There are times when each of us become overwhelmed by the immensity of something wonderful; and if this something is the glory of God, then how incredible the vision must be! In addition, if the wonder and the vision is far beyond anything anyone has ever seen of the things of God, then surely our words would become almost over-expressive, as these words are. On the one hand, they are inspirational, for people of all ages and times can read ‘arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen on you!’ and the words mean something spiritually powerful which one can hardly express in any other way. On the other hand, these words pick up themes from God’s Word which can be researched and studied, often (but not always) to great benefit.

Even as we struggle to understand how Isaiah could have perceived and entertained such a vision in his mind, let alone written it down or persuaded others of its value so that they kept it for centuries until it was fulfilled, we still struggle with it now. It has been partly fulfilled in the life of Christ, but only in the sense that in the coming of the Redeemer, we know that this is a true vision of God’s will. In God’s church, we are called to reflect the glory of God; ‘and all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another ... ‘ (2 Cor 3:18). In other words, this great vision of Isaiah is partly true today, but its completion is still ahead of us. The day when all nations will truly see the glory of the Lord’s light and authority is yet to come. In addition, the day when men and women stand side by side without the dire domination and harassment than has determined male/female relationship for centuries, is also yet to come, and the day when God’s people enjoy the ‘wealth of the nations’ is still something to which we can look forward! If we read the Revelation of John in the New Testament, we can find parallels with most of these pictures within this great vision of God’s eternal future in Isaiah, so we pray for the day of its sure and certain coming. This is God’s sure plan for His world.

© Paul H Ashby 2008

 

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Chapter 60 begins the last great section of Isaiah, and it describes the glory of God’s work of redemption. The nature of the prophecy changes, and if you were to be able to read the Hebrew of the original text, you would find something quite distinct and significant. Just as Paul’s great prayer of praise in Ephesians 1 is all one long sentence, repeating phrases and themes and with sentences tumbling over each other with no clear beginning and end, the same is true of Isaiah 60! The great prophet appears to have been caught up in a vision so glorious that his language bubbles over with expressive phrases connected with a multiplicity of connecting words; ‘therefore’, ‘just as’, ‘rather’, ‘so that’, and many others. It sounds very technical, but it is generally true that when people become excited, they do tend to keep speaking on and on, and forget the normal manner and style of speech!

Isaiah has been caught up in a vision of the glory of God, and attempts to describe it, and his words portray a very human emotional response to such wonders. We can find other passages of scripture where the same things happens; Ephesians 1 (as above) is a powerful example of such visionary speech in the New Testament, and Psalm 72 is a another example in the Psalms. Indeed, if you read Psalm 72, not only will you find a number of common themes with Isaiah 60 (justice, prosperity, peace, worldly rule, blessings and abundance), you will find that it is about the glory of God granted to the King and is ascribed (see verse 1) to Solomon. It is quite reasonable to wonder whether Isaiah prophesied with Psalm 72 and other great scriptures in his mind. When we pray or speak about the things of God we often use words and themes we know from the Bible that connect with what we are saying. Isaiah did the same! 

Here in this great passage, Isaiah is inspired to describe the Lord’s glory in several ways, each of which are highly significant, and the first of these is ‘light’. Earlier in these prophecies we heard the Lord declare that He intended His people to be a ‘light to the nations’ (42:6, 49:6), but they had failed in their task. However, the Servant was the one who brought the light of God’s redemption (53, 59:21), and Isaiah caught the sight of this light, which had burned so dimly in the past, breaking into brightness, ‘Arise, shine, your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen on you’ (60:1). Of course this light is set against the dark clouds of God’s judgement (60:2), but nothing can stop the progress of God’s glory, for ‘nations will travel to your light, and kings to the brilliance of your dawn!’ (60:3). Having said so much about the reaction to the coming of the Servant in the previous chapters (54-59), Isaiah returned to the glory of the work done by the Lord to draw all people to Himself.

The next great theme to emerge in this passage (and there is much more to come in chapter 60) is the gathering and return of God’s people. Isaiah has spoken about this on a number of occasions throughout his prophecies, believing that God’s purposes would always be to gather and unite His people together (11:2, 40:11, 43:5 etc.) and to provide for them in His holy dwelling place of Zion (as indicated in 59:20). Sometimes Isaiah spoke about Zion as being a real place (Jerusalem), and sometimes he spoke about Zion as God’s spiritual dwelling with His people, rather as Christians would speak of God’s ‘Kingdom’. However, in whatever way we interpret the strange expression ‘daughters supported at the side’ (60:4) or whatever we think is really meant by the gathering of wealth (60:5), it is the gathering that is important. 

Going Deeper

We will have to study this passage further to discover whether there are any specific secrets and revelations to be found within this prophecy. However, we must start with the bold picture of wonder and awe at a God who intervenes in human history to bring the light of His redemption and glory, and the anticipation of the return of all people to their Creator.

