Foretelling New Things

Perhaps those Jews in Babylon need to have their memories refreshed.  Hence, Jehovah once again reminds them that he is the God of true prophecy: "The first things I have told even from that time, and out of my own mouth they went forth, and I kept making them heard. Suddenly I acted, and the things proceeded to come in."  (Isaiah 48:3)  "The first  things" are things that God has already accomplished, such as liberating the Israelites from Egypt and giving them the Promised Land as an inheritance.  (Genesis 13:14, 15; 15:13, 14)  Such predictions go out from God's mouth ; they are of divine origin. God causes men to hear his decrees, and what they hear should move them to be obedient.  (Deuteronomy 28:15)  He acts suddenly to perform what he has foretold.  The fact that Jehovah  is the Almighty ensures that his purpose is fulfilled. -Joshua 21:45; 23:14.

Jehovah's people have become "stubborn and rebellious."  (Psalm 78:8)  He frankly tells them:  "You are hard and . . .your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead is copper." (Isaiah 48:4)  Like metals, the Jews are hard to bend-unyielding.  That is one reason why Jehovah reveals things before they occur.  Otherwise, his people will say of the things Jehovah has done:  "My own idol has done them, and my own carved image and my own molten image have commanded them."  (Isaiah 489:5)  Will what Jehovah is now saying have any effect on the unfaithful Jews?  God says to them:  "You have heard. Behold it all. As for you people , will you not tell it?  I have made you hear new things from the present time, even things kept in reserve, that you have not known. At the present time they must be created and not from that time, even things that before today you have not heard, that you may not say, 'Look! I have already known them.' "-Isaiah 48:6, 7.


Long in advance Isaiah recorded the prediction about the fall of Babylon. Now as exiles in Babylon, the Jews are prophetically commanded to contemplate the fulfillment of the prediction. Can they deny that Jehovah is a God of truth, must they not also declare this truth to others?  Jehovah's revealed  word foretells new things that have not yet come to pass, such as Cyrus' conquest of Babylon and the release of the Jews.   (Isaiah 48:14-16)  Such startling events seemingly come out of nowhere.  No one could have foreseen them merely by considering the developing world conditions.  They arrive as though created out of nothing. Who causes these events?  Since Jehovah foretells them some 200 years in advance, the answer is obvious.

Moreover, Jehovah carries out his word according to his own timetable.  Fulfilled prophecies  prove his Godship not only to the Jews in ancient times bu also to Christians today.  The record of numerous prophecies that were fulfilled  in the past-"the first things"-is an assurance that the new things promise by Jehovah-the coming "great tribulation, the "new earth," and much more-will come to pass.  (Revelation 7:9, 14, 15; 21:4, 5; 2 Peter 3:13)  That assurance motivates righthearted ones today to speak about him zealously.  They share the feelings of the psalmist, who said:  "I have told the good news of righteousness in the big congregation.  Look!  My lips I do not restrain." -Psalm 40:9.

Next time: Jehovah Exercises Self-Control

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