Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 60:19
The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.
19. thy glory ] thy beauty; Isa 60:7, Isa 9:13.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
19, 20. Comp. Rev 21:23: “And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof”; and Isa 22:5. It is not implied that the sun and moon shall cease to exist; all that is said is that the new Jerusalem shall not be dependent on these natural luminaries. But that an actual physical illumination of the city by the glory of Jehovah is contemplated by the prophet can hardly be doubted. The basis of the conception is perhaps to be found in Eze 43:2.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The sun shall be no more – A similar expression denoting the great prosperity and happiness of the church, occurs in Isa 30:26 (see the note at that place). The language here is exceedingly beautiful, and the idea is plain. It is designed to foretell the great glory which would exist in the church under the Messiah; a glory compared with which all that is furnished by the sun, moon, and stars would be as nothing. Expressions singular to this, and probably derived from this, are used by John in describing the lot of heaven. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof Rev 21:23. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light Rev 22:5. The idea is, the light and beauty of truth would be so great; the divine perfections shine forth so illustriously under the gospel, that the eye would be attracted to that light as superior to all the natural splendor of the sun and moon. All the wonders and beauties of the natural world would be lost in the superior brightness that would shine in the moral world.
Neither for brightness – In order to give light; or, with her brightness she shall not shine on the night.
Shall the moon give light unto thee – The beauty of the moon shall be lost in the superior effulgence of the rays of truth.
But the Lord shall be unto thee – He will furnish a revelation that will disclose far more of his perfections and his glory, and that will be far more valuable to thee as a light and guide, than all the splendor of the heavenly bodies.
And thy God thy glory – The honor of the church shall be that it has the true God for its protector. Its joys shall be found, not in the objects of nature – the beauty of created things – but in the glory of the divine perfections, and in the laws and plans of the Redeemer. His name, his attributes, his laws, his protecting care, constitute her main glory. It is an honor to the church to have such a God and Redeemer; an honor to share his favor, and to be under his everwatchful eye. The glory of the church is not her wealth, her numbers, her influence, nor the rank and talent of her ministers and members; it is the character of her sovereign Lord, and in his perfections it is right that she should exult and rejoice.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 60:19
The sun shall be no more thy light by day
The lower giving place to the higher
The prophet bids his people look forward to a time when even the sun and moon shall become needless to them; when in some new and more direct experience of God they shall need nothing to reflect His light to them, but drink immediately from Himself His strength and inspiration.
That seems to be the meaning of the words; and so it points us to one feature which belongs to every progress, the power to do without one thing after another which has before been essential, the way in which, as we advance to higher and higher supplies, we are able to gather out, of them what we used to get from lower sources. It is like that verse in St. Johns description of the New Jerusalem: I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. Or like these soberer words of St. Pauls autobiography: When I became a man I put away childish things. This life that rises to the highest helps and companies is able easily to do without the lower. (Phillips Brooks, D. D.)
Things once needed may cease to be necessary
As we climb a high mountain we must keep our footing strong upon one ledge until we have fastened ourselves strongly on the next. Then we may let the lower foothold go. The lives of men who have been always growing are strewed along their whole course with the things which they have learned to do without. As the track of an army marching deep into an enemys country is scattered all along with the equipage which the men seemed to find necessary when they started, but which they have learned to do without as the exigencies of their march grew greater, and they found that these provisions and equipments were partly such as they did not need at all, and partly such as they could gather out of the land through which they marched; so from the time when the child casts his leading strings aside because his legs are strong enough to carry him alone, the growing man goes on forever caring each help for a higher, until at last, in that great change to which Isaiahs words seem to apply, he can do without sun and moon as he enters into the immediate presence and essential life of God. (E. Paxton Hood.)
A token of growth
As we grow we come to the capacity of higher pleasures and higher occupations, and so let go the lower ones; not by compulsion, because we cannot hold them any longer, but from the satisfaction of our newer lives; because we have got something else better than they are, and can do without them now. (E. Paxton Hood.)
The symbol and the reality
Let us take two or three instances of those things which are valuable as symbols, but which he is able to do without who has got beyond the symbol and gained the reality which it represents.
1. Take the instance of wealth. There are some men who can do without being rich–plenty of men who have to, but some men who can, can easily, can without discontent or trouble. They love comfort and respectability as much as these their neighbours. What is the difference? Simply this, that they have found that comfort and respectability, while money is their natural symbol, are not dependent upon money, and that one may reach past the symbol, and take the reality, and let the symbol go.
