Holy Bible

Arise, shine; for thy light is come. Isaiah 60:1-12 The glory of spiritual Israel J. A. Alexander. Having repeatedly and fully shown that the national pro-eminence of Israel was not to be perpetual, that the loss of it was the natural consequence and righteous retribution of iniquity, and that their loss did not involve the destruction of the true Church or spiritual Israel, the prophet now proceeds to show that, to the latter, the approaching change would be a glorious and blessed one. ( J. A. Alexander. ) Isaiah 60 Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D. is the spiritual counterpart of a typical Eastern day , with the dust laid and the darts taken out of the sunbeams, — a typical Eastern day in the sudden splendour of its dawn, the completeness and apparent permanence of its noon, the spaciousness it reveals on sea and land, and the barbaric profusion of life, which its strong light is sufficient to flood with glory. ( Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D. ) Sunrise in the East Ibid. In the East the sun does not rise; the word is weak for an arrival almost too sudden for twilight. In the East the sun leaps above the horizon. You do not feel that he is coming, but that he is come. This first verse is suggested by the swiftness with which he bursts upon an Eastern city, and the shrouded form does not, as in our twilight, slowly unwrap itself, but "shines" at once, all plates and points of glory. Then the figure yields: for Jerusalem is not merely one radiant point in a world equally lighted by the sun, but is herself Jehovah's unique luminary. ( Ibid. ) "Thy light is come Prof. J. Skinner, D,D. The perfect tenses are used from the ideal standpoint of the future. ( Prof. J. Skinner, D,D. ) Light breaking on the mountains A. H. Bradford, D. D. Any one who has spent much time among mountains will appreciate the imagery. Around is absolute blackness; the valleys are in gloom; trees, rivers, towns have been obscured; nothing is visible but that dim shaft of granite rising into the silence of the sky. Suddenly we may imagine a spirit's voice crying, "The light has come." Instantly there is a glow on the mountain — trees, rivers, towns begin to take shape; the whole world has changed. The point to be observed here is that the light was from God. The city was exhorted to be in a condition in which the glory of God might be reflected from it. The chapter describes the degradation of the rest of the world, the effect of the light on other peoples, how they would be attracted toward it; and contains near the end this outburst of victorious joy: "The Lord shall be unto thee an ever. lasting light, and thy God thy glory. This prophecy, was never literally fulfilled, and yet hundreds of years later a light did pour itself upon Mount Zion; it shone on the thickest darkness of the nations, and unto it ever since the people have been attracted. That prophecy was fulfilled in Christ. He is the Light. ( A. H. Bradford, D. D. ) The Gospel era Homilist. I. THE GOSPEL ERA IS DISTINGUISHED BY A SPECIAL REVELATION OF DIVINE GLORY. The light that has come to the world is the glory of the Lord. What is "the glory of the Lord" We take the answer which the Eternal gave to the request of Moses, "I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory." The reply was not, "I will show thee the infinitude of My possessions, the boundlessness of My, dominions, the almightiness of My power, the immeasurable depths of My wisdom, but, "I will cause all My goodness to pass before thee." The Gospel is a wonderful revelation of God's goodness, in the form of amazing mercy towards a guilty world. 1. The glory of His goodness is seen in the gift of His Son. "He spared not His own Son, etc. 2. The glory of His goodness is seen in the entire history of His Son. All the compassion, the tender love and mercy, which Christ displayed when on earth, were the reflected rays of Infinite goodness. II. THE GOSPEL ERA IMPOSES A SPECIAL OBLIGATION UPON THE WORLD. "Arise, shine." 1. Arise. Do not sleep while the rays of Divine goodness are streaming on you. Arise to thought, to penitence, to gratitude, to worship. Arise, discharge the duties and enjoy the advantages of a day flooded with the sun of mercy. 2. Shine. Reflect the rays of this goodness. Let this love of God be so "shed abroad in thy heart," that it stream forth its radiance in thy every action, and bless the circle in which thou livest. Do not be as an opaque body, obstructing the rays and throwing a shadow over thy sphere; but be a mirror, to reflect every falling beam. ( Homilist. ) Christ the light of the world J. B. Sumner, M. A. The words of the text comprise an exhortation to "arise " and "shine"; and a reason to enforce it, — "thy light is come, the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." I. THE REASON. There is such a connection between ignorance and darkness, that the one is constantly put for the other in Scripture. If ignorance is justly termed darkness, so knowledge is properly compared to light. At the dawn of day, the traveller takes fresh courage; he perceives the path in which he should go, and proceeds on it rejoicing. In the same manner religious knowledge enlightens a man as to his true business in this life, and sets him to work out His salvation. And Christ is the Sun which sends forth this religious knowledge. 1. The sun, when it rises in the morning, dispels all clouds and mists and clews, and shows every object in its true colours. So, without that light which Christ has furnished by His Gospel, we cannot perceive those truths which it is most needful we should perceive. 2. The sun, when it shines above us, does more than enlighten every object. It nourishes, it invigorates. Without it, the sickly plant droops and decays, and brings no fruit to perfection. And the effect of the sun upon outward nature is a striking emblem of the influence of Christ upon the heart. In Him is life, vigorous, spiritual life; and the life is the light of men. II. THE EXHORTATION. "Arise, shine." 1. When the sun rises, and scatters the mists of night, he gives a summons to mankind to rise also, and set themselves to the discharge of their various duties. In the same manner, the appearance of Christ in the world is a summons to all who hear of His revelation, to "arise." To awake out of the sleep of ignorance, the sleep of thoughtlessness, the sleep of sin, which are, in truth, the sleep of death; and to apply themselves, before "the night cometh in which no man can work," to the business which God has appointed them to perform both for themselves and for Him. 2. The text requires that you not only "arise," but that you "shine." That Christ has risen in the world is nothing, unless He illuminates your hearts also. When the sun is up, and shines brightly upon any object, that which before was dark shines too; receives a brilliancy not its own, not natural to it. So is it likewise, when Christ illuminates the heart. It takes a new colouring, a light which by nature it had not. Enlightened by the Gospel, the simple becomes wise, and acquires the knowledge which is most truly valuable — the knowledge of duty towards God and man. Enlightened by the Gospel, he who was selfish and covetous is made liberal, and abounds in the feelings of brotherly kindness, and in the works of charity. Enlightened by the Gospel, he who was sensual becomes temperate and pure, and "lets his moderation be known unto all men." The "lover of this world becomes a "lover of God," and "sets his affections on things above." In this way the light which has shone upon them is reflected in their conduct, and is visible in their whole character. The sun shines; but some objects still continue dark and gloomy. Between them and the sun's light other objects interpose, and prevent his beams from shining upon them. And so it is in the world of grace. ( J. B. Sumner, M. A. ) The dawning of God's light and its awakening call E. L. Hull, B. A. I. THE DAWNING OF THE LIGHT. "Thy light is come." If the light is always near, but the darkness is in man's heart and the blindness in his soul, we have to ask how the darkness passes away, and to point out the manner in which the glory of God dawns upon it, in order that we may see why its dawning is a summons to arise and shine. There are three requisites for its dawning — three stages in the history of the soul's enlightenment. 1. Spiritual penitence. 2. Spiritual penitence must pass into spiritual love. 3. Spiritual love necessitates spiritual prayer. II. THE AWAKENING CALL. "Arise, shine." That summons is the inevitable result of the dawning of the light. When God is felt to be near a man thus — in penitence, love, and prayer, that man is imperatively bound to reflect the glory which has risen in his heart; to bear witness of the light which has pierced and transformed his soul. Let us again observe that this is also based on a great principle, viz. the deepest emotion in a man's nature must reveal itself in his life. I proceed to show the way in which the glory of the Lord thus manifests itself in life. 1. In the majesty of holiness. 2. In the beauty of unselfishness. 3. In the earnestness of your efforts for men, ( E. L. Hull, B. A. ) The everlasting light A. H. Bradford, D. D. I. THE VOICE SPEAKS TO INDIVIDUALS. How few even realize their possibilities. We have had religious training, we have been taught to consider all questions as they appear in relation to God, we have grown up in a religious atmosphere, and yet the consciousness that no man is a true man until he reflects Jesus Christ in words, business, pleasures and thoughts is dim, and not even desired. The light has come; what does it find? It finds men absorbed and heedless, thinking only of what they can keep for a little while at best; not caring for their fellow-men; selfish and as impervious to higher motives as a granite rock to sunshine. The true glory of a man is to reflect Christ. II. THE VOICE OF THE PROPHET REACHES THE CHURCH, both local and universal. The Church realizes its true mission only as it reflects the Divine light, which means, simply, realizes the life which was in Jesus Christ. 1. The Church should reflect Jesus in its worship. With Him worship was something essential and vital. Before every great act of His career He went apart from men to pray. The sources of His life were in God. Worship and prayer are the conduits along which flow streams of spiritual vitality. Is the Church a praying Church? Then it is continuing Christ's work. 2. The Church lives to repeat the teaching of Jesus. 