During the brain-numbing lesson this week, I looked ahead at the article for next week. It's hard to get past the title alone:
Reap Blessings Through God's Spirit-Guided King!
"Spirit-Guided"? Really? Jesus is no better than the "Spirit Guided" Governing Body that manage to make embarassing false predictions? Why are they dumbing down Jesus to the same level as the earthly GB? Why didn't they use "Anointed", "Spirit Anointed", "Perfect", or any other expression that would make Jesus more reliable than the ever-changing "Spirit Guided Misguided" Watchtower teachings? I don't recall that they have ever used the expression, "God's Spirit-Guided King". It certainly isn't in the Bible. Is this "new light"? And with an exclamation point on the end, this must really be exciting!
The title wording is clumsy in a Jaraczesque sort of way. Since this article is based on the PT of the 2008/9 DC, it would have been originally "crafted" by the Teaching Committee, where TJ was the most ego-forward, technology-backward of the bunch. Teddy had a unique talent for insisting on verbose, clumsily-worded titles that often had little to do with the actual material.
Perhaps I'm critical of wording, but even the possessive phrase "God's king" isn't used in the Bible. The phrase "Jehovah's king" isn't in the NWT either. Those last words of the title just aren't "right". And what does "Reap Blessings Through" mean? That combination of words didn't come up with any other occurances in WTLib. The combination of words really makes no sense. The article doesn't explain what that is supposed to mean, really. Much like a boring PT, it's the usual "Satan's world is doomed", "Jesus is qualified and empowered", but the last heading is "Through Christ, Bless Yourself!" (Yes, also with an exclamation point. Aren't you excited!?!) Sorry, Christ isn't blessing you, you have to bless yourself! How happifying! And what is that blessing? ... Yes, they include the Governing Body as an important part of that blessing! And everyone will be judged based on their attitude toward the GB!
I thought the fact that there really are no blessings to reap was effectively expressed in today's lesson, para. 15:
"Our task is not simply to tell people that if they turn to God, he will help them with all their problems and they will feel better."
So, the task must be to tell people that if they turn to God, he will not help them with any of their problems and they will feel worse. Wow, those are some "blessings" right there for the reaping.