Read
Peace at Last
1 Like a branch that sprouts
from a stump,
someone from David's family
will someday be king.
2The Spirit of the Lord
will be with him
to give him understanding,
wisdom, and insight.
He will be powerful,
and he will know
and honor the Lord.
3His greatest joy will be
to obey the Lord.
This king won't judge
by appearances
or listen to rumors.
4The poor and the needy
will be treated with fairness
and with justice.
His word will be law
everywhere in the land,
and criminals
will be put to death.
5 Honesty and fairness
will be his royal robes.
6 Leopards will lie down
with young goats,
and wolves will rest
with lambs.
Calves and lions
will eat together
and be cared for
by little children.
7Cows and bears will share
the same pasture;
their young will rest
side by side.
Lions and oxen
will both eat straw.
8Little children will play
near snake holes.
They will stick their hands
into dens of poisonous snakes
and never be hurt.
9 Nothing harmful will take place
on the Lord's holy mountain.
Just as water fills the sea,
the land will be filled
with people who know
and honor the Lord.
God's People Will Come
10 The time is coming when one of David's descendants will be the signal for the people of all nations to come together. They will follow his advice, and his own nation will become famous.
11When that day comes, the Lord will again reach out his mighty arm and bring home his people who have survived in Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Ethiopia, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the land along the coast. 12He will give a signal to the nations, and he will bring together the refugees from Judah and Israel, who have been scattered all over the earth. 13Israel will stop being jealous of Judah, and Judah will no longer be the enemy of Israel. 14Instead, they will get together and attack the Philistines in the west. Then they will defeat the Edomites, the Moabites, and the Ammonites in the east. They will rule those people and take from them whatever they want.
15 The Lord will dry up the arm of the Red Sea near Egypt, and he will send a scorching wind to divide the Euphrates River into seven streams that anyone can step across. 16Then for his people who survive, there will be a good road from Assyria, just as there was a good road for their ancestors when they left Egypt.
Reflect
As we draw to the end of the first section of Isaiah’s prophecies (chapters 1-12), we enter into a theme in his writing that will surface again and again. Issues of judgment take backstage but they are always there. Yet the covenant keeping LORD will bring new hope into this abysmal set of circumstances.
Chapter 10:33-34 and the stump of 11:1 is the scene – the backstage if you will. The specific context is not named, but the images are clear. Hope is around the corner.
The Spirit of the covenant keeping LORD moves much like breath, or the wind. That image is at the core of the Hebrew term – hebel. One does not see it, but one experiences its effects – just like the wind.
Justice is at the heart of the action (v. 3b-5). A transformed creation is the result. (v. 6-9). A cosmic initiative begins (v. 10-11). And the return of the exiles is imminent (v. 12-16).
This is now the third time that Isaiah looks forward to a continuation, even a fulfillment of the Messianic hope (7:14; 9:6-7 and 11:10-16). It is little wonder that Isaiah was a favourite book for the early Christians.
Respond
Father in Heaven, thank you for this vision of creation restored. Fill me with your Spirit today so that I can partner with you in seeing your reign advance in my community. Amen.
Glenn Smith
Dr. Glenn Smith is married to Sandra and together they have three daughters, Jenna, Julia and Christa and two granddaughters They are the pastors of a missional community network in their church in Montréal – a multi-site congregation in five locations. Glenn did his graduate studies at the Université d’Ottawa and his doctoral thesis at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Chicago. He was the Executive Director of Christian Direction in Montreal 1983 – 2018. He is the Dean of the Faculty of Practical Theology at Presbyterian College at McGill University and the the Institut de théologie pour la francophonie, accredited by Université Laval. He also teaches in Haïti. Publications: co-author of Espoir pour la ville; Dieu dans la cité (Hope for the city, God in the city); Following Jesus: God invites us to transformative discipleship and author of City Air Makes You Free.