3. In like manner the Church should reflect Jesus in the service of humanity. It lives to continue His ministry. The most hospitable place in every community ought to be the Church of Christ. Has any one a grief? Let him go to the Church. Are any lonely? Let them go to the Church. Have any disgraced themselves and their friends? Let them seek the Church and its help. But will all these various classes find there a welcome? Not only within its walls, but outside also the Church should serve humanity in the spirit of Christ. III. THIS CRY OF THE PROPHET COMES TO NATIONS. Nations, as well as individuals and Churches, exist to continue the Incarnation. That nation has not begun to realize its possibilities which has not learned that its superlative privilege is the manifestation of Jesus Christ. What do I mean? That the function of government is not only the protection of the people, but the service of humanity. John Milton truly said that the State is only a huge man. In the vision of the prophet when the light broke upon the sides of Mount Zion the nations saw the glory and were attracted by it (vers. 3, 14). The most beautiful thing in this world is the character of Jesus Christ; nothing else so wins men. ( A. H. Bradford, D. D. ) Arise, shine C. G. Scott. I. TO WHOM THE CHARGE IS ADDRESSED. To the Church of Christ. This is evident from the context. Further, it appears from the nature of the charge that it can apply only to the Church. There is none else on earth capable of at once fulfilling the charge. The world cannot, for it is essentially dark — "darkness covers the earth." The Church is compared to reflected and artificial lights. Christ enlightens the world through His Church. II. THE CHARGE ITSELF. This is a twofold charge implying two distinct acts. 1. "Arise." This implies that the Church is in the meantime in a prostrate condition; her place is in the dust. This may be partly in penitence. It may indicate a state of affliction and mourning; the Church may be sitting in sackcloth. But chiefly it implies a state of sloth, worldliness, carnality. Whatever be the cause of this prostration the Church is directed to rise from the dust now. 2. "Shine." "Christ shall give thee light" for this very purpose; not merely to enlighten yourself, to impart life and joy to you, but that you may "shine," give light to the world. And this applies both to the Church as a whole and to the members of the Church individually. There are two ways in which those who have been enlightened by Christ may give light. On the one hand, by simply shining, each one in his sphere, as a separate light, perhaps in the midst of darkness. On the other hand, by kindling other lights. III. THE ARGUMENT BY WHICH IT IS ENFORCED. "Thy light is come, etc. The Church has no independent light of her own, cannot shine of herself; and so, such an encouragement as this is needed. "Thy light' — this must mean Christ Himself, for He is the light of the Church. "Is come" - Christ did not come till seven or eight hundred years after this prophecy was delivered. But the prophet refers to Gospel times. Accordingly the Church did arise and shine at that time more brightly and auspiciously than she had ever done before. ( C. G. Scott. ) An arousing call There are some Christian men who have wasted a large part of their lives for want of somebody or something to wake them up. There is more evil wrought in the world by want of thought than by downright malice, and there is more good left undone through want of thought than through any aversion to the doing of good. Some Christians appear to have been born in the land of slumber, and they continually live in their native country of dreams. They rub their eyes occasionally, and suppose themselves to be wide awake; but they are in the Enchanted Ground, and, though they know it not, they are little better than sleep-walkers the most of their days. ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) Shining Christians I. To God's own people this is my first message, REMEMBER YOUR PRIVILEGE. Your light has come. 1. Recollect out of what darkness that light has delivered you. 2. This light, which God has given you, is His own glory. "And the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." Byron speaks of God S face being mirrored in the sea; but there is not space enough for the face of Deity to be fully reflected in the broad Atlantic, or in all the oceans put together. The image of God is to be fully seen in Jesus Christ, and nowhere else; for there you behold attributes which Creation cannot display. 3. There is also this blessed thing to be said about this light; you will never lose it (ver. 20). II. I WANT TO ROUSE YOU TO SERVICE. "Arise, shine; for, etc. Since your light has come, shine" — 1. By holy cheerfulness. 2. By a gracious godliness. 3. By zealous earnestness. 4. By a secret bravery. III. I WANT TO RALLY YOU TO THIS SHINING BY ONE OR TWO ARGUMENTS. 1. By the world's great need (ver. 2). 2. Because of the great results that will surely come of it (ver. 3). 3. Because of the great blessing it will bring to the Church (ver. 13, etc.). 4. "That I may be glorified" (ver. 21). ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) The Epiphany: Christ manifested G. Huntington, M. A. I. THE STATE OF THE WORLD BEFORE THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL AROSE. II. THE OBJECT OF THE PRESENT DISPENSATION. III. THE FUTURE CONSUMMATION. ( G. Huntington, M. A. ) The God-lit Church A. Maclaren, D. D. The old story is repeated; Zion sits in the light while Egypt cowers in gloom. The light which shines upon her is the glory of the Lord, the ancient brightness that dwelt between the cherubim within the veil in the secret place of the Most High, and is now come out in the open world to envelop the desolate captive. Thus touched by the light she becomes light, and in her turn is bidden to shine. There is a very remarkable correspondence reiterated in my text between the illuminating God and the illuminated Zion. The word for "shine" is connected with the word for "light," and might fairly be rendered "lighten" or "be light." Twice the phrase "thy light" is employed; once to mean the light which is thine because it shines on thee; once to mean the light which is thine because it shines from thee. The other word, three times repeated, for "rising" is the technical word which expresses the sunrise, and it is applied both to the flashing glory that falls upon Zion, and to the light that gleams from her. Touched by the sun she becomes a sun, and blazes in her heaven in a splendour that draws men's hearts. I. AS TO THE FACT. Beneath the poetry of my text there lie very definite conceptions of a very solemn and grave character. and these conceptions are the foundation of the ringing summons that follows and which reposes upon a double basis — viz. "for thy light is come," and "for darkness covers the earth." There is a double element in the representation. We have a darkened earth and a sunlit and a sun-like Church, and unless we hold these two convictions in firm grasp, and that not merely as convictions that influence our understanding, but as ever-present forces acting on our emotions, our consciences, our wills, we shall not do the work God has set us to do in the world. If we take the sulphurous and smoky pall that wraps the earth and analyze its contents, they are these: the darkness of ignorance, the darkness of sorrow, the darkness of sin. On the other side, remember the contrasted picture here of the sunlit and sunny Church. The incarnation of Jesus Christ is the fulfilment Of my text, "We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. If you and I are Christians, we are bound to believe in Him as the exclusive" source of certainty. "We hear from Him no Peradventue," but His word is "Verily verily, I say unto thee," and on that we rest all our knowledge of God, of duty, of man, and of the future. If we have the light we shall be light. That is but putting in a picturesque form the very central truth of Christianity. The last word of the Gospel is transformation. We become like Him if we live near to Him, and the end for which the Master became like unto us in His incarnation and passion, was that we might become like to Him by the reception of His very own life unto our souls. These two convictions of these two facts, the dark earth, the sunlit, sun-like Church, lie at the basis of an our missionary work. II. WE HAVE BASED UPON THESE TWO FACTS THE SUMMONS TO THE CHURCH. "Shine, for thy light is come. If we have light, we are light: if we are light, we shall shine; but the shining is not altogether spontaneous and effortless. Stars do not need to be bidden to shine, nor candles either; but we need the exhortation because there are many things that thwart the brilliance and the clearance of our minds. The command suggests effort, and the effort may be in the direction of the specific vocal proclamation of His name. If we are light, we shall be able to shine; if we are light, we are bound to shine; if we are light, we shall want to shine. III. THE CONFIDENT PROMISE. "The Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising." If we have the light we shall be light; if we are light we shall shine, and if we shine we shall attract. A painter will fling upon his canvas a scene that you and I, with our purblind eyes, have looked at hundreds of times and seen no beauty in it, but when we gaze on the picture then we see how fair it is. There is an attractive power in the light of Christ shining from the face era man. ( A. Maclaren, D. D. ) An imperial ministry J. H. Jowett, M. A. This is a great statesman's vision unveiling the moral and spiritual possibilities of a people. The prophet is primarily addressing his speech to an awakening nation. To direct a nation's views is to shape its policies, and to determine the trend and colour of its life. What, then, shall be the elements of an efficient and fruitful ideal? "The Lord shall arise upon thee," etc. (vers. 2, 3). What are the constituent elements in the vision? "Light " and "glory. A certain light, the element of illumination, charity, and simplicity of thought; a certain heat, the element of fervour, warm and expansive sympathies; a certain gravity, the element of impressiveness, weight and strength of moral principle. But the glory of the ideal is still further enriched and intensified. We cannot take Isaiah's ideal and employ it with Isaiah's limitation; we must carry over his vocabulary into the fuller day and let it receive enlargement in the life and mind of Christ. "Light," interpreted by the character of the Master, means the absence of shady compromise, sunlit definiteness of purpose, the clear discernment of essentials. " Heat," interpreted by the character of the Master, means, an ardent inclusiveness of sympathy, cosmopolitan in its pervasion. "Gravity, glory, interpreted by the character of the Master, is significant of moral weight, incorruptible spiritual ambition, unconquerable virtue, whether illustrated in the light of a marriage-feast, or in the sombre experience of Pilate's judgment-bar. "Arise! ", Stand erect and set thy face towards the burning vision, and thou shalt "shine' with reflected glory. By contemplating the Divine thou shalt incarnate the heart of thy contemplation. "The Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee, ' and thy imperial treasure shall be found in thy shining notabilities, in the radiant motives and ambitions of thy common life. We have seen this transfiguring ministry at work in the life of the individual. But we may be more than a little doubtful as to whether the vision will also serve and ennoble the community. Well, where is the line of transition? Surely, even in the nation we have again and again witnessed the transforming influence of the grand ideal. It was even so with the later experiences of the eighteenth century. The breaking up of formality, the melting of callousness, the opening out of rivers of philanthropy, the enlarged and sweetened life of our people, the enlightened measure of emancipation, can be directly traced to a "strange warming of the nation's heart," resulting from a restored contemplation of the light and glory of God. The prophet's vision reveals an imperial deal, and unveils the only permanent imperial treasure. 