Advent 2019: Peaceful Wolves and Invulnerable Lambs

Introduction

A few years ago while I was in Africa, I was able to go on safari in Kruger National Park, which is one of the top ten safari destinations in the world. You’re riding around in an open-sided Land Rover, and your coming upon elephants and giraffes and rhinos. And, they’re just right in front of you. While you’re looking, your guide is constantly on this radio, and he’s talking in an African language you can’t understand, and he’s finding out where all of the animals are so that he can take you. Well, our guide gets a call, and then suddenly he transforms into Dale Earnhardt and he’s flying through the bush in what feels like a frenzy. And then, he stops all at once and begins to point. Less than ten feet from us, right on the edge of the road is a full-mane male lion just chillin’. And, there were a lot of thoughts that came into my mind. First, I thought about how cool it was. Then, I thought about how close it was. Then, I thought about how exposed I was and how to him I was just boney hamburger. I remember asking our guide if they ever had attacks, and like it was no big deal, he told me that someone had been attacked and eaten the week before. “Great. Just great.”

To be in the presence of an apex predator like that is unsettling and unnerving. You’re powerfully aware of how vulnerable you are to the threat that’s in front of you. And, really, this is a picture of what it means to be alive, isn’t it? It’s to turn every corner and take every step with an awareness of your own vulnerability. It’s to be unsettled about what’s happening or unnerved about what might happen because it feels like in our lives every road we take is filled with lions lurking in the shadows. But, what we’re learning this advent season, what we’re going to see in HD this morning is that Jesus is bringing about a Kingdom in which we will be at peace with the Lions.

God’s Kingdom

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A King is Coming

Isaiah is written during complex times in the life of God’s people. They have been divided into two kingdom - Israel in the North and Judah in the South. The northern kingdom of Israel has formed an alliance with Syria, and Ahaz, the king of Judah, realizes that he must take action or else he is likely to taken down by this new league of nations. The world superpower of the time is Assyria, and Ahaz becomes convinced that if he can form an alliance with Assyria that he is certain to preserve his reign and his people. Isaiah, the prophet of Judah, is sent by God throughout Ahaz’s concern and to tell him not to make the alliance because God himself will protect him. God even says to Ahaz at one point, “Tell me what sign that you want to see, and I’ll do it to verify to you that I am with you and will defend you.” He does what we often do; he camouflages his unfaithfulness and piety. He says, “I could never test the Lord like that” and he says it because he had already made up his mind that he was going through with the alliance. So, since Ahaz believed that it was Assyria that could deliver him, God determined that it was through Assyria that He would judge them. Judah was being walked down the plank of God’s judgement by her very own king. . And so, is a hopeful interruption in the midst of a looming judgement to let them know that the King that is needed is going to come. So, what we find in is a description of the coming King (Headline) of Judah.

“Who” he’ll “be”

v. 1 “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.” First, Isaiah tells us “who” he’ll “be.” To really grasp the force of verse one, you have to see that it’s a gracious, wonderful, unexpected plot twist in a picture that the prophet has been painting. God had promised to be the deliverer of his people. He had promised Ahaz and Judah that if their enemies were to come against them that they would find refuge in him and that He would lay waste to their armies. But, Judah and her king feared men and not God. They trusted in their wisdom, not God’s promises. They ran to Assyria as though Assyria was their hope and deliverer and salvation. They rejected God’s kindness and spat in his face by finding comfort and refuge in a pagan nation. So, God tells his people through Isaiah that He will swing Assyria like an ax of judgement, and He will reduce Israel to a mere stump. Their wisdom and emotions told them that Assyria would save them, but instead, Assyria will destroy them. The tension between the wisdom of man and the wisdom of God is palpable. And, just before we pick up in chapter 11, Assyria is shouting and celebrating as though they were the ones who were mighty, as though they were the ones who were strong in their seige of Judah. And, God asks them who is greater, the ax or the one who swings the ax. And so, He says in the very last verses of chapter 10, “Behold, the Lord God of hosts will lop the boughs with terrifying power; the great height will be hewn down, and the lofty brought low. He will cut the thickets of the forest with an ax, and Lebanon will fall by the Majestic One.” My goodness, do you see the picture? The Promised Land that flowed with milk and honey has been reduced to an ocean of stumps. Thriving forests filled with life and prosperity are now a massacred landscape filled with stench of decay.

