I
S A I A H
CHAP. XI.
It
is a very good transition in prophecy (whether it be so in rhetoric or no),
and a very common one, to pass from the prediction of the temporal
deliverances of the church to that of the great salvation, which in the
fulness of time should be wrought out by Jesus Christ, of which the other were
types and figures, to which all the prophets bore witness; and so the ancient
Jews understood them. For what else was it that raised so great an expectation
of the Messiah at the time he came. Upon occasion of the prophecy of the
deliverance of Jerusalem
from Sennacherib, here comes in a prophecy
concerning Messiah the Prince. I. His rise out of the house of David, ver. 1.
II. His qualifications for his great undertaking, ver. 2, 3. III. The justice
and equity of his government, ver. 3-5. IV. The peaceableness of his kingdom,
ver. 6-9. V. The accession of the Gentiles to it (ver. 10), and with them the
remnant of the Jews, that should be united with them in the Messiah's kingdom
(ver. 11-16) and of all this God would now shortly give them a type, and some
dark representation, in the excellent government of Hezekiah, the great peace
which the nation should enjoy under him, after the ruin of Sennacherib's
design, and the return of many of the ten tribes out of their dispersion to
their brethren of the land of Judah, when they enjoyed that great tranquillity.
|
Prophecy
of the Messiah; The Government of Messiah.
B. C. 740.
|
|
|
|
1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the
stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: 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 of the fear of the LORD;
3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD:
and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the
hearing of his ears: 4 But with righteousness shall he judge the
poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite
the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he
slay the wicked. 5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his
loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. 6 The wolf also
shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and
the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall
lead them. 7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones
shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned
child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. 9 They shall not
hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the
knowledge of the LORD,
as the waters cover the sea.
The prophet had before, in this sermon, spoken of a child that should be born,
a son that should be given, on whose shoulders the government should be,
intending this for the comfort of the people of God in times of trouble, as
dying Jacob, many ages before, had intended the prospect of Shiloh for the
comfort of his seed in their affliction in Egypt. He had said (ch. x.
27) that the yoke should be destroyed because of the anointing; now
here he tells us on whom that anointing should rest. He foretels,
I. That the Messiah should, in due time, arise out of the house of David, as
that branch of the Lord which he had said (ch. iv. 2) should be
excellent and glorious; the word is Netzer, which some think is
referred to in Matt. ii. 23, where it is said to be spoken by the prophets of
the Messiah that he should be called a Nazarene. Observe here, 1.
Whence this branch should arise-from Jesse. He should be the son of
David, with whom the covenant of royalty was made, and to whom it was promised
with an oath that of the fruit of his loins God would raise of Christ,
Acts ii. 30. David is often called the son of Jesse, and Christ is
called so, because he was to be not only the Son of David, but David himself,
Hos. iii. 5. 2. The meanness of his appearance. (1.) He is called a rod,
and a branch; both the words here used signify a weak, small, tender
product, a twig and a sprig (so some render them), such as is
easily broken off. The enemies of God's church were just before compared to
strong and stately boughs (ch. x. 33), which will not, without great
labour, be hewn down, but Christ to a tender branch (ch. liii. 2); yet
he shall be victorious over them. (2.) He is said to come out of Jesse rather
than David, because Jesse lived and died in meanness and obscurity; his family
was of small account (1 Sam. xviii. 18), and it was in a way of contempt and
reproach that David was sometimes called the son of Jesse, 1 Sam. xxii.
7. (3.) He comes forth out of the stem, or stump, of Jesse. When
the royal family, that had been as a cedar, was cut down, and only the stump
of it left, almost levelled with the ground and lost in the grass of the field
(Dan. iv. 15), yet it shall sprout again (Job xiv. 7); nay, it shall grow
out of his roots, which are quite buried in the earth, and, like the roots
of flowers in the winter, have no stem appearing above ground. The house of
David was reduced and brought very low at the time of Christ's birth, witness
the obscurity and poverty of Joseph and Mary. The Messiah was thus to begin
his estate of humiliation, for submitting to which he should be highly
exalted, and would thus give early notice that his kingdom was not of this
world. The Chaldee paraphrase reads this, There shall come forth a King
from the sons of Jesse, and the Messiah (or Christ) shall be anointed
out of his sons' sons.
II. That he should be every way qualified for that great work to which he was
designed, that this tender branch should be so watered with the dews of heaven
as to become a strong rod for a sceptre to rule, v. 2. 1. In general, the
Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. The Holy Spirit, in all his gifts
and graces, shall not only come, but rest and abide upon him; he shall have
the Spirit not by measure, but without measure, the fulness of the Godhead
dwelling in him, Col. i. 19; ii. 9. He began his preaching with this (Luke iv.
