Some Choose the Darkness

Jehovah showed great loving-kindness to Judah, but unhappily not all responded Frequently, the majority chose rebellion and apostasy rather than the light  of Jehovah's  truth.  Isaiah said: "Though the wicked one should  be shown favor, he simply will not learn righteousness.  In the land of straightforwardness he will act unjustly and will not see the eminence of Jehovah." - Isaiah 26:10.

In Isaiah's day when Jehovah's hand protected  Judah against her enhemies, the majority  refused to recognize this.  When he blessed them with his peace, the nation showed no gratitude.  Hence, Jehoah abandoned then to serve "other masters," finally letting the Jews be taken off into captivity in Babylon in 607 B.C.E.  (Isaiah 26:11-13)  Still, eventually a remnant of the nation returned, chastened, to their homeland.

What about Judah's captors?  Isaiah prophetically answers:  "They are dead; they will not live. Impotent in death, they will not rise up.  Therefore you have turned your attention that you might annihilate them and destroy all mention of them." (Isaiah 26:14)  Yes, after her fall in 539 B.C.E., Babylon had no future.  In time, the city would be no more.  She would be "impotent in death,"  and her huge empire consigned to the history books.  What a warning for those who hope in the powerful ones  of this world!

Aspects of this prophecy had a fulfillment when God allowed his anointed servants to go into spiritual captivity in 1918 and then liberated them  in 1919.  From that point on, the future of their former captor, principally Christendom, was bleak.  But the blessings in store for Jehovah's people were rich indeed.

Next time: "You  Have Added to the Nation"

The Watchtower, 2001