Isaiah 60:15 - Meaning and Application

The happy and glorious state of the church is foretold here, mainly pointing to the Christian church and its spiritual peace. At the same time, it also uses the small outward peace the Jews sometimes enjoyed after returning from captivity as a picture of it. This is spoken of in comparison with what the church had been like before. Her peace and honor would be sweeter because her condition had once been so low.

She had been despised, but now she would be honored (Isaiah 60:15, Isaiah 60:16). Jerusalem had been abandoned and hated, left by her friends and loathed by her enemies. No one walked through that ruined city, because people turned away from it like a dreadful sight. It had become something that astonished people and made them mock it. But now it would become an everlasting honor, because it would be cleansed from idolatry and restored to God’s favor. It would become the joy of good people for many generations.

Still, Jerusalem’s actual greatness was brief, and it fell far short of this promise. So we must look for the full meaning in the lasting glory of the gospel church. That glory is far greater than the Old Testament church’s, and the Christian faith brings blessings that truly are the joy of many generations. Two things are shown as her honor and joy, in place of being abandoned and hated.

First, she will find favor with her neighbors. The nations, and their kings, when they come to embrace Christianity, will work for the good of the church. They will support its interests with the care and tenderness of a nurse at a child’s breast (Isaiah 60:16). “You will drink the milk of the Gentiles,” that is, you will receive their support, not be harmed by them. “You will nurse at the breast of kings,” meaning they will be like nursing fathers to you. This is the spirit of the gospel.

Second, she will find favor with her God. “You will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and your Redeemer,” meaning she will know it by experience. Such salvation and redemption will be worked out for her that it will clearly be the Lord’s work, the work of a mighty One, because it is a great salvation from the Mighty One of Jacob, securing the good of all who are true Israelites. Before, they knew the Lord as their God. Now they will know him as their Savior and Redeemer. His holiness will now appear as his strength.

She had also been poor, but now she would be enriched, and everything would change for the better with her (Isaiah 60:17). When those lifted up from the dust are set among princes, they no longer carry brass in their purses or use iron in their houses, but instead have gold and silver, with other fitting improvements. In this way, the spiritual glory of the New Testament church far exceeds the outward splendor of the Jewish system, which had no glory compared with what surpasses it completely (2 Corinthians 3:10). When we received baptism instead of circumcision, the Lord’s Supper instead of the Passover, and a gospel ministry instead of a Levitical priesthood, we received gold instead of brass. Sin had turned gold into brass, as when Rehoboam made bronze shields instead of the golden ones he had lost. But when God’s favor returns, it turns brass back into gold.

She had also been oppressed by her own princes, which was sadly complained of, not only as her sin, but also as her misery (Isaiah 59:14). But now those wrongs would be made right (Isaiah 60:17). “I will make your officers peace” means that men of peace will be put into office, and they will truly act as just rulers, not supporters of injustice. They will be peace, meaning they will sincerely seek the good of the people, and through them the people will enjoy good. They will be peace because they will be righteous, and then peace will flow like a river when righteousness rolls on like the waves of the sea. Even tax collectors, whose work is to collect public tribute, must not be harsh. They must be fair to the people as well as loyal to the ruler, and, as John the Baptist told the tax collectors, they must not demand more than is appointed to them (Luke 3:13).

She had been insulted by her neighbors, invaded, spoiled, and plundered, but that would no longer happen (Isaiah 60:18). “Violence will no longer be heard in your land” means neither the shouts and boasts of violent people nor the cries of their victims will be heard again. Every person will peacefully enjoy what is his own. There will be no more waste or destruction, either of people or property, anywhere within her borders. Her walls will be called salvation, because they will be safe and a means of safety. Her gates will be called praise, because everyone will commend her for how well they are kept, and will praise God, who strengthens the bars of her gates (Psalm 147:13). When God’s salvation stands on the walls, his praises should be heard in the gates, the places where people gather.

The closing verses seem to direct us further still, even to the glory and happiness of heaven, using the flourishing state of the church on earth as a picture of it. Yet the church on earth was never like this in full, so it does not completely match the promise here. Several of the same images and words appear in the description of the new Jerusalem (Revelation 21:23; Revelation 22:5). Just as the prophets sometimes move from the blessings of the Jewish church to the lasting blessings of the Christian church, they sometimes rise from the church in this world to the church in glory, where, and only where, all promised peace, joy, and honor are complete.

God himself will be all in all in the happiness promised here, as he always is to true believers (Isaiah 60:19). “The sun will no longer be your light by day, nor the moon by night” means that God’s people, when they enjoy his favor and walk in the light of his presence, care little for the lights of this world. They could live well in the Lord’s light, even if those lights were taken away. In heaven there will be no need for sun or moon, because it is the inheritance of the saints in light, a light so great it will swallow up the sun’s light as easily as the sun swallows a candle’s.

