World Peace, At Last! - Isaiah 11 & Others

In 1516, Sir Thomas More wrote a book about an imaginary island where everyone lived together in peace and harmony.  The government ruled over the people with justice and fairness and equity.  It was a perfect place, with no poverty or suffering.  Everyone’s needs were met, hunger was extinct, pain and heartache were unknown.  Thomas More made up the name of his island from two Greek words: ou meaning no or not, and topos meaning place.  Combine the two and you get the word Utopia.  Interpreted literally, the word means no place.

Utopia was a fictional place at the time of More’s writing, and it still is.  It doesn’t exist, and most people think it never will.  The word utopia has come to mean “An ideally perfect place, especially in its social, political, and moral aspects.”  A utopian society is one that can only be hoped for but never actually realized.  When we speak of Utopia today, we are talking about an idyllic place where everything is right and good.  But we understand there really is no Utopia in reality.

At least not yet.

Today we are going to talk about the answer to everyone’s prayers: universal peace.  “Peace on Earth.”  Some might think of it as Utopia.  But the Utopia we are speaking of today is a real place.  It is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ who is Himself the Prince of Peace.  Turn with me to Isaiah 11.

1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. 
2 And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. 
3 And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.  He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, 
4 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. 
5 Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.
6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. 
7 The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 
8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den. 
9 They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
10 In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.

Several weeks ago, we were looking at Isaiah 4, verse two, and we were introduced to this terminology which refers to the coming Messiah of Israel as the Branch.  We looked at a number of passages which made it clear that this Branch, which we read of once again here in chapter 11, is a particular Person whom we know to be the Lord Jesus Christ.  

In verse 1 of chapter 11, Isaiah speaks of a shoot and a branch that will come from the stump of Jesse.  From our studies in Sunday School in the book of 1 Samuel, we know that Jesse is the father of King David.  Isaiah is telling us here that first, the kingly Davidic line will be all but destroyed.  The “family tree” will be cut down because Jerusalem is going to be destroyed.  There will be no king in Israel.  In the not-too-distant future, Babylon will come and the southern kingdom of Judah will be destroyed.

Later, after a period of 70 years, the survivors of the Babylonian Captivity will be sent back to rebuild Jerusalem, and rebuild the Temple.  But there will be no Jewish King.  All that will remain of the line of David is a stump, the memory of God’s promises to continue David’s line forever.  This is the way Isaiah illustrates what God will do to His rebellious people.  But one day, at some point in the future, God will cause that stump of Jesse to sprout.  The line of David will once again produce an offspring, another King over Israel.  Look at verse 2:

2 And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. 
3 And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.  He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, 
4 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. 
5 Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.

Look at how this future King is described!  He is most definitely NOT like the kings Israel has had in the past.  The northern kingdom of Israel never had a godly king, and Judah had very few.  But this future King will be different:  The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.  

What effect will the Spirit of the Lord have upon Him?  Look at the text.  Verse 2 tells us this King will be wise and understanding.  He will rule over His people as a Wonderful Counselor and with might and power from God.  In fact, according to what Isaiah said back in chapter 9, verse 6, the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  This King, this shoot from the stump of Jesse whom God will send is God!

He will need no one to inform Him because He will have the knowledge of the Spirit of God.  He will reign in the fear of the Lord, doing everything according to the purposes of God, performing all His will.  

Verse 3 tells us He will DELIGHT in doing God’s will.  That will be a change!  And the Spirit of God will be upon Him in such a manner that He will not need to depend upon what He can see with His eyes or hear with His ears.  He will have all wisdom and all knowledge inherently, because of the Spirit of God who is upon Him to do everything exactly as it ought to be done.  This is the Person whom John the Baptist saw when the Spirit of God descended upon Him and remained upon Him.

Isaiah says in verse 4 this future King will do everything right, both in a positive sense and in a negative sense.  Positively, He will judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth.  The poor and the helpless will be cared for and defended by Him.  The needy will be needy no longer, and the meek will receive the protection of an all-powerful King.

