It is noteworthy that very many of the illustrations used by Isaiah, to represent the truths taught by him, are drawn from the vegetable world. He speaks a great deal of the kingdom of God, and of that kingdom Christ himself said that it is "as if a man should cast seed into the ground." (Mark 4:26)
In the present lesson the Saviour is likened to a rod coming forth from the stem of Jesse, and a branch growing out of his roots. There had been a good many vicissitudes in the history of Jesse's descendants, when Isaiah wrote, and the future contained a great many more. It seemed sometimes, so far as any hope of spiritual life was concerned, that Jesse's was a dry, withered root, but out of this unpromising soil, Christ was to grow up "as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground." (Isaiah 53:2)
The Word Made Flesh
"All flesh is grass," (Isaiah 40:6) and Christ was made in all things like unto His brethren. He had no more strength than the grass of the field, for He declared that of himself He could do nothing. It was the Word of the Lord that caused the grass to grow and gave it life. The grass is simply the visible manifestation of the Word by which it lives. Hence the various forms of the grass show forth the beauty and glory of the Lord.
Many will not allow that it can be true of them that they are merely grass. They point with pride to their achievements, to the acquirements which mark them as superior to others, and claim that these give proof of an independent intelligence.
Christ made no such claim for himself. He sought not His own will. The Father gave Him commandment what He should speak, and showed Him all things that He should do. He simply took the humble place of the grass of the field, which exists only because of the Word of life, and reveals, not itself, but the working of that Word, in the Word made grass. Christ was the Word made flesh, and all flesh is grass.
Led by the Spirit
Because Christ did not lean to His own understanding, but trusted in the Lord with all His heart, the Lord directed His every step. Because He submitted to the guidance of the Spirit, it had free course in Him and was revealed in its fullness in His life. It was everything to Him, and so it imparted to Him freely everything that it was.
It was not given by measure, and being unhindered by Him in its manifestations, all its characteristics were revealed in His life as: "wisdom and understanding, ... counsel and might, ... knowledge and the fear of the Lord." (Isaiah 11:2)
The Spirit made Him "of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord," (Isaiah 11:3) and He allowed it to influence His mind and form His judgment on all matters that demanded attention. He did not rely upon the inadequate means of information supplied by His human eyes and ears, but trusted in the infallible guidance of the Spirit. So His judgment and reproof was given in righteousness and equity. "And He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears: But with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth." (Isaiah 11:3-4) "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." (John 1:14)
A Witness to the People
Christ came to earth to make known what inconceivable riches had been bestowed by God upon men in the gift of His life. The life was communicated by the Spirit, but men saw no particular value in the gift, and felt indifferent as to whether it was given or not.
What it would do for helpless men was seen in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Springing, like His brethren in the flesh, from a dry root, which only conveyed its inheritance of sin and death, He triumphed over both by receiving the life from above. The whole of His victorious life was a witness to men of what God had done for them.
His sinlessness did not separate Him from the unworthy, for such a High Priest became us, but showed the power of the salvation that was theirs by free gift. So He said, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings" (Isaiah 61:1) to men, that they too might be, like himself, "trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord." (Isaiah 61:3)
Out of Weakness Made Strong
It may seem at first sight humiliating to be told that: "All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the field," (Isaiah 40:6) so that man is absolutely dependent upon the Lord, but those who receive this truth find in it unending strength and rejoicing. They learn that in being made dependent on His life God does not doom them to a beggarly existence, and their hearts are comforted, "being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." (Colossians 2:2-3)
A Glorious Rest
As men learn to trust in the Lord for all things, and put no confidence in the flesh, God's strength is made perfect in their weakness, and they are made "strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might." (Ephesians 6:10)
Thus the power of God is seen and declared among men, and the root of Jesse "shall stand for an ensign of the people: to it shall the Gentiles seek: and His rest shall be glorious." (Isaiah 11:10)
As the tumults of earth agitate human minds, and "Men's hearts fail them for fear, looking after those things that are coming on the earth," (Luke 21:26) God's people trust calmly in Him, in whom there is everlasting strength, and perfect peace. "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You: because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." (Isaiah 26:3-4)
When trials and clouds are thickest and darkest, His rest is most glorious, and made known to the Gentiles as most worth their acceptance.
Abundance of Peace
"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. 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." (Isaiah 11:6-9)
The picture of perfect peace presented in this lesson is but a demonstration of what the Spirit of God can do, in reconciling the most contrary natures. The wolf and the lamb, the leopard and the kid, the calf and the young lion, can all live together in amity and peace, because the rule of God, interrupted by man's rebellion, is fully restored in all things.
The law of God, which is the life of God, is made again the universal law of being, and there shall be no evil or destruction, because: "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." (Isaiah 11:9)
In the everlasting inheritance of God's redeemed, "The meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace," (Psalm 37:11) for only they shall possess the earth. "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." (Matthew 5:5)
The earnest of that inheritance is given now in the Holy Spirit to believers, (Ephesians 1:13-14) and since the inheritance is all that it is by virtue of the power of the Spirit, it follows that whosoever receives the Spirit knows thereby the power of the world to come. (Hebrews 6:4-5)
This is the power which is made known to those who confess themselves to be only grass, and find a glorious rest in the knowledge that: "It is God which works in them both to will and to do of His good pleasure." (Philippians 2:13)--Present Truth, October 20, 1898--This article was not part of the series on Isaiah, but is included because it fits well into this collection.--Notes on the International Sunday-School Lessons, October 30--Isaiah 11:1-10.