Devotional Commentary on Isaiah 60
When S. Driver came to this chapter
he said that Isaiah imagined a beautiful utopia called Zion, a restored city to
which nations in future stream. The reality is that Isaiah did not dream it. It
was a message of the Lord to Isaiah about the resurrection event and its impact
and implications.
Ellen White said about the same
chapter “This message will close with power and strength far exceeding the
midnight cry” Ellen White, Early Writings page 278 as cited by M. L. Andreasen
in 1929 in his Sabbath School Quarterly on Isaiah page 20. Andreasen said:
“This chapter deals with the glorious finishing of the work, and with the new
earth state”. What is to come is bigger than what was in 1844, says Ellen
White. Christ to Isaiah and Christ in Himself in the Sermon on the Mount is
speaking to the last generation here (Ellen White, Thoughts from the Mount of
Blessing, page 70).
When God says: “Arise and shine for
your light has come” (v. 1a), it means that resurrection morning has arrived.
The dead arise and they perceive light.
The glory of the Lord will come in
terms explained fuller in Habakkuk 3 and here in Isaiah 60 “for the glory of
the Lord is upon you” (v. 1b).
Just before the Second Coming, the
final time of death or darkness upon the earth will approach “darkness will
cover the earth” (v. 2a). It does not mean all in the remnant will die. “Deep
darkness the peoples” (v. 2b) but in the world’s darkest hour, since it is the
Time of Trouble, “the Lord will rise upon you” (v. 2c).
“His glory will appear upon
you [remnant]” (v. 2d) again similar as Habakkuk 3. Resurrected the remnant is
full of the Light of the Lord and “nations will come to your light” (v. 3a) and
“kings to the brightness of your rising/sprouting [zarhek which is the same as
zaraḫu
in Akkadian]” (v. 3b).
Delitzsch in Vol. II 1890 pages
382-383 wanted to make the darkness sin and wretchedness and the light of the
Lord coming. He is mixing historicistic coming of the Lord [second coming] with
hard-core preterism [end of exile restoration] with soft-core preterism of the
idealistic model [darkness as sinful condition]. He is not certain what to say.
Nations and kings that will come to
the remnant are probably the unfallen worlds’s nations and kings? “Lift up your
eyes around about and see, they all gather together, they come to you” (v.
3-4). Christ comes with all His mighty angels at the Second Coming but is there
a possibility that also the unfallen worlds come with him?
Ellen White said about verse 3: “To
those who go out to meet the Bridegroom is this message given” (Ellen White,
Christ Object Lesson page 420 as cited by M. L. Andreasen in 1929 page 21).
Andreasen wants to apply it to the First coming and the Second Coming. A double
application. It is dangerous to play around with double applications. It is
better to refrain from such a practice totally. As soon as one makes double
application it paves the way for multiple applications and finally for
ecumenism since everything means everything for everyone and nothing means
specific for someone.
“Your sons [who died later
and buried elsewhere] will come from afar and your daughters [resurrected now]
will be carried in the arms [of angels]” (v. 4c-d). “Then you will see and be
radiant and your heart will thrill and rejoice” (v. 5a-b). Parents will be very
happy to see their children on resurrection day.
Verse 5 is talking about the
Resurrection here but M. L. Andreasen thought it is a reference to the Latter
Rain ingathering. Thus, to prooftext his own thinking and to fill out what he
decided upon, he cited Ellen White but without verification since she did not
cite from Isaiah 60 here but from Hosea 6:3; Joel 2:23; Acts 2:17, 21; Acts
3:19, 20; Revelation 13:13. A true description of Ellen White at another event
is parked at a wrong chapter by M. L. Andreasen in 1929 in his Sabbath School
Quarterly page 21. All of us have our moments of slips like this. No
fingerpointing here.
Then Isaiah opened a panel of what
is the utopia of his day in the mental–lexicon of those days. It is a picture
of affluence in ancient times. Many camels, gold and frankincense, flocks, rams
and the countries where they use to come from in those days of Isaiah are
mentioned: Midian, Ephah, Sheba, Kedar, Nebaioth (v. 6-7).
The Lord will glorify His glorious
house in heaven with the remnant and their gifts they received (v. 7d). The
picture is one of happy worshippers and a happy Lord.
The scene of the resurrection
continues. After the resurrection of Daniel 12:1-2 Isaiah asks “who are these
who fly like a cloud, and like the doves to their lattices?” (v. 8).
Then in verse 9 Isaiah mentions the
Lord, probably Christ Himself talking about Himself as victorious Messiah to
Isaiah for He says: “For to Me the coastlands will wait” meaning that they will
accept the gospel and wait for the Second Coming of the Messiah (v. 9a). “The
ships of Tarshish first to bring your sons from afar” (v. 9b-c) may refer to the
mission work of Paul and others spreading the gospel and faithful ones will be
brought to the Light of Christ’s salvation. They will contribute to the gospel
as Paul in 2 Corinthians thanked them for (v. 9d). “For the name of the Lord
your God and for the Holy One of Israel because He has glorified you [remnant]”
(v. 9e-f).
