The Great Reversal

The Great Reversal

Isaiah 60:1-22

Main Point: There remains a bright future for the people of God. 

There are the two realities about our bright future that Isaiah foresees in this chapter:

  1.  Our bright future hinges on a Great Reversal that taps into our deepest hopes.

  2. The Great Reversal hangs on the success of a Great Hero who makes those hopes real.

What is this Reversal that Isaiah foresees? 

  • It is a COMPLETE reversal. Things were going one way and now they are going in a completely different way. Everything has changed.

  • It is a DEEP reversal. The nature of things was one way and now the nature of those things is another way.  Everything about everything has changed.

  • It is a SATISFYING reversal. The change in things fills out what we always longed for. What has finally changed, changes everything.

What makes this Great Reversal so satisfying?

The bright future promised to the people of God is:

  • Physical - it corresponds to our reality as embodied creatures

  • Communal - it fulfills our hunger for home and community 

  • Beautiful - it satisfies our taste for aesthetic, appealing pleasantness

  • Eternal - it offsets our aversion deterioration, decay, disappointment

  • Substantial - it affords us the significance, the weight, the dignity we know that creatures like us are worthy of (even as we know that right now we do not deserve it.)

The Great Reversal hangs on the success of a Great Hero.

It is very important to note that there is NO action taken or undertaken in this chapter by anyone other than “the Lord your God… the Holy One of Israel.” All the other players in this passage do what they do in RESPONSE to what He has done. This Great Reversal is NOT derived or generated from anything we do. The entire tone of this poem sees us as beneficiaries, recipients, and responders NOT benefactors, contributors, or producers.

Who is this Great Hero?

The Heroes credentials in Isaiah:

  • Born to a virgin and called Immanuel (God with us) - Isaiah 7

  • Descended from David and heir to his throne - Isaiah 9

  • A light to those dwelling in darkness in Galilee - Isaiah 9

  • The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon HIm as He conducts Himself with perfect righteousness and equity - Isaiah 11

  • When He arrives, the blind shall see, the deaf shall hear, the lame shall leap, the mute shall sing - Isaiah 35

  • His arrival would be announced by a voice in the wilderness crying, “Prepare the way of the Lord.” - Isaiah 40

  • He is the Servant of the Lord, who accomplishes the Lord’s will in the most unexpected way.

  • He is beaten and spit upon (Isaiah 50) yet remains silent before His accusers (Isaiah 53)

  • He is innocent of any crime, yet slaughtered with the wicked and buried among the rich. (Isaiah 53)

  • In this profound injustice, the Lord reverses the basis of who stands righteous before Him. It is not performance based, for all we like sheep have gone astray

    • Rather, the Lord lays on Him the iniquity of us all and by His sacrifice, the Hero brings many sons and daughters to righteousness.

Isaiah’s point is this: When you identify the One who is the Hero of God, run to Him, look to Him, trust in Him, for He alone brings the Great Reversal which shall satisfy your deepest hopes.

The good news of the Christian gospel is that Jesus of Nazareth 

- crucified, buried, and risen again - 

is the one and only Hero of God. 

Everything our souls hope for is found in Him.


In Jesus alone, there remains a bright future for the people of God.