DOES ISAIAH 11 SPEAK OF A JEWISH REBIRTH FOR CHRIST 2ND COMING?
This is one place in scriptures that is majorly relied upon as the pointer that Israel would be rebirth as a nation before a coming of Jesus that will herald a global tribulation and some endtime events that would eventually lead to end of the world and time as we know.
I would like us to use this platform to look at it again but this throw some context in the form of more verses.
There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse,
And a Branch shall grow out of his roots.
2 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.
And a Branch shall grow out of his roots.
2 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 His delight is in the fear of the Lord,
And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes,
Nor decide by the hearing of His ears;
4 But with righteousness He shall judge the poor,
And decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,
And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.
5 Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins,
And faithfulness the belt of His waist.
And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes,
Nor decide by the hearing of His ears;
4 But with righteousness He shall judge the poor,
And decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,
And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.
5 Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins,
And faithfulness the belt of His waist.
6 “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,
The leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
The calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little child shall lead them.
7 The cow and the bear shall graze;
Their young ones shall lie down together;
And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole,
And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’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.
The leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
The calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little child shall lead them.
7 The cow and the bear shall graze;
Their young ones shall lie down together;
And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole,
And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’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,
Who shall stand as a banner to the people;
For the Gentiles shall seek Him,
And His resting place shall be glorious.”
Who shall stand as a banner to the people;
For the Gentiles shall seek Him,
And His resting place shall be glorious.”
11 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 who are left,
From Assyria and Egypt,
From Pathros and Cush,
From Elam and Shinar,
From Hamath and the islands of the sea.
That the Lord shall set His hand again the second time
To recover the remnant of His people who are left,
From Assyria and Egypt,
From Pathros and Cush,
From Elam and Shinar,
From Hamath and the islands of the sea.
12 He will set up a banner for the nations,
And will assemble the outcasts of Israel,
And gather together the dispersed of Judah
From the four corners of the earth.
13 Also the envy of Ephraim shall depart,
And the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off;
Ephraim shall not envy Judah,
And Judah shall not harass Ephraim.
14 But they shall fly down upon the shoulder of the Philistines toward the west;
Together they shall plunder the people of the East;
They shall lay their hand on Edom and Moab;
And the people of Ammon shall obey them.
15 The Lord will utterly destroy[a] the tongue of the Sea of Egypt;
With His mighty wind He will shake His fist over the River,[b]
And strike it in the seven streams,
And make men cross over dry-shod.
16 There will be a highway for the remnant of His people
Who will be left from Assyria,
As it was for Israel
In the day that he came up from the land of Egypt.
And will assemble the outcasts of Israel,
And gather together the dispersed of Judah
From the four corners of the earth.
13 Also the envy of Ephraim shall depart,
And the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off;
Ephraim shall not envy Judah,
And Judah shall not harass Ephraim.
14 But they shall fly down upon the shoulder of the Philistines toward the west;
Together they shall plunder the people of the East;
They shall lay their hand on Edom and Moab;
And the people of Ammon shall obey them.
15 The Lord will utterly destroy[a] the tongue of the Sea of Egypt;
With His mighty wind He will shake His fist over the River,[b]
And strike it in the seven streams,
And make men cross over dry-shod.
16 There will be a highway for the remnant of His people
Who will be left from Assyria,
As it was for Israel
In the day that he came up from the land of Egypt.
The first 5 verse talks about the Jesus the Messiah. He is the rod from the stem of Jesse, the one that the Spirit of God rests upon in his completeness. That is why he is the anointed one. We see this confirmation at the river Jordan at his encounter with John the Baptist.
Isaiah gives us prophetic insight into his messianic work and passion where in His righteousness the poor will be judged. How will judge the poor? Remember Jesus proclaimed goodnews for the poor. The poor had no hope of prosperity seeing their disqualification but he declared through his finished work that “I am your qualification”. The imputation of life and righteousness is the result of his judgment at the cross.
