Sermon text: Isaiah 11:1–10
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
Several years back, probably a decade and a half ago or more, a commercial aired showing a dog in a living room at Christmas time. The dog walks into the room, passes by the fireplace and the Christmas tree, and lays down on the floor. A moment later, a cat comes walking across that same floor, walks up to the dog, snuggles the snout of the dog, and lays down at the lap of the dog. Then a few moments after that, a mouse scurries in and lies down next to the cat. Then the next scene: a little girl looks through the door and smiles at the three animals, now friends, lying one next to the other. The last scene is those three animals looking up at the Christmas tree, with the words “peace on earth” appearing on the television screen as Christmas music plays.
That’s the kind of existence that comes to most people’s minds when they think of the phrase “peace on earth.” And eventually, that’s how it will be when Jesus establishes the new heavens and the new earth. Isaiah chapter 11, the assigned reading, offers just that kind of promise and picture to describe what the world will look like after the judgment day comes and goes, and when the new heavens and the new earth are finally come upon the earth, and the curse of the fall into sin is no more.
Isaiah 11 paints a picture for us, in part, of the coming of Jesus — both on the law side, the judgment and condemnation, and on the gospel side, the forgiveness of sins in a heavenly home. Isaiah 11 paints a picture of the coming of Jesus, and what His descent to the earth means for the inhabitants. But in order to gain a deeper appreciation of what is written in chapter 11, what we read in the Old Testament lesson this morning, one should understand the historical background and context, which is in part given to us in Isaiah chapter 6.
As to the content of Isaiah chapter 6: Isaiah prophesies in the midst of one of the most unfaithful periods in the history of the Old Testament. Think 740 BC. In chapter 6, Isaiah is called to be the Lord’s prophet. He wrote of that call: “I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’” Then Isaiah writes, “I said, ‘Here I am! Send me.’ And he said, ‘Go, and say to this people: Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’” “Make the heart of this people dull.”
It’s a rather strange thing for God to say, to wish that the people cannot see or hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. But there it is. And the clue to this mystery, as to why God would do this, is found in the word “this people.” The phrase: they are now no longer His people. He does not call them “my children” or “my people” any longer. He refers to them as he would a stranger, in the third person: “this people.” “Make the ears of this people heavy and blind their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn and be healed.”
The children of Israel were no longer able to distinguish between the word of God and the doctrines of the pagan religions that surrounded them. They incorporated the pagan gods of Baal in order to help with political and military stability and economic prosperity. They no longer could tell that which came from the Lord God, Yahweh Elohim, and that which came from the gods of Baal. They had mixed them together.
Upon his call, Isaiah asked God, “How long will the people continue to suffer in unbelief?” And God said, “Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste, and the LORD removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.” In other words, Judah and Jerusalem, as they knew it, ceased to exist. People no longer live there. They were hauled off in exile or driven out by war.
At the end of Isaiah chapter 6, God says to Isaiah, “And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is felled.” That was God’s judgment against a rebellious people: to wipe their city and their land and their homes from the face of the earth. He speaks the gospel, though, to the remnant. He says to them a sentence of hope: “The holy seed is its stump.” There’s good news. You just have to know where to look for it. You have to look where the tree has been burned down and then cut down. You have to look to the stump that looks to be dry and lifeless, dead, without hope.
Yet in the midst of an unfaithful and idolatrous people, under God’s judgment against Judah, there will spring forth from the stump a stem that will go forth suddenly and unexpectedly. And the stump is Jesse. And who is Jesse? Jesse was the father of King David. Jesse wasn’t from a royal house. He owned land, grew grain. His youngest son David shepherded a flock. He was a common, hardworking man of the day, of no royalty. Yet the stump represents the messianic family line that starts with Jesse. The Messiah would be born as a descendant of Jesse, and then subsequently of King David. After the Lord God raised Judah to the ground, all that was left of David’s kingdom was a dry stump. But God attached His promise to that single dry stump.
And in chapter 6, He said to Isaiah, “Go, and say to this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ Make the heart of this people dull, their ears heavy, and blind their eyes.” That is: keep preaching the word of God, the law and the gospel of the promised Messiah. But they would still remain in foolish unbelief.
