Isaiah 62:1 – Rise and Shine
Who is the “I” that is speaking? Is it Christ? Is it Isaiah? Commentators have come down on different sides of this question. Maybe the best way to put it here is that it is God in Christ who is saying this, but it is also Isaiah saying and doing this. Soon the people living in Isaiah’s day would be going through harder times as they reaped the results of their apostasy. The glory that had been the people of God, who were to be the light for the nations and a guide to them, would be snuffed out, because they love their sin. Yet in all this, God would not totally abandon them. He would still send forth, in the proper time, His Son. He would, through Christ, speak peace to the people of Judah and Jerusalem and to lands beyond. God would not be silent. Because of the redemption that would come someday, because of God’s calling on his life, because of God’s purposes to be accomplished through him, for the glory’s sake that is yet coming, Isaiah will not stop his work or be silent.
What is the gospel then that is to be preached? What is the good news? It is this righteousness going forth as brightness. It is this salvation that is as a burning torch. Righteousness is innocence before the law of God. Jesus lived a perfect life that He might be the perfect priest and the perfect sacrifice. He kept the law in your place, if you’re a believer. Then He righteously took care of your sin in your place. You deserved to die because of your sin. The slightest sin deserves the curse and death because it’s against an infinitely holy and good God. But Jesus not only lived for the people of God, He died for the people of God and paid off all their sin there at the cross. Because His work was completed, death held Him no more. So on the third day, according to the Scriptures, He arose. He received the rich reward of dominion over all things. We live, we who once were dead in our trespasses and sins; we have transformed lives. Our lives shine before the world and witness to God’s glory in Jesus Christ. The salvation that He brings rescues sinners from their guilt and its curse. Jesus raises you from darkness and death to light and life. He rescues sinners from their slavery to sin. This gospel, this good news brought about by this Saviour brings forth something bright, shining, and ravishingly beautiful. God has arisen, arisen to save!
Question
- Why will Isaiah not keep silent?
Prayer Points
- Give thanks for the righteousness and salvation Christ brings.
- Use prayer points from your congregation.
- Pray for family matters.