expect great material prosperity. It is spiritual blessings and prosperity they seek. At the same time they are assured that they will receive the material things that they really need. (Matt. 6:31-34) The evidence is strong that Jehovah has poured out great spiritual prosperity upon his Christian witnesses in this time. They have exerted every effort to get the good news of the Kingdom preached to the widest possible extent. Their preaching has expanded to more than 200 lands, and the remarkable increase of hundreds of thousands of persons joining them each year in pure worship testifies to Jehovah’s blessing. These are facts of historical record, and can be found in the columns of The Watchtowera and in the annual Yearbook of Jehovah’s witnesses.

Jehovah is very loving toward his people and will help those who love him to succeed. And if we keep on the watch we can enjoy the outcome confidently expressed by the Bible writer: “Now we are not the sort that shrink back to destruction, but the sort that have faith to the preserving alive of the soul.”​—Heb. 10:39.

Why Such a Costly Ransom Price?

DURING the course of history there have been people who sacrificed their lives so that fellow humans might continue living a few more years. What these persons did has been viewed as noble and praiseworthy. Among those laying down their lives was one whose death accomplished far more than that of all the others combined. This one was Jesus Christ. His sacrificial death on an executional stake laid the basis for humans to gain, not just a few additional years of life, but unending life.

That Jesus Christ’s death accomplished so much has not been easy for most persons to understand. In other cases, as when people’s lives are threatened by fire, floods and the like, the need for action and the benefits resulting therefrom can be readily seen. But it has proved to be an entirely different matter with Jesus’ laying down his life. Many have allowed his sacrificial death on an executional stake to be an obstacle to their embracing Christian truth. Over nineteen centuries ago, the apostle Paul wrote: “The speech about the torture stake is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is God’s power. . . . We preach Christ impaled, to the Jews a cause for stumbling but to the nations foolishness.”​—1 Cor. 1:18, 23.

The apostle Paul’s words indicate that there is a grave danger in viewing Jesus’ death and what it accomplished as “foolishness” or in allowing oneself to be stumbled thereby. As he says, this is the effect it has upon “those who are perishing.” It is wisdom on our part, therefore, to consider just why Jesus Christ’s ransoming of humankind could be done only by the laying down of his life in sacrifice.

HEBREW-SCRIPTURE USE OF RANSOM

An examination of the way the Hebrew Scriptures use the word “ransom” can help