5, 6. (a) At Isaiah 54:1, what reason was given for joy on the part of this heavenly “woman”? (b) Of how many “sons” was she to become the spiritual mother?

⁵ “‘Cry out joyfully,’” says Isaiah 54:1, “‘you barren woman that did not give birth! Become cheerful with a joyful outcry and cry shrilly, you that had no childbirth pains, for the sons of the desolated one are more numerous than the sons of the woman with a husbandly owner,’ Jehovah has said.”

⁶ This inspired scripture is applied by the Christian apostle Paul, not to the Jewish nation after its exile in Babylon, but to Jehovah’s wifely organization in heaven. According to Isaiah’s prophecy, God’s heavenly organization was to have more children than the Messiah Jesus, for whom she had long waited as if in barrenness. She was therefore to become the spiritual mother of the 144,000 associates of the Messiah Jesus. He was to be the Firstborn among these further spiritual sons of hers. Her joy would start when she brought forth or produced the firstborn, the Messiah Jesus, but she would continue on bringing forth all the Kingdom joint heirs of the Messiah Jesus. The apostle Paul was one of these prospective joint heirs of Christ, and he is the one that made the application of Isaiah 54:1 under inspiration.

But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.

⁸ “For it is written [in Isaiah 54:1]: ‘Be glad, you barren woman [the Jerusalem above] who does not give birth; break out and cry aloud, you woman who does not have childbirth pains; for the children of the desolate woman are more numerous than those of her who has the husband.’

10, 11. (a) How does Isaiah 54:13 show that the “Jerusalem above” would have more spiritual children than just Jesus? (b) To whom did Jesus Christ apply that scripture?

¹⁰ That the “Jerusalem above,” of which her Grand Maker Jehovah is the “husbandly owner,” was to have many more spiritual children than the Messiah Jesus, her firstborn, is why in Isaiah 54:13 it is said to her: “And all your sons will be persons taught by Jehovah, and the peace of your sons will be abundant.”

¹¹ Jesus Christ applied that scripture to his own disciples, when he said to the Jews: “It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by Jehovah.’ Everyone that has heard from the Father and has learned comes to me.” (John 6:45) It was the Father’s purpose that Jesus should become “the firstborn among many brothers.” (Romans 8:29) The “Jerusalem above” is the heavenly mother also of all these spiritual brothers of Jesus Christ. With good reason, then, her “husbandly owner,” Jehovah, calls out to her, rather than to the earthly Jerusalem that rejected the Messiah, to “cry out joyfully” and “become cheerful with a joyful outcry” because of finally becoming mother to so many spiritual sons together with the Messiah Jesus.​—Isaiah 54:1.

12. With what strong encouragement to these spiritual sons does Isaiah chapter 54 conclude?

¹² To these spiritual sons the assurance of divine protection and preservation belongs as expressed in these words to the “Jerusalem above”: “‘Any weapon whatever that will be formed against you will have no success, and any tongue at all that will rise up against you in the judgment you will condemn. This is the hereditary possession of the servants of Jehovah, and their righteousness is from me,’ is the utterance of Jehovah.” With such a strong encouragement the fifty-fourth chapter of Isaiah, addressed to “Jerusalem above,” closes.​—Isaiah 54:17.