The 200-year-old prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled. The nation’s grief and sighing while in Babylon is replaced by exultation and rejoicing in the restored land. Jehovah has fulfilled his promise. Paradise​—both literal and spiritual—​has been restored!

Evidently, then, in the first century C.E., there was a fulfillment of the words of Isaiah chapter 35. In a literal sense, Jesus and his disciples miraculously gave sight to blind ones and hearing to deaf ones. They enabled ‘lame ones’ to walk and speechless ones to regain their speech. (Matthew 9:32; 11:5; Luke 10:9) More important, righthearted ones escaped from false religion and came to enjoy a spiritual paradise within the Christian congregation. (Isaiah 52:11; 2 Corinthians 6:17)

23, 24. In what ways have Isaiah’s words been fulfilled among God’s people since 1919?

²³ In 1919, however, things changed. Jehovah brought his people out of captivity. They began to reject the false teachings that had earlier corrupted their worship. As a result, they enjoyed a healing. They came to be in a spiritual paradise, which even today continues to spread throughout the earth. In a spiritual sense, the blind are learning to see and the deaf, to hear​—becoming fully alert to the operation of God’s holy spirit, constantly aware of the need to stay close to Jehovah. (1 Thessalonians 5:6; 2 Timothy 4:5)

26. How do Isaiah’s words strengthen Christians today?

²⁶ While true Christians await the restoration of the physical earthly Paradise, even now they enjoy the blessings of the spiritual paradise.