When Isaiah wrote, the land of Israel was semi-desolate as a result of Assyrian invasions from the time of Shalmanezer to that of Nebuchadnezzar. Thousands of Israelites had been taken to Assyria : and after nearly seventy years of their captivity the dynasty of Nebuchadnezzar was closing with hope for Israel in the conquests of Cyrus. So we read Isaiah’s comforting words.
“Comfort ye, comfort ye my people saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned . . . 0 Zion that bringeth good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength ; lift it up, be not afraid ; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God 1 Behold, the Lord will come with a strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him : behold his reward is with him, and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd : he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.”1
Remember that Isaiah addressed these words to captive Israel : ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses’ claim that they apply to spiritual Israel and, therefore, to them. But from an honest reading there can be no doubt that Isaiah was anticipating the return of none but Israel’s captives. Thus he speaks :
“Remember these, O Jacob and Israel, for thou art my servant : I have formed thee, thou art my servant Israel : O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me . . . Return unto me, for I have redeemed thee . . . That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure : even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built, and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid. Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him ; and I will loose the loins of kings to open before him the two-leaved gates,and the gates shall not be shut . I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways : he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives.”
Cyrus did all these things. “And Israel shall be saved with an everlasting salvation”.
Thus the call goes out from Judah,
“Flee from the Chaldeans, with the voice of singing declare ye, The Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob . . . And the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion : and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads : and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.”2
The beauty and poignancy of these words are lost when they are separated from the events they were intended to illustrate.
Jeremiah tells the same tale of the coming deliverance of the captives from Babylon. Jeremiah, chapters 50 and 51, should be read in this connection.
The calamities that befell Israel had been foretold to be the certain consequence of their perversion or neglect of the divine laws. Moses had been sure that Israel would disobey : “I know”, he said, “that after my death you will utterly corrupt yourselves and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you ; and evil shall befall you in the latter days”3—namely, the days about which we have just written.
Moses prophesied thus concerning Israel’s apostacy :
“The Lord shall bring against thee a nation from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand ; a nation of fierce countenance which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favour to the young.”4
The dreadful warning of this picture went unheeded ; and the inevitable result followed. But God shows mercy to the repentant sinner : Moses foresaw a repentant Israel, and spoke a soothing prophecy :
“If they shall confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers . . . in the lands of their enemies . . . If they accept the punishment of their iniquities, then I will remember the covenant with Jacob . . . and I will remember the land.”5
A confession to match this prophecy may be read in Dan. 9. 5-19.
God would never annul his covenant : his redemptive work was (and is) to be accomplished through Abraham and his seed on the platform of the land promised to Abraham.
Now let’s focus our attention on the two prophecies by Moses to which we have just alluded. Other nations had not received such prophecies ; but Israel, having heard the law, was committed by the law. So Isaiah taunts them, and reproaches them for following pagan cults (44. 9-20). Isaiah’s point regarding the witnesses applies in this way : There were no idols in Israel when Moses prophesied ; so they could not say, “Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image hath commanded them.” The prophet says that therefore “Ye are my witnesses”—”Because of this, ye are my witnesses !” The very things that Moses foretold should come if they sinned, the very vicissitudes through which the predetermined counsel of God led them, the very sufferings and the then present plight in Babylon : these made them the witnesses of God—witnesses of the fact that adequate warning had been given in the prophecies of Moses, witnesses of the fact that they deserved all these things and fulfilled them, fully vindicating the justice of God. That was the essence of their witness. No other people could have borne true witness to those things—much less a gentile sect twenty-four centuries later !
Israel’s witness constituted a personal observation of those things. The power and authority of personal witness cannot be delegated ; and so Israel were witnesses because they experienced physically and personally the evils of Moses’ prophecy. In the same sense, those who saw the Lord Jesus Christ alive after his death were the only witnesses of his resurrection : their witness was personal observation and cognisance of the resurrection of Jesus. This made them qualified witnesses or testifiers to all nations.
So with Israel : They could not deny the truth of Moses’ prophecy ; they could not call it the prognostication of idols ; they were compelled by events to admit that it was surely the word of the Almighty. But whether they admitted these things or not, they were, in spite of themselves (and because of themselves) made witnesses to all nations, made a living testimony to all nations, that God had done all these things. “Therefore”, saith the Lord, “Ye are my witnesses” that I am the true and living God, bringing to pass what I have declared.
Moses’ prophecy was adequately fulfilled in the events and circumstances alluded to in Is. 48. 2-5. But the sixth verse of the same chapter tells a new significance shortly to be realized :
“From this time I have shown thee new things, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them. They are created new, and not from the beginning ; even before the day that thou heardest them not ; lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them”.
This new thing was the appointment of Cyrus for their redemption and for the punishment of the oppressor, Babylon :
“Go forth from Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the ends of the earth ; and say, The Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob”.
This short term prophecy uttered in their hearing while they were under the Assyrian heel was also fulfilled in that generation. No people living today could be witnesses of an event which took place twenty-five centuries ago. Israel were and still are Jehovah’s witnesses.
While agreeing with Brother Yearsley’s comments, we would have our readers understand that the prophecies concerning Cyrus and the events of that time do not exclude the anti-typical fulfilment in these last days, when Israel shall flee from the “fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria” ; and shall be redeemed indeed.
1—Isaiah, 40. 1-11.
2—Isaiah, 44. 21-45.
3—Deut., 31. 30.
4—Deut., 28. 49.
5—Lev., 26. 40.
Reflections on the Potter and the Clay