Sermon Tone Analysis

©February 27th, 2022 by Rev. Rick Goettsche SERIES: Isaiah

One of the fun parts of living in the Midwest is that we have four distinct seasons.

We get to experience winter, spring, summer, and fall (sometimes in the span of a day or two!)

Each of these seasons has its own beauty.

After a while of winter, however, we tend to be ready for spring to come.

Spring brings with it a warm-up, but we also get the chance to see our world, which has been gray and dreary for months, show signs of life once more.

The grass goes from its dormant yellow/brown color to a verdant green.

The fields get planted and soon go from empty to filled with crops.

The trees that have been merely sticks for months are suddenly filled with leaves and fruits and flowers once more.

Part of the reason we love spring so much is the new life we see after a time when it seemed there was little.

In our passage this morning, the prophet Isaiah told the people of Israel that spring is coming for them.

After all the hardships they have faced, there is coming a time when there will be new life, one so great that it will make the people forget about the times of hardship in their past.

The good news for us is that the promise Isaiah holds out to Israel in Isaiah 11 applies to us as well.

In the times that seem dark and hopeless, we have the hope of a glorious future in Jesus.

We’ll unpack what Isaiah says about that future this morning.

The New Branch

Isaiah opens chapter 11 by telling the Israelites that a new king will rise.

1 Out of the stump of David’s family will grow a shoot—yes, a new Branch bearing fruit from the old root. 2 And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. 3 He will delight in obeying the Lord.

He will not judge by appearance nor make a decision based on hearsay.

4 He will give justice to the poor and make fair decisions for the exploited.

The earth will shake at the force of his word, and one breath from his mouth will destroy the wicked.

5 He will wear righteousness like a belt and truth like an undergarment.

(Isaiah 11:1-5 NLT)

Isaiah says that out of the stump of David’s family will come a shoot that will grow into a new, fruit-bearing branch.

If you recall, David was the second king of Israel and God had promised David that his family line would rule forever.

In previous chapters, Isaiah used the analogy of a forest being leveled by an axe to describe what was going to happen.

God would cut down all these kingdoms (including Israel) that thought they were so great, leaving only stumps as far as the eye could see.

Now he uses this image to describe the rising of a new king from the line of David.

Out of one of these stumps, a new tree will grow.

He says that God will fulfill His promise by bringing up a new king from David’s family line.

The people of Israel rightly understood this to be a messianic prophecy—a prophecy that gave information about the promised Messiah.

They believed this passage promised that God would raise up a great deliverer and that this person would come out of the family line of David.

But they thought this king would rule an earthly kingdom and set up Israel as a world power.

We can understand how they reached this conclusion based on this passage, but that isn’t what Isaiah was promising.

Though he does say that this new leader would come from the family line of David, everything else in the passage shows us this kingdom will be different than any human kingdom.

It will be far greater.

Let’s look at what Isaiah says about this new king.

The Spirit of the Lord would rest on him.

Isaiah says this Spirit would grant the new king wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, and knowledge and fear of the Lord.

This new king would rule with a supernatural wisdom and understanding.

The Lord would be upon this new ruler, and He would stand in stark contrast to all the leaders before Him.

He would delight in obeying the Lord.

In Israel’s history, few kings obeyed the Lord.

Many of Israel’s kings lived in outright defiance of the Lord.

Isaiah tells us here that this new king would not only obey God’s commands, He would delight in doing so.

Verse 5 says that he would wear righteousness like a belt and truth as an undergarment.

This is a poetic way of saying that this king would be righteous to his core.

He would not do what was right merely for show or political gain, He would do what is right because it is His character to do so.

He would be just to everyone.

Isaiah continues this idea of righteousness and says this king will ensure justice, even for the poor and exploited.

He would not rule based on who was most powerful, who told the best story, or who could most help his prospects.

This new king would rule justly and would see things for how they really are.

He would not be swayed by things that sway human kings.

He would destroy the wicked.

This king would have a supernatural power.

When he speaks the earth will tremble, and with a single breath, He will destroy the wicked.

This King would have a power no other king has had—but He will use it to eradicate evil.

These descriptions sound like the absolutely perfect King!

This is the kind of leader we all desire.

The people of Israel were excited by the prospect that such a king would one day come.

So who is this king?

It is Jesus!

Jesus is the one who clearly fulfills these promises.

Jesus is the King who is above all other kings.

He was not the leader the people of Israel imagined; He is a far greater King than they would have dared to dream.

A Kingdom of Peace

After describing the kind of King who would rise up from David’s family line, Isaiah describes what His new kingdom will be like.

6 In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard will lie down with the baby goat.

The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion, and a little child will lead them all.

7 The cow will graze near the bear.

The cub and the calf will lie down together.

The lion will eat hay like a cow.

8 The baby will play safely near the hole of a cobra.

Yes, a little child will put its hand in a nest of deadly snakes without harm.

9 Nothing will hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for as the waters fill the sea, so the earth will be filled with people who know the Lord.

(Isaiah 11:6-9, NLT)

The description of the new kingdom in these verses is shocking because it is so different than the world we are used to.

Isaiah says this new kingdom will have a peace that goes far beyond simply rest from war.

This peace will exist among all creatures in the kingdom—not just human beings, but even among the animals as well!

Isaiah describes predators and prey lying down together without fear.

He says children will play with cobras without fear or danger.

Lions will no longer eat meat but will eat hay like cows.

This is a stunning picture of a supernatural kind of peace.

People have wrestled with how to properly understand what Isaiah is saying.

If Isaiah is speaking literally here, then there will have to be a massive supernatural intervention and change in our world for this to happen.

Take the lions for example.

Lions do not have stomachs like cows have.

Their entire biology is designed to consume and digest meat.

They cannot subsist on hay like a cow does in their current state.

We can imagine that God could somehow create peace amongst the other animals (like how He shut the mouths of the lions when Daniel was thrown into their den), but some of these things would require changes at the biological level.

For this reason, others have understood what Isaiah is saying as merely poetic, stating these descriptions are intended to give us a sense of how pervasive this peace will be.

It will be such a profound change that everything will be nearly unrecognizable from the world in which we currently live.

I’m not sure which way is the correct way to understand this description.

Clearly, Isaiah is describing a peace so pervasive that it touches every aspect of our lives and affects every aspect of creation.

But I have no problem believing God could effect such profound changes in creatures to make it so there are no longer predators either.

God created the animals with a word, He could change them with a word as well.

I think the bigger question is when will this peace arrive?

The King who was promised in the opening verses of chapter 11 has already arrived, so why hasn’t this peace arrived as well?

The answer is that even though Jesus has come onto the scene and sits rightfully upon His throne, He has not brought the fullness of His kingdom into place yet.

Christ has not yet destroyed wickedness, and therefore this kind of peace does not yet exist.