Isaiah 11:2–9

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.

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.

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.

"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 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.

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.

"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.

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."

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 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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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?

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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."

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).

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 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).

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.

It is the world, the habitable earth to come, "of which we are speaking" (Heb. 2:5) — not heaven, but earth, and especially the land of Israel under Him whose right it is. What ground is there to doubt its plain and exact fulfilment? … Why should anyone think it impossible that God, in honour of the reign of Jesus, will change more than the face of nature? He will change the habits and instincts of every living creature, freeing creation from the bondage of corruption under which it now groans.

Missionaries would tell us, we believe, that killing and eating a young goat holds a special attraction for the leopard, just as the wolf preys on lambs by nature. All creation will be at peace and all fierceness gone — even the poisonous serpent stripped of its venom and its desire to bite.

The wolf, the leopard and the lion are shown as still existing, set against the lamb, the young goat, the calf and the more general "fatling" — but with their instincts for prey completely gone. Taken as a picture of the soul, how strange to sort people into such classes, when the gospel declares that all are lost and ungodly on one side, and that all believers are equally saved and children of God on the other! … Until then, faith counts on the power God gives against a state of disorder, as when David saved the lamb and killed both the lion and the bear.

The wolf, the leopard and the young lion will stop killing, of course. But there is more in the passage than that. These fierce beasts represent the lust for blood and power in men, the cause of all the strife … But all that will be changed. … God's power will do this. Men will be born again.

Because the sin of Adam had effects far beyond his own race: all that was put under his dominion got into ruin and disorder. And this is not a mere imaginative notion of ruin, nor a fanciful reading of Old Testament prophecy. It is the doctrine plainly and positively laid down in Rom. 8. It says there that "the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it" — a clear reference to the fall of the one who was set over creation. He fell; and creation, being under the headship of Adam, fell along with him.

Man boasts of his efforts, and they often fail. In this remarkable passage of Isaiah 11, God shows how He accomplishes His purposes and removes every trace of the power of evil — through a "little child." The word in the original could be translated "little finger." Before this tiny symbol the whole power and ferocity described in the earlier verses collapses. God fills the whole earth with His glory, blesses the people, and secures a resting place of glory.

Why should anyone think it impossible that God, in honour of the reign of Jesus, will change all living nature — not only its face, but its habits and bent? He will deliver the creature from the bondage of corruption under which it now groans. Jehovah declares that the days must surely come when the ploughman will overtake the reaper, and the one who treads grapes will overtake the one who sows seed. Then not only the earth will answer His generous power, but the animal kingdom also.

An allegorical sense does not fit the exactness of the language... The passage shows the wolf, the leopard and the lion still existing, and sets them against the lamb, the kid, the calf and the more general "fatling" — but with the instincts of prey completely gone. It speaks only of animals that once hunted, now living in peace with the gentlest cattle. So the only right way to read it is as a prediction of facts still to come.

The wolf and the leopard and the young lion represent the uncontrolled passions of men. These animals will no doubt stop being beasts of prey, but a greater change, because it is moral instead of physical, will take place in men, and the figure used teaches us this — a little child will be the leader.

God's mercy will reach even to the animal creation. He placed it under man at the beginning, so it has suffered as a result of man's fall. Strong animals will no longer kill and devour the weak. Enemies like the wolf and the lamb will feed together. The greediest, like the lion, will be content with plant food. All hurt and destruction will cease.

Verse 30 of that chapter expressly assigns every green plant to every beast of the earth. The same text proves that at this time "every animal in the earth was herbivorous"... No believer should question that past fact, if inspired prophecy assures him that the day is coming when the wolf will dwell with the lamb and the leopard lie down with the kid. In that day the cow and the bear will feed, their young lying down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. Here science will certainly complain and scoff.

About creation, the eighth chapter of Romans tells us that "the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now." There is not an animal on earth that is free from pain. But verse twenty-one tells us of a different state of things to come: "the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God." This is, to my mind, the key to the eleventh chapter of Isaiah.

The only creature from which God does not remove the curse is the serpent. Even in that day Jehovah will remember the part the serpent played in producing the ruin He is now putting right. That is why we have the sentence, "dust shall be the serpent's food."

tsiphoni. English versions translate this word 'adder' only once, in Proverbs 23:32, and 'cockatrice' four times. Three of those — Isaiah 11:8, Isaiah 14:29 and Isaiah 59:5 — point to its poison. The fourth, Jeremiah 8:17, points to something else: it will not be charmed, but will bite. This is thought to be the 'yellow viper' of Palestine, which hides in dens and whose poison kills. Reports say it resists the skill of the snake charmers. The cockatrice was a mythical creature. The translators perhaps used its name for some unknown deadly snake.

