THE OTHER SHEEP AND THE NEW COVENANT

IN THE  fourth vision in the book of Revelation, the apostle John saw the destructive winds of Jehovah's judgment held back while the sealing of all members of "the Israel of God" was being completed.  These are the first to be blessed through Jesus, the principal part of the seed of Abraham. (Galatians 6:16; Genesis 22:18;p Revelation 7:1-4)  In that same vision, John saw "a great crowd, which no man was able to number, out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues . . ., crying with a loud voice, saying:  "Salvation we own to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb.' "  (Revelation 7:9, 10)  In saying, "Salvation we own .  .  . to the Lamb," the great crowd shows that they too are blessed by means of Abraham's Seed. 

This great crowd was recognized back in 1935, and today it numbers more than five million. Marked to survive the great tribulation, its members will be separated  for everlasting life when Jesus divides "the sheep from "the goats."  Christians of the great crowd are among the "other sheep" in Jesus' illustration of the sheepfolds.  They hope to live forever on a paradise earth. -Matthew 25:31-46; John 10:16; Revelation 21:3, 4.  

For the 144,000, the blessing of the Abrahamic covenant is administered through the new covenant. As participants in this covenant, they come "under undeserved kindness" and "under law toward Christ." (Romans 6:15;  1 Corinthians 9:21)  Hence, only the 144,000  members of the Israel of Go have properly partaken of the emblems during the Memorial of Jesus'  death, and only with them did Jesus make his covenant for a Kingdom.  (Luke 22:19, 20, 29)   Members of the great crowd are not participants in the new covenant.  However, they associate with the Israel of God and live with them in their "land." (Isaiah 66:8 ) So it is reasonable to say that they too come under Jehovah's  undeserved kindness and under the Law toward Christ.  While not participants in the new covenant, they are beneficiaries of it.

Next time: "Foreigners" and "the Israel of God"

From the Watchtower magazine, 1998