Today I’d like to talk about Isaiah 11, one of the most
famous and most important Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament. But before we can do that, I need to
establish some background first. Is that
okay?
The first part of Isaiah’s name, Yesha, is from the same root as the Hebrew name of Jesus, Yeshua, which also means salvation. So Isaiah’s name, Yeshayahu, means “Salvation of Yahweh.”
Isaiah is often called
the fifth gospel. Why? Because he says so much about Jesus. In fact, not just Isaiah, but the whole
Bible points to Jesus, from Genesis to Revelation. This is what Jesus himself taught after his
resurrection: “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you,
that it is necessary that all the things written in the law of Moses and
the prophets and psalms concerning me be fulfilled’” (Luke
24:44). The writings that he mentions
are all found in the Old Testament. So
the gospel doesn’t just come from the New Testament. The gospel comes originally from the Old
Testament. When the apostles first went
out to preach about Jesus, they used the Old Testament. The
New Testament wasn’t finished until several years later.
Hebrew Bibles have the same books as English Bibles, but in
a different order. First comes the Law
of Moses, then the prophets. But these
prophets are not only Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and the others we usually
think of as prophetic books. They also
include Joshua and 1&2 Samuel and 1&2 Kings. They call these the “former prophets,” while Isaiah
and all the rest they call the “latter prophets.” The first book in the third section, which
today is called the “writings,” is the book of Psalms. So when Jesus mentioned “all things written
in the Law of Moses and the prophets and psalms,” he was referring to the three
major sections of the Bible—in other words, the whole Bible.
The prophecy of Isaiah, just like all prophecy, is important
because it speaks to us about living in the tension between what God has done
and what he is going to do. In fact, that’s
really a good description of the Christian life: living in the tension between Biblical history
on one side and prophecy on the other. If
you only know what’s happening to you today, you have a very limited
view of the world, and a pretty boring one, too. It’s hard to find an ultimate meaning to life
in buying a loaf of bread, driving to work, eating a meal, etc. But if you know what God has done in history,
and you know what he’s going to do in the future, then suddenly today
becomes a very exciting moment. Because
you find yourself living right in the moment when God’s eternal plan is
becoming reality, when the purposes of God from before the ages began are being
fulfilled right in front of your eyes, and the results are being recorded for
all eternity. Remember the Book of Life
mentioned in the Bible? There are also
other books. God remembers
everything. Jesus said he even knows the
number of hairs on your head (Matt. 10:30). So whether you know it or not, you
are part of God’s plan.
But if you don’t know where the Church has been, if you
don’t know history, and you don’t know where it’s going, you don’t know
prophecy, how can you get with God’s program?
As Amos said, “Do two travel together unless they have arranged to meet?”
(Amos 3:3). You can’t go with God if you
don’t know where he’s going.
In order to meet up with God, we need to know where we are
right now in God’s plan, and what is important about our generation in
God’s eyes, so we can advance his plan and advance his kingdom. Right?
If we’re still fighting yesterday’s battles after the battles are over,
it doesn’t advance what God is doing right now.
Some Christians are still locked in fighting battles from 500 years ago
that nobody is paying attention to anymore, or even 1,000 years ago. This means we’ve got to make God’s plan our
plan, and God’s point of view our point of view. Otherwise, we won’t know where we’re
going. If we want to serve God, we need
to know what he wants us to do right now, right? So what does God want us to do right
now? Let’s turn to Isaiah’s prophecy,
where he begins by outlining first where we’ve been and then where we’re going.
Isaiah 11:1: “And a branch will come out of the stump of
Jesse, and a shoot (netzer) from its roots will bear fruit.”
This was future to Isaiah, but it’s past to us. What is it talking about? Jesse was the father of King David. The stump of Jesse means the cut off line of Davidic
kings. There were no more kings descended
from David after the destruction of Israel by the Babylonians and the exile to
Babylon (586 BC). But a branch will come
out of that cut-off stump.
And the shoot from its roots, what is that? It’s talking about the ability of olive trees
to put out shoots from their roots (see picture above). This
shoot can restore the tree if it’s cut down.
This shoot in Hebrew is called a netzer. “Netzer”
or Branch is one of the names of the Messiah.
