Isaiah 11–12

Isaiah is where we are tonight, chapter 11 and you know, it's a real delight for me to teach through these 2 chapters in Isaiah because these are chapters that speak of events that have yet to be fulfilled and that's always kind of fun. You know, I've heard people say that there's nothing in the Old Testament that is yet unfulfilled and that couldn't be further from the truth. I think a lot of people have believed that lie and they've actually kept away from a study of the Old Testament because they feel like, well, it's, you know, old events, it's the mosaic law, it's prophecies that have to do with nations that I don't even know if exist anymore and everything that is foretold in the Old Testament has come to pass. Well, it has not and we're going to see that tonight. There are several things, in fact, what we're going to be talking about this evening is a period of time in human history that we have called the Millennial Kingdom. And the reason we call it that is because it speaks of a 1,000 year period of time, and again, this is yet future, when Christ will physically return to the earth and rule and reign from Jerusalem over the whole world. This is spoken of in several places in the Bible, it is specifically given the idea of a 1,000 year reign in the Book of Revelation, but it is spoken about many times in the Old Testament and New. And this is one of the passages tonight here in Isaiah, in fact, chapters 11 and 12 both speak of the Millennial Kingdom. For those of you who might be a little unsure of the timeline of events regarding how the last day's events kind of progress, I want to put on the screen for you kind of a timeline that I created quite a while back. If you look at it from left to right, you'll notice that it begins on the left by talking about the Church age and that is where we are now, we are in the Church age. The Church age began when really the, I believe when the Spirit fell on the assembled believers in Acts chapter 2, and we are in it to this day. And we will be in the Church age until the next great last day's event takes place, and you'll see that on this guideline, it's the rapture of the church.

So the next event in prophecy is that Christ will be returning for His bride and the Bible says in Thessalonians that we will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Now, some people confuse the rapture with the second coming, they are different events as I'll show you. The rapture of the church is when the church meets the Lord in the air. That then ushers in or begins a 7 year period of great difficulty on the earth that is referred to as the Great Tribulation and that will be a terrible time on the earth. It will be a great time in heaven because the church will have been raptured away with the Lord and we'll be enjoying the Marriage Supper of the Lamb during that time. And then after that 7 years is completed, Christ is going to return to the earth and the church is going to come with Him. We'll talk about that more, but this is what we refer to as the Second coming of Jesus. The Second coming of Jesus begins with Jesus literally returning to the earth with a battle called Armageddon. And then if you look again at the timeline that we have there, you'll see that we begin a period which you can see now that's in that blue arrow area and I've circled it in red for you. This is a period of time after the battle of Armageddon, when Christ begins to rule, Satan is bound for a period of 1,000 years and Jesus Christ rules on the earth. And it will be an unprecedented time of peace and prosperity, we'll talk about it, we'll see some prophecies about it tonight. Now, at the end of that 1,000 year period, the Book of Revelation tells us that Satan will be released for one final rebellion, he will be quickly put down. Then comes the White Throne Judgment, which is the final judgment and then a new heaven and a new earth are created and then we enter into eternity. So that is essentially the timeline that is given to us in the scripture and we're going to again tonight be focusing on that area, that 1,000 year period called the Millennial Reign of Christ. Now, I want you to notice in verse 1 of chapter 11, it begins by saying,

(ESV) Now, remember, Jesse was the father of King David. So, this is obviously saying that there will come someone from the lineage of David and it tells us that it says,

All right. So the fact that the Messiah is, as we see here in verse 1, coming from a stump, tells us that the tree, or if you will, the line or the lineage of David is going to be cut down, but not cut off. In other words, this picture of this tree that Isaiah is painting for us through the Lord, he speaks of this line of kings that is going to be cut off and that's what's happening right now. That lineage of Davidic kings is cut off, we don't have anyone in the human lineage of David that is on a human throne right now in the world. However, the stump was left, the land wasn't cleared, the stump was left, it remains and from that stump, we're told that a branch or a shoot is going to spring up and it's going to bear fruit. Have you ever seen a shoot come up from a stump? Funny, you know, you take a tree out because you think it's all dead or something like that, and you leave the stump there for a period of time, and lo and behold, there's some shoots that are coming out of it, and they start to have leaves on them, and you're like, where in the world did those come from? I thought this tree was dead. Well, the same thing could be said of the lineage of David or the kings that were prophesied to come from the lineage of David. People may look at that stump and say, well, that's never going to happen again, but it's alive and there will spring forth from that stump a shoot and this is talking about Messiah rising up to rule and reign. Verse 2, it says,

So we're told here in verse 2, that the Spirit of the Lord rests upon Messiah. And, you know, it sounds to you and I like kind of a no brainer, you know, well, we know Jesus to be the Lord. So it seems like, well, duh, of course the Spirit of the Lord is going to be upon Him,

