God Commands Israel

Chapter 60 brings us to an abrupt change in the prophecies of Isaiah. God speaking through Isaiah in the first half of the book has told his nation Israel it will be punished due to her sin and idolatry. They will lose their homes, their families will be broken, many will die terrible deaths.

Even here in the second half of the book He condemns their religious hypocrisy, Isaiah 58:1 “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.

In chapter 59 He exposes their utter sinfulness Isaiah 59:1 Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: 2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. 3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.

But then we come to chapter 60 and a new day breaks for Israel, God tells the same sinful, rebellious people, “Arise, Shine. The darkness of the your sinful past is overcome by my command. Stand up and Shine Out.”

Why? How after such a harsh rebuke for the blackness of their sin, and the inevitableness of their coming punishment, would God tell them to arise and shine. The reason is in the next part of the verse, “Arise, Shine for thy light has come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.”

It was not what sinful Israel was doing but what God was going to do. He was bringing the light that would cast out their darkness. They would rise and shine, because the Lord’s glory would rise and shine upon them.

God’s Shines On Israel

This would happen when the Messiah, their King, the Lord of Light would be sent from God to rule and reign. This ultimately takes place at the end of the Tribulation. More specifically this is a prophecy of what will take place during the Millennial Kingdom of Jesus Christ after He returns and scatters the night of sin and disbelief from Israel. Their light will be the light of their King, Jesus Christ. Lord of Lords and King of Kings. So, they are told to, “Arise and Shine” in His light. They will be the light of the world during the Millennial Kingdom.

Jesus Claims the Prophecy

During his first coming, Jesus himself boldly proclaimed that Isaiah prophecies were about him. In Luke 4:16-21 we read, And he (Jesus) came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, 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. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

That day, Jesus clearly and absolutely claimed the prophesies of Isaiah and with them all the Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. He was the promised redeemer, the Prince of Peace, the anointed and chosen one.

The command that will one day be given to Israel, has already been given to us. Today we the church of Jesus Christ are commanded by the Lord to, “Arise and Shine” for Jesus had already come to us and His glory has banished sin’s dark night from our soul and now we are to stand as light in this dark world.

Look at darkness around us, it is so prevalent that most can’t imagine a world with any light in it. To the vast majority of people, the blackness of sin is their light of life. It is the new normal, they don’t know anything else.

Never in our lifetimes nor in the history of this nation has sin, corruption, perversion and lies been so openly accepted, encouraged and applauded. Babies are sacrificed to the gods of sexual freedom, children are groomed for the gods of homosexuality, families are being shattered by the gods of selfishness and the goddesses of feminism and churches are being infiltrated gods that the pagans of ancient Greece and Roman would clearly recognize as their own. Yes, it is dark out there.

Yet, in the midst of this seemingly impenetrable darkness, we are commanded to go and be a light for Jesus. Just as God one day will say to Israel, “Arise, Shine!”

We have seen the light of Jesus Christ in salvation and as the church has been empowered with God’s Holy Spirit. So, now in the midst of this present darkness, we are commanded to stand as beacons of light and hope. We the church are to be lighthouses along a dark and stormy shore. We are commanded to show the way to salvation and hope in Jesus Christ.

Illustration: Cutting Holes in the Darkness

At age twelve, Robert Louis Stevenson was looking out into the dark from his upstairs window watching a man light the streetlamps. Stevenson's governess came into the room and asked what he was doing. He replied, "I am watching a man cut holes in the darkness." This is our task, this is our calling to cut holes in the darkness with the glorious light of God. -James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988) pp. 178-179