The early Jewish believers in Jesus connected this right away with the
city Jesus was from, Natzeret
(Nazareth). In fact, Isaiah 11:1 is one
of the verses Matthew was talking about when he said that the prophets
prophesied that Jesus would be from Nazareth (“He lived in a city called Nazareth, that what was spoken by the
prophets might be fulfilled, that he will be called a Nazarene,” Matt. 2:23). This prophecy means that Jesus the Nazarene
will restore the royal line of David by ruling as King: King Messiah.
This verse also explains an early name for Christians—Iessaians
(Jessians)—because we follow the one who fulfills this prophecy about Jesse. This shows how important Isaiah 11 was among
the earliest believers in Jesus. They
must have been preaching out of Isaiah 11 all the time to be named after it
like this.
This coming king, the Messiah, will have the Spirit of God resting on him. “And the Spirit (Ruach) of the LORD will rest on him, a Spirit of
wisdom and discernment, a Spirit of counsel and might, a Spirit of understanding
and the fear of the LORD” (Isa. 11:2).
This is why God told John the Baptist to look for the one on
whom the Spirit rested. Do you remember
that? It’s in John 1:33: “And I
did not know him, but the one sending me to baptize in water, that one said to
me: ‘He on whom you see the Spirit
descending and remaining, this is the one baptizing in the Holy Spirit.’” Even God referred to this prophecy in Isaiah!
The word Spirit in Hebrew is Ruach, which also means the Breath or Wind of God. Here the Spirit of God is described as a seven-fold
Spirit, in other words, the fullness of the Spirit will be on the Messiah.
The Spirit
(1) of the LORD
A Spirit (2)
of wisdom and (3) discernment
A Spirit (4)
of counsel and (5) might
A Spirit (6) of understanding and (7) the fear of the LORD
Isa. 11:3: “And
his refreshment (harichu) will be in
the fear of the LORD. And he will not
judge according to what his eyes see, and he will not decide according to what
his ears hear.”
This verse is usually translated “his delight will be in the
fear of the Lord.” But the Hebrew word
used here is not “delight.” It literally
means “smelling.” This is probably intended
to imply refreshing (or soothing or calming) oneself, as in taking a deep
breath through your nose: ‘he will refresh
himself.’ This word has the same root as
the word for Spirit (Ruach). In other
words, his spiritual breathing in, his refreshment will be in the fear of the
LORD.
The rabbis really puzzled over this verse. If the Messiah will not judge by what his
eyes see or by what his ears hear, how will he do it? By smell, they said. Well, that is what it says here in a
literal way.
But what it’s actually talking about is the breathing in (and
of course, when you breathe through your nose, you smell) of the Holy Spirit,
the refreshing of the Holy Spirit.
Remember, the “fear of the LORD” is one of the seven attributes of the Holy
Spirit in vs. 2. So if the Messiah is going
to be refreshing himself in the fear of the LORD, that means he’s going to be refreshing
himself in the Spirit (or the Breath or Life) of God.
Isn’t that what we’re
supposed to do, too? Peter said that the
spirit rests on us, too, “for the Spirit
of glory and of God rests (anapaou) on you” (1 Pet 4:14). Even
the Greek word that Peter uses here for rest, anapaou, in its active form, means to refresh.* The Spirit of God rests on us so that we can
be refreshed.
* It’s also the same word used in the old Greek translation
of Isa. 11:2 (the Septuagint or LXX, which is often quoted in the New
Testament). Peter is thinking here about
Isa. 11:2.
This brings the refreshing fragrance of God into our
lives. As Paul said, “for to God we are the fragrance (the good
smell) of Messiah among those who are being saved and those who are perishing”
(2 Cor. 2:15).
Isn’t this what Peter was talking about, too, on the Day of
Pentecost? “Change your thinking, therefore, and repent, that your sins may be
erased, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of
the Lord,” (Acts 3:19). To change our
thinking and repent means to accept Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins. He died for us because we are sinners. And when we admit this and accept his
sacrifice for us, what happens? Our sins
are erased. That’s good news. Does anyone here have any sins they don’t
want following them to the day of judgment?