2. Or take another symbol. Praise is good. To be applauded by our fellow men, to hear our ambitions about ourselves caught up by their testifying cheers, to have our own best hopes for our own lives confirmed by their appreciation of us, that is a true delight for any man. To be able to do without mens praise because we do not feel its value, because morosely and selfishly we do not care what men think, that is bad; that is a sign of feebleness and conceit. To feel it is wretched, and to affect to feel it is detestable. But to be able to do without mens praise because that which their praise stands for is dearer to us than the praise is, and it so happens that we cannot have both of them, that is a wholly different thing. Mens praise stands for goodness. Every man feels that if it does not mean that, if it is given to iniquity just aa freely as to goodness, praise loses all its value. Praise is the symbol; goodness is the reality.
3. So it runs everywhere. The symbols of the deeper pleasures are the mere animal indulgences–eating and drinking, the lusts of the flesh. They stand for intellectual and spiritual joys. How natural their symbolism is. The Bible talks of hungering and thirsting after righteousness. David says, Taste and see that the Lord is good. Jesus tells His disciples about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. The superficial emotions of the senses stand for and represent the profound emotions of the soul. In the, harmonious life the two will live in harmony. The symbol and reality, the bodys and the souls enjoyment, will be complete together. But when in this unharmonious life which we live the symbol and reality come into unnatural conflict, when either the soul must be, sacrificed to the body or the body to the soul, he who really knows what the souls happiness is does not hesitate. Here is the power of true self-sacrifice; here is the secret which takes out of it all the bitterness and brutality. Always it is the giving up of a symbol that you may have the reality. In the great sacrifice of all, Christ lays down His life, but it is that He may take it again. Do you think that Christ did not care for life and all that makes life beautiful to us? Surely He did; but He cared more for that which they represent–the living purely, the doing of His Fathers will, and the serving of His brethren.
4. I am very much impressed by the truth of all this as concerns the Christian Church. She has her symbols and her ordinances, and she has her true and inner life. Her outward ways of living really belong with her inward power. In a perfectly harmonious world there never could be any conflict. In heaven the outward and the inward Church shall absolutely correspond; but here and now the Church may be so set upon her symbols and her regularities that she shall fail of doing her most perfect work and living her most perfect life. The Christian may be so bound to rites and ceremonies that he loses the God to whom they ought to bring him near. Here it certainly is true that no symbol is doing its true work unless it is educating those who use it to do without itself if need be. (E. Paxton Hood.)
Important questions
1. First you will ask, How can I tell the symbol from the reality, and so know what things it is good to hold less and less, what things it is good to hold more and more indispensable? It is not easy to give the answer in a rule. But the answer no doubt lies in a certain feeling of spirituality and infiniteness and eternity, which belongs to those things which it is good for a man not to be able to do without. Those things which serve the soul rather than the body, those which serve the whole of us and not one special part, and those which can serve us longest–those are the things which we want to make more and more indispensable. Those things whose usefulness belongs mainly to the body, those things which help some part of us and not the whole, and those things whose use is temporal–it is not good for any of us to have to say, I cannot do without these things. This is, perhaps, the nearest that we can come to rules; but he who lives in the spirit of these rules acquires a certain sort of feeling of the infiniteness of some things and the finiteness of others, so that renown, wealth, dignity, sympathy, comfort, friendship, amusement, life, stand on one side; and honour, truth, bravery, purity, love, eternity, God, stand on the other. These last he must have. Those others he can do without. The moment that he touches any new gift he can tell to which order it belongs.
2. But then you say, What then? When I have felt this difference, when I know what things I must not allow to become indispensable to me, what shall I do then? Shall I throw all those things away? Shall I strip my life instantly of all that is not indispensable, and live only in those things which I cannot live without? No; certainly not. That effort to cast away the symbol as soon as it was seen to be a symbol has been the source of much religious unhappiness and failure, and of much of the wrong kind of separation between religious and irreligious life. Not to give up the symbol, but to hold it as a symbol, with that looser grasp which lets its inner reality escape into us, and at the same time makes us always ready to let it go when the reality shall have wholly opened from it, that is the true duty of the Christian as concerns the innocent things of the world. That was the way in which Jesus always seemed to be holding friendship, home, nature, and His own human life; never grasping them so tightly that their spiritual meanings might not come forth from them freely, nor that He could not give them up when a higher vocation summoned Him.
