Arise, Shine

The people in Isaiah 58 were religious. They sought God daily and fasted, and they were frustrated: “Wherefore have we fasted… and thou seest not?” (58:3). The Lord pointed to what went on during their fasts: business as usual, hard bargains, quarrels. The fast He chooses loosens bands, lifts heavy burdens, feeds the hungry and brings the homeless in (58:6–7). Then He promises light, healing, answered prayer and constant guidance, and the name “repairer of the breach” (58:8–12). The same logic applies to the Sabbath: turn from your own pleasure, call the day “a delight,” and you will “delight thyself in the Lord” (58:13–14). In latter-day revelation the Lord calls Sabbath fasting “rejoicing and prayer” (Doctrine and Covenants 59:14).

🔗 Cross-references

• Doctrine and Covenants 59:13–14 ↗The Lord describes fasting on His day as “rejoicing and prayer.”
• Matthew 6:16–18 ↗The Savior teaches that fasting is between us and our Father, not a show for others.
• Mosiah 4:26 ↗King Benjamin teaches that caring for the poor is part of retaining a remission of our sins.

Isaiah 59 starts with reassurance and a hard truth. The Lord’s hand “is not shortened, that it cannot save,” but “your iniquities have separated between you and your God” (59:1–2). The chapter describes a society groping “for the wall like the blind,” where “truth is fallen in the street” (59:10, 14). Then the Lord sees there is no one to intercede, so “his arm brought salvation” (59:16). He puts on righteousness as a breastplate and salvation as a helmet (59:17), armor Paul later invites every disciple to wear (Ephesians 6:14–17). The chapter ends with a promise: “the Redeemer shall come to Zion” (59:20), and His Spirit and words will not depart from the mouths of our children and grandchildren (59:21).

🔗 Cross-references

• Ephesians 6:14–17 ↗Paul describes the armor of God, drawing on Isaiah’s breastplate of righteousness and helmet of salvation.
• Romans 11:26 ↗Paul quotes Isaiah 59:20 about the Deliverer who comes out of Zion.
• Alma 34:31 ↗Amulek teaches that if we repent now, the great plan of redemption is brought about unto us immediately.

Isaiah 60 is a sunrise. “Arise, shine; for thy light is come” (60:1). Darkness covers the earth, but the Lord’s glory rises on His people, and nations come to that light (60:2–3). The light is not ours; it comes from Him. The chapter closes with the Lord Himself as “an everlasting light,” no longer needing sun or moon (60:19–20), a picture John saw in the holy city, where “the Lamb is the light thereof” (Revelation 21:23). In 1838 the Lord echoed this chapter when He gave His Church its name: “Arise and shine forth, that thy light may be a standard for the nations” (Doctrine and Covenants 115:5). And a quiet promise: “A little one shall become a thousand… I the Lord will hasten it in his time” (60:22).

🔗 Cross-references

• Doctrine and Covenants 115:5 ↗In the revelation that names His Church, the Lord says, “Arise and shine forth.”
• Matthew 5:14–16 ↗The Savior tells His disciples they are the light of the world and should let it shine.
• Revelation 21:23 ↗In the holy city there is no need of sun or moon, “for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.”

Isaiah 61 opens with the words Jesus read in Nazareth to announce His mission (Luke 4:16–21), and ends with a soul clothed in “the garments of salvation” and “the robe of righteousness” (61:10). Chapter 62 continues the wedding imagery. Zion had been called “Forsaken” and “Desolate.” Now she receives a new name from the Lord’s own mouth: Hephzibah, which the footnote explains means “my delight is in her,” and Beulah, meaning “married” (62:2–4). “As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee” (62:5). Watchmen on the walls “never hold their peace” (62:6), and God’s people are told to build a highway, gather out the stones, and “lift up a standard for the people” (62:10).

🔗 Cross-references

• Luke 4:16–21 ↗Jesus reads Isaiah 61:1–2 in the synagogue at Nazareth and declares it fulfilled.
• Revelation 2:17 ↗The Lord promises the one who overcomes a white stone with a new name written in it.
• Mosiah 5:7–8 ↗Through covenant we take upon us the name of Christ and become His sons and daughters.

Isaiah 63 begins with a question: who is this coming from Edom in red-stained garments? The answer: “I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.” Why red? “I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me” (63:1–3). In the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord repeats these words about His Second Coming (Doctrine and Covenants 133:46–51), and many also hear in them the loneliness of Gethsemane, where the Savior bled from every pore (Doctrine and Covenants 19:18). Verse 9 is pure tenderness: “In all their affliction he was afflicted… and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.” Chapter 64 is a humble prayer that ends, “we are the clay, and thou our potter” (64:8), a theme Jeremiah will take up next week.

🔗 Cross-references

• Doctrine and Covenants 133:46–51 ↗The Lord repeats Isaiah 63’s imagery of red garments and the winepress about His Second Coming.
• Doctrine and Covenants 19:18 ↗The Savior describes His suffering that caused Him to bleed at every pore.
• 1 Corinthians 2:9 ↗Paul echoes Isaiah 64:4: eye hath not seen what God has prepared for those who love Him.

Isaiah’s last chapters look past the troubles of his day to the end of history. The Lord will “create new heavens and a new earth” (65:17). There will be no more weeping; people will build houses and live in them, plant vineyards and eat their fruit (65:19–22). “Before they call, I will answer” (65:24). The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and none shall “hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain” (65:25). The tenth article of faith teaches that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory. Yet even amid all that glory, the Lord says whom He looks to: the one “that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word” (66:2). He comforts “as one whom his mother comforteth” (66:13).

🔗 Cross-references

• Revelation 21:1–4 ↗John sees a new heaven and a new earth, where God wipes away all tears.
• Doctrine and Covenants 101:26 ↗In the Millennium the enmity of man and beasts will cease, as Isaiah 65:25 foresaw.
• Doctrine and Covenants 88:73 ↗The Lord promises to hasten His work in its time, as He did in Isaiah 60:22.

Return today to the passage the Savior used to describe His own mission. He was anointed “to preach good tidings unto the meek,” “to bind up the brokenhearted,” “to proclaim liberty to the captives,” and “to comfort all that mourn” (61:1–2). Then three exchanges: “beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness” (61:3). In the ancient world, ashes were a sign of grief. The Lord takes what we bring Him, the ashes, and gives something beautiful back. Joseph F. Smith saw in vision that this mission reaches even the spirit world (Doctrine and Covenants 138:42). As you take the sacrament, bring Him your ashes.

🔗 Cross-references

• Luke 4:18–21 ↗The Savior reads these words in Nazareth and says, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.”
• Doctrine and Covenants 138:42 ↗Joseph F. Smith sees that Isaiah’s prophecy of liberty to the captives includes the spirits of the dead.
• Psalm 147:3 ↗The Lord heals the broken in heart and binds up their wounds.