And then what happens? Then come “times of refreshing.” How do we get that refreshing “from the presence of the Lord”? By the Holy Spirit. If you’re a believer, that’s a description of
the time we’re living in right now, when we need and when we experience times
of refreshing that God sends us by his Holy Spirit.
But what comes after that?
Peter continued, “and he may send
the one appointed for you, Messiah Jesus, whom it is necessary for heaven to
receive until the times of restoration of all things, of which God spoke
through the mouth of his holy prophets from long ago” (Acts 3:20-21). Then Jesus will return. This is still future to us. And when he comes, he’s going to restore “all things.” Everything that people have destroyed on this
earth through our sin and our ignorance will be restored to the way that God
originally created it.
That’s the next step that Isaiah mentions, too: “And he
will judge the poor with righteousness and decide in uprightness for the humble
of the earth. And he will strike the
earth with the rod of his mouth and with the Spirit of his lips he will kill
the wicked one” (Isa. 11:4). When
Messiah returns, he’s going to “strike
the earth.” It says he’s going to do
this with the “rod of his mouth.” What does that mean? His word of judgment is going to be like a
metal rod striking the earth. This refers
to the rods (or scepters) that were the sign of a king’s power. But originally they were used in warfare to
hit people. The Word of God, Jesus, is
coming for judgment. And what is the “Spirit (or Breath) of his lips”? The Holy Spirit. Together, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are
coming to bring judgment. And what does it
say the Spirit will do? In Hebrew, it
says not that he will kill the “wicked,” as often translated, implying all the
wicked, but rather that he will kill the “wicked
one” (singular). What’s this talking
about?
This is the verse that Paul was teaching from when he talks
about the man of lawlessness that Jesus will destroy at his coming: “And then the lawless one will be revealed,
whom the Lord will do away with by the Spirit of his mouth and make powerless
by the appearance of his coming ” (2 Thess. 2:8). How will this man of lawlessness be
destroyed? By the “Spirit of his mouth,” the Holy Spirit. This is the same language that Isaiah uses,
because Paul is teaching here from Isaiah.
Who is this terrible man of lawlessness? This will be an evil ruler that ignores the
law and does whatever he pleases. Who
will that be? We don’t know yet. But when he comes, it will be a really terrible
time.
Then, in the next verse, Isaiah goes on to talk about what
will happen after Jesus returns, when he is reigning on the earth. This is the time Christians often call the
Messianic kingdom or the Millennial period (the Thousand Years). “And
righteousness will be a waistcloth about his hips and faithfulness a waistcloth
about his loins” (Isaiah 11:5). Here
is another description of the character of the Messiah. Some newer translations translate this as a
“belt” of righteousness and a “belt” of faithfulness. But that’s not the word used here in Hebrew (ey-zor).
This is a girdle or loincloth. It
refers to a piece of cloth that went around the waist and the loins to protect
these vulnerable areas. In other words,
it was underwear. But this verse is not
talking about cloth. What it means is
that for the Messiah the closest, most intimate thing to him will be
righteousness and faithfulness. That
would make a great sermon all by itself, right?
And Paul did preach it, in Eph. 6:14, when he described the
spiritual armor of God that every believer should have. “Stand,
therefore, having girded your loins with truth, having put on the breastplate
of righteousness” (Eph. 6:14). Here
Paul is using Isaiah’s description of the Messiah to teach us what we all should be like.
Then Isaiah tells us what that beautiful time of restoration
will be like, with Messiah ruling on the earth.
“And a wolf will dwell with a
lamb, and a leopard will lie down with a young goat, and a calf and a young
lion and a fatling together, and a small boy will lead them. And a cow and a
bear will graze, together their young will lie down, and the lion will eat straw
like the ox. And a baby will play in the hole of a cobra, and into the den of a
viper a weaned child will stretch out his hand. They will not hurt and they
will not destroy in all my holy mountain [Jerusalem], for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the water
that covers the sea” (Isa. 11:6-9).
Beautiful, peaceful times are coming.
So far, Isaiah has told
us about the first coming of the Messiah, and then about the time of the
Messianic kingdom, when Jesus will rule on the earth. But what about the time in between, the time
we’re living in right now?
