“In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.” Isaiah 11:10 ESV
Reflection: why did Christ have to come from a “root stump” of Jesse?
One of the very difficult aspects of reading and understanding prophecy, is when we try to apply time. We have a very linear view of time, as we think of days, weeks, months, seasons, years, and so on. In our experience, events that happen are a function of time, such as February comes after January, and so on. If something has happened already, in our view it cannot be redone, because it is an event that has occurred “in the past”. But we therefore easily forget that God is outside of time, meaning He is not dependent on time, how we experience time. God is fulfilling His word and promises in the order He wants, that serves His purpose. Where we see events A, B, and C, thinking that B has to come after A. But God might fulfill them in a different order, like B, A, C.
Today we are presented an example of a beautiful prophecy in Isaiah 11:1-10 of a King would be born, pointing to the Messiah. The first part of the prophecy is “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.”Isaiah 11:1 ESV. We have already read how the Lord of hosts Himself would be judging and cutting down all the wicked and unrighteous people, leaving only a small, faithful remnant. But out of one of stumps, out of Jesse (Jesse was the father of king David), a shoot would come, in the lineage of David. So the only indication of time here is the almost complete destruction of Israel and its leaders. We read in the end of chapter 10, “Behold, the Lord, The Lord of hosts, Will lop off the bough with terror; Those of high stature will be hewn down, And the haughty will be humbled. He will cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, And Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One.” Isaiah 10:33-34 NKJV. And, of course we remember what was going on at the time of Jesus birth, with the Roman Empire occupying the land and ruling the people.
Now, in addition to Isaiah seeing this King in the lineage of David that was to be born, he also saw He would be a different kind of King, “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 11:2 ESV. And Isaiah described many aspects of this King, in v2-5, ending with “Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.” Isaiah 11:5 ESV. A righteous King. So far Isaiah described two events- of the Messiah’s birth and lineage, and also what sort of King he would be.
But then there is a sudden shift in the prophecy, the vision Isaiah had, where he writes “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 11:6 ESV. Clearly this was not fulfilled at the time of Jesus, so this is a very different event. It is reminiscent of the garden of Eden, where there is peace also in the animal kingdom, even between man and animals, with the summary stating “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.” Isaiah 11:9 ESV. This event is on a different horizon, yet not happened as we know so well.
In our focus verse, we see yet another event, “In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.” Isaiah 11:10 ESV. Notice here that this King was to be “a signal” or banner for all people, all nations will be drawn to Him. And we see this event is in process of being fulfilled since the coming of Christ Jesus, as people and nations are coming to faith in Jesus. We might be reminded here of what Jesus Himself said about this event, ““Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”” John 12:27-32 ESV.
So we see an outline of at least 4 events described in Isaiah 11:1-10 starting with the birth of the Messiah. But they are events not necessarily fulfilled in order and time as we think of it. However, what we do see is a beautiful horizon of events, an outline of an Almighty God’s plan, and some day we will see it all fulfilled and join in the worship of Him, “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.” Isaiah 12:2 ESV