And I will be joyful in Jerusalem and exult in my people; and no more will there be heard in her the sound of weeping or the sound of a plaintive cry. . . .

Isaiah 65:16-25.

17. When did this prophecy have its first fulfillment, and what was the “cause for joyfulness” then?

¹⁷ The first or miniature fulfillment of this magnificent prophecy serves as a prophetic pattern to prefigure the final, full-scale realization of the prophecy. The small-scale or miniature fulfillment of the Isaian prophecy took place after the restoration of the exiled Jews to their homeland, the land of Judah, in the days of the Persian conqueror Cyrus the Great. In course of time Jerusalem was rebuilt on its former site, and this holy city became a “cause for joyfulness” when Jehovah’s temple was rebuilt there on its previous location and his revived worship was carried on by the reinstated priests and Levites. The account of this is recorded in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.

18. When is the final fulfillment of this prophecy, and at that time what works to bring about the foretold transformation?

¹⁸ The major and final fulfillment comes, therefore, in a similar period of restoration. It is in the time when there is a restoration of the remnant of spiritual Israel from bondage under modern Babylon the Great to their rightful spiritual estate in Jehovah’s renewed favor. According to twentieth-century history, this took place in the year following the close of World War I. The courageous revival of the free and open proclaiming of “this good news of the kingdom” world wide in the year 1919 C.E. indicated that there had come a restoration of the liberated remnant of spiritual Israel to their God-given spiritual estate on earth. Under divine blessing and under the operation of Jehovah’s holy spirit, this spiritual estate of the anointed remnant was transformed into a spiritual paradise. In that estate is where the spiritual beauty of His worshipers glorifies Jehovah God and there are brotherly peace, unity and security.

19. Identify the Jerusalem that is a “cause for joyfulness” in this final fulfillment of the prophecy.

¹⁹ The Jerusalem that Jehovah God has created as a “cause for joyfulness” and in which he himself is joyful is, not the capital city of the Jewish Republic of Israel, but the heavenly Jerusalem, to which the remnant of spiritual Israel are approaching. (Hebrews 12:22-29) It is the seat of the Messianic kingdom that was born in the heavens at the close of the Gentile Times in 1914 C.E. (Revelation 12:1-5)