missing a certified priesthood. The destruction of the genealogical records A.D. 70 makes it impossible for modern-day Jews to re-establish the Aaronic priesthood in order to carry on the priestly duties required by the Mosaic law.

16, 17. To whom does the republic of Israel look for recognition and help, and how is this contrary to divine instructions?

¹⁶ The republic of Israel received its existence from the powers of this world, and it has sought recognition from those powers. It has become part of the worldly system of things. This is contrary to the instructions God gave to their ancestors. He told them not to seek help from Egypt, which is a symbol of the world. “Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek Jehovah!”—Isa. 31:1, AS.

¹⁷ Instead of chariots and horsemen, the modern State of Israel is trusting in tanks, jet planes, motorized columns and the like. It ignores God’s purposes to rule this earth by his own government and by the King he has chosen. As that King was rejected for Caesar by Israel in the first century, so he is rejected by Israel in this twentieth century. It is therefore a mistake to think the present-day return of Jews to Palestine has God’s backing.

FLESHLY ISRAEL CAST OFF

18, 19. Why did God reject the nation of Israel?

¹⁸ When the nation of Israel failed to accept the final opportunity that God gave it to gain his approval and become a kingdom of priests, he rejected it. No longer could Israelites claim favor as God’s chosen people. They had failed to keep the national agreement made at Mount Sinai. They had failed to maintain undefiled worship of God, but permitted human traditions and human philosophy to corrupt it. They failed to receive the One whom God had promised to send, but rejected him for Caesar and instigated his violent death. For these reasons they were cut off from being God’s holy nation. Their material house of worship was abandoned by God, just as Jesus said:

¹⁹ “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the killer of the prophets and stoner of those sent forth to her,—how often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks together under her wings! But you people did not want it. Look! your house is abandoned to you.”—Matt. 23:37, 38.

20. What is one visible proof of Israel’s abandonment by God?

²⁰ Proof of this abandonment came with the destruction of Jerusalem A.D. 70, at which time the temple was destroyed for the last time. No longer could Jehovah’s worship be carried on at the place he had chosen and in the manner specified in the law covenant. A.D. 136 the Roman emperor Hadrian dedicated a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus on the temple site, and then A.D. 691 ‘Abd-al-Malik built a Mohammedan mosque on the spot. This mosque, the Dome of the Rock, is still standing there.

SPIRITUAL ISRAEL

21, 22. (a) Why has God placed his favor upon a new nation, and what does the nation consist of? (b) Why cannot Jews point to fleshly connections with Abraham as proof that they are Abraham’s seed?

²¹ God has placed his favor upon a new nation consisting, not of fleshly Israelites, but of spiritual Israelites. They manifest the faith of Abraham, which fleshly Israel failed to show. They are the real “children of Abraham” and have a higher claim to the promises made to Abraham than men have who point to fleshly ties with that patriarch. “However, it is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all who spring from Israel are really ‘Israel’. Neither because they are Abraham’s seed are they all children, but, ‘What will be called “your seed” will be through Isaac.’ That is, the children in the flesh are not really the children of God, but the children by the promise are counted as the seed.” (Rom. 9:6-8) This means natural Jews cannot point to fleshly connections with Abraham as proof that they are Abraham’s seed. Remember that Ishmael was a son of Abraham according to the flesh, yet he was rejected. Thus more than fleshly ties and fleshly circumcision is required. There must be faith and a circumcision of the heart.

²² Moses made this fact clear when he said: “And you must circumcise the foreskin of your hearts and not harden your necks any longer.” (Deut. 10:16) The apostle Paul commented on this same point: “For he is not a Jew that is one on the outside, nor is circumcision that which is on the outside upon the flesh. But he is a Jew that is one on the inside, and his circumcision is that of the heart by spirit, and not by a written code.”—Rom. 2:28, 29.

23. Why are the members of the new nation Jews in the real sense of the word?

²³ The new nation that bears Jehovah’s name has this kind of circumcision. Its people are Jews in the real sense of the word, because they bring praise to God by their faith and obedience. They are a direct contrast to fleshly Israel, which followed a course of disobedience and stubbornness from the time it left Mount Sinai.

24. How was fleshly Israel shown special favor after A.D. 29, and for how long?

²⁴ God began choosing men for this new nation A.D. 29. Today only a remnant of the nation is still living on earth. For seven years after Christ began the Christian ministry, the invitation to become members of this nation of spiritual Israelites was extended exclusively to fleshly Jews. Out of respect for his name that was upon the natural Jews and his promises to their forefathers God gave them first opportunity to become spiritual sons of Abraham.—Deut. 7:6-8.

25. How was the faith of fleshly Israel put to the test?

²⁵ Since the invitation was extended to them through Christ, their faith was put under test. If they had faith in God’s promises given through Moses and the prophets, they would accept Christ for what he was. They would acknowledge him as the great prophet God said would come when he promised Moses: “A prophet I shall raise up for them from the midst of their brothers, like you, and I shall indeed put my words in his mouth and he will certainly speak to them all that I shall command him.” (Deut. 18:18) Christ plainly told them: “In fact, if you believed Moses you would believe me, for that one wrote about me.” (John 5:46) But the Jewish nation failed to exercise the necessary faith.

26. What brings justification, and how did fleshly Israel fail to see this?

²⁶ They self-righteously felt that they could earn God’s favor and blessings by works of law. Their self-righteousness blinded them to the fact that Abraham received God’s approval because of his faith. It is faith that brings justification in God’s eyes, not works of law. “Moreover, that by law no one is declared righteous with God is evident, because ‘the righteous one will live by reason of faith’. Why, then, the Law? It was added to make transgressions manifest, until the seed should arrive to whom the promise had been made.” (Gal. 3:11, 19) But when the promised Seed did present himself the nation would not receive him, in spite of the wonders he performed before their eyes and the words of wisdom he spoke.

27. (a) Did all in fleshly Israel fail to show faith? (b) How is the new covenant different, and what effect did its inauguration have on the law covenant?

²⁷ A remnant of the nation, however, did exercise faith. These were the first to become spiritual Israelites and to be brought into a new covenant or agreement with Jehovah God. It was a covenant that replaced 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