Isaiah 60:1–3 Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. 2 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. 3 And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.
These are striking words and worthy of our attention today! It is a very short passage but full of glorious truth. The focus, obviously, is darkness and light.
Darkness is the problem. We are a people who live (and who prefer to live) in spiritual darkness. In the darkness we can give fuller expression to the darkness that lives in our hearts with less risk that others will see. We even think that God Himself will not see what we do in the darkness. But as we saw in an earlier Pondering, God is light and there is no darkness in Him. And the darkness in us is so powerful and so pervasive that it will destroy us as a matter of inevitability, because at its heart is hatred of God and of anything truly good; a rebellion against His authority and instead a life lived entirely for self. Darkness is a brooding and malignant power over all creation and it holds full sway in our hearts by nature - and we want it that way. It was our darkness that took Christ to the cross. It is darkness against which believers must fight in this world. See Luke 22:53, Ephesians 6:12, Colossians 1:13. While we lived in this darkness, we were enemies of God and children of His wrath.
That is what verse 2 in the passage above confirms. Thick darkness covers the peoples. This would be a hopeless situation indeed except for the Lord. This is what makes the difference - “but the LORD” - see it in the middle of verse 2. He will arise upon us - He says through the prophet - His glory will be seen upon us. And we will SHINE so brightly that the nations who are still in darkness will see the light and come to the One who has arisen upon us (v 2-3)!
And now we can return to verse 1, because here we are commanded to arise and shine. But darkness cannot shine. How will darkness shine? It won’t. But when our Light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon us, then we can shine; then we must shine! This is nothing less than a new creation - that is how Paul deals with it here:
2 Corinthians 4:6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
If we have truly hated our sin because it is an offence to God, and if we have trusted completely on Jesus to rescue us so we are not children of wrath any longer but children of God, then God has shone His light into our dark hearts and we have become children of light!
1 Thessalonians 5:5 For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.
We were living in darkness, but by God’s grace, we are enabled to see a great light - Jesus.
Isaiah 9:2,6-7 2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone….. 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.
He is the Light of the World:
John 8:12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Our Light has come. If His glory has risen upon us, His children; if we have the light of life; if He has shone in our hearts, then it necessarily follows that we will shine with that same light. It comes to us as a command, both in the passage above and from the lips of our Savior, because if He is the Light of the World, so, now, are we:
Matthew 5:14–16 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
While our degree of shining may vary in this life, and we should long to shine more and more brightly, all the children of God are children of the light - we must shine! We cannot be hidden. And as Isaiah says, we will shine with the attractiveness of Christ Himself - with the dazzling brilliance with which He has shone upon us - and the nations will be drawn to Him through our shining. So let’s shine for Him today, dispelling the darkness around us this coming week, and until we see Him face to face in glory!
There is a well known, stirring praise song from several years ago. It asks Jesus to shine in the darkness of this world for His glory, but it recognizes that His people are the ones through whom He will shine, and that the nations will be reached as His people shine:
Lord the light of Your love is shining
In the midst of the darkness, shining
Jesus, Light of the world, shine upon us
Set us free by the truth You now bring us
Shine on me, Shine on me
Shine, Jesus, shine, fill this land with the Father's glory
Blaze, Spirit, blaze, Set our hearts on fire
Flow, river, flow, flood the nations with grace and mercy
Send forth Your Word, Lord And let there be light
(Graham Kendrick Copyright © 1987 Make Way Music)