3. And that brings us to the last question. How shall I come to count nothing indispensable but what I really ought to, what I really cannot do without? The answer to that question is in Christ, who holds the answers of all our questions for us. As I read the Gospels I can see how, little by little, Jesus lifted those disciples past one conception of necessity after another, until at last they knew nothing that was absolutely necessary except God. They began as fishermen who could not do without their nets and boats and houses and fishing friends and sports and gains and gossipings. He carried them up till they were crying, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. (E. Paxton Hood.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 19. Neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee – “Nor by night shall the brightness of the moon enlighten thee”] This line, as it stands in the present text, seems to be defective. The Septuagint and Chaldee both express the night, which is almost necessary to answer to day in the preceding line, as well as to perfect the sense here. I therefore think that we ought, upon the authority of the Septuagint and Chaldee, to read either velailah, and by night, instead of ulenogah, and for brightness; or ulenogah ballailah, adding the word ballailah, by night. – L.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The sun shall be no more thy light, & c.; these shall not be at all esteemed in comparison of the spiritual light of the church; and this is laid down as the assurance of the churchs comfort, as the former was for her safety, so that God will not only be a shield, but a sun to her, Psa 84:11; not that they shall not have the sun and moon among them, but that the light of the godly, as such, should principally consist in what is spiritual.
The Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light; Christ shall scatter all darkness and ignorance, enlightening thee with the doctrines of the gospel, and graces of his Spirit; and this shall be
everlasting, not wax and wane, and suffer eclipses and settings, as the sun and moon do, but it shall be constant, without shadow of change; no night; which will be undoubtedly true of the church in heaven, whatever it will be, or how near soever it will come to it, here, which I presume will bear its analogy.
Thy God thy glory; always ministering matter of thy glorying in him; or, thy interest in this God shall be great honour to thee; or else it is the same thing with the sentence immediately before in other words, that will make time glorious, a metonymy of the efficient; thus he is said to give glory, Psa 84:11.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
19. The sun and moon, thebrightest objects by day and night, shall be eclipsed by thesurpassing glory of God manifesting Himself to thee (Isa 30:26;Zec 2:5; Rev 21:23;Rev 22:5).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The sun shall be no more thy light by day,…. Here begins the account of the sinless, pure, and perfect state of the church in the personal reign of Christ, even the New Jerusalem church state, as appears from the use of these very words, in the description of that state, Re 21:23 where it is read, “and the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof”; and in like manner the Targum renders these words,
“and ye shall have no need any more of the light of the sun by day, nor even of the light of the moon by night;”
and so both Aben Ezra and Jarchi interpret it,
“ye shall have no need of the light of the sun;”
and the former adds, because of the light of the Shechinah; and which seems to be the meaning of the next clause:
neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee; that is, because of the exceeding brightness, splendour, and lustre of the divine majesty of Christ, who will appear personally among his people, neither sun nor moon will be able to give any light: as the light of a candle is made useless and unnecessary by the light of the sun, so the light of the sun and moon will be made useless and unnecessary by the vastly superior light and glory of Christ; see Isa 24:23, though the sun and moon may be understood here mystically, not of civil magistrates, who are sometimes signified by these luminaries; and who also will be no more used when this dispensation or personal reign of Christ shall take place; see Isa 13:10, but rather of the Gospel and Gospel ordinances, which the church will no more stand in need of to enlighten, teach, and instruct them, refresh and comfort them, having the immediate presence of Christ with them, as follows:
but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light; that is, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, as it is interpreted in the above cited place in the Revelation; who, as he is the author of the light of nature, and of the light of grace, so of the light of glory in this state, and to all eternity; then will the saints in this light behold the face of God, which is not to be seen now; they shall see Christ in all his glory, in the glory of his Father, and of his holy angels; all the glorious forms, the angels of heaven, and all the saints, those spirits of just then made perfect, that shall come with Christ, and be clothed with glorious bodies; even the New Jerusalem descending from heaven, having the glory of God upon her; likewise all the doctrines of grace, now not so clearly understood; and all the mysteries of Providence, which will be laid open, and made manifest; and this clear light will continue for ever; there will be no more night, but one everlasting day:
