Your Everlasting Light – Isaiah 60

In the article “21 Things Only People Who Prefer Rain Over All Other Weather Understand” a few of those things are:  You get unreasonably happy when you wake up in the middle of the night and hear rain pattering against your window, the word “pattering” sets your heart aflutter, your favorite smell is just the crisp freshness that the earth has after it rains, and if thunder and lightning accompany the rain, it’s like Disneyland uprooted itself and landed right outside your door.  Others prefer sunshine.  But we’ll all prefer the light of the Lord in the last day as it fills our eternity.

Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.  For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you,  and his glory will be seen upon you.  And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

Lift up your eyes all around, and see; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be carried on the hip.  Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and exult, because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you….for the name of the LORD your God, and for the Holy One of Israel, because he has made you beautiful.

Foreigners shall build up your walls, and their kings shall minister to you; for in my wrath I struck you, but in my favor I have had mercy on you.  Your gates shall be open continually; day and night they shall not be shut, that people may bring to you the wealth of the nations, with their kings led in procession.  For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish; those nations shall be utterly laid waste…they shall call you the City of the LORD, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, with no one passing through, I will make you majestic forever, a joy from age to age….Violence shall no more be heard in your land, devastation or destruction within your borders; you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise.

The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.  Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself; for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended.  Your people shall all be righteous; they shall possess the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I might be glorified.  The least one shall become a clan, and the smallest one a mighty nation; I am the LORD; in its time I will hasten it.  (Isaiah 60 ESV)

This is the picture Yahweh wants Israel to see of herself in the future. This is what He is going to accomplish on her behalf.  She will be premier among the nations and all nations will serve her.  She will be righteous and holy and Jerusalem will be her capital and the place of Yahweh’s dwelling.  Everyone will be righteous, that is, forgiven and given new hearts in the terms of Jeremiah 31:31ff.

This theme is picked up in Revelation 21,22, where the heavenly Jerusalem, on which the earthly Jerusalem is modeled, comes down to earth and all God’s people, Jews and Gentiles, dwell forever with God as the light of that city.

One day all wrongs are going to be righted, all mourning is going to cease and joy is going to rule the day.  We are going to enjoy the powerful presence of our God forever.  And even now, as we glimpse it, we arise and shine in His glory.  The darkness is already being dispelled.

Discussion Questions

1. Do you prefer bright, sunny days or cloudy, rainy days and why?
2. In the time of earth’s darkness at God’s final judgment (Revelation 6-19), God will be the believer’s light and make Israel light.  Why do you think it is that God is still concerned about Israel?
3. What do you think it means that Israel will be made beautiful?
4. Do you like or dislike the picture of Israel being served by all the other nations, and why?
5. How do you imagine God being our sun and moon, our everlasting light as we live in the eternal city, the heavenly Jerusalem come down to the remade earth?
6. What does “The least one shall become a clan, and the smallest one a mighty nation” suggest about how active we will be in eternity?