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Isaiah: Book of Good News!

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Well, this is a time of year that many people begin to plunge into the depths of depression, especially in Alaska, in northern
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Alaska. You know, they're coming upon the shortest day of the year in the middle of December, late
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December, when it's just dark for 24 hours. And the darkness abides for quite a long time.
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And they don't see any light for a while until there's finally just a little glimmer of light on the horizon as they grapple with the winter months.
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They're not the only ones that deal with this. A lot of people suffer from what's been called seasonal affective disorder.
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It started last night, right? You set the clocks back and a lot of people end up, you know, pretty quickly here in the next few weeks going to work and the sun hasn't come up yet and they come home from work and it's already dark.
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And they work inside a building and all day long they don't see any natural light whatsoever.
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A lot of people, they truly do have some emotional challenges with the darkness and that should be understandable.
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There's actually products that deal, light products that deal with seasonal affective disorder.
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They encourage you to sit in front of this light for a certain amount of time. That'll help you deal with the lack of light.
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Darkness is something that is even in the secular context, it's considered to be a metaphor for evil.
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It's something that we don't like. Darkness is something, it's just a negative thing.
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Light, on the other hand, is particularly longed for when you've been dealing with darkness for any length of time.
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You've been enveloped by it. Light, we understand, is good. Light is helpful. It's life -giving even and it really is.
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In Isaiah chapter 60, the chapter, I want you to notice this. The chapter begins and ends with light.
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It begins and ends with light. Verse one says, your light has come.
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And verse 19 says that this light that has come will never be extinguished.
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The sun shall no longer be your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you, but the
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Lord will be to you an everlasting light and your God your glory.
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I'm gonna focus on Isaiah 60 today, but before we do that, let's just get that overview, the bird's eye view of chapters 56 through 60.
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So go back to chapter 56. And in chapter 56, you notice that God's people are called to justice and righteousness.
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Verse one, thus says the Lord, keep justice and do righteousness. Keep justice and do righteousness.
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That's what God's people are called to. But then the chapter goes on to describe the way things are.
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Even though God's people are called to justice and righteousness, no one really cares when good people are silenced and when evil people prosper.
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See this in verses one and two. Blessed is the man who does this and the son of man who lays hold of it, who keeps from defiling the
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Sabbath and keeps his hand from doing evil. But very few people actually do that.
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In verses three and four, you notice how God's people, the people who are trying to, the people who should be pursuing justice and righteousness, they actually mock
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God's ways. I'm sorry, I was in the wrong chapter.
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Chapter 57, I thought that sounded odd. Chapter 57, one and two, shows us that no one cares when good people are silenced.
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The righteous perishes and no man takes it to heart. Merciful men are taken away while no one considers that the righteous is taken away from, literally here, the face of evil.
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No one thinks about it. No one really cares about that. In verses three and four, people mock the ways of God.
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It says, but come here, you sons of the sorceress, you offspring of the adulterer and the harlot.
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Whom do you ridicule? Against whom do you make a wide mouth and stick out the tongue? Are you not children of transgression, offspring of falsehood?
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In verse five, this is the way things are. People in the pursuit of their own lust are willing to sacrifice their children.
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Inflaming yourselves, verse five says, with gods under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clefts of the rock.
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Here's an ironic thing. We think we are so civilized. We look back at,
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I'm talking about our culture, even. How would this era, period of time, be taught in a public school classroom in world history class?
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It'd be looking at this culture that would take their babies out to an altar somewhere and slay the child and burn the child as an offering, as a sacrifice to the gods.
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The teacher in such a classroom would be rightly horrified and look at this thing and think how terrible it is without making any connection whatsoever with those who were sacrificing their children for the sake of their own lust today before they're even born, before they're even born.
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Well, this is the way things are. And in verses six through eight, notice how they prefer occult practices, and in verses nine and 10, worldly alliances rather than trusting
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God. These are people who are supposed to, they claim to be the people of God, and yet they would rather practice things related to the occult.
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So that's chapter 56 and seven. Going back to chapter 56, verse 12, the prospect of coming judgment is completely ignored.