and thy God thy glory; it is the saints’ glory that God is their God; and it will be their glory in this state to have the God-man Jesus Christ personally with them; the tabernacle of God will be among them; God himself shall be with them, and be their God; and his glory shall lighten them, Re 21:3.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The fifth turn celebrates the glorifying of Jerusalem, through the shining of Jehovah as its everlasting light and through the form of its ever-growing membership, which is so well-pleasing to God. The prophecy returns to the thought with which it set out, and by which the whole is regulated, viz., that Jerusalem will be light. This leading thought is now unfolded in the most majestic manner, and opened up in all its eschatological depth. “The sun will be no more thy light by day, neither for brightness will the moon shine upon thee: Jehovah will be to thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun will no more go down, and thy moon will not be withdrawn; for Jehovah will be to thee an everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning will be fulfilled.” Although, in the prophet’s view, the Jerusalem of the period of glory in this world and the Jerusalem of the eternal glory beyond flow into one another; the meaning of this prophecy is not that the sun and moon will no longer exist. Even of the Jerusalem which is not to be built by Israel with the help of converted heathen, but which comes down from heaven to earth, the seer in Rev 21:23 merely says, that the city needs neither the shining of the sun nor of the moon (as the Targum renders the passage before us, “thou wilt not need the shining of the sun by day”), for the glory of God lightens it, and the Lamb is the light thereof, i.e., God Himself is instead of a sun to her, and the Lamb instead of a moon. Consequently we do not agree with Stier, who infers from this passage that “there is a final new creation approaching, when there will be no more turning round into the shadow (Jam 1:17), when the whole planetary system, including the earth, will be changed, and when the earth itself will become a sun, yea, will become even more than that, in the direct and primary light which streams down upon it from God Himself.” We rather agree with Hofmann, that “there will still be both sun and moon, but the Holy Place will be illuminated without interruption by the manifestation of the presence of God, which outshines all besides.” The prophet has here found the most complete expression, for that which has already been hinted at in such prophecies in Isa 4:5; Isa 30:26; Isa 24:23. As the city receives its light neither from the sun nor from the moon, this implies, what Rev 21:25 distinctly affirms, that there will be no more night there. The prophet intentionally avoids a parallel to . We must not render the second clause in Isa 60:19, “and it will not become light to thee with the shining of the moon,” for never means to get light; nor “and as for the shining of the moon, it does not give the light,” as Hitzig and Knobel propose, for is used alone, and not as the antithesis to , in the sense of “to light up the night” (compare as applied to the shining of the moon in Isa 13:10, and to the glittering of the stars in Joe 2:10), and even the use of is avoided. The true rendering is either, “and for lighting, the moon will not shine upon thee” (Stier, Hahn, etc.); or, what is more in accordance with the accentuation, which would have given tifchah and not tsakeph gadol , if it had been intended to indicate the object, “and as for the lighting” ( as in Isa 32:1). The glory of Jehovah, which soars above Jerusalem, and has come down into her, is henceforth her sun and her moon – a sun that never sets, a moon which is not taken in towards morning, like a lamp that has been hung out at night (compare , Isa 16:10, withdrawn, disappeared). The triumph of light over darkness, which is the object of the world’s history, is concentrated in the new Jerusalem. How this is to be understood, is explained in the closing clause of Isa 60:20. The sum of the days of mourning allotted to the church is complete. The darkness of the corruption of sin and state of punishment is overcome, and the church is nothing but holy blessed joy without change or disturbance; for it walks no longer in sidereal light, but in the eternally unchangeable light of Jehovah, which with its peaceful gentleness and perfect purity illumines within as well as without. The seer of the Apocalypse also mentions the Lamb. The Lamb is also known to our prophet; for the “Servant of Jehovah” is the Lamb. But the light of transfiguration, in which he sees this exalted Lamb, is not great enough to admit of its being combined with the light of the Divine Nature itself.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
19. and 20. And thou shalt no longer have the sun for the light of days. He teaches that the prosperity of the Church shall not be temporary, but permanent; for he distinguishes it from the ordinary condition of men, among whom there is nothing steadfast or permanent; because there is nothing under the sun, however well regulated, that is not subject to various changes. But we ought not to judge of the Church from the dangers of the present life; for she is preserved in the midst of the billows; as if he had said, “Do not judge of thy safety from the present appearance of things, but know that it is laid up in God. God will be thy sun, so that thou hast no need of borrowing light from the sun or the moon. Do not, therefore, dread any change or revolution of affairs; for thou shalt have a perpetual and unchangeable light.”
