Isaiah 11:1-5 11A Shoot will come out of the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a Branch will produce fruit. 2The LORD’s Spirit will rest on Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD. 3The fear of the LORD will please Him. He will not judge just by what He sees or decide by what He hears. 4He will be fair in judging the poor, and treat the humble right when He makes decisions for them. He will strike the world with the rod of His mouth and kill the wicked with the breath of His lips. 5Righteousness will be the belt around His waist and faithfulness around His hips.
Even in Isaiah’s day, the handwriting was on the wall. David’s dynasty was going to be cut short because his descendents did not fear the Lord, trust him and do what is right. They let idolatry run rampant through the land. As idolatry grew so did avarice and all other sorts of wickedness. They did not rule by the Law of Moses which was given them. Because of this, David’s dynasty would be cut back to the very stump of his father Jesse.
A new David would have to come to fulfill the promise made to David when the LORD made him king, “Your seed(singular) would reign upon your throne forever.” So Isaiah sees a Shoot from the stump of Jesse. The Shoot is the New David. This Shoot will draw from his roots and his Branch produce fruit. The roots is none other than the LORD himself from whom all things come and have their being. There is to be a New David who fulfills all the LORD had given David’s descendents who sat on his throne to do.
The seven-fold Spirit of the LORD would rest upon this Shoot. The Spirit, the Spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge and fear of the LORD. Rev. 5:6 “Between the throne (with the four living beings) and the elders I saw a Lamb standing as though He had been slaughtered. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are God’s seven spirits that are sent all over the world.” This Lamb is the Shoot and righteous Branch of Jesse, the New David. And who is this Lamb? John129The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him. And he said, “Look at the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.” John the Baptist showed who this is. It is Jesus of Nazareth.
We see the sevenfold spirit operating in Jesus’ life as he teaches the multitude, heals the sick, preaches the good news to the poor, gives wise answers to those who question him and how he deals with those who oppose him. Now in verse 4 there is the forward reaching prophecy which is fulfilled at his second coming, where with the word of his mouth and the breath of his lips will destroy all the wicked. We will not see that till the Last Day as John shows us in Rev. 19.
What we can be assured of in verse 5 is that righteousness and faithfulness with gird and guide all that he does. It was in righteousness and faithfulness that Jesus was baptized by John. In the same Jesus goes to the cross to fulfill the word of the prophets which they spoke by the same Spirit which is Jesus’. In those places Jesus fulfills all righteousness for us becoming our righteousness before God.
Almighty God and Father, you have revealed Jesus as the Shoot of David and the Righteous Branch in whom we may look to for salvation and life now and in the world to come. Grant us such faith in him that we live now in his kingdom and then when he makes his kingdom manifest to the world. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.