18), The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. 2. In particular, the spirit of
government, by which he should be every way fitted for that judgment which the
Father has committed to him and given him authority to execute (John v.
22, 27), and not only so, but should be made the fountain and treasury of all
grace to believers, that from his fulness they might all receive the Spirit of
grace, as all the members of the body derive animal spirits from the head.
(1.) He shall have the spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and
knowledge; he shall thoroughly understand the business he is to be
employed in. No man knows the Father but the Son, Matt. xi. 27. What he
is to make known to the children of men concerning God, and his mind and will,
he shall be himself acquainted with and apprised of, John i. 18. He shall know
how to administer the affairs of his spiritual kingdom in all the branches of
it, so as effectually to answer the two great intentions of it, the glory of
God and the welfare of the children of men. The terms of the covenant shall be
settled by him, and ordinances instituted, in wisdom: treasures of wisdom
shall be hid in him; he shall be our counsellor, and shall be made of God to
us wisdom. (2.) The spirit of courage, or might, or fortitude.
The undertaking was very great, abundance of difficulty must be broken
through, and therefore it was necessary that he should be so endowed that he might
not fail or be discouraged, ch. xlii. 4. He was famed for courage
in his teaching the way of God in truth, and not caring for any man, Matt.
xxii. 16. (3.) The spirit of religion, or the fear of the Lord; not
only he shall himself have a reverent affection for his Father, as his servant
(ch. xlii. 1), and he was heard in that he feared (Heb. v. 7),
but he shall have a zeal for religion, and shall design the advancement of it
in his whole undertaking. Our faith in Christ was never designed to supersede
and jostle out, but to increase and support, our fear of the Lord.
III. That he should be accurate, and critical, and very exact in the
administration of his government and the exercise of the power committed to
him (v. 3): The Spirit wherewith he shall be clothed shall make him
of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord--of an acute smell or scent
(so the word is), for the apprehensions of the mind are often expressed by the
sensations of the body. Note, 1. Those are most truly and valuably intelligent
that are so in the fear of the Lord, in the business of religion, for that is
both the foundation and top-stone of wisdom. 2. By this it will appear that we
have the Spirit of God, if we have spiritual senses exercised, and are of quick
understanding in the fear of the lord. Those have divine illumination that
know their duty and know how to go about it. 3. Therefore Jesus Christ
had the spirit without measure, that he might perfectly understand his
undertaking; and he did so, as appears not only in the admirable answers he
gave to all that questioned with him, which proved him to be of quick
understanding in the fear of the Lord, but in the management of his whole
undertaking. He has settled the great affair of religion so unexpectedly well
(so as effectually to secure both God's honour and man's happiness) that, it
must be owned, he thoroughly understood it.
IV. That he should be just and righteous in all the acts of his government,
and there should appear in it as much equity as wisdom. He shall judge as he
expresses it himself, and as he himself would be judged of, John vii. 24. 1.
Not according to outward appearance (v. 3): he shall not judge after
the sight of his eyes, with respect of persons (Job xxxiv. 19) and
according to outward shows and appearances, not reprove after the hearing
of his ears, by common fame and report, and the representations of others,
as men commonly do; nor does he judge of men by the fair words they speak, calling
him, Lord, Lord, or their plausible actions before the eye of the world,
which they do to be seen of men; but he will judge by the hidden man of the
heart, and the inward principles men are governed by, of which he is an
infallible witness. Christ will judge the secrets of men (Rom. ii. 16), will
determine concerning them, not according to their own pretensions and
appearances (that were to judge after the sight of the eyes), not
according to the opinion others have of them (that were to judge after the
hearing of the ears), but we are sure that his judgment is according to
truth. 2. He will judge righteous judgment (v. 5): Righteousness
shall be the girdle of his loins. He shall be righteous in the
administration of his government, and his righteousness shall be his girdle;
it shall constantly compass him and cleave to him, shall be his ornament and
honour; he shall gird himself for every action, shall gird on his sword for
war in righteousness; his righteousness shall be his strength, and shall make
him expeditious in his undertakings, as a man with his loins girt. In
conformity to Christ, his followers must have the girdle of truth (Eph. vi.
