Contemplate Future Blessings

Those responding to the voice of the Grand Instructor will scatter their graven images, viewing them as something disgusting.  (Read Isaiah 30:22) Then, those responsive ones will enjoy wonderful blessings. These  are described by Isaiah, as recorded in Isaiah 30:23-26,  a delightful restoration prophecy that that has its  initial fulfillment when  a Jewish remnant returns from captivity in 537 B.C.E. Today, this prophecy helps us to see the marvelous blessings that the Messiah brings about in the spiritual paradise now and the literal Paradise to come.

"He will certainly give the rain for your seed with which you sow the ground, and as the produce of the ground bread, which must become fat and oily.  Your livestock will graze in that day in a spacious pasture.  And the cattle and the full-grown asses cultivating the ground will eat fodder seasoned with sorrel, which was winnowed with the shovel  and with the fork."  (Isaiah 30:23, 24)  "Fat and oily" bread-food rich in nourishment -will be man's daily staple.  The land will produce so abundantly that even the animals  will benefit.  Livestock will be fed "fodder seasoned  with sorrel"-tasty fodder reserved for rare occasions.  This food has even been "winnowed"-a treatment normally reserved for grain intended for human consumption.  What delightful details Isaiah presents here to illustrate the richness of Jehovah's blessing on faithful mankind!

"Upon every high mountain and upon every elevated hill there must come to be streams."  (Isaiah 30:25a)  Isaiah presents an apt word picture emphasizing the completeness of Jehovah's blessings.  No shortage of water-a precious commodity that will flow not only in the lowlands but on every mountain, even 'upon every high mountain and upon every elevated hill."  Yes, hunger will be a thing of the past.  (Psalm 72:16)  Further, the prophet's attention shifts to things even higher than  the mountains.  "The light of the full moon and must become as the light of the glowing sun; and the very light of the glowing sun will become seven times as much, like the light of seven days, in the day that
Jehovah binds up the breakdown of his people and heals even  the severe wound resulting from the stroke by him."  ((Isaiah 30:26)  What a thrilling climax to this brilliant prophecy!  The glory of God will shine forth in all its splendor.  The blessing in store for God's faithful worshipers will exceed vastly -sevenfold-anything that they have experience before. 

Next time: Judgment and Joy

From the Book Isaiah's Prophecy Light for all Mankind, 2000