Pagină:Obadiah-part-I-1936.djvu/4: Diferență între versiuni

180 bers to a place in the body as it pleases him and doubt- less assigns all in his organization to a place, and that he requires of each and every one full obedience and faithfulness. 3 The faithful servants of the Lord do not fret them- selves concerning the others who fail to do their duty. Each servant stauds or falls te his master, and there- fore the faithful one is deeply eoncerned about proving his own integrity and he knows that he eannot sueceed in doing so by finding fault with others who appear to fail or who do fail to faithfully perform. It is en- tirely proper for the brethren to point out to one an- other the great privilege of serving God and his king- dom and to urge one another te do all he can to mag- nify the name of Jchovah, but such admonition should always be given in kindness and never by way of harsh eviticism, All at the temple will be in exact harmony and will dwell together and work together in peace to the glory of God, which means the forgetting of self and the magnifying of the name of Jchovah. ‘‘In his temple doth every one speak of his [Jchovah’s] glory,’’—Ps. 29:9.

• Those faithful ones deeply appreciate the loving-

kindness of God in causing his prophecies to be writ- ten centuries azo for the speeial benefit of his faithful servants now on the carth. As these prophecies are unfolded by the Lord each one of the temple receives the same jovfully. They know that prophecy docs not proceed from men, but from God, and is made clear in these last days that the man of God may be thor- oughly furnished and prepared for all good work.— 2 Tim. 3: 16,17. 5 All propheey having the same objective, What is to say, the vindication of Jchovah’s name, the same phys- ical facts fulfill different prophecies. It may appear, therefore, that physical facts are often repeated in The Watchtower, and the critical ones will say and do say: “The Watchtower continucs to speak about the same thing.’? The answer to that is, that the Lord God was pleased to treat the same matter in a num- ber of different prophecies, his purpose manifestly be- ing to furnish an abundant amount of corroborative testimony for the aid, comfort and hope of the remnant.

• Among the prophecies Jchovah eaused to be writ-

ten is that of Obadiah, and according to Ilis fixed rule that prophecy was written for the understanding of the remnant and for the aid and comfort of such class, and for that reason it is to be expected that the Joord will give the remnant an understanding of the prophcey of Obadiah in these last days. The propheey of Obadiah clearly is present truth, which is received by the remnant with great joy. It foretells the doom of the relivionists, that is, the men who have organized and: earried on a work in the name of the Lord yet who have defained the name of Jchovah for these many eenturies past. The prophecy discloses the present duty and work of the faithful witnesses of Jehovah in expesing the duplicity and hypoerisy of the Roman She WATCHTOWER BROOKLYN, N.Y. Catholic Hierarehy and other clergy allied with that wicked organization, which for years have ruled the peopfe in an arrogant and scornful manner. Those religionists have claimed to be heirs of God's promise and his favored ones, but they have ignored God’s Word aud employed their own selfish schemes and have advanced their own selfish doctrines in an effort to accomplish their wicked end. It is certain that the understanding of this prophecy at the present crisis will be a real eomfort to the faithful witnesses of Je- hovah, The prophecy is therefore considered in minute detail. ™The name Obadiah means ‘‘serving Jchovah’’ or “servant of Jehovah’’; which shows that the prophcey is for the servant class of Jchovah. The understanding is particularly for the remnant class and must be pro- claimed within the hearing of all persons of eood will, and this must be dune before the wrath of Jehovah falls upon the wieked, hypoeritical rcligionists. The identity of Obadiah is wneertain. It is not certain whether the prophet, the writer of the prophecy, ac- tually bore that name Obadiah or used the name Obadiah as an appropriate title for the prophecy, This is very interesting for the reason it suegests that in the fulfillment of this propheey the personal ident:- ty of those who compose the servant class, whom Oba- diah pictured, is neither necessary nor important. Thus excludes the reason and opportunity for personal shining and adulation. To be sure, the Lord Jess, who is the head of the servant class, 1s always de‘i- nitely identified ; but as to the persons who are made members of that servant class, their identity is not at all important except for their own special benefit. This is exactly as we should expect it to be in this day. There is no oceasion, then, to give any special honor to any inan or men. The speeial adalation and honor- ing of men is for the past, and at the present time it finds, or at least should find, no place amonest Cod’s people. This further explains also that some of the «  once of the servant class may fall away and hence a change in the personnel of the servant body be made, but the purpose and the work of the servant class are never altered. There is no individual of the servant class who is so very important that he must be set up on a pedestal, What counts with the Lord is faith- fulness in the performanee of duty. Those who remain of the servant class must be dependable; and if some become unreliable they will be quickly set aside, but this would in no wise affect the result concerning the work and the purpose of the servant class, § As to the time when this unidentified Obadiah lived and prophesied, it is not definitely fixed hw the Seriptures, It is uncertain as to whether the proplicey was written before or after the fall of Jerusalem ai the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, but the application of the prophecy is not at all uncertain, That is the important tine and matter. The name as well as the prophecy of Ghadiah itself indicates clearly that it applies to