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2) PEACE ON EARTH
In Isaiah 11, the image of the Messiah as a righteous judge is presented in the first five verses. “With righteousness shall he judge the poor and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.” When has there ever been a ruler upon whom “the spirit of Yahweh” and “the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and fear of Yahweh,” rested?
Some Christians apply this to Yeshua and his place at his Father’s right hand. This does not fit in with the following verses(6-9). “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them…the lion shall eat straw like the ox…they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Yahweh as the waters cover the sea.” (Isa 11:9, Numbers 14-21, Hab.2-14)
Such a spiritual application cannot be made to the present world and the role of Christianity. Isaiah is depicting a change of state in the animal kingdom and also speaks of a human element with the mention of children.
If we think that the remnant that returned refers to the return of the Jews to the land of Israel after the Babylonian captivity, Isaiah clarifies this point for us. In verse 11 of chapter 11, Isaiah states, “the Lord shall set his hand again the SECOND time to recover the remnant of his people,” from many nations and from “the islands of the sea.” In the past sixty years we have seen this second return of the Jews to their homeland. They were not gathered out of one nation as in the case of the Babylonian captivity but they have been, in actual fact, gathered out of many nations and speak many languages. The revival of Hebrew as their national language is an attempt to revive the spirit of their national past.
In these few chapters Isaiah has begun to establish a future vision for the nation of Israel, which cannot be seen to have occurred up to this point in time in the history of man on this earth. This is truly an amazing book of the Bible which reveals that Yahweh has a magnificent plan for Jew and Gentile on this planet, a planet that was truly designed for man and to ultimately reflect the glory of Yahweh, its creator.
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