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Come, one says, I will bring wine and we will fill ourselves with intoxicating drink. Tomorrow will be as today and much more abundant.
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We'll just go on enjoying life as we choose to enjoy it without any consideration that God's judgment is coming.
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In chapter 57, verses 14 through 21, God offers his presence and his peace to those who are lowly and contrite in heart, but his offer is ignored.
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Notice the last three verses. The Lord says, I create the fruit of the lips.
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Peace, peace to him who is far off and him who is near, says the Lord, and I will heal him.
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But the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.
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There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked. Chapters 56 and seven.
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In chapter 58, look at verse three and notice how God's people complain that God is ignoring our piety.
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Why have we fasted, they say, and you have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls and you take no notice?
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We're doing all this religious stuff that you want us to do, but you're not relieving our affliction.
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You're not making life easy for us. God, you're ignoring our piety. But God responds in the last part of verse three and he says that piety that is disconnected from life obedience is really meaningless.
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Last part of verse three. He says, in fact, in the day of your fast, you find pleasure and exploit all your laborers.
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Indeed, you fast for strife and debate and to strike with the fist of wickedness.
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You will not fast as you do this day to make your voice heard on high. I'm not paying attention to religious ritual,
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God says, when you are living in utter disobedience and you're showing that disobedience by the way you treat others.
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In verses eight through 10, God says that when God's people do justice, practice righteousness, they become a light to the nations.
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Notice particularly verse eight. Then your light shall break forth like the morning, your healing shall spring forth speedily and your righteousness shall go before you.
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The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call and the
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Lord will answer. Become a light to the nations. And look at verses 13 and 14.
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The last part of verse chapter 58 says that God's people will be blessed by God and be a blessing to others, but there is a critical key to that in verses 13 and 14.
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If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day and call the
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Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable and shall honor him not doing your own ways nor finding your own pleasure nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the
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Lord and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father.
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The mouth of the Lord has spoken. It is crucial for the blessing of the
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Lord that his people honor the Sabbath. Then chapter 59.
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Chapter 59, as God looks across the land, once again he's looking at the way things are, he sees injustice and no one really seems to want it.
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Look at the expressions of injustice. The last part of verse six. Their works are works of iniquity and the act of violence is in their hand.
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First part of verse nine. Therefore justice is far from us nor does righteousness overtake us.
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And verse 15. Verse 15. So truth fails.
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Truth fails. And back in verse four, notice that no one really seems to want that justice and righteousness that God calls his people to.
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He says no one calls for justice nor does any plead for truth. They trust in empty words and speak lies.
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They conceive evil and bring forth iniquity. And when God looks at this situation, verses 15 and 16, he is displeased that there's no one to intervene in this mess.
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Last part of verse 15. Then the Lord saw it and it displeased him that there was no justice.
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He saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor.
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So the Lord is displeased with his people that nobody really seems interested in justice and righteousness and no one is stepping to the fore and calling people to that.
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So what does God do? He himself intervenes in the last part of verse 16.
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Therefore his own arm brought salvation for him and his own righteousness, it sustained him.
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Verses 17 and 18 describe the Lord as a warrior putting on armor to fight for justice.
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Verse 17, this is gonna sound familiar because of how Paul speaks of the armor, spiritual armor that we are to put on.
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He says, for he put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation on his head.
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He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad with zeal as a cloak.
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According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay. Fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies, the coastlands he will fully repay.
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And this of course is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus, right? Verse 20, the
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Redeemer will come to Zion and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob, says the
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Lord. Jesus ultimately fulfills this intervention in bringing justice and righteousness.
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And then we come to chapter 60. And in chapter 60, the imagery of light is at the forefront.
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We pointed that out. The chapter begins and ends with light. The first nine verses speak of that light that's coming.
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God will come as a light to the world and the rest of the chapter, verses 10 through 22, paint a picture of a glorious future, a future of light that's ultimately fulfilled in the new
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Jerusalem. And you can see that parallel in Revelation chapter 21.
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Well, let's look at chapter 60. Let's break it down. And notice, I think on your handout, I gave to you the chiasm of chapter 60.
