Will You Follow Jehovah’s Loving Guidance?
Will You Follow Jehovah’s Loving Guidance?
THEME SCRIPTURE
“Every false path I have hated.”—PSALM 119:128.
1, 2. (a) When you ask a friend for directions, what warning are you happy to receive, and why? (b) What does Jehovah warn us about, and why?
IMAGINE this: You need to travel somewhere, but you need help because you are not sure of the way. You have a friend who knows how to get there. You trust him, so you ask for his help. He gives you the directions you need, and he also gives you some advice to help you avoid dangers on the way. For example, he warns you that on the road there is a sign that is not clear. A lot of people followed it and got lost. Will you be happy to get his warning and pay attention to it? In a way, we are on a journey. Our journey is a journey to everlasting life. Jehovah is our friend, and he gives us the directions we need to live forever. And he also warns us about dangers that can cause us to disobey him.—Deuteronomy 5:32; Isaiah 30:21.
2 In this article and in the next one, we will talk about some of these dangers. Remember that our friend, Jehovah God, warns us about them because he loves us. He wants us to live forever. It makes him sad when people make bad decisions and stop serving him. (Ezekiel 33:11) In this article, we will talk about three dangers. The first danger comes from other people. The second comes from inside of us. The third comes from something that is not real. We need to learn what these dangers are and how Jehovah helps us to avoid them. One Bible writer knew about these dangers and said: “Every false path I have hated.” (Psalm 119:128) He hated everything that could make him disobey Jehovah. Do you feel that way? Let us talk about how we can be determined to avoid every “false path.”
DO NOT FOLLOW “AFTER THE CROWD”
3. (a) On a journey, why could it be dangerous just to follow other people when we do not know which is the right way to go? (b) What important principle do we find at Exodus 23:2?
3 Imagine that you are on a long journey and suddenly do not know which is the right way to go. You see that many choose to go a certain way. It would be so easy to follow them. But it is dangerous to go a certain way just because many other people go that way. Maybe they are not going where you want to go. Or maybe they are lost just like you. This example helps us to understand the principle, or lesson, that Jehovah wanted to teach the Israelites in one of the laws he gave them. Jehovah spoke to those who were judges and witnesses in a legal case. He warned them of the danger of following after the crowd and of making bad decisions only to please other people. (Read Exodus 23:2.) It is very easy for imperfect humans to do that. But the principle “you must not follow after the crowd” was not only for judges and witnesses in a legal case.
4, 5. When were Joshua and Caleb in danger of following after the crowd? What helped them to have courage?
4 We could be in danger of following after the crowd in almost any situation in life. These situations can happen suddenly, and it can be very difficult not to do what other people do. For example, think about what happened to Joshua and Caleb. These two Israelites went to spy out the Promised Land with ten other men. When they came back, the ten men said things about the Promised Land that made the other Israelites afraid. For example, they said that the people there were giants from the family of the Nephilim. (Genesis 6:4) This was impossible because all the Nephilim died in the Flood of Noah’s time hundreds of years earlier, and they did not have any children. But the Israelites believed what those ten men said because their faith was weak. When someone has weak faith, he stops trusting in God and he begins to believe false ideas of humans. Soon, most of the Israelites started to think that they should not follow Jehovah’s direction to enter the Promised Land. What did Joshua and Caleb do in that difficult situation?—Numbers 13:25-33.
5 Joshua and Caleb did not follow after the crowd. Although the Israelites did not want to hear the truth, those two men were not afraid to tell it. They did what was right, even when the Israelites wanted to kill them! What gave them this courage? Their faith in Jehovah. When someone has strong faith in Jehovah, he believes what Jehovah God says and not what humans with false ideas say. When Joshua and Caleb later talked about their faith in Jehovah, they told everyone that he always does what he promises. (Read Joshua 14:6, 8; 23:2, 14.) Joshua and Caleb loved their God and trusted in him. They did not want to do anything that could make Jehovah sad just to please other people. So they did not follow after the crowd, and they are a very good example for us today.—Numbers 14:1-10.
