STRENGTHENED FOR THE POSTEXILIC KINGDOM WORK

33. What made the exhortation recorded at Isaiah 35:3, 4 especially appropriate?

³³ The hope-kindling words of the prophet Isaiah would naturally be hard for God’s afflicted people to believe. Particularly so, as the fixed time for fulfillment of those words drew near, and the need arose to prepare for action. Hence, the exhortation that now interrupts the prophetic delineation of the beautiful restoration picture is very much in place: “Strengthen the weak hands, you people, and make the knees that are wobbling firm.

Isaiah 35:3, 4.

34, 35. (a) When the apostle Paul quoted that prophecy, where was a strengthening work needed? (b) What kind of experiences had those Christianized Hebrews been undergoing?

³⁴ Away back in the first century of our Common Era, the apostle Paul quoted from that prophetic exhortation when writing to the Christianized Hebrews in Jerusalem. He said: “Hence straighten up the hands that hang down and the enfeebled knees, and keep making straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather that it may be healed.” (Hebrews 12:12, 13) Those Christianized Hebrews then needed to do this strengthening work among themselves. They had passed through experiences as Christians that were quite disciplinary.

37. Why, then, were they being encouraged to strengthen one another?

³⁷ Because of the severe disciplining that those Christianized Hebrews had been receiving, the apostle Paul next quotes from Isaiah 35:3 and applies it to them. By thus strengthening one another, they would not give up on their endurance of discipline, but would enter into their reward in God’s due time.​—Hebrews 12:12.

38. Following World War I, why was there a special need for the anointed remnant to strengthen weak hands and make wobbling knees firm?

³⁸ Likewise, in modern times, by enduring persecutions and hardships at the hands of Babylon the Great and her worldly accomplices, the anointed remnant of spiritual Israelites went through severe disciplinary experiences. Naturally, when World War I ended on November 11, 1918, and they entered into a postwar period, the length of which they did not then know, they needed to strengthen the weak hands and make the wobbling knees firm. The greatest work in the history of the Christian congregation since Pentecost of 33 C.E. was now to be taken hold of. They needed to enter into the postwar work with a firm step, not limping between two opinions, but convinced that God was leading them in the right direction.