“LET US WALK IN THE LIGHT OF JEHOVAH”
We see in this chapter that it was given to the house of Jacob to walk in the light of Jehovah. There is this great invitation, “come ye, and let us walk in the light of Jehovah”. The glorious God of love and grace and mercy gives a great invitation to know Him, and to walk in His light. The impression that I have had for some time, and continue to gain from, is that the disciples saw Jesus walking. What a blessed walk was His – a walk of grace, and yet a challenge for the disciples. They saw the walk of Jesus in its various aspects and the challenge for us is how we walk. We are exhorted to “walk in love”, Eph.5:2. This thought has been impressed on me since we started to read Isaiah, and it is a challenge, at least for me. I just wanted to share this impression as to the challenge in this invitation to walk in the light of Jehovah. I trust we are all walking in the light of Jehovah: that would be the premise on which, as believers, we would be here – walking in the light of Jehovah, walking in the light of God.
The thought is also in the New Testament, here in the first epistle of John. “If we walk in the light as he is in the light”. As I have been contemplating it, it is a real challenge to walk in the light as God is in the light, but the thought of seeing Jesus walking would give great encouragement to our hearts, to believers’ hearts. He is the light of the world. We have in Isaiah the contrast between light and darkness, and we see that in our present day. We see darkness in general around us, people going back to paganism and things that are against God, or turning away from God into the darkness of not knowing God. But the glorious God is the God of light, and it is a great appeal to us as believers to “walk in the light as he is in the light”.
The walk of Jesus was in perfect harmony with His Father. We are to know God in relationship, and this was seen supremely in Jesus. What a relationship, what a blessing for us to take account of Jesus walking in His relationship with a glorious God. We are to know “that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all”. It is a real challenge. “But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin”. There is great blessing and encouragement in having this relationship with the Lord, to walk as He walked (1 Pet.2:21). That obviously cannot be done in our own power, but we sang to the Spirit:
‘Spring up, O Spirit most holy!’ (Hymn 391)
The Spirit is needed for us to understand and appreciate what it is to walk in this light.
I feel exercised as to this matter of walking, because it is for our sojourn here on earth. How do we as believers, as Christians, as lovers of the Lord Jesus, walk in light as God is in the light? We must prove the power in the Spirit of God that is needed to do so. And cleansing is available, from the sin that so easily entangles us and would hinder our view of Jesus. The result of turning away may be that darkness enters the soul, but the great challenge and blessing for us is that “if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin”.
So what a great challenge but what a great blessing it was for the disciples as they saw Jesus walking. What encouragement it is to contemplate that Person, the One who is in such perfect harmony with His God and His Father. “As he is in the light”; it would be light to our souls which would shine out to the world. What a God we have to deal with!
Well, that is the impression I had as to walking in the light. It is something for our souls to contemplate as we see it in Jesus, and I would commend it to the brethren to consider. May it be for our blessing, for His name’s sake.
Word in a meeting for ministry, Calgary
6 November 2019
Philip Brien