the operation of the new covenant based in the ransom of Christ Jesus, leads men to everlasting life. There is the contrast. Can we for a moment presume that, while the individuals of the nation of Israel under the law covenant were prohibited from practicing the depraving things that mankind in general then carried on, Christians are any the less obligated to refrain from these practices? No, of course not. On the contrary, the positive Christian commands to righteousness are more penetrating than the negative commands of the Mosaic law; and the spirit of God upon those who serve him in Christian worship now in the activity of the New World society enables them to keep integrity with the sure hope of gaining perfection to righteousness in the glorious future.

Conspicuous by Their Absence

● When preacher Alan Walker of the Methodist Church in Australia addressed 550 church leaders in Silver Bay, New York, he said that teen-agers were “conspicuous by their absence in American churches.” He suggested that Protestant churches had allowed their Sunday Schools to interfere with teen-agers’ attendance at regular worship services, and that “when they leave the Sunday School they leave the church.”—New York Times, July 16, 1956.