Isaiah 60 “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. 2 See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you.

3 Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. 4 “Lift up your eyes and look about you: All assemble and come to you; your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the arm.

5 Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy; the wealth on the seas will be brought to you, to you the riches of the nations will come.”

Extending the Covenant Isaiah 60, 65 and 66 God keeps his promises We know this based on history The evidence is in Scripture that we can trust God to keep his word

through the gentile nations Israel has suffered… through the gentile nations And now through the gentile nations God will bless Israel Nebuchadnezzar II Israel has been God’s chosen Now Israel will be blessed by outsiders

Isaiah 60 “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. 2 See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. 3 Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

4 “Lift up your eyes and look about you: All assemble and come to you; your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the arm. 5 Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy; the wealth on the seas will be brought to you, to you the riches of the nations will come.

God also reveals himself to the world In the same way and for the same reason he once revealed himself to Israel God’s love extends far beyond Israel

Isaiah 65 “I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’

Yet Israel will never be completely destroyed Israel is God’s favored people and their covenant requires punishment for their failures Yet Israel will never be completely destroyed There will always be a remnant of those who seek the Lord God will honor his first covenant

8 This is what the Lord says: “As when juice is still found in a cluster of grapes and men say, ‘Don’t destroy it, there is yet some good in it,’ so will I do in behalf of my servants; I will not destroy them all.

We get a sense of God’s character and how he will react towards us As God forgave Israel, he will forgive the gentiles who trust him We see God’s consistency and trustworthiness He continues to honor his first covenant

17 “Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth 17 “Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. 18 But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. 19 I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more.

The same way God restored Israel time after time He will also bring into his fold the gentiles and restore and forgive We did not even know we needed God, yet he reached out to us through his Messiah

Through one event God offers salvation Reject the Messiah and be rejected Accept the Messiah and be made whole The event: It begins with the birth of the Christ It is completed in an instant in the death and resurrection of Christ

Isaiah 66 7 “Before she goes into labor, she gives birth; before the pains come upon her, she delivers a son. 8 Who has ever heard of such a thing? Who has ever seen such things? Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Yet no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her children.

9 Do I bring to the moment of birth and not give delivery 9 Do I bring to the moment of birth and not give delivery?” says the Lord. “Do I close up the womb when I bring to delivery?” says your God.

And because of what God does through the Christ… The church, through its new covenant is given authority to have its own leadership… Leadership from every nation and language so we can serve the Lord within our own cultural experiences

18 “And I, because of their actions and their imaginations, am about to come and gather all nations and tongues, and they will come and see my glory. 19 “I will set a sign among them, and I will send some of those who survive to the nations—

—to Tarshish, to the Libyans and Lydians (famous as archers), to Tubal and Greece, and to the distant islands that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory among the nations.

20 And they will bring all your brothers, from all the nations, to my holy mountain in Jerusalem as an offering to the Lord… 21 And I will select some of them also to be priests and Levites,” says the Lord.

In the end the whole world will bow before Christ One day it will be clear to everyone that Jesus is Lord One day it will be obvious that God is the God of Jews and gentiles That under God we are one people under the God who keeps his promises

22 “As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,” declares the Lord, “so will your name and descendants endure. 23 From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me,” says the Lord.

Why does an of this matter? 1. God keeps his promises 2. God still loves Israel 3. God loves us also 4. God has given the gentile church authority to have our own leadership so we can serve our people