Idolaters worshiped the sun and moon, which some have thought to be the oldest and most appealing form of idolatry. But these will no longer be your light, and they will no longer be treated as gods. The Lord will be a constant light to you, both day and night, in times of trouble as well as times of peace. Those who make God their only light will find him fully enough, their sun and shield. Your God will be your glory. God is the glory of those whose God he is, and he will be so forever. It is their glory that they have him as their God, and they rejoice in that. He is to them instead of beauty.

God’s people are honored for this reason, they belong to God in a covenant of mercy. The blessing promised here will never change, fade, or lessen (Isaiah 60:20). “Your sun will no longer set,” means there will be endless day, endless light, with God’s people. He will not be like the sun we know, which can be eclipsed, clouded, and then finally set, leaving us in darkness and cold. Instead, he himself will be their light, and he is the Father of lights, with whom there is no change and no shadow of turning (James 1:17).

Scripture once records the sun standing still for a whole day, and that was a glorious day. But what was that compared with a day that never ends, or a night that would still be bright? “Your moon will no longer withdraw itself” means it will never fade or wane, but stay full forever. The joys of heaven, both for the soul and for the glorified body, will never stop or be interrupted. This is because the Lord himself will be their everlasting light, a light that never grows dim and can never be put out. Then the days of mourning will be over for good, because tears will be wiped away, and the causes of them, sin and suffering, will be gone. So sorrow and sighing will flee away forever.

Those who are fit for this happiness, having been prepared for it, will never lose it (Isaiah 60:21). God’s people in the New Jerusalem will all be righteous, all made right with God by the Messiah’s righteousness, meaning his perfect right standing before God, and all made holy by his Spirit. All the people of that holy city must be righteous, because without holiness no one will see the Lord. There are no groups on earth where everyone is righteous, even the best societies still have some evil mixed in. But there will be no such mixture there. They will be entirely righteous, with no evil among them and no sin within them. The spirits of righteous people will be made perfect there.

They will all be the righteous people together who fill the New Jerusalem, the congregation of the righteous (Psalm 1:5). Since they are all righteous, they will inherit the land forever, because only sin could ever drive them out. The full holiness of the saints secures the lastingness of their joy.

The glory of the church will also bring honor to the God of the church. “They shall appear to be the branch of my planting, the work of my hands,” means God will openly own them as his own. It was by his grace that they were chosen for this happiness. He took them, like a branch from a wild olive tree, and grafted them into the good olive tree. He moved them from the field, while they were still tender, into his nursery, so that being planted in his garden on earth, they might soon be moved to his paradise in heaven.

It was also by his grace that they were prepared and fitted for this happiness. They are the work of his hands (Ephesians 2:10), formed for this very purpose, and brought to the full end of it by him (2 Corinthians 5:5). This is a work that takes time, and when it is finished, it will be wonderful to see. God will be glorified, because he began it and carried it through. The Lord Jesus will then be admired in all who believe.

They will look even more glorious, and God will be more honored in them, if we compare what they are with what they once were, and how far they have come from such small beginnings (Isaiah 60:22). “A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation.” The captives who returned from Babylon grew in number in a surprising way and became a strong nation. The Christian church also began as a very small group, once only 120 names, yet it grew into a thousand. The stone cut from the mountain without hands grew until it filled the whole earth.

The victorious church, and every glorified believer, will be a thousand from a little one, a strong nation from a small one. The grace and peace of believers first began like a mustard seed, but they grow and multiply, until a little one becomes a thousand, and the weak become like David. When they reach heaven and look back on their small beginnings, they will marvel at how they ever got there. And this promise is so amazing that it ends with this strong assurance: “I the Lord will hasten it in its time.”

This applies to the Jewish and Christian church, to the church on earth, to the church in glory, and to every believer. It may seem too hard to happen, so people might give up on it. But God, who has all power, has taken it on himself. “I the Lord will do it” means the one who can do it has also determined to do it. It will be done by his power, which cannot be resisted, and by his purpose, which cannot change.

It may also seem delayed for so long that hope grows weak. But as the Lord will do it, so he will hasten it. He will do it with all fitting speed. Even if much time passes before it is done, no time will be wasted. He will hasten it in its time, at the proper time, in the season when it will be beautiful. He will do it at the time set by his wisdom, even if not at the time set by our foolishness. That is true hastening, because if it comes in God’s time, it does not come too late. We can trust that his time is best, and faith will wait patiently for it.