"But there shall spring forth a rod from the trunk of Jesse; and a scion from his roots shall become fruitful. And the Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon Him; The Spirit of wisdom, and understanding; The Spirit of counsel and strength; The Spirit of the knowledge, and the fear of Jehovah. And He shall be of quick discernment in the fear of Jehovah: So that not according to the sight of His eyes shall He judge; Nor according to the hearing of His ears shall He reprove. But with righteousness shall He judge the poor; And with equity shall He work conviction in the meek of the earth. And He shall smite the earth with a blast of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked one. And righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins; And faithfulness the cincture of His reins. Then shall the wolf take up his abode with the lamb; And the leopard shall lie down with the kid; And the calf and the young lion, and the fatling shall come together; And a little child shall lead them. And the heifer and the she-bear shall feed together; Together shall their young ones lie down; And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the suckling shall play on the hole of the aspic, (Archaic word for "asp": any of several venomous snakes.) And upon the den of the baslisk (A legendary serpent or dragon with lethal breath and glance.) shall the weaned child lay his hand. They shall not hurt, nor destroy, in all my holy mountain; For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, As the waters that cover the depths of the sea." (Isaiah 11:1-9,Lowth)
It will be seen that this chapter is a continuation of something begun in the preceding chapter. Read the following, and you will see that a general destruction is foretold: "Behold Jehovah shall lop the flourishing branch with a dreadful crash; and the high of stature shall be cut down, and the lofty shall be brought low; And He shall hew the thickets oft with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty hand." (Isaiah 10:33-34)
A Rod
But, although there shall be this cutting off of the mighty trees of the forest, "There shall spring forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a scion from his roots shall be fruitful. And the Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon Him," (Isaiah 11:1-2) so that He shall do great things. "There shall spring forth a rod." (Isaiah 11:1)
The Hebrew word here rendered "rod," occurs in but one other place in the Bible, namely, "In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride." (Proverbs 14:3)
A rod, a stick, only a stick, yet of more value than all the trees of the forest because of the Spirit of Jehovah resting upon Him. This also is for our learning and comfort. Did you never feel that you were but a useless stick? Never mind; it is with a stick, a rod such as one might cut as a useless thing, that God will judge the world. "I can of my own self do nothing." (John 5:30) "I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people." (Psalm 22:6)
This is what Christ said of himself. No man can possibly feel himself more helpless and useless. But it is not what we are, but what God is, that determines what shall be done. He is. That is enough.
"He that comes to God must believe that He is." (Hebrews 11:6) "Yes, but I am so."
Stop! It is not you are, but He is. If you come to God believing that He is, you will not straightway begin to say of yourself, "I am." "But hear me out. I was only going to say that I am nothing at all."
Of course you are not; that is embraced in the statement that He is. As long as He is, you don't need to be. Let Him be what He is,--everything,--and then you will find your happiness in the fact that you are nothing. But don't forget that the only proper way for you to declare that you are nothing is to acknowledge that God, and God only, is.
The Abiding Spirit
"The Spirit of Jehovah shall abide upon Him." (Isaiah 11:2)
The same Spirit is given to us, that He may abide with us for ever. He will be to us all that He was to Jesus, for He is "the eternal Spirit." (Hebrews 9:14)
The spirit of man is the life of man, since "the body without the spirit is dead." (James 2:26)
So the Spirit of God is the life of God. "The Spirit is life because of righteousness." (Romans 8:10)
When the Spirit of Jehovah rests upon one, that one has the power of the life of Jehovah, "the power of an endless life." (Hebrews 7:16)
What can be done by that one then, (Mind, it is not what that one can do, but what can be done through him. See Acts 2:22) is measured only by God's own purposes for him. When the life of Jehovah animates a person, it matters not how insignificant he is,--he is then the instrument of Almighty power. When God breathed His life into a lump of earth, the clod became a man having dominion over all the earth.
How diversified are the manifestations of the Spirit? Here are set forth at least six of "the seven Spirits of God." The Spirit of God is pre-eminently wisdom and power for eyes are a synonym for perception, and horns indicate power; and the slain Lamb in the midst of the throne has "seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth." (Revelation 5:6)
Why are they sent forth into all the earth? Is it to spy upon people? By no means; they are sent forth to be our wisdom; for Christ is to us "the power of God, and the wisdom of God." (1 Corinthians 1:24)
The Spirit of Wisdom
"The Spirit of wisdom and understanding; the Spirit of counsel and might." (Isaiah 11:2)
Wisdom is practical, not theoretical; it is real, and not simply a conception. The wisdom of God does not exhaust itself in formulas and statements. That which God in His wisdom counsels, He does. The counsel of peace (Zechariah 6:13) is between the Father and the Son, and Christ our peace (Ephesians 2:14) has come making peace for us. "He lays up sound wisdom for the righteous." (Proverbs 2:7)
This word, "wisdom," and also in: "With Him is strength and wisdom," (Job 12:16) are the same as the words "substance" and "working" in the following texts: "You dissolve my substance." (Job 30:22)
And, "The Lord of hosts ... wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working." (Isaiah 28:29)
There is in His wisdom the performance of the thing. "He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens by His discretion." (Jeremiah 10:12)
This is the wisdom that God gives us. It is the wisdom that succeeds. It is not the wisdom of man, which plans, and then tries the plans to see if they will work; God's plans always work. His plan works itself. Why need any man fall? He cannot, if he accepts the free gift of God. The wisdom of God and the power of God must overcome everything; and they are ours in Christ.