Review

Going Deeper

Application

The light (60:1-3)

What does Isaiah mean by talking about the coming of the Redeemer to Zion (as announced in 59:20 just prior to our passage), as being like light? We have already noted that Isaiah talks about the blessings of God as a ‘light to the Gentiles’ (see above), but is that all it means? In a few places in the Old Testament, there is a hint of an idea more common in the New Testament, of light which demonstrates the powerful work of God in the individual. Jonathan ate some honey, his eyes ‘brightened’ and he subsequently showed inner strength to stand against the inconsequential stupidity of his father Saul who had forbidden his troops to eat on the day of battle (1 Sam 14:27f.) Job’s friend Zophar recommends Job to confess his sin so that his life might shine ‘brighter’ in comparison to its ‘darkness’ (Job did not accept that he had sinned, but the illustration is still relevant); and Proverbs also uses ‘light’ to speak of inner ‘righteousness’ (Prov 4:18) set against the darkness of wickedness. Lastly, most people know about the famous occasion when Moses’ face ‘shone’ after he had been with the Lord God on the mountain (Exodus 34:29)

Because of these and other Old Testament references it is possible to say that the Old Testament supports the idea that ‘light‘ is a reference to the spiritual work of grace and blessing within people as individuals or as a group, which expresses their righteousness in God’s eyes. Of course, this righteousness is something experienced only occasionally in the Old Testament as the promise of a greater thing to come. In his vision, Isaiah perceived that it was the Lord’s intention to make the light of His righteousness available to all.

The prophecy emphatically describes the rising of God’s light like the dawn of a new day, or the sunlight breaking out from behind dark clouds (60:2,3). It is easy for us to understand these natural images, but spiritually, the light has come in the Redeemer, announced in the previous verses in chapter 59 (59:20). In addition, this revelation has come to all those who are willing to receive the Redeemer and His work of redemption. If you read the first three verses carefully, the picture you gain is like this. God’s people can shine because God has come in the form of the Redeemer. The glory of God in the Redeemer shines above and beyond the dark clouds of judgement on earth, and because it continues to shine ‘on’ His people, they too begin to shine, creating a new dawn on earth of the reflected glory of God in the life of His people. This is what is seen by ‘nations and kings’ (60:3), a phrase typical of Isaiah describing all human authority on earth; and the world is drawn to the Redeemer by the reflected light of His glory in the life of His people.

The gathering (60:4-5)

The Lord God does not display His glory simply to show off! In verse 4, an emphatic command is issued; ‘lift up your eyes ... and see’ because the result of the revelation of God’s glory is becoming evident on earth. Throughout the Old Testament there are descriptions of ingathering, and the idea begins with the long held desire of God’s people ever since the dispersal of Israel by Assyria for its reunification (Nehemiah 1:9, Isaiah 11:4, Psalm 106:47). Isaiah began with this picture, but almost throughout his prophecy, the picture of ingathering reaches out beyond this to picture a time when God will do a new work (40:11, 43:5,9 etc.), gathering not the twelve tribes of Israel, but ‘the nations’. In addition, He does not gather them to Zion simply to judge them and receive their allegiance (see Psalm 2, for example), Isaiah perceives that the word of God’s redemption will become available to them, and their gathering will come as a result of His redeeming work by means of the Servant (54:7, 56:8).

What Isaiah says is extraordinary because it clarifies the worldwide vision of redemption already hinted at in more ways than one. It is difficult for us to understand the sheer amazement that must have greeted such prophecies. It simply does not do justice to this passage of scripture for people to suggest (as many do) that the in gathering referred to in this passage of scripture is simply an exaggerated description of the re-gathering of the remnant of Israel after the Exile. We know for a fact (through the reports of Ezra and Nehemiah) that the reality of this in-gathering was a slow a painful process and one which was deeply controversial in its own day. Isaiah’s prophecy, however, may have influenced what happened, but stands above it, appealing to us to see that this is God’s eternal purpose.

What the prophecy reveals is that the Lord God will bring people together in peace and in the light of His redemption. One of the pictures presented within Isaiah’s prophecy is not well understood to this day, and this can be seen in the way that it is mistranslated in many Bible versions; this is the second half of verse 4, ‘your sons will come from far away with your daughters supported at the side.’ As I have pointed out above, this is a quite literal translation of the Hebrew, but many translators believe that this refers to the carrying of children or nursing infants! The evidence for these interpretations in slim, hence the disagreements between Bible versions. If, however, you look carefully at the words themselves, is it not possible to suggest that this refers to men and women coming to the Lord in the full unity of the image of marriage, i.e. man and wife? Remember that in Genesis 2, Eve was made ‘from the side’ (from a rib) of a man, so if the Lord’s daughters are described as ‘at the side’ of the sons, could this represent the proper unity of marriage in the image of God (Gen 1:27)?

It is possible that there are other explanations of this text, but I suggest that a vision of men and women coming to the Lord in their God-given partnership and equality as the image of God is a spiritually awesome sight. How we long for men and women today to be renewed in the image of God within marriage? The traditional understanding of the words ‘then you will see and be radiant; your heart will swell with awe ...’ are that they refer to the wealth brought to God’s people (see v5); but as we will see in the coming verses of chapter 60, many phrases overlap and meanings are carried over from one phrase to another. Isaiah’s great visionary poem of the glory of God is profoundly hard to ‘pin down’ in places because of the sense of amazement and spiritual insight.

Text and Translation notes