Introduction to Isaiah 11
Isaiah chapter 11 this evening. We continue our studies on messianic prophecy, and right now we’re looking through messianic prophecy in the book of Isaiah. We’ve seen some in chapter 2, chapter 4, chapter 7, chapter 9, and now today we come to Isaiah 11: The Branch of Jesse. I’ll begin reading with verse 1:
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. 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 the fear of the Lord. And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, nor decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fatted calf together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox, the nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mount, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
In that day, the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples, of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious. In that day, the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea. He will raise a signal for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. Jealousy of Ephraim shall depart and those who harass Judah shall be cut off. Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah, Judah shall not harass Ephraim, but they shall swoop down on the shoulder of the Philistines in the west, and together they shall plunder the people of the east. They shall put out their hand against Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites shall obey them. And the Lord will utterly destroy the tongue or the gulf of the Sea of Egypt and will wave his hand over the river with his scorching breath and strike it into seven channels and he will lead people across in sandals and there will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant that remains of his people as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.
Let’s bow for prayer. Our Father, we come again to just a marvelous portion of your Word, just brimming with hope and anticipation of the great day of our Lord Jesus’ return. We pray that you will give us a clear understanding of it, but through that, we pray that you’ll encourage our hearts in anticipation of that great day. In his name we ask, amen.
As I mentioned last time, Isaiah chapters 7 through 12 are referred to often as the Book of Emmanuel. This is a section of Isaiah’s prophecies in which the note of hope and salvation dominates, and not just hope and salvation in a broad sense, but specifically because of the Davidic son who is promised to come and bring it about. We have that in chapter 7: His name shall be called Immanuel. Chapter 9 we saw last time: This promised Davidic son will come. And that is the dominant note, then, of this section of Isaiah’s prophecy.
In the setting, remember, there was King Ahaz in the south, in Judah. In the northern kingdom of Israel, we have Pekah, and then he’s in league with Syria to form a power, they hope, against Assyria, the large dominating power in that part of the earth in those days, and they have solicited Judah’s involvement in the alliance as well. Ahaz has declined that, refused it, and so now the northern kingdom of Israel, along with Syria, in their alliance are threatening to come down against Judah and force them into compliance with their alliance.
In chapter 7 we saw that Isaiah then, the prophet, comes to King Ahaz. Remember the situation here. I’ve always thought this is just fascinating. In the Old Testament you have the king who, in a sense, is accountable to no one. Now, he reigns theoretically, and ideally, he recognizes that he reigns under the great king, God himself. The Lord is king in Israel. This is a theocracy in which God is king, and the king, the Davidic king, reigns under God and is accountable to God’s law and to God’s will. And because of that, then, you have this situation where you have the king who’s the autocrat in the nation, but then you have occasionally a prophet coming to the king and telling him you will do this and you won’t do that. Sometimes that creates something of a tense moment for the prophet because the king doesn’t have to listen if he doesn’t want.
A couple of times we find it in the Old Testament where the king decides he won’t listen to the prophet and it didn’t work out very well for the king. But sometimes they refuse, and like with Jeremiah, he’s in prison. But here we have one of those situations. We saw that Isaiah has family connections here to Ahaz, and so he has access to the royal court, and he comes not just as a family member, but he comes as a prophet of God, and he starts telling Ahaz what God has required of him in this situation. And he tells Ahaz that this alliance to the north, Israel in the north and Syria, will not survive.
Now Jerusalem, by contrast, will survive. But, as we saw, Judah, the southern kingdom at large, will be damaged severely. But then he offers that sign in chapter 7, verse 14, and that is that the Davidic house will not be damaged. The Davidic house itself, although damage will come to Judah, the Davidic house will survive. God will not allow that to be extinguished, and the sign he gives for that is the birth of this virgin-born son.
Well, then in chapter 8, we have an expansion on the idea of the judgment on Israel and the northern kingdom that will come, and it is characterized, we saw at the end of the chapter, by darkness and gloom. And then chapter 9, that darkness and gloom turns to light. A great light now shines on Israel, and we have a further prophecy of the coming Davidic son. And that, of course, climaxes in verse 6: this child who was born, the son who was given, and it gives his characteristics there in verse 6. And verse 7 ends with this wonderful pronouncement that God is very zealous to carry out this kingdom under the reign of this Davidic child, this Davidic son.
