My answer to the question: "If the 144,000 are sealed "out of the sons of Israel", who are these "sons of Israel" from whom the 144,000 are taken?" spawned the following follow-up question:
I got up this morning a little early to do some more research. I found an
article from the w66 2/15 p.
112 - Benefits
from God’s New Covenant Spreading
Worldwide.
What is interesting is the comparison the society makes between the old and
new covenants. The old covenant was made with fleshly Israel. The new
covenant was made with Israel of God. Notice what the article says, and how
it might help one to understand who the spiritual 12 tribes of Israel are
that are judged by Jesus and the 144,000. Luke 22:28-30
THE DIVINE PURPOSE
8 The new covenant takes the place of the old covenant of the Law with natural Israel. So the purpose of the new covenant can be seen in that of the old one. When, at Mount Sinai in Arabia, God proposed to bring the nation of Israel into a covenant with him through the mediator Moses, God said: “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, that I might carry you on wings of eagles and bring you to myself. And now if you will strictly obey my voice and will indeed keep my covenant, then you will certainly become my special property out of all other peoples, because the whole earth belongs to me. And you yourselves will become to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”—Ex. 19:4-6.
9 Note the expressions “my special property” and “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” By strict obedience to their part of this covenant with God, the nation of natural Israel was to become something. What? God’s permanent “special property out of all other peoples.” They would also become, not a holy nation with only some members of it serving as priests and others as kings, but a “holy nation” that, as a whole, was a “kingdom of priests.” That is to say, every member of this “holy nation” would be a kingly priest. The entire “holy nation” would serve God as a royal priesthood.
10 Such a thing as this God had in mind, but would he gain it from just the nation of natural, circumcised Israel? If natural Israel were to take advantage of this opportunity and become a “kingdom of priests,” O what benefits they could bestow on all the rest of humankind from whom God took them out to be a “special property” to him, his “holy nation”!
11 More than eight centuries after Moses, Jehovah God inspired his prophet Jeremiah to foretell a new covenant, thus showing that the nation of Israel was failing to meet God’s purpose, As a nation they would not become his “special property,” his “holy nation,” his “kingdom of priests.” Over six hundred years later the Mediator of the promised new covenant arrived, Jesus Christ, the Son of God from heaven. He being sinless, perfect as a man, he was able to present the needed sacrifice to provide the blood for putting the new covenant into force between God and spiritual Israel. What was its purpose? Nothing less than that of the old covenant of the Mosaic law. The old covenant missed its purpose, the producing of a “kingdom of priests.” Would the new covenant also? No! For the “blood of the covenant” is better than the animal blood that Moses sprinkled on the Law book and the Israelites. There is also a better mediator, one who does not die as Moses did. Hence we read:
12 “He because of continuing alive forever has his priesthood without any successors. Consequently he is able also to save completely those who are approaching God through him, because he is always alive to plead for them. For such a high priest as this was suitable for us, loyal, guileless, undefiled, separated from the sinners, and become higher than the heavens.”—Heb. 7:24-27.
Back to my
thoughts. It would seem that as a kingdom of priest and a holy nation,
Israel, if they were faithful, would officially represent Jehovah to the
other nations of the earth. Just as Jehovah used the Levitical priesthood to
intercede with the sons or children of Israel, Jehovah' would use the nation
of Israel to intercede with the rest of the world, that is, if they strictly
obeyed Jehovah. Of course they didn't.
Notice that the article said that "They would also become, not a holy nation with only some members of it serving as priests and others as kings, but a “holy nation” that, as a whole, was a “kingdom of priests.” That is to say, every member of this “holy nation” would be a kingly priest. The entire “holy nation” would serve God as a royal priesthood." How does that speak as to how we're to understand the organization of the 12 tribes of Israel mentioned at Revelation 7:4?
As a holy nation, they would be set apart or separate from all other nations. Jehovah' would require of them, as the people with and through whom he would work, that they be different, a cut above, of a higher standard. They had a responsibility to be a model for the nations to observe and emulate. Again, they failed, which brings us to the Israel of God that replaced natural Israel. The question is, what do we learn from the pattern Jehovah established with fleshly Israel to understand the way Israel under the new covenant would be organized?
It's interesting to note that although the entire nation would serve as kings and priest, only a few served in the "Most Holy" of the temple, which pictured "heaven" itself. The other priest served in the area of the temple that represented things here on the earth. I can't help but to think that the 12 tribes of Israel is the Christian Congregation from which the 144,000 are taken.
Rather
than the "Israel of God" being only the 144,000, it would seem that the
144,000 are just a part of the "Israel of God". What do you think? Isn't the
entire Christian Congregation interceding between Jehovah and the world of
mankind today? As one of those who's hope is earthly, am I not, and the
other brothers with an earthly hope, serving in the capacity of "priests"
or "ministers" to the people of the world along with the anointed remnant?
