Isaiah 11:1-10
1: But a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom.
Isaiah does not claim that “from the roots of David a bud shall blossom.” Why not? Because while David started off acting righteously, he was eventually corrupted- remember the whole episode with sending Uriah the Hittite to die so that he could marry Bathsheba? Not the pillar of virtue at that point.
2: The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him:
Here, the Hebrew for “spirit” is “ruah.” It is the same ruah from Genesis 1, with “a mighty wind sweeping over the waters” at the beginning of Creation. It is one of three Hebrew words that are used throughout Scripture to mean “breath,” “soul” or “spirit.”
a spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
How does Isaiah describe the spirit of God? He lists a number of attributes, always in pairs. Biblically, when something is in a pair, that indicates that there is a dichotomy present.
Wisdom and understanding
- Understanding is comprehending the problem or situation.
- Wisdom is knowing how to proceed and respond.
- I understand that my toddler wants a cookie because he is hungry. I have the wisdom to not give it to him 10 minutes before dinner.
A spirit of counsel and strength,
Counsel and strength
- Strength can be physical, moral, spiritual etc.
- Counsel is the ability to listen to others to determine when and how to use one’s strength.
- I have the strength to wrestle my toddler into the car, but the counsel of my mother suggests I should ask, playing on his desires to be independent.
a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the Lord,
Knowledge and fear of the Lord
- Knowledge is possessing information about a specific topic. In this case, it is knowledge about God.
- Fear of the Lord is knowing how that information about God affects you in your personal life.
- While my knowledge of Scripture is helpful as a teacher, it is my fear of the Lord that inspires me to improve my prayer life.
3: and his delight shall be the fear of the Lord.
If you can balance the things on this list, your “delight shall be the fear of the Lord” because you will know that you are on God’s side. Which should be our goal- to be on God’s side.
I say “should be” because we don’t often make it the goal. We often focus in our prayers about trying to get God to change His mind. We talk about “unanswered prayers,”as if we just haven’t asked the right way or didn’t pray hard enough. I think we have it wrong. Prayer isn’t about getting God to do my will, it’s about changing my will to match God’s will.
I don’t want God on my team. I want to be on God’s team.
Not by appearance shall he judge, nor by hearsay shall he decide,
This is a recurrent theme in Isaiah- seeing the world as God sees it, not as man sees it. How often do we judge based on appearance? Or make a major decision based on a rumor? Often enough that Isaiah is telling people who lived thousands of years ago that they should not act that way. I don’t think humanity has changed that much.
4: But he shall judge the poor with justice, and decide fairly for the land’s afflicted.He shall strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.
Here’s that “ruah” again.
God uses his breath and words to create- in Creation he speaks the world into being; with Christ, who is “the Word,” He brings reality to His plan of salvation. We are made in the image of God. Therefore, we can also use our words to create, or in this case “strike the ruthless” and “slay the wicked.” Your words can be a profound source of calm, comfort and healing. But in the next breath, they can be destructive beyond all comprehension.
“I am proud of you.”
“I am so disappointed in you.”
Words are how we grow our relationships, but they are also how we grow our animosities. As with many things of God, the good or evil of a thing is determined by how we use it.
5: Justice shall be the band around his waist, and faithfulness a belt upon his hips.
Other translations have this verse as “righteousness will be the belt around his loins and faithfulness a belt around his loins.” In the Hebrew, the word for “belt” is the same, but the words for “loins” is different. In the first “loins,” mothen, the word indicates the literal waist, where you would wear a belt. In the second “loins,” chalats, is used, which refers to loins as the source of vigor and strength.
So let’s look at the verse again:
Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness a belt around the source of his strength.
We have another dichotomy.
- Righteousness shall be so visible that it is as plain as the belt on your waist.
- Faithfulness will be what holds together the source of your strength and energy.
6: Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat;The calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them.
7: The cow and the bear shall graze, together their young shall life down; the lion shall eat hay like the ox.
When the ideal King of Israel comes, we have quite a peaceable kingdom. Predator and prey are sitting together. Why? Because we will have achieved peace- shalom– wholeness- both internally and externally. Internal peace because we have balanced the many ways the spirit of God comes to us. External peace because once we are on God’s side, we are working in union with him in everything. When was the last time that happened? Eden. Howso? When God created us in Eden, we were in union with Him in everything. We were living lives with no sin- no fruit of the Tree of Knowledge yet. If sin is not doing the will of God, than not sinning is doing the will of God. No sin in Eden means humanity was acting in all ways in the will of God.
