Chapter 29 — Isaiah 54:4–9 Explained and Fulfilled

DTT.01_029,01 The chief priest spoke up again. “Tell me then, you half-god and half-human boy from Galilee, where will you go that we shall not see you for a long time? You are from Nazareth, the son of the carpenter Joseph, whom I know well, and his wife Mary. I or one of us will surely visit those parts of Galilee once, twice or even three times a year. It should not be particularly hard to find you there, where you are surely well known, and discuss the reorganisation of the Temple with you. What do you think, young prophet from Galilee?”

DTT.01_029,02 I said, “Had your heart been in those words, instead of your merely wanting to taunt Me, I should have given you an answer. As it is, you deserve no answer beyond the one you have just received.

DTT.01_029,03 “You may come to Nazareth once or a thousand times, but you will never see Me again, still less speak to Me. I shall know long beforehand when you are coming. Neither you nor any of your Temple officials will know where I have gone in the meantime.

DTT.01_029,04 “It is very hard to seek and find one who knows everything. When the time comes for the Spirit within Me to permit it, you will find Me again. Or let all of you follow My advice, and I shall not keep you waiting long but shall come to you Myself. Otherwise it will happen only as I have said.”

DTT.01_029,05 The chief priest said no more. He was inwardly very vexed that I showed him no respect as deputy to the high priest. The others were not displeased, for to them he was a tyrant in their own house.

DTT.01_029,06 Barnabe came up to Me again and said, “Tell me, wisest boy, how do you understand these passages from chapter 54 of Isaiah? They promise comfort to Zion and read as follows:

DTT.01_029,07 “‘Do not fear, for you shall not be put to shame. Do not lose heart, for you shall not be mocked. You will forget the shame of your maidenhood and no longer remember the disgrace of your widowhood.

DTT.01_029,08 “‘For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is His name, and your Redeemer is the Holy One in Israel, who is called the God of all the world.

DTT.01_029,09 “‘For the Lord has let you cry out like a forsaken and heartbroken wife, like a young wife who has been cast off, says your God.

DTT.01_029,10 “‘For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great mercy I will gather you.

DTT.01_029,11 “‘In a moment of anger I hid My face from you for a little while, but with everlasting grace I will have mercy on you, says the Lord, your Redeemer.

DTT.01_029,12 “‘For this shall be to Me like the waters of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah should never again cover the earth. So I have sworn that I will not be angry with you or rebuke you.’

DTT.01_029,13 “See, despite your threats, these weighty verses of Isaiah sound very favourable and comforting for Jerusalem and the Temple. If you can apply them to yourself too, we shall fully believe that you are truly the promised Messiah. The whole Temple will be torn down and a new one built on the pure mountain of Lebanon for all time!”

DTT.01_029,14 I said, “It has been possible to make you understand what has so far been written of Me. As for what concerns Me and My work from now on, it will be exceedingly difficult, indeed virtually impossible, to make you understand.

DTT.01_029,15 “The ‘virgin’ who is not to fear being put to shame or lose heart for fear of mockery, who is to forget the shame of maidenhood and no longer remember the disgrace of widowhood, is not Jerusalem and its Temple. Truly, the figurative correspondences ‘virgin’ and ‘widow’ could never fit them.

DTT.01_029,16 “I have yet to make the ‘virgin’ of whom the prophet speaks. She will be My new teaching to humanity from heaven. She is called a ‘virgin’ because no selfish and wantonly shameless priesthood has previously abused her for its base worldly ends.

DTT.01_029,17 “This future teaching of Mine is also called a widow for a short time because I shall be taken from her through your wrath and vengeance, but only by permission of Him who is in Me and nowhere outside Me. I Myself shall be the husband of this virgin and widow, because she is made by Me. Read in the prophet who the husband is who made the virgin and widow, and read the promises made to her. I am the husband, and the promises concern the mysterious virgin alone.

DTT.01_029,18 “Much later there will also come times such as Daniel described, when even this purest teaching will be greatly abused. The virgin herself will never be abused, only the children and granddaughters of the pure virgin and short-sighted widow. Those will of course have no share in My promises, but the ‘virgin’ who sprang from My mouth and her many pure children will.

DTT.01_029,19 “This is how matters will turn out and stand, and it will never be otherwise. Henceforth I shall never again have fellowship with you and your Temple. I came to you to save you, but you did not recognise or receive Me. Later you will come to Me when trouble begins to press you, but then I shall no longer recognise or receive you. Have you understood Me?”

DTT.01_029,20 Barnabe said, “Truly, it takes a great deal of patience to put up with you good-humouredly. You grow ever more blunt and, to tell the truth, rougher! Be that as it may, we shall wait a while and see. You always seem to me like a bolt of lightning that suddenly gives a fearfully strong light, with thunder that makes the earth tremble, and is gone in a moment. Afterwards it is darker than before.

DTT.01_029,21 “You know, in your own way you are plainly a phenomenon without equal, and for all your defiance you have given us much pleasure. Your talents could be put to use, but you should receive a different and freer education and add a little more humanity to your truly extraordinary and unprecedented qualities. Then you would grow into a person such as the world has scarcely seen. But if you remain as harsh as ever, you will make very few friends. If your strange natural power increases, you may have no enemy to fear, but everyone will fear you and no one will love or esteem you. I would rather be loved by all than feared. What do you yourself or anyone else think?”

DTT.01_029,22 I said, “Oh yes, you would be quite right if all people were pure and good. But people on earth are very different. Some are good and many are bad, false to their oaths and wicked. It would be truly hard for a just and truthful person to conduct themselves so as to be loved equally by all. They would have to be evil with the evil and good with the good. That is as impossible as being a light that gives the greatest brightness and the thickest darkness in the same place at the same time.

DTT.01_029,23 “I have told you that the true friends of the eternally unchanging truth from God will love Me beyond measure. But let those who trample on divine laws and truths and live as if there were no God fear Me. Such people and worldly deniers of God shall learn that I take no jest in this and repay each according to their works. For I alone have the eternally perfect power to do so.”

DTT.01_029,24 Barnabe smiled and said, “Boy, why speak of ‘eternally’ when you are scarcely twelve? How far will your zeal to be the Messiah carry you? Stay within what is natural, and we shall gladly listen!”

DTT.01_029,25 I said, “Go, you are growing tiresome to Me. Do you think I mean this body, which has indeed been on earth only twelve years? Did I not explain sufficiently to you all yesterday the eternity of the Spirit who is and works within Me? Why reproach Me with excessive zeal to be the Messiah? First understand something, and then see whether you can discuss it with Me, especially things farther from you and more unknown to you than the remotest pole of the earth!”