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SovereigntyAid to Bible Understanding
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connected with this issue be thoroughly made known and understood. The action that God took engenders confidence in his unchangeableness, it enhances his sovereignty and makes it even more desirable and firmly established in the minds of all who choose it.—Compare Malachi 3:6.
A moral issue
The question, then, is not one of might, of raw strength; it is primarily a moral issue. However, because of God’s invisibility, and because Satan has exerted every effort to blind men’s minds, Jehovah’s power or even his existence has at times been questioned. (1 John 5:19; Rev. 12:9) Men have mistaken the reason for God’s patience and kindness and have themselves become more rebellious. (Eccl. 8:11; 2 Pet. 3:9) Because of this it has taken faith, along with suffering, to serve God with integrity. (Heb. 11:6, 35-38) Nevertheless, Jehovah purposes to make his sovereignty known to all. In Egypt he said to Pharaoh: “In fact, for this cause I have kept you in existence, for the sake of showing you my power and in order to have my name declared in all the earth.” (Ex. 9:16) Likewise God has allowed a time for this world and its god, Satan the Devil, to exist and develop in their wickedness and a time for their destruction. (2 Cor. 4:4; 2 Pet. 3:7) The prophetic prayer of the psalmist was: “That people may know that you, whose name is Jehovah, you alone are the Most High over all the earth.” (Ps. 83:18) Jehovah himself has sworn: “To me every knee will bow down, every tongue will swear, saying, ‘Surely in Jehovah there are full righteousness and strength.’”—Isa. 45:23, 24.
How far the issue reached
How far-reaching was the issue? If man could be induced to sin, and since the rebellious angel had sinned, the question would reach up to and include God’s heavenly creatures, even up to his only-begotten Son, the one closest to Jehovah God. This One, who always did the things pleasing to his Father, would be most anxious to serve for the vindication of God’s name and sovereignty. (John 8:29; Heb. 1:9) God selected him for this assignment, sending him to the earth, where he was born as a male child through the virgin Mary. (Luke 1:35) He was perfect, and maintained that perfection and blamelessness throughout his life, even to a disgraceful death. (Heb. 7:26) Before his death he said: “Now there is a judging of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.” Also: “The ruler of the world is coming. And he has no hold on me.” (John 12:31; 14:30) Satan could get no hold so as to break Christ’s integrity, and was judged as having failed, ready to be cast out. Jesus “conquered the world.”—John 16:33.
Jesus Christ God’s Vindicator
So Jesus Christ, in a totally perfect way, proved the Devil a liar, completely settling the question, Will any man be faithful to God under whatever test or trial may be brought against him? Jesus therefore was appointed by the Sovereign God as the Executor of His purposes, the One to be used to destroy wickedness, including the Devil, from the universe. This authority he will exercise, and ‘every knee will bend and every tongue openly acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.’—Phil. 2:5-11; Heb. 2:14; 1 John 3:8.
In the dominion granted the Son he rules in his Father’s name, ‘bringing to nothing’ all government and all authority and power that stand against Jehovah’s sovereignty. The apostle Paul reveals that Jesus Christ then offers the greatest tribute to Jehovah’s sovereignty, for, “when all things will have been subjected to him, then the Son himself will also subject himself to the One who subjected all things to him, that God may be all things to everyone.”—1 Cor. 15:24-28.
The book of Revelation shows that after the end of Christ’s 1,000-year reign, in which he puts down all authority that attempts to rival Jehovah’s sovereignty, the Devil will be loosed for a short time. He will try to revive the issue, but no long grant of time will be given for that which is already settled. Satan and those following him will be completely annihilated.—Rev. 20:7-10.
