You will notice that the text for this morning’s sermon is not chapter 10. I hope to return to preach on that chapter. But today I need a chapter like Isaiah 11, and I’ll tell you why. It’s Advent. It has been the tradition of the Church for centuries to focus on Jesus’ coming at this time of the year, just as other portions of the year the focus is on other acts of God. In this, the Church after Jesus’ coming imitates the Church before Jesus’ coming. During a particular time of the year the Church of the Old Testament focused on God’s great act of delivering Israel from Egypt, the house of slavery. And so, during the Passover meal, the fathers were to recount the events of that day in Egypt so that the people, and especially the children, would be reminded of the significance of God’s great act. Likewise, Advent is a time to remember another great act of God, God’s greatest act. Jesus has come to deliver us from our house of slavery. This is to be a time to review and to remember and to see more clearly what Jesus has done. That is my goal for this morning. And it should be your goal for your families. Advent is a time to review, to remember and to see more clearly what Jesus’ coming is all about.
Chapter 11, our text, is not as difficult to understand as some parts of Isaiah. I think that it can be seen in three sections. The first is a description of Jesus as the promised king of Israel, and of the world. The second section is a description of what Jesus aims to accomplish by His coming. You might label it Paradise Restored. The third section is a description of us, His people, and our situation as we move toward Paradise Restored.
Listen as I read Isaiah 11.
Let’s start in the middle, the second section, Jesus’ goal of a restored paradise. This section begins, ‘The wolf shall dwell with the lamb…’ This is not a complete picture of what the goal is, but it is a good picture. Don’t look at the details of the picture. Instead, get an impression from the whole thing. And the impression you will get is a sense of peace. Jesus, the Prince of Peace, creates – or better, re-creates – a place of peace. The thing that stands out is the complete absence of conflict. There just isn’t any, even where you would expect it the most. The prey and the predator lie down together without a hint of the old ways. Infants crawl over to where the poisonous snakes are and there is no panicked mother rushing over. Here is tranquility of a sort that we have never seen. And why have we never seen this? It’s because God has cursed creation. It is one of the consequences of Adam’s sin. So, wolves do not dwell with lambs. Not in our world. No, wolves torment, chase and devour lambs. Creation groans because Adam rebelled. Jesus has come to fix that. His goal: a paradise where there will be, once again, peace, wholeness, tranquility, harmony. Jesus’ goal is a creation where nothing is broken. The beautiful watch will keep time perfectly. Forever.
I want to remind you of this because of a temptation that you face quite regularly. And that temptation is to limit what Jesus has come to do. Now, you all know that Jesus has come to do more than get souls to heaven. But however much more you understand, there is still so much more than that. Growth here is important because your sense of wonder at the Gospel is tied to your understanding of what it is that Jesus has come to do. And it is that sense of wonder that fuels everything else.
Now, a thought. According to Isaiah, Jesus has come to restore paradise. Why? Why would Jesus bother with that as a goal? The answer is clear. It’s because what we now have is not good enough. Many will say, ‘Well, my life’s not so bad.’ And that may be. But Jesus says that it’s still not good enough. He has better things in mind for us. It’s here that a quote from C. S. Lewis fits. ‘Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.’ If Lewis is right – and he is – then we are led to this thought. Enjoy whatever you can of this world. Really, enjoy all that you can. But never be fooled into thinking that anything here will satisfy. It will be enjoyable for a time, but it will not satisfy – not like it was originally intended to. Nothing here will satisfy. And we know that because this is not yet Paradise Restored. It is only when paradise is restored that you will be satisfied – and to a degree that you cannot imagine. To think that this place will satisfy is to tell Jesus that His efforts at restoring us to paradise and paradise to us are misguided and unnecessary. It’s to tell Him that what we have here is good enough. It’s to tell Him that this can satisfy. But Jesus disagrees. There is a huge difference between expecting to enjoy what is here and expecting to be satisfied by it. Don’t be too easily pleased.
Now, let’s look at the first section of our text. Here, Isaiah describes Jesus. He calls Him ‘a shoot from the stump of Jesse.’ To understand this you need to remember who Jesse is. He is the father of David the king. But the line of kings who have come from David has failed. Here, think king Ahaz as an example. So, picking up on the image at the end of chapter 6, Isaiah describes David’s royal descendants as a tree that has been chopped down. It has been cut off. But there is still hope. A new king will arise, a shoot from that old stump. And He will rise to rule the people of God. That’s how Isaiah describes Jesus: the new king of David’s line. And that’s why the crowds praised Jesus as He entered Jerusalem on that donkey. ‘Hosanna to the Son of David’. They saw Him as the promised king.
