And there shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots shall be fruitful;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
and the Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Jehovah.
Isaiah 11 opens with a shoot growing out of a cut-down family tree: the line of Jesse, King David's father, cut back to a stump. On that shoot the Spirit rests, named again in three pairs — which raises two questions: who is this Branch, and why would a divine Person need the Spirit resting on Him?
The verse looks back to David's father, and forward to a reign that changes the earth itself.
As "the seed of David according to the flesh," our Lord Jesus is "a Shoot out of the stock of Jesse." He is the supreme "Branch out of his roots," who has been fruitful to the glory of God. He is the Man of God's purpose, in whom the whole will of God will be carried out. Read Isaiah 11:2 to 9, and a delightful picture opens before us: the earth as it will be under His righteous and kind rule in the coming thousand-year age.
The word "rest" matters. One writer explains why nothing else in this world would do.
Although a divine Person, the Messiah would be truly Man. As the LORD's Servant, "the Spirit of the LORD" would rest on Him as the proof of God's pleasure in Him, and to carry out His will. This Scripture, Isaiah 11:2, is fulfilled when the Lord came to earth… Like the dove Noah sent out, which came back and landed on the ark, the only suitable resting place for the Spirit of God in this world was on Jesus, the holy Son of God.
One writer reads the verse alongside the seven-branched golden lampstand in Israel's tent of worship: one central stem with three pairs of arms.
The sevenfold equipping of the Spirit gives Him His qualifications for this supreme place. Notice that we have here first the Spirit of the LORD spoken of alone, answering to the central shaft — the one divine Being. Next come three pairs of titles, matching in a striking way the three pairs of branches that, with the central shaft, form the lampstand… "Wisdom" is knowledge joined with sound judgment… "Understanding" comes from a word meaning to "separate" or "distinguish," which points to the discernment that must go with wisdom.
The second pair joins advice to power — and the root of "counsel" carries more weight than mere suggestion.
"Counsel" is thought to come from a word meaning to be strong, then to command, and so, advice. Does this not show what all true counsel is — authoritative and binding? So our Lord taught "as one who had authority." How full His life was of that perfect, God-given counsel. Fitting alongside it was the Spirit of "might." It looks like the opposite of counsel, yet it belongs with it and completes it, giving an evenly balanced display of the Spirit's working.
The final pair appears together in one scene.
The Spirit led Him into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. The Spirit of knowledge shows itself in the way He chose and quoted just the right Scriptures to meet each temptation. The Spirit of the fear of the LORD shows itself in the way He answered every temptation with what God had said… He took every step knowing His Father's will, and in reverent fear that delights in God.
If the Son of God is God, why would He need the Spirit at all? One writer points to the path He chose.
In the thirty quiet years at Nazareth, our Lord was the perfect One, wholly the Father's delight. When He came out to serve, God sent the Spirit — not only as the seal of approval on what He had been in those hidden years, but to empower Him for His special ministry. Remember, our Lord's life was one of perfect dependence. He did not use His divine rights directly, but did everything by the Spirit of God who filled Him.
One writer links this verse to the greeting that opens the book of Revelation.
"And from the seven spirits who are before his throne." Here again we find a description of the Holy Spirit specifically in government… The reference is clearly to Isaiah 11:2, where the sevenfold power of the Holy Spirit in government is tied to the person of the Messiah and to His kingdom.
If this reign is still future, what do Christians have now?
Christians, called out from the nations in this day of God's grace, will not have their part in the earthly blessings of the coming day. Their portion is in heaven, near to Christ… Even now we share in Christ's anointing, knowing that He is "anointed with the oil of gladness beyond His companions."
- Rest — the Person. The Branch from Jesse's stump is the Man of God's purpose, and He is the only resting place the Spirit found in this world.
- Rest — the fullness. One Spirit, sevenfold: the central shaft, then wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, knowledge and the fear of the LORD.
- Rest — the life. He did not draw on His divine rights directly; He served in perfect dependence, doing all by the Spirit who filled Him.
- Rest — the reign. The same sevenfold Spirit appears again in Revelation, linked to government and to the kingdom of the Messiah.
- Rest — the reach. Earth's blessing under that reign is still future; believers' portion is in heaven, yet even now they share the anointing of Christ.
And his delight will be in the fear of Jehovah; and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears;
Isaiah 11 describes a coming Ruler with the Spirit of the Lord resting on Him. Verse 3 shows what that power produces: a Judge who does not work from what He sees and hears. Commentators call this "quick understanding." Why would a perfect Judge set aside the evidence of His own eyes? And can anyone else share this?
The chapter first describes the Ruler, then the effect of His rule. One writer marks the contrast with Jesus' first coming.
Here, however, it is not in the activity of grace among the sorrows of men and the oppressions of the devil that we see Jesus, but in view of His government. He is fully subject to Jehovah. He rules not by appearance, but righteously, in His fear. Such is the effect of the power that rested on Him. And His delight [quick understanding, or scent] shall be in the fear of the LORD... The Lord Jesus will then do what He refused to do at His first coming. He will judge in equity, and put down oppression, and cause righteousness to flourish in peace.
