Sheep and Goats

Month: September 2026

  • Takeaways from Gibeon

    You know when people are pulling lessons out of Gibeon that you’re dealing with a Bible people. You’re dealing with a people who take seriously that counsel that “all the things that were written beforehand were written for our instruction.” (Romans 15:4)

    So it was with the Watchtower Study of September 13, 2026, reviewing several developments in that Gibeonite mess that nonetheless turned out well. About the “What does this teach us about Jehovah?” headings (there were 3 of them), my takeaway was that his nation screws up and He nonetheless rolls with it. It’s just the way He works. He grants his people autonomy.

    He doesn’t say, “Duh! There were right next to you! How could you be so stupid?” He didn’t rebuke them. He didn’t disown them. He rolled with it. They incorporated that bad move into their act and it ultimately turned out well. When the ruse is uncovered and the Israelites can’t renege (as anyone else would), there’s some head honcho Gibeonite in the background somewhere saying, “I guess I played that hand well.” I guess he did.

    If it happened then, it’s going to happen now. That’s how it is when people are involved—and they always will be with the worship of God. Not every decision knocks it out of the park. Some look screwy in hindsight. More typically, you don’t know if it was really screwy and will not find out for a long time. Maybe it will turn out to be just the ticket. Every surly character who wants something different portrays it as screwy, whether it is or not.

    But if the example of the Gibeonites is any guide, like Romans 15:4 says it is,it doesn’t matter if it was screwy or not. So long as it was done in good faith, God rolls with it. He may take it out of their hide later. Or he may decide that, in the big picture, it is nothing. Either way, it’s nothing that anyone else need get bent out of shape over.

    ******  The bookstore

  • The New Covenant of Jeremiah 31: Parts 1-3

    (1) The New Covenant of Jeremiah 31

    Just after that slogan of setting teeth on edge and what it means (Jeremiah 31:29-30) comes the promise of the new covenant that sets it in motion:

    “Look! The days are coming,” declares Jehovah, “when I will make with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah a new covenant. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their forefathers on the day I took hold of their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, ‘my covenant that they broke, although I was their true master,’ declares Jehovah.” “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares Jehovah. “I will put my law within them, and in their heart I will write it. And I will become their God, and they will become my people.” “And they will no longer teach each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know Jehovah!’ for they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them,” declares Jehovah. “For I will forgive their error, and I will no longer remember their sin. (31:31-34)

    A new covenant replaces an old one. What is the old one, the one whom Jehovah “made with their forefathers on the day I took hold of their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt?”

    “You have seen for yourselves what I did to the Egyptians, in order to carry you on wings of eagles and bring you to myself,“ Jehovah himself says at Exodus 19:4. The proposed covenant follows:

    “Now if you will strictly obey my voice and keep my covenant, you will certainly become my special property out of all peoples . . . You will become to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

    Did they strictly obey his voice and keep his covenant? Not so much. Though there be a few exceptions, (a remnant, it would later be called) both the historical and prophetic books of the OT detail the sorry history of abandoning Jehovah to carry on with the gods of the raucous neighbors—the Baals, and so forth. Nor did the discipline of exile help. To be sure, upon return, Israel never touched idolatry again, but they transgressed in other ways, ultimately rejecting the one God sent as Messiah.

    It is this Messiah who serves to mediate the new covenant.

    Celebrating their final Passover that would become their first Lord’s Supper, we read: “And taking a cup, he offered thanks and gave it to them, saying: “Drink out of it, all of you, for this means my ‘blood of the covenant,’ which is to be poured out in behalf of many for forgiveness of sins. (Matthew 26:27-28)

    And in Luke: “Also, he did the same with the cup after they had the evening meal, saying: “This cup means the new covenant by virtue of my blood, which is to be poured out in your behalf.” (22:20)

    It’s a better covenant than before in that it is based on forgiveness of sin, rather than the continual appeasing it through animal sacrifices. Returning to Jeremiah 31:34: “I will forgive their error, and I will no longer remember their sin.” It is extended only to that faithful remnant, of which Jesus’ eleven are the first members.

    The reason it works, whereas the animal blood of the old covenant merely bought time, is the superior aspect of Jesus’s shed blood. He is “the last Adam” of 1 Corinthians 15:45, whose death perfectly offsets that of the first Adam. That first Adam’s rebellion sells humankind into slavery to sin. Jesus’ death buy them back. It’s not something that could be done with animal blood. “It is not possible for the blood of bulls and of goats to take sins away,” says Hebrews 10:4. With Jesus’ blood, it is possible. All one must do is put faith in it and follow through.

