ISAIAH 11: “The Root And The Shoot Springs Forth From
Jesse”
By
1.
INTRO
1.1.
In our last study we looked
at how now that Assyria had been used as the tool of the Lord to judge the
nations that it would itself be judged by the Lord
1.1.1.
God often has used wicked
nations for His purposes in history past, however His using them does not mean
that they have inherited His favor
1.1.2.
The Assyrians were the tool
of the Lord to judge rebellious
1.1.3.
In that chapter we were
confronted with the sovereignty of God as we saw God choose to use a wicked
Assyria as His tool in executing His wrath upon unrepentant nations, including
Judea and Israel, and yet afterward hold those same Assyrians accountable for
their actions as He another nation to judge them just they were used
1.2.
In our study today we are
going to look at more of Isaiah’s prophesy concerning the coming Messiah. Isaiah tells us that a ‘root’ and a ‘shoot’
shall come forth from Jesse, how the natures of both man and animals will be
changed during the Millennial Reign of Christ, and how that there will be a
second remnant that will be raised up of God’s faithful, however this remnant
will be a remnant of all Israel which will come from all corners of the earth
to Israel
1.2.1.
We will see how that Isaiah
continues His theme of the coming Messiah, as we see that the Messiah will be
descended from Jesse
1.2.1.1.We will also see how that He is anointed by the Holy Spirit
1.2.1.2.We will see how that He will be just, fair, and righteous
1.2.2.
The natures of man and
animals to be changed must only occur during the Millennial Reign of Christ
1.2.3.
The faithful remnant of
Israel must be that which occurred when Israel became a nation in 1948, and
then when all Israel shall turn to Christ and be saved during the 7 year
Tribulation of the book of Revelation
2.
VS 11:1 - “1 Then a shoot will spring from
the stem of Jesse, And a branch from his roots will bear fruit.” - Isaiah tells us that a shoot and
a branch will come forth from Jesse
2.1.
The previous chapter had ended with Isaiah
telling us that the Assyrians would be felled like the trees in a forest, and
he had mentioned previous to that statement that Israel would be judged and
fall (albeit this would occur not at the hands of the Assyrians but rather the
Babylonians), so it would make sense that in Isaiah’s mind he saw Israel also
as being cut down much like a forest.
However, here we see that the tree trunk that was cut down will again
bring forth a branch for the tree’s root is still alive.
2.2.
Here in chapter 11, Isaiah uses an
interesting analogy for declaring the coming of the Messiah. As we know King David was descended from
Boaz, Obed, and Jesse. In declaring the
coming of the Messiah Isaiah could have said that it would be from King David
that this One would come, however Isaiah saw that it was Lord who was the
originator and that He had existed before even Jesse, for the Lord was the
originator of the root from which Jesse had come.
2.3.
We already saw that in Is. 4:2 that Isaiah
had spoken of the ‘branch’ of the Lord who was to come and that He would be
beautiful and glorious, “2 In that day the Branch
of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth will be
the pride and the adornment of the survivors of Israel.”
2.3.1.
When we looked at that verse we noted that
the Messiah was often in the Old Testament spoken of as being the branch, as we
saw from Jer. 23:5-6 and
Zech. 3:8, as for example.
2.4.
In Isaiah 53:2,
when Isaiah is going into detail about the Servant (another metaphor for the
Messiah to come) he says that He will grow up before Him as a tender shoot and
a root out of parched ground, “2 For He grew up before
Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we
should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.”
2.4.1.
This proves that the Messiah of this chapter
is also the suffering servant of chapter 53, and also that the same Isaiah of
Jerusalem is the author of both the first and the latter part of the book of
Isaiah.
3.
VS 11:2 - “2 And the Spirit of the Lord
will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel
and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.” - Isaiah tells us that the
Messiah will be anointed with the Holy Spirit in a three-fold work
3.1.
Jesus was filled (controlled and empowered)
with the Holy Spirit all throughout His life, and we can see this because He
always lived a holy and sinless life as the scripture affirms in many
places.
3.2.
We see at Jesus’ baptism that He was endowed
with a special anointing of the Holy Spirit, for the Holy Spirit descended upon
Him and He was ‘Baptized’ (immersed) in the Holy Spirit. This baptism of the Holy Spirit was a special
anointing that was used by God to prepare and catapult Jesus into His ministry
as He was at the age of 30. Immediately
after Jesus’ ‘baptism’ of the Holy Spirit we see that He went into the
wilderness to be tempted by the devil before beginning to minister.
