Isaiah 11:1-16--The Righteous Reign of the Branch

Isaiah 11
English Standard Version

The Righteous Reign of the Branch
11 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
    and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
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 the fear of the Lord.
3 And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
    or decide disputes by what his ears hear,
4 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.
5 Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,
    and faithfulness the belt of his loins.

6 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 fattened calf together;
    and a little child shall lead them.
7 The cow and the bear shall graze;
    their young shall lie down together;
    and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
    and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.
9 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.

10 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.

11 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.

​12 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.
13 The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart,
    and those who harass Judah shall be cut off;
Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah,
    and Judah shall not harass Ephraim.
14 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.
15 And the Lord will utterly destroy
    the tongue 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.
16 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.

---

The LORD promised that the household of the kings of Judah--the sons of David--would be cut down like a tree that is cut down with only a stump remaining.  However, a day would be coming (and has come for us where we stand in history) when there would be a Righteous Branch (the Messiah), a shoot, would sprout forth from that stump and grow and bear fruit once again.  That is to say, there would be another king of Israel to come who would be not just a son of David, but the Son of David.  The Spirit of the LORD would rest on Him (we see this at His baptism) and He would have great wisdom and understanding (we see this when He was 12 years old in the Temple confounding all the teachers that were there and was teaching them).  He would be the Wonderful Counselor and Mighty God that were promised, the one who would be Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace.  Of His kingdom and dominion there will be no end.   The text also says that He would be all-wise pointing to the fact that He would be the Wisdom of God and He would obey the will of the Father and show Him reverence and worship, even though He was co-equal with the Father.

His mission and purpose would be that in all things He should glorify the Father who is in heaven.  At the time of His first coming, He would not be like the earthly authorities that would judge only by what their eyes saw, and the testimony heard whereby they could be easily deceived, but He would know all the facts without asking any questions and would knot the thoughts, feelings, motives, and self-talk of every person involving.  In this way, He will judge the poor with righteousness and decide with equity for the meek.  That is not to say that He will not be a Judge though.  Though this was not the intent of His first coming, He will still come with power and authority and strike the earth with the rod of His mouth (notice the similarity of this to the sword that comes out of His mouth in Revelation--He only needs to speak to execute His perfect judgment).  In that Day, all the wicked will be killed before Him and will receive their eternal punishment.  He will be known as the one who is Faithful and True (here it says "righteousness" and "faithfulness," but the idea is the same).

There will be perfect peace in the kingdom of this Prince of Peace so that the wolf and the lamb will lay down together.  Normally the wolf would only desire to kill the lamb, but they will be at peace with one another.  The leopard will day down with the young goat--again, one usually preys on the other, but not so anymore.  Also, it will be so with the calf and the lion--even with the fattened calf and the lion, and the little child will lead them and play among them without any fear.  The cow and bear will graze together (the is the first indication we get that the reason these carnivores may lay down with these herbivores is that they will all be herbivores).  The cow's calves and the bear's cubs will be friends.  The lion will eat straw like an ox.  While many things seem the same (we recognize all these animals), things will be very different as the nature of these animals has changed.

The nursing child will be able to play in the cobra's pit without fear, and the weaned child will be able to stick its hand into the adder's den without fear.  Art least for all who live on God's holy mountain (which I believe will be all of the New Jerusalem in the book of Revelation), and the whole earth, including all the animals, will be full of the knowledge of the LORD.  The width and depth of that knowledge will be like the waters of the oceans that are deep and wide.

The One who was just called the Branch is now also called the Root of Jesse.  So how can the same one be the root of the tree and be the branch of the tree?  Christ was before David but was also David's Son.  He will stand as a signal or a sign for all the peoples of the world and everyone will want to inquire about Him (everyone left on the earth will come and seek Him to worship Him).  The LORD will gather all the people of Israel and all of His people who have been scattered throughout the whole world and bring them together again into the Land that He has prepared for them, and Jesus will be their King. --the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  It sounds like we're simply talking about the return from Exile that was after their 70 years in Assyrian and Babylon, but this cannot speak of this because it talks about them coming from the coastlands of the Sea (which was to their north and west, and no one took any of the exiles that way.  This fits better with when Israel was made a nation in a day and Jews from all over the world returned to their ancestorial homeland, but that still doesn't quite fit the picture here as everyone comes back to the Land, and there are still many Jews that live out among the Gentile nations as this point.  Clearly there is a greater gathering to come that will bring an end to the time of Exile and Dispersion when all the people of the LORD will dwell together in perfect peace and unity.

He will raise a signal (probably the blowing of the silver trumpets that signal the people of the LORD to gather together at the Tabernacle or Temple) and they will gather together from the four corners of the earth.  The Twelve Tribes will no longer fight and there will not be a northern kingdom and a southern kingdom anymore, and all the idolatry of the people from both kingdoms will be destroyed.  They will worship the LORD their God and serve Him only.  The nations of Philistia, Edom, Moab, and Ammon will be destroyed.  The people of Assyria and Egypt will be part of the people of God and these three nations will worship the LORD with gladness.  Two of the great nations that enslaved the people of God would be changed by the LORD wand would become part of the people of God.  We look forward to worshiping together with those who were once our enemies but have been changed by the gospel and are not part of the family of God.