Let Your Light Shine
One Year Bible (Sep. 30)
Isaiah 60:1-62:5
LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE
“This world can be cold and bitter. Feels like we’re in the dead of winter. Waiting on something better. But am I really gonna hide forever? Over and over again. I hear your voice in my head. Let your light shine, let your light shine for all to see…” (Start a Fire)
In my house, twelve months a year, there are two large “all-season trees” standing tall and proud. Yes, you can call them Christmas trees, but mine are filled with decorations for every season. Most importantly they are filled with beautiful bright twinkly lights. There are sconces on my wall, candles on my tables, and an electric fireplace. (Even in July!)
When the month of January comes and everyone starts taking down their lights, decor, and trees I find it cold and depressing. I don’t think I am the only one…We starwatch, comment on the full moon, and watch sunrises and sunsets. We were made for LIGHT…
Is there one holiday or celebration that you can name that doesn’t involve light? Even birthday celebrations have candles. The older you get the more light you bring! Don’t you wish that was said of us as people? It should be like that…
Today’s entire passage is all about God’s people letting their light shine for HIM… we are to bear the radiance of HIS Glory!
“Arise, Jerusalem! Let your light shine for all to see. For the glory of the LORD rises to shine on you. Darkness as black as night covers all the nations of the earth, but the glory of the LORD rises and appears over you. All nations will come to your light; mighty kings will come to see your radiance.” ( Isaiah 60:1-3)
Indeed, darkness covers all the nations of the earth. (Nothing much has changed there!)
God’s people were to be the light that would draw all nations, mighty kings, and the lost to see God. It was the radiance of God shining through them that would light the dark path!
There are two amazing passages in our reading today that are restated in the New Testament also. Let’s look at both of them together.
“No longer will you need the sun to shine by day, nor the moon to give its light by night, for the LORD your God will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun will never set; your moon will not go down. For the LORD will be your EVERLASTING LIGHT. Your days of mourning will come to an end.” (60: 19-20)
“The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.” (Rev. 21:23)
Can you begin to imagine a land where no moon, sun, or stars are needed? It would have the brightness of Alaska in the summertime… no light is needed because God is LIGHT!
There is another amazing passage in Isaiah 61:1-2, that is quoted in Luke 4:18-19.
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Do you know the context of Luke 4:18-19 where Jesus quotes this prophecy of Isaiah?
He had completed the temptations of Satan and defeated him through his responses and then he returned to minister to the people in Galilee. Jesus was filled with the Spirit, (He was shining!) and people were praising him because they could hear His mighty words and see His mighty acts. He could not conceal the power that was upon HIS life and so he gave them a sneak peek of God.
He unrolled the scroll of the prophet of Isaiah and found this passage and said these words that would seal His destiny, “The Spirit of the Lord is on ME because He has anointed ME to proclaim the GOOD NEWS…”
He had come to set the captives FREE!
Our passage today ends with more prophetic words, “Then God will rejoice over you as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride.”
(Isaiah 62:5)
Jesus is the bridegroom, and He came to bring the GOOD NEWS of salvation, He will be back one day for HIS RADIANT BRIDE! The question is, “Will we be SHINING and SPOTLESS?”
“Start a fire in my soul. Fan the flame and make it grow. So, there’s no doubt or denying. Let it burn so brightly, that everyone around can see That it’s you, that it’s you that we need. Start a fire in me.” (Start a Fire, Unspoken)
