Scripture Reading: Isa. 9:1-5; 60:1, 5a; Psa. 69:9a; Matt. 4:12-16; John 2:13-22; Rom. 12:11
Ⅴ
Christ is the great light springing up to the people sitting in darkness and the shadow of death—Isa. 9:1-5; 60:1-5a, 19:
A
The prophecy in Isaiah 9:1-5 was fulfilled in Matthew 4:12-16, when Christ came to Galilee as the great light—the true light, the light of life (John 1:9, 4; 8:12)—to shine on the people who walked in darkness (1:5; Acts 26:18; 1 Pet. 2:9) and who dwelt in the shadow of death (Luke 1:78-79).
B
Christ's shining is our salvation, His saving of us; we need His saving word to us to dawn with new light in our Christian life and shine with new enlightenment and fresh power again and again—John 6:63; 1 John 2:8.
C
Christ's shining as the great light on God's people saves them from the darkness of death, releases them from bondage in darkness (Isa. 9:2; Col. 1:13), breaks the yoke that has been upon them (Isa. 9:4; 10:26-27), and destroys their enemies with armor; by His shining, Christ has not only defeated Satan but also burned Satan's "boots" and "garments," his armor (9:5).
D
By the Lord's shining, He releases the imprisoned ones from bondage; this release from bondage is actually the multiplication of God's people; Christ's shining results in the increase, spread, and growth of Christ on earth through all the New Testament believers, who are the farmers in the harvest and the fighters gaining the spoil—v. 3; 2 Tim. 2:1-4, 6; Rom. 13:12, 14.
E
By the shining of Christ, the Lord broke the yoke of the burden of the people of God, broke the staff on their shoulder, and broke the rod of the oppressor as in the day of Midian, when Gideon gained a great victory over the Midianites—Isa 9:4; Judg. 7:3-7, 9-15, 22-25.
F
"Arise! Shine! For your light has come, / And the glory of Jehovah has risen upon you… / Then you will see and you will beam, / And your heart will be in awe and will swell with joy… / Jehovah will be an eternal light to you, / And your God your beauty"—Isa. 60:1, 5a, 19b; cf. 6:1-8.
G
"In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it"—John 1:4-5:
１
Life is God imparted, and light is God shining; life is the person of Christ, and light is the presence of Christ—14:6; 8:12; 17:4.
２
Light subdues, defeats, and overcomes darkness; when light is present, everything is in order, and everyone is at peace—Zech. 2:5.
H
We need to be people whose hearts are single so that we are "full of light as when the lamp with its rays illuminates you"—Luke 11:33-36; 1:78-79; Prov. 4:18; Eph. 5:8-10; Judg. 5:31; John 8:12; 2 Cor. 3:16, 18; 4:6-7; Psa. 119:105, 130; 1 John 1:5, 9; Mal. 2:7; 3:1; 4:2; Psa. 73:17; 77:13; Matt. 5:14, 16; 13:43a.
I
The book of Revelation is a book filled with the light of "the revelation of Jesus Christ," the One who is "living forever and ever"—1:1, 9-20; cf. Ezek. 1:1-3:
１
The glorious Christ unveiled in Revelation is a person of light—Rev. 1:17-18:
ａ
His face shines as the sun shines in its power, He has seven eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like shining bronze, as having been fired in a furnace—vv. 14-16.
ｂ
Eventually, Christ will return as "another Angel," a special Angel sent by God, and the whole earth will be "illumined with His glory"—18:1.
２
The messengers of the churches are the shining stars and the trustees of the divine light, serving the Lord in newness of spirit—1:20; 2:1; Rom. 7:6.
３
The reward of the overcomers is Christ as the morning star—Rev. 2:28.
４
The seven Spirits are the seven lamps of fire burning before the throne as the seven lamps of the golden lampstand, the testimony of Jesus—4:5; 1:11-12, 20; cf. 2:4-5, 7, 17; 3:20-21.
５
The people of God are a universal, bright, and shining woman—12:1.
６
The light of the New Jerusalem is the shining God in the redeeming Christ as the Lamb-lamp—21:23; 22:1.
７
The entire city of the New Jerusalem is the diffuser, diffusing the divine light over the nations outside the city—21:9-11, 23-24a.