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And remember, we've spoken of this the last couple of weeks, the nature of a chiasm, the structure of a chiasm.
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It's a passage of scripture that forms a unit of emphasis in and of itself, all right?
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And that passage of scripture can be divided into sections. And in this case, there are, what, eight of them?
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Nine of them, nine sections. And the first and the last sections are parallel.
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The second and eighth are parallel. The third and the seventh are parallel. The fourth and the sixth are parallel.
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And the fifth, the section that's in the middle is the focal point or is the critical pivot point in the passage, all right?
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So you see on that structure that I've laid out for you here, let's just look at, to show you the example here, the parallels.
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The first and the last section both have to do with the Lord, who is the light of Zion.
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The parallel in the next sections, verses six and seven, paralleling 17 and 18, the parallel is material and spiritual.
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The new status of the nations, materially and spiritually, they are accepted by the Lord. That parallels the transformation of Zion, both materially and spiritually, and so on through the section.
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So let's look at these sections, and we can only really briefly discuss each one in our time together this morning.
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In verses one through five, the Lord is the light of Zion. Now remember in the scriptures, there are two ways of thinking about Zion.
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One is the very literal way, like Mount Zion that exists in Israel where Jerusalem sits.
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Jerusalem, Mount Zion, parallel ideas, parallel places. But then there is also the spiritual
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Zion. There is the Zion that is above, all right? So when we think about this passage, we have to put the two ideas together, the real and the spiritual, the literal and the spiritual.
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The Lord is the light of Zion. And what we wanna understand, these first three verses are talking about Jesus.
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Jesus is the light of the world. The first verse says, your light has come.
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What is that light, right? What is that light that has come? Go back to chapter nine.
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In chapter nine, there is that promise and prophecy of Isaiah where in verse two, it says the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.
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Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death upon them a light has shined.
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Well, who is that light that has shined upon the people that walk in darkness? Verse six, unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.
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This is speaking of Jesus. This is a prophecy of the coming of Jesus. God the son is coming to bring the light that the world so desperately needs.
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Now we know that's true because of what Jesus says in John chapter eight. Turn there with me, if you would, because we're gonna zero in on the phrases that Jesus uses in John eight, verse 12.
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So Isaiah 60 says, your light has come. Isaiah nine prophesies that those who sat in darkness will see a great light.
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And Jesus declares in John 8, 12, I am the light of the world.
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Look what he says as he continues. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.
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Jesus is using here terminology that you come across in the book of Isaiah.
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Walking in darkness. Saw that in chapter nine, verse two, right? But we also see it in Isaiah 59, verse nine.
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Says therefore justice is far from us, nor does righteousness overtake us. We look for light, but there is darkness.
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The people are living in, walking in darkness. We look for brightness, but we walk in blackness.
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So this idea that Jesus says that those who follow him will not walk in darkness, the corollary to that is those who don't follow him do walk in darkness.
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This is coming from the book of Isaiah. Jesus says I am the light of the world.
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Again, it's a Isaiah sounding terminology, phraseology.
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In Isaiah 42, verse six, the Lord says, I, the
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Lord, have called you in righteousness. The Lord is speaking, God the Father is speaking to God the
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Son. I, the Lord, have called you, God the Son, in righteousness and will hold your hand. I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the peoples, a light to the
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Gentiles. Jesus says I am that light. I am the light of the world.
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And in chapter 49, verse six, chapter 49,
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Isaiah 49, verse six. Again, the
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Lord, the God the Father speaking to God the Son. Indeed, he says, is it too small a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel?
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I will also give you as a light to the Gentiles, that you should be my salvation to the ends of the earth.
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I am the light of the world, Jesus says. What a glorious fulfillment. And he says those who follow me will have the light of life.
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Will have the light of life. There's an interesting way of translating
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Isaiah 53, verse 11. It's particularly translated this way in the
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Septuagint. Remember what that is, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. Isaiah 53, 11, in my
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New King James, it says, he shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied.
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God the Father shall see the labor of God the Son and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
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Another way to translate the first part of the verse is, he shall see the labor of his soul, and then
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I even have a little marginal note in my Bible that says, from the labor of his soul, he shall see light.
