WWUTT 1894 The Nations Seek Christ (Isaiah 11:10-16)

Many of the passages in the prophets that some might read to talk about a millennial kingdom here on the earth is really not talking about something in the far distant future.

It describes our reality right now, when we understand the text. This is

When We Understand The Text, teaching through a New Testament book on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and a

Q &A on Friday. With our Old Testament study today, here's Pastor Gabe. Thank you,

Becky, and greetings, everyone. Well, in our study of the book of Isaiah, it's been a few weeks, but I'm going to pick up where we left off, still in chapter 11.

And I'm going to start reading here in verse 10 and go through verse 16 out of the Legacy Standard Bible.

Hear the word of the Lord. Then it will be in that day that the nations will seek the root of Jesse, who will stand as a standard for the peoples, and his resting place will be glorious.

Then it will be in that day that the Lord will again acquire the second time with his hand the remnant of his people who will remain, from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Ethiopia, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.

And he will lift up a standard for the nations and assemble the banished ones of Israel, and will gather the scattered of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

Then the jealousy of Ephraim will depart, and those who assail Judah will be cut off. Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah, and Judah will not assail

Ephraim. And they will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines on the west. Together they will plunder the sons of the east.

They will stretch out their hands over Edom and Moab, and the sons of Ammon will obey them.

And Yahweh will devote to destruction the tongue of the sea of Egypt, and he will wave his hand over the river with his scorching wind, and he will strike it into seven streams and make men walk over dry shod.

And there will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant of his people who will remain, just as there was for Israel, in the day that they came up out of the land of Egypt."

So here in this chapter, in Isaiah 11, Isaiah is giving a prophecy, and it's divided up into four parts.

The first part is verses 1 -5, the second part in verses 6 -9. Those were the two parts that we looked at last time a few weeks ago.

The first part, verses 1 -5, have to do with Christ's first advent, his first coming.

Then a shoot will spring up from the stem of Jesse, that means he will be a descendant of Jesse, who was the father of David, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.

The spirit of Yahweh will rest upon him. And we know that Christ is the fulfillment of that prophecy.

The second part of this prophecy, in verses 6 -9, talk about how those who are in Christ will dwell in peace and safety.

The enemy will not have his way over them. Now, this is the verse that is commonly misquoted as the lion will lie down with the lamb.

But the verse is accurately understood, verse 6, and the wolf will dwell with the lamb.

This is said again in chapter 65. We're going to see it come up again in the book of Isaiah.

And both times, it appears, people tend to think of this being a prophecy about a millennial reign on the earth.

But that's not really what's going on here, because remember, the first part of the prophecy was with regards to Christ's first advent.

I mean, there's not really any other way that you can take that. A shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse. This is all being prophesied 700 years before Christ is born.

So that's what Isaiah is referring to, the first coming of Christ, his birth in Bethlehem, and how those who are in Christ will not be given over to the hands of their enemies.

As Jesus said in John 10, my Father gives them to me, and no one is able to snatch them out of my

Father's hand. I and the Father are one. The sheep know my voice. They come to me when

I call to them. All of that reference there in John 8 and in John 10. So we have these references to different animals, these different predators, and how an animal that's typically thought of as prey will not be prey to that predator.

The predator will not be a threat to them. That is what we have in 6 -9. And as I talked about this last time, so in Christ, the devil does not have his way with us.

We are safe in the arms of God. And the promise for us is for his eternal kingdom.

We will not perish on this earth. We will not perish in everlasting darkness. But we are children of light who are promised the kingdom of light.

So the third part, the third part of Isaiah 11 here is just verse 10. Verse 10 by itself, then it will be in that day that the nations will seek the root of Jesse who will stand as a standard for the peoples and his resting place will be glorious.

That's the day that we're in right now. That's the day that begins with the gospel going out into the world as Jesus said to his own disciples, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

And so with that going out with the gospel of Christ, the nations have now sought the root of Jesse.

People from everywhere, not just Jew, not just Israel and Judah, but even people from the coastlands as he stands as a standard for the peoples and his resting place will be glorious.