By these words the Prophet does not mean that the children of God shall be deprived of the ordinary advantages of life; for, since the Lord bestows them indiscriminately on all men, he certainly has appointed them also for his children, for whose sake, indeed, God created all things, since he exercises a peculiar care over them. But the Prophet intended to express a still greater blessing, which the children of God alone enjoy, namely, the heavenly Light, which ungodly men hate, and therefore cannot receive; for, although they enjoy the sun and other blessings, yet their happiness cannot be firm and enduring; because, being void of taste, they do not relish that which was of the greatest importance, that they have God for their Father.
Thus he distinguishes the condition of the Church and of believers from the ordinary lot of men, that we may not judge of it from the revolution and change of events, and next that we may know that, amidst the thickest darkness, the fatherly kindness of God shines on believers, in order to cheer them. And, indeed, although all the elements either cease to discharge their duty, or threaten us with a melancholy aspect, yet it ought to be enough that God is reconciled to us. By a figure of speech, in which a part is taken for the whole, he includes, under the terms “Sun” and “Moon,” the whole condition of man, which is continually undergoing change.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(19) The sun shall be no more . . .The ideal picture becomes bolder and more transcendent. Sun and moon may still shine, but, as in Rev. 21:23 (obviously derived from this), they shall not be needed in the radiance of the greater glory of the presence of Jehovah. Here on earth the sun sets and the moon wanes, but in that Divine glory there is no waning and no setting. Mourning will belong to the past (comp. Rev. 21:4), everlasting joy to the future.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
19, 20. The sun shall be no more thy light For thy light and beauty shall exceed its brightness. No words can excel in beauty these verses. The spiritual Jerusalem is glorified through the shining of Jehovah as her everlasting light. In this verse, light denotes knowledge of spiritual truth, as a characteristic source of moral power concreted in the victories and blessedness of the Church militant and triumphant.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘The sun will no more be your light by day,
Nor for brightness will the moon give light to you,
But Yahweh will be to you an everlasting light,
And your God your glory.
Your sun shall no more go down,
Nor will your moon withdraw itself,
For Yahweh will be your everlasting light,
And the days of your mourning will be ended.’
If we had any doubts previously that this Zion is finally not earthly but heavenly it is made clear here. They will have no need of sun or moon (Rev 21:23) for Yahweh will their everlasting light, and their God will be their glory (Rev 22:5). He will be their sun and their moon, thus the lights of sun and moon will no more go down or in some way hide themselves. There will always be light, for Yahweh Himself will be their everlasting light, and all their days of mourning will be over. The new earth that Isaiah envisages is nothing like any previous earth.
(Such a world of continual everlasting light will be fine for those who have been raised with spiritual bodies, but would hardly suit those who have to sleep and are unable to do so because of the radiance of the light. This description has to be idealistic, not realistic).
In the old world the sun and moon ruled day and night and determined times and seasons. But now God has replaced both sun and moon. All is now determined by Him. There will be everlasting light from Him, all that is needed for the heart of man. And there will be no more sorrows and no more tears (Rev 20:4). The picture is again one of perfection. Instead of depending on creaturely supply, all we need will come directly from the Source of all things.
‘For Yahweh will be your everlasting light.’ In this is summed up Yahweh’s blessing on His people. They will dwell in ‘Zion’ and His light on them will be everlasting. No more cloud to hide Him, no more sin and darkness, no more dependency on the vagaries of earthly weather. The light will be permanent and complete (see Rev 21:23-24).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 60:19-20. The sun, &c. Every body must perceive that this sublime passage is to be understood metaphorically; and the meaning is, that at the period here spoken of, the church shall be illuminated much more brightly by the divine Glory and Majesty, than the sun and moon illuminate and adorn with their lustre the whole theatre of nature. Vitringa, however, gives a more copious exposition of the text. “It shall come to pass (says he), that the felicity and prosperity of the church, at this period, shall not depend upon those external causes, which procure to earthly states and kingdoms peace, tranquillity, and an abundance of temporal good things; for God shall cause his church to know that he is peculiarly present with it, by his immediate providence and glory,” ch. Isa 49:10. There shall be also at this time such an abundance and efficacy of divine instruction, and such an exuberance of knowledge in divine things, that the church shall be satisfied with the teaching of God, and the particular care and discipline of Jesus Christ: that if the church, under the oeconomy of the external and typical covenant, saw a temporary light, and underwent various changes of its state; at this time it shall rejoice for a long period with a perpetual and unchanged light, in a much more constant and happy state. See ch. Isa 30:26. Jesus Christ is the eternal sun and light of his church, illuminating and sanctifying it by his Spirit, filling it with his glory, and prospering its whole state by his providence, for the end of eternal joy; so the Spirit, speaking of the heavenly Jerusalem, says, For the glory of the Lord doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof; that Lamb, who is the true God: for thus he explains himself, ch. Isa 22:5. There shall be no night there, and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the LORD GOD giveth them light.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 1003
THE CHURCHS PROSPERITY
Isa 60:19-20. The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.
