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A Light to the Nations
Isaiah 49:1-7
Let’s start today by singing a children’s song.
You all know This Little Light of Mine.
So here we go:
This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine.
This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine.
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.
Hide it under a bushel, No, I’m going to let it shine…
Shine all over North Orwell… Shine all over Rome, PA…
So, how is your light doing?
How bright is it shining?
How many people’s lives have been enlightened
with the light of Christ?
Do you consider yourself a sort of lighthouse to others?
A lighthouse shines its light
out into in the darkness, and we can help the light of Christ reach the ends of the Earth, or at least the ends of
our road.
Ronny Hinson wrote and sings a song entitled The Lighthouse that was recorded by the Oak Ridge
Boys, the Gaithers, and others that goes in part:
And I thank God for the Lighthouse, I owe my life to Him.
Jesus is the Lighthouse and from the rocks of sin,
He has shown the light around me, so that I might clearly see.
If it wasn’t for the Lighthouse, where would this ship be?
There’s something romantic about a lighthouse.
When Carol and I visit our friends in Maine, we always
go to the Marshall Point Lighthouse nearby which happens to be the one Tom Hanks ran to in his movie Forrest
Gump.
Lighthouses are picturesque, standing tall against the elements, offering a beacon of hope in the darkest
night to a lone ship seeking safe harbor.
A lighthouse is a symbol of hope against all odds.
Even in the hour of
one’s most desperate need, a light on a distant shore signals safety and salvation.
Did you know that perhaps the most famous beacon of hope and promise of new life — The Statue of
Liberty — is not remembered as a lighthouse at all.
For the first few years of its existence, the Statue was
officially a lighthouse operating under the authority of the Lighthouse Board.
According to one source, “The
lighted torch in Lady Liberty’s right hand had, and still has, great symbolic significance, but at its beginning, it
was also used as a navigational aid for ships entering New York Harbor.
… Liberty’s torch, 305 feet above sea
level, contained nine electric arc lamps that could be seen twenty-four miles out to sea,” and it was the tallest
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lighthouse in the United States when it was built.
We are lighthouses to others who need help and direction and
comfort and guidance and salvation.
We can be beacons of hope and promise of new life as well along life’s
pathways.
We also need each other are from time to time as our light might dim and need a recharge.
Did you ever notice that you won’t find many lighthouses 100 miles away from water, or on soft and
comfortable terrain surrounded by deep, calm water where a lighthouse clearly is not needed?
Rather,
lighthouses are usually located in high-risk danger zones like rocky headlands or unstable beaches where every
wave threatens to undermine the foundation.
For that reason, a lighthouse is always a message to a ship’s
captain that the vessel is entering treacherous water.
The sole purpose of a lighthouse is to be an aid to navigation.
Sailors need to “see the light” to avoid
danger.
If one is able to safety navigate past or through the dangers revealed by the lighthouse, it can mean the
preservation of life and property.
We can apply this metaphor in three ways:
1.
From our Scripture - that Israel is to be as a light to the nations.
2. To Jesus, who described Himself as the Light of the World.
3. To us, who follow Jesus and are charged with the responsibility to keep our lamps lit, and to shine for
Christ’s sake.
In our verses today, we see Israel identified as the “servant.”
But Israel is described here in “before” and
“after” shots.
There’s the former downtrodden and disobedient Israel, and there is a renewed, rejuvenated Israel
who will be “a light to the nations.”
Isaiah is excited, saying on behave of the Lord, “It is too light a thing that
you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as
a light to the nations, that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
In other words, not only will a
renewed Israel lead the lame and limping people of God to a place of restoration, but Israel will also be a light
to all nations, thereby securing their salvation!
It’s an enormous boast, but the prophet totally believes it.
The
exaltation of downtrodden Israel is for the purpose of drawing all the nations of the world, not just Israel, to the
Lord.
However, the prophet writes, Israel’s elevation from “one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations, the
slave of rulers” to its new place as “light to the nations” as the work of “the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen
you.”
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This salvation that comes to the entire world is fulfilled by another servant, whom Isaiah will describe as
the Suffering Servant, whom we know as Jesus.
The Child whose birth we have just celebrated said of Himself,
‘I am the Light of the World.
Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life’
(John 8:12).
Yet, to say that Jesus is the Light of the World is a mere cliché unless Jesus is our light and
salvation first.
Unless we have seen the light, it doesn’t really matter whether the saving power of Jesus extends
to us or not.
We can’t benefit from something we don’t care to know.
We say Jesus is the Light of the World.
We know that lighthouses keep watch 24 hours a day, seven
days a week, 365 days a year.
It’s a reminder that Jesus, as our lighthouse, is not just the Light of the World,
but is casting His watchful and guiding light over us as we journey through life.
We, too, are the Light, capital L. Christians need to be His light.
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