Understanding Old Testament Prophecies (Isaiah 60:1-22)

Children's Lesson (click here)

I. A 'Spirit and Power' Fulfillment

Please consider with me this exchange between Jesus and three of his disciples as they were descending from the mountain where Christ's transfiguration took place. After predicting His resurrection, the disciples are confused about God's timeline of events. This is Matt. 17:10-13...

And the disciples asked him, “Then why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?” [11] He answered, “Elijah does come, and he will restore all things. [12] But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands.” [13] Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.

The scribes had said “first Elijah must come” because the prophet Malachi had said as much in the last chapter of our Old Testament (OT), Malachi 4. But even though John himself told the Jewish religious leaders in John 1:21 that he was not Elijah, Jesus is clearly explaining here in Matthew 17 that John is the fulfillment of that OT prophecy. As the angel Gabriel explained to John's father before his son's birth, “he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah...” (Luke 1:16-17).

As we've been working our way (in Our Bible Reading Plan) through so many amazing chapters in the book of Isaiah, many of you, like the disciples in Matthew 17, may also be wondering about the fulfillment of certain OT prophecies; specifically those we find in Isaiah, chapters 40-66. To get the most out of our reading and study and meditation, I thought it might be helpful to think together about how we can make sense of such prophecies in light of Scripture itself.

II. The Passage: “Yahweh Will Be Your Everlasting Light” (6:19)

Turn if you would to Isaiah 60. Let me begin by reading through the whole chapter, and then we will circle back and focus on just one verse. This is Isaiah 60, verses 1-22... (on separate sheet)

So if we were to attempt a very generic summary of this prophecy, we might say something like this: Isaiah is predicting a time of restoration for God's exiled people, a time in which the nations will come to them for blessing, they will only know prosperity, the people will all be righteous, and the light of God's presence will fill their lives forever.

Now if we were to get more specific with this prophecy, we could begin to focus on some specific words and phrases: (v. 6) “camels”, “Midian”, “Ephah”, “Sheba”, (v. 7) “the flocks of Kedar”, “the rams of Nebaioth”, (v. 9) “the ships of Tarshish”, (v. 10) “foreigners shall build up your walls”, (v. 11) “your gates shall be open continually”, (v. 13) “the glory of Lebanon”, “the place of my sanctuary”, (v. 14) “the city of Yahweh”, “Zion”, (v. 18) “you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise.”

You see, on one level, the picture painted here (esp. for the Babylonian exiles) describes a return to the land of Israel, a return that would usher in a glorious age unlike anything that had come before. An age in which the kings of the earth would serve them, the wealth of the earth would be theirs, and Jerusalem would be so secure that its gates would always remain open. Best of all, they would (v. 21) “possess the land forever”, and God's glory would shine on them for all time. He would be their “everlasting light”.

Now, if we focus in on verse 10, it isn't hard to see how God really did fulfill this prophecy. “For-eigners shall build up your walls, and their kings shall minister to you; for in my wrath I struck you, but in my favor I have had mercy on you.” That's a good description of what God did in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. After striking the southern kingdom with exile, seventy years later, Persian kings like Cyrus, Xerxes, Artaxerxes I, and Darius helped facilitate and fund the rebuilding of Jerusalem, the rebuilding of her walls; even the rebuilding of God's temple. So God really did have mercy on those he struck, not only restoring the people to their land, but also restoring Jerusalem itself.

But in light of what we know from books like Ezra and Nehemiah, and what we know from sources outside the Bible, that historical fulfillment is a far cry from the lavish and glorious and eternal picture we read about in Isaiah 60. I mean, just listen again to Isaiah 60:19-- “The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.” So what happened? Did the people fail to measure up to such blessings? Did they forfeit this future through their disobedience? Or maybe, just maybe, the picture painted in Isaiah 60 is even bigger than the first readers could have imagined. Why do I say that? Well, just listen to this description from another biblical book,

And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. [23] And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. [24] By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, [25] and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. [26] They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. [27] But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life. (Revelation 21:22–27)

That of course is from Revelation 21. It's a description of the New Jerusalem. But what is the new Jerusalem. Well, according to Revelation 21:2 and 21:9, the New Jerusalem is a vivid symbol of the Bride of Jesus Christ, that is, the Church. But Revelation 21 doesn't simply visualize the Church. It symbolically visualizes the people of God, the Church, as she will be in the end, when her home is (Revelation 21:1) “a new heaven and a new earth”. Interestingly, that phrase (“new heavens and a new earth”) comes straight of Isaiah chapters 65-66.