８
The light of the holy city is the unique, eternal, divine light in which the redeemed elect live and move within the city, needing neither the natural light, the sun and the moon created by God, nor the artificial light made by man—vv. 23, 25; 22:5a.
Ⅵ
Christ is the One whose zeal for God's house devoured Him—Psa. 69:9a:
A
The Lord is driven by zeal for His Father's house to drive all the defilement out of it; after the Lord cleansed the temple, "His disciples remembered that it was written, 'The zeal of Your house shall devour Me'"—John 2:17.
B
The Lord cleansed the temple with a whip of cords made of rushes, poured out the money of the moneychangers, overturned their tables, and said to them, "Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise"—vv. 14-16.
C
Sometimes the Lord comes to interfere with our lives by turning things upside down in order to purge us of so many things that we are filled with other than God and His prayer for His move—Psa. 42:8; James 5:17; cf. Ezek. 1:15-21.
D
Christ builds up the church as the temple of God, the house of God, the Body of Christ, by cleansing us and making us a house of prayer, and by our experience of Him as the crucified and resurrected Christ with His life-releasing death and life-dispensing resurrection—John 2:13-22; 12:24; Luke 12:49-50; 19:45-48; Isa. 56:7; 1 Kings 8:48; Dan. 6:10; Acts 6:4.
E
We need to be filled with the life-giving Spirit as the Builder of God's house, as the reality of the Body of Christ, and as Christ's zeal for the building up of the church as the corporate temple of God; with this holy zeal burning in our spirit (Rom. 12:11; Isa. 4:4), we must take care of the following three items:
１
We must be gained by God; the shining of the divine light with His appearing gains us—2 Cor. 2:12-17; 4:6-7; Eph. 3:1; 4:1; 6:20.
２
We must have fellowship with God; we need to experience Christ as the redeeming One, the shining One, and the reigning One to enjoy Him as the supply of life and the way of life in the fellowship of life for the increase and fruit of life—Rom. 4:12; Gen. 12:1-3, 6-8; 13:3-4, 18; 17:1, 5; 18:2; James 2:23; 1 John 1:3; Rev. 21:23; 2 Cor. 4:4, 6; Rev. 22:1-2; 21:21b.
３
We must be ruled by God; throughout His life the Son was submissive to the Father, and He has given us His life of submission, which is the law of the Spirit of life, the law of submission; to be filled with Christ is to be filled with submission, and to reign in life is to be under the ruling of the divine life according to the pattern of the first God-man, who was a man under authority— Phil. 2:5-11; Eph. 5:18, 21; Rom. 5:17, 21; 8:2; Matt. 8:9.
F
The zeal of God's house devouring us is our being burdened for the Body in order to become Zion (the overcomers as the reality of the Body of Christ) within Jerusalem (the church):
１
Psalm 131 is the praise of a saint, in his going up to Zion, concerning his humbled heart and quieted soul before Jehovah:
ａ
Certain things are too great and too wondrous for us, and we should not go about in these things; we should calm and quiet our soul within us, being weaned, or stripped, of everything except the Lord—vv. 1-2.
ｂ
When we have become like the psalmist, humble, calm, quiet, and weaned, we can advise others to hope in God—v. 3.
２
Psalm 132 is the praise of a saint, in his going up to Zion, concerning Jehovah's habitation and rest in Zion through David (typifying Christ), His anointed:
ａ
The psalmist asks Jehovah to remember all of David's afflictions, which typify all the afflictions of Christ—v. 1.
ｂ
In verses 2 through 5 we see David's desire for the house of God; David wanted Jehovah to arise and enter with the Ark into His resting place in Zion (vv. 6-8); today this resting place is the overcomers in the churches.
ｃ
Verses 13 through 18 are Jehovah's speaking concerning Zion; this is a picture of the top church life—the situation of the overcomers in Zion, the highest peak of God's mountain:
⑴
"Jehovah has chosen Zion; / He has desired it for His habitation"—v. 13.
⑵
"This is My resting place forever; / Here will I dwell, for I have desired it. / I will abundantly bless its provision; / I will satisfy its poor with bread"—vv. 14-15.
⑶
"And its priests I will clothe with salvation, / And its faithful ones will shout with a ringing shout. / There I will cause a horn of David to shoot forth; / I have prepared a lamp for My anointed one / …on him his crown will shine"—vv. 16-18.