Saturday, October 4
I bend my knees to the Father, to whom every family in heaven and on earth owes its name.—Eph. 3:14, 15.
Family. What does that word bring to your mind? Warmth? Happiness? Working together toward a common goal? A safe haven in which to grow, learn, and share ideas? Likely it does if you are part of a caring family. Jehovah himself is the Originator of the family. He purposed that all his creatures in heaven and on earth enjoy a sense of security, mutual trust, and genuine unity. After they sinned, humans were no longer part of God’s universal family, but Jehovah’s purpose was not thwarted. He will make sure that the Paradise earth will be fully inhabited with the offspring of Adam and Eve. (Gen. 1:28; Isa. 45:18) He has made every preparation to fulfill this purpose. A number of these arrangements are brought to our attention in the Bible book of Ephesians. Understanding them will enable us to cooperate with Jehovah’s purpose to unite his creation. w12 7/15 4:1, 2
Commentary
Jehovah does implement an administration at the full limit of the appointed times. However, the growing worldwide association of Jehovah’s Witnesses is not as a result of the prophetic ingathering. First must come the scattering of the flock. Then, Jesus will regather his Father’s scattered sheep. Bethel’s seers cannot comprehend such an outcome and no doubt that is why when the organization is shattered the sheep will be scattered. Did not Jesus himself foretell that the angels will sound the trumpet and the chosen ones will be gathered from the extremities of the earth?
As an example of their blindness consider the prophecy in the 34th chapter of Ezekiel, where God indicts the shepherds of his flock for their neglect. Who are the shepherds? According to the Watchtower the shepherds are the clergy and the cruel dictators of this world, the so-called political and “governmental shepherds” – no doubt a phrase concocted by the eccentric Fred Franz to justify his bizarre interpretation of Ezekiel, which completely obscures Jehovah’s coming judgment. But thinking Jehovah’s Witnesses ought to ask: Why would Jehovah expect the worldly tyrants of this world to care for his sheep in the first place? And why does God address them as “my shepherds”? The very idea that God would expect the tyrants of this world to feed and care for his people is absurd.
The prophecy reveals that Jehovah, through his “David,” “will deliver them out of all the places to which they have been scattered in the day of clouds and thick gloom.” The day of clouds and thick gloom lie just ahead.
