Prince of Peace

Last week, we spoke about how Matthew saw and recognized that Jesus was the foretold person that Isaiah was prophesying about. And that Jesus was the long-awaited messiah, the one who had come to set God’s people free. We also spoke about the attributes that were listed in the prophecy, for example, to refresh your memories, Prince of Peace, Everlasting Father, and so on. Today, we are going to focus on Jesus being the Prince of Peace. But first, we need to talk about the things that led up to that. Which may seem like anything but peaceful.

Overview of these verses for the back story leading up to vv6-9.

Isaiah 11:1 “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.”

Isaiah 11:2 “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 the fear of the Lord.”

Isaiah 11:3 “And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear,”

V 1-3

In these verses, we see the prophecy of the Spirit of God descending upon a person, whom we recognize as Jesus, as Isaiah foretold it. And we see this in the book of Matthew in 3:16-17. We can also see the same account in John 1:32.

Question: Why does this matter?

I show you these things so that you can see with your own eyes the evidence that is placed before us. That Isaiah was foretelling about a person coming to earth and walking and living among the people to bring peace to God’s people. And Mathew recognizes Jesus of Nazareth as the person that Isaiah was foretelling about.

Would it be much easier for me to say Yep, that's the guy. Jesus is the one, and move on, yes, it would be. But I don't ever want you to believe something just because I said it. That would be doing you all a disservice.

V 4-5

Isaiah 11:4 “but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.”

V4

We can see that Jesus is ruling with justice and righteousness over the whole earth. This may be referring to the 1,000-year reign. To be clear, the text does not explicitly state this as fact, but I do think that this would be a fair interpretation of the text. In the second part of v4, we do see that the wicked is killed with the breath of his mouth.

Question: Do we see this type of language used elsewhere in Scripture?

Yes, we see it in the book of Revelation 1:16, we see a sword in the mouth of Jesus. In Rev 2:16, we have a call to repent or face the sword that is in the mouth of Christ. Other places we see this are (Rev 19:15; 19;21).

The book of Revelation gives us a fuller picture of the meaning of the sword in the mouth. This is a depiction of judgment that must take place to bring in the era of peace.

I realize for some of us, the depiction or thought of God's judgment can be a scary proposition when we are faced with it. It is important to remember that those of us who have accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior are spared from this judgment of wrath. And these things must take place so that we can enter the state of peace.

Isaiah 11:5 “Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.”

V5

This verse can mean a few different things. The first thing that it can mean is that Jesus is ruling with perfect righteousness. And his judgments are impartial. The next thing it can imply is that righteousness is the very thing that holds everything together. In the case of the armor of God.

When Believers are instructed to put on the whole armor of God, righteousness is one of the most important parts of the armor. In the account of the church of Ephesus, it is referred to as a breastplate, which protects your vital organs as well as guards your heart (Eph 6:14).

It is also possible that this is depicting the final judgment, before Satan and his minions are thrown into the Lake of Fire when you look at vv4-5 together.

Isaiah 11:6 “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.”

Isaiah 11:7 “The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.”

Isaiah 11:8 “The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.”

Isaiah 11:9 “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.”

VV6-9

When you examine these next verses, you see something completely different than judgment, which is what's listed above in the text. As you read, you see a state of harmony and peace.

It is within these verses that we get a small peek at what the peaceful state will look like. When looking at v6, we see a shocking statement that the wolf and the lamb will live together in peace.

We further see this same concept echoed throughout the rest of the passage, vv 7-8, animals that would normally be at odds with each other are now at peace. Some may think of vv6-8 as the 1000-year reign of Jesus. The only problem I can see with that view is that sin is still present at that time.

Question: What do we know about the peace state?

Here is what we know about the peace state. It comes after the 1000-year reign. Then the devil and all his followers are cast into the lake of fire (Rev 20:7-10). After that, the final judgment happens (Matt 25:31-46; Rev 20:11-15). Then the new heaven and earth are created, and the holy city is placed on the earth. Then Jesus and God the Father reign forever. These are some reasons as to why I do not think that Isaiah’s Prophecy is referring to the thousand-year reign but is alluding to the peace state. When we look at v9, we see that it is reminiscent of Revelation 21:4, in the sense that the old order of things has passed away, and everything that once was is no longer. This means that everything has been made this way by Christ reigning as the Prince of Peace.

Some of us may think that is all well and good, but what about peace for the here and now? What do we do in the meantime? Those are great questions. And yes, we do have peace for the here and now.

Peace is not this far-off thing that we just have to wait for. When we look at Philippians 4:5-7, we see how to have peace in the here and now.

I realize that to some of us, myself included, this passage can sound harsh. Something that I want to make clear. This passage is a call to not stay in anxiety.

And a call to give the things that cause the anxiety to God.

How? With praying, persistently. Let's take a minute to unpack what exactly I mean by persistent prayer. To be as clear as I can, I'm not talking about just asking God to remove the situation from your hands.

This can leave us feeling discouraged and frustrated. As well as have the ever-looming question of why God is allowing this to happen to me?

What I am saying by persistent prayer is replacing the false belief with the correct way of thinking through prayer. A good example of this is that in my life, I have often struggled with feelings of abandonment. And because of this, my view of God is that one day, he will get sick of me and eventually leave me.

This can cause crippling anxiety at times. Something very interesting about our brains in the way that they work is that every time you perform an action or learn something, it creates a neural pathway.

And over time, these neural pathways are the way our thoughts can be formulated. This means when we try to make a new habit, we must change our way of thinking in the literal sense.

Because when you perform a new action, such as replacing a false thought with the appropriate thought. As in the example I gave, a new neural pathway is formed. Then the result that is produced is peace from God.

To be honest, this is not a one-and-done; this is something that we must train ourselves to do over time.