So this is really a theme that we have seen all the way from the book of Genesis, chapter 1, where God is intending, of course, to rule in his kingdom over the whole earth, but he intends to rule by means of a human king. Back in chapter 3 of Genesis, of course, human kingship failed, and the rest of the Bible is an unfolding of the promise of Genesis 3:15, that this champion will come and he will pick up that rule. That comes to a high point in 2 Samuel chapter 7, where God makes a promise to David that his son will reign on the throne forever and ever, and then that promise then is picked up in the Psalms and the Prophets, and we see that now particularly here in Isaiah, for this Immanuel, this God with us who will come, this virgin-born son, and then in chapter 9, this son who is born with the government on his shoulders, he’ll carry out God’s kingdom himself, and he’ll rule in perfection.
Then the rest of chapter 9, beginning with verse 8, and then through chapter 10, we have more on this coming judgment that is coming. And keep in mind, we’ll see again this evening, like we’ve seen many times, that in biblical prophecy, it’s standard issue that when he speaks of a certain coming judgment, or if he speaks of a certain coming deliverance, or if he speaks of a coming return from exile—all these kinds of themes speak of something in the rather near future, but they’re prospective of a greater return from exile, and a greater judgment to come, and a greater salvation to come, and so on. It is standard issue in the Prophets, and we see that again here.
But now in chapter 10, in chapter 9 and 10, we have this judgment described that’s coming on the Northern Kingdom, and Syria, and its alliance with Syria. It turns out that this judgment will come at the hands of the Assyrian armies who will come and break this alliance and destroy them. Chapter 9, verse 12: “The Syrians on the east, the Philistines on the west, devour Israel with open mouth. For all this,” and notice this, “…for all this his anger is not turned away, his hand is stretched out still.” So in other words, the judgment is not yet complete.
For this judgment that comes from these armies that are coming down, judgment will fall on them, but God’s not done yet. There’s more judgment to come. That’s the idea. So verse 13 then gives the reason. The reason that this judgment is coming in so many waves and with such severity is, verse 13, the people did not turn to him who struck them, nor inquire of the Lord of hosts, so that though they were judged, they did not repent. And so judgment comes again. Stubbornly they don’t repent, and more judgment comes, and stubbornly they don’t repent, and judgment comes.
So, verse 17, we hear this refrain again. Chapter 9, verse 17: “For all this his anger has not turned away, his hand is stretched out still.” Verse 21, we see it again: “For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.” Chapter 10 and verse 4, we see it again: “For all this, his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.” So we have this judgment foretold that’s coming on the Northern Kingdom. And that judgment, as it turns out, as I mentioned, comes from the hands of Assyria.
And the Assyrian armies come and lay waste to the Northern Kingdom of Israel, carry them off into deportation to hear of the Northern Kingdom never again, destroying the Syrian army as well. When we get to chapter 10, verses 5 and following, we have a fascinating passage that is well worth our time on its own, but it’s not fitting our agenda here, so I’ll just mention it in passing. In chapter 10, verses 5 through 19, God says now he’s going to send judgment on Assyria.
And what we find in this whole passage is that God is sending Assyria to bring judgment on the northern kingdom of Israel and on Syria. God is bringing Assyria down. He refers to Assyria as the rod in his hand to chasten them. He refers to Assyria as the axe in God’s hand. He’s going to cut down these nations by means of Assyria. And now we get to chapter 10, verses 5 and following. Assyria, who has done this, will be judged. Assyria, who is the staff or the rod or the axe in God’s hand, they will be judged for doing what they do.