The seed, the promised Messiah, lives and does exactly the opposite of what Judah has done. He proves faithful. They proved faithless. God says, “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” — unlike the people — “the Spirit of wisdom and understanding” — unlike the people — “the Spirit of counsel and might” — unlike the people — “the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD” — unlike the people.
David’s kingdom had to be destroyed in order for the promise to be fulfilled. The people in Isaiah’s day thought the exact opposite. They thought Judah and Jerusalem needed to remain great to be of any value to the Lord God — and certainly great in their own eyes, as a reflection of their so-called righteousness. That’s one of the reasons they allowed the religions of their neighbors to infiltrate their religious work, and even the ritual rites in the temple. They compromised and accommodated in an effort to buy peace and economic prosperity. They did so by incorporating pagan religions into the religion of Yahweh Elohim. They thought to remain great was to be like all the rest of the nations of the earth. But if there’s going to be a resurrection — something greater on the other side — there must first be a death. Thus a dry, dead stump.
You see, when they laid siege to a city like Jerusalem or others, if there were any trees around the city, they were all cut down. All you would see is fields and fields of stumps. It was how the Romans waged siege war. To see a field of stump after stump after stump, and lifeless dirt, was a sign of the lost hope of the children of Judah and of Israel.
Isaiah wrote that “a branch from his roots shall bear fruit, and the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him.” It is out of tumult, suffering, death, hardship that God really produces true Christians: people who believe and trust in the words of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus Christ, the holy seed, was perfectly faithful, in contrast to Judah and Jerusalem’s unfaithfulness. They produce not only His resurrection, but the resurrection of all believers in the coming of the new heavens and the new earth.
The branch will bring with him gifts of the Holy Spirit: that is, to those who believe, who have ears to hear and eyes to see. The branch brings relief to the poor. To the meek of the earth, they will be well cared for. And the wicked shall be slain by the breath of his mouth — that is, by his very words. “And 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.” Some translations have “wicked one.”
The branch shoots forth unexpectedly, and does so when all hope is lost. As they would look out among the field of all the stumps of the trees, all dead from fire, razed to the ground — God attaches His word of promise to that which seems most hopeless of all. Nations come and nations go. Empires rise and empires fall. But the church, the true believers, the word of God, the kingdom of heaven remain forever. For God’s word remains forever.
A Lutheran commentator wrote this regarding the stem of Jesse: “Out of the stem of Jesse, out of the dead stock, the stump of the former proud tree of the house of David, a branch will grow out of its roots. And the rootstock, being all that was left of the former grandeur of David’s house — the renewal of his family by this scion” — which, by the way, I learned is a fancy word for offshoot. So the offshoot of the stump would indeed be a miracle itself.
The outcast of Israel, the dispersed of Judah, the Gentiles, and the forsaken will all also be brought near to God by the coming of the root of Jesse. On the other side, the righteous — he shall judge and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. And he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth. With the breath of his lips, his words which bear almighty power, he shall slay the wicked — overthrowing the power of Satan here in time, and revealing his true character by the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. His last condemnation being reserved for the final judgment of Judgment Day.
With His first advent, Jesus came to pay for the sins of the world. Our sins have been forgiven. Your sins have been forgiven. The sin of the world has been paid for in the first coming. With the second coming of Christ, the new heavens and the new earth: the wolf and the lamb will lie down together. Today, Isaiah is pointing us to Christ as the fulfillment of the prophecy and the answer to our prayer. Christ is both the shoot and the root. Jesus is the shoot from the stump of Jesse — the shoot springing up from what looked like a dead stump of the Davidic line. Yet Jesus is the one who brings life out of death. The cross and the tomb: our Lord and Savior rises to bring us life again. And this shoot from the stump of Jesse is also the life-producing root. Christ, the Son of God, is the origin and source of the line of kings that lead to the King of Kings: a new and greater David, who brings an even greater kingdom than the kingdoms of this world. A kingdom that extends even to the Gentiles — to you and to me. An everlasting kingdom that will include all of those who hope in Christ their Savior.
You see, the cross of Christ is in fact your tree of life. What was death for Him is life for you. Amen.
May the peace that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.