About the waiting of the islands
Delitzsch Vol. II 1890 page 387 says that yahel means “expectant waiting”. He
said it is “a firm and constant expectation of something to be experienced in
the future.” Sorry Preterists. There Delitzsch is helping the historicists.
After the resurrection and after
1000 years and after the extermination of all evil in the Hell the new earth is
created and where their tumbling walls use to stand, on the new earth,
foreigners from unfallen worlds outside our universe will come and build the
remnant’s walls (v. 10a) and their kings will minister to you (v. 10b).
It is not a shame for kings in
heaven to stoop down and wash their subjects feet for heavenly service is
selfemptying service [like Christ at Footwashing before the Lord’s Supper in
John 13], a concept that is not part of this world’s evil history.
Although the remnant was punished
in history God’s favor made Him to have compassion over them (v. 10d). Their
gates will be open “continually” (v. 11a) for the wealth of nations of unfallen
worlds to bring it to the heavenly newcomers, the remnant (v. 11c).
Kings of other unfallen worlds will
come in procession to them (v. 11d).
Is there conflict with Ellen White
who cited Isaiah 60:1-4; 10-11; 45:22 parked by M. L. Andreasen 1929 page 22 at
verse 11 when she said: “These prophecies of a great spiritual awakening in the
time of gross darkness are today meeting fulfillment in the advancing lines of
mission stations…?” Ellen White, Prophets and Kings page 375 is applied to
verse 11 by M. L. Andreasen in 1929 page 22. The solution is this: Above the
citation Ellen White speaks of two events: “The prophet [Isaiah in Isaiah 49:6,
8, 9, 12; also Isaiah 66:12; 54:2, 3; and 66:19] heard the voice of God calling
His church to her appointed work, [mission work as light around the world. Then
follows the second later event] that the way might be prepared for the ushering
in of His everlasting kingdom.” Isaiah 60 citations are applicable to this
ushering in of His everlasting kingdom maybe? Ellen White then did not apply
herself Isaiah 60 to the Latter Rain but to the Resurrection time at the Second
Coming event? Is this an orange pressed too much? Andreasen should not have
parked Prophets and Kings here at verse 11 to support the global inflow of
nations when she also said on the same page about the ushering in of His
everlasting kingdom.
All the nations on earth that have
afflicted the remnant “will perish” (v. 12).
For M. L. Andreasen’s 1929 page 22
explanation here in verse 12 he resorted to the commentator A. Barnes (1847)
which used a preteristic explanation to say that all nations fell because they
did not keep the law of God. My reading is that the focus is not past but
future. He does not cite Ellen White here in verse 12.
Delitzsch also thought in Vol. II
1890 pages 388-389 that verses 10-12 refers to nations streaming into the
church and the church has now great superiority. He said: “…for the condition
of every people and kingdom is henceforward determined by its subjection to the
Church of the God of redemption,—by entrance into this Church.” The Vicarius
filii Dei church will be greatly happy about this idea of Delitzsch but that is
not what the verse says.
The time of Isaiah utopic concept
of wonderful wood and wood objects like juniper, box tree, cypress from Lebanon
“will come to you” (v. 13a). They will beautify the place of His sanctuary in
Heaven in the new world (v. 13d). There is no space during the Latter Rain for
the beautification of houses of the saints with the Time of Trouble so nearly
at hand. Andreasen in verse 13 had nothing to say neither from Ellen White nor
Albert Barnes on Isaiah 1847.
On the new earth the sons of those
who afflicted them on earth, but who became also converted, probably in the
Latter Rain event, “will come bowing to you” (v. 14a). “And all those who
despised you will bow themselves at the soles of your feet and they will call
you the city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel” (v. 14d). It is
heavenly Zion, the New Jerusalem in heaven and the remnant in heaven that is in
mind here.
Andreasen in 1929 page 23 in his
Sabbath School Quarterly on Isaiah did not cite Ellen White here and do not
make any judgment on the event involved except that it finds analogy to a
similar phrase in Revelation 3:9 but that application in Adventism is between
1450-1843.
Whereas in history on earth, the
remnant “have been forsaken and hated” the Lord will make in heaven the remnant
“an everlasting pride” (v. 15c). They will be a joy from generation to
generation (v. 15d).
Andreasen in 1929 on page 23 did
not cite Ellen White here nor did he make a note.
Then there is a verse that the
translators had problems with because the root meaning is from Late Egyptian
and not from Akkadian or Aramaic or Arabic.
“You [remnant] will enclose
[Egyptian ínḳ meaning enclose or enwrap] the heart
[different vocalization] of nations and the terror/raid [see a few verses down
where the New Babylonian word sadu means raid] of kings you will enclose [again
the Egyptian loanword above]” (v. 16).
It means that they will be finally
in the eschaton circumstance successful over nations on earth that afflicted
them and over kings on earth who raided them.
“Then you will know that I
the Lord am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob” (v. 16d).
On verse 16 Andreasen did not cite
Ellen White for his view but his view is materialistically connected to the
End-time period before the close of Probation when he thinks that the Gentiles
will pour in lots of finances to the church for the furtherance of the gospel.
