A Branch of Hope

Opener

Saint Augustine of Hippo who lived in the 4th to 5th century is famous for his inward struggle to find freedom from sin and hope in God. He would go on to write what some have called the first psycological autobiography: “Confessions”. In it he comments on the glories of God and frailty of man he writes:

“You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless, until they can find rest in you.”

dire circumstances and inward conflict can certainly push us to cry out to God. Maybe even out of desperation or a latch ditch effort. But the the truth of the matter is contentment apart from God is deception. Let me say that again, contentment apart from God is deception. Our only hope is God. Our purpose is God. We were made by Him and for Him. Furthermore we reconciled by Him.

To be a person of hope, a true biblical virtuous hope, you need to understand something about the nature of God in contrast to the nature of man in regards to leadership. It something Isaiah chapter 11 makes gloriously clear.

Point 1 Hope in a heavenly leader

Isaiah 11:1–2 NASB95

1 Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, And a branch from his roots will bear fruit. 2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

Recap

Remember we started in Isaiah 6 and Isaiah is sanctified and called to preach a word of judgement to Judah. The whole forest will be felled, but a stump will remain. This stump is God’s remnant and is a Holy Seed and a new beginning would come from it. God reveals then to us even more in this passage. From this old root and old stump would shoot forth a branch. A single branch. The old root was the line of Jesse. In other words from the line of David would come a new ruler. A ruler like no other.

The Fullness of The Spirit on Christ

The Spirit of The Lord will rest on Him. Do you all remember what John the Baptist said about Jesus:

John 1:32 NASB95

32 John testified saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him.

7 Spirits

And the passage elaborates the qualities of The Spirit. If you take “The Spirit of The Lord” as one and count the attributes after it (wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge, and the fear of the Lord) you end up with seven spirits if you will. A picture that comes up a lot in the book of Revelation. The number 7 is significant signifying completeness. Perhaps put another way the FULLNESS of The Spirit was upon this prophesied leader.

Without Measure

John 3:34 it says the Father gives the Son “The Spirit without measure”. Friends we as Spirit filled believers, ones who can we are born again, have in part. Now we have Him in whole because it is relationship, but we have Spirit with measure. Each one of us gifted as He sees fit. Each one of us plays a part in the Body of Christ… in fact in 1 Corinthians 12 it says to one The Spirit gives the gift of knowledge and to another the gift of wisdom to play on two ideas in the text of Isaiah 11. And then even what we have in the gift, according to 1 Corinthians 13 is in “part”: “We know in part and we prophesy in part.”

The most anointed Christian you will ever meet will only be a dimly lit mirror at best. But Christ Himself He has it all. Colossians 1 says the fullness of God dwelt in Him in bodily form. This is a leader like no other friends.

Putting our Hope in man vs God

We live in a day and age where every one wants someone else to fix their problems. When someone takes responsibility for their own actions it is like a breath of fresh air. When someone takes responsibility for another it is shocking! But I want to suggest to you this. We should look to someone else to solve our problems. The mistake is looking to and putting our hope in a mere earthly solution. Look I am not saying we don’t need earthly leaders. Certainly we do and I want godly ones and I want to be a godly one, but people often times treat government like god. It is supposed to solve all our problems and let justice flow like a river and righteousness like a never ending stream. Friends the most spiritual person you know isn’t even capable of doing that. They don’t have the credentials. They don’t have the fullness of The Spirit of God.

While we were designed by God for God it is the nature of fallen sinful man for our hearts to run after idols. To attribute to man what we should only to God. Look we need good and godly earthly leaders but we can never attribute to them what we should only to God. We should never hope and expect things from them that we should only from God.

Is your hope in the Lord friends? Or is it in something else?

Point 2 Hope in a perfectly wise leader

Isaiah 11:2–3 NASB95

2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. 3 And He will delight in the fear of the Lord, And He will not judge by what His eyes see, Nor make a decision by what His ears hear;

Proverbs

Wisdom, understanding, counsel, and knowledge are all proverb-esc. They are all things rooted in the fear of God. These are the same words for wisdom and knowledge that are used in Proverbs 1:2 and 7 and throughout the book.