AS there are many passages in the prophets which admit of a mystical, as well as literal, meaning, so there are many which must be interpreted altogether in a mystical sense. There was nothing in the state of the Jews after their return from Babylon that could in any wise be called an accomplishment of the chapter before us. The whole passage can relate to nothing but the future prosperity of the Christian church. There is a time coming when the Church shall exchange its despised, impoverished, persecuted state for a state of felicity and honour; when its spiritual blessings in particular shall be both permanent and abundant, as an earnest of that infinite and everlasting happiness which its members shall enjoy in a better world.
The text may be understood as referring,
I.
To the millennial period
The terms here used, import that the prosperity of the Church shall one day be,
1.
Exalted in its degree
[The shining of the sun and moon may well be understood as expressing the greatest temporal happiness. But we are not to suppose that there will be a total privation of temporal blessings from the Church: (on the contrary, there is reason to expect that its prosperity, in respect of outward things, will be greatly increased.) The positive declarations must here, as in many other passages, be understood in a comparative sense [Note: Hos 6:6.], and as implying, that the spiritual state of the Church will be so exalted as altogether to eclipse the greatest of earthly comforts: they shall be lost as it were, in the enjoyment which the saints shall have of God. This is beautifully represented us though the sun and moon hid their heads through shame [Note: Isa 24:23.]; and it is even now realized in the experience of those who enjoy much of the light of Gods countenance. What glorying in God there will be in that day we may conceive, if we only suppose every member of the Church adopting the sentiments and language of the sweet singer of Israel [Note: Psa 145:1-12.] ]
2.
Lasting in its duration
[As the shining of the sun and moon imports prosperity, so does the withdrawing of their light imply the heaviest calamities. That the Church will have no mixture of bitterness in her cup, we do not suppose: but, as, by means of her intimate communion with God, her earthly joys will be no joys, so, by the same means, her earthly sorrows will be no sorrows: they will be all forgotten, as it were, in the abundance of her exalted happiness. This effect has often arisen from fellowship with God: Paul and Silas, notwithstanding their backs were torn with scourges, and their feet were fastened in the stocks, sang praises to God at midnight [Note: Act 16:23-25.]: and many, far inferior to them in gifts, have also been enabled to glory in tribulation. How much more then shall this be the case when God shall take to him his great power, and reign on earth, and the graces of all his people be proportionably increased! Surely their days of mourning shall be ended; or, if a cloud occasionally intervene for a moment, their sun shall never set, their moon shall never be withdrawn; yea, the very clouds themselves shall only occasion the light to burst forth again with greater splendour [Note: Isa 60:20.].]
The text however will not receive its full accomplishment till we come,
II.
To the eternal state
Then the figurative expressions in the text will fall short of, as much as now they seem to exceed, the truth. The happiness of the Church shall then be,
1.
In God only
[There will be no room for carnal enjoyments in heaven: there they neither marry nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels of God. While we are on earth, God communicates much happiness to us by means of his creatures: but in heaven we shall no more drink water from such polluted cisterns, but go to the fountain-head itself [Note: Rev 21:23; Rev 22:5. They have no need of the sun, &c.]. There we shall see him face to face, and behold all the brightness of his glory. There all the mysteries of his love will be opened to us, and its incomprehensible heights and depths be made plain to our shallow capacities. O what shouts of praise shall we then utter! What glorying in God shall we then express [Note: Rev 5:12-13.]! ]
2.
