ISAIAH - CHAPTER 60: 1-13 - THE GLORIOUS CHURCH
Isaiah – Chapter 60: 1-13
THE GLORIOUS CHURCH
Tuesday Morning Bible Study
March 17, 2015, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
In an open-eye vision of the night in 1989, I had a visitation of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He was standing by my bed. He was all light. He had in his hand a blanket of light. He covered me with the blanket of light and spoke this scripture to me:
“Arise; shine; for your light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. Darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; The Lord shall arise upon you,” “Your light will shine in the darkness”.
This visitation was a few weeks before the call came to start the first church.
It is my persuasion from that visitation as well as other subsequent visitations that the church has entered into (in measure) the glory of the Kingdom of Christ. In the year 2000, the Lord spoke to me to “declare the Glory of God wherever I went”.
Jesus the light (Jn. 8:12) shines on the Church, and the Church shines on the earth.
I thought at that time there would be a great outpouring of Glory and we would see the Harvest. However, the Parousia of His Glory has been experienced by the remnant, but not by the masses. We have certainly seen the escalation of darkness, evil and sin covering the earth and gross darkness over the people. The moral compass of the Holiness of God is even absent from the preaching from many an apostate pulpit.
The day of the Lord is light and darkness at the same time!
Without “the preaching of the gospel through the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven (1 Pet. 1:12), there is no voice to convince the people of their sins that they may receive the glory of the salvation of Christ.
Those who seek after the things of the world are transformed into the image of the world, becoming earthly, unspiritual and compromising. For those who have filled their hearts with love, worship and desire to behold Christ’s glory, we are being transformed into His image.
For those who are walking after the Spirit (the Word of God), the Light is getting brighter. For those who are walking after the flesh (their five natural senses---the circumstantial realm), it is getting darker.
Chapter 59: 16-21 describing the unbridgeable gap between the shame of God’s people and their glory stands the figure of God as Avenger and Redeemer.
In this glorious vision given to Isaiah, the prophet sees the glory of the true city of God, the spiritual Zion, built on the rock of ages, and against which the gates of hell shall never prevail.
Here we have the glorious church rising out of the duality of the Feast of Pentecost in the Holy Place and into the singleness of the Feast of Tabernacles in the Most Holy Place.
The word Glory in its various forms is found 23 times in chapters 60-66. We will see a glorious dawning, a joyous wedding, a righteous victory and a marvelous birth.
In this and the next two chapters, we have a glorious description of the ultimate realization of the purposes of God. It commences with a declaration of the material prosperity of the people described in 59:20-21. The breaking of the new day is first spoken of. The holy nation (1 Pet. 2: 9-10) is the center of light in the midst of surrounding darkness. The glory of Jehovah is manifested, and nations and kings gather themselves into the Church.
Isa. 60: 2b-5…”His glory shall be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes round about, and see; all they gather themselves together. They come to you. Your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be nursed at your side. Then you shall see and flow together, and your heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted to you, and the forces of the Gentiles shall come to you.”
This promise is for the glorious church, but I believe it has a dualistic interpretation not only for Christian’s personally, but for the nation of Israel.
(This week a battle raged over Israel between the armies of Heaven and the armies of Satan. We are rejoicing that Netanyahu won the election. Hopefully the escalation of the battles raging around Israel will now be slowed down. Due to the interference by President Obama, the leadership of Israel will now be much stronger in the world. Prime Minister Netanyahu defeated the candidate President Obama was supporting.
Ezekiel 29:21: “In that day I will cause the horn (strength) of the house of Israel to bud forth, and I will give you the opening of the mouth in the midst of them; and they shall know that I am the Lord.”
(see sermon notes -page 7) www.eastgateministries.com “The Opening of the Mouth in the Midst of Them)
Whether the vision here in chapter 60 pertains to Israel, the Church, or to each of us individually, the call is to arise from the dust, “Arise and shine”! God’s visible Glory or Shekinah was for centuries confined to the Jewish Temple; but this apostrophe announces that it is now to illuminate all ages and nations.
In the beautiful Messianic-Psalm 72, whose language identifies with this chapter, we hear the resounding words, “let the whole earth be filled with (His Shekinah) or His Glory.”
God’s glory, as manifested in His church, will be like a beacon-light to the surrounding heathen tribes (Vs. 3). “The Gentiles shall come” (or nations) to your light and kings to the shining of your rays. The Church of Christ will be so resplendent with the spiritual glories of her King, that the very monarchs of the earth will love to go and cast their crowns and scepters at His feet.
We know the church is not there! Quite the opposite, we are being shamed by persecution and abuse on every continent.
Verse 4, Isaiah moves into the double metaphor addressing the Church as the Queenly, matron-city, now risen from her couch of sorrow and sadness. She is exhorted to look from her battlements in all directions, round about to the remotest horizon, and witness the unparalleled spectacle of mankind---every representative of the human family---crowding up to the courts of Zion to do homage to Zion’s God.
Zion is known not traced out with a boundary. Zion is experienced. Zion is a place of being in God. Zion is the Most Holy Place. Zion is becoming a present reality. Zion is the Kingdom of God, the government of God in the earth. Zion is a kingdom people. Generally speaking Zion is the church. Specifically, Zion is the overcomer in the Church. The Zion Company is the man-child out of the woman. It is the Judah and the Joseph Company.
Sunday morning, I blessed myself with a realization that when Moses blessed Joseph in Deut. 33:16, he imparted to him the blessing of the burning bush. “…for the precious things of the earth and fullness thereof, and for the good will of him that dwelt in the blush; let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph.”
