The First Reading is from Isaiah 60:1-6
1 Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
- This is a fulfillment statement
- Completed in the Birth of the Messiah
- On a cold dark night, a babe was born
- Surrounded by animals and announced by angels
- This was the starting of the fulfillment of Yahweh’s Promise to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:15
- This now is the time of kairos/grace, because the babe facilitates humanity’s return back to God.
2 For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
and his glory will be seen upon you.
- True isn’t it,
- Where there was no hope (darkness)
- Now there is hope
- God is now with us
- and Amongst us.
3 And nations shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your rising.
- Epiphany Sunday (today) fulfillment
- The Earth adores its Maker
- here represented by the wise men
- We are not told how many
- But we are told the gifts they bear
- Gold – God because he is purity (God) personified in the Babe Jesus
- Frankincense – Coronation of the King of Kings, over His rightful realm/kingdom
- Myrrh – For the time when His Salvific work was done.
4 Lift up your eyes all around, and see;
they all gather together, they come to you;
your sons shall come from afar,
and your daughters shall be carried on the hip.
- In the exile of the Northern 10 Tribes (Israel) ,
- the people were dispersed by the Assyrians all over its vast empire
- so they could not as a group make trouble for them
- These were considered lost and assimilated into the Assyrian Nation/culture
- Isaiah in his later prophecies, says God promises to bring these back
- This is one of those prophecies
- (United) Israel, your lost children, your sons and daughters will return and worship their Maker
- Read Acts 2:5-15
5 Then you shall see and be radiant;
your heart shall thrill and exult,[a]
because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you,
the wealth of the nations shall come to you.
6 A multitude of camels shall cover you,
the young camels of Midian and Ephah;
all those from Sheba shall come.
They shall bring gold and frankincense,
and shall bring good news, the praises of the Lord.
- Israel your calling will be fulfilled in your Maker
- who will draw all men to God
- in and through you (Incarnation)
- and will become a source of hope and blessing to all humanity,
- just as promised to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3
- “and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves.“
Matthew in the Gospels, writing to the Jews reminds them of this prophecy by narrating to them the arrival of the Wise Men from the East, bearing gold, frankincense and myrrh, who fell and worshiped a babe from Bethlehem…