He is the Lord, but God is eliminating all ambiguity here as to who Messiah is. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him and He begins to speak of the attributes. Notice they're defined here: the Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit understanding, the Spirit of counsel, the Spirit of power or might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And so, since these are attributes of the Spirit, these attributes are also of Messiah as well. Now, the earthly rule of Messiah during the millennium is now going to be described for us beginning in verse 3. We're going to learn here from these prophecies what that earthly rule is going to be like. It says,

And that's, you know, speaking of when Christ returns. It's giving you some of the elements of how His rule will take place, how it will manifest. It will begin by striking the wicked and then He will rule in righteousness. I want you to notice here, it says that Messiah will not rule according to what He sees or what He hears, isn't that interesting? That's all we have to go on when we rule in a situation or in a case, have you ever thought about that? When I'm trying to make a discernment on something, I mean, I basically have my eyes in my ears. I see, I hear, I try to put together the information or the evidence based on that, but it says that Messiah is not going to make decisions or determinations based on any superficial sort of evidence or understanding. He is going to judge with perfect righteousness and the Bible uses the word in this verse, equity. There will be equity, and that means fairness for all. Isn't it funny, we want things to be fair, little kids understand the concept of fairness. If you take a candy bar and you break it in half and you give 2 squares to one kid and you give 8 squares to the other kid, the kid that got the 2 is going to look at it and say that's not fair, isn't that funny? We understand fairness, but the world that we live in is rarely fair, we rarely see things in a balanced and equitable sort of a thing, but yet we understand fairness. Well, the Bible says here, that when Messiah rules and reigns on the earth, there will be complete fairness. Nobody is going to say, that's not fair, because everything will be completely fair. Isn't that wild, to even think about that happening. Verse 5 goes on, and it uses a figurative statement, it says,

And again, that is figurative, but it is saying that righteousness will be a central and integral part of His earthly rule and it will characterize all that He does. Now, how far reaching is His rule going to change the world? Look what it goes on to say in verse 6, this is fascinating.

Wow, this is amazing, but in this section of verses, verses 6 through 9, we learn here that the rule of Messiah during the Millennial Kingdom brings with it so much more than just an improved political and social leadership. You see in these verses that there is a fundamental change that is coming to the operational norms of this world as we know it and those changes are so profound, they even affect the animal kingdom. To the degree that predators, well, animals that we know today as predators, will no longer prey on other animals that they used to attack and eat for food. It will stop happening during the Millennial Kingdom. Animals, we're told, that are predators, will return to a vegetarian diet, which we assume they were in or were, you know, partaking in prior to the introduction of sin when it came into the world. And you'll notice that it says that in verse 7, that the lion is going to eat straw like the ox. Can you imagine? A lion eating on, or subsisting on a vegetarian diet, what a sight that is going to be. But it says that animals that used to be very, very dangerous will not be dangerous at all. Talks about the nursing child playing around the hole of a cobra or playing, and the child who's just a little bit older than that, just barely weaned, is going to put his hand into a snake's nest, but it's not going to be a problem. The parents aren't going to worry because there will be no harming of people during the Millennial Kingdom. So again, this is more than just setting up a much better rule of government than we've ever seen before. This is not like the best possible human government that we could ever think of turned up 10 notches. This is a fundamental change of life as we know it and there's going to be peace that will reign during the Millennial Kingdom. Peace, peace. But you know, that really shouldn't surprise us, should it? I mean, who is Jesus? He's the Prince of Peace, you know, we're told, let me show you this. We're told back in Isaiah chapter 9 verse 7,

--- Isaiah 9:7 (ESV)

… So, we were told already of the increase of His government and the peace that comes from that government. There will be no end and this will obviously extend to the human population as well, men will be at peace. Do you remember what we read back in Isaiah chapter 2? Let me put this also on the screen for you. Isaiah chapter 2, look at verse 4. It says that, Isaiah 2:4 (ESV)

. He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; (and they're going to get to the point where they're actually going to take their implements of war and they're going to turn them into implements of agriculture, it says)

. Now, compare that with one of the signs that leads up to the coming of the Lord. Didn't Jesus tell us that there will be wars and rumors of wars, nation against nation, and kingdom against kingdom? (Matthew 24:6-7) That's what leads us up to the coming of Messiah. But in the Millennial Kingdom, nation will not rise up against nation any longer. Can you imagine taking like a ballistic missile and turning it into a something used for agriculture, you know, blows me away. It goes on in verse 10, “In that day the root of Jesse, (and we know again, well, who we're talking about) who shall stand as a signal (your Bible may say a banner) for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.” So it speaks of this banner or signal of the Messiah and that speaks of, when it talks about a banner or a signal it's speaking of a way of rallying the nations to come and to receive what the Messiah is giving. And in this case, it's a call for people to come for understanding, for insight, for reconciliation.

