Reading: Isaiah 60:1-14.
"Arise, shine;
for thy light is come".
We are familiar with the
fact that there is usually a twofold interpretation of
Old Testament Scriptures. There is the historical, and
there is the spiritual: on the one hand, that which is
after the flesh, and on the other hand, that which is
after the Spirit. To a large extent, it is on the one
hand that which relates to Israel naturally, and on the
other hand that which relates to the Church, and to
Christ, as seen through and beyond Israel.
This, of course, is very
apparent in the Prophets. Sometimes you do not know
whether the prophet is speaking about himself, or about
Israel, or about Christ. That very problem arose with the
Ethiopian in the chariot in the desert, when he asked
Philip: "Of whom speaketh the prophet this? Of
himself, or of some other?" (Acts 8:34). Many have
thought that Isaiah 53 related to Israel. It is perfectly
clear that, while there might be a measure of truth in
that, that is not the whole truth by any means. Here, as
always, there are two interpretations, and what is true
of that chapter is very true in the chapter from which we
have read. It is said that this chapter relates to the
remnant of Israel which will be found at the end in
Jerusalem. We will not call that into question, but it is
almost impossible not to see that there is another side
to Isaiah chapter 60, and it is that other side with
which we are to be occupied at the present time.
Here is Zion, and Zion's
light and Zion's wealth. You are very familiar with that
name, and you know that our New Testament tells us that
we "are come" - not that we are coming, not
that we are 'marching to' - but that we "are come"
to Zion, "the city of the living God" (Heb.
12:22). And yet I suppose it is true that we are in a
sense on the way to Zion, not as a place, but as a state
of spiritual fulness. But if it is true that we are
already come to Zion - and we will not for a moment
dispute with the Apostle who says it - then may it not be
equally true that the things that are said in the Old
Testament, and here particularly, about Zion, if they
refer in part to some later literal Zion on this earth,
certainly refer more to the Zion to which we have come.
The exhortation therefore is to the people of this Zion,
this "city of the living God", to which we
"are come" - indeed, of which we are a part.
The exhortation is to us: "Arise, shine; for thy
light is come".
Light
Through The Experience Of Resurrection
Let us look for a moment
at the ground and the nature of this light which has come
to us. Again we are brought back to this open door to
everything. Here everything begins and here the light
bursts forth - the resurrection of our Lord, and our
resurrection with Him. May I recall to your mind that
wonderful twentieth chapter of John's Gospel. I confess
that there is no chapter in the Bible which moves me more
than that one. But to me the special thing about it is
the breaking light. From early morning, even before it
was day, there were hearts in darkness waiting, longing;
and then it is as though, after the very dark night, the
sun suddenly rises over the horizon, begins to throw its
shafts of rays over the skies. We see the day opening,
the light breaking and spreading, and one by one the
disciples are caught in its rays. And what a
transformation! Surely they did 'arise and shine', for
their Light had indeed come!
Now, the setting of this
chapter in Isaiah is just like that. There is a fragment
in it in which we read about God's wrath, the dark night
of God's wrath, which had passed (vs. 10b). Certainly the
people had been (to use the language of Ezekiel) in a
dark grace in their exile and captivity afar off. It was
a dark night - a night of spiritual death; and it was
therefore death to Zion during that time. Zion was dead
and buried for that whole period of the captivity. But
here, again using Ezekiel's language, the graves had been
opened; resurrection had taken place. Isaiah is the
prophet of resurrection, looking through and beyond the
Cross. Here, in the latter part of his prophecies, we see
the shadows departing and the morning breaking, and hear
this triumphant cry - as the sun arises - "Arise,
shine; for thy light is come".
It is on that ground of
resurrection that the light comes, and that gives to the
light its character. That being its ground, its nature is
of that kind. We shall see, as we go on, how tremendously
potent this light was - what it did. Here is light that
is not just a mental grasp of things. It is certainly not
the light of collected truth, of studied matter, of the
intellect, even in the things of God. It is a different
kind of light altogether. I want to press this - it is
not just a statement of things. Dear friends, light,
if it is to be as effective as the light in this chapter
was shown to be, has got to be of this kind - the
light of resurrection. You may collect what is given out
in public ministry into your notebooks with your own
ministry in view, and go and retail it. That will not
be light of this kind. Too often, when we are reading
and when we are listening, we have other people in view.
We are thinking of how we are going to get this over to
some others, and thereby we are more concerned for
ministry and work, and having material to give others,
than we are for the fundamental matter of Christlikeness.
