A Great Peace

Introduction – Let’s think about peace

Good morning everyone. To start off today, I want you all to think about peace. Just take a moment now to pause, and to think about peace.

(P) In thinking about peace, what came into your mind? Did you think of an image that is associated with peace, like two fingers raised in a peace sign or the circular peace symbol?

Did you think about a location that brings you peace? Maybe you feel peaceful when sitting next to a campfire, feeling its warmth and staring into the flickering flames… or maybe it is sitting next to a pool or a beach on a warm sunny day with an ice-cold drink in hand. Maybe it’s just sitting on the couch in a moment of silence after you finally got all the kids bathed and fed and into bed.

Or did you think about a situation that desperately needs peace? The ongoing conflicts between Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Palestine. Maybe it was a situation closer to home… a dispute in the workplace that requires a peaceful resolution? Tension between family members who don’t see eye to eye. A sickness or injury that is robbing you or someone that you care about of peace and wholeness.

Alternatively, when I asked you to think about peace, did you find it difficult to think of something, anything, that you could associate with peace? Perhaps peace feels like a utopian ideal that is far removed from your present reality.

Whatever it was that you thought about, I think it’s safe to say that you didn’t think about a wolf living peacefully with a lamb, or a leopard sleepily lying down next to a goat, or an infant playing joyfully and safely next to the den of a poisonous snake. To our minds and ears, those things sound either terrifying or impossible. The complete and total opposite of peace.

And yet in today’s reading from Isaiah chapter 11, these are exactly the images that Isaiah uses to describe the great peace that God’s people will experience under the reign of God’s promised king from the line of David.

So let’s jump into the text of Isaiah chapter 11 and as we do so, first we’ll see the qualifications of the Davidic king, then the reign of the Davidic king, and then the results of the Davidic king’s reign. First up then, the qualifications of the Davidic king.

First Teaching Point – Qualifications of the Davidic king (v1-2)

Reading from chapter 11 verse 1:

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

The passages leading up to chapter 11 detail the limitations of Judah’s kings. Despite having a long, stable, and prosperous reign, Uzziah dies at the start of chapter 6. Then in chapter 7, his grandson Ahaz fails to trust in the Lord to protect him from the military threat coming from the north, choosing instead to place his trust in an alliance with Assyria.

God then announces that because of Ahaz’s misplaced trust, judgement will come firstly on the people of Israel through Assyria, and then secondly on Assyria because of their pride. And so as we arrive at chapter 11, the kingdoms of both Israel and Assyria can be described as trees that God has cut down to their stumps.

And while all signs of life in the stump of Israel appear to be gone, there remains a hidden vitality. Hundreds of years before the time of Isaiah, God promised his servant David that he would have a son, the Messiah, who would reign over an everlasting kingdom. And it is this promise that is the new shoot growing out of the cut-down stump.

Yet interestingly, it is not David but rather his father Jesse who is mentioned by name here in verse 1. By drawing attention to Jesse rather than his son David, Isaiah is recalling our attention to the humble beginnings of the Davidic monarchy.

God sent the prophet Samuel to Jesse to pluck the youngest and scrawniest of his sons from obscurity to make him king. And just as God raised up the first David, so too will God also raise up a second David – the Messiah.

The promise of a new king like David carries with it great expectations because it was during the reign of the first David that Israel experienced her golden era. And it’s the promise of a return to this golden era under the reign of the second David which dominates the second half of Isaiah chapter 11.

For it was the first David who first brought the twelve tribes of Israel together as one nation, and it will be the second David who reunites the divided kingdoms. It was the first David who enabled God’s people to live in the promised land in peace and prosperity. And in scenes reminiscent of the great Exodus from Egypt, it will be the second David who calls God’s scattered people home.

To borrow and modify a catchphrase that has been thrown around a lot in recent times, the promise of a new king like David is essentially a promise to make God’s people great again.