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From the labor of his soul, he shall see light. Why? Because those who follow
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Jesus will not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.
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So it's a practical application here of this, Jesus is the light of the world.
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Practical application, going back to Isaiah 60, verse two, is that darkness covers the earth.
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We don't need to elaborate on that. We live in that darkness. And there are seasons where the darkness is more all -encompassing, but it is nevertheless covering the earth.
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And you know as well as I do that humanity is groping in that darkness, longing for light.
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And my goodness, you see it where they're turning, where people are turning for quote -unquote light.
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Follow the science, follow the light of science. Follow the light of the medical doctors who are telling you that it's perfectly fine to mutilate your body and to take these chemical things to change you from being what you are to what you want to be in your gender and so forth.
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We're looking for light and people are not finding it. But the light with the answer has come.
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The last part of verse two, the Lord will arise over you and his glory will be seen upon you.
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And the net result is that people from all over the globe will come to him.
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Verse three, the Gentiles shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising.
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The light has come. Now in verses four and five, God's people respond to the gathering of these nations, the
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Gentiles that come to the light. And they respond, notice, with a radiant overflowing joy.
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Verse four, lift up your eyes all around and see. They all gather together, they come to you.
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Your sons shall come from afar and your daughters shall be nursed at your side. Then you shall see and become radiant and your heart shall swell with joy.
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Your heart shall swell with joy. Now this can be, you can read this in a very literal way as the returning of the exiles from the
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Babylonian exile. And there is a, I mean, this is the way that this prophecy would have initially been received.
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But it is very clear that that is not the fulfillment of this prophecy, right? Because even in that return from the
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Babylonian exile, the light has not come, that everlasting light that's going to be described at the end of the chapter.
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So there's more to this than simply the offspring of the Jewish people coming back from the
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Babylonian exile. People are gonna come, Gentiles are gonna come to the light and the sons and the daughters that come are those who come to faith in Christ and are also brothers and sisters with us as well in Christ Jesus.
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Now let's look at the next section, verses six and seven, which in the chiasm is stated this way.
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The new status of the nations, materially and spiritually, they are accepted by the
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Lord. So in verse six, the nations offer to the Lord an abundance of gifts and praise.
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Says the multitude of camels shall cover your land, the dromedaries of, and look at the different places described, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah, all those from Sheba shall come, they shall bring gold and incense, they shall proclaim the praises of the
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Lord. All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together to you, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you.
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So there is this coming of the nations with their abundance they come from various places,
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Midian, Ephah, Sheba, Kedar, Nebaioth, and that description of all these different places is to indicate a sense of like a worldwide surge.
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Now you say, well, these are just places over in the Middle Eastern region. Yeah, this would be the world known to Isaiah.
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This would be the world known to Israel. They didn't know anything about North America or South America or Australia.
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They didn't know anything about inhabitants in any of these other places. So he's using, it's sort of like a figure of speech where the part stands for the whole, use a little part to stand for a bigger part.
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And this is describing, creating a sense of a worldwide surge of nations, peoples, coming with their abundance of gifts.
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And notice this one particular place mentioned, Midian. Do you remember the
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Midianites? The Midianites, they would come in and raid the land of Israel.
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So here are these formerly dreaded spoilers, the
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Midianites, who now become welcome worshipers and now become welcome worshipers.
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They come at the end of verse six, proclaiming the praises of the
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Lord. Literally the idea here is they come telling the good news of the
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Lord. One of the commentators I looked at regarding this, Alec Mocher, he said this.
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He says, the nations do not come as mere porters of Zion's children.
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As you read back in verse four, they come from afar with the sons and daughters and so forth.
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They don't come just as mere porters of Zion's children, but as converts to the Lord in their own right and as evangelists proclaiming the good news.
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Now here's the thing in verse seven, the Lord accepts it all. He accepts it all. They shall ascend, look at the end of verse seven.
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They shall ascend with acceptance on my altar and I will glorify the house of my glory.