3.3.
Isaiah mentions in several places about how
that the Messiah would be anointed by the Holy Spirit, for instance:
3.3.1.
Isaiah 42:1, “1 ”Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations.”
3.3.2.
Isaiah 61:1, “1 The
Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
Because the Lord has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to captives, And freedom to prisoners;”
3.4.
In Acts 10:38
in Peter’s sermon he preached about how that Jesus was anointed by the Holy
Spirit and went about doing good and healing, “38 “You
know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with
power, and how He went about doing good, and healing all who were oppressed by
the devil; for God was with Him.”
3.5.
When we study the gifts of the Holy Spirit
(from 1 Cor. 12-14, Eph. 4, and Romans 12) we are brought to the realization
that Jesus was filled with every gift of the Holy Spirit for the scripture says
that He was given the ‘Spirit without measure’ (John 3:34).
3.5.1.
Likewise, it is the case with most of the
gifts of the Holy Spirit that we can look at the life of our Lord as recorded
in the scriptures for illustration of how the gift is to be manifested.
3.6.
Here in these verses we see a three-fold work
of the Holy Spirit which enabled Jesus to do the things that He did.
3.6.1.
Wisdom and understanding
3.6.1.1.Wisdom
is the proper application of truth in a situation.
3.6.1.1.1.This
is not knowledge, but the proper application of spiritual knowledge.
3.6.1.1.2.This
is such a valuable gift to have, and in the church we see so many times that
people show a real lack of wisdom, for they say and do the most foolish things.
3.6.1.2.Understanding
is to have insight into the mysteries of God that can only come through direct
revelation from God.
3.6.1.2.1.We
see in 1 Cor. 2:14 that the natural man does not understand the things of God
for they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them.
3.6.1.2.2.The
Holy Spirit has to reveal all truth to the believer, as Jesus said in John 14
that when He came that He would do.
3.6.1.3.In
Eph. 1:17, the apostle Paul prayed
for the Ephesians that the Lord would give them the Spirit of wisdom and
understanding in spiritual things, “17 that the God of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of
revelation in the knowledge of Him.”
3.6.1.3.1.This
ought to be the prayer of us Christians for ourselves today.
3.6.1.4.In
Col. 2:3 Paul wrote that in Christ
were hidden all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, “3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
3.6.2.
Counsel and strength
3.6.2.1.Jesus
was the ‘parakletos’, ‘comforter’ or
‘counselor’, to the disciples while He was on earth with them, however before
He left He said that He would send to them ‘another’ comforter, the Holy Spirit
(John 14:16). The Holy Spirit then
performs the same function (counselor) in the life of the believer that Jesus
did while with His disciples.
3.6.2.1.1.Counsel
can also refer to advocacy, as in the case of a lawyer who appears in behalf of
someone else in a court of law. Jesus
now constantly intercedes before the Father in heaven for each believer (Heb.
7:25).
3.6.2.2.Jesus
told His disciples in Acts 1:8 that when the Holy Spirit came upon them that
the would receive power (dunamis) and that this power would enable them as His
disciples to spread the gospel and made disciples throughout the whole
world. This ‘strenght’ that they would
need from the Holy Spirit is described by the Greek word ‘dunamis’ from which
we get our word dynamite.
3.6.3.
Knowledge and the fear of the Lord
3.6.3.1.One
of the gifts of the Spirit found in 1 Cor. 12 is the gift of ‘knowledge’. This gift is manifested when a person
suddenly understands something about a matter which he could not have gotten
through the normal means by which we come to comprehend things.
3.6.3.1.1.We
see an example of this gift working in Jesus when He was introduced to
Nathanael in John 1:48. Jesus said to
Nathanael that he was a man in whom was no guile and then Jesus mentioned that
He had seen him under the fig tree. To
this Nathanael responded that Jesus truly was the Son of God, the King of
Israel.
3.6.3.1.2.Jesus
told the disciples repeatedly that one of them was a demon, speaking of Judas,
and the gospels say that He knew what was in men (John 2:25).
3.6.3.2.The
fear of the Lord means ‘reverence’ of the Lord.
3.6.3.2.1.Though
Jesus Himself was God the Son from all eternity, nevertheless He had more true
reverence of God than any man.