Fascinating passage. And the problem is that Assyria has done what God has brought about in judgment. It’s one of these fascinating passages that brings together divine sovereignty over evil and yet maintains human responsibility. So Assyria comes down. God has arranged this. But you know what? When Assyria did that, Assyria didn’t do that with the most godly of motives. They didn’t say, “Well, the Lord has sent us to do his will and we don’t want to do this, but God has called us and we’ve got to go down there and murder and pillage and rape.” No, that’s not what happened. What they did, they did out of the worst kinds of intents. And so God holds them responsible for what they did in evil. And so we here have the sovereign God working through evil. And yet, there’s the maintaining of human responsibility in it, because what they did, they did with sinful intent. And on that ground, they are still held responsible.
Well, that’s a sermon on its own. That’s the brief version that’s free for tonight that doesn’t really fit with all that we’re going for tonight. Get to chapter 10, verses 20 through 23. Israel has been reduced to a remnant. God does promise that there will be a remnant, but it’s reduced to that. And then, chapter 10, verses 24 through verse 34, God gives an assurance to Judah. And the assurance is, very simply, Assyria, when they come down against this northern alliance, Assyria will come very close. In fact, the words in verse 32 are, Assyria will shake its fist at Mount Zion. So Assyria will come. They’ll encircle Jerusalem, shake their fist at Jerusalem as it were, at Mount Zion. “We’re here and we’re going to crush you.”
And though Judah at large in the southern kingdom will be pillaged and will suffer great losses, Jerusalem will be spared and the Davidic house will be spared. And, of course, this finds its fulfillment then in the famous episode of King Sennacherib who comes down. The general of the armies of Assyria come down, surround Jerusalem, and in Sennacherib’s annals that have been uncovered by archaeologists, he makes reference to this and says that we had Hezekiah as “caught like a bird in a cage.” That was his language. He doesn’t record in those annals any kind of a victory; he just leaves it there. The victory didn’t happen. They woke up the next morning and tens of thousands of the Assyrian soldiers just lay dead on the battlefield. There have been various conjectures about that. “Oh, it was field mice” or something like that. Whatever it was, the Bible credits it with the work of the angel of the Lord. He has come and Jerusalem is just miraculously spared. They didn’t have a chance, humanly speaking, against this overwhelming army, but through God’s intervention they are spared, and Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled. Judah is spared.
So we have the northern kingdom of Israel now gone, Syria has been squashed, Assyria’s army has been decimated, and Judah itself in the southern kingdom has been brought low. And there’s some imagery then that the prophet will use. These prophets, particularly Isaiah, these prophets are often poets as well. There’s poetic imagery that’s employed to talk about it, and we’ll see that as we go through. So all of this judgment has come on everyone involved. Northern Kingdom, Southern Kingdom, Syria, Assyria—judgment has come, but we get to chapter 11, and we have what you recognize now as something very familiar in the prophets. We have a turnaround. Suddenly, out of nowhere, there’s a note of hope. God is not done. He’s not leaving it with judgment. He has made a promise to David, and so that is the subject of chapter 11.
A Shoot From The Stump Of Jesse
Verse 1: “…there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.” If you have read the Old Testament at all, you recognize immediately this is harking back to 2 Samuel chapter 7, God’s promise to David that his son will reign on the throne forever. Jesse’s son David will have a son and will reign.
And so we have this imagery here: a shoot from the stump of Jesse. So now we have some imagery going in a couple of directions. Assyria was God’s axe to cut down Israel. God now, when we get to chapter 10—well, look at chapter 10 verse 33—God lops off the bows of Assyria. So Assyria itself now is cut down with the axe, as it were. So Jerusalem is spared, but the kingdom is weakened until finally Jesse’s tree, if you can call it that, has been cut down to a stump. Assyria itself, the whole of their forest, if you will, has been cut down. And now out of all of this—do you remember a few years ago when there was a tornado that came through our area? Down in our area, down in Drescher, it came through and there were just wide swaths where the tornado had come through and you could drive through there for months and months afterwards, you drive through and it’s just desolate looking. These trees are stripped bare and half of them are broken in half and there are virtually swaths for a whole track of it where the tornado went. There are no full-grown trees flourishing. They’re broken off or they’re stripped or something.
