Damariscotta Baptist Church

 

 

The next three chapters in Isaiah that we will be reading, from today’s chapter 60 to chapter 62 tell us of how Jerusalem will shine God’s glory through His anointed Servant. This glory will ultimately exist when the battle over sin is complete. In the meantime, we have already seen some of Isaiah’s predictions realized. Jesus Christ, the Messiah has become the light dawned in Zion and as a result, many of the world’s great nations have come to Jerusalem. In conjunction to this many of the dispersed people of Israel have also come back to Jerusalem. Above all this, a witness has gone out to all the world and we are part of that witness, even today. 

The first section of today’s Scripture is a poetic introduction. There is an emphasis on “light” and this is in direct contrast from the complete “darkness” Isaiah previously wrote about in chapter 59, verse 9, where he described complete darkness, where there was no light. We quickly recognize the source of this light, it does not come from Zion, but exists as a reflection of the “glory of the LORD.” 

By having all of the letters in LORD capitalized, the translators are telling us that this word was the initials used for the name of God, YHWH. Which was the Hebrew name for God that was so holy, they could not say the name so they only said the consonants without the vowels. This LORD is God himself. 

Isaiah writes that finally something will happen, that will allow God’s people to see His glory. That something is the divine warrior conquering sin. Once sin is conquered Isaiah tells us the purpose for the glory of God being shared with His people. God has given Israel a mission, that mission is for His people to go out into all the other nations, and share the light to all who are living in darkness, because they do not know the one Creator, and one Savior. When they hear about Him and recognize the light within His people, then the other nations will recognize the light for what it is and as it reads in verse 3, “they will come to your light.” 

The second section of today’s scripture talks about the return of Zion’s dispersed sons and daughters, verses 4-9.

Not only are they returning to Zion, they are bringing with them all sorts of wealth, from incense, flocks, rams, silver and gold. This wealth is not for those who reside in Zion, or for the city itself. Isaiah makes it clear that the wealth is tended to “proclaim the praise of the LORD,” verse 6, and “to honor the LORD your God,” verse 9. Isaiah is making it clear that Zion is meant to be the lamp from which God’s light will shine. Praise and honor are not to go to the lamp, but to the light. It just so happens that God has chosen human life as the manner in which He wants to express Himself, failed that we are. So Isaiah reminds Israel that as God’s chosen people they will be given God’s generous abundance. They are to use this abundance to draw the world into knowing God. Along with this wealth, the nations will also bring back Zion’s sons and daughters. 

These same nations that were bringing wealth and sons and daughters will also come to serve Zion, verses 10-14. “Their kings will serve you,” verse 10, if they don’t, Isaiah writes in verse 12, “it will be utterly ruined.” Isaiah was warning those who oppressed God’s people, they would one day be made accountable for their behavior. Sin will be punished. 

Isaiah ends this chapter with one of his prominent writing features. He reverts back to the first-person pronouns that refer to the Lord. By doing this, Isaiah is reminding God’s people that all of the benefits we receive are a direct result of one thing: 

the gracious power of God. 

We read twice, in verses 19 and 20, “the LORD will be your everlasting light.”  It is only through God’s grace that His people went from being “forsaken”  and “hated,” verse 15, to “drink(ing) the milk of nations,” verse 16.

Isaiah doesn’t describe for us a day when God’s people finally, “get their act together,” and bring in the kingdom of God. Instead, Isaiah describes for us a time when God’s people finally allow God to work through them in order to get God’s work done. When this happens, Isaiah writes in verse 21, “Then will all your people be righteous and they will possess the land forever.” 

I find this comforting. There are days when I am faced with the realization that I really don’t have my act together. Try as I may, I mess up. There is freedom, from myself, when I let go, and allow God to work through me, even in the midst of my mistakes, to bring His glory. For whatever reason, the glory of God lives in His children. Jesus came to earth as an example of the human embodiment of glory. We read about this in John 17:4, in his prayer to God, Jesus said,  “I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.  And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.”

Jesus was demonstrating that glory is never for oneself, it is always to be shared, given away, reflected. The connotation of the Hebrew word for glory is almost opposite to what we think of for glory in English. In Hebrew, the word is kabod and connotes something that is weighty, significant, even real. Christ came to give us “glory,” – the very reality of God. Just like him, we are to take God’s glory and not keep it for ourselves, but we are to give it back to Him. This is to say that as His reality shines in us, it is not so we can draw people to us, but so that we can draw people to God. 

Jesus came to give us an understanding of God’s character. When Isaiah wrote in chapter 6, verse 3 that the seraphim cried, “the whole earth is full of his glory,”  he didn’t mean they were talking about an aura or a halo. The meaning of glory was given in the previous verse, when he described God as the only truly holy being. It was His character.

 

So if we take the lamp illustration Isaiah uses, how can we make it work in our lives today?

Here’s a thought. Jesus left us with a commission, to go into all the nations and make disciples, which means draw all nations to Him. 

Isaiah is telling us how. 

In chapters 56-59 Isaiah made it clear by telling us God “shines” through us when His ethical life is reproduced in us by His grace. This is done when we lay down our pride in submission to Him and when we put the good of others before our own religious accomplishments and when we live lives that embody God’s truth and justice. When we do those things, darkness becomes light. A light that is not our light, but the reflection of God’s glory that Jesus shared with God and the Holy Spirit before the beginning of time. 

Somehow, we, like those in Galatia, get caught up in what the world tells us rather than in what the Bible tells us. Paul asserts in Galatians 3:1-5, the idea that while it is by grace that we have been saved, somehow we still think we have to maintain that grace through some form of effort on our own, knowing all the while that we are doomed to failure. Oh that we would allow the Holy Spirit, who is living in us, to step into the driver’s seat, and we let go of the wheel. The Holy Spirit initiated us into life with God, the same Holy Spirit that enables us to live the life God has called us to, which should not be seen or experienced as a “burdensome requirement” but as a glad expression of the grace that we experience. When this happens, when grace is the light that reflects off us, that is when nations will be drawn to the grace within us, and thus to God. J. Alec Motyer, an Irish biblical scholar, put it this way, “It is when the Lord in his holiness is present among his people, and manifestly so, that the world is magnetized.” 

Let’s pray.