In God continually
[Here the very necessities of our nature required an intermission of our joy: the body itself needed to be recruited with intervals of rest: but there we shall not rest day nor night. Our days of mourning will be so entirely ended, that we shall never have our light obscured for one single moment. There will be nothing from without to trouble and perplex us; nothing from within to furnish matter of distress [Note: Compare Isa 49:10. with Rev 7:15-17; Rev 21:4.]. We shall bask in the unclouded beams of the Sun of Righteousness, and enjoy one eternal day. Then not only our carnal, but even our spiritual, joys that we tasted below, will appear as nothing: glorious as the present state of believers is, it has no glory by reason of that which excelleth [Note: 2Co 3:10.]: here our best frames have an alloy of sorrow, and are of short continuance: but there our happiness will be without mixture, intermission, or end.]
This subject cannot fail of suggesting such reflections as follow:
1.
How evidently is religion a source of happiness!
[It is intolerable that men should asperse religion as a source of melancholy. What if mens sins, or mistakes, or bodily infirmities make them melancholy; is this to be imputed to religion? Is Reason to be decried because all persons do not exercise it as they ought; or the sun in the firmament to be abhorred, because all do not make a just improvement of its light? If they who despise religion would seek to attain it in their hearts, they should soon find that all creature-comforts are, in comparison of it, but as the taper before the meridian sun. As for the benefits arising from it in the eternal world, we forbear to mention them: for if it will not make men happier, even in this present state, than any thing else can do, we will be content that it shall be utterly abandoned. But we have no fears on this head: and the very people that deride it, know, that they envy in their hearts the happiness of the saints. O that all would seek their happiness in God, in God supremely, and in God only!]
2.
What a different world will this be when the promised period shall arrive!
[So eminent and universal will the piety of mankind then be, that it will appear as if all the holy martyrs were risen from the dead, and brought to live again on earth; and as though Christ himself were come down again from heaven to reign visibly in the midst of them [Note: Rev 20:4.]. Instead of such a general neglect of God as now obtains, a supreme regard to him will universally prevail, and a holy glorying in him be heard on every side. Surely the saints will then enjoy a heaven upon earth. Nor do we apprehend this period to be very distant. O that God would hasten it! O that we could see the dawn of that glorious day! But, if it be not permitted to us to see it, let us hope that we shall be still better employed, and be reaping the full harvest of what they will gather only the first-fruits. Let us in the mean time set our affections on things above, and, in reply to that question, Who will shew us any good? let us be ever ready to answer with the Psalmist, Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us [Note: Psa 4:6-7.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
The very blessed things here spoken of, evidently refer to the Church above, and we must look forward to the full accomplishment of them in the new heavens and new earth, wherein righteousness dwelleth forever. By comparing what is here said with what the beloved Apostle John saw in vision (and which he was commissioned to deliver to the Church) we are taught what a blessed state that will be, when Christ is all in all, and hath brought home his Church to his kingdom above. See Rev 21 throughout. I do not think it necessary to enlarge upon the beautiful similitudes here chosen, to represent the glories of the Church of Christ; but would beg of the Reader to remember from whom all those glories result, and in whom they all center. It is Jesus, the life and the light of his redeemed, whose presence also is the light and the glory of heaven. It will be much more profitable both for him that writes and him that reads, to consider the fulness of the blessing contained in that one view of Jesus, in which he is called thy God thy glory; than to attempt to describe from these figures, in what that blessedness will consist. All tears wiped from all eyes: to be led to fountains of living waters, and the people of Jesus to be all righteous; these expressions, no doubt, imply a state of endless felicity; but our present unripe faculties are not competent either to the description or discovery. One assurance we have, and that is enough for all: our whole happiness will arise from our union with Jesus, our communion with Jesus; and our communications from Jesus. Lord! be thou my portion; for in thee I have all.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 60:19 The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.
