How long would this bad state continue? That, rather than how many years he would have to serve, is what Isaiah asked with the words: “How long, O Jehovah?” God replied: “Until the cities actually crash in ruins, to be without an inhabitant.” And so it happened, though after Isaiah’s lifetime. The Babylonians removed earthling men, leaving Judah “ruined into a desolation.”​—Isaiah 6:11, 12; 2 Kings 25:1-26.

That was fitting, for most Jews who heard Jesus were no more willing to accept his message and act on it than those who heard the prophet Isaiah were willing to accept his. (John 12:36-43) Also, in 70 C.E. the Jews who had made themselves ‘blind and deaf’ to Jesus’ message met a destruction like that of 607 B.C.E. This development in the first century was a tribulation on Jerusalem ‘such as had not occurred since the world’s beginning nor would occur again.’ (Matthew 24:21) Yet, as Isaiah prophesied, a remnant, or “holy seed,” exercised faith. These were formed into a spiritual nation, the anointed “Israel of God.”​—Galatians 6:16.

13. Why can we expect yet another fulfillment of Isaiah 6?

¹³ We now come to another Bible-based fulfillment of Isaiah chapter 6. As a key to understanding this, consider the words of the apostle Paul around the year 60 C.E. He explained why many Jews who heard him in Rome would not accept his “witness concerning the kingdom of God.” The reason was that Isaiah 6:9, 10 was again being fulfilled. (Acts 28:17-27) Does this mean that after Jesus left the earthly scene, his anointed disciples were to carry out a commission comparable to Isaiah’s? Yes, indeed!

14. How were Jesus’ disciples to do a work like Isaiah’s?

¹⁴ Before the Greater Isaiah ascended to heaven, he said that his disciples would receive holy spirit and would thereafter “be witnesses of [him] both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the most distant part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) Just as the sacrificial altar supplied what was needed for Isaiah’s error to depart, so Jesus’ sacrifice was the basis for his disciples’ having their ‘sin itself atoned for.’ (Leviticus 6:12, 13; Hebrews 10:5-10; 13:10-15) Thus, God could anoint them with holy spirit, which would also empower them to be ‘witnesses to the most distant part of the earth.’ Both the prophet Isaiah and the Greater Isaiah had been sent to proclaim God’s message. Similarly, Jesus’ anointed followers were “sent from God . . . in company with Christ.”​—2 Corinthians 2:17.

15. What has been the general response to the preaching like that of Isaiah in our time, pointing to what future?

¹⁵ In modern times, particularly since the close of World War I, anointed Christians have seen the need to declare God’s message. This includes the sobering fact that “the day of vengeance on the part of our God” is near. (Isaiah 61:2) Its devastation will be a blow especially to Christendom, which has long professed to be God’s people, as did Israel of old. Despite decades of loyal preaching by God’s anointed witnesses, most in Christendom have ‘made their heart unreceptive and their ears unresponsive; their eyes are pasted together.’ Isaiah’s prophecy indicates that this will continue to be the case “until the cities actually crash in ruins, to be without an inhabitant, and the houses be without earthling man, and the ground itself is ruined into a desolation.” This will mark the end of this wicked system of things.​—Isaiah 6:10-12.