Isaiah 11:11-16 The Gatherer
4/22/01e D. Marion Clark
Introduction
We come to the last of our three sections in chapter 11. In verses 1-5 we considered the person of the Branch of Jesse, i.e. the Messiah who will reign over his kingdom. He is to be a king of wisdom, power, and righteousness. In verses 6-10 we viewed his kingdom. It is to be a kingdom of peace and holiness. In verses 11-16 we the both king and kingdom and the people who make up the kingdom.
Text
In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the sea.
In that day is the “eschatological” day. Eschatology is the study of the end times. This is end times prophetic vision of what the kingdom will be like under the Messiah.
The Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of his people. What is the first time that he reached out his hand? It is the exodus from Egypt. The exodus is the significant event for the Jews. It is the event of redemption (deliverance from Egypt) and of becoming the kingdom of God (Mt. Sinai covenant). Israel is given the hope of another redemptive event on the same magnitude.
We’ve already seen what that event entails. The Messiah will establish a new everlasting kingdom that transforms nature itself so that there is perfect peace and complete holiness in the land. The question now is Who gets in?
Verse 10 speaks of peoples and nations. Verse 11 begins to develop that idea. The Lord will reclaim the remnant of his people who have been scattered throughout the world. Through the conquests of Assyria and then Babylon, the people of the kingdoms are dispersed. Through forced transport and then migration, the Jewish people become a people of the earth. In this day, they will be brought back to new kingdom. The nations to which they are scattered represent the dominant powers and symbolize the four corners of the earth. They are in all the four different directions around Israel.
12 He will raise a banner for the nations
and gather the exiles of Israel;
he will assemble the scattered people of Judah
from the four quarters of the earth.
Verse 12 repeats the though of verses 10 and 11. The Messiah is to be a rallying banner for the Gentiles (the nations) and the Jews (exiles of Israel, scattered people of Judah.)
Verse 13 presents the peace and unity that will exist.
13 Ephraim’s jealousy will vanish,
and Judah’s enemies will be cut off;
Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah,
nor Judah hostile toward Ephraim.
Ephraim is a synonym for the northern kingdom of Israel. The two nations will no longer be at enmity because they will be a united kingdom.
This has all been good so far. Isaiah presents a peaceful kingdom. The next verse, however, presents warfare, not in the kingdom but by the kingdom.
14 They will swoop down on the slopes of Philistia to the west;
together they will plunder the people to the east.
They will lay hands on Edom and Moab,
and the Ammonites will be subject to them.
Philistia, Edom, Moab, and Ammon represent the enemies of the kingdom. Isaiah’s vision is not of a reconstituted Israel which then becomes an oppressive conquering empire of its own. He is not saying, Move over Assyria and Babylon. Here comes the next bully on the block. It is a reminder, though that the kingdom, until the time of consummation, is a militant kingdom. It is not a kingdom that simply wards off attackers. It battles evil and enters evil territory to bring people who live there into its kingdom sanctuary.
Verse 15 presents the activity of the Lord to save his people and fight their enemies.
15 The LORD will dry up
the gulf of the Egyptian sea;
with a scorching wind he will sweep his hand
over the Euphrates River.
He will break it up into seven streams
so that men can cross over in sandals.
reference to Red Sea (Egypt) and Euphrates (Assyria and Babylon).
Concludes with reference to a highway for the people to return.
16 There will be a highway for the remnant of his people
that is left from Assyria,
as there was for Israel
when they came up from Egypt.
The exodus will be smooth, easy, and for many.
Interpretation
Some say, “See, it is happening. The nation of Israel has been reborn. Jews from nations all over the world are returning. It has successfully beaten back its enemies. This is the preparation for the great spiritual return of the Jewish people to the Lord when they follow the Messiah.
Others say, “See, it is happening. Jesus is the banner for the nations who gather to form the new Israel, the Church. The people of God come from a remnant of all the nations. The Church Militant goes forth in battle against the forces of darkness and plunder its enemies by taking their people and bringing them into the kingdom of light.
I go with the latter. Jews are returning to the nation of Israel, but they are not coming together under the banner of the Messiah. Maybe they will, but that remains to be seen.
But we do see people coming together under the banner of the Messiah in the context of the Church. They are coming from all nations and people groups. And they are addressed by the NT in the same terms as the people of Israel.
Galatians 3.26
You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God
heb 8
8 But God found fault with the people and said:
“The time is coming, declares the Lord,
when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah.
9 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their forefathers
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they did not remain faithful to my covenant,
and I turned away from them,
declares the Lord.
10 This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
after that time, declares the Lord.
I will put my laws in their minds
and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
11 No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
12 For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.”
13 By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.
But having said this, understand that it is not a matter of either/or. Both can be true. And Romans 9.25ff
Matt 24:30,31
They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. 31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.