14) and it will be the stability of the times. Particularly, (1.) He shall in
righteousness plead for the people that are poor and oppressed; he will be
their protector (v. 4): With righteousness shall he judge the poor;
he shall judge in favour and defence of those that have right on their side,
though they are poor in the world, and because they are poor in spirit. It is
the duty of princes to defend and deliver the poor (Ps. lxxxii. 3, 4), and the
honour of Christ that he is the poor man's King, Ps. lxxii. 2, 4. He shall debate
with evenness for the meek of the earth, or of the land; those that bear
the injuries done them with meekness and patience are in a special manner
entitled to the divine care and protection. I, as a deaf man, heard not,
for thou wilt hear, Ps. xxxviii. 13, 14. Some read it, He shall reprove
or correct the meek of the earth with equity. If his own people, the meek
of the land, do amiss, he will visit their transgression with the rod.
(2.) He shall in righteousness plead against his enemies that are proud and
oppressors (v. 4): But he shall smite the earth, the man of the
earth, that doth oppress (see Ps. x. 18), the men of the world, that mind
earthly things only (Ps. xvii. 14); these he shall smite with the rod
of his mouth, the word of his mouth, speaking terror and ruin to them; his
threatenings shall take hold of them, and be executed upon them. With the
breath of his lips, by the operation of his Spirit, according to his word,
and working with and by it, he shall slay the wicked. He will do it
easily, with a word's speaking, as he laid those flat who came to seize him,
by saying I am he, John xviii. 6. Killing terrors shall arrest their
consciences, killing judgments shall ruin them, their power, and all their
interests; and in the other world everlasting tribulation will be recompensed
to those that trouble his poor people. The apostle applies this to the
destruction of the man of sin, whom he calls that wicked one (2 Thess.
ii. 8) whom the Lord will consume with the spirit of his mouth. And the
Chaldee here reads it, He shall slay that wicked Romulus, or Rome, as
Mr. Hugh Broughton understands it.
V. That there should be great peace and tranquillity under his government;
this is an explication of what was said in ch. ix. 6, that he should be
the Prince of peace. Peace signifies two things:--
1. Unity or concord, which is intimated in these figurative promises, that
even the wolf shall dwell peaceably with the lamb; men of the
most fierce and furious dispositions, who used to bite and devour all about
them, shall have their temper so strangely altered by the efficacy of the
gospel and grace of Christ that they shall live in love even with the weakest
and such as formerly they would have made an easy prey of. So far shall the
sheep be from hurting one another, as sometimes they have done (Ezek. xxxiv.
20, 21), that even the wolves shall agree with them. Christ, who is our peace,
came to slay all enmities and to settle lasting friendships among his
followers, particularly between Jews and Gentiles: when multitudes of both,
being converted to the faith of Christ, united in one sheep-fold, then the
wolf and the lamb dwelt together; the wolf did not so much as threaten the
lamb, nor was the lamb afraid of the wolf. The leopard shall not only
not tear the kid, but shall lie down with her: even their young ones
shall lie down together, and shall be trained up in a blessed amity, in
order to the perpetuating of it. The lion shall cease to be ravenous
and shall eat straw like the ox, as some think all the beasts of prey
did before the fall. The asp and the cockatrice shall cease to
be venomous, so that parents shall let their children play with them
and put their hands among them. A generation of vipers shall become a
seed of saints, and the old complaint of homo homini lupus--man is a wolf
to man, shall be at an end. Those that inhabit the holy mountain shall
live as amicably as the creatures did that were with Noah in the ark, and it
shall be a means of their preservation, for they shall not hurt nor destroy
one another as they have done. Now, (1.) This is fulfilled in the wonderful
effect of the gospel upon the minds of those that sincerely embrace it; it
changes the nature, and makes those that trampled on the meek of the earth,
not only meek like them, but affectionate towards them. When Paul, who had
persecuted the saints, joined himself to them, then the wolf dwelt with the
lamb. (2.) Some are willing to hope it shall yet have a further
accomplishment in the latter days, when swords shall be beaten into
ploughshares.
2. Safety or security. Christ, the great Shepherd, shall take such care of the
flock that those who would hurt them shall not; they shall not only not
destroy one another, but no enemy from without shall be permitted to give them
any molestation. The property of troubles, and of death itself, shall be so
altered that they shall not do any real hurt to, much less shall they be the
destruction of, any that have their conversation in the holy mountain,
1 Pet. iii. 13. Who, or what, can harm us, if we be followers of him
that is good? God's people shall be delivered, not only from evil, but
from the fear of it. Even the sucking child shall without any terror play
upon the hole of the asp; blessed Paul does so when he says, Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? and, O death! where is thy sting?
