Thursday, January 15, 2015
Isaiah 60:3-5a The Gentiles 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 nursed at your side. Then you shall see and become radiant, and your heart shall swell with joy ...
REJOICE IN THE LIGHT!
When the Savior arrived thousands of years after the first promise, He did not arrive late, nor did He arrive early. Rather "When the fulness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law" (Galatians 4:4f). Until that time, even the people of Israel walked in darkness in that they did not know the exact date of the Savior's birth. When Isaiah told in our text of the Savior's coming, He was speaking some seven hundred years before the birth of Christ. After his prophecies, Jerusalem was destroyed, the temple was knocked down, and the people were carried away into captivity. Even after their return, after they had rebuilt the temple, they had not been entirely free, for their return had been followed by conqueror after conqueror. But when the prophecy was fulfilled with the birth of Jesus Christ, the prophet cries out to Old Testament believers, "Arise! Shine! For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you!" He says, "Don't sit there in mourning! Jump up! Rejoice! The Savior is here!"
We too once sat in darkness, in the deep darkness of sin and spiritual death. But since the light of God's Word has shown upon us, we have become the ones of whom Scripture says, "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined" (Isaiah 9:2). That light is God's Word which is like " ... a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts" (2 Peter 1:19). For " ... it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6). That light shines upon us by proclaiming to us the glory of God (His glorious mercy in Christ Jesus). Through the Word, God's glory drives away the darkness of sin and death, and turns on the light so that now we see the way to heaven. When that Good News is proclaimed to us, the Savior is born in our hearts and God's forgiveness shines upon us, taking away all of our sins and declaring us to be children of God.