3.6.3.2.2.We
see the tremendous thankfulness to the Father by the Lord in His prayers
recorded in the gospels.
3.6.3.2.3.In
Heb. 2:11-13, the author writes of
Jesus as leading in the worship of the Father before His throne, “11 For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all
from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren,12
saying, “I will proclaim Thy name to My brethren, In the midst of the
congregation I will sing Thy praise.” 13
And again, “I will put My trust in Him.” And again, “Behold, I and the children
whom God has given Me.””
4.
VS 11:3-5 - “3 And He will delight in the
fear of the Lord, And He will not judge by what His eyes see, Nor make a
decision by what His ears hear; 4 But
with righteousness He will judge the poor, And decide with fairness for the
afflicted of the earth; And He will
strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He
will slay the wicked. 5 Also
righteousness will be the belt about His loins, And faithfulness the belt about
His waist.” - Isaiah tells us that the Messiah when He
comes will be just and fair
4.1.
Having told us that the Messiah would have
the Spirit of the ‘fear of the Lord’, he now tells us that the Messiah will
‘delight’ in the fear of the Lord.
4.2.
Isaiah tells us that the Messiah will not
judge by what ‘His eyes see’ or ‘His ears hear’, which means that He will not
judge by outward appearances but rather on the basis of the heart and motives
of people.
4.2.1.
In fulfillment of this prophesy, in Matt. 15:16-20 we read what Jesus said to the Pharisees who
had accused His disciples of not washing their hands in the traditions of the
Pharisees, and from this we see that Jesus judged those Pharisees because of
what He knew filled their hearts, “16 And He said, “Are you
still lacking in understanding also?17 “Do you not understand that everything
that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated?18 “But the
things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the
man.19 “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,
fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.20 “These are the things which
defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man.””
4.2.2.
We saw already that Jesus knew what was in
man. Jesus knew the hearts of men, as we
see in incident after incident in the gospels.
4.3.
Isaiah tells us that it is with
‘righteousness’ that the Lord will judge the poor, as it is only one who has
true righteousness that is truly qualified to be a judge of men.
4.3.1.
Jesus warned His disciples not to judge, but
rather to leave judgment to the Lord, for only the Lord can judge fairly for
only He knows not only all that has happened (being omniscient) but also the
hearts of people.
4.4.
The judgment that comes from the Lord will
come from His mouth and lips, for His judgment will be righteous and just and
just as He spoke the world into existence He will also pronounce judgment upon
the world.
4.4.1.
In Rev. 19:5
we read that Jesus, when He appears at the end of the 7 year Tribulation of the
book of Revelation, will smite the nations with His mouth, “15 And from His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may
smite the nations; and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the
wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.”
4.4.1.1.See
Rev. 1:16.
4.5.
Isaiah tells us that when the Messiah comes
that righteousness will be the belt around His loins and faithfulness the belt
around His waist. The Lord will be
under-girded by these traits as they will characterize all that He does.
4.5.1.
In Rev. 19:11,
we read the description of Jesus coming upon a horse at His second coming at
the end of the 7 year Tribulation, and He is described as faithful and true and
judging the world in righteousness, “11 And I saw heaven
opened; and behold, a white horse, and He who sat upon it is called Faithful
and True; and in righteousness He judges and wages war.”
5.
VS 11:6-9 - “6 And the wolf will dwell with
the lamb, And the leopard will lie down with the kid, And the calf and the
young lion and the fatling together; And
a little boy will lead them. Also the
cow and the bear will graze; Their young
will lie down together; And the lion
will eat straw like the ox. 8 And the
nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, And the weaned child will put
his hand on the viper’s den. 9 They will
not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the
knowledge of the Lord As the waters cover the sea.” - Isaiah tells us that when Messiah comes that
the natures of the animals upon this earth will be transformed
5.1.
The
descriptions given by Isaiah here tell us that this period of time being
reflected in these verses has to do with the Millennial Reign of Christ upon the
earth that will ensue just after His second coming at the end of the 7 year
Tribulation of the book of Revelation.
We know that this is what is being described because:
5.1.1.
Life described here is more like this earth
than life during the new heavens and new earth.
There are children here indicating that the normal reproductive process
is continuing and that the physical bodies of people are very similar if not
identical as they are today.
5.1.2.
Though life is similar as it is today, the
curse that came upon the earth as a result of man’s sin (see Genesis 3) is
being reversed. The nature of man and
animal is transformed.