Lastly, Observe what shall be the effect, and what the cause, of this
wonderful softening and sweetening of men's tempers by the grace of God. 1.
The effect of it shall be tractableness, and a willingness to receive
instruction: A little child shall lead those who formerly scorned to be
controlled by the strongest man. Calvin understands it of their willing
submission to the ministers of Christ, who are to instruct with meekness and
not to use any coercive power, but to be as little children, Matt.
xviii. 3. See 2 Cor. viii. 5. 2. The cause of it shall be the knowledge of
God. The more there is of that the more there is of a disposition to peace.
They shall thus live in love, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge
of the Lord, which shall extinguish men's heats and animosities. The
better acquainted we are with the God of love the more shall we be changed
into the same image and the better affected shall we be to all those that bear
his image. The earth shall be as full of this knowledge as the channels of the
sea are of water--so broad and extensive shall this knowledge be and so far
shall it spread--so deep and substantial shall this knowledge be, and so long
shall it last. There is much more of the knowledge of God to be got by the
gospel of Christ than could be got by the law of Moses; and, whereas then
in Judah only was God known, now all shall know him, Heb. viii.
11. But that is knowledge falsely so called which sows discord among men; the
right knowledge of God settles peace.
|
Advancement
of Messiah's Kingdom.
|
B.
C. 740.
|
|
|
10 And in that day there shall be a root of
Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles
seek: and his rest shall be glorious. 11 And it shall come to pass
in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to
recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from
Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and
from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. 12 And he shall set
up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and
gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the
earth. 13 The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the
adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah
shall not vex Ephraim. 14 But they shall fly upon the shoulders of
the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together:
they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall
obey them. 15 And the LORD shall utterly destroy the
tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand
over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men
go over dry-shod. 16 And there shall be a highway for the remnant
of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in
the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.
We have here a further prophecy of the enlargement and advancement of the
kingdom of the Messiah, under the type and figure of the flourishing condition
of the kingdom of Judah in the latter end of Hezekiah's reign, after the
defeat of Sennacherib.
I. This prediction was in part accomplished when the great things God did for
Hezekiah and his people proved as an ensign, inviting the neighbouring nations
to them to enquire of the wonders done in the land, on which errand the
king of Babylon's ambassadors came. To them the Gentiles sought; and
Jerusalem, the rest or habitation of the Jews, was then glorious, v.
10. Then many of the Israelites who belonged to the kingdom of the ten tribes,
who upon the destruction of that kingdom by the king of Assyria were forced to
flee for shelter into all the countries about and to some that lay very
remote, even to the islands of the sea, were encouraged to return to their own
country and put themselves under the protection and government of the king of
Judah, the rather because it was an Assyrian army by which their country had
been ruined and that was not routed. This is said to be a recovery of them the
second time (v. 11), such an instance of the power and goodness of
God, and such a reviving to them, as their first deliverance out of Egypt was.
Then the outcasts of Israel should be gathered in, and brought home,
and those of Judah too, who, upon the approach of the Assyrian army, shifted
for their own safety. Then the old feud between Ephraim and Judah shall be
forgotten, and they shall join against the Philistines and their other common
enemies, v. 13, 14. Note, Those who have been sharers with each other
in afflictions and mercies, dangers and deliverances, ought in consideration
thereof to unite for their joint and mutual safety and protection; and it is
likely to be well with the church when Ephraim and Judah are one against the
Philistines. Then, whatever difficulties there may be in the way of the return
of the dispersed, the Lord shall find out some way or other to remove them, as
when he brought Israel out of Egypt he dried up the Red Sea and Jordan (v.
15) and led them to Canaan through the invincible embarrassments of a vast
howling wilderness, v. 16. The like will he do this second time, or
that which shall be equivalent. When God's time has come for the deliverance
of his people mountains of opposition shall become plain before him. Let us
not despair therefore when the interests of the church seem to be brought very
low; God can soon turn gloomy days into glorious ones.
II. It had a further reference to the days of the Messiah and the accession of
the Gentiles to his kingdom; for to these the apostle applies v. 10, of
which the following verses are a continuation. Rom. xv. 12, There shall be
a root of Jesse; and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, in him
shall the Gentiles trust. That is a key to this prophecy, which speaks of
Christ as the root of Jesse, or a branch out of his roots (v.
1), a root out of a dry ground, ch. liii. 2. He is the root
of David (Rev. v. 5), the root and offspring of David Rev. xxii.
16.