That’s what he starts to talk about in verse 10: “And it will be in that day, there will be a
root of Jesse that will be standing as a signal-flag of the peoples; the
nations (the Gentiles) will seek him, and his resting place will be glory [i.e.
heaven]” (Isa. 11:10). “In that day” (yom ha-hu in Hebrew) signals the start of another prophecy. And he mentions the root of Jesse again. He will be standing, which means he will be
alive, not dead. And this will be a
signal, like a flag used to signal an army.
It’s a flag, he says, belonging to the nations (the Gentiles): “a
signal-flag of the peoples.” How
will the Messiah belong to the Gentiles?
Because we are the ones who have accepted Jesus so far. He’s our Messiah, our Lord. Through history, very few Jewish people have
accepted Jesus as Messiah. But whole
nations of Gentiles have accepted him.
And all of this has happened, just as it says here, while Jesus is resting
in heaven, waiting for his return: “his resting place will be glory”—not “glorious”
as often translated, but “glory,”
which was a nickname for heaven.
This is the period of time when salvation has been
going out to all the nations of the earth.
As Paul put it, “For I do not want you to be ignorant,
brothers, of this mystery, that you may not be wise in your own sight, for the
hardening of a part of Israel has taken place until the time when the fullness
of the nations (the Gentiles) comes in” (Rom. 11:25). God’s priority, his focus, has been on saving
Gentiles.
But immediately after this, in the very next verse, Isaiah
says that God will change his focus from the Gentiles to the Jews: “And it
will be in that day that the Lord will again a second time acquire with his
hand a remnant of his people that remain from Assyria and from Egypt and from
Pathros and from Cush and from Elam and from Shinar and from Hamath and from
the coastlands of the sea” (Isa. 11:11).
What does it mean that he will gather the Jewish people a “second time”? Has this happened yet?
After the exile in Babylon (586-539 BC), Cyrus the Great
allowed many of the Jews to return to Israel.
But this was the first return to Israel. When was the second return? When did the Jewish people come back, not
just from Babylon, but from Assyria and Egypt, and Pathros, and Cush, and Elam,
and Shinar, and Hamath, and all the coastlands of the sea? This has only happened in the modern
restoration of the nation of Israel. Jews
have come back from all these places:
from Assyria (northwest Iraq) and Shinar (southeast Iraq), from Egypt
(Lower Egypt) and Pathros (Upper Egypt), from Iran (Elam), from Cush
(Ethiopia), from Hamath (Syria), and all the rest. This started happening in the 1890’s, and is
still happening today. Every day, every
week, every month Jews are returning to Israel, about a thousand a month average
last year. This is the time we’re living
in right now!
Isa. 11:12: “And he
will lift up a signal-flag for the nations (the Gentiles), and gather the
banished ones of Israel and assemble the dispersed of Judah from the four
corners of the earth.” This says
that the restoration of the Jews to Israel is not a signal flag for the Jewish
people, as you might expect, but rather a signal flag “for the Gentiles”—for us! Why
is this a flag for us?
Isaiah himself explains this in Isa. 66:20, where he is also
talking about a “sign” that God will set up (in verse 19). “‘Then
they (he’s talking about the Gentiles) will
bring all your brethren (the Jewish people) from all the nations as a grain offering to the LORD, on horses, in
chariots, in litters, on mules, and on camels, to my holy mountain Jerusalem,’
says the LORD, ‘just as the sons of Israel bring their grain offering in a
clean vessel to the house of the LORD’” (Isa. 66:20). What does this mean? It means that we, the Gentiles, will help
bring the Jews back to Israel.
Has this happened yet?
Have Christians gotten the signal yet?
In the early 20th century, Christians high up in the British government
encouraged the Jews to return by expressing support for a Jewish homeland in
Palestine (the Balfour declaration, 1917).
We call these men, and others like them, Christian Zionists because they
believed that the return of the Jews to Israel was a fulfillment of prophecy.
Others, too, have helped over the years. In more recent times, Bridges for Peace (http://www.bridgesforpeace.com) and
Christian Friends of Israel (http://www.cfijerusalem.org)
are two organizations that we know personally that are fulfilling this prophecy
by helping the Jewish people return and get established in their new home. But there are also many others.