Now where is Christ's resting place? He is presently in heaven at the right hand of the father.

So his place is most definitely glorious. That is a present tense statement that we have there in Isaiah 11 10.

This is the age in which we currently live. Now again, this passage is often taken to refer to a millennial reign, a thousand year kingdom that is going to be here on earth, but that is not what's being detailed here.

There is another way to understand this. So these different cities or these different nations that we have mentioned in verse 11, then it will be in that day that the

Lord will again acquire the second time with his hand the remnant of his people who will remain from Assyria, Egypt, Pathos, Ethiopia, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.

Now whether or not a person wants to say that this is describing a thousand year millennial reign on the earth, or whether it's talking about a present fulfillment or some other kind of future fulfillment, everybody reads this figuratively.

There are certain viewpoints of eschatology, viewpoints of the end times. They say that they read this straight up.

We take all of this literally. We don't add allegory into it and all this other kind of thing. That's not true.

Everybody reads this typologically. Nobody truly, I won't say nobody, maybe there's a scant few.

But hardly anybody reads this as if God is literally calling his people out of these particular cities.

So starting at the beginning of verse 11 again, it will be in that day, and what day are we talking about?

Well, that is the day in which the gospel is going out into all the world, in which even the nations are seeking the root of Jesse.

Then, as we see succession happening here, then it will be in that day that the

Lord will again acquire the second time with his hand. When was the first time that he acquired his people?

Well, that was when he called them out of the land of Egypt. So God had ransomed his people from Egypt, called them out into a land that he had appointed for them, and they became his people.

He dwelled with them. He put his name with them. These are the people that he purchased.

And so God acquires a second time with his hand the remnant of his people.

So God purchasing again his people, and how is that purchase done?

How is that accomplished? Through the blood of Jesus. We have been purchased by his blood, as it says in the scriptures.

So he acquires the second time with his hand the remnant of his people who will remain.

And remnant is always minority. Remnant does not mean like a people is existing out there somewhere, and so God is going to call them from all those places to himself.

A remnant is simply another word to describe a small group or a smaller group.

They're not the majority. The world is not filled with Christians by the majority.

Most people in the world are unbelievers. Most people are in rebellion against God. So anybody who is a true follower of Jesus Christ, not just under the banner of the

Christian religion, but they are a true follower of Christ, they are the remnant.

We are the remnant. We as Christians are a remnant even now. We are exiles that are in this world, as these people are being described as exiles in a particular way.

So God is acquiring the remnant of his people who will remain, the people that are here on the earth who are followers of Christ, and he draws them out because, again, the nations seek the root of Jesse.

That was in verse 10. And this remnant will come to him from these different places,

Assyria, Egypt, Pathos, Ethiopia, so on and so forth. Now there's a circle that's being drawn there.

If you were to go through all of those places and lay them out on a map, there's a circle. So it's a typology, again, to show that God is bringing all of these people from all these different surrounding areas to one central location.

Now that central location is not a physical place because, again, we're reading typology here. So it's simply a picture of how

God is calling people everywhere to himself, and that central place to which they will come is

Jesus Christ. It mentions that even the coastlands, even the coastlands of the sea. So as you're drawing out that circle, the sea in the context of Isaiah's prophecy is going to be the

Mediterranean Sea. It's not talking about the Atlantic Ocean or the Pacific or anything else. It's the Mediterranean Sea.

And what are some of those other nations that Isaiah would be forecasting would be called from—the remnant of God would be called from those areas?

Well, it would be places like Rome and even Athens and Spain, some of those places where the gospel is going to go out even to them, and they are going to come to the root of Jesse.

The nations will seek Christ. God is calling them out from everywhere. So like I said, just about everybody, no matter their eschatology, reads this typologically.

Even those who are premillennial or dispensational, they do not literally think that God is calling his people just from Assyria, Egypt, Pathos, Ethiopia, Elam, Shinar, and Hamath.

Those who have the idea that the Jews are scattered throughout all the world, talking about an ethnic

Jewish culture, and that God is calling Jews from these particular locations to himself.

Even those who are dispensational or premillennial, they don't believe that Jews are just in those locations.

