Righteousness Sprouts in Zion, Chapter Twenty-Two

LET freedom be proclaimed!  Jehovah has determined to free his people and restore them to their ancestral land.  Like a seed that sprouts after a gentle rain, true worship will once again appear.  When that day arrives, despair will give way to joyful praise, and heads formerly covered with ashes  of mourning will be crowned with divine approval.

Who will bring about this marvelous transformation?  Only Jehovah can do such a thing.  (Psalm 9:19, 20; Isaiah 40:25)  The prophet Zephaniah prophetically commanded: "Joyfully cry out, O daughter of Zion!  Break out in cheers, O Israel!  Rejoice and exult with all the heart O daughter of Jerusalem!  Jehovah has removed the judgment upon you."  (Zephaniah 3:14, 15)  What a joyful  time that will be!  When Jehovah gathers the restored remnant from Babylon in 537 B.C.E., it will be like a dream come true. -Psalm 126:1.

This restoration is foretold in Isaiah chapter 61.  However, while that prophecy clearly had  a fulfillment in 537 B.C.E., it is fulfilled in greater detail at a later period.  The more detailed fulfillment involves Jesus and his followers in the first century and Jehovah's people in modern times. How meaningful, then, these inspired words are!

Next time: "The Year of Goodwill"

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