11:1. “And
there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall
grow out of his roots.”
Jesse means of him who
is, with my subsistences as a possible second meaning. “Him Who
is” is God, the eternally existing One, Who has never had a beginning, and
Who will never have an end. It is to be remembered however, that this
applies to Jesse only in the sense that his life, like that of every other
man, had its origin in God, the Source of all life. Man will exist for
ever, either in the bliss of heaven, or in the torment of the lake of fire.
The reference here is to the Lord Jesus Christ as Son of man, come down to
earth to expiate man’s sin, and make eternal life available to all who will
trust in Him as Savior.
The stem speaks of the
Lord’s incarnation and His identification with humanity, but His being the
Branch speaks of Him as the One Who has made eternal life available to every
repentant sinner, He alone having the power to lay down His life, and to
take it up again, as it is written, “Therefore doth my Father love me,
because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it
from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I
have power to take it again,” John 10:18.
Since a rod is the
Biblical symbol of authority or rule, the Lord’s being spoken of as a rod
points to Him as “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS,” Revelation 19:16.
11:2. “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.”
This was literally
fulfilled at the time of the Lord’s baptism, as recorded in all four
Gospels, Matthew 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22, and John 1:32, when the
multitude saw the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, alighting upon Him.
“... the spirit of the
Lord” is the Holy Spirit, through Whom the Lord was endued with perfect
discernment to distinguish between right and wrong; through Whom He was
filled with perfect knowledge of all things; through Whom He, as Son of man,
was imbued with reverence for God the Father.
11:3. “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 (judge, decide) after
the hearing of his ears:”
“quick” is used here in
the sense of His having a lively, active, clear understanding of the
reverence that is due to the Father; and relative to judgment and rebuke, He
would not make decisions simply in response to what He saw or heard, i.e.,
on the basis of outward appearances, but on what He, by His omniscience,
knew to be true.
11:4. “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.”
When the Lord was here on
earth perfect righteousness governed His words and deeds whether in
addressing the pleas of the poor, or in defending the rights of the people
whose appeals were ignored by those whose duty it was to administer
impartial justice. During His time in the world He inveighed against
injustice, but didn’t attempt to stop it, because His coming then was to
expiate sin by the offering of Himself “without spot to God”; but in the
Millennium He will be reigning as King of kings, and Lord of lords, His
impartial administration of justice making that era the most glorious the
world has ever known.
The “rod of his mouth,”
and “the breath of his lips” are metaphors for the Scriptures. In the
Millennium all will be compelled to obey His word, or die; one great
difference between that era and the present being that in the Millennium the
sentence against infraction will be executed immediately.
11:5. “And
righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle
of his reins.”
In this verse “loins”
refer to the waist or small of the back, and “reins” are literally the
loins, so that the truth being declared is that the Lord is girded with
righteousness and faithfulness, i.e., He is sinless, and completely
trustworthy.
11:6. “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.”
11:7 “And the
cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and
the lion shall eat straw like the ox.”
11:8. “And
sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp (cobra), and the weaned
child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ (adder’s) den.”
11:9. “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.”
In the Millennium the
carnivores will be herbivorous, so that there will be no animosity between
the animals, nor between them and man, as it is written, “The wolf and the
lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and
dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my
holy mountain, saith the Lord,” Isaiah 65:25.
11:10. “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.”
The One referred to here
is the Lord Jesus Christ. His being “a root of Jesse” points to His deity.
He is the Creator. His being “an ensign of the people” speaks of Him as a
signal, sign, or banner of salvation. He is the One, who by His vicarious
death has become the Savior of the world.
Relative to His being a
sign, the unbelieving Jewish leaders said, “Master, we would see a sign from
thee. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation
seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign
of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the
whale’s belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the
heart of the earth,” Matthew 12:38-40. His miracles attested His deity, but
unbelief rejected the evidence even when the sign was fulfilled by His death
and resurrection, which were typified in Jonah’s being swallowed by the
great fish, and then vomited up again.
But what unbelief rejects,
faith accepts. The despised Gentiles, by believing in the Lord Jesus
Christ, enter into rest that is eternal and glorious.
11:11. “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.”
This refers to the
regathering of Israel at the end of the Great Tribulation, from her present
worldwide dispersal amongst the nations since AD70. That return of the Jews
to Palestine, which began in 1948 and continues to the present, is but
another sign that the Great Tribulation is imminent.
11:12. “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.”
Some understand this to
mean that the beginning of Israel’s return to Palestine will be the sign to
the nations of the imminence of the Great Tribulation; but others take it to
mean that her establishment in the land will signal the beginning of the
Millennium when she will be chief among the nations. This latter seems to
be the correct view.
11:13. “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.”
The division between
Israel (the ten tribes), and Judah and Benjamin (here designated as Judah),
occurred during the reign of Jeroboam, see 1 Kings 12:20, and continued
until the Diaspora of AD70. In the Millennium that separation will be
healed: Israel will be a unified nation again.
11:14. “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.”
This describes the
universality of Israel’s dominion in the Millennium. She will be chief of
the nations.
11:15. “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 dryshod.”
“the tongue of the
Egyptian sea” is the Red Sea; and “the river” here is the Euphrates. God
will dry up the Red Sea, and divide the Euphrates into seven branches, so
that men will be able to cross dryshod over both in the Millennium.
11:16. “And
there shall be an 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.”
Many commentators
understand that “Assyria” is used here as representative of all the
countries from which Israel will be gathered back to Palestine at the end of
the Great Tribulation, nor does there seem to be any good reason not to
accept this suggestion.
