The Gospel of Isaiah: Highlights of Chapter Eleven

The Gospel of Isaiah: Highlights of Chapter Eleven.

WANTED: An imaginative scribe who can write exquisite poetry. A faithful, articulate believer in Yahweh who can switch from one extreme to another at the Lord’s command… from a sublime vision of God’s glory, to a ridiculous demonstration of shameful nakedness; from confronting the people over their sinfulness, to comforting people with hopefulness; from being an outspoken messenger one minute, to a living object lesson the next; from having one foot in the immediate surroundings one minute, to one foot in the future messianic realm the next. Must be adaptable, thick-skinned, and extraordinarily brave. Person who answers, “Here I am. Send me!” will be especially considered. (from The Jerusalem Post, 740 BC).

• “There shall come forth a Shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a fruit-bearing Branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the Lord Yahweh shall rest upon Him. The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and godliness. He will be inspired by his devotion to the Lord, for His delight is in the fear of the Lord.”  (Isaiah 11:1-3). 

a. The Early Christian Church Understanding. As taught by the Eastern Orthodox tradition, the house of wisdom in Proverbs 9:1… “Wisdom has built her house; she has carved out its seven pillars” was considered to be a direct reference to the Christian Church. The seven pillars holding up the Church were believed to be the “Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit” as listed in Isaiah 11:2-3: “Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Might, Knowledge, Godliness, and Fear of God.” These seven qualities of the Spirit are the divine graces that rested on Christ, the perfection of His anointing at His baptism. These seven dimensions of the Holy Spirit hovered above Jesus and then rested on Him during all His mission on earth and continues to remain on Him in heaven to this day.

b. The Branch. The glorious kingdom of Christ had humble beginnings, a mere branch emerging from a seemingly dead stump in the ground, a tiny twig from a hidden root. As Isaiah says later in 53:2, “He grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground.”  But the Spirit of the Lord rested on this Branch, the Holy Spirit alighted on Him like a winged bird from heaven. One thinks here of the testimony of John the Baptist, when he “saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Jesus.” (John 1:32).

c. This passage in Isaiah 11:1-3 celebrates the profound giftedness of the Spirit as He came in full force upon the Messiah Jesus from His conception in Mary, and remained there forever. These sevenfold qualities represent the perfection of the Messiah’s anointing at His baptism, and they reveal divine gifts offered to believers which only increase in power and usefulness as the believer earnestly follows God. These gifts come in the believer’s anointing as a new believer, and are given to each Christian “according to each one’s ability to receive them.” (Maurus). The Spirit’s gifts “do not come through our natural abilities, but through the divine power that confers them.” (Maximus). As we exercise these gifts in the power of the Spirit, they increasingly become that much more of an ingrained part of our redeemed nature. The Spirit offers to us the probability of becoming wise and insightful, able to guide others with God’s strength and valor, gaining in spiritual knowledge and godliness, and of developing a deep reverence for God. In other words, the Holy Spirit enables each believer to become like Jesus. Jesus the Messiah, the Anointed One.

d. Properties of the Holy Spirit. These seven attributes could be amplified this way:  “Wisdom” could also refer to the inspired skillfulness used in Exodus 3 that includes a supernatural ability for music, creativity, craftsmanship, art, business dealings, writing, and the consistent application of truth. “Understanding” could also include shrewd insight, unerring discernment and moral judgment, and even a clever street-smarts. “Counsel” also refers to the ability to offer guidance, advice, and sound strategy for spiritual leadership. The same word is used for steering a ship and guiding it to the intended destination. “Power” refers not only to strength of will and character but also courage and valor. “Knowledge” translates into a personal and experiential revelation knowledge, the kind that doesn’t come from mental pursuits or intellectual study, but instead from a devotional intimacy with the Lord of all knowledge.  “Godliness” is the translation used often instead of ‘fear of the Lord.’ And by this Isaiah probably meant an obedient and godly piety focused on holy living. “Fear of Yahweh” means that the Messiah, and then His followers who are empowered by His Spirit, will sense the truth through a genuine reverence for the Lord, and will find deep pleasure through awe-filled worship and absolute loyalty to God. These seven dimensions of the Holy Spirit remained in the Judeo-Christian tradition all the way from Isaiah to John’s book of Revelation, in which John refers often to the “Seven Spirits of God.” (Rev. 1:4; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6). These seven gifts of God are also referred to as the “Sevenfold Holy Spirit.” These attributes of the Spirit continue to this day as properties of the Spirit that we live into as we follow the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

(4.) “Righteousness will be the belt around His waist, and faithfulness the band around His hips.” (Isaiah 11:5). Other translations put this passage a little differently: “Justice will be the band of His waist, and truth the belt upon his hips;” “Fairness will be this warrior’s sash around his middle, and faithfulness the belt around his loins.” “He will clothe Himself with righteousness and justice, with faithfulness and truth.” Only the Holy Spirit could enable each of us to develop those divine qualities and flesh them out in our lives.

