Misplaced Trust

Up until now many Jews have not put their full trust in Jehovah for salvation.  Before Jerusalem's fall, for example, her rulers looked to powerful nations for support, prostituting themselves, as it were, both to Egypt and to Babylon.  (Ezekiel 16:26-29; 23:14)  With good reason, Jeremiah warned them: "Cursed is the able-bodied man who puts his trust in earthling man and actually makes flesh his arm, and whose heart turns away from Jehovah himself."  (Jeremiah 17:5)  Yet, that is precisely what God's people did!

Now they are enslaved to one of the nations in which they had put their trust. Have they learned their lesson?  It may be that many have not, for Jehovah asks:  "Why do you people keep paying out money for what is not bread, and why is your toil for what results in no satisfaction?" (Isaiah 55:2a)  If the captive Jews are trusting in anyone other than Jehovah, they are "paying out money for what is not bread."  They will certainly get no release from Babylon with its policy of never allowing captives to return home.  In truth, Babylon,  with her imperialism, commercialism, and false worship, has nothing to offer the exiled Jews.

Jehovah implores his people:  "Listen intently to me, and eat what is good, and let your soul find its exquisite delight in fatness itself. Incline your ear and come to me. Listen, and your soul will keep alive, and I shall readily conclude with you people and indefinitely lasting covenant respecting the loving-kindness to David that are faithful." (Isaiah 55:2b, 3) The only hope for these spiritually malnourished people rests with Jehovah, who is now prophetically speaking to them through Isaiah.  Their very lives depend upon listening to God's message, for he states that by their doing so, their "soul will keep alive."   What, though, is the "indefinitely  lasting covenant" that  Jehovah will conclude with those who respond to him?  That covenant is "respecting the loving-kindnesses to David." Centuries earlier, Jehovah promised David that his throne would become  "firmly established to time indefinite."  (2 Samuel 7:16) Hence, the "indefinitely lasting covenant" mentioned here pertains to rulership. 

Next time: A Permanent Heir to an Everlasting Kingdom

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