There will be a banner, there will be a call to all peoples that will be on the earth at the time and by the way, people get confused about this. I had a guy write me a few weeks back and he said, you know, “I was listening to your teachings through Revelation and you were talking about the fact that there's going to be people living on the earth in the Millennial Kingdom who are mortal.” He said, “I was under the understanding that the entire population of the world will be destroyed during the Great Tribulation.” That is not true. There will be people who will survive the Great Tribulation, many Jews, by the way. But many, many people will survive the Great Tribulation, many will be lost as well. But these are the people that we're talking about who are now invited to come to hear the goodness and the grace of God. Verse 11, “In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant…” Now this is talking, when it talks about the remnant, it's talking about the remnant of Jews that are remaining upon the earth after the tribulation and now going into the Millennial Kingdom. And it says the Lord is going to extend his hand to them and it says He will “11 …recover the remnant that remains of his people, (and wherever they may be, whether it's) from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.” And it says, “12He will raise a signal (and again that could be a banner and maybe in your Bible) for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.” The Lord is going to extend an invitation at that time during the Millennial Kingdom for the Jews who've been scattered around the world to return home to Israel. And it says here in verse 13, that all the things that used to plague Israel in the past will not plague them during this time. It says in verse 13, “The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart, and those who harass Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah, and Judah shall not harass Ephraim.” All right, this speaks of the healing that is going to come, the healing of the rift between the 2 kingdoms of Israel. It is a rift that separated them into 2 kingdoms; the Northern kingdom, which retained the name of Israel and the Southern kingdom, which retained the name Judah, named after the largest of the tribes in that region. And here, the Northern kingdom of Israel is referred to as Ephraim, but it says that the harassment and the jealousy that used to characterize the relationship between the Northern kingdom and the Southern kingdom, will be completely a thing of the past. ---

Verse 14, “But they shall swoop down on the shoulder of the Philistines in the west, and together they shall plunder the people of the east. …” Now this speaks again, we've just gone back in time just a little bit during that period of time at the end of the Great Tribulation, when the enemies of Israel are destroyed. And it says, “14 …They shall put out their hand against Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites shall obey them. 15 And the Lord will utterly destroy the tongue of the Sea of Egypt, and will wave his hand over the River with his scorching breath, and strike it into seven channels, (speaking of the Nile being broken up into seven streams so that people can literally wade across it by foot and it says here) and he will lead people across in sandals.” And finally, verse 16 says, “And there will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant that remains of his people, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.” And once again, this is speaking of the Jews who have been scattered away, away from their homeland and it's telling us that God is going to provide a means of bringing the Jews back home. So you can see a lot already in this one chapter that characterizes the Millennial Kingdom, that 1,000 year period of time when unprecedented peace will rule upon the earth. Peace after that time of warfare that closes out the Great Tribulation. Now Isaiah chapter 12 is a short chapter, but it continues to speak of the time period that we're in right now, or we're talking about right now, which is the Millennial Kingdom. And what this chapter is really, it's really kind of similar to a Psalm because it speaks here of the joy that will belong to Israel during the time of the Millennial Kingdom. But I need to take you, for just a moment, before we read this chapter, I need to take you back in time because you need to understand that before the joy comes to Israel, there will be a time of great mourning, and a time of great pain, and a time of great regret and that is going to happen when Israel recognizes her Messiah. You see at the conclusion of the Great Tribulation, the Bible tells us that the nations of the world under the leadership of the anti-Christ will come against Israel to destroy her and it will look very much like they are about to succeed. And at that very desperate time, the Lord will return and He will return specifically to the Mount of Olives and He will fight on behalf of Israel and He will put down the enemies that came against Israel at that time. And Israel will then recognize Jesus as their long awaited Messiah, but they will also recognize that He is the one that they rejected when He came the first time. They will mourn for the fact that they gave up so much, that they refused in their stubbornness to believe God's purpose and plan and there will be a time of great mourning. Now, this is outlined for us in some various passages in the Old Testament, a couple of which are in the Book of Zechariah. I want to show you the first one from Zechariah chapter 12, listen to this.