Other vindicators
Though Christ’s faithfulness thoroughly proved God’s side of the issue, others are permitted to share in serving for God in this matter. The effects of Christ’s integrity-keeping course, including his sacrificial death, are pointed out by the apostle: “Through one act of justification the result to men of all sorts is a declaring of them righteous for life.” (Rom. 5:18) Christ has been made the Head of a congregational “body” (Col. 1:18), the members of which share in his death of integrity, and he is glad to have them share with him as joint heirs, as associate kings in his Kingdom rule. (Luke 22:28-30; Rom. 6:3-5; 8:17; Rev. 20:4, 6) Faithful men of old, looking forward to God’s provision, maintained integrity, though imperfect in body. (Heb. 11:13-16) And the many others who eventually bend the knee in acknowledgment will likewise do so in heartfelt recognition of God’s righteous, worthy sovereignty. As the psalmist sang prophetically: “Every breathing thing—let it praise Jah. Praise Jah, you people!”—Ps. 150:6.
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SowAid to Bible Understanding
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SOW
See SWINE.
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Sower, SowingAid to Bible Understanding
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SOWER, SOWING
The ancient method of sowing seed was generally by “broadcasting.” The sower carried grain seed in a fold of his garment or in a container. He dispersed the seed before him with his hand in a long sweeping motion that extended from the seed supply to the opposite side. In Palestine the sowing season extended from about October until the first part of March, depending on the kind of grain sown.
JEHOVAH’S BLESSING ON THE SOWER ESSENTIAL
Jehovah is the One providing the seed and the growing process, as well as the sunshine and rain, by which the field produces many times the quantity that is planted. (2 Sam. 23:3, 4; Isa. 55:10) All mankind, whether righteous or wicked, thus receive benefits from the Creator. (Matt. 5:45; Acts 14:15-17) However, since Jehovah God does not generally exercise specific control over the factors that make growth possible, wicked persons at times may enjoy a bountiful harvest, whereas righteous ones, because of experiencing unfavorable conditions, may have a crop failure.—Compare Job 21:7-24.
On the other hand, when it suits his purpose, Jehovah can bless the sower and bring him abundant crops, or he can cause a scarcity of fruitage, depending upon the sower’s faithfulness and obedience to Him. For example, Jehovah purposed to make Israel a great and numerous nation in the Promised Land, so he blessed his obedient servants bountifully. When Isaac was sojourning in Canaan, even though he was harassed by the natives of the land, Jehovah blessed him so that his sowing resulted in a harvest of up to one hundred measures from one measure sown.—Gen. 26:12.
The spiritual condition of Israel determined the kind of harvest they received. Jehovah said to them before they entered the Promised Land: “If you continue walking in my statutes and keeping my commandments and you do carry them out, . . . your threshing will certainly reach to your grape gathering, and the grape gathering will reach to the sowing of seed.” The crops would be so bountiful that the harvest would not be finished before the time to sow the next crop. (Compare Amos 9:13.) On the other hand, God warned: “If you will not listen to me nor do all these commandments, . . . you will simply sow your seed for nothing, as your enemies will certainly eat it up.” And he added, “your earth will not give its yield.” (Lev. 26:3-5, 14-16, 20; compare Haggai 1:6.) Later, in the prophet Jeremiah’s day Jehovah’s warning proved true for, describing their bad condition, Jehovah said: “They have sown wheat, but thorns are what they have reaped.”—Jer. 12:13.
ISRAEL’S LAW GOVERNING SOWING
In the Law given through Moses, God commanded that the land was to be sown for six years, but no sowing or harvesting was to be done during the seventh year (sabbath year) nor on the Jubilee year. (Ex. 23:10, 11; Lev. 25:3, 4, 11) This served to test their faith and to give them more time for pursuit of spiritual things, and also was good for the soil.
Since the land was Jehovah’s, it was, in a sense, holy, and his people were holy. Therefore care had to be taken to prevent any kind of defilement. The touching of a dead body was considered as making a person unclean. Similarly, if the dead body of an unclean animal, for example, a rat or a lizard, fell upon seed when the seed was wet, it was unclean for use, whereas if the seed was dry, it was clean. This was no doubt because the wetness would tend to spread throughout and permeate the seed with the uncleanness.—Lev. 11:31, 37, 38.