    At first, those who enter the new covenant are all Jews. (Acts 2) But in time, starting with Cornelius (Acts 10), non-Jews enter the covenant and eventually far outnumber those natural-born Jews. That this would happen is told several times in Scripture:

    (1) “The Kingdom of God will be taken from you and be given to a nation producing its fruits,” Jesus to the chief priests and elders of his day at Matthew 21:43.

    (2) The OT prophet Hosea said it, too: “I will say to those not my people: “You are my people,” And they will say: “You are my God.”’” (Hosea 2:23)

    (3) The apostle Paul applies Hosea’s words to those “called not only from among Jews but also from among nations,” at Romans 9:24.

    (4) And Peter speaks to this latter group as those who “were once not a people, but now you are God’s people.” (1 Peter 2:9)

    For what purpose is this all done?

    (2) Even the name Israel changes in going from old covenant to new—not the name itself but the people who fall under that name. “Israel” literally means “perseverer (or contender) with God.” Who is it that perseveres with him? It is not the physical nation. That nation ends up rejecting his chosen messiah (Greek: ‘anointed one’). Call that persevering with God? Instead, those who fit the description of persevering with God are the ones taken into that new covenant—at first all Jews but it soon expands to include non-Jews. Thus we read of the “Israel of God” at Galatians 6:16, which is not the same as the physical nation. The new covenant is between Jehovah and “the Israel of God.”

    If the word Israel is given a new application, then so will the word Jew. In the context of the new covenant, it no longer involves physical lineage. The apostle Paul explains it in his letter to the Romans: “For he is not a Jew who is one on the outside, nor is circumcision that which is on the outside upon the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one on the inside, and his circumcision is that of the heart by spirit.” (Ro 2:28, 29) Natural Jews were given first dibs on this expanded definition, but they couldn’t in themselves fill the bill. Only a “remnant” of them could. The physical nation itself, with few exceptions, was unfaithful.

    Consistently, the word Jerusalem also changes. The capital city of Israel now becomes the capital of another governing arrangement, one that will rule from heaven. It is called “heavenly Jerusalem” at Hebrews 12:22. Those who “approach it” are the ones taken into the new covenant referred to above—at first just natural Jews, but later expanding to Gentiles. As such, they “are to receive a Kingdom that cannot be shaken.” When assembled in full, they comprise the “New Jerusalem” of Revelation 21:2 that is to come “down out of heaven from God and prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, With that coming down from heaven is “a loud voice from the throne [that says]: “Look! The tent of God is with mankind, and he will reside with them, and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them. And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore.” (21:3-4) It is more than any earthly government has ever done or could do.

    Those taken into the new covenant are to become the “kingdom of priests” once intended for the earthly descendants of Abraham. “Now if you will strictly obey my voice and keep my covenant, you will certainly become my special property out of all peoples . . . You will become to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation,” God had said through Moses. (Exodus 19:5-6) This new “kingdom of priests” exercise their kingship and priesthood from heaven. This is something absolutely new for humans, who were created for earth. “As for the heavens, they belong to Jehovah. But the earth he has given to the sons of men,” says Psalm 115:16. It’s not as though God put humans on earth because he wanted them somewhere else. But now, those taken into the new covenant are to rule and function as priests from somewhere else—from heaven. This is “the sacred secret that was hidden from the past systems of things and from the past generations. But now it has been revealed to his holy ones,” (Colossians 1:16) to those taken into the new covenant. It’s sort of like when you get a promotion at work and have to move to the big city.

    It is no longer a dealbreaker not to be literally a descendant of Abraham, as it would have been if fleshly Israel had been able to fulfill the role of “a kingdom of priests.” To those reveling in their lineage, Jesus said, “Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones.” (Matthew 3:8) He has done so with the new covenant, taking non-Jews into the fold when qualifying natural Jews proved too few.

    Not everyone can be a priest. A priest serves to mediate between God and people. Who are these people? Not everyone can be a king. A king must have subjects to rule over. Who are these subjects?

