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Jehovah Blesses and Protects Those Who Are ObedientThe Watchtower—2002 | October 1
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1, 2. Why is obedience to God important? Illustrate.
THE fluffy, yellow hatchlings are busily pecking for food in the short grass, totally unaware of a hawk hovering high above. Suddenly, the mother hen gives a tremulous, high-pitched warning call and spreads her wings. Her chicks run to her, and in seconds they are safely concealed beneath her pinions. The hawk aborts its attack.a The lesson? Obedience saves lives!
2 That lesson is especially important to Christians today, for Satan is making an all-out effort to prey on God’s people. (Revelation 12:9, 12, 17) His goal is to destroy our spirituality so that we lose Jehovah’s favor and the prospect of everlasting life. (1 Peter 5:8) However, if we stay close to God and respond swiftly to the direction we receive through his Word and organization, we can be assured of his protective care. “With his pinions he will block approach to you, and under his wings you will take refuge,” wrote the psalmist.—Psalm 91:4.
A Disobedient Nation Becomes Prey
3. What was the result of Israel’s repeated disobedience?
3 When the nation of Israel was obedient to Jehovah, it regularly benefited from his watchful care. Yet, all too often the people left their Maker and turned to gods of wood and stone—“unrealities that are of no benefit and that do not deliver.” (1 Samuel 12:21) After centuries of such rebellion, the nation as a whole had become so steeped in apostasy that it was beyond recovery. Hence, Jesus lamented: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the killer of the prophets and stoner of those sent forth to her,—how often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks together under her wings! But you people did not want it. Look! Your house is abandoned to you.”—Matthew 23:37, 38.
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Jehovah Blesses and Protects Those Who Are ObedientThe Watchtower—2002 | October 1
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a Though often portrayed as timid, “a mother hen will fight to the death to protect her chicks from harm,” says one humane society publication.
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