The Promise of Return

MEMORY VERSE: “Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.” —Isaiah 51:11

ISAIAH 40:1-11

THE Apostle Paul admonished Timothy to rightly divide the Word of truth. (I Tim. 2:15) It is very important to do this when we study God’s promises relative to the “return” of the Israelites. Some of these promises relate to the return of the Hebrew people from their seventy years of captivity in Babylon, a return, that is, to their own country, Palestine. But by far a greater number of promises and prophecies of their “return” relate to a regathering from all the nations into which they were scattered beginning with the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70-73.

Some of the “return” promises are even more far-reaching, in that they call for a restoration from death in the general resurrection which is to be accomplished by the thousand-year reign of the Christ—our glorified Lord Jesus and the completed church. Our memory verse is one of these. It states that “the redeemed of the Lord shall return.” This is a reference to those who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ. A very similar promise is Isaiah 35:10, which reads, “The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” Paul wrote that Jesus gave himself “a ransom for all.” All mankind, therefore—Jews and Gentiles—are included in the statement “the ransomed of the Lord,” and these are all to return from death, and “come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads.”

“Zion” in the prophecies often denotes the glorified Christ; that is, the exalted Jesus and those who are brought forth in the first resurrection to live and reign with him for a thousand years. These will be the lifegivers to the people during the messianic kingdom period, and the expression “come to Zion” denotes the recognition by the people as to their true source of life and blessings.

Isaiah 40:1,2 reads, “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her appointed time [margin] is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” This “double” period of punishment upon Israel is mentioned in two other prophecies. In a prophecy relating to the return of the Israelites to their land in this end of the age, the Lord says, “Mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes. And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled my land.”—Jer. 16:17,18

Zechariah again mentions this “double” period of punishment, and the context indicates that it began at the time of our Lord’s first advent. We quote, “Turn you to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope: even today do I declare that I will render double unto thee.” (Zech. 9:12) All three of these prophecies relate to the captivity of Israel, not in Babylon, but among all nations. The return to Palestine which we have witnessed during our generation indicates that we are living in the time when the conclusion of this “double” is being fulfilled.

Verses 3 and 4 of our lesson are quoted in Luke 3:3-5 and applied to the work of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus. Isaiah wrote, “The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” “The glory of the Lord” will be revealed to all flesh through Jesus, the Messiah, during the thousand years of his kingdom. John the Baptist announced his first advent, and it was the work of redemption which Jesus accomplished through his death that opened the way to life which will be made available to the world of mankind during the thousand-year reign of the Christ, Head and body.

Meanwhile the death condemnation is upon the adamic race, the people being likened to withering grass—“Surely the people is grass.” (vss. 6-8) The withered “grass” will be restored to freshness and life through the agencies of the messianic kingdom. Then the knowledge of the Lord will fill the earth.—Isa. 11:9

QUESTIONS

Give reasons why our lesson passage does not refer to Israel’s return from Babylonian captivity.

When did Israel’s “double” period of punishment begin?

What is referred to by the word “return” in our memory verse?

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