In the 1980’s, my wife Karen met Christians in Europe that
were preparing to help the Russian Jews return to Israel. This was at the height of the Cold War. It seemed impossible for the Jews to leave
Russia. But in one place, they met a man
that had bought a really big sailboat.
When they asked him why he bought such a big boat, he said it was to
help the Jews when they come out of Russia.
In another place, they met a man who had built a really big dormitory
out in the woods with a big kitchen. Why
did he build it there? For the Jews,
when they come out of Russia. At the
time it seemed impossible. But what
happened?
Starting in 1989, the Communist governments of Eastern
Europe collapsed, including Russia. And
after that, thousands and thousands of Jews returned to Israel. In fact, they’re still coming out right now
as we speak.
Isaiah 11:14a: “And they will fly against the slope of the
Philistines to the west, together they will plunder the sons of the east…” The “slope
of the Philistines” on the west side of Israel is what today we call the Gaza
strip. (Gaza was one of the five
Philistine cities, 1 Samuel 6:17.) And
Israel has flown—in airplanes—against the Gaza Strip over and over again
through the years. In fact, it just
happened again this last week, because of rockets that were being shot into
Israel. The “sons of the East” is the Biblical term for what today we call the Arabs.
The same verse continues:
“…Edom and Moab will be there for
the sending out of their hand [i.e. easy for them to take], and the sons of Ammon will be their
subjects” (Isa. 11:14b). Edom, Moab,
and Ammon were all located in what is today the nation of Jordan. Before 1967, the area called the West Bank was
also part of Jordan. This included the
Arab side of Jerusalem (East Jerusalem).
But after the 1967 war, all the people living in the West Bank became subject
to the Israelis, and still are today.
The West Bank today is a part of Israel.
Isaiah 11:15a: “And the LORD will devote the tongue of the
Sea of Egypt to destruction.” What is this talking about? The Sea of Egypt is the ancient name of the Red
Sea. If you look at a map, the western
branch of the Red Sea, west of the Sinai peninsula (the Gulf of Suez), looks
like a long tongue. In the 1973 war (the
Yom Kippur War), Israel crossed from Sinai into Egypt proper, advancing on
Cairo, which brought the war to a quick stop.
The barrier of the Red Sea did not stop them.
The second part of that verse says: “And he
will wave his hand over the River (the Euphrates) in the heat of his Spirit and
smite it into seven streams and cause them to tread on it with shoes” (Isa.
11:15b). In the Bible, “the River” refers
to the Euphrates River, which is located mostly in Iraq. For many years now, the Euphrates has been
shrinking. But the water levels have fallen
drastically since a massive drought in 2007.
A big contributing factor is all the upstream reservoirs that remove its
water before it can flow downstream. Right
now this year in many places it doesn’t even look like a river anymore: just a series of puddles. There are many, many places where you can walk
across without getting your feet wet. This
is something happening right now! It’s
prophecy becoming history.
And how will Israel
react to these things? “And you will say in that day, ‘I give you
thanks, LORD, for though you were angry with me; your anger is now turned back
and you comfort me’” (Isaiah 12:1). When
was God angry with the Jewish people?
Through all the years that they rejected him and sinned against him by
rejecting Jesus and the salvation he brings.
These are all the years of persecution that we talked about last time
that were also prophesied in the Bible, even by Moses himself. But, now God has turned away his anger from
the Jewish people and is comforting them.
How? By helping them and
protecting them in Israel.
They will also say: “Look -- God is my salvation (yeshuah), I will trust and will not be afraid. For Yah the LORD (Yah Yahweh) is my strength and song; and he is my
salvation (yeshuah)” (Isaiah
12:2). Who is “Yah the LORD”? The Chinese
translators didn’t know what to do with this, so they just translated, “Lord
Yehehua.” But what it actually says in
Hebrew is “Yah Yahweh.” Yah
is another short form of the personal name of God. Remember the yahu in Isaiah’s name? But
this one is even shorter: just one
syllable, yah, as in the word
“Halleluyah.” What does Halleluyah mean? Praise Yah,
praise the LORD. But what does it mean
when you say not just Yah, but Yah YHWH? Does Yahweh have a LORD? Who is this other Lord with the same name as
the God of Israel?