Out of Death, Life

And, “there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse.” Do you hear the grace and the hope and the mercy of that sentence? Out of death will come life. Out of decay will come new growth. Out of winter will come spring. Out of hopelessness will spring hope. Out of the cross will come salvation. Now, what does it mean that he’s coming from the root of Jesse? Where does “Jesse” come from? Jesse is the father of King David. Jesse is the patriarch of the royal family. And, it was through the line of David sitting upon the throne of David that God was going to prosper and bless his people forever. And, yet as we see in Ahaz, it is through this very line that Judah has been led into destruction and judgement. It’s the opposite of what how the promise appeared. And, they’re aching, longing for David to return to his throne, defend his people, speak to God on their behalf, and wipe away all the threats. And, here’s the two-fold promise. 1) The line of David will be reduced to a stump. 2) This stump is going to produce a new shoot that will bear fruit. It’s going to take a while, after all, you don’t go from sprout to a fruit-bearing tree over night. But, the King they’re longing for is coming, and He’s coming from the very line that God had always promised.

Eternal, yet Born

v. 10 “In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples” But, there’s another strange plot twist in store. Notice in verse ten how Isaiah writes almost the same sentence as in verse one but with a slight change. In verse one, this coming King is called the ‘SHOOT from the stump of Jesse” and in verse ten He’s called “the ROOT of Jesse.” So, He comes after Jesse as his heritage and promise, and He comes before Jesse as his root, his life source and his strength and his foundation. This King will both precede and succeed Jesse at the very same time. Isaiah is written 700 years before there will be a baby born of a virgin and lying in a manger, and yet Isaiah is at the same the time writing about a King that is and has always been since before the foundation of the earth in eternity past. The glorious truth that we learn from the Prophet is that Jesus is “eternal”, yet “born”. He is God, yet man. He is beyond us, yet one of us. He is majestic, holy, and terrifying, and yet He is humble, meek, and comforting. Oh, see the picture of this King that has come, and this King who is coming again. Not many kings can relate to their people, but ours can. He was born into the world of our brokenness and our struggle. His friends died and betrayed him. He cared about his mother and knew the temptation of choosing prosperity over godliness. He was born into a world that would not receive him, love him, or approve of him. He slept without a home and full stomach. He’s a King you can relate to. But, not only is He a King you can relate to, but He’s a King you can run to. He can relate to us who are common, but He is no common King. The virgin that gave birth to him was made by the power of his own decree, “and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth”. The world that rejected him was formed from nothing in his hands. The water that He walked on could be held in the hollow of his hands. He is the eternal God who would overcome the very brokenness that He knew and the very pain that He saw and the very death that He would experience. He is the shoot of man, being entirely a man, and He is the root of man, having man made in his image as the eternal Source of life. Jesus is a King you can “relate” to and a King you can “run” to. He is able to understand your pain, and He is able to over come it. He is able to relate to your temptation, and He is able to conquer it. He is able to comfort your broken heart, and He is able to restore it forever.

APPLICATION: So, will you run to Assyria or to your King? Will you trust in what you run for cover in the arms of a man or the prestige of a job or the acceptance of your friends, or will you run to the refuge of your risen and returning King? Will you trust the wisdom of God or of men?

“How” he’ll “rule”

v. 2 “And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him.” Next, Isaiah tells us “how” he’ll “rule.” The other day, Megan and I were riding through the old Ft. McClellan, and, honestly, it’s kind of sad to see. The paint is peeling from the stucco of the old fire station, and these buildings with extraordinary architecture look like crumbling shells, ancient relics of what once was. And, this must’ve been what it was like for Judah in the days of Isaiah. They could trace their heritage all the way back to their greatest king, David, when they were expanding and prospering at an unprecedented rate. And now, today, they were having to make a deal with the devil to attempt to preserve the relics that were left. And, the question becomes what made the great kings great so that they could recapture it. The Scriptures make clear David is not a great king and a mighty warrior because he is great. In fact, he’s the least suspected son of Jesse to be the king. Rather, what makes David the faithful king and the mighty warrior is the very Spirit of God which is said to rest upon him. What makes Solomon a great king is not his intelligence and his strategic advantages. What makes him great is the Spirit of wisdom that God has given to him. That is, the difference between the great kings and the failing kings is the Spirit of God. And, this coming King will rule through Spirit of God in a way that has never been seen before. John the Baptist tells us that the Father has given the Son his Spirit ‘without measure’. Jesus rules with a wisdom greater than Solomon’s, courage greater than David’s, and an intimacy with God greater than them all. And so, through him, they will experience a time of prosperity and peace that is both unprecedented and unending.

