our day and on through our day. So if one will accept Jehovah’s counsel today, he may look forward to the undeserved gift of everlasting life.

18. How does one show that he is in his proper place?

¹⁸ Yes, man’s proper place is one of worshiping God with spirit and truth. This cannot be done as tried by some in becoming hermits and monks and isolating themselves. But the great Exemplar, Christ Jesus, demonstrated to us that God is properly worshiped by man in publicly proclaiming God’s purposes and his qualities and his characteristics to other human creatures. All his disciples Jesus counseled to be busy in proclaiming the Kingdom message. He showed his faithfulness by doing so himself, even though he was killed because of it. Worshiping God is a necessary feature of man’s daily life. And it is necessary as long as man lives. “Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever.” (Ps. 145:2, AS) Therefore man should accept this counsel now and not refuse or balk like a stubborn mule but obey like an intelligent human creature. He should seek out how to worship God and look to him as a hiding place and a place of deliverance.

ONE’S PLACE IN THE NEW WORLD SOCIETY

19. What society is it proper to associate with, and how will Armageddon affect it? Why?

¹⁹ Those who are now associating with the New World society are doing just that. They know that the New World society has accepted God’s Word as its guide and is following a path that is made clear in that Word. They know that this is the proper place for them to be and that the warning in the Bible of the destruction of the wicked with no place left for them does not apply to the New World society. The battle of Armageddon which will destroy the wicked and remove them will change nothing with the New World society, because it has gotten willingly into its proper place and is not deserving of destruction. It will not even change the need to continue preaching, as it will be necessary to praise God’s name by talking throughout eternity. However, there will be no more wicked ones left to talk to, but there will be the children to teach and in due time the millions of persons who will be raised from the grave by means of the resurrection.

20. Why can we expect it to take effort to find and keep our proper place?

²⁰ Certainly it is wise counsel now to urge everyone to follow theocratic counsel. Find your place and stay in it. Work with the New World society now and it may be that you will be able to work with the New World society after Armageddon. It takes effort to seek out and follow theocratic counsel. It requires sacrifice on your part. Such is a commandment from God. “By this we have come to know love, because that one [God’s Son Jesus] surrendered his soul for us; and we are under obligation to surrender our souls for our brothers.” (1 John 3:16, NW) This proper love and concern for our human brothers we will show by telling each one who will listen of the need for him to praise and worship God. Actually there is no place outside the New World society for Jehovah’s people. Such outside places are for another people, a stubborn people that seek out places of habitation according to their own way of thinking; a people who will soon feel the results of refusing to obey God.

21. Name some of the requirements for Christians to meet to be in their proper places. What should be our attitude toward these requirements?

²¹ All who are now associated with the New World society should appreciate their place of favor and stick to it. Many have positions of responsibilities and all have positions of service in connection with the New World society. In order to keep our place there we must be diligent to follow the counsel given us by inspired writers of the Bible. The course of a true Christian is far different from the course of people associated with this old world system and he must keep in this different course to maintain a permanent place. The apostle Paul mentions many of the requirements for the overseers in particular and for every true Christian in general: “The overseer should therefore be irreprehensible, a husband of one wife, moderate in habits, sound in mind, orderly, a lover of strangers, qualified to teach, not a drunken brawler, not a smiter, but reasonable, not belligerent, not a lover of money, a man presiding over his own household in a right manner, having children in subjection with all seriousness; (if indeed any man does not know how to preside over his own household, how will he take care of God’s congregation?) not a newly converted man, for fear that he might get puffed up with pride and fall into the judgment passed upon the Devil. Moreover, he should also have a favorable testimony from people on the outside, in order that he might not fall into reproach and a snare of the Devil.” (1 Tim. 3:2-7, NW) Those who have positions of responsibilities and are special representatives of the New World society should strive to carry out all the counsel mentioned by Paul here and counsel given throughout the entire Bible. Jehovah caused it to be recorded and preserved for the very purpose of aiding us to get into our proper place in whatever position we serve. One should not try to evade the duties that come upon a Christian, thus trying to step out of his place, but he should be eager to accept the responsibilities and diligent to carry them out.

22. What counsel does the Bible give for women? How do we know that even those in the world recognize that it is proper for the man to have headship over the woman?