The overcoming Church is a Joseph Company. Sunday morning, by faith, I apprehended the blessing of the eternal fire of the divine nature which dwelt in the bush. Moses carried that presence of Jesus. Jesus is a carrier of the eternal fire. That blessing belongs to the church. All we have to do is claim in and apprehend it.
“Lift up your eyes” (these eyes have just been dim with weeping) “round about, and see; all they gather themselves together; they come to you.” At the sight of her returning children, her “sons and daughters”.
The world is in a state of midnight darkness and tempest, roaring with tumultuous waves. Its nations are driven hither and thither, with the angry gusts of error, unbelief, passion, reckless spending, war and discord, “wasting and destruction.”
The glory of Christ shall still the tempest of the sea. “The abundance of sea will be converted unto you.”
The three great interests and powers on earth,---a trinity of forces, which have in all ages engrossed mankind will have its representatives in this vast multitude who are to ask the way to Zion.
The three are wealth, commerce and agriculture.
- Wealth will come. “The forces of the Gentiles shall come unto you.” Whether individual wealth, or the spoil and treasure of warrior-nations.
- In verse 6 is the commercial crowd, the traders of the world, the merchant-
Princes and their sons.
60:6: “The multitude of camels shall cover you, the Arabian camels of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come; they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall show fort the praises of the Lord.”
Caravans of camels and Arabian camels (dromedaries) laden with spices, gold, frankincense and myrrh lay their costliest offerings of devotion and homage at the feet of Jesus.
60:7: “All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together to you, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you; they shall come up with acceptance on My altar; and I will glory the house of My glory.”
Psalm 72:15: “He shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba…”
- These are followed by the Agricultural representatives---the owners and tillers of the soil. Shepherds driving the flocks of Kedar and the rams of Nebaioth---names identified with wild, roving Ishmael. These go up each with their appropriate offering. The flocks and rams are hastening to offer themselves as willing sacrifices to minister to the Chief Shepherd.
They shall come up with acceptance or good will on the altar.
When Messiah sees this vast festive train from every nation, he says, “I will glorify the house of my glory.”
God’s temple is to be adorned with living trophies---living souls from the nations to be saved!
60:8: “Who are these that fly as a cloud and as the doves to their windows?
Ships are seen afar off, with swelling canvas---fleets of them, fleeing before the wind. They seem to assume phantom forms. They are mistaken for fleecy clouds, or for flocks of doves on wing. The question is addressed to Messiah, “Who are these?” Messiah answers.
60:9: “Surely the isles shall wait for Me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring your sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, to the name of the Lord your God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because He has glorified you.”
These strange, cloudy, winged shapes are vessels---“the ships of Tarshish,” bringing the sons of the far West from the isles and distant continents. For me says Christ, “the islands are waiting”. St. Jerome, who lived long before Britain or North America had emerged from the darkness of Paganism suggests that the expression, “The ships of Tarshish first,” means foremost in rank. If so, the missionaries we have sent to the shores of India, the Pacific, and the far East are here represented.
“The Lord gave the word; great was the company of those that published it…Though ye have laid among the pots, yet shall you be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold” (Ps. 68:11-13)
If all that were not enough to describe the glory that is in store for the glorious church, the Divine Speaker proceeds to tell of the part these converted nations will have in the rebuilding of Zion’s walls. So great and increasing shall be the crowd of worshippers and glorified citizens, here shall be open “day and night continually,” to admit the rushing stream.
60: 10-11: “The sons of strangers shall build up your walls, and their kings shall minister to you; for in My wrath I smote you, but in My favor have I had mercy on you. Therefore your gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day or night; that men may bring to you the forces of the Gentiles, and they their kings may be brought.”
This is the description of New Jerusalem, the perfected saints. “Carolyn teach New Jerusalem as purity.”
Rev. 21:24-25: “The nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it; and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it. The gates of it shall not be shut at all by day; for there shall be no night there. There shall in no wise enter into it any things that defiles, neither whatsoever works abomination, or makes a lie; but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
In verse 12, we have a warning. Our nation is at great risk to come under this judgment due to our government trying to defeat the Prime Minister of Israel in their elections.
60: 12: “The nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish; yea those nations shall be utterly wasted.”
From the thought that everything great in the world of man is to be made to serve the Holy One and His church, the Prophet passes to what is great in the world of nature.
60:13: “The glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of My sanctuary; and I will make the place of My feet glorious.”
He makes selection of the noblest and rarest trees, and represents them as contributing their combined beauties for the adornment of the gardens and decoration of the walls of Zion.
He begins with the glory of Lebanon’s forests. Lebanon, lying beyond the borders of the Holy Land, was the emblem of the Gentile world.
Each feels honored that it occupies some lowly position in God’s plans and purposes.
May the Lord hasten the fullness of these days. May it be ours---each in our varied gifts, callings and sphere of influence to do what we can to share the honor, as “God’s pioneers,” of preparing a pathway for the wheels of Messiah’s chariot. May each of us be content in our peculiar and appropriate Kingdom work in the building of His glorious House.
The Spirit and the Bride say come Lord Jesus. “Arise and Shine” Son of Righteousness with healing in your beams.
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them has the light shown.” (Isa. 9:2)
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
Scripture from K.J.V. I entered into the labors of John Ross Macduff, Comfort Ye, Comfort Ye (public domain) and Kelly Varner, principles of present truth from Isaiah.