1. The imperial character is to be creative of imperial unity (ver. 4). There is to be an enrichment of the home, a consolidation of the family, a knitting together of the finer fellowships of the nation. And mark how this statesman describes the large characteristics of the communion. "Then shalt thou see and flow together." It is to be an open-eyed communion, an illumined, society, a fellowship of transparent aims and aspirations. "Thine heart shall fear; the fellowship is not to be flippant, light-hearted, and vain; it is to be possessed by the pervasive influence of reverence, that saving element which preserves the sense of true perspective, and gives everything the setting of a just proportion. "And be enlarged; the fellowship is not to be fixed and exclusive; its sympathies are to be elastic and expansive, reaching out in ever enlarging circles of interest and regard. 2. The imperial unity is to be the minister of a world-wide illumination. "And nations shall come to thy light," etc. (ver. 3). If this be the true portrayal of imperial welfare, may we not infer the consequent obligations which rest upon the leaders of the people? The first essential of efficient public ministry is a large and exalted aim. The true aim of every true leader is to build up the moral energy of the people. To give ourselves to the production of superior men — this is the aim which should possess the minds and hearts of all who exercise leadership among their fellow-men. An aim like this, definitely and personally expressed, and pursued with undeviating consistency, will preserve a man from those perils of benumbment which seem to attach themselves to every public ministry. ( J. H. Jowett, M. A. ) The privilege and prerogative of the Christian Church J. S. Spilsbury. The Church is promised an extraordinary measure of light and glory; an immense increase in the number of her adherents, universal exaltation in the eyes of her enemies, and permanent safety and happiness. I. THE DIVINE ILLUMINATION WHICH THE CHURCH RECEIVED. "Thy light is come," etc. The text suggests — 1. The nature of this illumination. It embraces — (1) The light of Divine revelation. (2) The light of the Gospel dispensation. (3) The light of the Holy Spirit's teaching. 2. The necessity of this illumination. The Church existed in a dark age; intellectual, moral, and spiritual darkness prevailed everywhere. This was preeminently the case when Christ came. This was — (1) The darkness of moral guilt. (2) The darkness of religious error. (3) The darkness of spiritual ignorance. This darkness was deep, profound, awful. 3. The beauty of this illumination. "The glory of the Lord,' etc. Allusion is probably made to the Shechinah. God manifested Himself to His people, and shone upon them in the glory of His grace and mercy. 4. The source of this illumination. "Thy light is come," etc. It emanated from a Divine source. It was derived, not inherent. The Church is not the fountain of light, but the medium of it. It is called "thy light" because it was the exclusive or peculiar prerogative of the Church. It does not come from the Church, but is given to it, for its benefit and use. II. THE PERMANENT OBLIGATION WHICH THE CHURCH INCURS IN RELATION TO IT. The Church is a Divine institution, raised up for a specific purpose. Its work is to teach men the truth of God and to testify of the grace of God. But she sometimes fails fully to realize her obligations, privileges, prerogatives, and responsibilities. Here she is enjoined — 1. To arise. She must arise from spiritual apathy, lethargy, and obscurity, take her legitimate position before the world, and faithfully discharge her obligations. Here is a loud call — (1) To behold the light, and hail it with joy. (2) To receive the light. (3) To utilize the light. 2. To shine. Privilege confers responsibility. Every fresh accession of spiritual illumination or power increases her influence and responsibility. The Church is a luminous body, and must shine with heavenly lustre.(1) For its own sake and benefit. It must gladly participate in the light that shines upon it from above, and be encompassed with light and glory. It should at all times be radiant with the beauty of holiness.(2) For the sake and benefit of others. Not only is it to participate in the light, but to become the grand medium and means of imparting it. Like the reflector to the lamp, it is to collect, receive, and reflect its rays for the benefit of those needing its light. How is the Church to shine? By the beauty of her teaching. By the perfection of her example. By the purity of her doctrine. By the exemplification of her principles. By the grandeur of her life. By the vitality of her organizations. By the vigour of her activity. Like the light in the lighthouse, the light of the Church, in every age, is to shine conspicuously, constantly, cheerfully, and without fail. III. THE GRAND PREDICTION WHICH THE CHURCH IS ULTIMATELY TO REALIZE. "And the Gentiles," etc. This was partially accomplished soon after the rise of the Church, when thousands of the Gentiles "walked in this light." When a few years elapsed, the Roman Emperor and many other kings ostensibly opened their eyes to the beams of light shed on the world by the Church. Large accessions are being made, and her power and influence are growing and will extend till the Gospel shall universally triumph over error, ignorance, and ungodliness. ( J. S. Spilsbury. ) The Church: her functions and her blessedness A. Smellie, M. A. I. THE CHURCH HAS THE LARGEST SCOPE. Nations " come to her light, kings to the brightness of her rising." She is world-wide and universal. II. THE CHURCH BEARS THE CLEAREST WITNESS. She "arises." She "shines." When she pulses and palpitates with the life of God, how impressive is her trumpet-call! It penetrates far. It arouses multitudes. III. THE CHURCH DOES THE MOST GLORIOUS WORK. "Who are these that fly to her as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?" Her Lord in her saves and edifies His sons and daughters, convinces and converts and comforts. IV. THE CHURCH ENJOYS THE MOST LASTING BLESSEDNESS. In His favour her King "has mercy on her." He never fails nor forsakes her. He leads her members just now in green pastures and by the waters of quietness. He will bring them by-and-by to the "Lovely city in a lovely land." ( A. Smellie, M. A. ) The true light of Homilist. man: — I. THE TRUE LIGHT OF MAN IS THE MEDIATORIAL REVELATION OF GOD (ver. 1). II. THIS TRUE LIGHT OF MAN WILL ONE DAY BE UNIVERSALLY DIFFUSED (ver. 3). III. THE UNIVERSAL DIFFUSION OF THIS LIGHT WILL EFFECT A WONDERFUL REVOLUTION IN THE WORLD (vers. 5-11). IV. THE PEOPLE WHO, UNDER THIS LIGHT, WILL NOT SERVE THE TRUE GOD, MUST INEVITABLY BE RUINED (ver. 12). ( Homilist. ) Christ our Light A. Maclaren, D. D. Light makes many a surface on which it falls flash, but it is the rays which are not absorbed that are reflected in the optics of earth; but in this loftier region the deviation is not superficial but inward, and it is the light which is swallowed up within us that then comes forth from us. Christ will dwell in our hearts, and we shall be like some poor little diamond-shaped bit of glass in a cottage window which, when the sun smites it, is visible over miles of the plain. And if that sun falls upon us, its image will be mirrored in our hearts, and flashing in our lives. The clouds that lie over the sunset, though in themselves they be but poor, grey and moist vapour, when smitten by its beneficent radiance become not unworthy ministers and attendants upon its glory. So it may be with us, for Christ comes to be our light. ( A. Maclaren, D. D. ) The shining of the common place Life of Faith. One summer day, when walking in Surrey, on the slope of a hill — the sun setting behind me — right away across the valley I espied a most remarkable light. It was more brilliant than electric light, and seemed to rise from the ground. At first I supposed that some one had lit a fire with resinous wood that sparkled and flashed, but there was evidently no smoke. It seemed as though some angel had dropped a brilliant star down there upon the ploughed field, and that it was burning itself out. Finally, on my reaching the spot, I discovered that an old piece of broken glass had caught the light of the setting sun, and was bathed in a supernatural glow. An old piece of bottle-glass — yet so brilliant — the bottle-glass not being visible, because of the light that shone on it! ( Life of Faith. ) For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth. Isaiah 60:2, 3 The manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles G. Moberly. 1. The first token that was shown to the Gentile world that the great Light had arisen which was to cast its beams over them as well as over the small nation which alone hitherto had known God, was the wonderful star which was seen in the sky. This appeared but twice to the Magi — once to tell them to set out, and once to tell them that they had arrived. All the rest was faith. 2. It was the manifestation of the Redeemer, the Light of the world, to the Gentiles. But much had yet to be done before the Gentiles were received into the full equality of privilege and grace with the Jews. It was above thirty years yet before the rending of the veil of the temple showed that the partition-wall was broken down by the death of Christ, which divided Jew from Gentile; still longer before the commission was given to go and teach all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Holy Trinity; still longer before the vision at Joppa and the gift of the Holy Spirit at Ceasarea bade St. Peter baptize Cornelius, the first Gentile Christian, into the Church. 3. Let us claim our share in that exceeding great joy with which the wise men saw the first brightness of that star when they saw it in the East. If we do truth —