On the negative side, at least from some peoples’ perspectives, he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.  His word alone will be sufficient to destroy those who oppose Him.  All He will need to do is speak, and the wicked will be no more.  Righteousness and faithfulness, or in other words, perpetual adherence to the will and purposes of God by this King will be the foundation of this future Kingdom.  

In other words, the fiction of Utopia will become reality.  Peace, safety, harmony, justice, righteousness, and the end of all wickedness will come from an all-wise, all-powerful, Spirit-filled King.  This King is the Messiah the Jews looked for, and are still looking for today.  At least some of them are.  But they have no idea the King which will spring up from the stump of Jesse is the Man whom they demanded to be crucified at the hands of the Romans.  

But there is something else about this King which has been unanticipated by the Jews, both past and present.  Two thousand years ago, the people of Israel were looking for a King to come and re-establish David’s throne in Israel.  God’s people longed for the day when they would be a kingdom unto themselves once again and they would no longer be in subjection to the Gentile nations that surrounded them.  But notice in the following verses the extent of the Kingdom of the coming Messiah:

6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. 
7 The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 
8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den. 
9 They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

As you can imagine, there are a lot of ways this text could be, and has been interpreted.  If we understand this correctly, the world as we have known it will be fundamentally changed.  The natural world, including the animal kingdom, will be affected positively by the coming of the King of Israel.  Animal Planet will have all new episodes to film!  

Here we read about wolves and lambs, leopards and goats all lying down together.  Formerly carnivorous animals will co-exist with animals that used to be their food!  Last night, I had a very strange dream.  I’m not sure what I ate before going to bed, and I realize it is not necessarily wise to talk much about one’s own dreams, especially from the pulpit.  But my dream only serves as a really timely sermon illustration, and no more.  This is not prophecy.  Don’t try to read anything into this.  It’s just an illustration.  So relax. 

I dreamed, and thankfully it was a very brief dream, that I was in the woods.  I was climbing a small hill, and as I reached the top and looked over it, I saw a very large bear several hundred feet away.  Thankfully, it was preoccupied with digging something out of an old tree.  But what I remember most vividly about this dream was my reaction to the sight of that bear: instantaneous fear.  In my dream, I was terrified!  I knew I was in danger of being eaten if that bear saw me or smelled me.  I was not at all inclined to approach this bear and pet him and scratch his ears.  On the contrary, I immediately slid full speed ahead back down the hill I had just climbed and jumped into my truck.  I don’t actually own a truck, but there was one waiting for me at the bottom of the hill, and I claimed it as my own.  Bears and people are not woodland companions, frolicking together through the meadows, smelling the flowers.  They are enemies.

Some commentators understand the predatory animals in this passage to refer to the Gentile nations, and the domestic animals as the people of Israel.  They may be right.  It could be that there is a figurative meaning in these words that had an immediate application to the people of Israel which they understood at the time Isaiah wrote these words.  I suspect that was the case.  The Jews of Isaiah’s day most likely interpreted these lions and bears and wolves to be their mortal enemies, the Gentile nations: Assyria, Syria, Babylon, etc.

But there is no reason to believe this passage must only be figurative.  I believe it could easily be correctly interpreted in both a figurative and a literal sense.  In Romans 8, the apostle Paul writes these words, and I think there is a connection to Isaiah’s words.  Paul says:

19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

This is a very curious passage.  There is an anticipation on the part of all creation to see the revealing of the sons,  or the children of God.  At some point in the past, something happened to the physical creation which resulted in it being subjected to decay and futility.  But when the sons of God are revealed, that bondage to decay and death will be broken.  This universal condition that negatively affects the entire universe will somehow be undone at that future time when the sons of God are revealed. 

