The Spirit-Filled Messiah

Isaiah 11:1–9 KJV 1900

1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots: 2 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 of the fear of the Lord; 3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: And he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, Neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: 4 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, And reprove with equity for 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. 5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, And faithfulness the girdle of his reins. 6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, And the leopard shall lie down with the kid; And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them. 7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; Their young ones shall lie down together: And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, And the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den. 9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, As the waters cover the sea.

Introduction

Vs 1 - The fresh branch from a stump.

Picture a stump in your backyard.

You cut down the tree years ago.

There it has set year after year.

All of a sudden you go out one spring and the inert stump has a fresh shoot growing out of it.

Little green buds and leaves are all over this little branch.

The stump that you had assumed was dead, now shows signs of life.

This is the picture that Isaiah paints of the family lineage of Jesse.

Not David, but his father.

Israel’s sins caused God to chop them down in judgment.

For hundreds of years the stump of Jesse’s line appears to be dead.

The “rod” is a tiny shoot.

The shoot becomes a branch.

This rod and branch will be the Messiah.

A branch is specifically a fruit-bearer.

We know more than they did.

This branch will be Jesus.

What fruit His life produced.

There is not a more influential life in all of history.

How will he bear such fruit?

Vs 2-3 -The effects of the Spirit.

The coming Messiah will enjoy the presence and produce of God’s Holy Spirit.

Look at what the Spirit produces in the life of the Messiah.

When you study the gospels, you find that the Spirit of the Lord is inseparable from the character of Christ.

Meld what we see here with your understanding that you have the same Spirit living in you.

Reconcile what we see here with the NT’s command for us to be conformed to the image of this branch, the Messiah, Jesus.

There are 6 fruits of the Spirit that we see here in Isaiah.

The Catholics say there are 7.

No offense to them, but I just couldn’t understand where they got the 7 from.

I mean, I see it, but I don’t think they are right.

Spirit of wisdom.

This is the ability to see the whole picture.

Spirit of understanding.

This is a sensitivity to the relationship of issues.

Spirit of counsel.

Willingness to listen and advise.

Spirit of might.

Ability to influence.

Spirit of knowledge.

Knowing the facts.

Spirit of fear of the Lord.

Centered on the will of God.

The Spirit makes the Messiah a better judge than Israel’s current judges.

Human judges are limited by their ability to perceive the truth.

They have to operate based on what they see and what they hear.

Instead, the Messiah will issue judgment based will of God.

The will of God becomes the deciding factor in judgment not the evidence ascertained by sight or sound.

This is a product of the fruits of the Spirit.

Righteous judgment is something that we can engage in as well.

When we rely on God’s will as opposed to what we see and hear.

Vs 4-5 - The reign of the Messiah.

Who benefits the most from Jesus’ righteous judgment?

The poor.

Those that can’t defend themselves.

The meek.

Those who choose not to defend themselves.

Jesus shall judge those that took advantage of the poor and meek.

You say, well that’s everybody.

True, and Isaiah felt the same way.

He views the earth itself as wicked.

God will strike the earth in judgment.

Jesus, the judge comes to end the earth’s long centuries of mis-rule and selfishness.

He upends the established power structures and practices of history.

Now, we know that no one can stand before the Messiah, but Isaiah pictures him geared for a fight anyways.

V5 is a description of a wrestler ready to defend his title.

When a wrestler or a boxer wins a title match, what is the typical award that they receive?

A belt, or as the Bible would have called it, a girdle.

A wrestler in ancient times would collect the belts from different cities or competitions.

Notice the Messiah owns the belts for righteousness and faithfulness.

You’ve heard the song, the champion of Love?

Isaiah is literally saying that the Messiah is the Champion of righteousness and faithfulness.

Jesus, the Messiah is excellent in his governance.

He issues righteous judgment for the needy in society.

He also brings peace to the helpless in creation.

Vs 6-9 -The erasure of the Curse.

Human kingdoms cannot bring peace among men.

The Messiah’s kingdom will extend peace even to nature.

In the day that Jesus’s kingdom is fully realized, He will come as the restorer of all things, even nature.

As a result Edenic conditions will return to the earth.

If our eschatology is right, and we believe it is, this will be the condition of the 1,000 year reign of Christ.

Lot’s of people read vss 6-9 and think that that this must be a metaphor.

There is no hint of allegorical or metaphorical language in these verses.

This is a report of what God will literally do for the animal kingdom.

Imagine you go to visit a farm during the Millennium.

As you look around you see things that make no sense to our minds now.

After years of watching Wyle E. Coyote, you are shocked to the wolf live with the lambs.

The leopard shall lie down with the kid goat.

You see a calf , a lion, and fat ox all hanging around together.

There’s a child leading them around.

That’s not all you see.

Have you seen how territorial cows and bears are when they have a baby.

Old Yeller Arliss and Travis found out.

Now they feed their babies in the same stable.

Oh, and that lion, how does he get full?

He’s eating straw like the ox.

Next you see the farmer’s family.

His infant baby is just learning to crawl and he finds a snake’s nest/hole.

Instead of fear, the farmer lets him play with the snakes.

Even his older plays with the snakes.

They have no reason to fear them.

God has obliterated the most ancient enmity between man and serpent.

Finally we see why this has all come about.

No one is hurting or destroying each other because...

The whole earth is full of the knowledge of the Lord.

He is the righteous judge.

His reign covers the earth like the waters of the sea.

Application

We see the possible effects of being filled with the Spirit.

Wisdom

Understanding

Counsel

Might

Knowledge

Fear of the Lord

We look forward to the future kingdom of Christ.