Isaiah 60:6-7

‘The multitude of camels will cover you,

The dromedaries of Midian and Ephah,

They will all come from Sheba,

They will bring gold and frankincense,

And will bring good tidings of the praises of Yahweh.

All the flocks of Kedar will be gathered together to you,

The rams of Nebaioth will serve you,

They will come up with acceptance on my altar,

And I will glorify the house of my glory.

This is but the beginning of the list of those who are seen as responding to the people of God and the new Temple of God. It first looks to the east, to the fabled wealth of Arab and related nations, the travellers of the highway who trade and bring prosperity. Midian are regularly found south and east of Palestine, and were infamous for their subjugation of Israel in the days of Gideon, something of which Isaiah was very much aware (Isaiah 9:4; Isaiah 10:26; Judges 6). Now they themselves will come in subjection and worship, bringing their wealth with them. Ephah were east of the Persian Gulf, north east of Palestine. The combination with Midian would suggest inter-reaction between them as fellow trading nations. Sheba in the south east was famous as the place from which the Queen of Sheba came to Solomon in all his splendour, and was fabled for its wealth (1 Kings 10). Kedar in the east was renowned for wealth (Isaiah 21:16; Isaiah 42:11). Nebaioth are named together with Kedar in Assyrian records and may be the ancestors of the later Nabataeans.

And these will flock on their camels to ‘Zion' in all its mysterious splendour bringing their riches there so as to present them before Yahweh, and telling of the triumphs of Yahweh as they speak of the wonderful things He is doing in men's lives, ‘good news of the praises of Yahweh'. These travelling men were regularly those who carried good news (and bad news) from nation to nation. And they will bring of the abundance of their flocks and rams for offerings to Yahweh in His temple, and there those offerings will be acceptable to Him, a sign of the acceptability of those who brought them. And thus the house that contains His glory will be glorified and beautified.

The picture is one of triumph for Yahweh's new Temple, seen as now standing, and therefore of triumph for Yahweh, and compares with Isaiah 2:2 as the nations stream to His house. It should certainly be seen in that context, as depicting something beyond present reality, and the same may be seen as applying here.

How then is this to be fulfilled? Firstly, as we have already seen, it was fulfilled through the returnees from the Exile loaded with Babylonian and Persian gold (Ezra 1:4; Ezra 6:3; Ezra 6:8; Ezra 7:15; Ezra 8:25; Ezra 8:33) and what they were to receive out of the tribute of the nations (Ezra 6:8; Ezra 7:21) and through wealth that flowed in during the more successful times of the Maccabees, to say nothing of what flowed in when Herod built his massive Temple. Many Jews, remembering this, saw it as something that would be fulfilled when the Messiah came and defeated their enemies and brought them in subjection to Israel. But they had not noted the nuances of Isaiah. For this was being brought to the everlasting kingdom, that kingdom whose light is the light of God Himself.

Many Christians see it as to be literally fulfilled in what they call a Millennium. But no millennium is in mind here. It is something which is eternal (Isaiah 60:20). Besides the thought of such an abundance of animal sacrifices (Isaiah 60:7), if taken literally, hardly accords with the picture of the non-bloody world described in Isaiah 11:6, and as we have already seen, the idea of ‘Zion' in Isaiah regularly goes beyond the earthly. These sacrifices surely rather represent the Holy Spirit's way of indicating the spiritual sacrifices of the New Testament Christian church brought to the feet of Christ (Romans 12:1; 1 Peter 2:5; Hebrews 13:15), being here represented in Old Testament terms, (compare swords into ploughshares which we would have to modernise into tanks into tractors), together with their appropriating of the One great Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, made once for all, as the word of God went out to the Arab nations and many flocked to Christ in the centuries prior to their engulfment by Islam (after the light came the darkness), so that they gave their response to the heavenly temple as true worshippers of God. And finally it points to our eternal worship in heaven, and in the new heaven and the new earth, as we offer up to God our worship. The point being made is that they will make provision for the full worship of God in accordance with all that He requires. (It should be noted that in Isaiah 65:25 the non-bloodiness of Zion is specifically referred to).