In the prophetic genre, divine revelation is not only about how oracles relate to the prophet’s time, but also about how these oracles relate to time beyond the immediate context in which they are given. The fulfillment of the prophetic pronouncement is often far away from the prophetic ministry of the prophet. In the case of Isaiah 60, the message is given in the context of the future restoration of Judah from the Babylonian exile. However, this message also has a future application to the glorious event of the restoration of the redeemed at the end of the time.
Isaiah 60 represents one of the more optimistic messages of the book. This lesson explores the first verses of this chapter and also some verses of Isaiah 61.
The three main topics that are explored in this study are as follows: (1) arise, shine; (2) the brightness of the city; and (3) the anointed One.
Part II: Commentary
Arise, Shine.
The first clause of the chapter includes two feminine verbs in the imperative: arise, shine. The clause presupposes a reference to Jerusalem and its future restoration. There are some references related to “arise” in the previous chapter, but in those cases, the expression is used in a chaotic description of Judah’s fall.
In Isaiah 60 the expression is instead joined with a positive component: arise, shine. This word combination is the starting point from which we may infer some biblical allusions that Isaiah makes to Aaron’s benediction in Numbers 6:24-26:
“The LORD bless you, and keep you;
The LORD make His face shine on you,
And be gracious to you;
The LORD lift up His countenance on you,
And give you peace” (NASB).
This prayer possibly could have been an influence for Isaiah 60, particularly the sentence, “The LORD make His face shine on you.”
The connection between Aaron’s benediction of Numbers 6:24-26 and Isaiah 60 lies in the use of the same Hebrew verbal root,ʾwr (shine), in both texts. Isaiah seems to apply to the redeemed Jerusalem a Pentateuchal blessing, which is mentioned in the reference to the radiance of God’s face. The brightness of the countenance expresses favor, according to the perspective of Luis A. Schökel (The Sacred Books: Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy [Madrid: Ediciones Cristianidad, 1970], vol. 2, p. 147).
Thus, Isaiah comforts Jerusalem by using the image of brightness, but Jerusalem does not have its own brightness. It is something it must receive from a source outside itself. This imputed brightness is well expressed by Isaiah: “Your light has come” (Isa. 60.1, NKJV). As such, the glorious experience of the redeemed Jerusalem will be an expression of divine favor.
The sentence “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee” shows a clear parallelism, connected by the explanatory conjunction “and.” The light that has come is the glory of the Lord, and it is His glory that has brought brightness to Jerusalem.
The Brightness of the City.
In addition to the influence of Aaron’s famous benediction on Isaiah 60, the idea of radiance or brightness, common to Moses’ encounters with the LORD, also influences Isaiah in this chapter.
For instance, Exodus 34 says that “Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him” (Exod. 34:29, NASB).
The brightness motif is also present when God leads the Israelites during their wilderness experience: “And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light” (Exod. 13:21).
Isaiah 60:2 presents another interesting parallel to this motif of light in Exodus to help us learn about the glorious experience of Jerusalem:
“For behold, darkness will cover the earth
And deep darkness the peoples;
But the LORD will rise upon you
And His glory will appear upon you” (NASB).
It is clear from the context that “the earth” is parallel with “the peoples,” while “the Lord” is parallel with “His glory” in the second part of the sentence. It is evident that the expression YHWH and “His glory” have been used interchangeably.
The message is clear: God promises a brilliant future for Jerusalem. Even though the faces of God’s people show vestiges of their past struggles (Isa. 60:15), “the days of thy mourning shall be ended” (Isa. 60:20), because the glory of the Lord is going to be shown. In majestic words, Isiah describes it:
“No longer will you have the sun for light by day,
Nor for brightness will the moon give you light;
But you will have the LORD for an everlasting light,
And your God for your glory” (Isa. 60:19, NASB).
This new experience also brings extreme prosperity: “Thou shalt also suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shalt suck the breast of kings” (Isa. 60:16). This new era of prosperity also includes a new order in “the city.” “And I will make peace your administrators and righteousness your overseers” (Isa. 60:17, NASB).
Joy, transcendence, and salvation are other features of the glorious Jerusalem (compare with Isa. 60:5, 9, 18): all of them come from the Lord. The night has disappeared for the forsaken city. A new day has come, and “they will call you the city of the LORD, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel” (Isa. 60:14, NASB).
In this regard, Ellen G. White comments, “‘Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee’ (Isa. 60:1). Christ is coming with power and great glory. He is coming with His own glory and with the glory of the Father. And the holy angels will attend Him on His way. While all the world is plunged in darkness, there will be light in every dwelling of the saints. They will catch the first light of His second appearing. The unsullied light will shine from His splendor, and Christ the Redeemer will be admired by all who have served Him. While the wicked flee, Christ’s followers will rejoice in His presence.
“Then it is that the redeemed from among men that will receive their promised inheritance. Thus God’s purpose for Israel will meet with literal fulfillment. That which God purposes, man is powerless to disannul. Even amid the working of evil, God’s purposes have been moving steadily forward to their accomplishment. It was thus with the house of Israel throughout the history of the divided monarchy; it is thus with spiritual Israel today.”—Prophets and Kings, p. 720.