6. In what situations are we in danger of following after the crowd?
6 Do you sometimes want to follow after the crowd? Most people do not respect Jehovah. They think that what he says about right and wrong is foolish. They have their own ideas about what is right and what is wrong and try to make us believe these false ideas. For example, they say that there is nothing wrong with television programs, movies, and computer games that show sexual immorality, violence, and spiritism. (2 Timothy 3:1-5) How do you decide what you and your family will do to enjoy yourselves? Do you decide that something is right or wrong because of what other people say and do? If this is how you make decisions, you are following after the crowd.
7, 8. (a) How do we train our “perceptive powers”? Why is this training better than just following a list of rules? (b) Why are you happy to see the good example of many young Christians?
7 Jehovah gave us a precious gift to help us make decisions. It is the ability to think carefully about things and then choose between right and wrong. The Bible calls this gift our “perceptive powers” and says that we need to train them “through use.” (Hebrews 5:14) We cannot train our perceptive powers if we only do what other people do or if we expect others to tell us what to do. For many things, we need to use our conscience and make our own decisions. For example, Jehovah’s people should not expect someone else to make decisions for them and give them a list of movies, books, and Internet sites to avoid. If we followed a list, we would need new lists all the time. (1 Corinthians 7:31) But the most important reason why we do not expect others to make our decisions for us is that we want to use the ability that Jehovah gave us to make decisions. Jehovah wants us to think carefully about what the Bible says, pray for his guidance, and then make decisions that please him.—Ephesians 5:10.
8 When we make decisions that agree with the Bible, some people will not like it. For example, it is very difficult for our young people in school because others are always trying to make them do what everyone else is doing. (1 Peter 4:4) But many of our young people do not follow after the crowd. It is beautiful to see Christians young and old show faith as Joshua and Caleb did.
DO NOT FOLLOW “YOUR HEARTS AND YOUR EYES”
9. (a) When you are on a journey, why can it be dangerous to choose a road just because you like it? (b) Why was the law at Numbers 15:37-39 important for the Israelites?
9 The second danger we will talk about comes from inside of us. Imagine this: You are on a journey to a certain place, and you have a map to help you get there. What will happen if you decide not to use the map but just choose every road that you think has a beautiful view? You will never get where you want to go. This example helps us to understand another principle that Jehovah wanted to teach the Israelites. It is in another law that he gave them. We can read about it at Numbers 15:37-39. (Read.) Many people today do not understand the reasons for the law about fringes and blue threads. Do you understand why this law was important? One reason is that it made God’s people different from all the other nations around them. And if they really wanted to please Jehovah, they had to be different from the other nations. (Leviticus 18:24, 25) But there was another reason for this law. Let us talk about this reason and learn more about the second danger that could make us disobey Jehovah.
10. How did Jehovah show that he knows humans very well?
10 When Jehovah gave that law to his people, he gave them this reason for it: “You must not go about following your hearts and your eyes.” Jehovah said this because he knows humans very well. He knows that it is easy for our heart, the person we are inside, to desire the things we see with our eyes. Because Jehovah knows that our heart is dangerous and can make us do wrong things, he warns us: “The heart is more treacherous than anything else and is desperate. Who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) That is why Jehovah told the Israelites not to follow their hearts and their eyes. He knew that when the Israelites looked at the nations that did not worship Jehovah, they might want to be like them. They might want to look like them, and then they might start to think and act like them.—Proverbs 13:20.
11. When could we be in danger of following our heart and eyes?
11 Today, it is even easier for our heart to desire what we see with our eyes. We live in a world that makes it easy for us to follow wrong desires. So in what situation could the principle at Numbers 15:39 help us? We could be in danger of following our heart and eyes in the way we dress. People around us dress in a way that shows that they want others to have immoral thoughts. We see people dress that way in school, in the workplace, and in the area where we live. Because we see this all the time, our desire to look like them could become stronger. Then we might start to dress more like them and less like a Christian.—Romans 12:1, 2.
12, 13. (a) What should we do if we sometimes desire to look at what is bad? (b) What does the Bible say we should do so that others will not have wrong desires?
12 It is very important to control our desires. We need to stop our eyes from looking at what is bad. The example of the faithful man Job can help us. He said that he made an agreement with his eyes. He was determined never to look in a romantic way at a woman who was not his wife. (Job 31:1) King David made a similar decision. He said: “I shall not set in front of my eyes any good-for-nothing thing.” (Psalm 101:3) Like David, we must decide not to look at any “good-for-nothing thing.” A “good-for-nothing thing” is anything that can end our friendship with Jehovah. It includes anything we look at that could put a wrong desire in our heart and then make us do what is wrong.