That’s the imagery going on here and it applies to Assyria and now it applies in a sense to Judah as well because Jesse’s tree has been cut down as well. It’s just a stump. That’s it. But, verse 1, there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse and a branch from his roots. Again, that’s 2 Samuel chapter 7. Jesse’s son David, David’s greater son will come and rule. So the Davidic line foresees a time where the Davidic dynasty is cut down to a mere stump. Ahaz is corrupt, and judgment will come further that we’ll see in later prophecies. But eventually, it seems the Davidic dynasty has been cut off altogether, reduced to seemingly nothing, and it will seem as though God’s promise to David has failed. But out of that seemingly dead stump, he says in verse 1, will come a shoot, a branch that will bear fruit. God planted that tree, and he’s not going to let that tree die. It may be cut down to a stump, but that’s not the end of it. Not with this God. A branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
Clearly now, we’re back to the prophecy of chapter 7, where the virgin-born son will come. We are back to chapter 9, where the promised Davidic son will come and take the government on his shoulders. This is what we’ve seen in Amos chapter 9, where the fallen hut of David will be restored. All of that is what we find here.
Some time ago, I was talking to someone who lived out in Western Canada for a while, and I forget which major city of Western Canada it was that he talked about. In the middle of the city, though, one of the major cities, he said there’s this huge, this massive tree trunk that was cut down years and years and years ago. Presumably by the Indians in those days. Presumably to make a boat of some kind with it. Huge, massive tree been cut down. And now here we are a couple of hundred years later. And there’s another tree that’s grown up out of that stump, and now we have another big tree that has grown up out of that stump that was cut down so many years ago. Now, I don’t know how to explain all of that in terms of how these things work, but that’s the situation there with that tree.
That’s the imagery that Isaiah is using here. David’s tree cut down to a stump, and out of that stump is coming a shoot, a branch, and he says it will bear fruit.
His Divine Endowment
Verse 2 and 3, he tells us of his divine endowment of this branch, the son who will come. Now this is a note that we’ll find often in Isaiah’s prophecy that connected with—for example, later in the Servant of the Lord passages, beginning in Isaiah 42, often it’s connected with the Spirit of God working through him and coming upon him. For example, Isaiah 42, verse 1, where the Servant of the Lord is introduced, and this is something that carries us through into Isaiah chapter 60 even. Isaiah 42 verse 1. Now you might remember then, last time we saw in Isaiah 9 verse 7, after in verse 6 we see that the Son will come and he’ll take the government of the world to his shoulders and the kingdom of God will be his to rule. And then in verse 7, it gives us that assurance: the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. And here we see that again. In principle, he will do this by endowing his servant, the Davidic son, with the Spirit of God. And through him, God’s kingdom will be brought to fruition.
As a result, then, we find that verse 2—well, verse 2, he’ll have all of the… as a result of the endowment of the Spirit, he’ll have all of the necessary gifts to carry out God’s kingdom. Verse 2, he’ll have the intellectual gifts of wisdom and understanding. That is, he’ll have a sharp mind, a discerning grasp of the true nature of things. Also in verse 2, he’ll have administrative gifts, the spirit of counsel and might. So he’ll have wisdom to make sound judgments, and he’ll have the might, the power to carry it out. And then also in verse 2, he’ll have spiritual gifts, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. So he’ll have perfect fellowship with God, perfect loyalty to God, undeterred by any distractions. He’s here to serve God and bring about his will. So he’s fully equipped now to administer God’s kingdom. With the intellectual gifts, the administrative gifts, and now the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, he’s here to bring out God’s will in the earth.
His Rule Will Be Marked By Righteousness
And then, verses 3 and 4, his rule will be marked by righteousness.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear. But with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. And he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
So the idea then is that he won’t need eyewitnesses; he won’t need earwitnesses. He can discern these things on his own. Certainly no false witnesses will ever deceive him. His appraisal of every situation in every case will be perfectly just always. He won’t need a—I think I mentioned this last time—he won’t need a large conference room filled with a team of advisors. He has the wisdom himself to make the plans. He has the power to carry out those plans. With this king, there will never be a plan B. He will carry out Plan A with efficiency, and his heart, he tells us, in all things will be directed by the fear of the Lord. Never will there be an unjust verdict. Never will there be pressure from the culture pushing his opinions. We won’t find that. Never, in fact, will the poor be abused. He tells us that the wicked shall be judged. His kingdom will be marked by righteousness and justice. It’ll be coupled with compassion for the disadvantaged as well.