    (3) There are several extensions of “Jerusalem” beyond the physical city, several extensions into a greater spiritual application. If you’re really finicky, for example (as Jehovah’s Witnesses usually are when it comes to biblical things), “heavenly Jerusalem” of the Letter to the Hebrews is not the same as “new Jerusalem” of the Book of Revelation. The first assumes the marriage to the Lamb has taken place and the second is a scene just before that marriage. Then there is the “Jerusalem above” of Galatians, which seemingly includes all spirit beings in heaven, the angels as well as those of humankind who ascend to heaven, where they are to rule as kings and mediate as priests. (Revelation 5:10)

    The one common aspect of these applications into the spiritual realm is that they are all sinless, and hence, free. The “Jerusalem above is free,” Paul says at Galatians 4:26. This harmonizes with those taken into the new covenant of Jeremiah 31:34. “For I will forgive their error, and I will no longer remember their sin,” the verse says. In contrast, the earthly Jerusalem is associated with sin perpetually appeased by animal sacrifice, a payment plan that will never be paid off, and thus comprises “slavery.”

    We live in a world in which people obsess over the petty freedoms that can be had by rebelling against human authority and have made their peace (or are oblivious to) the greater slavery to sin afflicting all humankind, that inevitably produces death. Here on this forum such a person tried to stir up discontent a few days ago over the fact that there are standards of dress one must observe onstage at the Kingdom Hall. Me, I take the words of Nathaniel Hawthorne as a motto, who observed: “It is remarkable that persons who speculate the most boldly often conform with the most perfect quietude to the external regulations of society.” Nobody speculates more boldly than do Jehovah’s Witnesses, who have no difficulty whatsoever “conform[ing] with the most perfect quietude to the external regulations of society.”

    Though Hawthorne didn’t say it the reverse is also true. People who rail against the external regulations of society tend to be the most conformist of all. They will strain out the gnat but gulp down the camel every time. The devil is misleading the entire inhabited earth? They’re oblivious to it if only they can be in place where you can ditch ties onstage for men and skirts for women.

    ******  The bookstore

  • Fathers Eat Sour Grapes; The Teeth of the Sons are Set on Edge

    What about this expression: “In those days they will no longer say, ‘The fathers ate sour grapes, but the teeth of the sons were set on edge. But then each one will die for his own error. Any man eating sour grapes will have his own teeth set on edge?” (Jeremiah 31:29-30)

    Does it mean that the days are coming (1) in which no one will be judged for their parent’s deeds, as in ‘Your parents were trash, so you must be too.’

    Does it mean that the days are coming (2) when the parents no longer bring disaster upon themselves and it is the kids who end up trekking through the wilderness or hiking to Babylon?

    Does it mean that the days are coming (3) when people will hold themselves accountable for their own actions and quit blaming their parents for every little thing?

    It means all those things and more, most likely, with the ‘more’ part the most significant. The ‘more’ part comes into the new system, during the 1000 year reign of Christ, and progressively towards the end. During this time, the benefits of Christ’s spilled blood, will be poured out upon redeemed humankind, with children and resurrected ones added to that number. Toward the end of that period, as humans close in on the unblemished state once enjoyed by the first parents, there will be no bad examples to blame one’s on conduct on.

    There certainly is today. If alcoholism runs rampant in the family, or abuse, or hotheadedness, or just general dysfunction, it has a way of being picked up by the next generation. Dysfunction may be bad, but it defines “normal” to a child so molded. That’s why a woman so often marries someone just like her dad. Lout though he may be, he is the only type of man who registers with her as “normal.”

    It takes relentless pressing to break away from dysfunction. Who doesn’t know the feeling, at least once, of spending years breaking away from the pattern of the folks, imagining success, then one day realizing that beneath the facade, one is just like them? The transformation has been surface. Rinse, wash, and repeat is what is needed.

    Not so, however, at the end of the thousand years. If one dies then, it will be entirely due to their own transgression. That this will happen is seen from Revelation 20: 7-9:

    “Now as soon as the 1,000 years have ended, Satan will be released from his prison, and he will go out to mislead those nations in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Maʹgog, to gather them together for the war. The number of these is as the sand of the sea. And they advanced over the whole earth and encircled the camp of the holy ones and the beloved city. But fire came down out of heaven and consumed them.”

    Most likely those who have passed through the great tribulation into the new system will not succumb to this. They stood up to Satan once; why not again? Not so, however, for ones resurrected during this time, or for children born. They won’t have parents to blame in those days—something that is completely plausible today—because humankind will have been restored by then. “Each one will die for his own error. Any man eating sour grapes will have his own teeth set on edge,” as the verse says.