The Society's interpretation
of the “Israel of God” (whom they most often refer to as "spiritual" Israel) and the
associated new covenant, teaches that only the Israel of God, as the 144,000, is included in
the new covenant; and since the late 1970’s that Jesus is the mediator solely of
these anointed ones. As you show in the Watchtower quote, they explain that
God's promise, as recorded at Exodus 19:5,6, applied to the entire nation of Israel
to make them a "kingdom of priests and a holy nation." This has led them to the
conclusion that the entire nation pictured the "little flock" of 144,000. As you
have probably already come to see, this has created a lot of inconsistencies in
their teachings, which I never understood. Matter of fact, I used to feel that
they must be special to Jehovah and have a greater portion of his holy spirit,
for how else could they understand things that nobody else could explain,
including the few Circuit Overseers that I questioned about this. The apostle
Paul definitely explains that the high priest foreshadowed Christ Jesus. (Heb. 8:1-6; 9:11-14) The high priest had other priests helping and
officiating at the temple under him, just as the 144,000 are also working in
association with Jesus, once they start ruling as kings and priests with him.
(Rev. 20:6) In the Revelation it says that they rule "for the thousand years,"
which means they do not start to rule until their resurrection to heaven and the
thousand years actually start. Therefore, they do not rule while on earth, in
the way the governing body has already started to. (1 Cor. 4:8-13)
We can see that nobody serves in a priestly position today, except our high
priest Christ Jesus. (Heb. 4:14-16) Not even any of the 144,000 who are still
alive on earth. No one is "interceding" between Jehovah and the world of
mankind, except Jesus. Paul writes: "For there is one God, and one mediator
between God and men, a man, Christ Jesus." It is Jesus who intercedes in our
behalf, as our helper, before God, for "he is able also to save completely those
who are approaching God through him, because he is always alive to plead for
them." (1 Tim. 2:5; Heb. 7:25; 1 John 2:1,2) But, yes, we are "representing" God
and his kingdom when we participate in the preaching. Jesus included all his
disciples in the directive to preach the good news of the kingdom "in all the
inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations." (Matt. 24:14; 28:18-20) A
disciple does not require any legal status, such as being an ordained priest or
minister, neither from Jehovah nor the world,
to carry this out. Therefore, all his people who participate in this important
work are acting as substitutes for Jesus, for he initiated the preaching,
teaching his disciples to carry it on after he was gone. That is why Paul
writes: "But all things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through
Christ and gave us the ministry of the reconciliation, namely, that God was by
means of Christ reconciling a world to himself, not reckoning to them their
trespasses, and he committed the word of the reconciliation to us. 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. 5:18-20) Instead of "interceding" between Jehovah and the world
of mankind, something that only Jesus as the high priest can do, we are ambassadors substituting
for Christ, begging the world of mankind, by our preaching, to become reconciled
to God.
I agree with your observation that the entire nation of "Israel,
if they were faithful, would officially represent Jehovah to the other nations
of the earth." Had the nation of Israel
proved faithful, it would have been they, as natural Jews, who would have been
the "ambassadors
substituting for Christ," taking the
lead in preaching to the people of every nation the good news and pleading for
them to become reconciled to God. (Matt. 10:5-7) Yes, Jehovah would have used
the entire nation of Israel, who bore his name and were his "witnesses," to
represent him to all the nations, in order to take also out of them "a people
for his name." (Isai. 43:10-13; Acts 15:14-18) These also would be brought into
the new covenant with God. (Gal. 3:8,9; Eph. 2:11-22) As Jehovah had purposed:
"The whole earth shall see it and return to the Lord; the people of every nation
shall worship him. For the Lord is King and rules the nations. Both proud and
humble together, all who are mortal--born to die--shall worship him. Our
children too shall serve him, for they shall hear from us about the wonders of
the Lord; generations yet unborn shall hear of all the miracles he did for us."
(Psalms 22:27-31, TLB)
Under those circumstances, the full number of 144,000 would have been sealed
entirely from among the natural Jews. There would have been no grafting in of
foreign branches into the domestic tree of the Israel of God. (Rom. 11:20-24)
And very likely the high priest and other priests would have been among the
first to be chosen by Jehovah for this sealing. But because of their
unfaithfulness they missed out. Yet, as Paul explains, this did not nullify
God's promises that he would still fulfill. (Rom. 3:1-4) The Scriptures are very
clear that Jehovah did not adjust the numbers downwards of those who would be
sealed (144,000) simply because the nation as a whole proved unworthy, and he
was thus unable to find enough persons to choose from to fill any supposed
original number. He had determined the complete number "before the founding of
the world," before the birth of Abel, even as Christ "was foreknown before the
founding of the world." (Eph. 1:3-5; 1 Peter 1:19,20; see Luke 11:50,51) That
original number was only known to Jehovah and he did not reveal it until towards
the end of the first century when the apostle John received the Revelation.