And then verse 5: “Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.” That is to say, his actions and his decisions administrating God’s kingdom will always be right, and he’s unwaveringly faithful to the Lord God. So what he’s presenting for us here, this branch, this shoot coming up from the stump of Jesse, this Davidic son who will come, he is the ideal king. Now we don’t want kings in America. There’s an old slogan that goes back to the revolutionary era: “We have no sovereign here.” You hear that and you wonder how can you preach the gospel to a people who don’t want to acknowledge sovereignty. But I know what they meant and we like that kind of thing politically. But here’s a king you want: perfectly just always, with compassion, efficient, and carrying out God’s rule perfectly.
The Kingdom Under The Reign Of This King
And so as a result, we have verses 6 and following describing the kingdom under the reign of this king. And the kingdom is described in Edenic terms.
Verse six, the wolf will dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fatted calf together, and a little child shall lead them. Cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. And they shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
So there’s a thorough change under the rule of this king; there’s a thorough change in world conditions. There’s an end of violence—that at the very least is what’s being described—but he’s also describing a situation in which nature and creation itself has been transformed. Helpless infants can lead around what we would consider dangerous animals. They’re never in danger of them. We have what here is described here as simply the new creation terminology, the new heavens and the new earth terminology, and in fact this language from Isaiah chapter 11 is picked up almost verbatim into Isaiah 65 and referred to the new heavens and the new earth. A radically new state of affairs is coming.
Verse 9: “They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain.” My holy mountain, of course that’s Mount Zion, probably pictured as the gathering point for the whole earth. The whole world now is his holy mountain. And verse 9b gives the explanation for it. Notice the word “for,” the explanatory conjunction there. All of the disorder that we find in the whole created order today, whether you speak of it in the created order generally, or in human society, all that is in disorder is due to one thing: alienation from God. There’s coming a time, he says, when all of that will be removed, and the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord. Paul picks this up, you might remember, in Romans chapter 8, looks forward to the day when all of creation is caught up in the curse now—in that day of resurrection, all of the created order now caught up in a curse, and that day will be caught up in the liberation of the sons of God as well.
Further Characterizations Of The Kingdom
Verses 10 to 13, then we have the further characterizations of the kingdom.
In that day, the root of Jesse—interesting expression now, the root of Jesse. I just gotta think that there are implications of deity here. Is it eternality? We’ve seen that in other prophecies. Anyway, in that day, the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples, of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.
In that day, the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant and the remains of his people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pethros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea. He will raise a signal for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart, and those who harass Judah shall be cut off. Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah, and Judah will not harass Ephraim, but they shall swoop down—that is the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel—but they shall swoop down on the shoulder of the Philistines in the west, and together they shall plunder the people of the east. They shall put out their hand against Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites shall obey them. And the Lord will utterly destroy the Gulf of the Sea of Egypt, and will wave his hand over the river with his scorching breath and strike it into seven channels, and he will lead people across in sandals. There will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant that remains of his people, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.
So here we have a universal, international, worldwide kingdom of God ruled from this branch that has come from Jesse. Verse 10: “In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the people, of him shall the nations inquire, his resting place shall be glorious.” We saw something very similar to that earlier in Isaiah. We saw that in Micah as well. In Micah’s prophecy, the Messiah himself will be a banner. He’ll be a signal for the people. So the Messiah himself then is spoken of as the banner that is held up as a gathering point for the peoples of the earth. So here’s the Messiah. He himself is the banner, the assembling point for the peoples of the earth. But they’re being brought together not for war. They’re being brought together just to him. And so what the world had thought was an old dead stump is now the main attraction of the world. Gotta love it.
Verse 11: He’ll extend his hand a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people. The first time, of course, he did it when he brought them up out of Egypt. So this is a second exodus, another exodus that is coming to bring back his people, returning them from exile. Verses 11 and following, then, he tells us God will gather his people. He tells us he’ll gather them from all over the earth. He’ll gather them from Assyria, Ethiopia, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, all of these countries that are named, and from the coastlands of the sea, from the far nations of the world. And so now, ancient hostilities are transformed. There’s a lasting and a real peace. Instead of rivalry, there is a reunited people holding in common their loyalty to this king. A worldwide kingdom.