But the fact is that all
real light springs from the realities of Christ as born
in our own experience. Quite clearly, in the case of
Israel or the remnant, and certainly even more so in the
case of the Church, this light is the light that springs
out of a deep experience, from which and through which
resurrection was the only answer. If God had not done
what He said He would do for the remnant - He said,
"Behold, I will open your graves, and cause you to
come up out of your graves, O My people; and I will bring
you into the land of Israel" (Ezek. 37:12) - if the
Lord had not opened their graves and brought them out,
this part of Isaiah's prophecy would not have been
written, because there would have been nothing to write
about. It would never have been possible on any ground to
say, "Thy light is come". The meaning of this
is - 'You have been in the dark and you have been
delivered; you have been in death and have come to know
the power of resurrection'.
Resurrection
Faith's Ultimate Point
And therefore the very
nature of light which is light indeed, light after this
order of life, light which is to have this effect, is
that it is born out of an experience, or out of
continuous experiences of resurrection. One thing we have
been trying to say all through these meditations is just
this, that, through the necessitated exercises of faith
again and again, we have got to reach the ultimate goal
of faith, and the ultimate, the final issue of faith is
resurrection. When the writer to the Hebrews is
recounting the faith, and the faith activity, of those of
old, and is dealing with Abraham, the last stage in
Abraham's faith that is mentioned is that in which he
received Isaac back as from the dead. That is always the
ultimate point to be reached by faith.
This is not faith in the
doctrine of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, nor is it
faith in the historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus
Christ. It is faith in the resurrection of Christ as a present
active power. The resurrection of Christ has, so to
speak, to be brought up to date. It has not merely to be
remembered once a year at Easter. This is no merely
sentimental thing. It is to be something for every day of
our lives. Every new morning has to be a new occasion for
our proving the power of His resurrection. It has to be
so: and if so, then there will be a necessity for it. The
Lord will keep us on the ground of a necessity for
knowing resurrection power and resurrection life.
If you are in any way
engaged in ministry, or the work of the lord, no matter
how much you study, how much you read upon the subject
matter, however diligent you are in your research, it
will count for nothing if there is not behind it an
experience which makes resurrection - that is, a deep
experience which makes resurrection the only way out. The
Lord has no place for mere mechanical teachers and
preachers, reproducers of matter secondhand. The Lord's
principle is to bring everything right into experimental
relationship to the person concerned, and so it is kept
in power and freshness and reality.
So the very setting of
Isaiah 60 - "Arise, shine; for thy light is come,
and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee" - is
that of resurrection, in the experience of the people
concerned. Let me repeat: Do not be more concerned with
ministry that you are with knowing Him - and the only way
to know Him is the power of His resurrection. You may be
sure that, if you have this as the basis and background
of your life, you will have ministry without the need of
research! I am not saying that study is not important:
what I am saying is that, while it may have its place,
there has got to be something more than that. There has
got to be the experience of the thing that we are
saying - the experience of life saving us in deep and
desperate situations. That is the ground upon which the
Lord keeps His true servants. For, after all, light is
not something objective to us. Light is what we are -
"Ye are the light of the world" (Matt.
5:14) - and what we are through deep history with God in
our lives. So God makes us lights.
Effective
Light
Therefore, the light
that is mentioned here is light which is vital, light
which is pure, which is effective. Note that the rest of
this chapter shows how effective the light is. What
tremendous effectiveness is related to this kind of
light, born out of an experience of resurrection.
Underline all the words in this chapter which refer to wealth
- "The abundance of the sea", "the wealth
of the nations" (vs. 5b), gold and frankincense
(6b), silver and gold (9), and so on. That is the value,
the effectiveness, of light after this kind. It means the
possession of wealth. It means resources for the
enrichment of people.
Do believe this: If you
want to be able to help people, to enrich them, to bring
them into the wealth that is in Christ, to deliver them
from their poverty - and God knows how poverty-stricken
His people are, and how little they know of His wealth -
if you want to help others to a knowledge of this wealth,
it is by way of the light which comes through
resurrection. In more simple terms, if you are going
through a deep and dark time, you may have very rich
treasures of darkness. The right attitude toward our
times of death and darkness is that this can mean wealth
- the Lord means more riches out of this thing for
others; something for their enrichment, is going to come
out of our times of spiritual death. It is effective
light that enriches, that brings into wealth.
Attractive
Light
And then note again how
it attracts. "Thy sons shall come from far, and thy
daughters shall be carried in the arms" (4b);
"…the ships of Tarshish… to bring thy sons
from far" (9a); and so on. They are all coming, they
are all coming. Why? Because you have got something to
give, you have got the light which answers to their
problems and their questions and their difficulties. As
the light attracts the moth, so need is attracted to
where there is supply. Out of these experiences of death
and darkness, leading to resurrection, comes something
that others want. And it is like that, if it is after
that order, they come for it - yes, from the ends of the
earth. Not just for teaching, for interpretations, for
doctrines, but for real, living light born out of
experience, the experience of resurrection, again and
again.
