Misplaced Trust

 8. Where have many of the Jews put their trust, despite what warning?

⁸ Up until now many Jews have not put their full trust in Jehovah for salvation. Before Jerusalem’s fall, for example, her rulers looked to powerful nations for support, prostituting themselves, as it were, both to Egypt and to Babylon. (Ezekiel 16:26-29; 23:14) With good reason, Jeremiah warned them: “Cursed is the able-bodied man who puts his trust in earthling man and actually makes flesh his arm, and whose heart turns away from Jehovah himself.” (Jeremiah 17:5) Yet, that is precisely what God’s people did!

 9. How may many Jews be “paying out money for what is not bread”?

⁹ Now they are enslaved to one of the nations in which they had put their trust. Have they learned their lesson? It may be that many have not, for Jehovah asks: “Why do you people keep paying out money for what is not bread, and why is your toil for what results in no satisfaction?” (Isaiah 55:2a) If the captive Jews are trusting in anyone other than Jehovah, they are “paying out money for what is not bread.” They will certainly get no release from Babylon with its policy of never allowing captives to return home. In truth, Babylon, with her imperialism, commercialism, and false worship, has nothing to offer the exiled Jews.

10. (a) How will Jehovah reward the exiled Jews if they listen to him? (b) What covenant had Jehovah made with David?

¹⁰ Jehovah implores his people: “Listen intently to me, and eat what is good, and let your soul find its exquisite delight in fatness itself.

Isaiah 55:2b,

The only hope for these spiritually malnourished people rests with Jehovah, who is now prophetically speaking to them through Isaiah.