ISAIAH LESSON 14


     We will begin this lesson in Isaiah 11:1 "And there shall come
forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of
his roots:"

     We have seen in the last lessons, that the wrath of God came
against His people, and God allowed the Assyrians to devastate their
country. Except for God's remnant, they would have been annihilated.
There was a remnant left, however. It was as if the tree had been cut
off even with the ground. It seems though a tree will come up again
from the roots, if it gets enough water. The word "rod" here, was
translated from the word "choter", which means twig. It appears that
the growth that came forth was weak, but alive. Job 14:7 "For there is
hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that
the tender branch thereof will not cease."  "Stem", in this verse,
means resemble.  We can see this twig was not a literal twig, but a
race of people stemming from Jesse through David.  This remnant was
like the roots of the tree.  When the Spirit of God {water} was
applied to the root. It grew again.  At first it was weak.  The
"Branch", of course, is Jesus.  He was spoken of as Son of David,
because David was in His earthly ancestry. Jeremiah 23:5  "Behold, the
days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous
Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment
and justice in the earth." These Scriptures should leave no doubt that
this Branch is speaking of Jesus Christ. Jesus is actually the Tree of
Life.

     Isaiah 11:2 "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 of the fear of the LORD;"

     Look, with me, at the time when Jesus said this very thing about
Himself. Luke 4:16  "And he came to Nazareth, where he had been
brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the
sabbath day, and stood up for to read." Luke 4:17 "And there was
delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had
opened the book, he found the place where it was written," Luke 4:18
"The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon me, because he hath anointed me to
preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the
brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering
of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,"  Luke
4:19 "To preach the acceptable year of the Lord."  Jesus was of the
Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit of God hovered over Mary, and she
conceived of the Spirit of God. Jesus was God the Son housed in the
flesh of man. Jesus is the Spirit of Wisdom. Wisdom is a gift from
God. Jesus is the source of all Wisdom. "Understanding", in the verse
above, comes from a word that means helper. The Holy Spirit is Helper,
Teacher, and Guide. Jesus was full of the Spirit. In Him all the
fulness of the Godhead dwelt. We find that counsel and might go hand
in hand with wisdom. "Knowledge" is accumulated learning. Jesus does
not need to learn. He is all-knowing, so He is the source of
knowledge.  Fear, in the verse above, is speaking of a willingness to
carry out the wishes of God. Jesus said, Father, not my will, but
thine.  He fulfills every statement in the verse above.

     Isaiah 11:3 "And shall make him of quick understanding in the
fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes,
neither reprove after the hearing of his ears:"

     Since Jesus is the Judge of all the world, and contains all
knowledge and understanding, He will not judge as a man from outward
appearances. He will not depend on his eyes, or His ears to guide Him
in His judgement. He will judge in truth, because He knows all things,
even the heart of man. His judgement will be just. He will not need to
hear the witnesses. He already knows everything about every individual
on the earth.

     Isaiah 11:4 "But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and
reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the
earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall
he slay the wicked."

     His judgement is righteous. He is not influenced by earthly
things. The poor will get fair judgement from Him, because He is not
impressed by the earthly greatness of man, or great wealth. Many
earthly judges can be bought. This is not so with Jesus. He is
righteous. Whatever He decides about any of us, we can say we deserve
it, because He knows all about even what is in our heart. The "rod of
His mouth" is the spoken Word of God. Hebrews 4:12 "For the word of
God [is] quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the
joints and marrow, and [is] a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart." The breath of His lips caused the soldiers, who had come
for Jesus, to fall backward to the ground. John 18:6 "As soon then as
he had said unto them, I am [he], they went backward, and fell to the
ground."  The spoken and the written Word are the 2 most powerful
forces in the earth. The Word of God created all things. The Word of
God will condemn us to hell, or reward us with eternal life in heaven.
Revelation 20:15 "And whosoever was not found written in the book of
life was cast into the lake of fire."  Our fate is in the hands of
Jesus, the Word of God.

     Isaiah 11:5 "And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins,
and faithfulness the girdle of his reins."

     He is surrounded by righteousness. In fact, He has clothed the
Christians in His righteousness. Revelation 1:5 "And from Jesus
Christ, [who is] the faithful witness, [and] the first begotten of the
dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved
us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood," Isaiah 61:10 "I
will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God;
for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered
me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh [himself]
with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth [herself] with her jewels."
Faithfulness as a girdle is speaking of Jesus as the Truth.

     Isaiah 11:6 "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the
leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion
and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them."

     This is speaking of that wonderful time when the devil is bound
up. There will be no evil where Jesus reigns as King of kings and Lord
of lords. There will be no danger from anything, when the devil is
bound. Jesus, who is the King of Peace, brings perfect peace to all of
mankind and all the animals, and in fact, the elements of the earth.
All of the animals, mentioned in the verse above, are violent against
man. From the little child leading them, you can see the extent of the
peace that will reign, because the King of Peace is among them. This
will be a glorious time of no problems.

     Isaiah 11:7 "And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young
ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the
ox."

     We see, in this, animals that had been enemies in the past that
now will not fear each other. The Peace extends to all the animals, as
well as the people. The whole world will be at peace.

     Isaiah 11:8 "And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the
asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den."