²² Considerable attention is given in the Scriptures also on the matter of the proper place of women in the congregations. In writing to Titus, Paul stated: “Let the aged women be reverent in behavior, not slanderous, neither enslaved to a lot of wine, teachers of what is good, that they may recall the young women to their senses to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sound in mind, chaste, workers at home, good, subjecting themselves to their own husbands, so that the word of God may not be spoken of abusively.” (Titus 2:3-5, NW) Women of the old-world society today often cannot appreciate this position. Many feel that such a position would be interfering with their rights. But this is an arrangement made by Jehovah God, and women are in their proper place only as they do subject themselves to their husbands. While there are some that say they do not believe that women should subject themselves to their husbands, yet the general run of comments about a household where the woman instead of the man rules shows that everyone appreciates the correctness of God’s arrangements. In such a household, the man in America is frequently referred to as “henpecked” or as a “weak sister” and the woman may be referred to as a “battle-ax.” Women of the New World society will be anxious to please God by observing Jehovah’s arrangement as to their placement and they will not try to run things in the congregation, nor will they try to take over their husband’s duties. It would mean that they are trying to become a man in God’s sight, thus leaving their proper place. In a similar argument, a man in the New World society will be diligent to step into a man’s place and he will not try to give to his wife things to do that are rightfully his and will not depend upon his wife to direct his thoughts and activities. Thus he will avoid stepping out of a man’s assigned place and becoming a woman in God’s sight.

23. State other reasons why all should be completely in their place.

²³ A man or woman who has taken up the ministry and observed all the counsel of God and willingly steps into his proper place becomes an ambassador of Christ and is well qualified to urge others to become reconciled to God by getting into their proper place. The ministry is the way that God is using to enable multitudes of persons to learn how to please God properly. “We are therefore ambassadors substituting for Christ, as though God were making entreaty through us. As substitutes for Christ we beg: ‘Become reconciled to God.’” (2 Cor. 5:20, NW) It is easily seen that for one to humble himself and to be squarely in his proper place is so very important for the success of his ministry and the resulting obtaining of everlasting life not only by others that he preaches to but also by himself.

24. Why do some find it hard to accept Jehovah’s arrangement?

²⁴ This is difficult for many persons to do because of the prestige they may have in this old world. Perhaps one is too proud to carry God’s message of life from door to door. Perhaps he is afraid that some of his business associates and friends will see him. One might feel that he should have an elevated position where all he does is speak from the public platform and instruct large groups. A woman may have been a social worker for many years and used to taking the oversight over many people—men and women. Coming into the New World society she may find it difficult to subject herself to the oversight of men. She may feel that because of her abilities an exception should be made and that she might continue in a work of directing others. Men may have secular positions in which they direct the activities, and successfully so, of dozens or hundreds of other men. When they come into the New World society they might find it hard or may not want willingly to come under the oversight of a man of directive powers inferior to theirs. Many are the conditions that people find themselves faced with that tend to prevent their stepping into a proper place, in God’s perfect arrangement of things.

GOD ADHERES TO ASSIGNMENTS MADE

25. What example in the Bible shows that God does not vary his provisions because an individual would like to have something different?

²⁵ But Jehovah is not going to change his organization because of man or woman. It is up to us to change if we want to fit into God’s organization. Recorded for our benefit is an account where a mighty military man of old desired to take advantage of a provision of Jehovah. He became very angry when no special provision was made for him because of his high position. The man was Naaman, a captain in Syria’s army. “Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honorable, because by him Jehovah had given victory unto Syria: he was also a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. And the Syrians had gone out in bands, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maiden; and she waited on Naaman’s wife. And she said unto her mistress, Would that my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! then would he recover him of his leprosy.” (2 Ki. 5:1-3, AS) This information soon came to the attention of the king of Syria and in typical showy fashion the king wrote a letter to the king of Israel requesting the services of the prophet to heal Naaman, sending along ten talents of silver and six thousand pieces of gold and ten changes of raiment. Arrangements were made and Naaman presented himself before the door of the house of Elisha the prophet, accompanied with an array of horses and chariots as he was accustomed to. But when Elisha did not even bother to come to the door and did not make a show or fuss over Naaman but merely sent a messenger down to him and told him to go and wash in the Jordan River, Naaman was furious and turned away in a rage, stating that the waters of the rivers in his home country were far better than the water of the Jordan. So reads the account: “Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of Jehovah his God, and wave his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.” (2 Ki. 5:10-12, AS) One of his servants approached him and calmed him down, pointing out that if Elisha had asked him to do some great thing he would gladly do it; so why not do this small thing. When Naaman did exactly as Elisha had told him, he was completely cured of his leprosy.

