Breaking God’s Laws and Changing His Ordinances Sets the Stage for Covenant Curses to Follow
The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants:
they have transgressed the laws,
changed the ordinances,
set at naught the ancient covenant.
The curse devours the earth,
for those who dwell on it have incurred guilt;
because of it the population of the earth
shall be diminished
and little of mankind remain (Isaiah 24:5–6).
The Leaders of God’s People Covenant with Death in an Attempt to Avoid God’s Plagues
Hear the word of Jehovah, you scoffers
who preside over these people in Jerusalem.
You have supposed, by taking refuge in deception
and hiding behind falsehoods,
to have covenanted with Death,
or reached an understanding with Sheol, that,
should a flooding scourge sweep through [the earth],
it shall not reach you.
Therefore, thus says my Lord Jehovah:
I lay in Zion a stone, a keystone,
a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation.
They who believe it will not do rashly.
I will make justice the measure,
righteousness the weight;
a hail shall sweep away your false refuge
and waters flood the hiding place.
Your covenant with Death shall prove void,
your understanding with Sheol have no effect:
when the flooding scourge sweeps through,
you shall be overrun by it (Isaiah 28:14–18).
God Intervenes by Appointing His End-Time Servant to Mediate God’s Covenant and Gather Israel
Thus says Jehovah:
At a favorable time I have answered you;
in the day of salvation I have come to your aid:
I have created you and appointed you to be a covenant of the people,
to restore the Land and reapportion the desolate estates,
to say to the captives, Come forth!
and to those in darkness, Show yourselves!
They shall feed along the way
and find pasture on all barren heights;
they shall not hunger or thirst,
nor be smitten by the heatwave or the sun:
he who has mercy on them will guide them;
he will lead them by springs of water (Isaiah 49:8–10).
God’s Covenant of Life as Vested in His Servant Attracts a Nation of Israel’s Natural Lineages
Give ear and come unto me;
pay heed, that your souls may live!
And I will make with you an everlasting covenant:
[my] loving fidelity toward David.
See, I have appointed him as a witness to the nations,
a prince and lawgiver of the peoples.
You will summon a nation that you did not know;
a nation that did not know you will hasten to you—
because of Jehovah your God,
the Holy One of Israel, who gloriously endows you (Isaiah 55:3–5).
