#DailyDevotion Rise! Shine! Give God The Glory, Glory!
Isaiah 60:1–6 “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the LORD’s glory is shining on you. 2Darkness still covers the earth and thick darkness covers the peoples, but the LORD will rise over you, and His glory will appear over you. 3Gentiles will come to your light, and as you shine, kings will come near. 4Lift your eyes and look around. All of them gather and come to you. Your sons come from a distance, your daughters carried on the arm. 5When you see it, you will be radiant, your heart trembling with pride and glad to know the abundance of the sea is turning to you and the wealth of the nations is coming to you. 6Many camels will cover your land, young camels of Midian and Ephah. All of those from Sheba will come, bringing gold and incense. They will tell of the LORD’s wonderful deeds.
Who is being told to arise and shine? Upon whom is the LORD’s glory shining upon? On the one hand, the LORD could be speaking to Israel and therefore the Church. On another hand he could be speaking to our LORD Jesus Christ. Then again, Jesus is Israel. He is God’s son whom he called out of Egypt and Israel is God’s son. Then we, the Israel of God, the Church, being united to Jesus become truly Israel by our union with him.
Jesus is the Light of the world. Jesus also tells us we are the light of the world. We are to let our light shine, so the command here to shine makes sense that he is speaking to us here. Indeed our Light has come and the LORD’s glory shines upon us. The light we are called to shine is the good news of Jesus Christ.
For darkness still covers the earth and thick darkness covers the people. But we are letting our light shine. We are proclaiming the good news, Jesus has come and brings pleasure eternal. He has overcome the darkness. The darkness has not overcome his light. The LORD Jesus Christ has risen and his glory appeared upon the earth has he was lifted up upon the cross, making atonement for the sin of the world, nailing the curse of the Law to the cross and taking away our guilt and shame.
So the nations come to Christ Jesus and come to the Church who proclaims him and makes him present through the Word and Sacrament. The LORD Jesus Christ is gathering his people together from sea to sea, from the north and from the south. On the day of his revelation, his holy angels will gather us up from the east and the west, the north and the south to be with our Savior Jesus Christ. We see on Epiphany how the LORD revealed to the Gentiles through his star the manifestation of his coming and they came bearing him gifts due a king. They returned home and shared the good news with their people. Having received the good news ourselves and seeing Jesus through the good news, the free gift of forgiveness and eternal life in his name, we also tell of the LORD’s wonderful deeds. We make known to those in darkness around us their light has come to bring them into the light of his glory, the glory of the cross and the glory of his eternal kingdom.
Heavenly Father, as the light of your son Jesus Christ has come upon us, give us faith and your Holy Spirit to proclaim to all around us his marvelous deeds so we may shine his light into the darkness that surrounds us and we may bring his people to him. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.