I do not believe that it
is necessary to have tremendous attractions of other
kinds to get people together for spiritual purposes. I
believe that, if there is real vital light, they will
come, they will find their way to it. The answer to empty
churches is not entertainments and attractions, but
living light. That can be proved. Would there were more
light--then there might be a drawing.
The
Word Applied To A Corporate Vessel
Now this word, while of
course it applies, as it must always apply, to
individuals, because you can have nothing collective
unless there are individuals to make it so, is a word to
a company, a group; it is a word to a collective vessel
of life. 'Zion' is something corporate and collective,
and the Lord wants these vessels, these vessels of light,
after this kind. My point in saying that is this, that we
not only go through deep and dark and trying experiences
individually, but we go through them in relation to our
fellow-believers. There is such a thing as companies of
the Lord's people going deep down into experiences where
only the power of His resurrection can meet the need. Let
us therefore realize that we are sharers in this
ministry, that we are involved in something that may not
just be personal.
Perhaps you are
thinking, 'Oh, that is all out there in the air - it may
relate to somebody or something, somewhere. I am just
nothing, I do not signify; all that has nothing to do
with me'. But it has in a related way. You are a part of
that Body of Christ which is to be the expression of His
risen life, and therefore you have a share in the
suffering which comes upon the people of God: hence the
necessity for knowing His resurrection-power. And we are
suffering together with Him. Let us remember that.
'Together' means not only that we are suffering with
Christ: we are suffering together - with Christ.
It is our collective or corporate suffering with Christ -
just as the reigning also is to be collective and
corporate. Suffering together, we reign together with Him
(Rom. 8:17b; 2 Tim. 2:12). It is the Church that is in
view.
So what might never come
to us individually and personally comes to us by reason
of our relationship with something much bigger that the
Lord wants to use. We become involved in something that
is not, after all, our own personal responsibility. The
Lord is after a vessel, and we are a part of the vessel;
and in a related way we have got to know this power of
His resurrection, that the light may shine.
Yes, these things
concern and relate to the Church. But many of you who
read these words are just individuals, or twos or threes,
scattered in distant places, and you might have some
thought in the back of your minds - 'Well, that is for
the Church, he is speaking about the Church, all that is
concerning the Church. I am just one lonely one somewhere
- we are just two or three together in some remote place.
We cannot be regarded as the Church, and therefore - to
some degree - all this can hardly apply to us.'
So it is necessary to
say a corrective word about that, and the best way of
doing so is to remind you that when Paul wrote his final
letters to Timothy and Titus, mainly to and about the
Church, he did not write them to any one collection of
Christians in any one place, nor did he write them just
to several large companies of Christians. They were for all
Christians, whether in companies or scattered and alone,
and they have remained that ever since. Paul thought
comprehensively and inclusively of all believers, and
just called them 'the Church' - that is all. They may
have been here and there or in many places, just ones or
twos or little groups, or there may have been the larger
assemblies; but as far as he was concerned they were all
the Church. What he had to say applied to them all - for
this reason, as we shall emphasize later: that he never
at that time thought of them finally as on this earth. So
far as geography and time were concerned, he had got
completely away from earth conditions, from the merely
physical, and he was seeing the Church from the
standpoint of God and Heaven, as one thing. And so this
matter of scatteredness and individual situation did not
come into the thing at all, except in this way, that
every fragment, wherever it was, was a part of a whole,
as in Heaven; so that everything applied to every
fragment.
The practical value of
that as I said earlier, is this, that wherever we are and
however alone we may be, we may yet be involved in all
that the Church is involved in. You may be in a remote
place alone, but you are bound up with all that relates
to the Church, all that is happening to the Church, all
that the Church is knowing, all that the Church is
suffering, all that the Church is called to. You are
bound up with it, you are in it; you are not apart from
it, wherever you may be. It is necessary for you to grasp
that and say, 'Although I am here, alone or with another,
in this remote place, I am as much a part of the whole of
the Church as that group at so-and-so, or any other
group.'
For in the Spirit, and
in the heavenlies, you are always in the whole
congregation of the Church. You may not see them, may not
have, perhaps, the extra benefits of close personal
fellowship and association with all the others on the
earth, but you are in the whole Church, wherever you are,
a part of the congregation. You see, we "are
come… to the general assembly and church of the
firstborn ones" (Heb. 12:22-23); and that means not
just a few somewhere in one place, or even a big crowd in
some place. It means all the children of God. We are all
come to the general assembly, the Church of the firstborn
ones. It is said to us all, wherever we are.