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The Lord accepts it all. Now in verses eight and nine, the next section of the chiasm, notice how world expectations are met in the
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Lord. In verses eight and nine begin a new stanza. And so in verse eight, the expectations of the world, the longings for the world are met in the
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Lord. In the Lord, they find a home. Look at verse eight, a very poetic way of describing this home in which, not the home itself, but the discovery of this home.
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Who are these who fly like a cloud and like doves to their roosts?
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The first part of the verse is a poetic way of speaking of the coming of peoples with speed.
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Like you look up in the clouds on a, just a partly cloudy day where the upper atmosphere, the air current, the wind current is carrying those clouds along.
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And you look up and you see this cloud in front of you and you look back down to your reading or whatever you're doing and you look back up and the cloud isn't there anymore.
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Where is it? Well, it's way over there. It's sped off in the sky. They come flying like a cloud and like doves to their roosts.
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Think of homing pigeons. Aren't they fascinating creatures? They know how to get home.
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They know where their home is. You can take them anywhere and send them off in the sky and they take flight and they make their way back home.
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How do they do that? I don't know how they do that. That's God -given navigational capabilities in their creation.
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But the point is that they know where home is. And here are the nations who in the
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Lord find a home. They land on Him like a homing pigeon gets back home.
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And in the Lord, verse nine tells us that their longings, the longings of the nations who sit in darkness and find this great light, those longings are fulfilled.
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They wait expectantly for Him. Verse nine, surely the coastlands.
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That word coastlands, is it in the regular King James? I don't know what you might have.
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Is it islands or whatever it is? Coast, isles?
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Okay, it's speaking of the nations as a whole, the far -off places.
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Surely the coastlands shall wait for me, wait for me.
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That has the idea of a conscious longing and expectation.
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And so again, our commentator Mocher, he says this. He says, consciously or unconsciously, the longings of the nations can find fulfillment only in the
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God of Israel, in the light of the world. And they wait expectantly for Him.
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And they come exclusively to Him. Look at the last part of verse nine. The coastlands, they wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish will come first to bring your sons from afar.
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They're silver and they're gold with them. Now look at what they're bringing all of this to. Bringing it to the name of the
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Lord your God and to the Holy One of Israel, because He has glorified you.
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They're coming exclusively to the light of the world, coming exclusively to Him, notice for two reasons.
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Because of who He is and because of what He has done. Because of who
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He is. They're coming to the name of the Lord your God, to the
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Holy One of Israel. Coming to the name. That has to do with God as He has revealed
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Himself to man. Finally, God in His grace opens the blind eyes of these from all nations.
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And they see the reality of who God is as He has revealed
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Himself to mankind. And they come to the name, to the
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Holy One of Israel. That is, He who has totally distinguished
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Himself from all other so -called gods. There are a plethora of gods in this world.
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When all is said and done, the only God to whom those who see the light will come is the
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Holy One of Israel. The one who has exclusively distinguished
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Himself from all other gods. They come because of who He is, but they also come because of what
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He has done. The last part of verse nine, they come because He has glorified you.
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He has glorified you. What's that speaking about? That's talking about the divine transformation of the redeemed, glorified you.
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The divine transformation of the redeemed that serves as a magnet drawing people to Christ.
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Let me show you what I mean from a verse that we looked at, a passage we looked at not too awfully long ago in 1
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Peter, okay? Remember this? Turn to 1 Peter real quick. Chapter two, verses 11 and 12.
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Back in verse 11, he says, "'You are a chosen generation,' remember this? "'You, believers in Christ, followers of Jesus, "'you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, "'a holy nation,
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His own special people, "'that you may proclaim the praises of Him.'" Does that sound familiar?
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You may proclaim the praises of Him. That's very Isaac, if you will. We just read that a few minutes ago.
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The praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light, all right?
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You were once not a people, now you are. You hadn't obtained mercy, but now you have. But now look at verse 11.
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"'Beloved,' he says, "'I beg you as sojourners "'and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts "'which war against your soul.
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"'Be being transformed by this light "'to which you have come.
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"'Having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, "'that when they speak against you as evildoers, "'they may, by your good works which they observe, "'glorify
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God in the day of visitation.'" And remember, if you remember when we looked at that passage what is that day of visitation?