And on that day I will seek to destroy (this is the Lord talking) all the nations that come against Jerusalem. “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, (they will call to the Lord for mercy and He will respond) so that, (look at this) when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, (speaking of His crucifixion) they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. On that day the mourning in Jerusalem… Will be great, but it is also going to bring about a collective turning of the people to Messiah. Look at this simple verse in the very next chapter. The very first verse says,

Isn't that amazing? So after that time of deliverance of the Lord delivering Jerusalem and all of against all her enemies and after this time of great mourning and weeping and regret, there will be a time that will then begin to bring rejoicing. Why? Because God is going to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness. In other words, they are going to receive by faith, salvation through Jesus Christ. Paul talks about this in Romans. He talks about the fact that at that time, all Israel will be saved. All Israel that who remain on the earth at that time, at the conclusion of the Great Tribulation, they will be saved. That remnant of Jews will be saved because they will see their Messiah and again, they will see Him whom they had pierced or crucified. And He will, and they, in their brokenness, they will receive Him and He will cleanse them from their sin. So now comes this time of great rejoicing because they're cleansed. Look at verse 1 of Isaiah chapter 12,

And so the Jews at that time are going to be very aware that God's deliverance came to them at a time when they least deserved it and they had every, you know, they deserved every bit of God's wrath. And yet Jesus came to deliver them from their enemies. Because remember, the Jews are going to embrace the anti-Christ and that's at the very beginning of the Great Tribulation period. After the church is taken away, the Jews are going to reach out to the anti-Christ, and they're going to believe him to be their Messiah. But halfway through the tribulation, he's going to turn against them, and begin to slaughter them, and begin to create all kinds of laws, and he's going to demand their worship as if he were God. So, they're going to realize, we didn't deserve for you to come and deliver us, Lord, because we thought the anti-Christ was the Messiah, and we threw our lot in with him. So, and Israel will say at that time, look at verse 2,

This is some of what they're going to be singing during the Millennial Kingdom after God delivers them after Jesus cleanses them of their sin. And it says in verse 3, that

Isn't that beautiful? There's going to be great joy among the Jews at that time as they turn to Christ for the forgiveness of sins. And the last 3 verses of the chapter will be a song that is offered up by the Jews living at that time. He says,

Oh, they're going to just be so delighted, the Holy One of Israel will now be there. He will be on the throne on Mount Zion, He will be ruling and reigning over the whole world and the promise that God had made to Israel will have finally been fulfilled that Israel will be the flower of the nations.

Now, one of the big questions that is often asked, and I get this question pretty often is, where's the church during this time? I mean, it's like, okay, so you say the church was raptured before the time of the Great Tribulation, or right about the time when the anti-Christ is revealed, the church is taken away and then the Lord returns 7 years later to the earth, fights for Israel. Where's the church? Where are those of us who are believers during this time? Because obviously these passages speak of the joy and the salvation of Israel, they're not speaking of the joy and the salvation of the church. So, you know, and the reason that they don't speak of the church is because the church isn't mentioned in the Old Testament. By the way, there are some people who very much dislike it when I say that. I've gotten notes in the past from people when I say, the church isn't in the Old Testament. Oh, I tell you, some people take great offense at me saying that and they're very upset. But I think what they hear me saying is that there's nothing for the church in the Old Testament and that's not what I'm saying at all. The Old Testament is full of things for the church, that's why we're studying through it right now. What I'm saying is that, the church, which is God's people made up of Jew and Gentile, in fact, Jew and Gentile together, right? In fact, there is no longer Jew or Gentile in the church. In the church, as Paul tells us in the New Testament, that God has broken down the dividing wall of hostility and Jew and Gentile don't exist in terms of their distinctiveness and the distinctions that separated them. (Ephesians 2:14) That's not mentioned in the Old Testament, that's not revealed in the Old Testament. Now, the new covenant that we are under is revealed in the Old Testament but the unique relationship that Jew and Gentile have together as one, being God's people under the rule of Christ, that's not mentioned in the Old Testament, it's a mystery. And so, where is the church then? Where is the church when all these things are happening as prophesied in Isaiah chapters 11 and 12? Well, remember who the church is, the church is the bride of Christ, right? Well, so where is the church going to be during this time? It's going to be right alongside her groom where every good bride ought to be standing with and coming alongside as a helpmate to her groom. The church will return with Christ. When Jesus Christ returns in His second coming, we will return with Him to the earth and we will be by His side and we will rule and reign with Him and be with Him that whole time and forevermore. So that's where the bride will be.

So that's where we're going to end our study this evening in Isaiah chapters 11 and 12 as we talk about the Millennial Kingdom. I know this might bring up a lot of questions, if you have questions, go ahead and email me and we can talk about it and we can discuss it further. But great and wonderful prophetic insights that we get from the scripture related to this season, this time to come, this age of this Millennial Kingdom that is to come. Remember, we're in the church age right now, and we will remain in the church age up to the point of the rapture. Then we have the Great Tribulation, and then we have the Millennial Kingdom, and then we have the time of eternity that begins with the new heaven and the new earth being recreated or created anew, merging together, as it tells us in Revelation and then God is, God's home is with man.