Verse 15: You’ll dry up the Gulf of the Sea of Egypt and will lead people across in sandals. Whether we should understand that in literal terms or figurative terms in one way or another, he’s speaking of Exodus language here, and we explained in verse 16 a highway between Israel and the remnants of Iraq and Egypt. These are the two greatest powers of the Old Testament of the times. They will come to Jerusalem through this great highway to acknowledge the king, and no earthly power will hinder God’s purpose to bring his people home.
It’s just scarcely imaginable what this state of affairs is. Here we have this promised king, David’s son, who comes and he reigns over the whole earth and he’s the main attraction of the whole world. The nations come to him and he brings his people in. Now, in my view, it’s rather explicit here, and I take it at face value, that he’s speaking of gathering the nations to loyalty to him, and he’s also speaking of bringing his people, Israel, from the nations to him as well. I would connect this with Romans chapter 11, but that’s a detailed study for another time. So here we have the ideal king reigning over a restored world in which the entire world is transformed under his reign.
When Does This Happen?
Now, when does this happen? In Romans chapter 15 and verse 12, Paul the Apostle cites Isaiah chapter 11 and verse 10, and he refers it to the established peace in the church today, the established peace between Jews and Gentiles in the church. I take that as an inaugurated fulfillment of this prophecy, and I say that it’s only an inaugurated one, a preliminary fulfillment of it, because, in fact, not only do we have often in Old Testament prophecy a telescoping of events, but often in Old Testament prophecy, there is this preliminary fulfillment inaugurated now in this age and brought to its climactic fulfillment at the return of Christ.
And in fact—and I’ll show that in just a second—but in fact, Isaiah himself here in Isaiah chapter 11, and particularly as we find it picked up in the very same language in Isaiah 65, Isaiah himself leads us to expect more than what Paul notes for us in Romans chapter 15. And what Isaiah pictures for us here is a universal kingdom of righteousness, the destruction of the wicked, the establishing of real peace between the nations universally, and a transformed creation.
And if there’s any doubt at all, then we come to the New Testament and we find Isaiah cited in the New Testament linked explicitly to the return of Christ. Verse 4 here of Isaiah 11: “…he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.” The Apostle Paul picks up those very words in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and says, “…whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth.” And His coming is also picked up in Revelation chapter 19, verses 11 and 15, where we have depicted for us the coming of the Lord in glory. And it says: “In righteousness He judges and makes war. From His mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.”
And all of that, of course, is reminiscent of what we’ve seen in Psalm 2, 1 Samuel chapter 2, Hannah’s prayer, where God comes and exercises his authority to the ends of the earth, to all of his enemies, over all of his enemies worldwide. Verse 5 here in Isaiah 11: “Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist and faithfulness the belt of his loins.” That again is picked up in Revelation 19 with reference to the coming of Christ, the return of Christ coming in judgment against his enemies.
So here we have the prophecy that the day is coming and will be fulfilled when the Lord Jesus returns, which David’s son will rule over the entire world. It’ll be a world then that is marked by righteousness, a world that’s marked by peace, the wicked are judged and held in check, and there will be no injustice allowed.
Now, there are more details here, and if this were eschatology class, I would go into those details now, but I think I’ll save those for another time. I would love to demonstrate that this depicts a time that is coming that is better than today, but not quite the perfections of the eternal state, which leads to then, I think, fulfillment of what we find in Revelation chapter 20, a thousand years, the millennium there. But I said I wouldn’t argue that, so I won’t.
These prophecies that we’ve seen are just brimming with the wonderful prospect that we all share in common. And I should say that there are differences among Reformed and Evangelical interpreters with regard to the details of the end times, but this is a prospect we all have in common: that the Lord Jesus will return, he will establish his kingdom, and it will be a wonderful transformation, and the world that we see today will not be the world then. What a wonderful thing. And so the song of the church is: “Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.”