1, 2. When does Isaiah chapter 35 have a spiritual fulfillment, and what description do the first two verses give?

DURING the Millennial Reign of the “Prince of Peace,” many of the features of Isaiah chapter 35, now undergoing fulfillment before the destruction of Babylon the Great, will have a reflection in a literal sense upon mankind. For what will have been accomplished in a spiritual way will certainly be accomplished in a physical way. The major spiritual fulfillment of this prophecy is taking place right now, with the restoration of God’s servants from captivity to Babylon the Great. The prophet Isaiah described it in this lovely phraseology:

Without fail it will blossom, and it will really be joyful with joyousness and with glad crying out. The glory of Lebanon itself must be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and of Sharon. There will be those who will see the glory of Jehovah.”​—Isaiah 35:1, 2.

3. Back in the sixth century B.C.E., where was the barren land, and how could it exult?

³ Where were the wilderness and waterless region and desert plain located? In the sixth century B.C.E., they were in the territory of the kingdom of Judah. By 537 B.C.E., that land had lain desolate and without inhabitants for 70 years. But how could a wilderness exult? It would be necessary for the former occupants to be moved back into it. It was to be elevated from its low state and to be given the dignity of the tall mountains of impressive-looking Lebanon.

Producing a Figurative Garden of Eden

4, 5. (a) When, in modern times, did a similar transformation of such a forsaken land take place, and why? (b) In what did the rehabilitation activities of the anointed remnant result? (c) How did Isaiah 35:5-7 describe their renewed spiritual condition?

⁴ The modern-day correspondency, in a spiritual sense, to this transformation of a land from a God-forsaken appearance to a condition evidencing Jehovah’s restored favor began to take place in 1919. Jehovah’s restored people were determined to take full advantage of the peace period that had then opened up. The Greater Cyrus, Jesus Christ, and his Father, Jehovah God, assigned the liberated remnant of spiritual Israelites to do a magnificent work that corresponded to the rebuilding of the temple of Jehovah by the repatriated remnant of ancient Israel after 537 B.C.E. The rehabilitation activities after 1919 resulted in the producing of a figurative garden of Eden.