Also, the mixing of different seeds in sowing was not permitted, though seeds of different kinds could be sown, each kind in separate places in the same field. (Lev. 19:19; Isa. 28:25) This may have been to keep the Israelites mindful of their separateness and distinctness as God’s people, under his Kingship. If an Israelite violated this law, mixing two sorts of seeds, the entire produce of his field or vineyard became as something “devoted.” It was therefore forfeited to the sanctuary.—Deut. 22:9; compare Leviticus 27:28; Numbers 18:14.
ILLUSTRATIVE USE
Illustrating Jehovah’s care for and blessing on the remnant that returned from Babylon, the psalmist wrote: “Those sowing seed with tears will reap even with a joyful cry. The one that without fail goes forth, even weeping, carrying along a bagful of seed, will without fail come in with a joyful cry, carrying along his sheaves.” (Ps. 126:1, 5) Those returning from Babylon were very happy at their release, but they may have wept when sowing seed in the desolate ground that had been unworked for seventy years. Nevertheless, Jehovah had gathered them back for his name’s sake, and those who went ahead with the sowing and reconstruction work enjoyed fruitage from their labor. For a while, when the temple construction was stopped, Jehovah withheld the land’s fruitage, but through the prophets Haggai and Zechariah the people again were stirred to activity and again received God’s favor.—Hag. 1:6, 9-11; 2:15-19.
Diligence and generosity
Solomon set forth a principle in connection with generosity and doing one’s work industriously when he wrote: “He that is watching the wind will not sow seed; and he that is looking at the clouds will not reap.” One who holds back, waiting for a time to come when everything seems to him fully and exactly favorable for the work God has set before him, or who is looking for an excuse to avoid the work, will not receive anything from God. Rather, Solomon counsels to be diligent for, he says in verse five, it is God who “does all things,” and man does not understand all God’s ways of working. Accordingly, he advises: “In the morning sow your seed and until the evening do not let your hand rest; for you are not knowing where this will have success, either here or there, or whether both of them will alike be good.”—Eccl. 11:4-6.
The apostle Paul seems to be thinking similarly when he encourages the Christians at Corinth in their generosity in connection with the relief ministration for the brothers at Jerusalem, who had suffered hardships and had lost many of their possessions through persecution leveled against them by the Jews. Paul said: “He that sows sparingly will also reap sparingly; and he that sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. . . . God, moreover, is able to make all his undeserved kindness abound toward you, that, while you always have full self-sufficiency in everything, you may have plenty for every good work. . . . Now he that abundantly supplies seed to the sower and bread for eating will supply and multiply the seed for you to sow and will increase the products of your righteousness.” Then Paul points out the good thing that results in addition to God’s favor and bounty in a material way, namely, that such generosity results in thanks to God and glorification of God, along with the love and prayers of those being helped, in behalf of those extending help. Such develops great unity, with an increase of love in the congregation.—2 Cor. 9:6-14.
Preaching the good news
Jehovah uses the sowing and growing process to illustrate the sure effectiveness of his word. (Isa. 55:10, 11) Jesus Christ likened the sowing of seed to preaching the word, the good news of the Kingdom. He was the Sower of the Kingdom truths and John the Baptist had also worked as a sower. Jesus’ disciples were sent out to reap in the fields that had been sown and were white for harvesting. Therefore he said to them: “Already the reaper is receiving wages and gathering fruit for everlasting life, so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together. . . . One is the sower and another the reaper. I dispatched you to reap what you have spent no labor on. Others have labored [in sowing], and you have entered into the benefit of their labor [by reaping].”—John 4:35-38.
Again, Jesus likened the preaching work to sowing, in the illustration of the sower. In this parable he pointed out that the conditions under which the seed is sown can affect the sprouting and growing of the seed in the hearts of men.—Matt. 13:1-9, 18-23; Luke 8:5-15.
The wheat and the weeds
In another illustration Jesus likened himself to a sower of fine seed, and the seed to “sons of the kingdom.” Another sower, an enemy who sows weeds in the field, is the Devil. Here he was evidently foretelling an apostasy to come, when, in and among the Christian congregation, there would be men falsely claiming to be servants of God and attempting to defile the congregation and to draw away the disciples.—Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43; compare Acts 20:29; 2 Corinthians 11:12-15; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-9; 1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Timothy 4:3, 4; 2 Peter 2:1-3.
