"And it shall come to pass in that day, The root of Jesse, which stands for an ensign to the peoples, Unto Him shall the nations repair, And His resting-place shall be glorious. And it shall come to pass in that day, Jehovah shall again the second time put forth His hand, To recover the remnant of His people That remains, from Assyria, and from Egypt, And from Pathros, and from Cish, and from Elam; And from Shimar, and from Hamath, and from the western regions. And He shall life up a signal to the nations; And He shall gather the outcasts of Israel, And the dispersed of Judah shall He collect, From the four extremities of the earth. And the jealousy of Ephraim shall cease; And the enmity of Judah shall be no more Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah; And Judah shall not be at enmity with Ephraim. But they shall invade the borders of the Philistines westward; Together shall they spoil the children of the East; On Edom and Moab shall they lay their hand; And the sons of Ammon shall obey them. And Jehovah shall smite with a drought the tongue of the Egyptian sea; And He shall shake His hand over the river with His vehement wind; And He shall strike it into seven streams, And make them pass over it dry-shod. And there shall be a highway for the remnant of His people, Which shall remain from Assyria; As it was unto Israel, In the day when he came up from the land of Egypt.
The first glance at the text composing this lesson will show the student that he must go back in order to get the connection. "It shall come to pass in that day." (Isaiah 11:10)
In what day? Evidently in the day when the rod springs forth out of the stem of Jesse. Let the whole of the 11th chapter of Isaiah be studied in connection, and it will be seen that it covers the entire period from the first advent of Christ till His second coming and the restoration of all things. The chapter is, however, divided into two sections. The first nine verses cover this entire period, and then, beginning with verse 10 the same period is covered again, with some additional details.
The Sign of the Cross Compare verse 10 with: "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." (John 12:32)
So the verse before us says that the nations shall repair to "the root of Jesse, which stands for an ensign to the people." (John 12:10)
The Lord is the banner, and it is "Christ, and Him crucified," (1 Corinthians 2:2) that constitutes this ensign, round which the people are to gather. It is written, "Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree." (Galatians 3:13)
The cross was the sign of ignominy and reproach. It was the most humiliating death that could be imposed on anybody. Yet this very ignominious death is Christ's glory. By the cross, which was supposed by the men of His time to be the miserable end of an adventurer, Jesus was elevated to the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens. The badge of disgrace was the crown of glory. "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Galatians 6:14)
What is the lesson in this for us? Just this, that there is the brightest hope for the lowest and most despised of mankind. The banner round which God proposes to gather "the outcasts of Israel," (Isaiah 11:12) is the Christ crucified, that is, Christ despised and rejected of men. If He took His stand in some exalted place, in a halo of glory, and from there called the poor outcasts to Him, they might well hesitate; but when the very rallying place is the lowest point of degradation, there can be no doubt that "whosoever will" (Revelation 22:17) may come. The way is adapted to the lowest and weakest; it must necessarily be in order that none be shut out; but where the lowest and weakest can come in, the highest and strongest cannot possibly be excluded. They can easily humble themselves and come down, if they will; but the others could not possibly lift themselves up.
The Jews thought that they were inflicting the most crushing defeat on Christ,--that they were degrading Him to the uttermost,--whereas they were really lifting Him up. He was lifted up from the earth, even to the height of heaven. The way to heaven lies by the cross. This world consists of pride and self-exaltation: "The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life," (1 John 2:16) so that the cross does in reality lift one up and away from this earth.
Creation and Rest
"His rest shall be glorious." (Isaiah 11:10)
The cross gives rest. Jesus calls, "Come unto me, all you that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28)
This rest is Sabbath rest,--the rest which God took when He had finished the six days' work of creation. The cross creates: "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature [or, "there is a new creation". (2 Corinthians 5:17,RV,margin)
The cross restores what was lost in the fall. The fall deprived man of the glory of God; the cross restores it. The cross creates anew, doing the same work that God did in the beginning. The cross represents a perfect work completed--for on it Jesus said, "It is finished." (John 19:30)
Now finished work means rest; it can mean nothing else, therefore the cross of Christ must give rest to all who come to it.
Moreover, since redemption is identical with creation,--is creation,--restoring that which was lost, it is evident that the rest which it brings is identical with the rest which followed the finished work of creation in the beginning. In the cross of Christ we find the Sabbath, the rest, of the Lord.
See how people have reversed God's order. They find in God's
Sabbath only a cross; to rest on the seventh day of the week, "according to the commandment," (Luke 23:56) when the majority of men make it the busiest day of the week, seems to them too great a cross to be borne. Well, if that is the way they look at it, they will find no rest in it.
But let them come to the cross of Christ, accepting it without any reservation. Let them not take a part of it, rejecting another portion, but let them take the cross with the whole life of Jesus; then they will find perfect rest--God's Sabbath. And then it will be a joy to indicate the perfect rest which Christ gives, by resting from their labors on the day which He has given as the memorial, the sign of His power to redeem.
Gathering the Remnant
"It shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time (On this matter of the setting of God's hand "the second time" to gather His people, read the first article entitled: "The Time of the Promise," which appeared on the first page of Present Truth for December 29, 1898, in connection with the first of lessons in Isaiah. [Editor's note: in this edition, this is the second article, and is entitled, "The Prophetic Setting"]) to recover the remnant of His people." (Isaiah 11:11)
This will not be a small affair, but will be a gathering "from the four corners of the earth." (Isaiah 11:12)
And since it is "the remnant" that are to be gathered, it is evident that this work is the last thing that will be done in connection with the people of God. This is the closing work of the Gospel. It is by the Gospel that God's Israel--overcomers--are to be gathered.
The last verses of this chapter indicate the power that is to accompany the closing work of the Gospel. "There shall be a highway ... like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt." (Isaiah 11:16)
Read the account of God's wonderful leading then. It was not by any human strength, but by the strength of Almighty God, that the deliverance was effected. Think of the marvelous miracles in Egypt, and the dividing of the Red Sea. Yet while all this was but the manifestation of God's own power it was all accomplished through a human agent. "You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron." (Psalm 77:20)
It was always by the stretching out of the rod in the hand of Moses, that these signs were wrought. Now just that power must be manifested in the preaching of the Gospel before the Lord comes. The power that divided the Red Sea must and will be seen in the work when the Sabbath--the sign of Jehovah's creative power--is given its rightful place among God's people. God's rest will be seen to be glorious, and by it "The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord." (Habakkuk 2:14)--Present Truth, March 2, 1899--Isaiah 11:10-16.