5.2.
Kids often ask if there will be animals in
heaven, and here we see that at least during the Millennial Reign of Christ
that this is the case.
5.3.
The animals’ digestive systems have been
transformed for we see that at that time that lions, bears, and cows will all
be eating straw.
5.4.
The animals’ natures have been transformed,
for now predators, such as the wolf, are lying down with the lambs, and a young
boy is leading the dangerous predators and a young child is safely playing near
the whole of the poisonous vipor, which will not harm it.
5.5.
Neither person nor beast will destroy other
creatures, and the reason for this is that the knowledge of the Lord will at
that time cover the entire face of the earth.
Mysteriously, to know the Lord and His ways will transform every
creature upon the entire earth.
6.
VS 11:10 - “10 Then it will come about in
that day That the nations will resort to the root of Jesse, Who will stand as a
signal for the peoples; And His resting
place will be glorious.” - Isaiah tells us that it is the One who is the
‘root of Jesse’ to whom the nations will resort
6.1.
In Isaiah’s prophesy, the root is the same as
the branch (chapters 4 and 11), who is the same as the son born of the virgin
(Is. 7:14), who is the same as the son who would would be given and upon whose
shoulders the government will rest (chapter 9), and who is described as ‘Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father,
Prince of Peace’ (chapter 9).
6.2.
According to Strong’s Hebrew dictionary, the
Hebrew word translated ‘signal’ in these verses, ‘nace’, means:
6.2.1.
Something
lifted up, standard, signal, signal pole, ensign, banner, sign, sail
6.2.1.1.standard (as rallying point), signal
6.2.1.2.standard (pole)
6.2.1.3.ensign, signal
6.2.2.
The word is
also translated in other verses as, “standard, ensign, pole, banner, sail, and
sign”
6.3.
In Heb. 10:7, Jesus is quoted as saying that
‘in the volume of the book it is written of Me,’ indicating that all of the scripture from
Genesis to Revelation is really a revelation of Jesus to us.
7.
VS 11:11-12 - “11 Then it will happen on that
day that the Lord Will again recover the second time with His hand The remnant
of His people, who will remain, From
Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, And from the islands of the sea. 12 And He will lift up a standard for the
nations, And will assemble the banished ones of
7.1.
As we have seen from the beginning in Isaiah,
after revealing the judgment that shall come upon the land the prophet always
returns to the theme of the return of a faithful remnant to the land. This is a new revelation of a remnant however
given by Isaiah.
7.1.1.
These verses speak of yet another, or second,
return of a remnant.
7.1.2.
This second remnant will not come from
captivity in
7.1.3.
This second remnant will not be just a remnant
of Judea which returns to Jerusalem as happened at the end of the Babylonian
captivity of Judea under Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, but a remnant of
Ephraim (the northern kingdom) and of Judah (the southern kingdom).
7.1.3.1.The
northern kingdom went into captivity under the Assyrians about 140 years before
7.1.3.2.The
northern kingdom will however one day have a faithful remnant return for we
read that during the 7 year Tribulation of the book of Revelation that 144,000
Jewish evangelists will be saved by Christ and that there will be 12,000 from
every tribe from that group.
7.1.3.2.1.Only
the Lord knows where those northern tribes have been dispersed to, and one day
He will bring back to the land 12,000 from each tribe who will discover their
Messiah and be saved. They will look on
Him whom they have pierced and mourn as for an only son (Zech. 12:10).
7.1.4.
This second remnant is then the return of the
nation of
8.
VS 11:14-15 - “14 And
they will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines on the west; Together they will plunder the sons of the
east; They will possess
8.1.
Since 1948, it is a fact that there is not a
battle that
8.2.
The battle described in Exekiel 38 is another
battle in which
8.2.1.
We don’t know if this is the same battle as
the battle of Armegeddon, however separate or together, the scripture tells us
that
8.3.
One thing is obvious about the battles
described in these verses, they have not occurred up to this point in
time.
8.3.1.
The Lord has not struck the
8.3.2.
Likewise, Ammon and
9.
VS 11:16 - “16 And there will be a highway
from Assyria For the remnant of His people who will be left, Just as there was
for Israel In the day that they came up out of the land of Egypt.” - Isaiah tells us that in the
day that the Lord begins to conquer
9.1.
The Assyrians were located north of
9.2.
Upon this highway the Israelites will walk
without fear of reprisal of any kind.