‘Sowing with a view to the flesh’
The apostle Paul, after enumerating the fruits of the spirit and the works of the flesh, and admonishing each one to prove his own work, said: “Do not be misled: God is not one to be mocked. For whatever a man is sowing, this he will also reap; because he who is sowing with a view to his flesh will reap corruption from his flesh, but he who is sowing with a view to the spirit will reap everlasting life from the spirit.”—Gal. 5:19-23; 6:4, 7, 8.
An example of sowing to the flesh, with its results, was cited by Paul at Romans 1:24-27. Other examples were the incestuous person in the Corinthian congregation, practicing unclean fleshly things, also Hymenaeus and Alexander, promoting unclean teaching and blasphemy, and who were handed over to Satan “for the destruction of the flesh.”—1 Cor. 5:1, 5; 1 Tim. 1:20; 2 Tim. 2:17, 18.
Instructing, caring for the congregation
When writing to the congregation at Corinth, Paul compared his instruction and help to the congregation to sowing, and explained to them that, doing so, he had authority to receive material things from them to assist him in carrying on his ministry. But he did not do this, so as not to offer any hindrance to the good news.—1 Cor. 9:11, 12.
Must be done in peace
Just as a farmer sows seed in peace, so the good news is sown in peace, not with wrangling, strife, tumult and the use of force. And the men doing the sowing are men of peace, not quarrelsome, belligerent or riotous. Therefore peaceful conditions must exist in the Christian congregation in order for their sowing to produce fruitage of righteousness.—Jas. 3:18.
The resurrection
When discussing the spiritual resurrection, Paul likened the burial of the physical body to the sowing of a seed, stating: “Nevertheless, someone will say: ‘How are the dead to be raised up? Yes, with what sort of body are they coming?’ You unreasonable person! What you sow is not made alive unless first it dies; and as for what you sow, you sow, not the body that will develop, but a bare grain, it may be, of wheat or any one of the rest; but God gives it a body just as it has pleased him, and to each of the seeds its own body. . . . And there are heavenly bodies, and earthly bodies; . . . So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised up in incorruption. . . . It is sown a physical body, it is raised up a spiritual body. . . . For this which is corruptible must put on incorruption, and this which is mortal must put on immortality.”—1 Cor. 15:35-53.
Such ones who are chosen by God to be joint heirs with his Son, to receive incorruption and immortality, in order to obtain the heavenly body, must die, giving up the body of flesh, to receive the new body by a resurrection, just as a seed planted “dies,” disintegrates, and is of an entirely different form and appearance from the plant that results.—Rom. 6:3-5.
For a discussion of the sowing mentioned at Isaiah 28:24, with its illustrative significance, see PLOWING.
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SpainAid to Bible Understanding
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SPAIN
The country situated on the Iberian Peninsula in SW Europe, the southern part of which was evidently called Tarshish in ancient times. After visiting the Roman Christians, the apostle Paul hoped to be escorted part way there by his fellow believers in Rome. (Rom. 15:23, 24, 28) Whether the apostle ever reached Spain is not certain. However, Clement of Rome stated (c. 95 C.E.) that Paul “came to the extreme limit of the W[est],” which could have included Spain. If he reached that land, the visit probably occurred between Paul’s release from his first imprisonment in Rome (c. 61 C.E.) and his imprisonment there once again in c. 64 C.E. At that time Spain was under Roman rule.—See TARSHISH No. 1.
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SpanAid to Bible Understanding
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SPAN
A linear measure approximately corresponding to the distance between the end of the thumb and the end of the little finger when the hand is spread out. (Ex. 28:16; 39:9; 1 Sam. 17:4; Ezek. 43:13) Two spans equal one cubit; and three handbreadths, one span. There is evidence that the cubit commonly used by the Israelites was about 17.5 inches (44.5 centimeters) in length. (See CUBIT.) Accordingly, the span would be 8.75 inches (22.25 centimeters) in length.