     Both the asp and the cockatrice would have been deadly to anyone,
if they bit them. We see, in this, that the curse spoken on the
serpent against the woman in the garden of Eden has been broken. Jesus
has won. Peace extends even unto the serpent.

     Isaiah 11:9 "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy
mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as
the waters cover the sea."

     Not only the people will be full of the knowledge of the LORD,
but the animals and the earth itself. Just as surely as the water
covers the sea, the peace of the Lord Jesus will cover the earth.
The "holy mountain" speaks of the people of God, the Christians.

     Isaiah 11:10  "And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse,
which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the
Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious."

     When Isaiah wrote this, it was unheard of for a Gentile to seek
God. This is speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ and His church. The
church is primarily made up of Gentile converts. He {Jesus} set up a
standard, or an "ensign". We cannot get to heaven by any other name.
We must go through faith in the name of Jesus. The root, here, is the
same as the Branch in the earlier part of this lesson. He is our
mediator, even now at the throne of God. He is our standard. There is
a rest that comes to the believer. When the presence of the Lord is
with us, then there will be perfect peace and rest.

     Isaiah 11:11 "And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] the
Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant
of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and
from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from
Hamath, and from the islands of the sea."

     Isaiah had seen that the people of God, the Hebrews, would be
scattered all over the earth into many countries. The Scripture above,
is speaking of the time when they will come back to the land of
Israel. This Scripture is being fulfilled in our lifetime. Since
Israel became a nation in 1948, the return of the people has been
almost continuos. The "islands of the sea" could cover lands that were
unknown at the time of Isaiah.

     Isaiah 11:12 "And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and
shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the
dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth."

     The number 4 means universal. We see from this, then, that this
is all over the world. We decided Jesus Christ is the Ensign. The word
that "outcasts" was translated from is a masculine word. "Dispersed"
is taken from a word that is feminine. We see, in this, that the Lord
is calling male and female. He is, also, calling all of the original
12 tribes back unto Himself. He is calling all believers. Even
Christians are included in this, because we are Abraham's seed and
heirs according to the promise. This is both a physical calling of the
physical house of Israel back to the land of Israel, but is also a
spiritual calling of all believers to draw closer to the Lord.

     Isaiah 11:13 "The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the
adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah,
and Judah shall not vex Ephraim."

     Judah is speaking of the physical house of Israel. In my opinion,
"Ephraim" symbolizes all the believers in Christ. The two sticks in
the book of Ezekiel chapter 37, that come together, are the physical
and the spiritual house of Israel. Notice, in this, God has forgiven
Ephraim.

     Isaiah 11:14 "But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the
Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east
together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the
children of Ammon shall obey them."

     All of the countries listed above are enemies of the Israelites.
We know the church will have no difficulty in handling these enemies.
The Christians will reign over the worldly people. The Lord is their
strength.

     Isaiah 11:15 "And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of
the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand
over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make
[men] go over dryshod."

     The mighty breath of the LORD will blow on the great river and
turn it into 7 smaller streams. In places, the streams will be shallow
enough for the people to walk over them in their regular shoes. There
will be no physical barriers that will restrain God's people in that
day.

     Isaiah 11:16 "And there shall be an highway for the remnant of
his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to
Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt."

     The Israelites walked on dry land in the middle of the Red Sea,
when the nostrils of God heaped the water to allow His people to walk
over on dry land. The dry road across the Red Sea was called a
highway. It was only open to God's people. When the Egyptians tried to
use it, they were drowned. God will make a way for His people to come
home.







































                          Isaiah 14 Questions


1.  Quote Isaiah chapter 11 verse 1.
2.  A tree will come again from the roots, if it gets enough ______.
3.  "Rod was translated from _________.
4.  What does the word "choter" mean?
5.  Quote Job chapter 14 verse 7.
6.  What does "stem" mean in this verse?
7.  This twig was actually a _________ of ________.
8.  Who were they descended from?
9.  Who is the Branch?
10. Quote Jeremiah chapter 23 verse 5.
11. Name the different things this Branch had through the Spirit.
12. What book of the Old Testament did Jesus read from in the
    synagogue?
13. "Understanding", in verse 2, came from a word meaning ________.
14. What is "knowledge"?
15. How will Jesus judge?
16. Quote Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12.
17. Quote John chapter 18 verse 6.
18. In the finality of time, what happens to those whose names are not
    written in the Lambs book of life?
19. Quote Revelations chapter 1 verse 5.
20. Quote Isaiah chapter 61 verse 10.
21. The wolf shall dwell with the _______.
22. The leapord shall lie down with the ___.
23. And a ______ _______ shall lead them.
24. What happens to bring so great a peace?
25. Who is the mortal enemy of the cow?
26. What will the lion eat that is like an ox?
27. Who does the "holy mountain" speak of?
28. What is an "ensign"?
29. When will perfect peace come?
30. When did the return of the Israelites to Israel begin?
31. What is meant by "islands of the sea"?
32. What does the number 4 symbolize?
33. What is strangely different in the "outcasts", and the
    "dispersed"?
34. Who does the author believe Ephraim symbolizes?
35. What chapter of Ezekiel tells us of the physical and the spiritual
    house of Israel?
36. The great river will break up into how many streams?
37. How had it been possible for the Israelites to walk through the
    Red Sea on dry ground?