Benson Commentary Isaiah 60:1 Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. Isaiah 60:1 . Arise, &c. — The prophet here addresses the church of God, which he supposes to be sitting sorrowful, and exhorts her to awake and arise from a state of darkness and mourning, and enter into a state of light and happiness, “now that her salvation, so long desired and hoped for, is at hand, and the divine glory is about to rise upon her, and illuminate the nations and people who had hitherto sat in thick darkness.” See Vitringa. The reader will observe the exhortation is accommodated to the Jewish or Hebrew style, wherein, as by lying down is signified a servile and calamitous condition, ( Isaiah 47:1 ,) so, by rising, and standing up, a recovery out of it into a free and prosperous state, as may be seen frequently. Shine — Discover thyself, as a luminary breaking forth from a dark night. Show thy native beauty: suffer thyself to be so strongly irradiated by the glory of the Lord, that thou mayest not only be enlightened, but mayest be able to enlighten others. For thy light is come — Thy flourishing and prosperous condition, an allusion to people’s rising, when after a dark night the light breaks forth upon them. And the glory of the Lord — Glorious light, grace, and salvation from the Lord; or a bright display of the glory, that is, of the glorious attributes of the Lord; or, the Lord of glory, Christ, is about to make himself glorious, in some wonderful work, for thy salvation. Is risen upon thee — Like as when the sun, arising, spreads his light everywhere, leaving no place dark. Thus shall the church of God be fully illuminated in the latter days, and thus shall she shine for the perfect illumination of all flesh: see Isaiah 11:9 ; and Zechariah 14:7 . In his description of this perfect state of the Christian Church, this evangelical prophet is here peculiarly eloquent, displaying it “in the most splendid colours, and under a great variety of images, highly poetical, designed to give a general idea of its glories, when the fulness of the Gentiles shall come in, and the Jews shall be converted and gathered from their dispersions, and the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God, and of his Christ.” — Bishop Lowth. Isaiah 60:2 For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. Isaiah 60:2 . For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth — Ignorance, idolatry, and all kinds of errors and vices; and gross darkness the people — Like that of Egypt; the most palpable blindness and infatuation as to divine things; but the Lord — Christ, the bright and morning-star, the day- spring from on high, or, rather, the Sun of righteousness, Revelation 22:16 ; Luke 1:78 ; Malachi 4:2 ; shall arise upon thee — By his gospel and his grace, bringing light to those that before sat in darkness, and in the shadow of death; and his glory shall be seen upon thee — Shall be wonderfully conspicuous. “The design of the Holy Spirit in this clause, as I suppose,” says Vitringa, “is to describe the state of the nations of the world, at the time when God should illuminate the church with this light, as if by a new advent of his Son, and a repeated manifestation of his divine kingdom. Almost all the world should be found in a similar state of darkness to that wherein the Son of God found it at his first coming; and if we might form any judgment from the state of things, from the darkness which now overspreads the earth, through the prevalence of Popery, infidelity, and immorality, in the countries professing Christianity, and Mohammedanism and paganism in the other regions of the earth, we may reasonably conclude, that these words of the prophet, at the period alluded to, will not want their exact completion.” Isaiah 60:3 And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. Isaiah 60:3 . The Gentiles shall come to thy light — Or, shall be allured by thy light to come to thee, as travellers in a dark night, and out of their way, when a light discovers itself make to it; so the doctrine of the gospel shall shine so bright, and be made so conspicuous by preaching and miracles, that well-disposed heathen shall not only congratulate them that profess it, and wish them much joy, but shall rejoice to participate with them in their happiness. A plain prophecy this of the calling of the Gentiles, a promise of which was made to Christ, Isaiah 49:6 . And, or Yea, kings to the brightness of thy rising — That is, the greatness and glories of the church shall attract the eyes of kings, and make them willing to become her proselytes. Or, to add to thy lustre, thou shalt not only be honoured by the conversion of mean persons, but even of honourable personages, yea, of kings, embracing the Christian faith, and submitting themselves to Christ’s sceptre and government: see Isaiah 49:23 . Isaiah 60:4 Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side. Isaiah 60:4-5 . Lift up thine eyes round about — Or, in a circle, into all parts of the earth. He seems to refer to the apostles and disciples, with their successors, carrying the gospel into all quarters of the world. And because it would be, as it were, a thing incredible, he bids them lift up their eyes, as if they were to behold it in some vision, or upon some watch-tower in Jerusalem. See the like expression Isaiah 49:18 . All they gather themselves together — He speaks of the coming in of all nations to embrace the gospel, and unite themselves to the Christian Church. Thy sons shall come from far — From the remotest parts, having heard the report of thee. And thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side — Shall be brought unto thee tenderly, as it were in persons’ arms, ( Isaiah 49:22 ,) and shall have their education with thee from their infancy: there, where alone the sincere milk of the word is to be had, must the church’s newborn babes be nursed, that they may grow thereby, 1 Peter 2:2 . Then thou shalt see — With delight, the multitudes of thy children running to thee; and flow together — As when two rivers meet, and, joining their waters, run sweetly together, as one and the same river. This denotes the abundance of their united joys and delights. Or the words may mean, they shall flock together to behold such an amazing sight. And thy heart shall fear — Or stand amazed, to see such multitudes come to the Lord Christ; and be enlarged — Both with joy and love. Because the abundance of the sea — The islands of the sea, the nations; shall be converted unto thee — Shall turn to thee in religion and affection; they that formerly so much hated thee shall now love thee. Or the sense is, The wealth and traffic of those who trade by sea, the riches of the merchants, shall be converted to thy use rather than to the use of the owners thereof. The forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee — Thou shalt not only have the wealth, but the strength of the nations to stand by thee, to protect thee, and aid thy endeavours to evangelize the world. Isaiah 60:5 Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee. Isaiah 60:6 The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall shew forth the praises of the LORD. Isaiah 60:6-7 . The multitude of camels — The treasure that is brought upon camels. By these, and such like figurative expressions in several verses of this chapter, is implied the coming in of all nations to Christ, and therefore they are brought in as presenting the chief commodities of their respective countries. The dromedaries — Or, also, or, even the dromedaries; which are a sort of lesser camel, so called from their swiftness in running. For it is said by the Arabs that they will run as far in one day as their best horses will do in nine; and therefore they are chiefly used for riding: for which they are the more fit, because, as Pliny observes, they can endure the want of water four days together. Of Midian and Ephah — The Midianites and Ephahites were descended from Abraham, by Keturah, and dwelt beyond Arabia, where camels were very numerous, Jdg 7:12 . All they from Sheba — A country in Arabia Felix, whose queen it was that came to visit Solomon, and her bringing gifts might be a type of this. They shall bring gold and incense — The principal commodities with which this country abounded, by which we are to understand whatever is precious. All the flocks of Kedar — Arabia Petrea, or stony Arabia, the people inhabiting which being principally shepherds. They shall come up with acceptance — They shall not now, as heretofore, be rejected. I will glorify the house of my glory — He alludes to the temple, but must be understood as intending the gospel church, built of living stones, of which the temple at Jerusalem, with all the splendour of its ornaments, and the whole multitude of its sacrifices and oblations, was but a typical or shadowy representation. Isaiah 60:7 All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto thee: they shall come up with acceptance on mine altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory. Isaiah 60:8 Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows? Isaiah 60:8 . Who are these that fly as a cloud — These metaphors import the number, as well as speed, of those that should be begotten by the apostles’ doctrine. “By this new crowd of believers hastening to the church,” Vitringa understands “the Greeks and Asiatics, and those of the west groaning under the Ottoman empire, who, having long sat in a state of ignorance and superstition, at this period shall be freed from their yoke, and hasten to the enlightened church in multitudes, like a cloud, and with zeal and impetuosity, (like doves to their cotes or holes,) when once made acquainted with the wonderful change of things, and the mighty works wrought by God for the deliverance of his people. The flight of doves, especially when they return to their cotes, is remarkably swift and precipitate.” Isaiah 60:9 Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the LORD thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee. Isaiah 60:9 . Surely the isles shall wait for me — The countries remote from Judea, and especially the islands and continents of Europe, generally intended by the term isles. And the ships — To convey them to me; of Tarshish first — Those that traffic by sea. In naming this, he implied all places that had commerce with other nations. Concerning Tarshish, see note on Isaiah 2:16 . To bring thy sons from far — From the most distant countries; their silver and their gold with them — With all their treasure; unto the name of the Lord — To be presented to the Lord, and employed for the advancement of his glory, and the benefit of his church and people. Because he hath glorified thee — He will make thee honourable in the eyes of the world, and that especially by setting up the ministry of the gospel in the midst of thee. Isaiah 60:10 And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee: for in my wrath I smote thee, but in my favour have I had mercy on thee. Isaiah 60:10-12 . And the sons of the stranger — Namely, such as were not Israelites born, but of Gentile race; and he puts sons of strangers, by a usual Hebraism, for strangers; shall build up thy walls — As Gentile proselytes to the Jewish religion assisted the Jews in repairing the walls of Jerusalem upon their return from captivity, so Gentile converts to Christianity assisted the apostles, evangelists, and other ministers of Christ, who were of Jewish extraction, in building and adorning the Christian Church: and for many ages its builders have been almost wholly of Gentile