8: The baby shall play by the viper’s den, and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair.
When was the last time that a child and a snake got along? Eden. In Isaiah’s vision of the perfect King of Israel, the evil of Original Sin will be undone. Original Sin will have been conquered to such a degree that babies, literally, will be playing by deadly vipers. This is such an important idea that Isaiah repeats it twice, in slightly different ways.
- “Baby” vs. “child.” Baby is younger, child is older.
- “Play” vs. “lay his hand.” Playing is active, lay his hand is passive.
- “Viper’s den” vs. “adder’s lair.” Den is where the snake makes his home. Lair is where it waits for its prey.
Ultimately, the destruction of Original Sin will be utterly complete once the King of Israel comes.
9: They shall not harm or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the Lord, as water covers the sea.
What about the last time “the earth shall be filled… as water covers the sea”? Noah.
But this time “the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the Lord, as water covers the sea.” God can only present us with the knowledge of Himself. We must chose to embrace fear of the Lord. Yes, it is a gift of the Holy Spirit, but one that we must choose to act upon. We must choose to take that knowledge of the Lord and embrace the fear of the Lord and allow it to permeate our lives, our decisions and our relationships.
10: On that day, the root of Jesse, set up as a signal for the peoples-Him the nations will seek out; his dwelling shall be glorious.
When God first calls to Abram (later Abraham), He says, “I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” (Gen 12:2)
Biblically, as well as in the world, your name connects with your identity. We name our children with family names, hoping to create a sense of belonging to the larger extended family, as well as the family across time and generations. We name our sons after their fathers, hoping to inspire our sons to emulate their fathers. We name our children after saints or other heroes, hoping they will find connection with them as a role model. We also do the opposite and avoid certain names- when was the last time you met an “Adolf” or “Nimrod”? When God says, “I will make your name great” he’s not just talking about his literal name. He is talking about Abram’s personhood- his identity. Why does God promise to make his identity great? So that he can “be a blessing.” What is a blessing? The Catechism explains “Blessing expresses the basic movement of Christian prayer: it is an encounter between God and man. In blessing, God’s gift and man’s acceptance of it are united in dialogue with each other.” (CCC 2626) We often think of a blessing as a prayer- words that we say. But in His first encounter with Abram, God tells him that HE will be the blessing. His personhood is the blessing. Jesus echoes these same ideas when He calls us to be the “light of the world” and the “salt of the earth.” (Mt 5:13-16) Jesus doesn’t say, “your prayers are the light to the world,” He says, “YOU are the light to the world.”
This is our ultimate challenge from God: to make our lives and our very personhood a blessing for the world. If a blessing is the uniting of God’s gift and man’s acceptance and we are to go into the world of men, that means that God is commissioning us to represent Him to the world. We are being sent as ambassadors of God, putting skin on God into the world. When we do this, we will be able to speak the words of John the Baptist, “the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”
Take it to the kitchen table:
A quote often attributed to St. Mother Teresa is, “If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.”
- How can I be a blessing for my family today?
- How can I put skin on God today for my family?
- How can I show my family how much God loves them?
- How can I help my family experience God’s love with what I do?
Make it yours:
Write down a list of the small things you can do as answers to the above questions. Add one action to your planner each day/week to keep it in the front of your mind. Do one “Blessing Mission” each day.
Teach it:
After you have been practicing “being a blessing” to your family every day for 2-3 weeks, invite your children to join you. Brainstorm ways that they can be a blessing. Write each idea on a popsicle stick and stick them into jar. Every morning, have each child pull out a popsicle stick and that becomes their “Blessing Mission” for the day. At dinner, discuss how everyone’s “Blessing Mission” went that day.
Mother Teresa’s actual words: “And so, my prayer for you is that truth will bring prayer in our homes, and from the foot of prayer will be that we believe that in the poor it is Christ. And we will really believe, we will begin to love. And we will love naturally, we will try to do something. First in our own home, next door neighbor in the country we live, in the whole world.” From her acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize on 10 December 1979. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1979/teresa/26200-mother-teresa-acceptance-speech-1979/
