Will what Jehovah is now saying have any effect on the unfaithful Jews? God says to them: “You have heard. Behold it all. As for you people, will you not tell it? I have made you hear new things from the present time, even things kept in reserve, that you have not known.

Isaiah 48:6,

7. What will the exiled Jews have to admit, and what can they expect?

⁷ Long in advance Isaiah recorded the prediction about the fall of Babylon. Now as exiles in Babylon, the Jews are prophetically commanded to contemplate the fulfillment of the prediction. Can they deny that Jehovah is the God of fulfilled prophecy? And since the inhabitants of Judah have seen and heard that Jehovah is a God of truth, must they not also declare this truth to others? Jehovah’s revealed word foretells new things that have not yet come to pass, such as Cyrus’ conquest of Babylon and the release of the Jews. (Isaiah 48:14-16)

Fulfilled prophecies prove his Godship not only to the Jews in ancient times but also to Christians today. The record of numerous prophecies that were fulfilled in the past​—“the first things”—​is an assurance that the new things promised by Jehovah​—the coming “great tribulation,” the survival of “a great crowd” through that tribulation, the “new earth,” and much more—​will come to pass. (Revelation 7:9, 14, 15; 21:4, 5; 2 Peter 3:13) That assurance motivates righthearted ones today to speak about him zealously. They share the feelings of the psalmist, who said: “I have told the good news of righteousness in the big congregation. Look! My lips I do not restrain.”​—Psalm 40:9.