• “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat; the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together. And a little child shall guide and tend them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” (11:6-9).

The Peaceable Kingdom. This poetic picture of the earth’s inevitable return to the Paradise of Eden is anticipating the messianic era, when all will be at peace, the whole earth will experience shalom. The redemption of the earth will include the animal kingdom, a complete transformation of the natural world when the curse of Adam will be removed. The new heavens and the new earth will be the Golden Age when the predators will become peaceful and no longer hunt for prey; the warring countries will lay down their arms; the discord between people and between the people groups will be healed. One can also understand this vision of Isaiah’s to include the disharmony within each of us, the broken pieces from our sinful nature that give each person contradictory impulses and warring qualities that create within us an internal disharmony and keeps us from a peaceful spirit. The Spirit of the Lord will soothe the savage beast within and without, and for once in our sordid human history, we’ll all just get along!

SHALOM = The ancient Hebrew word translated as peace: completeness or wholeness, as in the joining together of opposites; integrity, as in the effective holding together of separate pieces; to give/restore harmony; fulfillment; health; security; abundant well-being; the state of having the vitality needed to thrive and flourish; tranquility; freedom from disquiet and disorder; reconciliation; resolution of conflict/war; healing of division; prosperity. The Greek word for peace in the New Testament is “Eirene,” and means the same thing as “Shalom” in the Hebrew Bible. Shalom ranks the highest of all values in the Hebrew Bible, according to Jewish scholars. Shalom is the most important goal in all of life. “Rabbinic teaching describes it as the only vessel through which God’s blessings can flow into this world.” (Rabbi Arthur Green, These are the words: A Vocabulary of Jewish Spiritual Life).

PURSUE SHALOM RIGHT NOW: Live in harmony with others; intentionally help in the combining of separate people into a unified whole; lend a helping  hand in reconciling apparent differences with others; adjust yourself in order to fit together with others; as much as is possible, honestly be of the same mind with others; be agreeable and forgiving; join together with others in a unifying purpose; actively listen to achieve mutual understanding; bravely pray that God’s shalom will flood the atmosphere with His presence.

“And a little child shall lead them.” Another significant sign of the presence of God’s kingdom on earth is when the child Messiah will come to earth to lead the human family back to God. The little child shall guide us, tend us, and lead us back to the Lord. That little child prophesied by Isaiah points directly to Jesus Christ. We know that Jesus submitted to all the stages of human development. He was a fetus in Mary’s womb, an infant, a toddler, a young child who matured as all young people do. We know that “as Jesus grew, so did His wisdom and maturity. The favor of men increased upon His life, for He was loved greatly by God.” (Luke 2:52). We don’t know anything about the eighteen years of his life between His youthful time in the Temple and His baptism, but as we consider His adult ministry, it’s clear that He retained the heart of a child… His physical needs were simple; He was always curious and imaginative; He wanted to please people and bring joy to others. Most of all, Jesus was a humble servant, He had a child-like trust in His Father, a steadfast faith in the love and intentions of His Father in heaven. Jesus wanted above all to please His Father and obey His instructions, hanging on every word from the Father. He openly expressed His complete and child-like dependence on the Father. He loved and embraced children, He advocated for children, and He even held children up as the role models to follow if one wanted to get into His kingdom. He seemed to identify with children so profoundly, would it be a stretch to claim that Jesus was eternally a Child? Of course, lest we forget, the child-like qualities we see in the Master Jesus will be duplicated by His Spirit in those who follow Him. In God’s kingdom on earth, the child-like are in the lead, the servants are in charge.

“The earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters form a covering for the sea.” Isaiah closes his vision of the coming messianic era by anticipating that time when God will be all in all, when “the whole earth will be brimming with a living knowledge of God that is ocean-deep and ocean-wide.” (MSG). A parallel passage is found in Habakkuk 2:14, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” The Hebrew term for “know” is a relational word, and is a reality that includes intimate and experiential knowledge and not simply head-knowledge, a knowledge that inspires reverence and devotion and not mere intellectual information. Because of this Jewish understanding of know, the Tanakh (Jewish translation of the Hebrew Bible) has “awe” instead of knowledge in Habakkuk, and “devotion” instead of knowledge in Isaiah. Biblically speaking, spiritual knowledge is akin to worship, reverence, and fear of the Lord. Since glory is synonymous with the magnificent splendor and weighty Presence of God, Habakkuk and Isaiah must have been encouraged when the Lord foretells the time when the whole earth will be fully aware of and participate in the glorious Presence of the Lord.