Ver. 19. The sun shall be no more. ] God shall be thy sun and shield, thy solace and safety. Psa 84:11 The light of his loving countenance shall be lifted up upon thee, and this shall be better to thee than all outward comforts.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
sun: Psa 36:9, Rev 21:23, Rev 22:5
thy God: Psa 3:3, Psa 4:2, Psa 62:7, Zec 2:5, Luk 2:32
Reciprocal: Gen 1:3 – Let Deu 10:21 – thy praise 2Sa 22:29 – lighten Job 25:5 – General Psa 27:1 – light Psa 45:15 – With Psa 84:11 – a sun Isa 2:5 – come ye Isa 9:2 – walked Isa 10:17 – the light Isa 12:1 – O Lord Isa 24:23 – the moon Isa 28:5 – shall the Isa 30:26 – the light of the moon Isa 35:2 – they shall Isa 41:10 – for I am thy God Isa 42:16 – I will bring Isa 45:17 – an everlasting Isa 51:11 – everlasting Isa 60:1 – General Isa 61:7 – everlasting Jer 30:19 – I will Jer 31:34 – for they Mic 7:8 – the Lord Hab 3:4 – brightness Zec 14:7 – at Mal 4:2 – the Sun Luk 9:32 – they saw Rom 9:4 – and the glory 1Co 13:10 – General Eph 5:8 – but Col 1:12 – in 1Th 4:17 – and so 2Th 2:16 – everlasting Heb 4:9 – remaineth Jam 1:17 – from the 1Jo 1:5 – that God Rev 1:16 – and his Rev 6:12 – the sun Rev 12:1 – clothed Rev 21:11 – the glory
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE SYMBOL AND THE REALITY
The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.
Isa 60:19
I. There is no better test of mens progress than the advancing power to do without the things which used to be essential to their lives.The lives of men who have been always growing are strewed along their whole course with things they have learned to do without.
II. You may ask (1), How can I tell the symbol from the reality, and so know what things it is good to hold less and less, what things it is good to hold more and more indispensable?The answer, no doubt, lies in a certain feeling of spirituality and infiniteness and eternity, which belongs to those things which it is good for a man not to be able to do without. (2) When I know what things I must not allow to become indispensable to me, what shall I do then? Shall I throw all those things away? No; certainly not. Not to give up the symbol, but to hold it as a symbol, with that looser grasp which lets its inner reality escape into us, and at the same time makes us always ready to let it go when the reality shall have wholly opened from it, that is the true duty of the Christian as concerns the innocent things of the world. (3) How shall I come to count nothing indispensable but what I really ought to, what I really cannot do without? The answer to that question is in Christ, Who holds the answers of all our questions for us.
Bishop Phillips Brooks.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Isa 60:19-20. The sun shall be no more thy light, &c. The light of the sun and moon shall not be at all esteemed in comparison of the spiritual light of the church, which shall be so glorious as to eclipse all the light formerly enjoyed by her, the divine glory and majesty illuminating her much more brightly than the luminaries of heaven illuminate and adorn the theatre of nature. Or, as Lowth interprets the clause, Gods favour and the light of his countenance shall give her greater comfort and lustre than the light of the sun and moon doth to the world. Every reader must perceive that the passage is metaphorical, and it is here introduced to give the church assurance of comfort, as the preceding was to assure her of safety; so that God will not only be a shield, but a sun to her, Psa 84:11. The Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light Christ shall scatter all thy darkness and ignorance, enlightening and comforting thee with the doctrines of the gospel, and the graces of his Spirit, and these blessings shall be everlasting, not waxing and waning, and suffering eclipses and settings, as the sun and moon do, but shall be constant, without shadow or change; and thy God thy glory Always giving thee reason to glory in him; or, thy relation to him, and interest in him, as thy God, shall be thy greatest honour. Thy sun shall no more go down, &c. Thy light and comfort shall be no more withdrawn. If the church, under the economy of the external and typical covenant, saw only a temporary light, and underwent various changes of its state, at this time it shall rejoice, for a long season with unchanged light, in a much more constant and happy state. The days of thy mourning shall be ended The prosperity and happiness of the church shall be perpetual and uninterrupted. Hebrew, , shall be recompensed, that is, Thy days of rejoicing shall abundantly recompense all thy days of mourning. Observe, reader, Jesus Christ is the eternal Sun and Light of his church, illuminating and sanctifying it by his Spirit, filling it with his glory, and prospering its whole state by his providence, for the end of eternal joy. (See Rev 22:5.) Who will say that the church has ever yet enjoyed this blessing of divine providence and grace, in the full extent which is here marked out by the prophet? Vitringa.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
60:19 The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the {t} moon give light to thee: but the LORD shall be to thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.
(t) Signifying that all worldly means will cease, and that Christ will be all in all, as in Rev 21:23; Rev 22:5 .
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The glory of the Lord would outshine that of the sun and moon. He would provide for His people the light and health which these heavenly bodies formerly produced (cf. Rev 21:4; Rev 21:23). The night, because of its darkness, is a time of mourning (cf. Psa 30:5), but there will be no mourning for Israel because God will enlighten and brighten her.