A Shoot Springs Up

The Gospel According to Isaiah: Discovering the Blessed Hope of the Evangelist-Prophet

Part Three: “A Shoot Springs Up”

1. Introduction: A New Light Dawns

We left off last week noting that God’s promise to save his people will not be thwarted by the unbelief of apostates such as Ahaz – for “the gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (Rom. 11:29). The promised Christ will indeed come, and he will be an immovable Rock, a sanctuary for his people where God fully and perfectly dwells with them without consuming or terrifying them. This mystery of the incarnation of the eternal Son of God is at the very heart of the Christian faith. But what of those who disbelieve and look elsewhere for security? They will be shattered against this same Rock who is certainly coming, and utterly destroyed. This testimony was bound up and sealed, and was as irrevocable as God’s own character. But would the people rejoice to embrace this testimony? No, as Ahaz their leader, they would disbelieve and seek out wisdom and revelation from any other source they could find than the very Word of God come down in history to reveal God to his people. At the end of chapter eight, we can hear the anguish in Isaiah’s voice as he looks to a time in which the people stumble in thick darkness, where there is no dawn, and lift up their voices in rage against their God and King.

But just as the first half-light of dawn sometimes surprises a weary watchman, so Isaiah looks ahead to the Dawn of the very Sun of Righteousness upon a people burdened down with gloom and despair. Only this Dawn immediately promises the start of a much greater day than the people had known before; for the first rays fall not just upon the people of Israel, but even upon Galilee of the Nations, and look to multiply the nation far beyond its original bounds, and destroy its every enemy (9:1-5). How will this come about? Well, it all hinges upon the birth of this Immanuel who was already promised, and who would be born of a virgin, and become a true Son of Man, a Child given to the people. But now, we learn something very important: this Seed of a virgin will also be the long-awaited Son of David, and will reign upon his throne forever, extending his Kingdom throughout the earth (9:6-7), just as the psalmist foresaw in such psalms as 72. So, as monumental and amazing as the prophecy of 7:14 was, we find its importance swelling even beyond those boundless bounds in the following chapters. As we get to our text for today, we may learn even more about how this wonderful promise will come to pass.

2. New Life out of Death: A fruitful shoot from a dead stump (11:1, 6-9)

Before this wonderful Dawn takes place, the plight of the people will be very deep. They will be in deep darkness, as we have seen. Their land will be overflowed by proud Assyria, even to the neck, as chapter ten describes; and finally, their condition will come to be that first predicted by Isaiah when he was commissioned, in chapter six. After all the judgments and punishments, the people will be reduced to the condition of a lifeless stump, cut off at the roots. All hope will seem lost.

But all hope is not lost! For this stump may have been cut down by the nations God raised up in his wrath to wield like an axe against Israel (cf. 10:15); it may have been burned over by the fires of divine wrath (cf. 6:13), and made a desolate wasteland; but it is still the stump of Jesse, the father of David, and so it can never be utterly destroyed, for God will be with it again. This nation may have been made a desert, and Assyria may have spread out like a mighty forest; but now God will cut down Assyria’s trees (10:33-34), and burn them over in his anger (10:16-19). And while Assyria’s destruction will be complete, Israel’s will be reversed. As promised so many times before, a remnant will return, and will lean on the Holy One of Israel (10:20-23). And this remnant will grow into a paradise that will spread over all the earth. God’s holy Mountain will be perfectly at peace, and the waters that cover the earth this time will not be floods of wrath; they will be the waters of the knowledge of the Lord (11:9). Thus, as forest-nations fall and God’s Shoot grows, the whole world will slowly become a Garden-paradise again. Thus, the portion of Isaiah following this chapter focuses on God’s sovereign disposal of the nations, culminating in an eternal paradise for his people (ch. 25-27). Let’s quickly remember how this theme has already developed before we press on.

In the introductory chapters of the book, when Isaiah prophesies that the restored paradise of the promised land will become a desolate desert, he looks ahead to a time when the wilderness will be turned back into a paradise, and that paradise will spread to the whole world, and be fruitful:

In that day the branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel. And he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem, when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning. Then the LORD will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be a canopy. There will be a booth for shade by day from the heat, and for a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain. (Isaiah 4:2-6)

But how will that branch be made fruitful, when in the next glimpse of it we see, it is cut down, burned over, and apparently dead?