race. And their kings shall minister unto thee — Ecclesiastical history affords us many instances of kings and princes that were great benefactors to her, among whom Constantine greatly excelled. For in my wrath I smote thee, &c. — As I afflicted thee in mine anger, so out of my compassions I will abundantly bless thee. “The discourse here,” says Vitringa, “rises, and will continue to rise till the end of the section, that the blindest may discern spiritual things involved in these corporeal figures and emblems. It is not sufficient that the nations only, with their wealth and possessions, shall be added to the church, and perform all requisite offices toward it, but kings and princes also shall come: nor shall they come alone; a great retinue shall attend them: nor shall instances of their approach be few and rare, but common and frequent; insomuch that the gates of the city shall be always left open to receive this continual accession of kings and people.” The nation, &c., that will not serve thee — Do offices of kindness to thee, as the word ????? is used Isaiah 19:23 , or, that will not submit to Christ’s sceptre; shall perish — Shall not only be subdued to thee, but shall be destroyed by the sword, or famine, or pestilence, or some other of the divine judgments. Yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted — Shall, by the peculiar interposition of a righteous providence, be brought to desolation. “This,” says Lowth, “must relate to the latter days, as the Scripture calls them, when the church shall become a great mountain, and break in pieces all the kingdoms of the earth, according to Daniel’s prophecy, Daniel 2:35 ; Daniel 2:44 .” Isaiah 60:11 Therefore thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought. Isaiah 60:12 For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted. Isaiah 60:13 The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious. Isaiah 60:13 . The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee — As Lebanon furnished cedars, and other choice timber, for building and beautifying Solomon’s temple, so shall different nations contribute what is most excellent and suitable among them for supporting, establishing, enlarging, and adorning the church of Christ, here called the place of God’s sanctuary, with allusion to the temple, an eminent type of it. See note on Psalm 46:4-5 . And I will make the place of my feet glorious — The Christian Church, so called in allusion to the ark in the most holy place of the tabernacle and temple, where the divine glory, termed by the Jews the Shechinah, was wont to appear between the wings of the cherubim, over the mercy-seat, which was, as it were, the footstool of that glorious symbol of God’s presence. Isaiah 60:14 The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee, The city of the LORD, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel. Isaiah 60:14 . The sons of them, that afflicted thee — Their posterity, or themselves, for it is the manner of the Hebrews so to speak; shall come bending unto thee — Humbling themselves as penitents, and thus manifesting their respect and reverence for thee. They shall acknowledge their former errors, or the errors of their fathers, and instead of being persecutors shall become proselytes. And all they that despised thee — As a poor, mean, insignificant, and despicable people; shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet — Shall prostrate themselves before thee as humble suppliants, or rather before Christ, the head, husband, and king of his church. And they shall call thee, The city of the Lord — They shall acknowledge thee to be so, and to be so called, both from the love that God hath to thee, and from the presence of God with thee. As there is no account of any thing like this happening to the Jews, that any people, who had before persecuted and afflicted them, came and made submission to them in such a suppliant manner as is here represented, this must, of necessity, be considered as a description, either, 1st, Of that change of things which was made in the Roman empire, when the highest powers in it, even the emperors themselves, became Christians, in consequence of which the heathen became suppliants to the Christians, whom they had before treated in the most cruel and barbarous manner: or, 2d, Of that still greater change which shall take place, in this respect, when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ, and he will make his church’s enemies to come and worship, that is, to prostrate themselves before her feet, and to know that he has loved her, Revelation 3:9 . Isaiah 60:15 Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through thee , I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations. Isaiah 60:15 . Whereas thou hast been forsaken — Both of God, as to outward appearance, and man; and hated — Either slighted and neglected, or suffering actual miseries and slaughters; so that no man went through thee — Thy streets were left desolate and thou wast in a manner depopulated. The state of the Christian Church, during the dark and persecuting ages of Popery, is here described, in language borrowed from Jerusalem lying in desolation. I will make thee an eternal excellency — Being reformed from idolatry and other superstitions and abominations, and thy members being enlightened with the truth, and regenerated by the grace of God, and thereby rendered wise and holy, thou shalt be blessed and exalted with continual tokens of the divine favour, and made a lasting and increasing blessing in the world. The Hebrew, ????? ???? , is literally, for a lifting up, or, an exaltation, continually, or, for ever. A joy of many generations — Hebrew, Of generation and generation. The meaning is, that the church’s prosperity and happiness should be the rejoicing and comfort of many succeeding ages, or the matter of their great and continual rejoicing. Bishop Lowth translates this clause, I will make thee an everlasting boast, a subject of joy for perpetual generations. It cannot be said of the Jewish nation, since this was uttered, that it has in any degree answered these characters. For after their restoration to their own land, they were first in subjection to the Persians, afterward to the Macedonians, the successors of Alexander the Great; whose yoke they had scarcely shaken off, when they fell under the power of the Romans, who treated them with great severity, and at last destroyed them, together with their city of Jerusalem, almost to an entire extirpation. So that we are compelled to look for the accomplishment of this prophecy in the Christian Church, the perpetual excellences of which far exceed those of the Jewish, and in the glorious privileges and blessings of the religion of Christ, which are indeed, and will be, the joy of many generations. Isaiah 60:16 Thou shalt also suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shalt suck the breast of kings: and thou shalt know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob. Isaiah 60:16-17 . Thou shalt also suck the milk of the Gentiles — A metaphor taken from children drawing nourishment from the breast. The sense is, that the church should draw, or receive, the wealth of nations, and the riches and power of kings, and whatever is most excellent; and that it should come freely and affectionately, as milk flows from the breast of the mother. And thou shalt know — Namely, shall experience; that I the Lord — Hebrew, Jehovah; am thy Saviour — That I have undertaken to save, and that I do and will save thee; the mighty One of Jacob — Not only of the literal, but also, and especially, of the spiritual Jacob, or Israel: as if he had said, These things will certainly be accomplished, for he is the mighty God, and so is able; and the God of Jacob, and so is obliged by covenant with, and relation to them, to deliver and protect his people. For brass I will bring gold, &c. — Here we have the effect of the preceding promise: Thy poverty shall be turned to riches, all things shall be altered for the best: it is an allusion to the days of Solomon, when gold was as plentiful as brass. If these words be considered as intended to be taken literally, it is sufficiently evident that they are not applicable to Jerusalem, which was never so enriched, after it was rebuilt, as to have greater riches than the Jews possessed before the wars which they waged with the Babylonians; nor was their state happier. And after Herod the Great, they were in a much worse condition, Judea being reduced to a province of the Roman empire, and governed and pillaged by the deputies or vicegerents of the emperors. Therefore all this is undoubtedly spoken of the Christian Church and of spiritual riches, namely, the privileges and blessings of the gospel. I will also make thy officers peace — That is, men of peace, loving, meek, and friendly. This was far from being the case with the Jews after their return out of captivity; for, though those who were first set over them, after their return, namely, Zerubbabel, Nehemiah, and others, governed them peaceably and mildly, yet it was not so in the following times; and after their high-priests took upon them the government, they grievously plundered and oppressed the people, and contended with one another with the most outrageous and cruel discord, as appears from Josephus, the Jewish historian. But the governors of the Christian Church, that is, of that church which only deserves the name of Christian, have been, and always will be, mild and gentle, and men of peace and clemency. And thine exactors — Or rulers, as Dr. Waterland renders ????? Š. Righteousness — Most righteous, as before peace was put for peaceable. Isaiah 60:17 For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron: I will also make thy officers peace, and thine exactors righteousness. Isaiah 60:18 Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise. Isaiah 60:18 . Violence shall no more be heard, &c. — Neither the threats and triumphs of those that do violence, nor the outcries and complaints of those that suffer it, shall be heard again, but every man shall peaceably enjoy his own. Wasting nor destruction — Of persons or possessions, anywhere within thy borders — Thou shalt be secure from violence and injustice at home, and from invasion and war from abroad. But thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, &c. — They shall be safe and able to defend thee; thou shalt be as safe as salvation itself can make thee. And the protection and security, which God by his providence shall afford thee, shall be to thee continual matter of praise and thanksgiving. This verse, and what follows to the end of the chapter, seems to relate chiefly to that peaceable and happy state which the church shall enjoy in the latter days. Isaiah 60:19 The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Isaiah 60:19-20 . The sun shall be no more thy light, &c. — The light of the sun and moon shall not be at all esteemed in comparison of the spiritual light of the church, which shall be so glorious as to eclipse all the light formerly enjoyed by her, the