But not only is the prophet to proclaim the negative comfort that Jehovah is very angry with the nations at ease who help forward the affliction, but He has wonderful purposes of grace concerning His people to announce:
"Therefore, thus saith Jehovah, I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies" which, on account of its certainty, is expressed in the present or perfect tense. This, which has been already symbolically set forth to the prophet by the standing of the Angel of Jehovah in the midst of the myrtles, is the very heart and substance of " the good words and comforting words " which are the message of this vision. It was the hiding of His face the withdrawal of Himself that occasioned all these calamities in their night of darkness. So long as Jehovah was with them, neither Assyria nor Babylon, nor all the forces of the universe, could have prevailed against them; but when His glory was withdrawn, then they became a prey to the Gentiles " the boar out of the wood " came and wasted it; the " wild beast of the field " came and devoured it. But not for ever has Jehovah forsaken His people and the land which He has chosen as the centre of the unfolding of His purposes of mercy to all mankind. " I will go," He says, " and return to My place till they acknowledge their offence " (or literally, " till they declare themselves guilty "), " and seek My face; in their affliction " (literally, " in their tribulation ") " they shall seek Me early " (or earnestly), and then He will return unto them with mercies; and " His going forth is sure as the morning, and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter rain that watereth the earth" (Hos. v. 15, vi. 1-3).
In its fulness this promise will only be fulfilled when " this same Jesus," whom at His first coming they handed over to the Gentiles to be crucified, and who, after His resurrection, ascended back into heaven into the glory which He had with the Father before the world was, shall " return " in the manner and under the circumstances described by this same prophet in the last three chapters of this prophecy. Then, in the once marred face, and in
