The Great Restoration: An Exposition of Isaiah 11
In desperate times, people look for a reason to have hope. Without hope, all is gloom and despair. The troubles we suffer from are often of our own making. There are those who trouble us also. And, all too often, we cause others much trouble. We are always looking in the wrong places to find the answer to our general unhappiness. We try “self-help” books. We listen to the sages of our time like Oprah and Dr. Phil for advice. We hope someone can actually make a “happy pill” without side effects. We head to counselors and psychiatrists for remedies. We think more government will make us happy. We have been trying these cures for generations. None of them work. One should have read Ecclesiastes and realize that all of these things have been tried before. The mad preacher’s conclusion was that all of this was “vanity and vexation of Spirit. Finally, in our desperation, we pick up an old dusty book called the Bible and start to read. After all, so many of our ancestors were uplifted by its words. They seemed to have been able to deal with the stresses which vex us so. What does this book say that can give us reason to hope.
We look to the eleventh chapter of Isaiah to start out search for healing. This isn’t the only place we can find comfort to be sure, but we must start somewhere. The prophet Isaiah lived a long time ago. But the world he lived in was troubled, just as ours is today. Isaiah saw the decay of his nation. He saw the Northern Kingdom go into captivity in 721 BC. Things were a little better for Judah, but corruption was rampant. The seeds of destruction and exile were already being planted. God raised Isaiah up as a prophet to warn Judah to put away its sin, or else.
When King Uzziah died, God gave Isaiah a magnificent vision which is recorded in the sixth chapter. Uzziah had reigned for a long time, 52 years, which was considerably longer than the average lifespan in that day. Few could remember a day that Uzziah was not king. Uzziah had generally been a good king but got leprosy when he tried to usurp the Priests sole right to offer incense. But Judah was starting to slumber under the status-quo. The LORD told Isaiah when he was commissioned that they would be dull of both hearing and perception. They desperately needed to be awakened. Uzziah’s son, Jotham was generally a good king, but then came Ahaz who was one of the most wicked kings Judah ever had. He brought Judah to near ruin. The LORD brought his enemies from the Northern Kingdom and Syria to oppress Judah. Things got quite desperate, and Isaiah was sent to give hope. But Ahaz wanted no advice or sign. The LORD gave him a sign. A woman known to Ahaz would have a son, and before the son was weaned, both the kings which oppressed Judah would be dead.
However, God was speaking past Ahaz. Ahaz would never be the king God wanted. Even the good kings of Isaiah’s day, Uzziah, Jotham and Hezekiah had character flaws. They would never rise to the ideals God had for a king who would follow David, no more than Solomon. Even though there was an immediate fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy for Ahaz, God was thinking that He Himself would need to come down and become king. Only this King would be truly after God’s own heart. So there would also be a day in which Immanuel would be born to the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem of Judaea. A perfect King would make His kingdom perfect as well. Then there would be peace in Jerusalem.
Isaiah tells us a little more about this King in Isaiah 9. This coming King would not come down in kingly power, but be born as a child among us. He would be God’s gift to us, Himself. His birth would start the process of the great restoration of things. His name would be “wonderful counselor, The Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.” The government would rest upon God’s shoulder. The people had originally wanted Saul to be king. Samuel was told that this is because they had rejected the kingship of Yahweh. This is why Israel was always falling into trouble. No one can reject the rule of God and ultimately prosper.
Here in the eleventh chapter, we learn a little more about this coming king. It say sthat “A rod will come out from the stem of Jesse.” The use of “rod” rather than shoot or branch is interesting. But the rod was the shepherd’s staff which was carried to guide and correct the sheep. In another sense, it is a scepter representing the king’s rightful authority and rule. He would have the true Divine right of kingship. One can also see here the picture of the stump of a cut-down tree. This is prophetic of the end of the rulers of Judah and the carrying of the nation into captivity. A dead tree seems to have no hope of recovery. But the tree was not dead. God would raise up a new shoot from the dead stump.
We are then given the characteristics of this coming King. First of all, the Spirit of Yahweh would rest upon Him. We see this happening at the baptism of Jesus. The Spirit did not come to Jesus in the measure that it was given to Isaiah and the other prophets. Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit and power. The Spirit guided Jesus throughout His ministry and gave Him counsel, might, knowledge and the fear of Yahweh. He would not judge after worldly appearances but by the Spirit, with righteousness and equity. In every way, He would be the perfect King.
When the perfect King reigns in this world, then there will be peace and perfection in the city. In poetic metaphor, Isaiah says that the “wolf will lie down with the lamb. Isaiah employs several metaphors of predator and prey being at peace with one another. And the dangers of asps and scorpions will no longer threaten the people. “Nothing will hurt in God’s holy mountain.” Although there is a literal aspect of this description, Isaiah is saying far more than our safety from animals. It will also extend to the predators and prey among people as well. Creation will not only be restored but will completely fufill God’s original purpose for creation. In the fall, man rebelled against God. As a result, the animals rebelled against man and the earth was cursed with thorns and weeds. The loss of obedience was tempered by God’s grace or else man and beast would have consumed themselves by this time. There would be time of good leaders as well as bad. This continues here on this earth to this day. But we need someone better than “good.” We need God.
There are two aspects of this restoration which Isaiah mentions. The first would be the gathering of the scattered people of God from all over the earth. Again, we deal with metaphor. Many of these nations Isaiah mentions no longer exist, and new ones have sprung up in their places. But if we understand this as saying that they will be gathered from all over the earth. There will be reunification between Israel and Judah. Difficulty arises in identifying who Israel is, as they were taken captive, lost their identity, and intermarried with all the other nations. If we make a statistical analysis of the geometric progression of generations, we can conclude the odds are vastly in our favor that we have Israelite blood in our veins as well as Gentile. So it seems that everyone is capable of being reincorporated into a unified Israel.
We need then to redefine our focus at this point. If virtually everyone is both Gentile and Jew, genetically speaking, then all can be included. But Isaiah says that only a remnant shall return from the nations (Gentiles). Something other than race must determine whether one is an Israelite or not. If we see Jesus as being Yahweh in the Old Testament, at least in the sense of God the Son in the Trinity, then He is the LORD of the covenant. One must identify himself with this LORD or else they are not children of the covenant. It was for this very reason that Israel went into captivity and was dispersed throughout the nations. They had shown little interest in remaining faithful to Yahweh and instead went after the gods of the nations. Hosea calls people like this “not my people.” Rather, the people of God are those who confess the LORD of the Covenant, which is Jesus. If you confess Jesus as King, you are His people. If you confess some other king, you are not. It is as simple as this.
At this point, we can see that the completion of the work of restoring Israel has not yet happened here in glorious splendor as we read here. People still kill one another in wars. There is crime, adultery and murder. These things occur even in the church. Our little Jerusalem looks no better than the Jerusalem of Isaiah’s day. Neither does the restoration of Jerusalem in today’s Israel. We know that Jesus ascended to heaven to await the time of His return in which the fulness of these prophetic promises will be realized. We can then have true hope.
The Kingdom is already here, thought. Jesus says that the Kingdom is already in you. The King rules by the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers. In every way we need to live the kingdom now in anticipation. If there shall be justice and peace there, we should be children of justice and peace. If love shall abound, then let us love each other and serve each other. Inasmuch as possible, let us live our faith in anticipation of the coming King. This is a part of our witness to the world as we call people from all over the earth to repent and believe the gospel. Good News is here. He is coming. This is what we proclaim at Advent and throughout the year.