Proverbs 1:2 NASB95

2 To know wisdom and instruction, To discern the sayings of understanding,

AND

Proverbs 1:7 NASB95

7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

These are the same words for wisdom, understanding, knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And of course our text says, “He will delight in the fear of the Lord.”

Embrace the fear of the Lord

Isn’t this interesting though the connection between The Fear of The Lord and The Holy Spirit and the person of The Messiah. A trinitarian passage hammering home a Biblical truth: the fear of God. Something that some Christians can shy away from in our modern times.

I was visiting someone about a year ago and I went to their church with them and the Pastor said, “If you have ever been to a church service and made to feel bad by the sermon that is not the Lord.” Really? Ever read one of Jesus’ Sermons? “guilty of the fires of hell” or “cut off your hand” or “be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” We could go on and on.... This church also used a very dangerous phony translation of the Bible, called The Passion Translation, that attempts to make Scripture more palatable to the modern reader. Friends this is absolute foolishness.

Listen to me very carefully. Let them sync into your ears for they come from Scripture:

“A fool despises wisdom and instruction.” - Proverbs 1:7b.

Proverbs 12:1 NASB95

1 Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, But he who hates reproof is stupid.

Friends part of the nature of God breathed Scripture is “rebuke and correction.” If you have never “felt bad” reading your Bible you ain’t reading it right. Now the Holy Spirit and Scripture also comfort, assure, exhort, train and so on, but lets get away from this dangerous ideas that make everything about how I feel. I am not saying emotions are unimportant either, but 1) they don’t drive the train they follow and 2) they aren’t the standard by which I measure success.

Hot Stove

Let me give you two really clear examples:

1) If I put my hand on a hot stove that doesn’t feel good. It tells me something is wrong. In other words feeling bad is a good thing because it affords me the opportunity to change before something worse happens! The same thing is true spiritually. When the Holy Spirit convicts He is doing it so we can change for the better! The Lord disciplines those He loves the proverbs say. Jesus Himself says this to the Laodiceans. The Fear of The Lord is so life giving and healthy for you as a Christian. Open up that Bible and say Lord teach me, rebuke me, correct me and train me! Lord make me your man or woman!

Eating Sweets

2) Eating sugar, chocolates, and sweets feels good… at least in the moment. If we just did what we felt like doing all the time all we would be doing is indulging ourselves. Our bellies would be our God.

These are simple things. We all know this. Yet some have dressed up their faith and developed a theolgy that is all about them being happy. No correction. No feeling bad. No discipline. God just wants you to be happy that is the beginning and end of their theology. God exists for that purpose more or less. That is a weak theology. It is one afforded by living in a land of wealth and pleasure. It name of godliness it has proclaimed one of the oldest form of godlessness found in Scripture: “eat, drink and be merry” and forget about God and everyone else. In short there is no fear of God.

Volunteering

This is what the world does. In the secular workplace they talk about volunteering because studies have found people are most happy when they volunteer at least two hours a week. There is an aspect of that statement that is compelling. But it is so misguided in its motivations. You don’t volunteer because it makes you feel good. You do it because you love God and love people. You have to get outside yourself friends.

The Holy Spirit in your life

Do you want the Holy Spirit in your life? It will not be all about you. Because we were not made to live that way. We were made for God! He is the same Spirit today He was in Isaiah 11. He will make you wise which means by its very nature He will be correcting your thinking. Every branch that bears fruit gets pruned friends. If you are not getting pruned you are not plugged into the vine.

Jesus Walked in The Spirit perfectly

Jesus though had the Spirit without measure and walked in perfect obedience to the Father. He delighted in the fear of The Lord. He loved what God loved and hated what He hated. He was perfectly inline with the heart of God. He prized and treasured righteousness. Friends even in Christ we, this side of eternity, will continue to grow in the Fear of The Lord. It is a journey we are on. But let let you in on a little secret. If you will remember this one thing it will set you up for success.