They're everywhere in the world. So this is typological for something else.

Even if you're a premillennial, even if you believe that this is in reference to a

Jewish people or an ethnicity, you would still have to concede that the cities and nations that are being mentioned here are not exhaustive, and they're just meant to be allegories for the different places in which they've been scattered that God is calling them from.

Now again, I'm going to say that in context, this is talking about God calling the nations to himself, not specifically the

Jewish people, since that was the statement that was made in verse 10. The nations will seek the root of Jesse.

So then we go on in verse 12, and he will lift up a standard for the nations. That's the second time that's being said.

And verse 11 is bookended by that, because that's said in verse 10, and it's said in verse 12. He will lift up a standard for the nations and assemble the banished ones of Israel and gather the scattered of Judah.

Now that looks like a parallelism, and it most certainly could be, as I've talked about before regarding Jewish poetry.

One of the common poetic devices that's used in Hebrew poetry is what's called the parallelism.

It will be a statement that's made, and then it's made again, and the two are parallel.

They're side by side. It's like the same statement being made twice. And so you might think that of this statement, and it's true that it very well could be a parallelism.

He will assemble the banished ones of Israel and gather the scattered of Judah. But this is generally understood to mean that the banished ones of Israel is in reference to men and the scattered of Judah.

What was the condition of Israel and Judah at the time of Isaiah?

This was a divided kingdom. Israel was in the north, and Judah was in the south.

And so really what's being said here is that God is going to unify them again. They are not going to be divided peoples.

They will all be one. It will just be one people. And we must understand that there is only one people of God.

There's not two peoples. As it's said in Ephesians chapter 2, Christ has broken down the dividing wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile.

So those who were far off have been brought near by the precious blood of Jesus. And that which was previously two people have now been made into one.

There is no distinction now between Jew and Gentile. It's also said in the scriptures, Colossians chapter 3,

Ephesians 2, and other places. So there's no distinction. We are one people in Christ. So we see this again typologically as to how

Israel and Judah are divided, but God will bring them again into one. And so it will be with all those who are in Christ.

There won't be those who are far off and those who are near. There will only be one people of God. And it is those who are in Christ Jesus.

He will bring them from the four corners of the earth, the rest of verse 12 says. Another way of saying that they will be brought from all the nations.

Peoples from all over the world will come to know God, will be in his fellowship, will be called his people, will be adopted as his children through faith in Jesus Christ.

Verse 13, then the jealousy of Ephraim will depart and those who assail

Judah will be cut off. Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah and Judah will not assail

Ephraim. Once again, you have a reference to a divided people here. And Ephraim is another name for Israel.

The Northern Kingdom, since it was made up of 10 tribes, sometimes would be named by a tribe in Israel and not necessarily just called

Israel. Whereas Judah was made up of Judah and Benjamin. So it was always called just Judah.

So the jealousy of Ephraim, talking about the Northern Kingdom, why would Ephraim be jealous?

What would the jealousy be on the part of the Northern Kingdom? It would be because the temples in the

Southern Kingdom, the true place of worship, Mount Moriah where the temple was built, where God himself dwelled, that was in Judah.

That was not in Israel. So even those from the Northern Kingdom, though they were divided, they had to come down into Judah to go to Jerusalem to sacrifice if they wanted to fulfill the requirements of the feast days and things like that.

Now, of course, Israel wasn't doing that. The whole time Israel remained as a nation by itself, they only ever had wicked kings.

And there were golden calves that had been erected there in the North and in the South. And that was generally where people went to worship.

They, for the most part, did not come down into Judah to worship to Jerusalem.

There were some that did, certainly, but it wasn't known among the Israelite people to go to Jerusalem to worship

God. So there was a jealousy. It said there was a jealousy among the Northern Kingdom since God dwelled with the people in the

South and not with the North. Those who assail Judah will be cut off. Who was assailing

Judah? Well, we've read about that previously in Isaiah, that it was even the

Northern Kingdom. Even Judah's own kinsmen were coming against them. So the jealousy of Ephraim will depart and those who assail

Judah will be cut off. That's another parallelism. Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah and Judah will not assail

Ephraim. There won't be that hidden animosity, that attitude of the heart against one another, nor will they physically go to war with each other.

