737_The coming glory of God’s people (Isaiah 60)
Isaiah 60:1-3 Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
2 For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
and his glory will be seen upon you.
3 And nations shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your rising.
A hiker awoke early after spending the night on the mountain in complete darkness. As the sun broke over the horizon, he was amazed, not just at the beauty of the light itself but by what it did to everything around. Rocks that looked gray and lifeless under a flashlight beam suddenly blazed red and gold. Trees that he had stumbled past in the dark stood revealed in sharp, vivid color. Nothing on the mountain actually changed, but everything looked different with the coming of the light.
That picture illustrates the message of Isaiah 60. The prophet repeatedly exposed Israel’s sin, warning of coming judgment, and pointing forward to a suffering Redeemer. But now he lifts our vision to the final scene, where we see the glory of God resting on his people. This is not manufactured glory, nor the glory Israel earned through her strength or cleverness. It was the glory of God that came to dwell among them, just the way the sunlight rests on a mountain.
Chapters 60 through 66 form the closing movement of Isaiah’s prophecy, painting a picture of restoration, the judgment of God’s enemies, the gathering of the nations, and ultimately the new heavens and the new earth. The city of God, Jerusalem, once reduced to rubble and shame, signified the new city that would become the spiritual center of the world. No longer would she be a symbol of sin and ruin. She would be renowned for the beauty of the Lord resting upon her.
The chapter continues from the last, where God promised to pour out his spirit on his people: “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you” (Isaiah 60:1). Israel is not told to generate her own light. She’s called to arise and shine with the glory of the light that has already risen upon her. Like the moon which reflects the sun’s light even though it produces no light of its own, God’s people become a shining light to the world through the way they reflect the goodness and the love of God to all around who are willing to see.
The Light which God sent into the world was His Son, Jesus Christ. In him was life, and the life is the light of men. He said of Himself, “I am the light of the world”. Yet Israel largely failed to recognize Him the first time He came. Scripture promises a day when the nation will look on the One they pierced — as the prophet Zechariah foretold — and acknowledge Him at last as the servant of the Lord, who lived and died in complete obedience and trust to the will of God.
What was once only prophecy to them will become personal testimony. Mourning over their sin, they will call on the name of the Lord, and He will save them. And receiving salvation, they will finally become what they were meant to be-the light to the nations.
This is the pattern repeated throughout Scripture — transformation before testimony. God shines in our hearts so that we can see his glory in the face of Jesus Christ. And this is the light that we pass on to others through the story and the power of grace.
What a contrast between the Lord’s people and the rest of the world! “For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you” (Isaiah 60:2). And the prophet sees nations and kings streaming towards the true light, knowing it comes from the God they’ve always wanted to know but couldn’t find anywhere else.
The Lord echoed these words to His followers centuries later: “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden… Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:14, 16). The light of Christ is the fruit of a life genuinely changed by Christ. Love in place of bitterness. Patience in place of rage. Honesty when a lie would have been easier. Forgiveness that makes no sense apart from grace.
True, none of these earn our salvation. It’s simply what salvation looks like once it takes root in a human life.
The chapter keeps unfolding this reversal. Camels from Midian, gold and incense from Sheba, ships from far-off coastlands — all of it flowing toward Jerusalem, not to plunder her this time, but to honor her God. For centuries, the wealth of nations had been taken away from Israel— carried off by conquerors, stripped away in exile, mourned as gone for good. Yet now those same treasures are streaming back, willingly, gladly, laid at the feet of the King.
The abundance isn’t really about economics at all. It’s an acknowledgment, from people who once had no interest in Israel’s God, that He alone is worthy of their finest offerings, earned through his love. Their hearts, not just their caravans, have been captured by His glory.
The very nations that once despised and oppressed Israel are pictured bowing before her. They’ve finally recognized whose city this really is. Violence disappears. Fear gives way to peace. And Israel’s gates no longer need heavy doors, because her true security was not in their walls it was always in the Lord Himself.
If you know anything about Israel’s long and painful history — the exile, the scattering, the centuries of suffering — this reversal is almost unbelievable. But that’s exactly the point. Every prophecy about Israel’s suffering came true with startling precision. Which means every prophecy about her coming glory will come true as well. God’s promises may look delayed from where we’re standing. They are never abandoned.
And then, as the chapter ends, the prophet shows us the true source of it all: not the past wealth, the past of peace, past even the reversal of history — to “The sun shall be no more your light by day… but the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory” (Isaiah 60:19). In the end, the greatest gift of the kingdom is God Himself, unveiled, unfiltered, near.
Those in Christ have received the Light of the World. Living in this dark generation, we carry the same calling — every kind word, every quiet act of integrity, every choice to forgive when we’d rather not, becomes one more ray of that light breaking into the dark.
And this is only the beginning of the story as John reminds us: “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). The glory we carry now is real, but it’s incomplete — like the first light before a full sunrise. One day the Sun of righteousness will arise.
We don’t wait for that day, arms folded, watching the clock. His light has already fallen on us, and we simply let it show. The hope of that future when sorrow ends, when mourning is no more, when God is our everlasting light, is meant to make us purer, braver, and kinder right now. Those who truly long to see Him as He is find themselves working on becoming a little more like Him today.
We are destined for royalty, to be the glorious and beloved dwelling-place of our Lord. Let his glory show through us this week, whether at home or in the workplace, in the ordinary conversations that go on all the time. The world may lie in darkness. But the Lord has risen upon us. Let us arise and shine. God bless.