Isaiah, Prophet of Salvation, Book 9, part 12

In Isaiah 60:18 we read that the walls of the heavenly Jerusalem were to be called Yeshua, “salvation.” In other words, Jesus Christ is the defense of this heavenly city. God’s instructions to kings was to refrain from multiplying horses for the defense of the nation (Deuteronomy 17:16). The prophet denounced the king of Judah in Isaiah 31:1, saying, “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses… But they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the Lord.”

David understood this when he wrote in Psalm 28:8,

⁸ The Lord is their strength, and He is a saving [Yeshua] defense to His anointed.

The Yeshua defense is the only reliable defense for a nation, as long as the people have faith and respect His laws. When they continually break the law, then God fights against them, and what nation can successfully defend itself against God. So the prophet wrote earlier in Isaiah 29:2-4 that He would lead foreign armies against Jerusalem to destroy the city.

The idea that the walls were to be named after the Messiah Himself is a New Covenant concept, revealed by Isaiah long before Christ’s birth. The earthly Jerusalem rejected Christ and His defense, and so the city was destroyed 40 years later, as Jesus prophesied in Matthew 22:7. Isaiah 49 and Jeremiah 19 describe the city’s ultimate destruction. Paul puts it in terms of Hagar being cast out (Galatians 4:30).

The Light and Glory

In Isaiah 60:19 the prophet continues with his description of the heavenly Jerusalem, saying,

¹⁹ No longer will you have the sun for light by day, nor for brightness will the moon give you light; but you will have the Lord for an everlasting light, and your God for your glory.

John’s description in Revelation 21:23-26 was derived from his study of Isaiah, for he wrote,

²³ And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. ²⁴ The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. ²⁵ In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed, ²⁶ and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it.

Earthly cities have need of the sun and the moon, but heavenly cities do not. When heaven comes to earth (as destined from the beginning), the heavenly Jerusalem will not simply be superimposed upon the earthly Jerusalem. The glory of the heavenly city will manifest wherever Christ reigns with the overcomers.

In fact, the glory of God will shine fully only in those who have been changed and transfigured into His image. We read that “its lamp is the Lamb.” John uses the word arnion, “little lambs.” Toward the end of Jesus’ ministry, He told Peter to “tend my arnion” (John 21:15). This was an obvious reference to the body of Christ. By contrast, Jesus Himself is called “the Lamb” (amnos, the big Lamb) in John 1:29, 36, Acts 8:32, and 1 Peter 1:19. So the “lamp” in the heavenly Jerusalem is not just Christ Himself but the entire body of Christ—those who have Christ as their Head. Jesus is the Amnos, but when the Head is joined to the Body of Christ, the two together are the arnion.

Hence, it is significant that “the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.” These kings manifest the glory of God, and “the nations will walk by its light.” John was not speaking of literal light from the glory of the sun and moon. He was speaking of the light of revelation and truth that Jesus brought first to “the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali” (Isaiah 9:1, 2). This is the light and glory that will spread throughout the whole earth as the truth of the gospel is preached and believed (Isaiah 60:1, 2, 3).

Although the gospel has often been rejected throughout the centuries, beginning in Jerusalem, its spread is ensured and inevitable on account of God’s New Covenant promise. Hence, we read in Isaiah 60:20,

²⁰ Your sun will no longer set, nor will your moon wane; for you will have the Lord for an everlasting light, and the days of your mourning will be over.

The physical sun sets, and the moon wanes, but the true Light will never give way to darkness, nor will it diminish as does the moon. The prophet then adds a new dimension to the meaning of light by saying, “the days of your mourning will be over.” There are many reasons to mourn. Most prominently, we mourn for the dead, and so the light of Christ and the transfiguration of the overcomers will also bring immortality and incorruption (1 Corinthians 15:51, 52, 53).

The Glorified Body

Paul also tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:4,

⁴ For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.

When we receive the clothing that we lost when Adam sinned, then the clothing, or tent, of mortality will be replaced by the clothes of immortality and glory. Meanwhile, Paul says, we have been given a pledge—the Holy Spirit—as if God were our Debtor. Once Jesus paid our debt to the law incurred by sin, He was required to return the clothing that He took from Adam as a pledge on his debt. But He did not immediately return that clothing, else we would not presently “groan” in “this tent.”

Hence, He became our Debtor, for only debtors are required to pledge something. In this case God gave us the Holy Spirit as a pledge (2 Corinthians 5:5) until the day He returns to us the tent or clothing that He took from Adam.

Isaiah’s prophecy, along with its New Testament explanation, speaks of the future when the feast of Tabernacles is fulfilled in us. The interim is our time of learning and spiritual growth. We have been given a measure of the Spirit through God’s pledge, so we already have this light within us, though it is yet veiled by flesh. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 4:6, 7,

⁶ For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. ⁷ But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves.

The light of God’s glory is already shining in our hearts. Paul calls it “this treasure” and says that it is largely hidden “in earthen vessels.” That is the nature of the pledge that God has given us until such time that He actually returns the garments that are being reserved for us in heaven (2 Corinthians 5:1).

The example of Gideon’s battle shows that these earthen vessels must be broken before the light can shine (Judges 7:16, 20). Gideon’s battle prophesied of the fulfillment of the autumn feast days. Breaking the earthen vessels prophesied of the Day of Atonement, so that the light of God’s glory (the torches) could shine forth on the feast of Tabernacles. In other words, we must be broken and the flesh must die in order for the glory of God to shine forth from us.

God Gets the Glory

The prophet concludes in Isaiah 60:21, 22,

²¹ Then all your people will be righteous; they will possess the land forever, the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, that I may be glorified. ²² The smallest one will become a clan, and the least one a mighty nation. I, the Lord, will hasten it in its time.

This prophesies of the divine plan and goal. When His promise is fulfilled, “all your people will be righteous.” This is the goal and purpose of the New Covenant, in which “all will know Me, from the least to the greatest of them” (Hebrews 8:11). They will “possess the land forever.” What land? The Old Covenant land was Canaan—a physical land inheritance, which they lost through sin, much like Adam himself lost possession of his own “land” through sin. Adam’s exile from Eden was the pattern setter for Israel’s exile from their land.

Canaan was merely a type and shadow of a greater land to be possessed, for we are made of the “dust from the ground” (Genesis 2:7). Hence, a land inheritance, though good, is not our ultimate inheritance. In fact, it is not possible to inherit land permanently without first inheriting our own land/body. However, the New Covenant promises that we will indeed inherit what God has for us. The promise is based on His ability to bring “all your people” into their inheritance, “that I may be glorified.”

God is glorified when He proves that He is indeed capable of fulfilling His vow in spite of the opposition coming from the will of man. God thus takes the credit for making this happen, because man failed to fulfill his Old Covenant vow. This is therefore “the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, that I may be glorified.”

If men had been able to save themselves by the power of their own will, then men could glory in their flesh. God saw fit to give their flesh the first opportunity to succeed, but in the end, the Old Covenant failed. When the Old Covenant was broken, we needed a new covenant that would succeed. Because God Himself made this promise, oath, and vow, it was sure to succeed “in its time.” Its very success brings glory to God.

Meanwhile, many doubt that He can override the powerful will of man and actually save everyone in the end. But that is part of the suspense in His Story. As a good Novelist, God makes it appear to be impossible, raising up much opposition, such as Pharaoh and Esau (Romans 9:13, 17), to hold His readers in suspense.

Whose will shall prevail? Few have faith that God is able to perform what He has promised, but the seed of Abraham have believed it (Romans 4:20-22), having confidence in God’s ability.