We need to consider this important point: How would the nation of Israel, the
Jews, be any different or unique from all non-Jews, once all obedient mankind
was reconciled to God, and living united under God's kingdom? At that future
time there will no more be any racial or national distinctions, for "there is no
partiality with [God]." (Eph. 6:9; Acts 10:34) Then it will no longer matter
through which one of Noah’s three sons a person could trace his ancestry, or
some special lineage like Abraham’s, or David’s, or some historic worldly
succession of royal dynasties; for they will all simply be offspring of Adam,
redeemed by Jehovah as he had purposed and owing their lives to their "Eternal
Father" Christ Jesus, who died for them. (Isaiah 9:6) Put simply, a person’s
genealogy will under God's kingdom have no special bearing on a person’s
standing before God, in the same way it would have been had Adam not rebelled.
Only the "Israel of God" (144,000), in association with Jesus, will forever keep
their distinction of belonging to Abraham, because of God’s promise that by
means of his seed all nations of the earth would be blessed and reconciled to
God. (Rev. 21:1-6; 22:1,2)
According to the above, and my answer to the previous question (If the 144,000 are sealed "out of the sons of Israel", who are these "sons of
Israel" from whom the 144,000 are taken?),
no,
Jehovah
never purposed to have the entire nation of Israel become the "kingdom of
priests," although they all needed to be a "holy nation." (Lev. 11:44; 1
Peter 1:14-16) It was the entire nation from which he purposed
this kingdom of priests to be chosen out of. (Rev. 7:4-8)
But as you know, this is not so important to understand that our everlasting
life depends on getting it straight now. What is important at this
time, though, is that the Society with its governing body, by their teaching and
tradition on this subject, have withheld Jehovah's people the proper
relationship they should be enjoying with their heavenly Father. This they have
done by arguing that those who they refer to as the "other sheep" are not in the
new covenant together with the "Israel of God." They keep this intimate relationship with God just to themselves,
even though they understand that the entire nation of Israel was in the old
covenant.
It is akin to a family with many children and the oldest son telling all his
younger siblings that he is the only legitimate child and heir, and that the
father loves only him. O, yes, the father may provide food for the whole family,
but the oldest son claims that if any of his brothers and sisters want to have a
relationship with their father they can do so only through him and him alone.
What do you think? Would the family suffer because of it? Would the other
children have a hard time getting to know their father intimately, even though
the father loved them all the same? (Consider the Prodigal son as an example,
Luke 15:11-32) And, even though the father may tolerate his wayward eldest son
for a while, do you think he would put up with him forever? What would become of
this son eventually? (Luke 12:45,46; Rev. 22:18,19)
This somewhat illustrates the condition within God's household today because of
our traditions based on the foundation of Rutherford’s teachings, who positioned himself as the supreme
authority over God’s household when he succeeded Charles Taze (Pastor) Russel as the
president of the Society and its corporation, back in 1917. Before that time all
congregations were autonomous, each appointing their own elders, and the holy
spirit was allowed to be the force uniting them. The governing body arose out of
this setup of a president with its board of directors. No doubt they were all
chafing under the absolute authority of one person who claimed to rule by divine
right. (There was no legal corporation
in the first century to run the business of God's household.) I am merely mentioning this because the Society has used
the words at Exodus 19:6 as a way of supporting the teaching of their elitism, that
of one group of worshipers ("spiritual" Israel, which they claim was pictured by the
whole nation of Israel) exercising authority over the lowly "other sheep" represented by the
foreigners, or alien residents, in Israel.
I often explain on my site the fact that to Jehovah the well-being of his sheep
is what matters most. They are all equally precious to him! His son Jesus
Christ died for all of them equally! (John 10:11-15; Matt. 23:6-8) The shepherds who have
been appointed, especially the 144,000, are there solely for the purpose of
caring for his sheep and leading them to the green pasturage that he has
provided for them, including the refreshing clear "waters" that proceeds from
Jesus. (Ezek. 34:10, 18,19; compare John 21:15-17; John 7:37,38) Only if
they faithfully carry out their assignment as loving shepherds will they
"receive the unfadable crown of glory," as Peter reminds them. (1 Peter 5:2-4)
Thankfully, Jehovah will very soon now correct all errors and man-made
traditions in behalf of his people, as he promised long ago. (Jer. 3:15; 23:1-4)
You can have full confidence in that, for he always proves true to his promises.
(Joshua 23:14)
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