But as we know from the political leaders of our era like the newly elected US President, they tend to over-promise and under-deliver on their promises of ushering in a new golden era. So how will this new king like David be different? How will this new king avoid all the limitations and failings that his predecessors like Uzziah and Ahaz have encountered? Verse 2 tells us how:

The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him – the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the LORD – and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.

In the Old Testament, to say that God’s Spirit was upon someone became almost a code phrase for saying that the person was acting out of a capacity that was more than merely human. One example is the Spirit of the LORDrushing upon Samson to enable his great feats of strength.

And likewise here in Isaiah, it is the Spirit of the LORD that enables the new king like David to do all that he will do. He will be able to deliver on all the wonderful promises made about him because he will be divinely empowered.

God’s own Spirit will supply him with everything that a king needs to lead his people well – wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, and the knowledge and fear of the LORD. There is no tool missing from his toolbelt. And because of this, the new king like David is going to be vastly different from all the other kings that have come before him.

Second Teaching Point – Rule of the Davidic King (v3-5)

And continuing on in the passage, in verses 3 to 5, we see that because the Spirit of the LORDempowers the Davidic king, the reign of the Davidic king will be characterised by justice and righteousness.

On multiple occasions during this Isaiah series, we’ve encountered this word pair of justice and righteousness and we’ve seen how this word pair is an idiom expressing one thought – the idea of social justice.

You might recall that when we looked at Isaiah chapter 5, we saw that God expected his people, his vineyard, to reflect his own character and to produce the good fruits of justice and righteousness. But sadly, in place of social justice, God finds the rotten fruit of social injustice.

And so where God’s people have previously failed to display these good fruits, we see here in chapter 11 that the shoot that comes up from the stump of Jesse will go on to produce the good fruits of justice and righteousness in abundance.

Whereas the eyes and ears of mere humans can easily be deceived, nothing will prevent the Spirit-empowered king from ruling and judging with righteousness and justice. Both the poor and the wicked will be dealt with even-handedly. Additionally, this king needs no other weapon besides his word to enforce and uphold justice – he gives his verdict, and the force of the truth is undeniable throughout the earth.

And because this reign of the Davidic king is characterised by justice and righteousness, in verses 6 to 9, we see the results that stem from the king’s reign.

Third Teaching Point – The Davidic King’s Reign (v6-10)

The reign of the Davidic king will result in a great peace. An idyllic peace. World peace. Verses 6 through 9 give us a series of unlikely pairs to communicate the kind of security and safety that will be widespread under the reign of the Messiah. The most helpless and innocent will be at ease with those who were formerly the most dangerous and violent.

The lamb will not fear the wolf. The cow and her calf will graze freely alongside the lion and the bear. Infants will play happily next to a nest of snakes. I’m sure just thinking about that last one strikes panic into the hearts of all the parents here.

And that’s kind of the point. This collection of unlikely pairs gives us a lot to process because it is so contrary to our experience in this world. But rather than getting caught up on the details of each of these images in isolation, we ought to look at them together as an extended figure of speech that is being used to make a single, overarching point.

And that point is, in the Messiah’s reign, the fears associated with insecurity, danger, evil, and death will be removed. For the Messiah’s reign will be one of great peace between all creatures.

But not just great peace between all creatures, there will also be great peace between creatures and the Creator.

Verse 9 says:

They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.

This knowledge of the LORD is the relational knowledge I spoke about during the final week of the Big Question series. The relational knowledge that is the ultimate meaning and purpose of our lives. Our purpose of knowing God and being known by God. We have just a glimpse of that right now, but during the reign of the Messiah, that relational knowledge will be completely full, just as the waters fill the vast expanse and depths of the seas.

(P) The result of the Davidic king’s reign will be great peace. Idyllic peace between the created order, as well as relational knowledge and peace between the Creator and his creation.

And so it’s no surprise that in verse 10, we see peoples from all the nations rallying to the Root of Jesse so that they might fall under his reign, his glory, his peace.