divine glory and majesty illuminating her much more brightly than the luminaries of heaven illuminate and adorn the theatre of nature. Or, as Lowth interprets the clause, “God’s favour and the light of his countenance shall give her greater comfort and lustre than the light of the sun and moon doth to the world.” Every reader must perceive that the passage is metaphorical, and it is here introduced to give the church assurance of comfort, as the preceding was to assure her of safety; so that God will not only be a shield, but a sun to her, Psalm 84:11 . The Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light — Christ shall scatter all thy darkness and ignorance, enlightening and comforting thee with the doctrines of the gospel, and the graces of his Spirit, and these blessings shall be everlasting, not waxing and waning, and suffering eclipses and settings, as the sun and moon do, but shall be constant, without shadow or change; and thy God thy glory — Always giving thee reason to glory in him; or, thy relation to him, and interest in him, as thy God, shall be thy greatest honour. Thy sun shall no more go down, &c. — Thy light and comfort shall be no more withdrawn. “If the church, under the economy of the external and typical covenant, saw only a temporary light, and underwent various changes of its state, at this time it shall rejoice, for a long season with unchanged light, in a much more constant and happy state.” The days of thy mourning shall be ended — The prosperity and happiness of the church shall be perpetual and uninterrupted. Hebrew, ????? , shall be recompensed, that is, Thy days of rejoicing shall abundantly recompense all thy days of mourning. Observe, reader, “Jesus Christ is the eternal Sun and Light of his church, illuminating and sanctifying it by his Spirit, filling it with his glory, and prospering its whole state by his providence, for the end of eternal joy. (See Revelation 22:5 .) Who will say that the church has ever yet enjoyed this blessing of divine providence and grace, in the full extent which is here marked out by the prophet?” — Vitringa. Isaiah 60:20 Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the LORD shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended. Isaiah 60:21 Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. Isaiah 60:21-22 . Thy people shall be all righteous — Through righteousness imputed to them, Romans 4:3-8 ; Romans 4:23-24 ; implanted in them, Ephesians 4:22-24 ; and practised by them, 1 John 3:7 ; in other words, through the justification of their persons, the renovation of their nature, and their practical obedience to God’s law. “It was proper,” says Vitringa, “that the prophetic discourse, big with such excellent promises, should set forth the quality of the citizens of this blessed city; for so many and excellent privileges cannot belong to any but to such as are fitted for these times by divine grace. The prophet therefore teaches that the inhabitants of this city should be all righteous; where there can be no doubt that the righteousness of faith is meant; of living faith, purifying the soul, sanctifying the affections, abounding in charity, and never separated from true holiness: so that they who are called righteous here are the same who are elsewhere called holy.” See the following parallel passages, Isaiah 4:3 ; Isaiah 33:24 ; Isaiah 35:8 ; Isaiah 52:1 ; Zechariah 14:20-21 . They shall inherit the land for ever — They shall for ever be continued as God’s peculiar people; the branch of my planting — Born again of my Spirit, created in the Messiah, unto good works, Ephesians 2:10 ; broken off from the wild olive, and grafted into the good olive; transplanted out of the field into the nursery; that, being now planted in God’s garden on earth, they might shortly be removed into his paradise in heaven; that I may be glorified — By the good fruit which they bear. A little one shall become a thousand — Rather, this should be rendered, A little number shall become a thousand. Though their beginning be very small and contemptible, and the members of the church very few, yet shall they greatly multiply, and increase into many hundreds of thousands and millions. Thus Daniel describes the kingdom of Christ as a stone, which, in process of time, becomes a great mountain, and fills the whole earth, which will be verified at the proper season, as it follows. I the Lord will hasten it in his time — Namely, in due time, the time that I have appointed; as if he had said, Let not this be doubted, because I have undertaken it, to whom nothing is difficult. Indeed this has been already accomplished in a considerable degree by the great progress the gospel has made. Never were means more unlikely employed to effect any purpose, never was there a stronger opposition; yet the gospel prevailed, and multitudes of both sexes, in different countries, became obedient to the faith, and looked upon it as their greatest glory. Vitringa, who closes his comment on this chapter with some excellent remarks, tending to show that it particularly refers to some future glorious state of the church, which will take place after the conversion of the Jews, and the coming in of the fulness of the Gentiles, concludes with the following important observation: “However, all our care and endeavour should be to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of so high a hope; and we should so form our lives and manners as rather to regard things present than future; neglecting no duty of a true citizen of the spiritual Jerusalem, whereof we now profess ourselves members; that the expectation of the future may not deprive us of those blessings and privileges which God offers at present to all those who seriously and sincerely seek them; in the mean time humbly and earnestly interceding with him that his kingdom may come.” Isaiah 60:22 A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I the LORD will hasten it in his time. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary Isaiah 60:1 Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. CHAPTER XXIV SALVATION IN SIGHT Isaiah 60:1-22 THE deliverance from Babylon has long been certain, since chapter 48; all doubts in the way of Return have been removed, Isaiah 49:1-26 through Isaiah 52:12 ; the means for the spiritual Restoration of the people have been sufficiently found, chapter 53 and preceding chapters on the Servant: Zion has been hailed from afar, chapter 54; last calls to leave Babylon have been uttered, chapter 55; last councils and comforts, Isaiah 56:1-8 ; and the civic conscience has been rekindled; Isaiah 56:9 through Isaiah 59:1-21 . There remains now only to take possession of the City herself; to rehearse the vocation of the restored people; and to realise all the hopes, fears, hindrances, and practical problems of the future. These duties occupy the rest of our prophecy, chapters 60-66 Chapter 60 is a prophecy as complete in itself as chapter 54. The City, which in 54 was hailed and comforted from afar, is in chapter 60 bidden rise and enjoy the glory that has at last reached her. Her splendours, hinted at in chapter 54, are seen in full and evident display. In chapters 61-62 her prophet, her genius and representative, rehearses to her his duties, and sets forth her place among the peoples. And in Isaiah 63:1-7 we have another of those theophanies or appearances of the Sole Divine Author of His people’s salvation, which, -abrupt and separate as if to heighten the sense of the solitariness of their subject-occur at intervals throughout our prophecy, -for instance, in Isaiah 42:10-17 , and in Isaiah 59:16-19 . These three sections, chapter 60, chapters 61-62, and Isaiah 63:1-7 , we will take together in this chapter of our volume. I. ARISE, SHINE (Chapter 60) The sixtieth chapter of Isaiah is the spiritual counterpart of a typical Eastern day, with the dust laid and the darts taken out of the sunbeams, -a typical Eastern day in the sudden splendour of its dawn, the completeness and apparent permanence of its noon, the spaciousness it reveals on sea and land, and the barbaric profusion of life, which its strong light is sufficient to flood with glory. Under such a day we see Jerusalem. In the first five verses of the chapter, she is addressed, as in chapter 54, as a crushed and desolate woman. But her lonely night is over, and from some prophet at the head of her returning children the cry peals, "Arise, shine, for come hath thy light, and the glory of Jehovah hath risen upon thee." In the East the sun does not rise; the word is weak for an arrival almost too sudden for twilight. In the East the sun leaps above the horizon. You do not feel that he is coming, but that he is come. This first verse is suggested by the swiftness with which he bursts upon an Eastern city, and the shrouded form does not, as in our twilight, slowly unwrap itself, but "shines" at once, all plates and points of glory. Then the figure yields: for Jerusalem is not merely one radiant point in a world equally lighted by the sun, but is herself Jehovah’s unique luminary. "For behold the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples, but upon thee shall Jehovah arise, and His glory upon thee shall be seen. And nations shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising." In the next two verses it is again a woman who is addressed. "Lift up" thine eyes "round about and see, all of them have gathered, have come to thee: thy sons from afar are coming, and thy daughters are carried in the arms." Then follows the fairest verse in the chapter. "Then thou shalt see and be radiant, and thy heart shall throb and grow large; for there shall be turned upon thee the sea’s flood-tide, and the wealth of the nations shall come to thee." The word which the Authorised English version translated "shall flow together," and our Revised Version "lightened," means both of these. It is liquid light, -light that ripples and sparkles and runs across the face; as it best appears in that beautiful passage of the thirty-fourth Psalm, "they looked to Him and their faces were lightened." Here it suggests the light which a face catches from sparkling water. The prophet’s figure has changed. The stately mother of her people stands not among the ruins of her city, but upon some great beach, with the sea in front, -the sea that casts up all heaven’s light upon her face and drifts all earth’s wealth to her feet, and her eyes are upon the horizon with the hope of her who watches for the return of children. The next verses are simply the expansion of these two clauses, -about the sea’s flood and the wealth of the Nations. Isaiah 60:6-9 look first landward and then seaward, as from Jerusalem’s own wonderful position on the high ridge between Asia and the sea: between the gates of the East and the gates of the West. On the one side, the city’s horizon is the range of Moab and Edom, that barrier, in Jewish imagination, of the hidden and golden East across which pour the caravans here pictured. "Profusion of camels shall cover thee, young camels of Midian and Ephah; all of them from