“There shall come
forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear
fruit. 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 the fear of the Lord. And His delight shall be in the fear of the
Lord. He shall not judge by what His
eyes see, or decide disputes by what His ears hear, but with righteousness He
shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and He
shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His
lips He shall kill the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt of His waist, and faithfulness the belt
of His loins.” –Isaiah 11:1-5(ESV).
An heir of David and his father Jesse
shall be the future Messiah. So wrote
Isaiah about 740 B. C., centuries before the coming of Jesus. The prophet had written in the chapter prior
to this one that destruction of the arrogant nation would come like setting an
axe to the trees in the forest and felling them. But out of the “stump” of Jesse, the remains
after the tree had fallen, would come a shoot that would spring up. The shoot springing up is coming not from a
cedar tree, whose stump does not bear fruit.
By implication the prophet means a mighty tree to symbolize the root out
of David’s line which will be like a mighty oak. Its strong stump will come the ideal Ruler. Here, expressly stated, is that the Messiah
will be from the house of David, going back to the father of David, Jesse.
The coming of such a stalwart shoot will
bring much good. He will be filled with
understanding, wisdom, and sound judgment, to name a few of His
characteristics. When it comes to
judgment, he will not be bound by what is heard or seen, but his judgments will
be characterized by righteousness and equity.
In whom are all of these paragons of virtue found? Who can possibly measure up to such high
standards except the Messiah Himself?
The gifts the Holy Spirit bestows upon the divine leader will be
perfection of intellectual endowment,
ruler’s practical qualities, and religious or spiritual knowledge led by
the Spirit. These characteristics will
mark the Messiah who will spring from Jesse’s stump. He shall practice the qualities and girt them
about Himself as though putting on a belt.
This passage, using metaphor and simile to describe the wonderful
Messiah, remains positive throughout in listing the traits that set the Messiah
apart from others. All the
characteristics are strong but some are especially noteworthy. One is that His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord” (v. 3).
Prayer:
Lord, Your coming to earth set a pattern for us of how we should be
obedient. What better emulation of Your
life could we have than that we “delight
in the fear of the Lord?” “The fear of
the Lord is the beginning of knowledge”(Proverbs 1:2). “The
fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever” (Psalm 19:9). We want to assimilate these
characteristics into our own life, Lord.
Help us so to do. Amen.
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