Jesus comes as king, and He has a task to accomplish, given to Him by the Father. As the king, He is to restore paradise. This is how the first section of the chapter leads into the second. But then, with this task in mind, Isaiah has more to say about Jesus. ‘And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.’ This explains something that happened at Jesus’ baptism. From Luke: ‘Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove…’ As Jesus is about to begin His ministry, His work of restoring paradise, He receives the Spirit, the fulfillment of Isaiah 11. Now, of course, a question needs to be asked. It’s the question, ‘Why?’ Why did Jesus receive the Spirit? And the answer is obvious. Jesus received the Spirit because He needed what the Spirit could provide. And what is that? Well, Isaiah tells us: wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, knowledge and the fear of the Lord. Jesus needed these if He was going to be able to accomplish the task the Father had given Him. So, the Spirit came and gave Him what He needed. And the rest, as they say, is history.
From this first section of our chapter I would like to make two points, and both look at Jesus as our example. Here’s the first. Just as Jesus has received a task from the Father, so have you. By that I don’t mean that there is this one thing you need to do, along with all the rest of life. No, the task is your life. The task defines your life just as Jesus’ task defines His life. Everything He does is, in some way or other, tied to what the Father has called Him to do. Likewise, everything you do is to tie in to what the Father has called you to do. I know that this is vague and very incomplete. But it’s a place to start. And I hope that some of you will ponder this a bit. I include, for example, you high school students. The Father has a task for you which will define your life. Do you see yourself in this way? Let me add this to help you think about this. Don’t think of the Father’s task as one big thing. It’s better understood as lots of little things that come together to form a whole. Also, you don’t discover the little things all at once. It’s a bit-by-bit process of discovery. Over time the task as a whole becomes clearer. I’m picking on you high schoolers because you are at the cusp of making life-shaping decisions. So, I’ll ask again, do you see your life defined in this way?
That was the first point. Here’s the second. Jesus needed. So do all of you. You need to be filled with the Spirit. You need to be careful lest you grieve Him or quench Him. You need be sure not to resist Him. And what exactly does it mean that the Spirit lives in you? You need what the Spirit gave to Jesus: wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, the fear of the LORD. You need these things if you are going to be able to follow Jesus well. How are you doing at understanding the role of the Spirit in your life? Now, this isn’t something that all of you need to focus on right now. But some of you do. So, if you’re part of this group what should you do? Here’s my suggestion. Start by praying for a greater sense of your inadequacy. Without the Spirit you are inadequate. Pray to be able to feel that more. Out of that will come several things. But here’s just one. This whole thing about the role of the Spirit in a Christian’s life will be put into a new light. For too many of us, it has been an area of theological argument. But the person who feels his inadequacy, who feels his need for more of the Spirit’s work in his life, will approach the whole topic differently. So, that’s why I suggest you start with that kind of prayer.
Last section of our text. Here, Isaiah describes our situation. First there’s this. ‘In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples - of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious. In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.’ Part of Jesus’ task of restoring paradise is gathering a people to enjoy it. Here, Isaiah uses the imagery of a second Exodus. Jesus will gather His people once again. But the Gentiles, the ‘nations’, are also included. ‘…of him shall the nations inquire’. So, Jesus gathers a people who will populate His restored paradise. Jesus gathers a Church. The one thing I want to highlight here shows up in this verse. ‘But they shall swoop down on the shoulder of the Philistines in the west, and together they shall plunder the people of the east. They shall put out their hand against Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites shall obey them.’ The point here is clear. As Jesus goes about His task, strives toward His goal, there will be conflict. This conflict will be the Church against the world. Now, don’t think, here, primarily about other people. Remember Paul’s words. ‘For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.’ Our worst enemy isn’t some politician pushing immoral laws nor is it an anti-Christian group trying to sue some church out of existence. Our worst enemy is Satan. He will oppose you in lots of ways, some subtle and some not. Be ready. Paul not only warns us, but he also tells us how to fight, how to be ready. And so he talks about truth, righteousness, the Gospel of peace, faith, salvation and the Spirit. So, my first thought from this last section: There will be conflict. Be ready for it. There is, however, the other side of the coin. Isaiah pictures the Church as winning the war. The people of God will defeat their enemies. There will be conflict, but we are assured of victory. You need to take both of these thoughts and tie them together so that they will balance each other. If you only think about the assurance of victory then you will become lazy and complacent. And Satan will win some battles against you. If you only think about the certainly of conflict, then you will become fearful. You will stress over whether you are prepared enough for the coming battles. Balance the two. Conflict and victory.
