Arise! Shine your Light !
The message of prophet Isaiah in chapter 60:1-5 is one
of those great promises that people have drawn great
strength from. This message was given to the people of
Israel when they were captives in an alien territory. There
was indeed deep darkness that surrounded the people.
The first thing to note is that God commanded the people
to “arise, shine.” In order for God to say that they must
have been laying down, in a spiritual sense. They were
asleep. Far from accomplishing the God’s purpose. God
looks upon spiritually asleep Israel and causes her to not
only arise but to shine the light of God that is upon them.
of the Lord. While all believing Christians believe in the
coming of the Lord, there is a pervasive wrong attitude that
we are to just look forward to Jesus’ return and passively
wait for that Day. Well, passively waiting is actually sleeping
spiritually. In verse 12 Paul declares: “The night is nearly
over.” As children of light it is high time that we awake out
of our sleep, knowing that the reign of darkness is about to
come to a close. God is calling us to be alive and active, to
be spiritually awake in these days of increasing darkness.
We have been given the most effective weapon against
darkness: the light of the Lord. Arise, Shine people of God!
What does it really mean to ‘shine the light’?
Take note that God
called the light - their
light. “... your light
has come!...,” “...The
Gentiles shall come
to your light...” The
light was not only
God’s light but it was
theirs too. They were
to be carriers of God’s
light. Jesus said to the
disciples in Matthew
5:14-16: “You are the
light of the world. ….
Let your light so shine
before men, that they
may see your good
works and glorify your
Father in heaven.”
They did not merely
have the light, they
were the light. And
Jesus did not want the
light to be hidden but to be prominent.
Apostle Paul, in Ephesians 5:8, reminds the believers that
they were once darkness but now they were light in the
Lord. Then Paul quotes the passages from Isa 26 and Isa
60 that speak of awaking and arising. While the enemy is
working overtime to make us spiritually asleep and dead,
God is calling us to arise and shine!
In 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, talking about the return of Jesus,
Apostle Paul says that the Day (coming of Jesus) should not
overtake them as a thief. The reason for that is because
they are sons of the light and sons of the day. Paul goes on
to say: Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us
watch and be sober.
In Romans 13:11-14, the Apostle writes about the Day
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All of the above references teach about the responsibility
of Christians in a non-Christian or sub-Christian or postChristian society. The difference between Christians and
non-Christians, between the church and the world