Then I said, “How long, O Lord?”And he 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.
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.”
The holy seed is its stump. (Isaiah 6:11-13)

How can a cut-down, burned-up stump grow again and be fruitful, even eclipsing a mighty nation that may be called a “glorious forest and a fruitful land” (10:18)? It is because the Holy Seed is the stump of that tree. And who is that Holy Seed? It is the shoot from Jesse (11:1). This will be a shoot from the dry ground of apostate Israel, who will bear the sins of the people, and make them fruitful in holiness. Thus Isaiah re-introduces him later on as a “root out of a dry ground,” when he records the most blessed prophecy of the substitutionary atonement that ever sprung from the lips of man or angel (Isaiah 53); and it is the same image that Christ himself takes up again just before he goes to the Cross (John 15:1-11). Since he is the true vine, the branches will be fruitful in holiness, and the fruitfulness of an old, dead, burned up stump will turn the world into a very paradise, because that stump is the promised Seed, the shoot from Jesse, the true Vine, Jesus our Savior.

Thus we may learn that, no matter how fruitful the reigning powers of this world may seem to be, and no matter how small and burned-over may seem the stump of God’s people in this life, yet there is no fire that may finally destroy the latter, because its root is the immortal divinity of the God-Man who came down for our salvation. When the fires of God’s wrath consume the whole world, no mighty forest will withstand his fury. But those who are joined to the Vine will still be fruitful, for those fires have already blazed against him but could not destroy the power of an incorruptible life.

3. Heir to the throne: A scion from Jesse’s stump (11:1, 12-16)

But we must press on now to observe that, not only will the coming Christ be a shoot from an incorruptible root of life, making fruitful in holiness and eternal life all those who are united to him by faith; but he is also a scion of Jesse, and thus the rightful King of God’s people. This tree is a family tree, and upon the rightful heir to the throne hangs the whole honor and authority of the nation.

God first promised a land to Abraham (Genesis 13:14-17); he then gave the authority to reign over that land to David, the King after his own heart; but to the Son of David, he extended the bounds to the whole world, saying of him, “May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth!” (Psalm 72:8). So then, when a shoot arises from this royal stump, he will have authority and dominion over all the nations of the world. Satan may have tried to tempt Christ in the wilderness, offering to give him that authority without struggle, if only he would worship him; but Jesus knew well that this authority would certainly be his, if he continued in perfect obedience to the Father who offered it to him.

When this Scion of the house of Jesse arises, therefore, it will not just be to regain the throne of Jerusalem; no, but he will raise a signal for the nations, and assemble his people from the four corners of the earth. Previously, God struck one pathway through the Red Sea, so that he might deliver his people and destroy the one nation that oppressed them; but now, he will utterly destroy the Red Sea, strike seven pathways through the great River Euphrates, overcome every nation on earth that is set against them, and lead out his people from all over the world. Thus, the great, paradigmatic redemptive event of the whole Old Testament will be eclipsed by a salvation infinitely better. “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
 to raise up the tribes of Jacob
 and to bring back the preserved of Israel,” God will later say to this Messiah:
 “I will make you as a light for the nations,
 that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Isa. 49:6).

After this wonderful conclusion to the Immanuel-King prophecies of Isaiah chapters seven through twelve, we embark upon the most daunting and difficult part of the book. The long series of oracles concerning all the nations of the world, concluding with a promise of Paradise (13-27); then, a long series of woes against those who trust in Egypt or any other world power, concluding with the blessedness of those who come into this Paradise (28-35). As we enter into these difficult passages, we must never lose sight of what they are there to demonstrate: that the coming Messiah will be sovereign over every nation; he alone disposes of kings and empires, he alone will rule forever over a perfect earth, and it is only those who fear him, and do not seek for security from this world’s powers, which seem for a time to reign, who will live forever in his presence in the coming New Jerusalem. In this world we often have troubles, and seem to have no abiding place or power or prominence. We are often cast out and driven about by the whims of the nations and peoples that seem to rule. Our own political and social agendas and the cause of righteousness seems to stumble and lose ground. But we can never finally be overcome by any power, because our King has authority over ever nation, and will bring every nation into judgment some day.

This basic point is sometimes reiterated throughout these sections, when brilliant prophecies, set like jewels in a backdrop of ebony, glisten unexpectedly against the terrible woes. We meet such a prophecy in chapter thirty-two, for example: a King will reign in righteousness, and as a true man, he will prove to be a hiding-place from the wind, a shelter from the storm, etc. So in our own lives, when all we see around us is the tumult of the ages and the tyranny of lesser rulers, God is often pleased to stoop down with a comforting reminder of our eternal security in Christ, and whisper into our souls once again, “Fear not! For ‘your eyes will behold the King in his beauty’” (Isaiah 33:17).

