Isaiah 11:10-16

DRAMATIC DELIVERANCE

TEXT: Isaiah 11:10-16

10

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the root of Jesse, that standeth for an ensign of the peoples, unto him shall the nations seek; and his resting-place shall be glorious.

11

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord will set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, that shall remain, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.

12

And he will set up an ensign for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

13

The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and they that vex Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.

14

And they shall fly down upon the shoulder of the Philistines on the west; together shall they despoil the children of the east; they shall put forth their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them.

15

And Jehovah will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his scorching wind will he wave his hand over the River, and will smite it into seven streams, and cause men to march over dryshod.

16

And there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people that shall remain, from Assyria; like as there was for Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.

QUERIES

a.

Who are the peoples to whom the root of Jesse shall be an ensign?

b.

Why mention the disappearance of envy between Ephraim and Judah?

c.

What is the highway for the remnant?

PARAPHRASE

In that day He who fulfilled the royal dynasty of David will be a banner of salvation to all the world. The nations will rally to Him, for His dwelling place will be glory! In that day the Lord will again deliver a remnant of His people remaining in Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath and the islands of the sea. He will raise a standard among the nations for them to rally to and He will gather the covenant people from all over the earth. The enmity between all peoples will disappear; especially the jealousy between Israel and Judah will end. All together God's people will assault the enemies of God, conquer them and bring them under God's rule. God will destroy every obstacle that stands in the way to deliverance. He will provide a Divine Way upon which they may travel to deliverance from their bondage.

COMMENTS

Isaiah 11:10-13 RALLYING POLESTAR: This first section speaks of the dramatic way in which the Branch, the Messiah, will be a rallying polestar. He will bring together those that were separated through strife and schism. The glory of the Lord manifested in the Messiah will be the polestar. A literal translation of the word glorious in Isaiah 11:10 would be glory. It is the Hebrew noun kovod and not the adjective. The word became flesh and dwelt (tabernacled) among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. (John 1:14) God's resting-place is where He has settled down to rule. As the Tabernacle and Temple of the O.T. had the glory of God dwelling in them, so the glory of God now rules and dwells in the Church through Christ (Cf. Isa. 6:19; Isaiah 44:5; Isaiah 55:5; Zechariah 2:4-5).

Around this glory, which would be a Person, men of all nations would gather in unity. Barriers of hatred and separation would be broken down (Cf. Ephesians 2:11-22, etc.). Gentile and Jew would be at peace (Cf. Zechariah 9:9-10).

The great scandal in the history of God's covenant people was the division caused by envy and jealousy. It happened first in the original family with Cain and Abel. It was repeated over and over and occurred even in the theocracy between Jeroboam and Rehoboam. In fact, Jeroboam is known as the man who caused Israel to sin. Involved in this schism in Israel was an apostasy, a complete rejection on the part of the northern tribes of the promises which had been made to the house of David. God sent prophets throughout the subsequent history of the apostate nation, to call it to repentance and to point it to the Messiah who alone could heal the breach. The prophets delight to picture as one of the blessings of the Messianic age the healing of the breach between the northern and southern kingdoms (Cf. Ezekiel 37:15-28). In Christ all national, sectional and regional distinctions will be abolished. The Messiah is the true Polestar of unity.

Isaiah 11:14-16 RANSOMED POSSESSION: This true unity does not hide itself in cringing self-defense, expecting attack. It takes the offensive; the enemies of the Messiah must be conquered. In the strength of unity which the Polestar (Messiah) gives, the ransomed (both Gentile and Jew in one body) fly upon the enemy (here represented by the Philistines, Edom, Moab and Ammon) and conquer them. What Isaiah is describing here cannot be understood in a literal sense. It is a picture of the evangelizing of the world by missionaries and Christians all over the world-'. The glorious hope here held out for God's unified people does not consist in a literal despoliation of nomad Arabs of the desert. It rather consists in the glorious task of making the saving power of God known even to those who are enemies of God in expectation of rescuing them from the kingdom of Satan and delivering them to the kingdom of His dear Son. Elton Trueblood has said that a people trying to be a remnant, keeping itself pure and undefiled in the midst of a wicked world, may reveal a certain nobility of character, but it is radically different from the pattern taught by Christ. The wonder of heaven is that it is effective, not by keeping itself separate from the world, but rather by penetrating the world. God's Messianic people (the Church) must conquer or be conquered!

As remarkable as the unity of God's remnant is, the secret of their victory is that the Lord fights for them. Two great obstacles of the ancient world, the tongue of the Red Sea and the Euphrates River, vividly blocked the ancient covenant people from their homeland. In figurative expression Isaiah depicts the supernatural power of God removing obstacles that stand in the way of the remnant's conquests. The greatest of all obstacles to the ransomed ones possessing the nations for God are spiritual obstacles such as lack of love, lack of motive, division, etc. Jesus promised the disciples that if they had faith as a grain of mustard seed they could say to any mountainous obstacle, be removed and it would be removed into the deepest sea. Jesus was speaking, of course, of spiritual obstacles.

Not only will God remove the obstacles, He will provide The Way for dramatic, supernatural deliverance. Isaiah is not speaking primarily of the return from Babylonian exile, although that may be the type of the ultimate deliverance. Rather he is thinking of a deliverance so great that it can only be performed by God and it is for all nations. God will provide The Way to bring mankind up out of the house of spiritual bondage and prison of sin, That Way is the Messiah (John 14:6), (Cf. also Isaiah 42:16; Isaiah 43:19; Isaiah 48:21; Isaiah 49:11; Isaiah 35:1-10). For further comments on the remnant possessing its enemies see our comments on Obadiah 1:20 and Amos 9:11-12 in Minor Prophets, by Butler, College Press.

QUIZ

1.

What is meant by the resting-place shall be glorious?

2.

Who is the ensign to the nations?

3.

What was to be accomplished by setting up this ensign?

4.

What is to be the effort of the ransomed remnant?

5.

How does God help in the effort of the remnant?