1. He shall stand, or be set up, for an ensign of the people.
When he was crucified he was lifted up from the earth, that, as an
ensign of beacon, he might draw the eyes and the hearts of all men
unto him, John xii. 32. He is set up as an ensign in the preaching of the
everlasting gospel, in which the ministers, as standard-bearers, display the
banner of his love, to allure us to him (Cant. i. 4), the banner of his truth,
under which we may enlist ourselves, to engage in a holy war against sin and
Satan. Christ is the ensign to which the children of God that were
scattered abroad are gathered together (John xi. 51), and in him they meet
as the centre of their unity.
2. To him shall the Gentiles seek. We read of Greeks that did so (John
xii. 21, We would see Jesus), and upon that occasion Christ spoke of
his being lifted up, to draw all men to him. The apostle, from the LXX. (or
perhaps the LXX. from the apostle, in the editions after Christ) reads it
(Rom. xv. 12), In him shall the Gentiles trust; they shall seek to him
with a dependence on him.
3. His rest shall be glorious. Some understand this of the death of
Christ (the triumphs of the cross made even that glorious), others of his
ascension, when he sat down to rest at the right hand of God. Or rather it is
meant of the gospel church, that Mount Zion of which Christ has said, This
is my rest, and in which he resides. This, though despised by the world,
having upon it the beauty of holiness, is truly glorious, a glorious high
throne, Jer. xvii. 12.
4. Both Jews and Gentiles shall be gathered to him, v. 11. A remnant of
both, a little remnant in comparison, which shall be recovered, as it were,
with great difficulty and hazard. As formerly God delivered his people, and
gathered them out of all the countries whither they were scattered (Ps. cvi.
47; Jer. xvi. 15, 16), so he will a second time, in another way, by the
powerful working of the Spirit of grace with the word. He shall set his
hand to do it; he shall exert his power, the arm of the Lord shall be
revealed to do it. (1.) There shall be a remnant of the Jews gathered in: The
outcasts of Israel and the dispersed of Judah (v. 12), many of
whom, at the time of the bringing of them in to Christ, were Jews of the
dispersion, the twelve tribes that were scattered abroad (James i. 1; 1
Pet. i. 1), shall flock to Christ; and probably more of those scattered Jews
were brought into the church, in proportion, than of those which remained in
their own land. (2.) Many of the nations, the Gentiles, shall be
brought in by the lifting up of the ensign. Jacob foretold concerning
Shiloh
that to him should the gathering of the people be. Those that were
strangers and foreigners shall be made nigh. The Jews were jealous of Christ's
going to the dispersed among the Gentiles and of his teaching the Gentiles,
John vii. 35.
5. There shall be a happy accommodation between Judah and Ephraim, and both
shall be safe from their adversaries and have dominion over them, v.
13, 14. The coalescence between
Judah
and
Israel
at that time was a type and figure of the uniting of Jews and Gentiles, who
had been so long at variance in the gospel church. The house of Judah shall
walk with the house of Israel (Jer. iii. 18) and become one nation
(Ezek. xxxvii. 22); so the Jews and Gentiles are made of twain one new man
(Eph. ii. 15), and, being at peace one with another, those that are
adversaries to them both shall be cut off; for they shall fly upon the
shoulders of the Philistines, as an eagle strikes at her prey, shall spoil
those on the west side of them, and then they shall extend their conquests
eastward over the Edomites, Moabites, and Ammonites. The gospel of Christ
shall be successful in all parts, and some of all nations shall become
obedient to the faith.
6. Every thing that might hinder the progress and success of the gospel shall
be taken out of the way. As when God brought Israel out of Egypt he dried up
the Red Sea and Jordan before them (ch. lxiii. 11, 12), and as
afterwards when he brought up the Jews out of Babylon he prepared them
their way (ch. lxii. 10), so when Jews and Gentiles are to be
brought together into the gospel church all obstructions shall be removed (v.
15, 16), difficulties that seemed insuperable shall be strangely got over, the
blind shall be led by a way that they knew not. See ch. xlii. 15,
16; xliii. 19, 20. Converts shall be brought in chariots and in litters, ch.
lxvi. 20. Some think it is the further accession of multitudes to the church
that is pointed at in that obscure prophecy of the drying up of the river
Euphrates, that the way of the kings of the east may be prepared (Rev. xvi.
12), which seems to refer to this prophecy. Note, When God's time has come for
the bringing of nations, or particular persons, home to himself, divine grace
will be victorious over all opposition. At the presence of the Lord the sea
shall flee and Jordan be driven back; and those who set their faces heavenward
will find there are not such difficulties in the way as they thought there
were, for there is a highway thither, ch. xxxv. 8.
Contents
|
Next
Section
