God’s Israel is the light
The feast of Tabernacles reminds us that God’s Israel is the light. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. (Matthew 5:14)
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)
And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the Glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it:... (Revelation 21:23,24)
When Jesus was alive on the earth it was a custom during the feast of Tabernacles for the people of Israel to come to the Temple in procession, carrying torches. The lamp stands were lighted in the Temple of Herod, as we understand the ceremony.
When the light from the lamp stands was added to the light of the torches of the Jews, the white and gold of the Temple became a blaze of glory. What a marvellous type of the Day when the Glory of Christ descends from Heaven and is added to the inner light of the victorious remnant that remains alive on the earth!
Christ has been the Light of the world from the beginning. Before God created the sun, moon or stars, there was Light. This Light was and is Christ.
In Christ is eternal Life, and that Life is the light of every person who is born into the world. Apart from the Life of Jesus there is no light, there is no way of distinguishing what is spiritually and morally true and what is false. Christ is the Lampstand of God, Christ being portrayed by the golden Lamp stand of the Tabernacle of the Congregation. Christ is the Lampstand described in the fourth chapter of the Book of Zechariah.
Now a second Lampstand is being formed. It is the Body of Christ. Before the Lord Jesus returns there will be two Lamp stands, two witnesses of the Person and will of God Almighty.
Before Jesus returns to set up His Kingdom on the earth the two Lampstand will work together. Christ and His saints will prepare the world for the coming of the Kingdom of God. The events of the last days will serve to separate the "tares" from the "wheat." As the separation of the wicked from the righteous takes place, the light coming from the Lampstand that is the Church will blaze with ever-increasing purity and brilliance.
As the "wheat" comes to maturity, and as the "tares" mature and are separated from the wheat, the contrast between the light and the darkness will become absolute. The nations will begin to understand that Satan is the false day star and Christ is the true Day Star, the true witness of God.
The Light of God in Christ will enter the members of the Body of Christ in fulfilment of the feast of Tabernacles. Christ is the only true Light of the world. As His Life is formed in us and abides in us we become the Light of the world.
The nations of the world of today are walking in darkness. They are walking in darkness because the only source of light, the churches of Christ, are filled with fleshly wisdom and strength rather than with the Life of Christ. Also, the churches are a mixture of the "wheat" and the "tares," the planting of Christ and the planting of the devil.
The great tribulation, the harvest rain, the increase of the knowledge of the Scriptures, the power-filled testimony of the two witnesses, the maturing of evil, the maturing of Christ in the saints, the opportunity that God will give to Antichrist to overcome the saints and to rule the world, will all combine to separate the saints from the assemblies of the wicked and also to purify the saints from worldliness, sin, and self-seeking.
As God’s people separate themselves from the worldly believers, and as God’s people are purified from lust and from self-love, the Light of Christ will grow in power and purity in them. This is the light described in the sixtieth chapter of Isaiah that will guide the nations to salvation during the hour of earth’s greatest darkness.
The fullness of the glory of the Divine Light in the saints will not be revealed until the new heaven and earth reign of Christ.
The light of the new Jerusalem is the light of its righteousness, its holiness, its obedience to God. Love of righteousness and hatred of sin and rebellion characterize every individual in whom Christ has been formed and is dwelling.
For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. (Isaiah 62:1)
One editor of the Scriptures, moulded by the Christian overemphasis on Divine grace as being only forgiveness, has added the word "imputed" so the passage from Isaiah reads, "until her imputed righteousness and vindication go forth as brightness, . . . ." This is not what the text says and it is not what it means. The righteousness that will go forth from Jerusalem as brightness is not an ascribed righteousness but an actual righteousness of personality and behaviour—the new creation brought forth as Christ is formed in us.
Jerusalem cannot be a "crown of glory in the hand of the Lord" while the people are practicing sin and rebellion. It never has been God’s intention that His Kingdom be one of imputation (assigned righteousness). Imputed righteousness is designed to serve until actual transformation of personality takes place. The hope of glory is not a Church forgiven by the Lord but a Church formed in the image of the Lord and filled to fullness with His Person.
That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; (Philippians 2:15)
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)
"See your good works"!
When the nations of the earth see that the righteousness and holiness of Christ is in the Lord’s people they will come to the Church to learn of God.
And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. (Isaiah 2:3)
An unrighteous, unholy church is wasting its time when it attempts to bear witness of God to the world. The witness is not the words we speak, the witness is the righteous Christ who lives and works in us.
Would we claim to be bearing witness of Jesus while we are worldly, sinful, and disobedient to God? Are we showing the world that the Lord Jesus is worldly, sinful, and disobedient to God?
During the new heaven and earth reign of Christ the nations of the earth will recognize that God and Christ are abiding in the saints. The nations will respond to the love, blessing, deliverance, and guidance that will flow from the members of Christ’s Body for eternity.
And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. (Revelation 21:24)
The saints, the Wife of the Lamb, never again will have need of the light of the sun or of the moon. They will be abiding eternally in the Presence of Him whose Life is the true Light. This is the Light that illuminated the Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle of the Congregation, a light superior to the light of the golden Lampstand, the Light that transfigured the face of Moses.
It is the Glory of God in the face of Christ, the Light that is in every saint in whom God in Christ is tabernacling. After we have beheld the face of the Father, that pure and perfect Light, for billions of eons, we ourselves will be transfigured and glorified to an extent incomprehensible to us in our present embryonic level of development.
The Temple of God will light the world forever.