The Anointed One.
The main theme that spans the whole of chapter 61 is the Messiah who brings redemption and justice to His people. This chapter can be divided into three sections:
(1) the prophecy of the coming Messiah and His mission (verses 1-3), (2) the effect or result of the Messiah’s mission (verses 4-9), and (3) the hymn of exaltation to God (verses 10, 11).
The anointed one is a recurrent theme in the Bible. To anoint means to take an individual and set him apart for some particular office or mission. For instance, Aaron is anointed by Moses to be the high priest (Exod. 40:13). Saul and David are anointed by Samuel as kings of Israel (1 Sam. 10:1, 1 Sam. 16:13). Christ is anointed by God the Father, through the Holy Spirit (Ps. 45:7, Acts 10:38)(see Nichol, The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 4, p. 317). in Isaiah 61:1, 2, Jesus interprets that He is the Anointed One. After reading the passage, He begins to say to them: “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears” (Luke 4:21).
Concerning this chapter, Ellen G. White maintains, “The sixty-first chapter of Isaiah testifies that Christ was to do the very work He did.”—The Desire of Ages p. 458.
In the other section of the book, Ellen G. White provides some details about Jesus’ use of Isaiah 51 in this preaching in Nazareth. “When Jesus in the synagogue read from the prophecy, He stopped short of the final specification concerning the Messiah’s work. Having read the words, ‘To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,’ He omitted the phrase, ‘and the day of vengeance of our God.’ Isaiah 61:2. This was just as much truth as was the first of the prophecy, and by His silence Jesus did not deny the truth. But this last expression was that upon which His hearers delighted to dwell, and which they were desirous of fulfilling. They denounced judgments against the heathen, not discerning that their own guilt was even greater than that of others. They themselves were in deepest need of the mercy they were so ready to deny to the heathen. That day in the synagogue, when Jesus stood among them, was their opportunity to accept the call of Heaven. He who ‘delighteth in mercy’ (Micah 7:18) would fain to have saved them from the ruin which their sins were inviting.”—The Desire of Ages, pp. 240, 241.
Part III: Life Application
God wants to glorify us in His Son and restore our position as children of His kingdom. As we are restored to that position, He wants us to reflect His character. Nations and people need to see God’s glory through His people.
We are called in order to reflect the glory of the Lord. We ourselves are not the light. We can only reflect the light of the Lord. What do Jesus’ words: “ ‘You are the light of the world’ ” (Matt. 5:14, NKJV) mean to you? In what ways do we reflect His light to others?
Read Luke 4:18, 19. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” What principles about sharing the gospel can we derive from these verses?
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Study Focus: Isaiah 60
Part I: Overview
In the prophetic genre, divine revelation is not only about how oracles relate to the prophet’s time, but also about how these oracles relate to time beyond the immediate context in which they are given. The fulfillment of the prophetic pronouncement is often far away from the prophetic ministry of the prophet. In the case of Isaiah 60, the message is given in the context of the future restoration of Judah from the Babylonian exile. However, this message also has a future application to the glorious event of the restoration of the redeemed at the end of the time.
Isaiah 60 represents one of the more optimistic messages of the book. This lesson explores the first verses of this chapter and also some verses of Isaiah 61.
The three main topics that are explored in this study are as follows: (1) arise, shine; (2) the brightness of the city; and (3) the anointed One.
Part II: Commentary
Arise, Shine.
The first clause of the chapter includes two feminine verbs in the imperative: arise, shine. The clause presupposes a reference to Jerusalem and its future restoration. There are some references related to “arise” in the previous chapter, but in those cases, the expression is used in a chaotic description of Judah’s fall.
In Isaiah 60 the expression is instead joined with a positive component: arise, shine. This word combination is the starting point from which we may infer some biblical allusions that Isaiah makes to Aaron’s benediction in Numbers 6:24-26:
“The LORD bless you, and keep you; The LORD make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace” (NASB).
This prayer possibly could have been an influence for Isaiah 60, particularly the sentence, “The LORD make His face shine on you.”
The connection between Aaron’s benediction of Numbers 6:24-26 and Isaiah 60 lies in the use of the same Hebrew verbal root,ʾwr (shine), in both texts. Isaiah seems to apply to the redeemed Jerusalem a Pentateuchal blessing, which is mentioned in the reference to the radiance of God’s face. The brightness of the countenance expresses favor, according to the perspective of Luis A. Schökel (The Sacred Books: Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy [Madrid: Ediciones Cristianidad, 1970], vol. 2, p. 147).
Thus, Isaiah comforts Jerusalem by using the image of brightness, but Jerusalem does not have its own brightness. It is something it must receive from a source outside itself. This imputed brightness is well expressed by Isaiah: “Your light has come” (Isa. 60.1, NKJV). As such, the glorious experience of the redeemed Jerusalem will be an expression of divine favor.
The sentence “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee” shows a clear parallelism, connected by the explanatory conjunction “and.” The light that has come is the glory of the Lord, and it is His glory that has brought brightness to Jerusalem.
