A Call to Action

Having reassured Zion, Jehovah issues a call to action. Speaking as if she had already reached the end of her sufferings, he says: "Rouse yourself, rouse yourself, rise up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk at the hand of Jehovah is cup of rage.  The goblet, the cup causing reeling, you have drunk, you have drained out." (Isaiah 51:17)  Yes, Jerusalem must rise up from her calamitous condition and recover her former position and splendor.  The time will come when she will have drained the symbolic cup of divine retribution.  There will be nothing left of God's anger toward her.

Nevertheless, while Jerusalem is being punished none of her inhabitants, her "sons," will be able to prevent what is happening.  (Isaiah 43:5-7; Jeremiah 3:14)  The prophecy says:  "there was none of all the sons that she brought to birth conducting her, and there was none of all the sons that she brought taking hold of her hand."  (Isaiah 51:18)  How will she suffer at the hands of the Babylonians!  "Those two things were befalling you.  Who will sympathize with you?  Despoiling and breaking down, and hunger and sword! Who will comfort you?  Your own sons have swooned away. They have lain down at the head of all the streets like the wild sheep in the net, as those who are full of  the rage of Jehovah, the rebuke of your God." -Isaiah 51:19, 20.

Poor Jerusalem!  She will endure "despoiling and breakdown" as well as "hunger and sword."  Unable to guide her and keep her on her feet, her "sons" will stand by helpless, emaciated, not storing enough to repel the Babylonian invaders.  Conspicuously, at the head or corner, of the streets, they will like faint, weak, and exhausted.  (Lamentations 2:19; 4:1, 2) They will have drunk the cup of God's rage and will be as powerless as animals caught in a net.

But this sad situation will come to an end. Isaiah comfortingly says:  "Therefore listen to this, please, O woman afflicted and drunk, but not with wine. This is what your Lord, Jehovah, even your God, who contends for his people, has said:  'Look! I will take away from your hand the cup causing reeling.  The goblet, my cup of rage-you will not repeat the drinking of it anymore.  And I will put it in the hand of the ones irritating you, who have said to your soul, "Bow down that we may cross over," so that you used to make your back just like the earth, and like the street  for those crossing over.' " (Isaiah 51:21-23)  After disciplining Jerusalem, Jehovah is ready to act with pity and to show a forgiving spirit toward her. 

Jehovah will now turn his anger away from Jerusalem and direct it toward Babylon.  Babylon will have razed Jerusalem and humiliated her.  (Psalm 137:7-9)   But Jerusalem will not have to drink from such a cup again at the hands of Babylon or her allies. Instead, the cup will be taken out of Jerusalem's hand and given  to those who rejoiced at her disgrace.   (Lamentations 4:21, 22)  Babylon will go down, dead drunk.  (Jeremiah 51:6-8)  Meanwhile, Zion will rise!  What a reversal!  Truly, Zion can be comforted by such a prospect. And Jehovah's servants can be assured that his name will be sanctified through his saving acts. 

Next time: "Cry Out Joyfully in Unison"! Chapter Thirteen

From the Book Isaiah's Prophecy Light for all Mankind, Volume II, 2001