Commentary on the Watchtower’s Daily Text
Friday, October 6
This is my Son, the beloved, whom I have approved.—Matt. 3:17.
Brothers who are learning to serve in the congregation should be taught to think in terms of Bible principles. For example, suppose an elder asks a brother to keep the entranceway to the Kingdom Hall clean in appearance and safe for walking. He could consider Titus 2:10 and explain how the brother’s work to enhance the Kingdom Hall will “adorn the teaching of our Savior, God.” He could also ask the learner to think of the elderly ones in the congregation and how carrying out his assignment will benefit them. Having such conversations with the learner as part of his training will help him to focus more on people than on rules. He will experience the joy that comes from seeing how brothers and sisters in the congregation benefit from the service he renders. Further, the elder should commend the learner for the effort he makes to apply the suggestions. Sincere commendation does for a learner what water does for a plant—it makes him thrive.
Besides the fact that the verse used in the Watchtower’s daily text has no relevance to their commentary, what utter arrogance the leadership of the Watchtower exudes. The “learner”? In case you overlooked it, four times the text refers to a “learner.” Are the congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses now composed of the learned and the learners? What happened to brother and sister? Are we not all learners before Christ? Or is it just the exalted Governing Body and their helpers who are the Learned Masters?
For a fact the Governing Body has a lot to learn. Unfortunately, they are not teachable. They imagine they know it all. How like the scribes and pharisees of Jesus’ day!
But, we can learn something from the day’s text. It really highlights an extraordinary prophecy in the 28th chapter of Isaiah. Speaking to those who rule over God’s people in the run-up to the Second Coming of Christ, here is what Jehovah has said: “For their tables are full of filthy vomit —There is no place without it. To whom will one impart knowledge, and to whom will one explain the message? To those who have just been weaned from milk, those just taken away from the breasts? For it is “command after command, command after command, line by line, line by line, a little here, a little there.”
The prophecy well describes the teaching method of the Watchtower —at least what it has become in recent years. Whereas, in bygone years the Society at least seemed to speak to Jehovah’s Witnesses as adults —as spiritually mature peers. Now, though, there is a definite master/pupil relationship. The Governing Body are the Learned Ones. Jehovah’s Witnesses are the child learners.
As Jehovah states in Isaiah, it is as though the masters are teaching children, those who have just been weaned from milk. The infantile Caleb/Sophia cartoons really epitomize the relationship. To be sure, though, it is not merely the cartoons. Since the Watchtower decided to go all-in on the Internet a few years ago it has become a virtual movie production company. While the kiddies are entertained with Pixar-like cartoons, teens and grown-ups are fed soap opera-style dramas intended to modify their behavior by means of entertainment.
The New International Version expresses it very clearly. It reads: “Who is it he is trying to teach? To whom is he explaining his message? To children weaned from their milk, to those just taken from the breast? For it is: Do this, do that, a rule for this, a rule for that; a little here, a little there.”
Betraying themselves as those laying down rule upon rule —“do this, do that” —for the lowly learners, the day’s comment actually states:
“Having such conversations with the learner as part of his training will help him to focus more on people than on rules.”
As a process in their training, the learners are to be taught how to clean the entryway of the kingdom hall and other menial tasks, but since they are mere children and cannot think for themselves, they are to be taught not to think of it as rules, but as Bible principles; because, obviously, the learners would not have realized that on their own; what, with their having just been weaned and all. So, “a little here” —clean the walkway —and “a little there” —don’t think of it as a rule.
And this is what the Kingdom of Christ has become —a nursery school?
Jehovah, being the Supreme Learned One and the Grand Instructor, has the perfect lesson. He is going to school the masters. The next verse in context states: “So by means of those with stammering speech and a foreign language, he will speak to this people. He once told them: ‘This is the resting-place. Let the weary one rest; this is the place of refreshment,’ but they refused to listen.’”
In the ancient fulfillment Jehovah spoke to the spiritually drunken leaders of his people —the boastful rulers in Jerusalem —by means of the Babylonian hoards, who swept down from the north like an unstoppable juggernaut. Of course, the prophecy is only ostensibly set in ancient times.
While the prophecy is addressed to the “drunkards of Ephraim” —Ephraim having been the most prominent tribe of the 12, especially after the kingdom of Israel was divided —interestingly, Ephraim or Israel, had already gone into exile when God entered into judgment with the rulers of his people in Jerusalem, where the kings of the tribe of Judah were enthroned. So, Ephraim must symbolize the rulers of the “Israel of God” that came into existence in the first century when the anointing began. And since Jerusalem was where Jehovah caused his name to reside in ancient times, the modern-day equivalent of the “rulers of this people in Jerusalem” (vs 14) must correspond to the Bethel hierarchy that rules over Jehovah’s Witnesses.
For a certainty, the prophecy in Isaiah concerns the second coming of Jesus Christ. That is evident by what is stated in verses 16 and 17: “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah says: ‘Here I am laying as a foundation in Zion a tested stone, the precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. No one exercising faith will panic. And I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the leveling tool. The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will flood out the hiding place.’”
Obviously the Kingdom stone was not laid in Zion when Nebuchadnezzar razed the holy city to the ground. Nor did Christ appear after the chastened Jews returned to rebuild Zion. For that matter, neither was the stone laid in the first century, at least not when Jesus was in the flesh. Notice, that the foundation stone is tested first. So, that is what Jesus underwent when he was on earth. As Paul said, he was tested in all respects and never sinned. After proving his loyalty then Jesus was resurrected. Since then all persons desirous of having God’s favor must have faith in Christ.
However, it is not until the Second Coming that the tried and tested stone is laid —in the sense that that is when the Kingdom is established. Needless to say, no symbolic flood of tyranny swept away the lies in 1914, when the masters claim the Kingdom was established. No, ironically, it is the coming of Christ in the near future that will initiate a Tsunami-like flood, a global holocaust, that will obliterate the Governing Body’s place of refuge —exposing their Kingdom-came hoax, and washing away their entire organizational edifice and their deluxe palace at Warwick.
No amount of letter writing will work. As stated, the Governing Body are unteachable and unreachable. Some exJW’s imagine they can organize protests and that will change certain policies. That is nonsense. The masters are beyond reasoning with. The Grand Instructor surely knows this. That is why God declares the only solution that will work in verse 19: “Only terror will make them understand what was heard.”
