Tim Maas Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

I would say that the mourning to which Isaiah was referring pertained to inhabitants of the southern kingdom of Judah (consisting of the Israelite tribes of Judah and Benjamin, along with those members of the priestly tribe of Levi who lived among them) to whom Isaiah was sent to prophesy, who were grieved both because of the sin into which the kings of Judah had led the people, and because of the judgments that God had imposed upon Judah because of that sin, eventually resulting in Judah being conquered and carried away into exile in Babylon, as recorded in 2 Kings 25.

Despite those judgments, and the mourning that they had caused, Isaiah was also sent with a message of comfort to those among the inhabitants of Judah who had remained faithful to God, reminding them that God had not forgotten them, and (particularly) that He still planned to fulfill His promise to send a Messiah to them to permanently atone for the sins committed not only by Judah, but by all the inhabitants of the earth, and thus to make eternal life possible for them through faith in Him.

The verse cited in the question was included in the passage from Isaiah that Jesus read in the synagogue at Nazareth (as recorded in Luke 4:16-30). After reading the passage, Jesus told those in the synagogue that the prophecy in the passage had been fulfilled by Him. However, rather than being comforted, the people in the synagogue (who had known Jesus since His childhood) were angered at what they regarded as blasphemous presumption on His part, and attempted to throw him off the cliff on which the city was built, but without success.

April 17 2020 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report