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.
Much of the writings of the prophets dealt with a coming judgment if the people did not repent and return to the Lord. Their warnings had little effect on the nations of Judah and Israel, and eventually they were destroyed and their people taken away into exile.
But it was not the end. There was a future hope held out. They would return from their exile and to their former glory under David and Solomon. Eventually, the people were allowed to return to their homes. However, the future that the prophets foretold still seemed distant.
Over 500 years after the Jews returned to their homeland, they were still under the domination of foreign powers. It seemed bleak. But then something quite unexpected happened. To a people living in darkness, a light dawned. The glory of the Lord came to them. And the nations came into that light.
Jesus Is the Light
I do not discount that there may be future fulfillments of Isaiah’s words in this passage. But John uses the language of this passage to point to Jesus and his coming over 2000 years ago.
In John 1:4-5, he said that Jesus was the light of all mankind. And that he shone out in the darkness. A darkness that was powerless to extinguish the light.
And in John 1:14, John said that he had beheld Jesus’ glory, the glory of the only begotten Son of God. Jesus’ glory was shrouded in his humanity. But for a brief moment, it was revealed to John and others on the Mount of Transfiguration.
In Jesus, their light had come, and the glory of the Lord had risen on them. But this light was not just for Israel. Isaiah said that the nations would come into that light. And indeed, that light has gone out into the whole world, bringing light into the darkness.
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