(Also Delitzsch said what Andreasen explained in Vol. II 1890 pages 390-391 on
verses 15-16). In my translation the remnant in heaven finally was successful
in their gospel commission that Gentiles gave their hearts to Christ and also
after the Time of Trouble at the Second Coming the conquest by Christ’s
appearance becomes the conquest of the saints over the evil as they fly up to
heaven with angels.
The remnant will experience on the
new earth improvement over earthly conditions. They imagine bronze but it will
be gold, they imagine iron but it will like silver, wood but it will be like
bronze, stones but it will be like iron (v. 17).
“I will make [Christ’s] peace
your administrators and [Christ’s] righteousness your overseers” (v. 17e-f).
Andreasen in 1929 page 23 did not
cite Ellen White here but suggested that it refers to souls in their unsaved
state to be iron but in the saved state gold.
It is the preterist Delitzsch that
climbed out of his model into a historicistic model worth looking at on verse
17-18 in Vol. II 1890 page 391: “The beauty of the new Jerusalem, without and
within, is now depicted by mentioning the materials of which she is built, and
the forces which prevail within her.” Delitzsch and myself is in heaven.
Andreasen is on earth. Ellen White did not speak about the verse.
It is definitely heaven and the new
earth since Isaiah says “violence will not be heard again in your land” (v.
18a). There will not be devastation, destruction, and the remnant on the newly
created earth by God will call their walls “salvation” and their gates “praise”
(v. 18c).
Andreasen in 1929 page 23 had
nothing to say in his Sabbath School Quarterly on this verse. He does not cite
Ellen White here.
On the new earth created for the
faithful remnant of God, there will no longer be a sun or moon “but you will
have the Lord for an everlasting light” (v. 19a-c). “Your sun will set no more,
neither will your moon wane for you will have the Lord for an everlasting
light” (v. 20a-c).
In verse 19 Andreasen in 1929 page
23 understood it finally correctly since Revelation 21:23 and 22:5 are applied
here.
Ellen White as applied by Andreasen
in 1929 page 23 to verse 20 is in the Heavenly City of God when she said: “In
the city of God ‘there shall be no night.’ . . . The light of the sun will be
superseded by a radiance which is not painfully dazzling, yet which
immeasurably surpasses the brightness of our noontide. The glory of God and the
Lamb floods the holy city with unfading light. The redeemed walk in the sunless
glory of perpetual day.” — Ellen White, The Great Controversy, p. 676.
F. Delitzsch in Vol. II Isaiah 1890
page 393 said exactly the same as Ellen White here: “Though, in the view of the
prophet, the Jerusalem of glorious times in this world, and the Jerusalem of
the coming eternity are commingled, the meaning of these prophecies of his is
not that sun and moon will no longer exist: even of the Jerusalem that is not
built by Israel with the assistance of converted Gentiles, but comes down from
heaven to earth, the seer (Rev. xxi. 23) merely says that the city does not
need the light of either sun or moon,—and this is the view of our passage taken
in the Targum. Hofmann correctly remarks that ‘there will still be sun and
moon, but the holy place will be continually lighted by the manifestation of
the presence of God which irradiates everything.’”
It forms an envelope in a chiastic
structure of ABC C’B’A’. In the center between C and C’ is the phrase: “[and
you will have] your God for your glory” (19d).
“And the days of your
mourning will be finished” which refers to the 1000 years or millennium in
heaven when the saints cry over their loved ones who did not make it to heaven
(v. 20d).
In heaven, on the new earth “all
your people [are] righteous, they will possess the [new] earth forever” (v.
21a-b).
-They will be called “branch of My
planting, the work of My hands that I may be glorified” (v. 21c-e).
-The remnant will glorify the Lord
in heaven by their existence.
-They will increase and become many
(v. 22).
The Lord promised to Isaiah that
after the Door of Mercy closes and His work of Investigative Judgment is over,
that “I the Lord, will hasten it in its time” meaning that the Lord will be in
a hurry after He received the kingship from His Father, to come at the Second
Coming.
Andreasen in 1929 cited Romans 9:28
here but the citation is not from Isaiah 60:22 but from Isaiah 10:23. The
context though is about a time when wrath and glory is waited to be displayed
upon the vessels for wrath [at His second Coming and the Hell event after the
millennium] and vessels for glory [glory of His coming] (Romans 9:22-23).
F. Delitzsch, the preterist, Vol.
II 1890 page 394 understood verse 22 correctly: “Jehovah will accomplish it
speedily, for the point of time (kairos) which He has fixed for it will have
come. As this point of time [Second Coming] is known to Him alone, this glory
will come with sudden surprise upon those who have faithfully waited for its
appearing.” It is a case of a preterist who climb out of his model and become a
historicist here.
Dear
God
It
is not only in the New Testament and not only in the Book of Revelation that we
learn of the New Earth, heavenly Zion and heavenly New Jerusalem. With such a
beautiful prospect for the happy remnant on the new earth, help us to be part
of this whole event. Amen.