The Brightness of the City.
In addition to the influence of Aaron’s famous benediction on Isaiah 60, the idea of radiance or brightness, common to Moses’ encounters with the LORD, also influences Isaiah in this chapter.
For instance, Exodus 34 says that “Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him” (Exod. 34:29, NASB).
The brightness motif is also present when God leads the Israelites during their wilderness experience: “And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light” (Exod. 13:21).
Isaiah 60:2 presents another interesting parallel to this motif of light in Exodus to help us learn about the glorious experience of Jerusalem:
“For behold, darkness will cover the earth And deep darkness the peoples; But the LORD will rise upon you And His glory will appear upon you” (NASB).
It is clear from the context that “the earth” is parallel with “the peoples,” while “the Lord” is parallel with “His glory” in the second part of the sentence. It is evident that the expression YHWH and “His glory” have been used interchangeably.
The message is clear: God promises a brilliant future for Jerusalem. Even though the faces of God’s people show vestiges of their past struggles (Isa. 60:15), “the days of thy mourning shall be ended” (Isa. 60:20), because the glory of the Lord is going to be shown. In majestic words, Isiah describes it:
“No longer will you have the sun for light by day, Nor for brightness will the moon give you light; But you will have the LORD for an everlasting light, And your God for your glory” (Isa. 60:19, NASB).
This new experience also brings extreme prosperity: “Thou shalt also suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shalt suck the breast of kings” (Isa. 60:16). This new era of prosperity also includes a new order in “the city.” “And I will make peace your administrators and righteousness your overseers” (Isa. 60:17, NASB).
Joy, transcendence, and salvation are other features of the glorious Jerusalem (compare with Isa. 60:5, 9, 18): all of them come from the Lord. The night has disappeared for the forsaken city. A new day has come, and “they will call you the city of the LORD, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel” (Isa. 60:14, NASB).
In this regard, Ellen G. White comments, “‘Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee’ (Isa. 60:1). Christ is coming with power and great glory. He is coming with His own glory and with the glory of the Father. And the holy angels will attend Him on His way. While all the world is plunged in darkness, there will be light in every dwelling of the saints. They will catch the first light of His second appearing. The unsullied light will shine from His splendor, and Christ the Redeemer will be admired by all who have served Him. While the wicked flee, Christ’s followers will rejoice in His presence.
“Then it is that the redeemed from among men that will receive their promised inheritance. Thus God’s purpose for Israel will meet with literal fulfillment. That which God purposes, man is powerless to disannul. Even amid the working of evil, God’s purposes have been moving steadily forward to their accomplishment. It was thus with the house of Israel throughout the history of the divided monarchy; it is thus with spiritual Israel today.”—Prophets and Kings, p. 720.
The Anointed One.
The main theme that spans the whole of chapter 61 is the Messiah who brings redemption and justice to His people. This chapter can be divided into three sections:
(1) the prophecy of the coming Messiah and His mission (verses 1-3), (2) the effect or result of the Messiah’s mission (verses 4-9), and (3) the hymn of exaltation to God (verses 10, 11).
The anointed one is a recurrent theme in the Bible. To anoint means to take an individual and set him apart for some particular office or mission. For instance, Aaron is anointed by Moses to be the high priest (Exod. 40:13). Saul and David are anointed by Samuel as kings of Israel (1 Sam. 10:1, 1 Sam. 16:13). Christ is anointed by God the Father, through the Holy Spirit (Ps. 45:7, Acts 10:38)(see Nichol, The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 4, p. 317). in Isaiah 61:1, 2, Jesus interprets that He is the Anointed One. After reading the passage, He begins to say to them: “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears” (Luke 4:21).
Concerning this chapter, Ellen G. White maintains, “The sixty-first chapter of Isaiah testifies that Christ was to do the very work He did.”—The Desire of Ages p. 458.
In the other section of the book, Ellen G. White provides some details about Jesus’ use of Isaiah 51 in this preaching in Nazareth. “When Jesus in the synagogue read from the prophecy, He stopped short of the final specification concerning the Messiah’s work. Having read the words, ‘To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,’ He omitted the phrase, ‘and the day of vengeance of our God.’ Isaiah 61:2. This was just as much truth as was the first of the prophecy, and by His silence Jesus did not deny the truth. But this last expression was that upon which His hearers delighted to dwell, and which they were desirous of fulfilling. They denounced judgments against the heathen, not discerning that their own guilt was even greater than that of others. They themselves were in deepest need of the mercy they were so ready to deny to the heathen. That day in the synagogue, when Jesus stood among them, was their opportunity to accept the call of Heaven. He who ‘delighteth in mercy’ (Micah 7:18) would fain to have saved them from the ruin which their sins were inviting.”—The Desire of Ages, pp. 240, 241.
Part III: Life Application
We are called in order to reflect the glory of the Lord. We ourselves are not the light. We can only reflect the light of the Lord. What do Jesus’ words: “ ‘You are the light of the world’ ” (Matt. 5:14, NKJV) mean to you? In what ways do we reflect His light to others?