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Some think it's the day of God's judgment on people, but others think of it as the day when God in His grace visits those who had been so critical of you, visits them with His Spirit to open their eyes, their blind eyes, to see, and they too become believers in Christ.
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They are drawn to Christ by the dramatic divine transformation of the redeemed.
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Back in Isaiah 60, the next three sections of the chiasm form the central part of it.
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And we're gonna zero in on letter E in a moment. And the first and third section in this part are parallel.
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They have to do with the nations. So in verses 10 and 11, notice that the serving nations are serving to demonstrate the
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Lord's compassion on Zion. Let me show you what I mean. Verse 10, the last part of the verse, the
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Lord is merciful to His people. He says, in my wrath
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I struck you, but in my favor I have had mercy on you.
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All right, how has the Lord shown His mercy to His people?
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He's shown His mercy by the nation's service to His people.
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Look at verse 10, the first part of the verse. The sons of foreigners shall build up your walls and their kings shall minister to you.
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Verse 11, your gates shall be open continually. They shall not shut day or night that men may bring to you the wealth of the
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Gentiles and their kings in procession. Now, what I just read in the first part of verse 10 and then in verse 11 shows you the partial fulfillment of this and the ultimate fulfillment.
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The partial fulfillment is in the beginning of verse 10. The sons of foreigners will build up your walls and their kings shall minister to you.
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When did that happen? That happened under the return from exile under Ezra and Nehemiah, where the walls of the city were rebuilt, where the temple was rebuilt, and it was all furnished.
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Remember this? It was furnished by the kingdom, by the kingdom.
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The king authorized the supplies to be provided for the returning exiles to build these things.
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But verse 11 focuses more on that global fulfillment. When the gates are open continually, they're not gonna be shut day or night, and men will bring to you the wealth of the
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Gentiles and their kings in procession. Let's look at the verses 13 and 14 at the submissive nations, the submissive nations.
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They finally come to recognize Zion in verses 13 and 14.
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The glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the cypress, the pine, and the box tree together to beautify the place of my sanctuary and I will make the place of my feet glorious.
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Now look at this, verse 14. Also the sons of those who afflicted you shall come bowing to you, and all those who despised you shall fall prostrate at the soles of your feet, and they shall call you the city of the
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Lord, Zion of the Holy One of Israel. People go from being haters of God's people to bending the knee.
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Again, this reminds me of what we just read in 1 Peter 2, 11 and 12, where those who were critical and making fun of and even giving a hard time to the people of God for the righteousness,
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God ends up visiting them and they bend the knee.
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Now right in the middle of the chapter and in the middle of this section of the chapter is verse 12.
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It says, for the nation and kingdom which will not serve you shall perish and those nations shall be utterly ruined.
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Zion, in other words, Zion is the key to world destiny.
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This verse might be, you might look at this as the dark side of the
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Abrahamic promise. What am I talking about? You remember this, the Abrahamic promise in Genesis 12, verse three.
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The Lord said to Abraham, I will bless those who bless you and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.
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But there's a middle part that I just deliberately left out. I will bless those who bless you and you all the families of the earth will be blessed is the, it's the bright side of this
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Abrahamic promise. What's the dark side? Him who dishonors you, I will curse.
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Zion is the key to world destiny. Verse 12 again, the nation and kingdom which will not serve you shall perish, shall perish.
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Those nations shall be utterly ruined. Christ is really the focal point of history, the light of the world, the light that shines in Zion.
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He is the focal point and everything hinges upon him.
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Bless him and you're blessed. Curse him and you're cursed. Well, there's a couple other sections here.
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I don't have time to look at it this morning. Encourage you to study that out for yourself.
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But the last thing in verses 19 to 22 that I just want to go back to is that the
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Lord is the light of Zion. And this section is the ultimate fulfillment of the light coming and he is the everlasting light.
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And so in conclusion, we can just say this, the whole world lies in darkness but the light of the world is
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Jesus. Come to the light, come to the light. It's shining for you.
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Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the light that is Christ Jesus. I pray that you would bless these thoughts to our hearts today and if anyone who might still be walking in darkness, that today they would see that great light.