Our text has three sections. The first has Isaiah’s description of Jesus. The second is about His task to restore paradise. The third is about our situation. I’ve touched on quite a few things that come out of our text. People have written large books on each of these topics. I’ve spoken a handful of sentences on each. I have not been anywhere close to complete about any of them. But then again, I haven’t tried to be. I have given you some snapshots of these topics. I’ve raised lots of questions but not provided many answers. Instead of giving you answers, I thought it better to give you some questions and have you discover the answers. So, I would like each of you to choose one snapshot, one topic, and take that home with you so that you can work on it. Pray about that one thought. Ask questions of that one thought. Try to find some answers. As you do this you will be taken back to where we started. You will remember, review and see more clearly why Jesus has come. That, after all, is what Advent is for.
Chapter 11, our text, is not as difficult to understand as some parts of Isaiah. I think that it can be seen in three sections. The first is a description of Jesus as the promised king of Israel, and of the world. The second section is a description of what Jesus aims to accomplish by His coming. You might label it Paradise Restored. The third section is a description of us, His people, and our situation as we move toward Paradise Restored.
Listen as I read Isaiah 11.
Let’s start in the middle, the second section, Jesus’ goal of a restored paradise. This section begins, ‘The wolf shall dwell with the lamb…’ This is not a complete picture of what the goal is, but it is a good picture. Don’t look at the details of the picture. Instead, get an impression from the whole thing. And the impression you will get is a sense of peace. Jesus, the Prince of Peace, creates – or better, re-creates – a place of peace. The thing that stands out is the complete absence of conflict. There just isn’t any, even where you would expect it the most. The prey and the predator lie down together without a hint of the old ways. Infants crawl over to where the poisonous snakes are and there is no panicked mother rushing over. Here is tranquility of a sort that we have never seen. And why have we never seen this? It’s because God has cursed creation. It is one of the consequences of Adam’s sin. So, wolves do not dwell with lambs. Not in our world. No, wolves torment, chase and devour lambs. Creation groans because Adam rebelled. Jesus has come to fix that. His goal: a paradise where there will be, once again, peace, wholeness, tranquility, harmony. Jesus’ goal is a creation where nothing is broken. The beautiful watch will keep time perfectly. Forever.
I want to remind you of this because of a temptation that you face quite regularly. And that temptation is to limit what Jesus has come to do. Now, you all know that Jesus has come to do more than get souls to heaven. But however much more you understand, there is still so much more than that. Growth here is important because your sense of wonder at the Gospel is tied to your understanding of what it is that Jesus has come to do. And it is that sense of wonder that fuels everything else.
Now, a thought. According to Isaiah, Jesus has come to restore paradise. Why? Why would Jesus bother with that as a goal? The answer is clear. It’s because what we now have is not good enough. Many will say, ‘Well, my life’s not so bad.’ And that may be. But Jesus says that it’s still not good enough. He has better things in mind for us. It’s here that a quote from C. S. Lewis fits. ‘Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.’ If Lewis is right – and he is – then we are led to this thought. Enjoy whatever you can of this world. Really, enjoy all that you can. But never be fooled into thinking that anything here will satisfy. It will be enjoyable for a time, but it will not satisfy – not like it was originally intended to. Nothing here will satisfy. And we know that because this is not yet Paradise Restored. It is only when paradise is restored that you will be satisfied – and to a degree that you cannot imagine. To think that this place will satisfy is to tell Jesus that His efforts at restoring us to paradise and paradise to us are misguided and unnecessary. It’s to tell Him that what we have here is good enough. It’s to tell Him that this can satisfy. But Jesus disagrees. There is a huge difference between expecting to enjoy what is here and expecting to be satisfied by it. Don’t be too easily pleased.
Now, let’s look at the first section of our text. Here, Isaiah describes Jesus. He calls Him ‘a shoot from the stump of Jesse.’ To understand this you need to remember who Jesse is. He is the father of David the king. But the line of kings who have come from David has failed. Here, think king Ahaz as an example. So, picking up on the image at the end of chapter 6, Isaiah describes David’s royal descendants as a tree that has been chopped down. It has been cut off. But there is still hope. A new king will arise, a shoot from that old stump. And He will rise to rule the people of God. That’s how Isaiah describes Jesus: the new king of David’s line. And that’s why the crowds praised Jesus as He entered Jerusalem on that donkey. ‘Hosanna to the Son of David’. They saw Him as the promised king.
Jesus comes as king, and He has a task to accomplish, given to Him by the Father. As the king, He is to restore paradise. This is how the first section of the chapter leads into the second. But then, with this task in mind, Isaiah has more to say about Jesus. ‘And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.’ This explains something that happened at Jesus’ baptism. From Luke: ‘Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove…’ As Jesus is about to begin His ministry, His work of restoring paradise, He receives the Spirit, the fulfillment of Isaiah 11. Now, of course, a question needs to be asked. It’s the question, ‘Why?’ Why did Jesus receive the Spirit? And the answer is obvious. Jesus received the Spirit because He needed what the Spirit could provide. And what is that? Well, Isaiah tells us: wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, knowledge and the fear of the Lord. Jesus needed these if He was going to be able to accomplish the task the Father had given Him. So, the Spirit came and gave Him what He needed. And the rest, as they say, is history.
