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.