‘Arise, shine, for your light has come,
    and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
2 See, darkness covers the earth
    and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the Lord rises upon you
    and his glory appears over you.
3 Nations will come to your light,
    and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

God’s people are called to ”shine” in this very ‘dark’ world. But our light is not our own. It is a reflected glory. It is like the beautiful light of the moon, transmitting the rays of the sun.

”And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate (or reflect) the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Cor.3:22).

This light is attractive, drawing others in (3, see Mat.5:14-16).

It has been said that God is depicted in these words as rising over Jerusalem like the sun, filling it with glory, so that it becomes magnetic, drawing nations towards it.

As we come in to this magnificent chapter, I want to share Tom Hale’s helpful introductory words. They provide an excellent over-view, and will no doubt assist us in the coming days:

This prophecy ‘is to be interpreted on three levels. First, it is a prophecy of the restoration of Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile. However, that restoration was only a partial fulfillment of this prophecy; the scope of Isaiah’s words in this chapter far exceeds anything that happened in Old Testament Jerusalem.

Second, this is a prophecy of Christ’s church in this present age, to whose light the nations are even now coming (verse 3). Foreigners will rebuild [its] walls (verse 10) – that is, the church will be built by Gentile believers (see Acts 15:14-16; Ephesians 2:19-22; 1 Peter 2:5).

Third, this is a prophecy of the Messianic age that is yet to come. Much of the prophecy in this chapter, especially verses 15-22, has not yet been fulfilled. It will be fulfilled only when Christ comes again at the end of this present age to establish His Messianic kingdom.

In summary, the return of the Jewish exiles to Jerusalem was a foreshadowing of a much larger movement of believers into the church of Christ And the church today, in spiritual terms, is a foreshadowing of the Messianic reign of Christ that is yet to come. All of this is dealt with in this one chapter…’ ‘Applied Old Testament Commentary’, pp.1064, 1065.