Jehovah Does Not Forget His People

Isaiah now continues to report Jehovah's pronouncements.  He foretells that  the exiled Israelites will tend to tire out and lose hope. Isaiah says:  "Zion kept saying: 'Jehovah has left me, and Jehovah himself has forgotten me.' " (Isaiah 49:14)  Is this true? Has Jehovah abandoned his people and forgotten them?  Acting as Jehovah's spokesman, Isaiah continues:  "Can a wife forget her suckling so that she should not pity the son of her belly?  Even these women can forget, yet I myself shall not forget you."  (Isaiah 49:15)  What a loving response from Jehovah!  God's love for his people is greater than that of a mother for her child.  He is constantly thinking of his loyal ones.  He remembers them as if their  names were engraved on his hands: "Look! Upon my palms I have engraved you. Your walls are in front of me constantly." -Isaiah 49:16.

In his letter to the Galatians, the apostle Paul exhorted Christians: "Let us not give up in doing what is fine, for in due season we shall reap if we do not tire out." (Galatians 6:9)  To the Hebrews he wrote encouraging words:  "God is not unrighteous so as to forget your work and the love you showed for his name."  (Hebrews 6:10)  Never  should we feel that Jehovah has forgotten his people. Like ancient Zion, Christians have good reason to rejoice and patiently wait on Jehovah. He holds firm to his covenant terms and promises.

Jehovah, through Isaiah, offers additional comfort.  Those  "tearing  [Zion] down,"  either the Babylonians or the apostate Jews, are no longer a threat. Zion's  "sons," exiled Jews that remain loyal to Jehovah,  "have hurried up." They will be "collected together." Having hastened back to Jerusalem, the repatriated  Jews will be adornments to their capital city, just as "a bride" is clothed with "ornaments.: (Isaiah 49:17, 18) Zion's places have been "devastated."  Imagine here surprise when she suddenly has so many inhabitants that her dwelling place seems cramped.  (Read Isaiah 49:19, 20) Naturally, she asks where all these children come from:  "You will for certain say in your heart, 'Who has become father to these for me, since I am a woman bereaved of children and sterile, gone into exile and taken prisoner? As for these, who has brought them up?  Look! I myself had been left behind alone. These -where have they been?"  (Isaiah 49:21)  What a happy situation for previously barren Zion! 

These words have a modern fulfillment. In the difficult years of the first world war, spiritual Israel experience a period of desolation and captivity. But she was restored and came to be in a spiritual paradise.  (Isaiah 35:1-10) Like the once devastated city described by Isaiah, she was delighted -as it were- to find herself teeming with joyful, active worshipers of Jehovah.

Next time: "A Signal for the Peoples"

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