When highlighting Jehovah’s greatness, the prophet Isaiah asked: “Who has . . . taken the proportions of the heavens themselves with a mere span?”—Isa. 40:12.
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SparrowAid to Bible Understanding
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SPARROW
[Gr., strou·thiʹon].
The English name “sparrow” is applied to several different small birds, principally of the finch family. Similarly, the Greek word strou·thiʹon is a diminutive form meaning any small bird, but was used especially as applying to sparrows. The common house sparrow is abundant in Palestine, particularly so in the coastal towns. Small brown and gray birds, the sparrows are noisy and gregarious, chirping and twittering, fluttering from their perch on a house-top, tree or bush to the ground and back again. Their nests are to be found in orchards, vineyards, gardens, and often in cracks or ledges of homes. Their diet consists chiefly of seeds, insects and worms. Along the Jordan valley the marsh sparrows are very numerous, nesting in the thickets there.
The only direct references to sparrows in the Bible are found in a statement that Jesus made during his third Galilean tour and evidently restated about a year thereafter in his later Judean ministry. Pointing out that “two sparrows sell for a coin of small value [literally, an assarion, worth about one cent]” or, if bought in quantities of five, “for two coins of small value,” Jesus stated that, though these small birds were counted as of such little worth, “yet not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father’s knowledge,” “not one of them goes forgotten before God.” He then encouraged his disciples to be free from fear, assuring them, “You are worth more than many sparrows.”—Matt. 10:29-31; Luke 12:6, 7.
Both anciently and modernly, sparrows have been sold in the markets of the East. As an item of food, they were plucked and spitted on wooden skewers and roasted (like shish kebabs). An ancient inscription of Emperor Diocletian’s tariff law (301 C.E.) shows that, of all the birds sold for food, sparrows were the cheapest. Often sold in lots of ten, the maximum price for this number was fixed in the law at sixteen denarii, evidently the copper denarii introduced by Diocletian and worth about one-fifth of a cent each. At this fourth-century rate, five sparrows would have cost somewhat less than two cents, or about the same price as was current when Jesus was on earth.
Although the sparrow appears in the Hebrew Scriptures in the Authorized Version (Ps. 84:3; 102:7) and in other translations, the Hebrew term so rendered (tsip·pohrʹ) is evidently a generic term referring to small birds in general and not specifically identifying the sparrow.
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SpearAid to Bible Understanding
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SPEAR
See ARMS, ARMOR.
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SpearmenAid to Bible Understanding
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SPEARMEN
These soldiers anciently comprised a section of the light infantry, and were backed up by archers and slingers. Charioteers and cavalrymen often carried spears. Spearmen were a part of the Roman occupational forces in Palestine, two hundred of whom were included in secretly escorting Paul out of Jerusalem.—Acts 23:23; see ARMS, ARMOR, pages 128, 129.
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SpellAid to Bible Understanding
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SPELL
See CHARM.
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SpeltAid to Bible Understanding
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SPELT
An inferior kind of wheat, the kernels of which are not readily separated from the chaff. Spelt was anciently cultivated in Egypt (Ex. 9:32), where, according to the Greek historian Herodotus (Book II, par. 39), it was made into bread. (See Ezekiel 4:9.) The Israelites seem to have planted it as a border around their fields to serve as a kind of fence.—Isa. 28:25.
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SpiceAid to Bible Understanding
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SPICE
Any of a variety of fragrant plant products, including aloe, balsam, calamus, cassia, cinnamon, frankincense, galbanum, labdanum, myrrh and stacte. Spices were employed in making the holy anointing oil and the incense designated for exclusive sanctuary use. (Ex. 30:23-25, 34-37) They were also used in preparing the dead for burial, myrrh and aloes being specifically mentioned in Jesus’ case. (John 19:39, 40; see also Mark 16:1; Luke 23:56; 24:1.) In connection
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