'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's
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. 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.'--ISAIAH xi. 1-10.
The hopeless fall of Assyria is magnificently pictured in the close of
chapter x., as the felling of the cedars of Lebanon by the axe swung by
Jehovah's own hand. A cedar once cut down puts out no new shoots; and
so the Assyrian power, when it falls, will fall for ever. The metaphor
is carried on with surpassing beauty in the first part of this
prophecy, which contrasts the indestructible vitality of the Davidic
monarchy with the irremediable destruction fated for its formidable
antagonist. The one is a cedar, the stump of which rots slowly, but
never recovers. The other is an oak, which, every woodman knows, will
put out new growth from the 'stool.' But instead of a crowd of little
suckers, the prophet sees but one shoot, and that rising to more than
the original height and fruitfulness of the tree. The prophecy is
distinctly that of One Person, in whom the Davidic monarchy is
concentrated, and all its decadence more than recovered.
Isaiah does not bring the rise of the Messiah into chronological
connection with the fall of Assyria; for he contemplates a period of
decay for the Israelitish monarchy, and it was the very burden of his
message as to Assyria that it should pass away without harming that
monarchy. The contrast is not intended to suggest continuity in time.
The period of fulfilment is entirely undetermined.
The first point in the prophecy is the descent of the Messiah from the
royal stock. That is more than Isaiah's previous Messianic prophecies
had told. He is to come at a time when the fortunes of David's house
were at their worst. There is to be nothing left but the stump of the
tree, and out of it is to come a 'shoot,' slender and insignificant,
and in strange contrast with the girth of the truncated bole, stately
even in its mutilation. We do not talk of a growth from the stump as
being a 'branch'; and 'sprout' would better convey Isaiah's meaning.
From the top of the stump, a shoot; from the roots half buried in the
ground, an outgrowth,--these two images mean but one person, a
descendant of David, coming at a time of humiliation and obscurity. But
this lowly shoot will 'bear fruit,' which presupposes its growth.
The King-Messiah thus brought on the scene is then described in regard
to His character (v. 2), the nature of His rule (vs. 3-5), the
universal harmony and peace which He will diffuse through nature (vs.
6-9), and the gathering of all mankind under His dominion. There is
much in the prophetic ideal of the Messiah which finds no place in this
prophecy. The gentler aspects of His reign are not here, nor the deeper
characteristics of His 'spirit,' nor the chiefest blessings in His
gift. The suffering Messiah is not yet the theme of the prophet.
The main point as to the character of the Messiah which this prophecy
sets forth is that, whatever He was to be, He was to be by reason of
the resting on Him of the Spirit of Jehovah. The directness, fulness,
and continuousness of His inspiration are emphatically proclaimed in
that word 'shall rest,' which can scarcely fail to recall John's
witness, 'I have beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven;
and it abode upon Him.' The humanity on which the Divine Spirit
uninterruptedly abides, ungrieved and unrestrained, must be free from
the stains which so often drive that heavenly visitant from our
breasts. The white-breasted Dove of God cannot brood over foulness.
There has never been but one manhood capable of receiving and retaining
the whole fulness of the Spirit of God.
The gifts of that Spirit, which become qualities of the Messiah in whom
He dwells, are arranged (if we may use so cold a word) in three pairs;
so that, if we include the introductory designation, we have a
sevenfold characterisation of the Spirit, recalling the seven lamps
before the throne and the seven eyes of the Lamb in the Apocalypse, and
symbolising by the number the completeness and sacredness of that
inspiration. The resulting character of the Messiah is a fair picture
of one who realises the very ideal of a strong and righteous ruler of
men. 'Wisdom and understanding' refer mainly to the clearness of
intellectual and moral insight; 'counsel and might,' to the qualities
which give sound practical direction and vigour to follow, and carry
through, the decisions of practical wisdom; while 'the knowledge and
fear of the Lord' define religion by its two parts of acquaintance with
God founded on love, and reverential awe which prompts to obedience.
The fulfilment, and far more than fulfilment, of this ideal is in
Jesus, in whom were 'hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,' to
whom no circumstances of difficulty ever brought the shadow of
perplexity, who always saw clearly before Him the path to tread, and
had always 'might' to tread it, however rough, who lived all His days
in unbroken fellowship with the Father and in lowly obedience.
The prophet saw not all the wonders of perfect human character which
that indwelling Spirit would bring to realisation in Him; but what he
saw was indispensable to a perfect King, and was, at all events, an arc
of the mighty circle of perfection, which has now been revealed in the
life of Jesus. The possibilities of humanity under the influence of the
Divine Spirit are revealed here no less than the actuality of the
Messiah's character. What Jesus is, He gives it to His subjects to
become by the dwelling in them of the spirit of life which was in Him.
The rule of the King is accordant with His character. It is described
in verses 3-5. The first characteristic named may be understood in
different ways. Accord-to some commentators, who deserve respectful
consideration, it means, 'He shall draw His breath in the fear of
Jehovah'; that is, that that fear has become, as it were, His very
life-breath. But the meaning of 'breathing' is doubtful; and the phrase
seems rather to express, as the Revised Version puts it, 'His delight
shall be in the fear of the Lord.' That might mean that those who fear
Jehovah shall be His delight, and this would free the expression from
any shade of tautology, when compared with the previous clause, and
would afford a natural transition to the description of His rule. It
might, on the other hand, continue the description of His personal
character, and describe the inward cheerfulness of His obedience, like
'I delight to do Thy will.' In any case, the 'fear of the Lord' is
represented as a sweet-smelling fragrance; and, if we adopt the former
explanation, then it is almost a divine characteristic which is here
attributed to the Messiah; for it is God to whom the fear of Him in
men's hearts is 'an odour of a sweet smell.'
