7. In addition to true worship, what other unifying force is promised for God’s people?

⁷ When ancient Israel was restored to its “land,” true worship became a unifying force among them. But the kingdom was not restored. Why, then, does Jehovah at Ezekiel chapter 37, verses 22 and 24, speak of a “king” over them? Eze 37 Verses 24 and 25 read:

“And my servant David will be king over them, and one shepherd is what they will all come to have; and in my judicial decisions they will walk, and my statutes they will keep, and they will certainly carry them out.

8. (a) Why must these verses apply to spiritual Israel? (b) How do we pinpoint the time of fulfillment?

⁸ That part of the prophecy has never been fulfilled on fleshly Israel, nor will it ever be so fulfilled. Therefore the application must be to spiritual Israel. But when? Well, when has a king with “legal right” come to sit again on the throne of David? This happened with the ending of “the appointed times of the nations” in the modern year 1914. As the Gentile Times ran out, “the kingdom of the world did become the kingdom of our Lord” Jehovah, who “will rule as king forever and ever,” and also “of his Christ,” the One whom David typified.​—Ezekiel 21:26, 27; Luke 21:24; Revelation 11:15.

9. What two things serve as unifying realities today?

⁹ So, today, not only are we Jehovah’s Witnesses unified by true worship​—important as such worship is—​but we are also unified in being gathered under our “Chieftain” King! Both our worship and the Kingdom are realities to us. And both serve to unite us in our worldwide brotherhood.

10. (a) How do we regard our Shepherd-King? (b) How do we carry out Jehovah’s “judicial decisions”?

¹⁰ How we love our King! To all of us he is “one shepherd”​—a kindly Shepherd who leads us to waters of everlasting life. He knows each of us by name and is interested in calling us out and leading us to luscious spiritual pastures. But like the sheep of a flock, we must stay united, ‘walking in Jehovah’s judicial decisions.’ We must keep separate from the following three segments of Satan’s organization: its corrupt politics, its greedy commercialism and its idolatrous religion. In a unity like that of Jesus and his early disciples, we show that we are “no part of the world.” And this includes, too, shunning the world’s immorality. (John 17:14, 16, 20, 21; 18:36) There must be no divisions among us, as we keep Jehovah’s statutes and “certainly carry them out.”