The Lord's appearing will bring in a completely new age of triumphant power in righteous government, and will keep it so. That sets it apart from this day of grace, while Satan rules, and those who are Christ's suffer, yet overcome by faith. We wait for His coming as the end of our pilgrimage here below.

The wolf, the leopard and the lion are still there, set against the lamb, the kid, the calf and the more general "fatling" — but their instinct to hunt has completely gone. Take it as a picture of spiritual life, and see how strange it is. It sorts people into classes, while the gospel declares all of them lost and ungodly on one side, and all believers alike saved and God's children on the other. One could understand a picture of the wolf becoming a lamb... But the actual wording rules out all such flights of fancy.

It confounds the church with Israel; it lowers the character of our blessing in Christ from heaven to earth; it weakens the word of God by introducing a haziness needful to the existence of such applications; it undermines the mercy and the faithfulness of God, because it supposes that the richest and most unconditional of His promises to Israel are, notwithstanding, taken from them and turned into the wholly different channel of ourselves. If God could so speak and act towards Israel, where is the guarantee for the Christian or the church?

It is the world or inhabited earth to come, "of which we are speaking" (Hebrews 2:5) — not heaven, but earth, and especially the land of Israel under Him Whose right it is. ... Why should anyone think it impossible that God, in honour of the reign of Jesus, should change not only the face of nature but the habits and instincts of every living creature? Why should He not set creation free from the bondage of corruption under which it now groans? ... The earth is not the only thing that will answer as it should to His generous power. The animal kingdom will answer too, with the one exception that seems good to Him who does not forget the cunning evil-doer. Even now, when other and deeper questions are before Him, what pity He shows for babies and even for cattle! (See Jonah 4:11)

Think of the nursing child playing over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child putting his hand on the viper's den, and coming to no harm! What days of peace and quiet for man and beast! There will be one solemn exception to this general deliverance — the serpent. "Dust shall be the serpent's food" (Isaiah 65:25). The reason is easy to see. In this form the tempter deceived our first parents, and so brought in all the misery. God will never overlook or forget that. He will not lift the curse He pronounced in Eden on this creature (Genesis 3:14).

Only the serpent will keep crawling in the dust, as a lasting witness to Satan and sin. It is a warning too, for after the kingdom age Satan will be let loose for a little while (Revelation 20:7).

For the meaning of this expression in Romans 8, I know no better clue than what we find again and again in the Old Testament. Take Isaiah 11:6-9... Will creation not go free then? Even the tribes of savage beasts will have stopped devouring each other, and the most savage and most poisonous will be the harmless playmates of the little child.

This will have a literal fulfilment. Not only the church of God, Israel, and the nations, but creation too will come into wonderful blessing. The Lord will be King over all the earth.

There will be one exception, and only one, to the deliverance of creation. Isaiah 65:25 describes the blessing of that age in glowing terms. Yet there we read that all the rest of creation goes free and happy, while the curse stays on the serpents — the kind of creature Satan used to deceive the first woman.

In verses 5-9 we see the fruit of the curse gone from the earth. By the presence of Christ and the Spirit poured out from on high, the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah as the waters cover the sea. Christ here is not glorified above, and it is not the gospel here below.

We all agree that the earth is to be filled with the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea. How is this to happen? It is remarkable. In this very scripture (Isaiah 11:9), the Holy Spirit shows that judgment must come before this time of blessing... The universal spread of the knowledge of Jehovah follows His striking the earth with the rod of His mouth, and His slaying the wicked with the breath of His lips.

Three times this "filling" is mentioned: here in this passage (Numbers 14), in Isaiah 11:9, and in Habakkuk 2:14. Each time it is connected with judgment.

In that day the earth will not be full of the confusion and the conflicts created by the fall of man. It will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. How do the waters cover the sea-bed? They do so completely, without one crevice left unfilled.

In the new age people will be blessed abundantly. But the blessing of the millennium does not exactly take the shape of belief... The earth shall be filled with the knowledge — not with the faith, but with the knowledge — of the glory of Jehovah. In countless cases it will be the fruit of true divine teaching. But knowledge describes it better than faith... They will behold the glory, they will look upon the Lord, no longer hidden but displayed.

Even the age of visible glory cannot change the heart of man... The kingdom can govern and bless but not convert man... "That day" does not mean a time when everybody will be converted. It means a time when the Lord Jesus will govern in righteousness, when He will judge open evil at once, and uphold good in a wonderful way for a thousand years.