13 We can even become a “good-for-nothing thing” to others if we do things that make them have wrong desires. Sometimes the way we dress can do this. That is why we want to obey what the Bible says. It says that we should wear “well-arranged” clothing “with modesty.” (1 Timothy 2:9) If we dress “with modesty,” we do not think only of what we like. We respect what others think. We want to please others more than we want to please ourselves. (Romans 15:1, 2) There are many thousands of young people in the Christian congregation who are excellent examples in the way they dress. It makes us so happy to see that they do not follow their hearts and their eyes. They choose to please Jehovah in everything they do.
DO NOT FOLLOW “UNREALITIES”
14. What warning about “unrealities” did Samuel give?
14 Imagine now that on your journey, you travel through a big desert. At one point, you think you see water. But it is not really water. Nothing is there! What can happen if you leave the road to get what you think is water? You can get lost and die in the desert. In the same way, Jehovah knows how dangerous it is to trust in something that is not real. At one time, he had to warn the Israelites about this danger. All the nations around them had a human king, so the Israelites also wanted one. That desire was a serious sin because it showed that they did not want Jehovah to be their King. In the end, Jehovah allowed them to have a human king, but he sent his prophet Samuel to give them a warning. Samuel warned the Israelites about the danger of following “unrealities,” that is, the danger of trusting something that could not really help them.—Read 1 Samuel 12:21.
15. In what ways did the Israelites follow “unrealities”?
15 Maybe the Israelites thought that they could trust a human king more than they could trust Jehovah. If this is what they thought, they were following “unrealities.” Because they believed one unreality, it was easy to start believing many other “unrealities” that come from Satan. For example, a human king could make them worship idols. People who worship idols think that they can trust in these gods made of wood or stone because they can see and touch these gods. They do not trust in the invisible God, Jehovah, who created all things. But the apostle Paul said that idols are “nothing.” (1 Corinthians 8:4) Idols cannot see, hear, speak, or do anything. So it is foolish to worship idols just because we can see them and touch them. Idols cannot help anybody. They are “unrealities,” and those who trust in them “will become just like them.”—Psalm 115:4-8.
16. (a) How does Satan make people follow “unrealities” today? (b) Why can we say that compared with Jehovah, money and things are “unrealities”?
16 Satan is very clever, and he still makes people follow “unrealities” today. For example, he makes many believe that if they have money, a good job, and nice things, they will be happy and safe. They think that they can trust these things to help them solve all their problems. But how much can such things help people when they get sick, or when the economy is bad, or when there is a natural disaster? How can these things help them when they feel that their life has no purpose? Can these things answer the important questions they have about life? Do things help people when death is near? If we trust money and things, we will be disappointed. Money and things cannot give us what we need to be happy, and they cannot keep us safe from sickness and death. They are “unrealities.” (Proverbs 23:4, 5) But Jehovah is not an unreality! He is the true God. So it is only when we have a strong friendship with Jehovah that we can really be happy and safe. Only Jehovah can help us with all our problems. We are so happy to be his friends. We never want to leave him and follow “unrealities.”
17. What will you do about the warnings in this article?
17 We are happy that Jehovah is our friend and that he guides us on our journey to everlasting life. If we continue to pay attention to his warnings, we can live forever. In this article, we learned about three dangers that make many people go the wrong way: the crowd, our own hearts, and “unrealities.” In the next article, we will learn about three more warnings that Jehovah gives us to help us hate and avoid every “false path.”—Psalm 119:128.
SOME WORDS EXPLAINED
▪ Nephilim (Genesis 6:4): The children from wicked angels and women
▪ Perceptive powers (Hebrews 5:14): The ability to think carefully about things and then choose between right and wrong
▪ Unrealities (1 Samuel 12:21): Things that people believe can help them but that cannot really make them happy and safe
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
How can you use the principles in these scriptures?
[Study Questions]
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Do you ever want to follow after the crowd?
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Why is it dangerous to follow your heart and eyes?
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Are you following “unrealities”?
