5, 6. (a) Why will the long journey from Babylon to Jerusalem not impede the fulfillment of God’s promise? (b) The restoration of the Jews to their homeland will have what effect on other nations?

⁵ The journey from Babylon to Jerusalem is 500 to 1,000 miles [800 to 1,600 km], depending upon the route taken. Will the long trip impede the fulfillment of God’s promise? By no means! Isaiah writes: “Listen! Someone is calling out in the wilderness: ‘Clear up the way of Jehovah, you people! Make the highway for our God through the desert plain straight. Let every valley be raised up, and every mountain and hill be made low. And the knobby ground must become level land, and the rugged ground a valley plain. And the glory of Jehovah will certainly be revealed, and all flesh must see it together, for the very mouth of Jehovah has spoken it.’”​—Isaiah 40:3-5.

⁶ Before embarking on a journey, Eastern rulers would often send out men to prepare the way by removing big stones and even building causeways and leveling hills. In the case of the returning Jews, it will be as if God himself is in the forefront, clearing away any obstacles. After all, these are Jehovah’s name people, and fulfilling his promise to restore them to their homeland will cause his glory to be manifest before all the nations. Like it or not, those nations will be forced to see that Jehovah is the Fulfiller of his promises.

7, 8. (a) The words of Isaiah 40:3 had what fulfillment in the first century C.E.? (b) Isaiah’s prophecy had what larger fulfillment in 1919?

⁷ The restoration in the sixth century B.C.E. was not the only fulfillment of this prophecy. There was also a fulfillment in the first century C.E. John the Baptizer was the voice of someone “crying out in the wilderness,” in fulfillment of Isaiah 40:3. (Luke 3:1-6) Under inspiration, John applied Isaiah’s words to himself. (John 1:19-23) Starting in 29 C.E., John began preparing the way for Jesus Christ.a John’s advance proclamation aroused people to look for the promised Messiah so that they, in turn, might listen to him and follow him. (Luke 1:13-17, 76) Through Jesus, Jehovah would lead repentant ones into the freedom that only God’s Kingdom can provide​—liberation from bondage to sin and death. (John 1:29; 8:32) Isaiah’s words had a larger fulfillment in the deliverance of the remnant of spiritual Israel from Babylon the Great in 1919 and in their restoration to true worship.