Isaiah 11:1-8
Isa 11:1
And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of
Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:
Now the prophet Isaiah looks ahead to the coming of the
Messiah. The Assyrians had nearly
destroyed Judah but the kings from the lineage of David sat on their throne
until 586 B.C. when they were taken to Babylon.
Assyria was called the rod in God’s hand as he used them to bring
judgment upon Judah and Israel. In
this verse the Lord Jesus Christ is referred to as a rod from the stem of Jesse.
Jesse was the father of King David and what is referred to here is the
Messianic line leading to the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ is referred to as the Branch in Zechariah 6:12.
And speak unto him, saying, Thus
speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name
is The BRANCH; and he shall
grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD: (Zechariah
6:12) The Messiah ben David.
Isaiah prophesied further of his coming.
And in that day there shall be a
root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the
Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.
(Isaiah 11:10) He shall
be of the tribe of Judah and will be in the line of David.
When Christ comes on the scene, he will build the temple.
Not the physical temple because that is what the Pharisees stumbled on
believing Christ would raise the temple in three days.
And said, This fellow said, I am
able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.
(Matthew 26:61) The
temple which will be built is the body of believers.
Know ye not that ye are the temple
of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
(1 Corinthians 3:16) All
the elect of God will be saved until the last day when the temple will be
complete. The body of believers is
the third temple.
Isa 11:2
And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the
spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit
of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;
For it pleased
the Father that in him should
all fulness dwell; (Colossians 1:19)
He will have the full measure of the Holy Spirit, that is, without
measure as it is in the believers which receive only a measure of faith because
of our humanity. Because Christ is
full Deity, he will have the Holy Spirit in an unmeasurable capacity.
The Holy Spirit will rest upon him that means he will be fully indwelt
with the Holy Spirit which will result in the decisions and the counsel he will
give to others. He will have wisdom
which will exceed that of Solomon who has been called the wisest man who ever
lived.
And God gave Solomon wisdom and
understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that
is on the sea shore. (1 Kings
4:29) Christ showed his wisdom
and understanding when he was 12 years old and was in discussion with the
Doctors of the law in the Temple.
He will have the spirit of counsel which will be “wonderful counselor” as stated
back in chapter 9. One such example
is when the Herodians tried to trap Jesus into speaking against taxes to Rome.
Jesus responded to them in a way they could not answer or refute.
They say unto him, Caesar's. Then
saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's;
and unto God the things that are God's. (Matthew 22:21)
Jesus had the spirit of understanding and knew what was
in the hearts of men.
But Jesus did not commit himself unto
them, because he knew all men,
(John 2:24) Understanding
includes knowing good from evil and that is what Christ did as he discerned all
situations. The spirit of might was
given him to perform all the miracles that he did such as feed the 5,000 or
raise Lazarus from the dead. Jesus
had the spirit of knowledge in which he was the only one who really knew God the
Father.
No man hath seen God at any time; the
only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared
him. (John 1:18)
He was also given the spirit of fear which meant that he was given the
respect and people feared him in a reverent manner as they saw him perform
functions that only God could do and that caused many people to kneel in front
of him and worship him.
And, behold, there came a leper and
worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. (Matthew
8:2)
Isa 11:3
And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of
the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove
after the hearing of his ears:
The quick understanding will give him the ability to make
righteous judgments quickly. Just like someone smells something and know
instantly whether it is a good or bad smell, the Lord Jesus will have the
ability to make quick but right and proper judgments.
He would have the discernment to know whether someone had the fear of the
LORD or not, meaning he would know who was his and who was his enemy.
He shall not judge according to sight nor according to what is heard but
he will have the ability to judge the hearts of men that goes beyond the senses.
We go back to our verse which teaches that Christ knew exactly what was
in man, whether it be righteousness or evil.
Jesus showed this attribute when he first met Nathanael.
Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him,
and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile! (John 1:47)
Isa 11:4
But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and
reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with
the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.
Unlike the leaders of Israel that abused the poor and
gave them no justice or proper judgment, the Messiah will deal with all people
in righteousness. There will be no
social standing in this judgment and the righteousness will be dealt to those
whom God plans to save, to those who acknowledge their need of a Savior, whom
God opens their eyes to their sins and their inability to do anything to obtain
favor with God. Even those who are
the most poor will be treated with equality as those who are wealthy and it will
not matter how many possessions a person has, all will be treated equally as the
ground is level at the foot of the cross.
There will be two ways he will smite the earth.
The first way is when his word is preached all over this world and the
evil consciences are smitten with the true gospel and they becomes saved.
The second way is that the wicked will be slain on the last day.
And out of his mouth goeth a sharp
sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a
rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of
Almighty God. (Revelation 19:15) The sentence of eternal damnation hangs
over every unsaved person and those who are the unsaved on Judgment day will
face the winepress of the fierceness of God as he gives the final judgment upon
sin.
Isa 11:5
And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and
faithfulness the girdle of his reins.
The girdle was a belt and sash which symbolized being
ready for action and was also used as an ornament.
Everything the Lord Jesus Christ will do will be from a standpoint of
righteousness and nothing will be done in his ministry on earth out of personal
desire or wantonness. The
reins basically say the same thing.
As one drives a team of horses with reins, the Lord Jesus Christ will order his
life and ministry in the realm of faithfulness.
Faithfulness to his Heavenly Father and faithfulness to his mission on
earth to die for all the Elect.
And I saw heaven opened, and behold a
white horse; and he that sat upon him
was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make
war. (Revelation 19:11)
Isa 11:6
The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard
shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling
together; and a little child shall lead them.
It is unfortunate that many theologians and Christians
attempt to make this portion of Scripture a description of the Millennium.
There is no such thing in Scripture as a Millennial reign of Christ on
earth for a thousand years. This is
just very bad exegesis and shows that the majority of commentators do not know
their Bibles and inject false teachings to fill that gap.
What is in view here is a time when
there is going to be absolute peace on earth.
This will only happen after sin is judged and removed from the earth in
its entirety. This is speaking of
the New Heavens and New Earth where sin is gone and righteousness dwells.
Nevertheless we, according to his
promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
(2 Peter 3:13) If Isaiah 11:6
was some type of millennium, then sin would still be present and those animals
mentioned above would still have the viciousness of the sinful nature.
Look at the animals and what they are paired up with.
The wolf is a predatory animal and would devour a helpless lamb on the
spot. The leopard which is another
predatory animal would devour a young goat, kid, in a heartbeat.
Then we see a calf which would be a young cow, the fatling which would be
a fattened calf and then in that group is a young lion which would rip the calf
and cow to shreds and probably kill the young child but here they are under the
authority and leadership of a young child who is a very vulnerable individual.
Isa 11:7
And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones
shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
Then the cow and bear would eat together.
Spiritually speaking those who were of a predatory nature in their
unsaved state would now be brethren to those they might have ruled over and
caused problems for them. Now
because of the gospel, they are no longer enemies but are now brethren.
The young bears and cows shall lie down together and the cows would not
have fear because of the bears. The
lion which is a carnivorous meat eater would now be eating straw like the oxen.
Spiritually speaking both the lion and the oxen would be representing two
types of people who now share the same gospel which is represented by the straw.
Remember in Egypt the Israelites used straw to make the bricks and bricks
are what makes a building and the believer is a brick in the temple of the LORD.
21 In whom all the
building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: 22
In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the
Spirit. (Ephesians 2:21-22)
Isa 11:8
And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den.