Quick Understanding
Of the man who walks in the counsel of God, it is said that: "Whatsoever he does shall prosper." (Psalm 1:3) "And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord." (Isaiah 11:3)
The two words "quick understanding" are from a single Hebrew word, the verb meaning "to smell." It is the verb from which comes the Hebrew word for wind, air, spirit. It is the same word that is rendered "smell" in: "The Lord smelled a sweet savor," (Genesis 8:21) and, "Noses have they, but they smell not," (Psalm 115:6) and in other places. So we may read this verse, "The Spirit of the Lord shall cause Him to smell the fear of the Lord."
But one smells by breathing, drawing in the air. So we have the most literal rendering by Segond, "Il respirera la crainte de l'Éternel," [He shall breathe the fear of the Lord.]
That is to say, the fear of the Lord is His life, He breathes it in with every breath.
Delight
And since it is only because of our breath that we are able to have any pleasure, and breathing is itself a delight, we can see in the text the rendering also of the Revised Version: "His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord." (Isaiah 11:3,RV)
Remember that Jesus is the representative Man. The one here referred to is from "the stem of Jesse." (Isaiah 11:1) "Christ ... was made of the seed of David according to the flesh." (Romans 1:3)
Therefore it is "the Man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5) upon whom this Spirit of understanding rests. Therefore in Him the same gift is ours. Everyone whose delight is in the law of the Lord, shall have prosperity in everything; and the Spirit of God is given in order that we may have our delight in the fear of the Lord.
If in the air that we breathe we recognize God's own Spirit of life, life itself will be a greater pleasure than ever before, and the delight of our life will be the presence of the Lord. So it was with Jesus.
Saved by His Breath
Can the breath of God make a man good? Most certainly. Christ breathed upon the disciples, and said, "Receive the Holy Ghost." (John 20:22)
In the beginning God made man of the dust of the ground. The man was perfect in form, but there was no life in him. As a man he was good for nothing. Then God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul--a "very good" man. As soon as God had made the man perfect by breathing into him, "[He] saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good." (Genesis 1:31)
But that could not have been said of man before the breath of God was put into him. Therefore it was the breath of God that made man good--very good. But it was the breath of God that made him good, and it is by the same breath that we are saved. "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." (Romans 5:10)
As freely as the air is the Holy Spirit given to us, and He comes to us in the very gift of the air. God gives us air, breathing it moment by moment into our lungs, in order that we may live. But He expects us to live righteously, and He gives us the means whereby to live righteously, for the life which He gives to all men is His own life, and His life is righteousness.
If we but recognized the Lord as He is, we should breathe in righteousness with every breath. The Spirit of God would be our life, so that we should be wholly spiritual. "But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness." (Romans 8:9-10)
The Spirit would be our wisdom and our power. We should know the will of God, because God would do our thinking in us, thus working to will; and we should do His will, because He would at the same time work to do of His good pleasure. "Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." (Hebrews 13:20-21)
There are infinite possibilities before the man who accepts the Spirit of God as his life. What eye has not seen, nor ear heard, and what the mind of man has never conceived, God has revealed unto us by His Holy Spirit.
Judging Righteously
"He shall not judge according to appearance nor according to hearsay." (Isaiah 11:3,Literal)
But that is just the way men judge, and the only way they judge. Note the contrast: "He shall not judge after the His eyes, nor reprove after the hearing of His ears; but with righteousness shall He judge." (Isaiah 11:3)
That is to say, He judges with righteousness because He does not judge after sight nor hearing. Therefore to judge after the sight of one's eyes, and after the hearing of one's ears, is to judge unrighteously. But since this is the only way by which judgment in the world is rendered, it follows that there is not on earth any such thing as righteous judgment.
A well-known London magistrate said to a man who came to his court seeking justice: "You must know that law and justice are two entirely different things; you can get the law here, but not justice."