v. 3 “And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD” David receives one of the greatest compliments a man has ever received. He is called ‘a man after God’s own heart’. To live after God’s “heart” is to live for God’s “pleasure” according to God’s “will” for God’s “glory”. And, this is how the greater David was to rule, ‘the shoot from the stump of Jesse.’ He finds his joy, his pleasure, his delight in the awesome, hair-raising, bone-shaking, fear of the LORD. He loves his Father’s glory more than He loves his own. He loves God’s will more than He loves his well-being. He obeys God even when that obedience appears foolish. He’s loyal to live for God’s Name even when it means being disloyal to his own reputation and name. It’s how He was to pray just the same as He actually lived: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Ahaz saw the armies to the north, and he trembled. Ahaz saw the power of Assyria, and he was awestruck. Ahaz heard the cries of his people and the smooth words of his advisors, and he reacted. But, the greater King will face down Goliath himself and not shake. The greater King will hear all of the wisdom of the secular age and be unimpressed. The greater King will see all of the pain and suffering that comes that must be paid for sin, and he will not flinch. His eyes are on a higher plane. He finds his pleasure and affirmation and awe in the throne room of God. So, He is able to love and serve well those who are unable to serve him and help him, ‘the poor and the meek’ for he isn’t looking for greater political clout or good PR. He’s only living to please the LORD.

Run After the King

APPLICATION: The righteousness and faithfulness that are his belts are the display of our King’s character. He ties up his robe so that He can run ahead into battle in pursuit of the Kingdom that the Father has laid before him. And so, in these belts we find out freedom. He has led the way; He has set the standard; He has fought the battles. David couldn’t be righteous and neither can you; so, He is righteous for us. David couldn’t be faithful and neither can you; so, He is faithful for us. He has bound us with his belts, his righteousness, his faithfulness so that we can look up to the bone-chilling, hair-raising floor of heaven and find joy, not condemnation. Peace, not judgement. Through our King, we can enjoy the “fear” of God apart from the “fear” of man. “If God is for you, who can stand against you?” You see, we don’t just run to our King; we run after our King. So, don’t look around you at the mess of your life and the worries of this world and shake. Don’t see the disproval of your neighbors and skepticism of your families and tremble. Don’t worry about the enemies that seem to be gaining strength all around you. No! Through Christ’s righteousness and Christ’s faithfulness, follow your King to the very throne of God and know firsthand the joyful shiver of being in the courts of the Almighty that you might live freely and joyfully and peaceably in the presence of men.

“What” he’ll “accomplish”

v. 9 “They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD.” Lastly, Isaiah tells us “what” he’ll “accomplish.” In Genesis, God begins humanity’s story by making man in his image, as reflectors of his glory, and then telling them to multiply themselves to the ends of the earth. He’s telling them to fill the whole earth with his glory, and that’s what the greater David, the wiser Solomon, the coming King will accomplish. ‘The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD.’ The curse will be reversed and all of creation will be renewed. Ahaz was the proof of how insecure and fleeting David’s kingdom was. But, prosperity was coming, peace was coming, paradise was coming that would never end, never be reversed. All nations would rest beneath the reign of this glorious King.

In this new earth, you’ll be able to search from one end of the world to the other, from pole to pole, tip to tip, and there will be no hurt, no destruction for you to find. There will be “peace” where there was “conflict”. The wolf will dwell with the lamb. Leopards and goats will play together and bears and cow will share grass together. No one will look at the color of your skin or the stuff you did 20 years ago or the try to bomb you in an airport. All phobias will be eliminated and disagreements will be overcome. There will be “security” where there was “vulnerability”. Babies will hold up cobras like rattles. They’ll stick their hands into holes with rattlesnakes and be unharmed. Dying children will live forever. There will be no reports of domestic violence or abuse. There will be no special needs to overcome, and there will be down syndrome to diagnose. The elderly will have glorified bodies, and the poor will live in mansions. There will be “goodness” everywhere there was “badness”. Every corner of this groaning creation will be filled with the knowledge and love of God. Every headline of every newspaper will give even greater news of the goodness of God. Friendships will never end, babies will never die, and churches will never split. Tsunamis won’t hit islands, and tornados won’t ruin lives. Good will overcome bad. Love will overcome hate. Joy will overcome depression. Glory will overcome the curse. And, as much bad as we know today, we’ll know that much more good on that Day and every day to follow.

We Live Certain

APPLICATION: And so, just as Isaiah waited on the day when this great King would be born to the virgin and deliver Judah, we wait today. We wait through our tears and through our pain and through our sickness. We wait as our society flees the Lord and following Jesus becomes even more costly. We wait while we hurt, but we wait knowing that our hurt is coming to a close. And so, today, in the day of waiting, we live certain that this is the truth. We live in rejection of the wisdom of the world to align with Assyria in favor of placing all of our hope in the hands of our King. We have peace today because we are certain there will be peace tomorrow.