26. What provisions do we have today?

²⁶ The mighty military man had to change, and not God. Jehovah had a way for doing it and he was not going to change it just because of the egoism of a mere man. And so it is with Jehovah’s dealings with mankind today. Jehovah has made wonderful provisions—the ransom sacrifice, a theocratic organization with a “faithful and discreet slave” class, one revelation after another of his truths revealed to his people, etc.—all giving any humble and honest person a hope with a sure basis for a spiritual curing today that will lead to everlasting life. (Matt. 24:45-47, NW) He will make no special provisions for a person who might think he is different from or better than others; he is not going to pick out some individual and give him special revelations or extra outpouring of the spirit, but he is dealing with people as a group in an organizational way, giving copious counsel in his Word, the Bible, on how the group is to work together. The growth of the organization and its spiritual prosperity today is visible proof of the truthfulness of this. Today, hundreds of thousands of persons appreciate this and are accepting the provisions that Jehovah has made and are looking forward to further blessings of his kingdom, just as people who knew Jehovah down through the centuries looked forward to the Kingdom and its attending blessings.

27. What one thing have all servants of God looked forward to? This results in what kind of path for all servants?

²⁷ Righteous Abel looked forward to it. So did Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets. (Heb. 11:1-40) Jesus taught us to pray for it and seek it. (Matt. 6:9, 10, 33) The apostles and disciples of Jesus believed in it and looked forward to it, and so do multitudes of persons today. And Jehovah has not let one faithful person down. He has not changed this great purpose of his to have the universe ruled by the righteous kingdom, but has steadily through thousands of years worked out the details for such an arrangement. Thus persons have been able to worship God and know what to look forward to and have not had to be disappointed and change their hopes. God’s Word has been a ‘lamp unto their feet, and a light unto their path.’ (Ps. 119:105) Walking in the way Jehovah directs, they have found their feet on a steady and even place.

28. What kind of path do those not trusting in Jehovah have to walk in?

²⁸ In contrast with this, those persons who have not looked to Jehovah for counsel but have looked to great ones in this old world’s systems have constantly been disappointed and have had their hopes fail them as one scheme after another, one agreement after another, one king after another, has failed to bring them real satisfaction and has always left them with plenty of troubles and problems, many seeming to be unsolvable. Their feet are on a path that is full of pitfalls, a very uneven path with no sure goal in view.

29. What can one say about a place in Jehovah’s congregations?

²⁹ It should be clear, then, that it is not those things that are great and popular in the sight of this old world that are best for man, but it is the arrangement that Jehovah has made that is best. As humble as a place in the congregations of Jehovah’s people may seem to be, it is the place of real safety and value. It is the place that a Christian should seek out, get into it and then keep his place there. This he will do if he has the psalmist’s appreciation: “Jehovah, I love the habitation of thy house, and the place where thy glory dwelleth. Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with men of blood; in whose hands is wickedness, and their right hand is full of bribes. But as for me, I will walk in mine integrity: redeem me, and be merciful unto me. My foot standeth in an even place: in the congregations will I bless Jehovah.”—Ps. 26:8-12, AS.

Questions From Readers

Jehovah told Balaam to go to Balak, but when he started to go Jehovah was angry with Balaam because he was going. Why?—G. S., England.

Balak king of Moab sent messengers to the prophet Balaam in the land now Iraq. The messengers brought payments to the prophet to hire him to curse Israel. Balaam wanted the rewards, but he had some relations with Jehovah the God of Israel and he wanted Jehovah’s permission to go curse Israel. However, Jehovah told the prophet: “You must not go with them. You must not curse the people, for they are blessed.” So Balaam refused to return with the older men from Moab and Midian. Balak sent more men to Balaam with an entreaty to the prophet to come curse Israel and gain great honor and riches. This time Jehovah said to Balaam: “Get up, go with them. But only the word that I shall speak to you is what you may speak.” Yet immediately after this the record states: “And the anger of God began to blaze because he was going.” Jehovah’s angel blocked the way and the ass on which Balaam rode halted and finally spoke miraculously, and then Balaam saw the angel also. Frightened and ready to turn back, Balaam said: “Let me go my way back.” But Jehovah’s angel said: “Go with the men, and nothing but the word that I shall speak to you is what you may speak.”