And again, this is all to say that in Christ, that which was divided will be made one. We will not be a divided people, but the true followers of Jesus Christ will be united to God and to one another.

Verse 14, and they will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines on the West. Together they will plunder the sons of the

East. They will stretch out their hands over Edom and Moab, and the sons of Ammon will obey them.

And once again, we have descriptions here of places that are all around. So you have the

Philistines on the West, you've got the sons of the East, you've got Edom and Moab, which by the way, both of those were kin, distant kin, but they were still a kinship to Israel and Judah, and the sons of Ammon will obey them.

So you have a reference to kinship, and you have a reference to those who are just straight -up pagan. But nonetheless, whoever they might happen to be, whether there are close relations or they are distant enemies, they will not have their way with the people of God whom he unites to himself.

Verse 15, and Yahweh will devote to destruction the tongue of the Sea of Egypt, and he will wave his hand over the river with his scorching wind, and he will strike it into seven streams and make men walk over dry shod.

All of this to say that God is calling his people out from these pagan places in the world, and there is nothing that is going to keep

God from calling a people to himself. Just like Israel escaped from Egypt by going through the

Red Sea which was parted for them, and they walked on dry land. So God is going to provide the means to the end that is going to bring his people to himself.

Nothing will stop God from accomplishing what he means to accomplish by purchasing this people and redeeming them to himself.

And again, we are purchased by the blood of Christ, as said in 1 Corinthians 6 and other places.

Verse 16, and there will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant of his people who will remain just as there was for Israel in the day that they came up out of the land of Egypt.

So remember that a prophecy is being made about Israel's exile, and though they go into exile, the promise is made that they are going to come out, and that they will even be brought to God as in the day that they came up out of the land of Egypt.

But here's the thing, here's the thing to recognize about Israel, they never came back to their land.

Now I'm not talking about Judah. There were Jews and even a certain remnant of Israelites that came out of the captivity that they were in and were restored back to Judah, where they rebuilt the temple and rebuilt the city and the walls, you know, everything that took place during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah.

All of that was fulfilled, most certainly. But the land of Israel to the north was never restored to those ten tribes of Israel.

The ten tribes of Israel are lost. And so what are we to make of that then, when it says here that God is going to rescue them back to himself, and even going to bring them to himself in the same way that they were rescued out of the land of Egypt?

Again, all of this has been fulfilled, as that was a type and a shadow of what

God was going to do through Jesus Christ. And we who are his church, who believe in Christ Jesus, we are

God's people. We are true Israel. Again, only one people of God.

There's not two. Christ showed himself to be true Israel. He succeeded where the rest of Israel failed.

Matthew spends the first part of his gospel making that particular connection. So we who are in Christ Jesus are now the people of God.

And he has called us from all different walks of life, from all over the world, to himself in Christ Jesus.

The nations have sought the root of Jesse. And so my friends, it is the same gospel of Jesus Christ that you heard that is going to bring people from everywhere in the world to know

God. Be rescued out of the captivity that they are in, captive to sin and the ways of this world and the passions of the flesh, captivity to Satan and his schemes.

They will be rescued out of that to Christ, redeemed to be his worshipers.

And the promise that we have, the promised land that we're going to receive is not of this world, but the heavenly kingdom of God.

This is Israel expanded. The church doesn't replace Israel. This is the expansion of Israel.

This is the remnant restored. And our restoration is in Christ alone.

Let us pray. Heavenly father, we thank you for what we've read here, kind of a biography of ourselves and how we have come to be adopted as sons and daughters of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

He who died on the cross for our sins, who rose again from the dead and is ascended into heaven and seated at the right hand of God.

He is coming back again to judge the living and the dead. And all who are in Christ Jesus are saved and will dwell in your perfect heavenly kingdom forever.

Deliver us out of the ways of this world. May we not walk after the pattern of this world anymore, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds that we may do

God's will. It's in Jesus name that we pray. Amen. This has been, When We Understand The Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes.

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