Sheba shall come: gold and frankincense shall they bring, and the praises of Jehovah shall they publish. All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered to thee, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister to thee: they shall come up with acceptance on Mine altar, and the house of My glory will I glorify." These were just what surged over Jordan from the far countries beyond, of which the Jews knew little more than the names here given, -tawny droves of camels upon the greenness of Palestine like a spate of the desert from which they poured; rivers of sheep brimming up the narrow drove-roads to Jerusalem:-conceive it all under that blazing Eastern sun. But then turning to Judah’s other horizon, marked by the yellow fringe of sand and the blue haze of the sea beyond, the prophet cries for Jehovah: "Who are these like a cloud that fly, and like doves to their windows? Surely towards Me the Isles are stretching, and ships of Tarshish in the van, to bring thy sons from afar, their silver and their gold with them, to the Name of Jehovah of Hosts and to the Holy of Israel, for He hath glorified thee." The poetry of the Old Testament has been said to be deficient in its treatment of the sea; and certainly it dwells more frequently, as was natural for the imagination of an inland and a highland people to do, upon the hills. But in what literature will you find passages of equal length more suggestive of the sea than those short pieces in which the Hebrew prophet sought to render the futile rage of the world, as it dashed on the steadfast will of God, by the roar and crash of the ocean on the beach; ( Isaiah 14:1-32 ; " Isaiah 1:1-31 ; Isaiah 2:1-22 ; Isaiah 3:1-26 ; Isaiah 4:1-6 ; Isaiah 5:1-30 ; Isaiah 6:1-13 ; Isaiah 7:1-25 ; Isaiah 8:1-22 ; Isaiah 9:1-21 ; Isaiah 10:1-34 ; Isaiah 11:1-16 ; Isaiah 12:1-6 ; Isaiah 13:1-22 ; Isaiah 14:1-32 ; Isaiah 15:1-9 ; Isaiah 16:1-14 ; Isaiah 17:1-14 ; Isaiah 18:1-7 ; Isaiah 19:1-25 ; Isaiah 20:1-6 ; Isaiah 21:1-17 ; Isaiah 22:1-25 ; Isaiah 23:1-18 ; Isaiah 24:1-23 ; Isaiah 25:1-12 ; Isaiah 26:1-21 ; Isaiah 27:1-13 ; Isaiah 28:1-29 ; Isaiah 29:1-24 ; Isaiah 30:1-33 ; Isaiah 31:1-9 ; Isaiah 32:1-20 ; Isaiah 33:1-24 ; Isaiah 34:1-17 ; Isaiah 35:1-10 ; Isaiah 36:1-22 ; Isaiah 37:1-38 ; Isaiah 38:1-22 ; Isaiah 39:1-8 ") or painted a nation’s prosperity as the waves of a summer sea; Isaiah 48:18 . or described the long coastlands as stretching out to God, and the white-sailed ships coming up the horizon like doves to their windows! The rest of the chapter, from Isaiah 60:10 onwards, is occupied with the rebuilding and adornment of Jerusalem, and with the establishment of the people in righteousness and peace. There is a very obvious mingling of the material and the moral. The Gentiles are to become subject to the Jew, but it is to be a voluntary submission before the evidence of Jerusalem’s spiritual superiority. Nothing is said of a Messiah or a King. Jerusalem is to be a commonwealth; and, while her "magistracy shall be Peace and her overseers Righteousness," God Himself, in evident presence, is to be her light and glory. Thus the chapter ends with God and the People, and nothing else. God for an everlasting light around, and the people in their land, righteous, secure, and growing very large. "The least shall become a thousand, and the smallest a strong nation: I Jehovah will hasten it in its time." This chapter has been put through many interpretations to many practical uses:-to describe the ingathering of the Gentiles to the Church (in the Christian year it is the Lesson for Epiphany), to prove the doctrine that the Church should live by the endowment of the kingdoms of this world, and to enforce the duty of costliness and magnificence in the public worship of God. "The glory of the Lebanon shall come unto thee, fir-tree, plane-tree and sherbin together, to beautify the place of My sanctuary, and I will make the place of My feet glorious." The last of these duties we may extend and qualify. If the coming in of the Gentiles is here represented as bringing wealth to the Church, we cannot help remembering that the going out to the Gentiles, in order to bring them in, means for us the spending of our wealth on things other than the adornment of temples; and that, besides the heathen, there are poor and suffering ones for whom God asks men’s gold, as He asked it in olden days for the temple, that He may be glorified. Take that last phrase:-"And" - with all that material wealth which has flown in from Lebanon, from Midian, from Sheba-"I will make the place of My feet glorious." When this singular name was first uttered it was limited to the dwelling-place of the Ark and Presence of God, visible only on Mount Zion. But when God became man, and did indeed tread with human feet this world of ours, what were then the "places of His feet?" Sometimes, it is true, the Temple, but only sometimes; far more often where the sick lay, and the bereaved were weeping, -the pool of Bethesda, the death-room of Jairus’ daughter, the way to the centurion’s sick servant, the city gateways where the beggars stood, the lanes where the village folk had gathered, against His coming, their deaf and dumb, their palsied and lunatic. These were "the places of His feet, who Himself bare our sicknesses and carried our infirmities"; and these are what He would seek our wealth to make glorious. They say that the reverence of men builds now no cathedrals as of old; nay, but the love of man, that Christ taught, builds far more of those refuges and houses of healing, scatters far more widely those medicines for the body, those instruments of teaching, those means of grace, in which God is as much glorified as in Jewish Temple or Christian Cathedral. Nevertheless He, who set "the place of His feet," which He would have us to glorify, among the poor and the sick, was He, who also did not for Himself refuse that alabaster box and that precious ointment, which might have been sold for much and given to the poor. The worship of God, if we read Scripture aright, ought to be more than merely grave and comely. There should be heartiness and lavishness about it, -profusion and brilliance. Not of material gifts alone or chiefly, gold, incense, or rare wood, but of human faculties, graces, and feeling; of joy and music and the sense of beauty. Take this chapter. It is wonderful, not so much for the material wealth which it devotes to the service of God’s house, and which is all that many eyes ever see in it, as for the glorious imagination and heart for the beautiful, the joy in light and space and splendour, the poetry and the music, which use those material things simply as the light uses the wick, or as music uses the lyre, to express and reveal itself. What a call this chapter is to let out the natural wonder and poetry of the heart, its feeling and music and exultation, -"all that is within us," as the Psalmist says, -in the Service of God. Why do we not do so? The answer is very simple. Because, unlike this prophet, we do not realise how present and full our salvation is; because unlike him, we do not realise that "our light has come," and so we will not "arise and shine." II. THE GOSPEL (Chapters 61-62) The speaker in chapter 61 is not introduced by name. Therefore he may be the Prophet himself, or he may be the Servant. The present expositor, while feeling that the evidence is not conclusive against either of these, and that the uncertainty is as great as in Isaiah 48:16 , inclines to think that there is, on the whole, less objection to its being the prophet who speaks than to its being the Servant. But it is not a very important question which is intended, for the Servant was representative of prophecy; and if it be the prophet who speaks here, he also speaks with the conscience of the whole function and aim of the prophetic order. That Jesus Christ fulfilled this programme does not decide the question one way or the other; for a prophet so representative was as much the antetype and foreshadowing of Christ as the Servant himself was. On the whole, then, we must be content to feel about this passage, what we must have already felt about many others in our prophecy, that the writer is more anxious to place before us the whole range and ideal of the prophetic gift than to make clear in whom this ideal is realised; and for the rest Jesus of Nazareth so plainly fulfilled it, that it becomes, indeed, a very minor question to ask whom the writer may have intended as its first application. If chapter 60 showed us the external glory of God’s people, chapter 61 opens with the programme of their inner mission. There we had the building and adornment of the Temple, that "Jehovah might glorify His people": here we have the binding of broken hearts and the beautifying of soiled lives, that "Jehovah may be glorified." But this inner mission also issues in external splendour, in a righteousness which is like the adornment of a bride and like the beauty of spring. The commission of the prophet is mainly to duties we have already studied in preceding passages, both on himself and on the Servant. It will be enough to point out its special characteristics. "The Spirit of my Lord Jehovah is upon me, for that Jehovah hath anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted; He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim to the captive liberty, and to the prisoners open ways; to proclaim an acceptable year for Jehovah, and a day of vengeance for our God; to comfort all that mourn; to offer to the mourners of Zion, to give unto them a crest for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the mantle of praise for the spirit of dimness; so that men may call them Oaks-of-Righteousness, the planting of Jehovah, that He may break into glory." There are heard here all the keynotes of our prophet, and clear, too, is that usual and favourite direction of his thoughts from the inner and spiritual influences to the outward splendour and evidence, the passage from the comfort and healing of the heart to the rich garment, the renown, and his own dearest vision of great forest trees, -in short, Jehovah Himself breaking into glory. But one point needs special attention. The prophet begins his commission by these words, "to bring good tidings to the afflicted," and again says, "to proclaim to the captive." "The afflicted," or "the poor," as it is mostly rendered, is the classical name for God’s people in Exile. We have sufficiently moved among this people to know for what reason the "bringing of good tidings" should here be reckoned as the first and most indispensable service that prophecy could render them. Why, in the life of every nation, there are hours, when the factors of destiny, that loom largest at other times, are dwarfed and dwindled before the momentousness of a piece of news, -hours, when the nation’s attitude in a great moral issue, or her whole freedom and destiny, are determined by telegrams from the seat of war. The simultaneous news of Grant’s capture of Vicksburg and Meade’s defeat of Lee, news that finally turned English