Paul says here that “The whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.”  What does this mean?  At the very least, it means the universe as we know it now is not what the universe will one day be.  If the whole created order somehow groans like a woman in labor about to give birth, what is it that creation is giving birth to?  And secondly, in keeping with the imagery of childbirth, what happens immediately after the birth of a child?  What does a new mother do when her child is delivered?  What will happen when this creation that has been in slavery to decay is finally set free from that bondage?

What Paul is speaking of is the birth of the new heavens and the new earth.  A new universe in which righteousness dwells, in which there is rest and deliverance from the labor pains of childbirth.  The apostle Peter also speaks of this new world order and refers to it with these words:

10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. 11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.  (2 Peter 3:10-13, ESV)

Peter says here that God has made a promise of new heavens and a new earth.  Where did he get that idea?  He got that from reading the prophet Isaiah.  Turn with me quickly to Isaiah chapter 65:

17 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. 
18 But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. 
19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. 
20 No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed. 
21 They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 
22 They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. 
23 They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity, for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord, and their descendants with them. 
24 Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear. 
25 The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent's food.  They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,” says the Lord. 

In this new heavens and new earth, wolves and lambs, lions and oxen will live together.  And snakes will still eat dirt.  That’s all the explanation I can give you for that.  But what once was dangerous and deadly will no longer be so.  There will be nothing that hurts or destroys or eats people wandering through the woods.  

Does this mean there will be animals in Heaven?  Will young men die at age 100 in Heaven?  Or is this talking about the time of Christ’s reign of 1000 years on the earth which we read about in the book of Revelation?  And after that we enter into Heaven, the eternal kingdom?  

I don’t know for sure.  Lots of people for lots of years have argued over the timing of these events and the meaning of these verses.  I am very wary of those who would have us believe they understand all these things and can explain it precisely with wall charts and time lines.  But I’m fairly confident we’ll all eventually find out exactly what ALL of these things mean.  

For now, one thing is certain: Isaiah, and Paul, and Peter all write about the new world to come for two reasons.  First, these things are written to encourage the godly.  The day is coming when the King of the Jews will return, all suffering will cease, and all the enemies of God will be no more.  

When Christ, the root of Jesse, comes again, He will come, not just for Israel.  People from all the nations of the earth shall be gathered to Him and inquire of Him.  He will be the solitary focus of their attention.  In Isaiah 11, verse 10, we read this:

10 In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.

When the Lord returns in His great glory, all the nations of the earth will mourn!  Why?  Because it is the day of Christ’s judgment upon the world.  But it is also the day of the revealing of the sons of God when He gathers all of His people from among the nations and they finally enter into their rest.  The entire creation will finally enjoy rest from the bondage to decay brought on by sin.  And notice how Isaiah describes the resting place of the Lord: His resting place shall be glorious.  

His people will rest, the creation itself will be done with its groanings from the effects of sin, and both heaven and earth will be made new.  Everything will be new.  Thomas More’s Utopia will have finally arrived and everything, absolutely everything, will be right because the righteous One will reign over all.

The second reason we read about the coming of Christ and the new world is in order to warn the wicked.  The Bible calls all men everywhere to repent of their sin and trust in the work of Jesus Christ as the sacrifice of God for sin.  There is a final day approaching.  Every man will answer to God and give an account for his life.  Not everyone will enjoy the new world to come.  Those who have trusted in Christ alone will be invited by Him to share in the joy of His kingdom.  Those who have not will be judged according to God’s Law and found wanting.  For them, there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

What is your hope of Heaven?   When that final day comes, everyone on earth will respond in one of two ways: Either with great joy, or with great agony.  The one anticipates living forever as a son of God with the King of Glory in the new heavens and the new earth.  The other dreads the wrath of God for sins which were never repented of; Sins which were cherished more than the forgiveness of God by means of repentance and faith in Christ.

Jesus said it this way:

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.  For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”  (Matthew 7:13-14, ESV)