Daily text, Sunday, May 29. 2016

[Queen Esther]

Where are your gods that you made for yourself? Let them rise up if they can save you in your time of calamity.—Jer. 2:28.

Israel did not prove faithful to Jehovah. They allowed themselves to be influenced by nations that worshipped gods of wood and stone. Instead of producing fine fruitage by practicing pure worship and acting as Jehovah’s faithful witnesses, Israel produced the rotten fruitage of idolatry. (Hos. 10:1, 2) Thus, Jesus told the hypocritical Jewish leaders of his day: “The Kingdom of God will be taken from you and be given to a nation producing its fruits.” (Matt. 21:43) Only those in the “new covenant,” foretold by Jehovah through his prophet Jeremiah, could be part of that new nation, spiritual Israel. Of the spiritual Israelites who would be brought into that new covenant, Jehovah had prophesied: “I will become their God, and they will become my people.” (Jer. 31:31-33) Jehovah made spiritual Israel his people in the first century. w14 11/15 4:17-19