according to his promise God has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus.”—Acts 13:16-23.

King David was the son of Jesse, and the prophecy at Isaiah 11:1, 2, 10 was fulfilled in Jesus as the offspring of David: “And there must go forth a twig out of the stump of Jesse; and out of his roots a sprout will be fruitful. And upon him the spirit of Jehovah must settle down, . . . And it must occur in that day that there will be the root of Jesse that will be standing up as a signal for the peoples. To him even the nations will turn inquiringly, and his resting place must become glorious.” This Jesus, the offspring of Jesse through David, became also the “root of Jesse” from three aspects: (1) Jesus Christ has kept the genealogical line of Jesse alive by becoming the permanent heir of Jesse. (2) He becomes Lord to David and so to David’s father Jesse, as the apostle Peter explained at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost of A.D. 33:

“Actually David did not ascend to the heavens, but he himself says, ‘Jehovah said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I place your enemies as a stool for your feet.’” Therefore let all the house of Israel know for a certainty that God made him both Lord [to King David] and Christ, this Jesus whom you impaled.”—Acts 2:14, 34-36; Ps. 110:1; Matt. 22:41-45.

(3) Christ is now a Savior, and during his 1,000-year reign over mankind, he will resurrect Jesse as well as his son David.—Isa. 9:6; John 5:26-29.

There can be no question about it. The Creator and Sovereign of the universe has made this Jesus Christ “The One Whose It Is.” Not only has he shown this by his dealings with the nation of Israel and his covenants with them, but also he has tested and proved this One as the perfect One, whose integrity to Jehovah is unbreakable, who will carry out all His judgments in perfect fairness and justice, putting God’s right principles and laws into effect throughout the earth. He is a king-priest like Melchizedek forever, therefore is both God’s chief one in government and High Priest of the true worship of God. A choice of worship and government has to be made. We cannot establish the rule of Shiloh in the earth, but the choice that we make greatly affects our lives and our prospects for life under the peaceful reign of the great Shiloh, “The One Whose It Is.” This will be further graphically proved as later issues of The Watchtower consider the matter.

Illegitimate Offspring

◆ A recent court decision in the United States ruled that a husband’s consent to artificial insemination of his wife by another man’s semen does not render the child legitimate in New York State. Reporting on the decision, The United States Law Week of August 13, 1963, said: “The concept that historically is deeply imbedded in the law is that a child who is begotten through a father who is not the mother’s husband is deemed to be illegitimate. Unless some statute changes this doctrine, ‘it must be presumed that the historical concept of illegitimacy with respect to such a child remains in force and effect.’ There is no statute.” The opinion of the New York Superior Court, Kings County (Gursky v. Gursky, August 2, 1963), said: “Where the precise issue of legitimacy has been squarely presented for determination, it has been held that heterologous artificial insemination by a third party donor, with or without the consent of the husband, constitutes adultery on the part of the father, and that a child so conceived is not a child born in wedlock and is therefore illegitimate.”

Scripturally, a woman who consents to artificial insemination is in substance committing adultery, and if her husband consented to the practice, he would also be approving of an adulterous course. Artificial insemination is out of harmony with God’s law.—Matt. 7:17-20; 1 Cor. 6:9-11.