Then follow the features of His rule. His unerring judgment pierces
through the seen and heard. That is the quality of a monarch after the
antique pattern, when kings were judges. It does not appear that the
prophet rose to the height of perceiving the divine nature of the
Messiah; but we cannot but remember how far the reality transcends the
prophecy, since He whose 'eyes are as a flame of fire' knows what is in
man, and the earliest prayers of the Church were addressed to Jesus as
'Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men.'
The relation of Messiah to two classes is next set forth. The oppressed
and the meek shall have Him for their defender and avenger,--a striking
contrast to the oppressive monarchs whom Isaiah had seen. We remember
who said 'Blessed are the poor in spirit,' 'Blessed are the meek.' The
King Himself has taught us to deepen the meaning of the words of the
prophet, and to find in them the expression of the law of His kingdom
by which its blessings belong to those who know their need and come
with humble hearts. But the same acts which are for the poor are
against the oppressors. The emendation which reads 'tyrant' (_arits_)
for 'earth' (_erets_) brings the two clauses descriptive of the
punitive acts into parallelism, and is probably to be preferred. The
same pillar was light to Israel and darkness to the Egyptians. Christ
is the savour of life unto life and of death unto death. But what is
His instrument of destruction? 'The rod of His mouth' or 'the breath of
His lips.' And who is He whose bare word thus has power to kill and
make alive? Is not this a divine prerogative? and does it not belong in
the fullest sense to Him whose voice rebuked fevers, storms, and
demons, and pierced the dull, cold ear of death? Further,
righteousness, the absolute conformity of character and act to the
standard in the will of God, and faithfulness, the inflexible
constancy, which makes a character consistent with itself, and so
reliable, are represented by a striking figure as being twined together
to make the girdle, which holds the vestments in place, and girds up
the whole frame for effort. This righteous King 'shall not fail nor be
discouraged.' He is to be reckoned on to the uttermost, or, as the New
Testament puts it, He is 'the faithful and true witness.' This is the
strong Son of God, who gathered all His powers together to run with
patience the race set before Him, and to whom all may turn with the
confidence that He is faithful 'as a Son over His own house,' and will
inviolably keep the promise of His word and of His past acts.
We pass from the picture of the character and rule of the King over men
to that fair vision of Paradise regained, which celebrates the
universal restoration of peace between man and the animals. The picture
is not to be taken as a mere allegory, as if 'lions' and 'wolves' and
'snakes' meant bad men; but it falls into line with other hints in
Scripture, which trace the hostility between man and the lower
creatures to sin, and shadow a future when 'the beasts of the field
shall be at peace with thee.' The psalm which sings of man's dominion
over the creatures is to be one day fulfilled; and the Epistle to the
Hebrews teaches that it is already fulfilled in Christ, who will raise
His brethren, for whom He tasted death, to partake in His dominion. The
present order of things is transient; and if earth is to be, as some
shadowy hints seem to suggest, the scene of the future glories of
redeemed humanity, it may be the theatre of a fulfilment of such
visions as this. But we cannot dogmatise on a subject of which we know
so little, nor be sure of the extent to which symbolism enters into
this sweet picture. Enough that there surely comes a time when the King
of men and Lord of nature shall bring back peace between both, and
restore 'the fair music that all creatures made To their great Lord.'
Verse 10 begins an entirely new section, which describes the relations
of Messiah's kingdom to the surrounding peoples. The picture preceding
closed with the vision of the earth filled with the knowledge of the
Lord, and this verse proclaims the universality of Messiah's kingdom.
By 'the root of Jesse' is meant, not the root from which Jesse sprang,
but, in accordance with verse 1, the sprout from the house of Jesse.
Just as in that verse the sprout was prophesied of as growing up to be
fruitbearing, so here the lowly sucker shoots to a height which makes
it conspicuous from afar, and becomes, like some tall mast, a sign for
the nations. The contrast between the obscure beginning and the
conspicuous destiny of Messiah is the point of the prophecy. 'I, if I
be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.' Strange
elevation for a king is a cross! But it is because He has died for men
that He has the right to reign over them, and that they 'shall seek' to
Him. 'His resting-place shall be glorious.'
The seat of His dominion is also the seat of His repose. The beneficent
activity just described is wielded from a calm, central palace, and
does not break the King's tranquillity. That is a paradox, except to
those who know that Jesus Christ, sitting in undisturbed rest at the
right hand of God, thence works with and for His servants. His repose
is full of active energy; His active energy is full of repose. And that
place of calm abode is 'glorious' or, more emphatically and literally,
'glory. He shall dwell in the blaze of the uncreated glory of God,--a
prediction which is only fulfilled in its true meaning by Christ's
ascension and session at the right hand of God, in the glory which He
had with the Father before the world was, and into which He has borne
that lowly manhood which He drew from the cut-down stem of Jesse.