Isaiah's Prophecy Light for all Mankind - Continue with A Desolated Land

A Desolated Land

Amid all the devastation, "the daughter of Zion," Jerusalem, will be left standing.  But she will look very vulnerable-like a shanty in a vineyard or a watchman's booth in a cucumber field.  In a journey down the Nile, one    19th century scholar was reminded of Isaiah's words when he saw similar booths, which he describes as "little more than a fence against  a north wind."  In Judah when the harvest was over, these booths were allowed to fall apart and collapse.  Still, as flimsy as Jerusalem might appear before the all-conquering Assyrian army, she will survive.

Isaiah concludes this prophetic statement:  "Unless Jehovah of armies himself had left remaining to us just a few survivors, we should have become  just like Sodom, we should have resembled Gomorrah itself." (Isaiah 1:9) Against the might of Assyria, Jehovah will finally come to Judah's aid.  Unlike Sodom and Gomorrah, Judah will not be obliterated. It will live on.

More than 100 years later, Judah was again under threat.  The people had no learned from the discipline inflicted through Assyria.  "They were continually making jest at the messengers of the true God and despising  his words and mocking at his prophets."  As a result, "the rage of Jehovah came up against his people, until there was no healing."  (2 Chronicles 36:16)  The Babylonian monarch Nebuchadnezzar conquered  Judah, and this time, there was nothing remaining "like a booth in a vineyard."  Even Jerusalem was destroyed.  (2 Chronicles 36:17-21)  Still, Jehovah 'left a few remaining.'  Even though Judah endured 70 years in exile, Jehovah ensured the continuance of the nation and especially of the Davidic line, which would produce the promised Messiah.

Next time: Conclusion of A Desolated Land

From the Book Isaiah's Prophecy Light for all Mankind