There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
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.
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,
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.
Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,
and faithfulness the belt of his loins.
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.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.
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.
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. – Isaiah 11:1–10 (ESV)
Alec Motyer writes:
The Lord Jesus, says Paul, has become ‘for us wisdom from God’ (1 Cor. 1:30). Isaiah got there first, of course, and it is attractively tempting to think that Isaiah 11 was the apostle’s daily Bible reading the day he wrote to the Corinthians! What a portrait the prophet painted of our great royal Messiah! ‘Wisdom’ is a true understanding of life and how to live it; ‘discernment’ is seeing right to the heart of any matter, seeing a problem or situation as it really is. Jesus, too, knows how to plan sensibly in every situation (‘counsel’) and to impart the practical ability (‘valor’) to get it done; and in Him we see, and from Him we learn, that true, deep reverence, the ‘fear of Yahweh,’ which is meant to be the governing principle for this ‘time of our sojourning’ (1 Pet 1:17). We cannot read Isaiah 11 (and crowds of other passages) without sensing afresh the wonder of our Bibles: such detailed anticipation and accurate forecasting of the Coming One. This is great gain, but even more important is to take the next step and be uplifted in wonder, love, and praise of the one thus foreseen, the Lord Jesus Christ. If He really is like Isaiah foresaw – practical, effective, wisdom for every day, power over all the power of the enemy, Lord of the beautiful and blessed future He holds in store for us (vv. 6-9) – what fresh commitments we should make to live close and stay near to Him.
MEMORY WORK – Shorter Catechism Q/A 74
Q. 74. What is required in the eighth commandment?
A. The eighth commandment requireth the lawful procuring and furthering the wealth and outward estate of ourselves and others.