    ******  The bookstore

  • That First Night Away from Home

    That First Night Away from Home

    That first night away from home you don’t sleep so well. The second night, and all nights thereafter, you do. It’s a carryover from the caveman “eat or be eaten days,” say people who believe in such things. Half your brain is sound asleep. But it has charged the other half, also asleep, to sleep not so soundly, to keep an eye out, in case predators may lurk in this new unfamiliar environment—sort of an evolutionary ‘fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.’

    There are animals that have the half-brain-vigilance down much better than do humans. Many birds, for example sleep soundly with one half of the brain while the other half is awake. One eye is shut The other eye is open. Scientists intrude with their measurements to find, sure enough, the closed-eye brain side is asleep, the other still able to respond to predators sneaking up, even if not so wide awake to take the bird SATs. Then, when that side of the brain has had its fill of sleep, it swaps with its drowsy other half. The trick also comes in handy for long migration flights. Were both halves to sleep at the same time, the bird would lose locomotive control and fall from the sky. Aquatic mammals such as whales, dolphins, manatees, and so forth, will pull this stunt as well. If they didn’t—if both halves slept at once, they would neglect to surface for air and drown.

    Animals that don’t have to surface for a breath of air, or flap wings to stay aloft, can just lie on their beds, whereever those may be, and snooze. They don’t have to worry about the paralysis that sets in with sleep—a paralysis that must set in lest one act out dreams and actually throw a punch should a dream call for one. But what about predators? How do they deal with that nuisance? That’s where altering circadian rhythms come from, biologists think. Everyone has a circadian rhythm, but they’re not parallel. One fellow is a night owl. His neighbor is up bright and early. That way the tribe of old always had someone to sit at the campfire to thwart intruders.

    It really wasn’t fair, then, to shoot night sentries who fell asleep during their shift, the way militaries used to do. The guy assigned the night shift might be a morning lark. The guy assigned the early morning shift might be a night owl, with circadian rhythms out of whack, preset genetically through evolution and no fault of their own. Of course, outright execution was rare—though it did happen. More typical was imprisonment or hard labor as a punishment, or even just demotion in rank.

    Private William Scott, “the Sleeping Sentinel” from Vermont, was sentenced to the firing squad during the Civil War. He had volunteered to relieve an exhausted comrade, then fallen asleep himself! President Lincoln pardoned him. His wife and son brought it to his attention—‘How would YOU feel “if it was your own little boy,”’ the president’s own little boy Tad said, “who was just tired after fighting and marching all day that he could not keep awake much as he tried to?” The kid had a point, Lincoln conceded. Much as he didn’t want to undermine military discipline—always a huge factor in wartime—he interceded with the application of a tale of “a small head, but it was valuable to him, poor fellow, for it was the only one he had.”

    You can never get the attention of the top guy Someone else, in this case Tad, has to bring it to him. Even so, to impress upon the troops that you ought not sleep during guard duty—circadian rhythms or not—Scott’s pardon was only revealed after the firing squad was assembled and the death penalty was pronounced.

    Jesus, of course, knew all about this insight from science. Probably that’s why he refrained from shooting his disciples who fell asleep prior to his own moment of trial. He just gave them loving reproof, after which they fell asleep again. He would have known even back then that sleep comes in cycles, having been present at humankind’s creation, assuming he really is the wisdom personified at Proverbs 8:23-31):

    “From ancient times I was installed, From the start, from times earlier than the earth. When there were no deep waters, I was brought forth, When there were no springs overflowing with water. Before the mountains were set in place, Before the hills, I was brought forth, When he had not yet made the earth and its fields Or the first clods of earth’s soil. When he prepared the heavens, I was there; When he marked out the horizon on the surface of the waters, When he established the clouds above, When he founded the fountains of the deep, When he set a decree for the sea That its waters should not pass beyond his order, When he established the foundations of the earth, Then I was beside him as a master worker. I was the one he was especially fond of day by day; I rejoiced before him all the time; I rejoiced over his habitable earth, And I was especially fond of the sons of men.”

    “Let’s give them overlapping circadian rhythms,” he might say. “That way, should anyone sneak up on a clan of them, there will be someone vigilant up late who can take him out like Chuck Norris.”

    ******  The bookstore