This is so, not because there are no men yet in the world who have right desires, but because the best human judgment must be faulty. It is absolutely impossible that there should be a perfectly just human government. "With righteousness shall He judge." (Isaiah 11:4)
He himself is righteousness; His life is righteousness. He judges with righteousness because He judges by himself. It is personal experience with Him. He has passed through every possible phase of human experience. Although in Him was never any sin, He was made to be sin for us, and as a sinner He experienced the punishment due to sin. "The chastisement of our peace was upon Him." (Isaiah 53:5)
Now, "He [was] made to be sin for us ... [in order] that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Therefore when this purpose is fulfilled in us, we do not come into judgment at all:
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that hears my word, and believes on Him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." (John 5:24)
But if not, then we experience the punishment that inevitably follows the rejection of His life. When in the judgment it appears that God's perfect, eternal life has been given to all men, each soul will pronounce sentence on himself, and declare that God is just. No one can say that it is unfair in God to give us exactly what He gave His only begotten Son.
God's Life Consumes Evil
"With the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked one." (Isaiah 11:4)
Compare with: "And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming." (2 Thessalonians 2:8) "Our God is a consuming fire." (Hebrews 12:29)
His life is constantly working to consume evil,--all that tends to death,--else we could not live. The life of God in the sunlight, the air, and the water, is continually at work to purify the earth. Waste products are consumed. This shows us how God a Spirit is working for our cleansing.
But if, in spite of the goodness of God, we cling to evil, so that we ourselves are evil, then at the last that life which is given us for our support, and which works for our good by consuming that which is corrupt, will necessarily consume us as plague-spots on the earth. So the slaying of the wicked at the last day is by the life of God, and is in keeping with the working of God to preserve life. The working of the life will result in the destruction of death, by destroying every cause of death.
A Peaceful Life Now
"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. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den." (Isaiah 11:6-8)
Then shall the wolf dwell with the lamb, and the leopard lie down with the kid; the cow and the bear, and their young ones, shall feed and lie down together; so gentle will these beasts be that a child can lead them at pleasure; and the now venomous beasts will be the harmless playmate of the prattling babe: "They shall not hurt nor destroy," (Isaiah 11:9) because the whole earth will then be "full of the knowledge of the Lord;" (Isaiah 11:9) and, "The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits." (James 3:17)
See what a change is to take place in the nature of the now ferocious beasts; but do not suppose that this involves any new plan; it is only the restoration of that condition of things which existed at the beginning. God never made one beast to prey upon another. In the beginning, when God gave to man his diet of fruits and grains, He said, "And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creeps upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat; and it was so." (Genesis 1:30)
The wolf, the leopard, and the lion, were therefore vegetarians in the beginning, just as the ox is. God is the Good Shepherd, who feeds His flock, watching over it for its own good, and giving His life that the sheep of His pasture may have life. He does not tend His flock in order that He may live off them.
Satan is the roaring lion going about seeking whom he may devour. From him man has learned to destroy life in order that he may live, and by so doing has shortened his own life; for destruction can never produce life, any more than the wrath of man can work the righteousness of God. (James 1:20; For the wrath of man works not the righteousness of God.)
And when man, creation's lord, began to develop the Satanic instinct of preying on animals that were placed under him for protections and care, they also themselves developed the same traits, the strong devouring, instead of shielding, the weaker. Thus the earth became so full of violence that God was compelled to cleanse it by a flood of water.
Now after so long a time is the condition that existed in those days returning, (Matthew 24:37; But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be) so that God will be compelled to cleanse the earth again by a flood of fire. "Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. And [God's] people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places." (Isaiah 32:16-18)
From all this it is easy to see that in the new earth, which will simply be the earth as it was first made for the abode of man, there will be no flesh-eating among men. Slaughter houses will be unknown. No streams of blood will flow, and no beast will groan out its life to satiate the instincts of its cruel master. Man will then rejoice to live as God designed that he should. Life will be sustained by life, and not by death, and so life will be perfect.
There is probably no one who will dispute this. The most ravenous devourer of flesh would not think, if he should stop to think, of slaying and eating in the abode of God, when "the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them." (Revelation 21:3)
But cannot all see in this a reason for now leaving off the use of flesh as food, and adopting in its stead the abundant bill of fare which God gave man? This time is given us in which to prepare for the future world. We must now begin to live the life that is to continue to eternity.
No man would think that he should continue to indulge hatred and envy, expecting God to change his character to love and peace at His coming; then why should anyone think that any other habit is to be continued, which will not exist in the perfect state.
Someone may urge that the beasts still prey upon one another, and that the nature of animals will not be changed until the coming of the Lord. True; and that very thing contains a reason why men should correct their habits. Men are not beasts, but are made with moral natures, so that they may be associates of God.
If man were not endowed with a free will, which allies him to God, then he would have no responsibility, and would depend on God to effect all changes in him, without his cooperation. But as it is, man must perfect holiness in the fear of God. (2 Corinthians 7:1; Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God)
What a humiliating thing for any man to admit that he is waiting for God to effect changes in his character, just as He does in the beasts. God's kingdom is to come, and His will be done in earth as it is in heaven, by the yielding of individuals at this present time to the perfect will of God. "Let the peace of God rule in your hearts." (Colossians 3:15)--Present Truth, February 23, 1899--Isaiah 11:1-9.