All the Treasure of Wisdom and Knowledge are found in Christ

Jesus has it in fullness and perfection. We don’t. But we can look to the one who does. The Holy Spirit will actually help us do this. We can pray for a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of Him the Scriptures say in Ephesians 1. This is a heart issue more than a brain issue. I know when we think of wisdom and understanding we like to hop to the mind and skip right past the heart. But hear me out. It is not enough to know where wisdom is found. You must value that wisdom. You really believe in your heart what it says in Colossians 2 that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ Jesus. Do you believe that? All of them? Or is Jesus just some compartment of your life? Is religion just small piece of your life? You see a true Christian is one who delights in the fear of The Lord. He doesn’t use Jesus as a pawn to their own pleasures. He doesn’t claim Christ with his lips and deny Him with his life.

Pearl of Great Price

No it is like the man who finds that priceless pearl in a field and goes to sell all he has to buy that field. His friends don’t understand, his family thinks he is crazy. They don’t understand because they haven’t seen the pearl. What he is gaining is so much more valuable.

Do you believe that of Christ Jesus our Lord. That He is more valuable than your school, career, ministry or other pursuits? DO you believe He is more valuable then any relationship you have on planet earth… spouse , children , or other wise? If so you have tasted Wisdom my friend. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Wisdom and understanding, has deposited something in you. Continue to chace that truth. Don’t neglect the gift, that is Christ Himself.

He has given us Himself by removing the debt of decrees against due to our sin. The godlessness, the love of this present world, the chasing after the wisdom of man over God, the doing what is right in our own eyes, the being a god to ourself… he died on the cross to wash those sins away. And because He is the real deal. The perfect messiah. The Perfect savior. The one who has the Spirit of God without measure He can save us and He has saved us.

Point 3 Hope in a miraculous leader

Isaiah 11:4–11 NASB95

4 But with righteousness He will judge the poor, And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. 5 Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins, And faithfulness the belt about His waist. 6 And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, And the leopard will lie down with the young goat, And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little boy will lead them. 7 Also the cow and the bear will graze, Their young will lie down together, And the lion will eat straw like the ox. 8 The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. 9 They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord As the waters cover the sea. 10 Then in that day The nations will resort to the root of Jesse, Who will stand as a signal for the peoples; And His resting place will be glorious. 11 Then it will happen on that day that the Lord Will again recover the second time with His hand The remnant of His people, who will remain, From Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, And from the islands of the sea.

Friends, no earthly leader can do these things. Not this extent.

An earthly judge can make a just ruling based on the facts before them. But God can judge the heart. His justice shakes the earth in this passage.

Last I checked animals were still eating each other. PETA should hope in Christ. He is the only one who can solve their problems. What is this passage saying? He will bring perfect peace. He can undo the curse of Genesis 3! He can deal with death.

Knowledge of The Lord

Friends I love this verse:

Isaiah 11:9 NASB95

9 They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord As the waters cover the sea.

The key to perfect justice, love, hope and peace in a land is God Himself. Genesis 1:26-27 we were made in the image of God to rule. You take God out of that equation you get lawlessness. You get each one doing what was right in their own eyes.

Friends this passage should make you long for the return of King Jesus. The one who can do what no earthly man, politicians, government, republic, democracy and certainly socialism can’t do. When you see how full and complete the person of the Messiah is. What it means to have a heavenly leader it makes you realize how foolishness to exchange that hope in Him for anything on this earth!

Now that being said we still need godly earthly leaders. We need them in the church, in the home, in workplaces, government and everywhere else. But one thing those leaders must have if they are to be called godly is a fear of God. An understanding of their humanity and frailness and desperate need for a divine Savior, a heavenly leader, who can truly establish the Kingdom of God.

Context. Hope in Jesus.

Judgement was coming on Israel. Things were going to get really bad. But the hope promised here exceeds the place of safety comfort and blessing they have ever known. It is a picture of pre fall eden. It is a picture of perfection. Friends if you are in hard times Jesus offers you hope not just from your problems but of paradise with Him. He doesn’t just say to the thief on the cross. You will live. But you will live in paradise. And not just in paradise but WITH CHRIST in paradise. It is hope not just beyond trial. It is hope beyond the best things this life can even offer. So don’t exchange that which is perishing for the glory of God in Christ Jesus. Fix your hope on Him!

Isaiah 11:10 NASB95

10 Then in that day The nations will resort to the root of Jesse, Who will stand as a signal for the peoples; And His resting place will be glorious.

The Messiah is the hope of the world my friends.