Despite Weeping, Truly Happy!

The people who lived at the time of the global Deluge lacked a serious view of life. They went about their daily routine and failed to weep over the "badness of man [that] was abundant in the earth," looking on with indifference as "the earth became filled with violence." (Genesis 6:5, 11) Jesus referred to that regrettable state, and he foretold a similar attitude among people in our day. He warned: "As they were in those days before the flood, eating and drinking, men marrying, and women being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark; and they took no note until the flood came and swept them all away, so the presence of the Son of man will be. -Matthew 24:38, 39.

Some 1,850 years after the Flood, in the days of Haggai, many Israelites showed a similar lack of serious concern for spiritual matters. Busy pursuing personal interests, they failed to discern that theirs was the time for giving priority to Jehovah's interests. We read: "As regards this people, they have said: "The time has not come, the time of the house of Jehovah, for it to be built.' And the word of Jehovah continued to come by means of Haggai the prophet, saying: 'Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house is waste? and now this is what Jehovah of armies has said, "Set your heart upon your ways." ' " -Haggai 1:1-5.

As Jehovah's Witnesses today, with responsibilities and privileges before Jehovah like those of the Israelites of Haggai's time, we would also do well to set our hearts upon our ways, doing so in all seriousness. Do we "weep" over world conditions and the reproach these bring upon God's name? Are we pained when people deny God's existence or blatantly ignore his righteous principles? Do we react as did the marked individuals seen by Ezekiel in a vision 2,500 years ago? About them we read: "Jehovah went on to say to [the man with the secretary's inkhorn]: 'Pass through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and you must put a mark on the foreheads of the men that are sighing and groaning over all the detestable things that are being done in the midst of it.' " -Ezekiel 9:4.

Next time: Continue with the above subject.

Watchtower, 1999