From this first section of our chapter I would like to make two points, and both look at Jesus as our example. Here’s the first. Just as Jesus has received a task from the Father, so have you. By that I don’t mean that there is this one thing you need to do, along with all the rest of life. No, the task is your life. The task defines your life just as Jesus’ task defines His life. Everything He does is, in some way or other, tied to what the Father has called Him to do. Likewise, everything you do is to tie in to what the Father has called you to do. I know that this is vague and very incomplete. But it’s a place to start. And I hope that some of you will ponder this a bit. I include, for example, you high school students. The Father has a task for you which will define your life. Do you see yourself in this way? Let me add this to help you think about this. Don’t think of the Father’s task as one big thing. It’s better understood as lots of little things that come together to form a whole. Also, you don’t discover the little things all at once. It’s a bit-by-bit process of discovery. Over time the task as a whole becomes clearer. I’m picking on you high schoolers because you are at the cusp of making life-shaping decisions. So, I’ll ask again, do you see your life defined in this way?
That was the first point. Here’s the second. Jesus needed. So do all of you. You need to be filled with the Spirit. You need to be careful lest you grieve Him or quench Him. You need be sure not to resist Him. And what exactly does it mean that the Spirit lives in you? You need what the Spirit gave to Jesus: wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, the fear of the LORD. You need these things if you are going to be able to follow Jesus well. How are you doing at understanding the role of the Spirit in your life? Now, this isn’t something that all of you need to focus on right now. But some of you do. So, if you’re part of this group what should you do? Here’s my suggestion. Start by praying for a greater sense of your inadequacy. Without the Spirit you are inadequate. Pray to be able to feel that more. Out of that will come several things. But here’s just one. This whole thing about the role of the Spirit in a Christian’s life will be put into a new light. For too many of us, it has been an area of theological argument. But the person who feels his inadequacy, who feels his need for more of the Spirit’s work in his life, will approach the whole topic differently. So, that’s why I suggest you start with that kind of prayer.
Last section of our text. Here, Isaiah describes our situation. First there’s this. ‘In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples - of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious. In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.’ Part of Jesus’ task of restoring paradise is gathering a people to enjoy it. Here, Isaiah uses the imagery of a second Exodus. Jesus will gather His people once again. But the Gentiles, the ‘nations’, are also included. ‘…of him shall the nations inquire’. So, Jesus gathers a people who will populate His restored paradise. Jesus gathers a Church. The one thing I want to highlight here shows up in this verse. ‘But they shall swoop down on the shoulder of the Philistines in the west, and together they shall plunder the people of the east. They shall put out their hand against Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites shall obey them.’ The point here is clear. As Jesus goes about His task, strives toward His goal, there will be conflict. This conflict will be the Church against the world. Now, don’t think, here, primarily about other people. Remember Paul’s words. ‘For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.’ Our worst enemy isn’t some politician pushing immoral laws nor is it an anti-Christian group trying to sue some church out of existence. Our worst enemy is Satan. He will oppose you in lots of ways, some subtle and some not. Be ready. Paul not only warns us, but he also tells us how to fight, how to be ready. And so he talks about truth, righteousness, the Gospel of peace, faith, salvation and the Spirit. So, my first thought from this last section: There will be conflict. Be ready for it. There is, however, the other side of the coin. Isaiah pictures the Church as winning the war. The people of God will defeat their enemies. There will be conflict, but we are assured of victory. You need to take both of these thoughts and tie them together so that they will balance each other. If you only think about the assurance of victory then you will become lazy and complacent. And Satan will win some battles against you. If you only think about the certainly of conflict, then you will become fearful. You will stress over whether you are prepared enough for the coming battles. Balance the two. Conflict and victory.
Our text has three sections. The first has Isaiah’s description of Jesus. The second is about His task to restore paradise. The third is about our situation. I’ve touched on quite a few things that come out of our text. People have written large books on each of these topics. I’ve spoken a handful of sentences on each. I have not been anywhere close to complete about any of them. But then again, I haven’t tried to be. I have given you some snapshots of these topics. I’ve raised lots of questions but not provided many answers. Instead of giving you answers, I thought it better to give you some questions and have you discover the answers. So, I would like each of you to choose one snapshot, one topic, and take that home with you so that you can work on it. Pray about that one thought. Ask questions of that one thought. Try to find some answers. As you do this you will be taken back to where we started. You will remember, review and see more clearly why Jesus has come. That, after all, is what Advent is for.
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