The word behind "delight" carries the idea of scent — a sensitivity, not a calculation. One writer ties that quickness to a heart set in order and a will subdued.
The effect is preserving moral acuteness, being of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord — this quickness of moral perception. The heart would be in such order, and the will so subdued, that what came from the mouth would be the expression of knowledge.
Human judges work from testimony and appearances. Both can deceive them. This Judge has no such limit.
He will not depend on outside things, as human judges do — on what He sees or hears. He will have that "quick understanding" which gives Him intuitive knowledge, springing from His divine nature. So His actions, whether in favour of the poor and meek or against the wicked, will show absolute righteousness. At last an age of righteousness will have dawned.
The verse looks ahead to His reign. Yet one writer sees the same quality when Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness. The test was not whether the suggestion was wrong in itself. It was who made it.
Let us look at the holy dependent One, He who was of quick understanding in the fear of Jehovah. "And the tempter came and said to him, If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." Now, if the Father had commanded Him to turn all the stones on the rocky shores of Gennesaret into bread, would that have been wrong? Did the Holy One listen to the tempter to do what was right in itself? Did He act independently of His Father's will? Impossible! He answered him, "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God."
One writer applies this verse beyond Christ to everyone in whom the Spirit lives. It starts with a single eye.
When anything keeps the eye from being single, there is no free exchange of heart and affections with God. As long as that lasts, our will is not subdued, and God does not lead us simply. When the heart is in a right state, the whole body is "full of light," and there is quick perception of the will of God. He teaches us by His "eye" all He wishes, and produces in us quickness of understanding in His fear (Isaiah 11:3). This is our portion, as having the Holy Spirit dwelling in us — hearts with no object except the will and glory of God.
Where this quickness is missing, the problem shows itself not in hard questions but in easy ones.
I do not doubt that Scripture is plain enough on all questions. But we may not be of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord. So we are puzzled and confused about things that lie plainly on the very surface of the Word of God.
- Spirit — The power of the Spirit rests on Him. Everything in verse 3 is the effect of that power.
- Scent — "Quick understanding" means delight, or scent, in the fear of the Lord. It is quick moral perception, not slow reasoning from evidence.
- Sight — He does not depend on what He sees or hears. So His judgments escape the errors of human courts and show absolute righteousness.
- Submission — In the wilderness Jesus refused a thing right in itself. It came from the tempter, not from His Father's will.
- Share — The Spirit living in believers produces the same quickness. Without it, plain truths on the surface of Scripture puzzle us.
but with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity the meek of the earth and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.
This verse turns from what the King is like to what He will do. Two questions run through it: when does this reign begin, and what is the weapon that comes from His mouth?
People have long tried to fit this prophecy to one of Judah's kings. One writer tests that idea against the wording, David included:
To look for a fulfilment of this prophecy in Hezekiah or Josiah would be pointless... No king who followed Ahaz, however godly or glorious, ever came near the terms of the prediction. Nor did David or Solomon before him — not in themselves, and not in the circumstances of their reign... Was what David did to Uriah proof that "righteousness" was "the belt of his waist"? When was the earth ever struck with the rod of any king's mouth? Or whose lips ever breathed out destruction on the wicked?
Judging like this belongs to a reign on earth. It is not what Christ came to do the first time:
He is fully subject to the LORD, and He rules not by appearances but in righteousness, in the fear of God... The Holy Spirit shows the Messiah's moral fitness for His reign on earth — and a reign on earth it plainly is... The Lord Jesus will then do what He refused to do at His first coming. He will judge in equity, put down oppression, and cause righteousness to flourish in peace. This was in no way His work the first time. The Christian, like the church, is called not to judge the earth or rule here below, but to suffer with Him. We wait to be glorified and to reign with Him when He returns.
Some read the verse as a picture of preaching that slowly wins the world. One writer holds it up against the gospel we know now:
Read from verse 4... Is this an adequate account of the Lord's ways in the gospel? Is He not meeting His enemies now? Is He not, above all, saving the lost? How does "judging" or "reproving with equity" meet the case? No doubt the gospel is preached to the poor. But here it is righteous rule controlling and blessing the earth, not salvation by grace gathering souls for heaven... "He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall" — not give life to souls by the grace of God, but — "kill the wicked."
Another writer names what that breath is instead:
The breath of His mouth, by which the Lord will destroy the wicked one, is not the gospel. It is the force and power of the judgment of Christ.
Both the rod and the breath come from His mouth. There is no army, no siege, no long campaign:
Judgment is now close at hand: "From His mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations." Isaiah says the same... It needs only a word from Him to cause their destruction. And it is judgment no less according to His Word — the judgment threatened so long and so often, slow to come, but at last coming in the full measure of the threat. Patience is not repentance.
Commentators take "the wicked" here as one definite person, not wicked people in general.
Isaiah 11 clearly reveals him, and his end at that time: "With the breath of His lips He (Messiah) shall kill the wicked (one)." This is the man. The apostle refers to this text and applies it in 2 Thessalonians 2:8... He is one individual, and "lawless" fits him better than "wicked." He defies all law and every kind of authority. He defies everything people hold sacred, every heathen god — yes, the true God — to set himself above all.