But Isaiah then tells us that he will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth. This is very similar to what the prophet Malachi says in Malachi 4
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
6 And he will turn
The hearts of the fathers to the children,
And the hearts of the children to their fathers,
Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”
Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
6 And he will turn
The hearts of the fathers to the children,
And the hearts of the children to their fathers,
Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”
The rejection of the Messiah by the Jewish nation would lead to their eventual downfall as they held on that crumbling system. John was the Elijah promised and he warned them not hang to their ancestral lineage but flew from THE WRATH to come.
Isaiah then proceeds to state that the Messianic age would see the wolf now dwelling with the lamb. I have seen many commentaries on this pointing to a literal fulfillment of this in the future. It is just a case of cherry picking what is to be seen as literal to support a futurist view.
This part is symbolic and is a fulfilled reality in our time. It is not separate from the manifestation of the Messiah and His kingdom. Paul saw it as being fulfilled in his own lifetime in Romans 15:12, “The root of Jesse will come, even He who arises to rule the Gentiles, in Him will the Gentiles hope” (Romans 15:12).
The context of both Isaiah 11 and Romans 15 suggests a bringing together in Christ the remnant of God’s people from among both the Jews and the Gentiles. Isaiah uses figurative language; Paul in Romans is gives us the fulfillment in straightforward words.
This is the mystery that was hidden in ages. The regathering is not about only the Jews but also the gentiles. He was gathering everyone in Christ the Israel of God.
“This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Eph. 3:6).
12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. 13 For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:12-13)
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28)
To do this the Messiah had to pull down the wall that separated humanity.
5:6, 6:15-16); “the dividing wall of hostility” has been broken down
14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation” (Eph. 2:14).
15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation. (Galatians 6:15-16)
The wolf are the Gentiles who now dwells safely with the lamb the Jews i.e. among those who belong to Christ. The Gentile nations which were deceived and dwelling “far off” (Ephesians 2:11-22; Romans 9:22-26) prior to Christ’s work on the cross are now brought near (so that without distinction or division “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”
This is why Paul says in Romans 15:12.
For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed and, moreover, that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.
The regathering that Isaiah speaks about is not about the national Jews but the spiritual one. He references the “first” gathering of God’s people from foreign oppression was the Exodus itself.
The Lord will utterly destroy the tongue of the Sea of Egypt;
With His mighty wind He will shake His fist over the River,[b]
And strike it in the seven streams,
And make men cross over dry-shod. (vs 15)
With His mighty wind He will shake His fist over the River,[b]
And strike it in the seven streams,
And make men cross over dry-shod. (vs 15)
This regathering by Isaiah is a “second” exodus. We find Moses and Elijah, on the mount of transfiguration, discussed with Jesus “the exodus that He was about to accomplish in Jerusalem” (Luke 9:31) though it wrongly translated in the KJV as
31 who appeared in glory and spoke of His decease which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.”
The word “decease” is actually the word for “exodus”. The salvation as experienced by the 1st century was an exodus from the oppression of “Ismael” over “Isaac” and “Egpyt” over “Israel”. The early church saw that they were transiting into the kingdom at the close of that Old covenant age.
Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, 2 all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. 5 But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.
6 Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. (1 Cor.10:1-6)
This transition involved a remnant which Paul also says are “a remnant according to the election of grace” This gathering has been fulfilled at the dawn of the age of God’s kingdom. This fulfills the last part of the prophecy in chapter 11
There will be a highway for the remnant of His people
Who will be left from Assyria,
As it was for Israel
In the day that he came up from the land of Egypt.
Who will be left from Assyria,
As it was for Israel
In the day that he came up from the land of Egypt.
National Israel is no longer the timetable for God’s agenda. The kingdom is here and the church is the agency of her life and glory. The glory of the kingdom will keep spreading over the earth and many in all nations will be drawn to righteous judgment of the lamb of God.
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