opinion, so long shamefully debating and wavering, to the side of God and the slave; the telegrams from the army, for which silent crowds waited in the Berlin squares through the autumn nights of 1870, conscious that the unity and birthright of Germany hung upon the tidings, -are instances of the vital and paramount influence in a nation’s history of a piece of news. The force of a great debate in Parliament, the expression of public opinion through all its organs, the voice of a people in a general election, things in their time as ominous as the Fates, all yield at certain supreme moments to the meaning of a simple message from Providence. Now it was for news from God that Israel waited in Exile; for good tidings and the proclamation of fact. They had with them a Divine Law, but no mere exposition of it could satisfy men who were captives and waited for the command of their freedom. They had with them Psalms, but no beauty of music could console them: "How should we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?" They had Prophecy, with its assurance of the love and the power of their God; and much as there was in it to help them to patience and to hope, general statements were not enough for them. They needed the testimony of a fact. Freedom and Restoration had been promised them: they waited for the proclamation that it was coming, for the good news that it had arrived. Now our prophecy is mainly this proclamation and good news of fact. The prophet uses before all other words two, -to call or proclaim, kara, and to tell good tidings, bisser. We found them in his opening chapter: we find them again here when he sums up his mission. A third goes along with them, "to comfort," Naham, but it is the accompaniment, and they are the burden, of his prophecy. But "good tidings" and the "proclamation" meant so much more than the mere political deliverance of Israel-meant the fact of their pardon, the tale of their God’s love, of His provision for them, and of His wonderful passion and triumph of salvation on their behalf-that it is no wonder that these two words came to be ever afterwards the classical terms for all speech and prophecy from God to man. We actually owe the Greek words of the New Testament for "gospel" and "preaching" to this time of Israel’s history. The Greek term, from which we have "evangel," "evangelist," and "evangelise," originally meant good news, but was first employed in a religious sense in the Greek translation of our prophecy. And our word "preach" is the heir, though not the lineal descendant, through the Latin prcedicare and the Greek khrussein, of the word, which is translated in chapter 60 of our prophet to proclaim, but in chapter 40 to call or cry. It is to the Exile that we trace the establishment among God’s people of regular preaching side by side with sacramental and liturgical worship; for it was in the Exile that the Synagogue arose, whose pulpit was to become as much the centre of Israel’s life as was the altar of the Temple. And it was from the pulpit of a synagogue centuries after, when the preaching had become dry exposition or hard lawgiving, that Jesus re-read our prophecy and affirmed again the "good news" of God. What is true of nations is true of individuals. We indeed support our life by principles; we develop it by argument; -we cannot lay too heavy stress upon philosophy and law. But there is something of far greater concern than either argument or the abstract principles from which it is developed; something that our reason cannot find of itself, that our conscience but increases our longing for. It is, whether certain things are facts or not; whether, for instance, the Supreme Power of the Universe is on the side of the individual combatant for righteousness; whether God is love; whether Sin has been forgiven; whether Sin and Death have ever been conquered; whether the summer has come in which humanity may put forth their shoots conscious that all the influence of heaven is on their side, or whether, there being no heavenly favours, man must train his virtue and coax his happiness to ripen behind shelters and in conservatories of his own construction. Now Christ comes to us with the good news of God that it is so. The supreme force in the Universe is on man’s side, and for man has won victory and achieved freedom. God has proclaimed pardon. A Saviour has overcome sin and death. We are free to break from evil. The struggle after holiness is not the struggle of a weakly plant in an alien soil and beneath a wintry sky, counting only upon the precarious aids of human cultivation; but summer has come, the acceptable year of the Lord has begun, and all the favour of the Almighty is on His people’s side. These are the "good tidings" and "proclamation" of God, and to every man who believes them they must make an incalculable difference in life. As we have said, the prophet passes in the rest of this prophecy from the spiritual influences of his mission to its outward effects. The people’s righteousness is described in the external fashion, which we have already studied in chapter 14; Zion’s espousals to Jehovah are celebrated, but into that we have also gone thoroughly; the restoration of prophecy in Jerusalem is described, { Isaiah 62:6-9 } as in Isaiah 52:8 ; and another call is given to depart from Babylon and every foreign city and come to Zion. This call coming now, so long after the last, and when we might think that the prophet had wholly left Babylon behind, need not surprise us. For even though some Jews had actually arrived at Zion, which is not certain, others were hanging back in Babylon; and, indeed, such a call as this might fitly be renewed for the next century or two: so many of God’s people continued to forget that their citizenship was in Zion. III. THE DIVINE SAVIOUR { Isaiah 63:1-7 } Once again the prophet turns to hail, in his periodic transport, the Solitary Divine Hero and Saviour of His people. That the writer of this piece is the main author of "Second Isaiah" is probable, both because it is the custom of the latter to describe at intervals the passion and effort of Israel’s Mighty One, and because several of his well-known phrases meet us in this piece. The "speaker in righteousness mighty to save" recalls Isaiah 45:19-24 ; and "the day of vengeance and year of my redeemed" recalls Isaiah 61:2 ; and "I looked, and there was no helper, and I gazed, and there was none to uphold," recalls Isaiah 59:16 . The prophet is looking out from Jerusalem towards Edom, -a direction in which the watchmen upon Zion had often in her history looked for the return of her armies from the punishment of Israel’s congenital and perpetual foe. The prophet, however, sees the prospect filled up, not by the flashing van of a great army, but by a solitary figure, without ally, without chariot, Without weapons, "swaying on in the wealth of his strength." The keynote of the piece is the loneliness of this Hero. A figure is used, which, where battle would only have suggested complexity, enthrals us with the spectacle of solitary effort, -the figure of trampling through some vast winevat alone. The Avenging Saviour of Israel has a fierce joy in being alone: it is his new nerve to effort and victory, -"therefore mine own right arm, it brought salvation to me." We see One great form in the strength of one great emotion. "My fury, it upheld me." The interpretation of this chapter by Christians has been very varied, and often very perverse. To use the words of Calvin, " Violenter torserunt hoc caput Christiani. " But, as he sees very rightly, it is not the Messiah nor the Servant of Jehovah, who is here pictured, but Jehovah Himself. This Solitary is the Divine Saviour of Israel, as in Isaiah 42:7 f. and in Isaiah 59:16 . In chapter 8 of Book II we spoke so fully of the Passion of God that we may now refer to that chapter for the essential truth which underlies our prophet’s anthropomorphism, and claims our worship where a short sight might only turn the heart away in scorn at the savage and blood-stained surface. One or two other points, however, demand our attention before we give the translation. Why does the prophet look in the direction of Edom for the return of his God? Partly, it is to be presumed, because Edom was as good a representative as he could choose of the enemies of Israel other than Babylon. (See Isaiah 1:1-31 ; Isaiah 2:1-22 ; Isaiah 3:1-26 ; Isaiah 4:1-6 ; Isaiah 5:1-30 ; Isaiah 6:1-13 ; Isaiah 7:1-25 ; Isaiah 8:1-22 ; Isaiah 9:1-21 ; Isaiah 10:1-34 ; Isaiah 11:1-16 ; Isaiah 12:1-6 ; Isaiah 13:1-22 ; Isaiah 14:1-32 ; Isaiah 15:1-9 ; Isaiah 16:1-14 ; Isaiah 17:1-14 ; Isaiah 18:1-7 ; Isaiah 19:1-25 ; Isaiah 20:1-6 ; Isaiah 21:1-17 ; Isaiah 22:1-25 ; Isaiah 23:1-18 ; Isaiah 24:1-23 ; Isaiah 25:1-12 ; Isaiah 26:1-21 ; Isaiah 27:1-13 ; Isaiah 28:1-29 ; Isaiah 29:1-24 ; Isaiah 30:1-33 ; Isaiah 31:1-9 ; Isaiah 32:1-20 ; Isaiah 33:1-24 ; Isaiah 34:1-17 ; Isaiah 35:1-10 ; Isaiah 36:1-22 ; Isaiah 37:1-38 ; Isaiah 38:1-22 ; Isaiah 39:1-8 ) But also partly, perhaps, because of the names which match the red colours of his piece, -the wine and the blood. Edom means red, and Bossrah is assonant to Bosser, a vinedresser. Fitter background and scenery the prophet, therefore, could not have for his drama of Divine Vengeance. But we must take care, as Dillmann properly remarks, not to imagine that any definite, historical invasion of Edom by Israel, or other chastening instrument of Jehovah, is here intended. It is a vision which the prophet sees of Jehovah Himself: it illustrates the passion, the agony, the unshared and unaided effort which the Divine Saviour passes through for His people. Further, it is only necessary to point out, that the term in Isaiah 63:1 given as "splendid" by the Authorised Version, which I have rendered "sweeping," is literally "swelling," and is, perhaps, best rendered by "sailing on" or "swinging on." The other verb which the Revised Version renders "marching" means "swaying," or moving the head or body from one side to another, in the pride and fulness of strength. In Isaiah 63:2 "like a wine-treader" is literally "like him that treadeth in the pressing-house"- Geth (the first syllable of Gethsemane, the oil-press): But Isaiah 63:3 is the "pressing trough." Who is this coming from Edom, Raw-red his garments from Bossrah! This sweeping on in his raiment, Swaying in the wealth of his strength? I that do speak in righteousness, Mighty to save! Wherefore is red on thy raiment, And thy garments like to a wine-treader’s? A trough I have trodden alone, Of the peoples no man was with me. So I trod them down in my wrath, And trampled them down in my fury; Their life-blood sprinkled my garments And all my raiment I stained. For the day of revenge in my heart, And the year of my redeemed has come. And I looked, and no helper; I gazed, and none to uphold! So my righteousness won me salvation; And my fury, it hath upheld me. So I stamp on the peoples in my wrath, And make them drunk with my fury, And bring down to earth their life-blood. The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.