4. Anointed to reign: The Spirit rests upon him (11:2-5)

The promised Christ, therefore, will have the legitimate office and authority to take up rule over all the nations of the world, to the end that he might gather together a people from every nation, bring them into an eternal garden-paradise, and destroy all their enemies. But having authority and right to do something does not always mean having ability and power. King Solomon, the first son of David, had that same authority; but he did not finally have the power and wisdom (as great as his wisdom was), and so he rather lost it instead. Would the Christ have sufficient wisdom and ability?

We have already seen that he would be the God-Man, and so have infinite power made infinitely useful to humanity. Now, we will see that he is even more uniquely fitted for his task: for he will not just be King, but the anointed King, upon whom the Spirit rests. From the beginning, the kings and saviors of the people were marked by this reality, that the Spirit of God rested upon them; and this was signified by their being anointed with oil for their service, as David was (1 Samuel 16:13). But when the Christ came, he would be fully anointed and empowered for his Messianic task of redemption, as no one before him had been. The Spirit would rest upon him without cessation, until he had perfectly accomplished the redemption that God had designated to be the responsibility of his Anointed One from eternity past. He would have a far greater measure of the Holy Spirit even than David. For David was not always led by the Spirit, and so he often stumbled, and had to plead, “Take not your Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:11). But the greater David would do all things perfectly by the power of the Spirit, and the Spirit would be his so much more completely than the Spirit was David’s, that he would not just ask to be given him by the Father, but he would even promise to send him to his disciples from the Father (see John 14-16).

Now, it is evident that he who asks to be given the Spirit does not possess him so fully as he who promises to send him to others. So then, while David was a sort of christ, that is, an anointed servant of God, Jesus alone is ultimately Christ, the unique, incomparable Anointed One. And in fact, so great was this true Christ, that in a manner, we may be said to be christs in a fuller sense even than David himself; not in that we are essentially superior to him, but because our own share in the Spirit is more firm, since he flows down to us abundantly by an inseparable union with One who was fully and inseparably filled with the Spirit.

What would this Anointed King, the God-Man springing from the stump of Jesse, be anointed for? We may see in the following verses: he is anointed with the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, so that, as King, he might exercise his office of judging the people perfectly and justly. He is anointed with the Spirit of counsel and might, so that he might both understand and be empowered to walk the path that God has for him, in order to fulfill the Covenant of Redemption without error, and so to win a perfect righteousness and full satisfaction for those whom he will judge. And he will be anointed with the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, so that he might perfectly reveal God to his people and cause them to fear him, as the inescapable result of the knowledge. Thus, he will be anointed with everything necessary to submit to God’s Law, win a perfect righteousness for the people, reveal God to them, and work in them all which is truly pleasing in his sight, the fruit that springs up from a reverential fear of the Lord. So he shall go forth in faithfulness to his covenant, to win a perfect righteousness for his people, and save them from all their enemies. In sum, the Christ will be anointed to save his broken people, as the prophet later declares:

Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
   my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my Spirit upon him;
   he will bring forth justice to the nations.
He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice,
   or make it heard in the street;
a bruised reed he will not break,
   and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;
    he will faithfully bring forth justice.
He will not grow faint or be discouraged
   till he has established justice in the earth;
   and the coastlands wait for his law. (Isaiah 42:1-4)

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
   because the LORD has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
   he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
   and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor,
   and the day of vengeance of our God;
   to comfort all who mourn;
to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
   to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
   the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
   the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.
They shall build up the ancient ruins;
   they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities,
   the devastations of many generations. (Isaiah 61:1-4)

5. Conclusion: Sing for Joy!

This glorious complex of prophecies is summed up the only way so wondrous a gospel of redemption could be concluded: with a song of praise. God planned his incomprehensible acts of redemption through Christ for this purpose, that he might display the glorious riches of his grace to the redeemed, and win from them praise and honor and adulation for all eternity. How can we not join the saints now, and conclude our time together lifting up our voices in worship, according to the words of the hymn in verse twelve?

You will say in that day:
“I will give thanks to you, O LORD,
   for though you were angry with me,
your anger turned away,
   that you might comfort me.

“Behold, God is my salvation;

I will trust, and will not be afraid;

for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song,

and he has become my salvation.”

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say in that day:



“Give thanks to the LORD,

call upon his name,

make known his deeds among the peoples,

proclaim that his name is exalted.

“Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously;

let this be made known in all the earth.

Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,

for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”

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