Isaiah has already dealt with the Assyrian invader, the enemy outside. This verse deals with the enemy inside — the one "whom those who turn away from God will accept as their Messiah, destroyed by the true Messiah appearing in glory" (William Kelly).
Verse 9 promises an earth filled with the knowledge of the LORD. Verse 4 says how that state arrives.
Who does not welcome with joy the assurance that "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea"? Yet it is certain: the prophet declares that the Lord will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth and kill the wicked with the breath of His lips. That is what brings in this blessing here below.
- Mouth. Everything in this verse comes out of the King's mouth — the rod, the breath, the verdict. He speaks, and it is done.
- Righteousness. That mouth first speaks for the poor and the meek, judging by what is right, not by appearances.
- Judgment. The same mouth then strikes. Commentators are firm that this breath is not the preaching of the gospel but the power of His judgment.
- Person. The blow falls on a person, not just on wickedness. He is one lawless man, and the apostle applies these words to him in 2 Thessalonians 2:8.
- Result. Only after that stroke does the earth fill with the knowledge of the LORD. The blessing of Isaiah 11:9 comes through the judgment of Isaiah 11:4, not instead of it.
And righteousness shall be the girdle of his reins, and faithfulness the girdle of his loins.
Isaiah's portrait of the coming King closes with what He wears: a belt. A belt is what a man ties on when he means to act. What this King wears tells us what His reign will be.
(Older translations call the two belts "the girdle of his loins" and "the girdle of his reins." The writers quoted below use that wording.)
A belt was not decoration. A man tied one on to work, to march, or to fight. Commentators trace that picture from Isaiah into the Christian's own life.
The girdle stands for strength, and "girding up the loins" means active service. When God gathers the nations to discipline Israel, their belts will not come loose (Isa. 5:27). Scripture says of the Lord when He comes to reign, "Righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins" (Isa. 11:5). In the present warfare Scripture urges the Christian to have his loins girded with truth (Eph. 6:14). "Truth" is the very thing Satan will most oppose, and the thing most people treat carelessly.
The belt is not only outward. One half of the verse names a part of the body that stands for the hidden self.
The kidneys, used as a picture of the inward thoughts and feelings (Ps. 7:9; Ps. 16:7; Ps. 26:2). The word translated "reins" in Isa. 11:5 is elsewhere translated "loins."
Righteousness does not always sit on the throne. One writer names three settings where righteousness is found. Isaiah describes only one of them.
His blessed hand will put right every kind of injustice at once, for He reigns in righteousness. There are three spheres where righteousness is found. Right now, when I look at how God deals with men, I learn this: grace reigns through righteousness. It is divine grace on a righteous basis that saves men today. But from another point of view, now is the day when righteousness suffers. From the day men rejected the Lord Jesus — in fact from Abel onwards — righteousness has always suffered. Just try being a truly righteous person, and you will suffer. … In the thousand-year reign of Christ righteousness reigns. As for eternity, we read of "new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells" (2 Peter 3:13).
"Faithfulness" here is not a new quality He puts on for the reign. One writer links it to the name of the Rider on the white horse in Revelation.
He is called "Faithful and True."… In Isaiah, moreover, we read that "faithfulness shall be the girdle of His reins" (Isa. 11:5). Putting these scriptures together brings us straight to the meaning of the words. Faithfulness to God, both inward and outward, marked Him all through His earthly path. He will come out to set up His kingdom and to make God's character good in government, against the power of evil and against man's rebellion and grasping at what is not his. In everything He does then, one aim will govern Him: what God's glory needs. It was the same in His death on the cross. Truth in the inward parts, which God looked for but never found in man until Christ came, will also mark Him. So He will be the perfect expression, and a true witness, of all that God is in His righteous government of the earth.
The same belt appears again in Revelation. One writer sets it beside the high priest's belt.
The high priest's girdle was made of "gold" and "linen." This showed the union of divine and human righteousness in Jesus our great High Priest. But the girdle here is wholly of gold — divine righteousness. The girdle itself stands for righteousness and faithfulness. These qualities always marked the Lord in all His ways (Isa. 11:5).
One Man's character decides the future of a whole nation.
But what a principle of exceeding grace it is, that made all Israel's blessing hang upon the king! Most were bad, and chastisement fell on the nation. Some were good, none perfect, and prosperity followed. When He comes of whom the prophet says, "Righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the girdle of His reins" (Isa. 11:5; Isa. 32:1), who can calculate the blessedness of all Israel, when the Perfect MAN sits on His Throne? — yes, who can tell the joy of the whole earth when God says of Him that He reigns in righteousness? The crown is His, and soon He will take the kingdom that belongs to Him both humanly and divinely.
- Belt — the belt stands for strength and for active service.
- Buckled on — faithfulness reaches the inward parts, not just the outward walk.
- Borne already — these qualities marked Him in His earthly path and at the cross. He did not take them up for the throne.
- Reigning — today grace reigns through righteousness, while righteousness itself suffers. In that day righteousness sits on the throne, and He puts every injustice right.
- Ours to wear — the same picture fits the Christian now — loins girded with truth, the thing the enemy most opposes.