Wednesday, October 8
Humble yourself.—Prov. 6:3.
To apologize is difficult for most people. However, servants of God cultivate the spirit of a lesser one by admitting their mistakes and asking for forgiveness. They are also ready to forgive others for their transgressions. Whereas pride fosters division and contention, forgiveness promotes peace within the congregation. We may need to ‘humble ourselves’ by sincerely apologizing to another person if we are unable to honor an agreement because of circumstances beyond our control. Although he may be able to assign a measure of blame to the other party, the humble Christian concerns himself with his own failings and is willing to admit them. (Prov. 6:1-5) How grateful we are for the Scriptural encouragement to cultivate the spirit of a lesser one!—Luke 9:48. w1211/15 3:17-19
Commentary
In recent years a couple of US Supreme Court decisions have recognized corporations as people, allowing companies the same rights as individuals. But long ago God recognized nations as individuals. For example, God referred to Egypt as “Rahab.” And the covenanted people of God were collectively referred to variously as “Israel,” “Jacob” and as God’s wife.
Certainly groups of people, whether corporations or nations, can display qualities or characteristics common to individual persons. Hence, in prophecy God condemned Israel, saying that its heart had become hypocritical. In the prophecy of Amos, Jehovah expressed his hatred of the “pride of Jacob,” even saying that he detested it.
It is good that the Watchtower exhorts Jehovah’s Witnesses to be humble. Humility is a quality that God greatly values. But what about the Watchtower corporation? As an organization does it practice what it preaches? Sadly, there is no evidence to even suggest that it does. Take the matter of offering a simple apology. Has the Watchtower Society ever apologized for anything? For example, untold hundreds of thousands of Jehovah’s Witnesses and interested persons have been stumbled by the Watchtower’s dealings and doctrinal changes.
And on the one hand the Society exhorts inactive JW’s to return, and as in the Daily Text today it encourages us to be quick to apologize, the organization itself has never offered anything that could even be remotely construed as an apology.
More specifically, in 2001 the Watchtower was exposed as having secretly been associated with the UN as an NGO for ten years. Jehovah’s Witnesses who read the exposure in the Guardian newspaper were shocked. Both Bethel and the UN were flooded with calls from Jehovah’s Witnesses. When the organization was exposed they quickly withdrew their membership, but blamed it on “opposers” making up lies. And instead of admitting they were indiscrete, they blamed the UN for misleading them.
Even more egregious, tens of thousands of children of Jehovah’s Witnesses have been raped and sexually abused by pedophiles lurking within the congregations, and in many cases the perpetrators were shielded by the Watchtower from being exposed and prosecuted. Courts of law are now holding the Society responsible. Just recently a new group of victims has come forward to sue the Governing Body for their complicity and neglect. When the lawyer for the plaintiffs announced the suits at various press conferences the Society was contacted for their comment. They had none. Not a peep. Not even a word of condolence for the victims.
So, the question is, where is their humility? If God detested the pride of Jacob in ancient times what do you suppose his opinion is of an organization that speaks in the name of Jehovah, yet exudes such brazen arrogance and hypocrisy?