So what am I saying? I'm saying that Scripture describes for us the fulfillment of Isaiah 60. Though it began with a geographical and political restoration in the 6^th century BC, the fulfillment of this OT prophecy is not a literal Jerusalem with foreign camels filling its streets. The fulfillment is God's eternal people in the place of God's eternal blessing. You see, just as Isaiah prophesied, there was a restoration in which the nations were blessed by joining with God's believing people, that brought a time of secure, spiritual prosperity, in which all God's people are indeed righteous, and because of that, a time when all of them know the light of God's presence.

I'm talking, of course, about the restoration that came through Jesus Christ. It's no coincidence that the very next verses after this chapter, Isaiah 61:1-2 are quoted by Jesus at the very beginning of his ministry. And what did He say after reading those words in the synagogue in Nazareth? He said in Luke 4:21, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Jesus was and is the Messiah of Israel. He alone made possible a restoration for God's people in which earthly categories of wealth and security and blessings would be blown wide open.

How? By the magnitude of every spiritual blessing secured for us (you and me) by Christ. This same interpretation is evident from James, leader in the Jerusalem church. Listen to how he explains (in Acts 15:15–18) the inclusion of the Gentiles using the words of the prophet Amos:

And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written, [16] “‘After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, [17] that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things [18] known from of old.’”

This “tent” and “rebuild[ing]” language, declares James, was fulfilled by Jesus and was now being worked out in the early church's ministry to the nations. But this should inspire us to ask, “Why? Why does Isaiah chapter 60 use language that, on the surface, seems to be describing foreign camels in a literal Jerusalem? And that, brothers and sisters, brings us back to Matthew 17 and John the Baptist. Why did Malachi predict the coming of Elijah, if in fact, John was the one who would fulfill those words? Well, first, the Jews to whom Malachi spoke were familiar with Elijah. They knew his character and calling. They understood his aim and authority. Since that was true, second, John the Baptizer was able to come in the “spirit and power” of Elijah. He was not literally Elijah, but he still did the very thing Malachi spoke about 400 years earlier.

So when the New Testament describes the fulfillment of Isaiah 60 (and prophecies like it), it does so using this same “spirit and power” concept. James was describing a “spirit and power” fulfillment of Amos 9. Revelation is describing a “spirit and power” fulfillment of Isaiah 60. A “spirit and power” fulfillment connects that OT language or imagery to a new reality in Christ, one that embodies the “spirit and power” of everything that was communicated earlier.

III. Wearing “Spirit and Power” Lenses

Let's go back to why is this so important, for all of us, not just OT scholars. God's word is for all of us, right? God's word is for you. If, as Paul stated in Romans 15:4, that “whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction”, then God wants to teach you, and encourage you, and comfort you, and humble you, and inspire worship in you, and inspire gratitude in you through the message of Isaiah 60... when understood in the context of all Scripture. What is that message? That Isaiah's vision of overflowing, global abundance.. promised to ancient Israel in a secure Canaan.. was and is simply a picture of God's people enjoying God's abundance in the new heavens and new earth.

Paul put it this way: “For all the promises of God find their Yes in [Jesus Christ]. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.” (2 Corinthians 1:20) And if by God's grace you are in Him through faith, because of the finished work of the Messiah, then Isaiah 60 is describing your future. Please don't miss that. Don't let the camels or the city gates trip you up. Go back and read through Isaiah 60 wearing those “spirit and power” lenses. As you do, let the grace and the generosity and the inclusiveness and the abundance and the security and the illuminating light of God's everlasting presence relieve your fears and anxieties about the future; let it warm your heart and lift your spirits; let it inspire you to live for eternity and share that hope with others. Above all, let it drive you to Jesus. ...for the glory of God gives [the city] light, and its lamp is the Lamb.

And when the days get long and hard, remember those final words of Isaiah 60, and what they tell us about this vision, this reality to come: “I am the LORD; in its time I will hasten it.” Amen!