The answer is right there
in this same verse. Because the word
used for salvation here—twice—is the noun form of Jesus’ Hebrew name: yeshuah. It has the same meaning as the first part of
Isaiah’s own name: “salvation.” So this means there are two ways we can
translate this verse: “God is my salvation” (as it’s usually
translated) or, “my Yeshua (my Jesus) is
God”! Wow! Right here, the Old Testament teaches that
Jesus is God!
Not only that: The
second part of the verse can be translated, “Yah
Yahweh…is my Yeshua”! My Yeshua is
the Yahweh that comes from Yahweh. What
does all this mean? It means that Yeshua
is not a different God. He is the God of
Israel that comes from the God of Israel.
This is a clear prophecy that Jesus is God and comes from God, just like
the New Testament teaches.
But in its context in Isaiah, this verse is also a prophecy
that after Israel returns to the land, they will accept Jesus as God! “And
you will say in that day…my Yeshua is God”!
This salvation of the Jewish people has already begun with the modern
Messianic Jewish movement. There are now
tens of thousands of these Jewish believers who have accepted Jesus—Yeshua—as
Messiah and Lord. This is a fantastic
fulfillment of prophecy—and not just here in Isaiah, but in many places in the
Bible (see for example Ezekiel 36:24-28).
This is all happening right now, in our own lifetimes.
So let’s review what
Isaiah has told us so far. He started
with the first coming of the Messiah, and told us what he would be like. Then he told us about the coming kingdom of
the Messiah, when the earth will be restored.
Then he told us about the time in between these two great events: first, the times of the Gentiles, which some
people call the Church Age, when God’s focus was on getting the gospel out to
the Gentiles. And then he told us about
the Restoration of Israel, things that we are seeing with our own eyes right
now today, including the salvation of thousands of Jews for the first time
since Bible days. If all of this were on
a timeline, where would we be located on it?
Right at the end of the times of the Gentiles and the beginning of the
restoration of Israel (though the two may overlap a little).
What does this tell us?
That God’s attention is turning to Israel. So maybe our attention should be turning to
Israel, too! What did Jesus say about
this? “And they (the Jewish people) will fall by the edge of the sword and be
led captive into all the nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles
until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled” (Luke 21:24). Is Jerusalem still being trampled by the
nations? Who controls Jerusalem
today? Israel. This means that the “times of the Gentiles” are over, or nearly over. God’s focus is returning to Israel.
Now all of this doesn’t mean that Israel is perfect. They are just as much sinners as everyone
else in the world. And most of them have
still not accepted Jesus. There are all
kinds of problems with the Palestinians, some of whom are Christians. So this doesn’t mean that Israel is better
than any other nation. But it does mean
that God is moving to fulfill his promises:
his promises to Israel and his promises to us.
Israel is a flag flying for us. It’s there to get our attention. It’s a signal that it’s time for us to change
our minds about Israel, to support Israel, and to pray for Israel. It’s a time to get excited about what God is
doing in the earth. The return of Israel
is a sign that the return of Jesus is near.
But it’s also a reminder that the God of the Bible is the God of Israel,
that Jesus is Jewish, and that the Christian faith at its core and in its roots
is Jewish. And that means we need to
examine our hearts, our lives, and our churches. Are we accurately reflecting the teachings of
the Bible? Are we open to the leading of
the Spirit for this generation, the work that God wants to do in the
earth right now? This is a generation
like no other before in history. We have
opportunities and insights that no other generation has ever had before. But we also face dangers and temptations that
no other generation has faced. What will
we do with the precious gifts that God has given us? What will we do with the opportunities that
God is putting before us?
Let’s pray. Lord, I ask
that you would get ahold of us in the Spirit right now, today. I pray that you would begin to open our
hearts and our minds to what you are doing in our generation. What are the ways that you want to change our
hearts? What are the ways you want to
change our churches? How do you want to
restore us and strengthen us for the battles ahead? How can we be more firmly planted in the Word
of God and in the power of his Spirit?
Touch us today, Lord, we pray.
Build us up on the rock of your Word and of Truth. And we ask this in Jesus name. Amen?
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