IDENTIFYING THE RIGHT KIND OF MESSENGER

Startling Messages About Babylon and Jerusalem

Judah and Jerusalem were to be desolated, without human inhabitant, for 70 years. However, Jehovah declared through Isaiah and Ezekiel that the city would be rebuilt and the land inhabited at the precise tie that he had foretold! This was an amazing prediction. Why? Because Babylon had the reputation of never freeing her prisoners. (Isaiah 14:4, 15-17) So who could possibly liberate these captives? Who could overthrow might Babylon, with her colossal walls and river-defense system? Almighty Jehovah could! And he said that he would: "I am . . .the One saying to the watery deep [that is, the watery defense of the city], 'Be evaporated; and all your rivers I shall dry up'; the One saying of Cyrus, 'He is my shepherd, and all that I delight in he will completely carry out';even in my saying of Jerusalem,' She will be rebuilt and of the temple, 'You will have your foundation laid.' " -Isaiah 44:25, 27, 28.

Think of that! The Euphrates River, a truly formidable barrier to men, was to Jehovah like a drop of water on a red-hot surface. Poof, the barrier would be evaporated! Babylon would fall. Although it was about 150 years before the birth of Cyrus that Persian, Jehovah had Isaiah foretell this king's capture of Babylon and the liberating of the Jewish captives by his authorizing their return to rebuild Jerusalem and its temple.

We find this prophecy at Isaiah 45:1-3: "This is what Jehovah has said to his anointed one, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have taken hold of, to subdue before him nations . . .to open before him the two leaved doors, so that even the gates will not be shut: 'Before you I myself shall go, and the swells of land I shall straighten out. The copper doors I shall break in pieces, and the iron bars I shall cut down. And I will give you the treasures in the darkness and the hidden treasures in the concealment places, in order that you may know that I am Jehovah, the One calling you by your name.' "

Notice that Jehovah speaks to Cyrus as if he is already alive. This harmonizes with Paul's statement that Jehovah "calls the things that are not as though they were." (Romans 4:17) Also, God identifies Cyrus as "his anointed one." Why did he do that? After all, Jehovah's high priest never poured holy anointing oil on Cyrus' head. True, but this is a prophetic anointing. It indicates an induction into a specific office. So, God could speak of his advance appointment of Cyrus as an anointing. -Compare 1 Kings 19:15-17; 2 Kings 8:13.

Next time: God Fulfills the Words of His Messengers

Watchtower, 1997