And there shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse,
And a branch out of 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 of the fear of the Lord.
And His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord;
And He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes,
Neither decide after the hearing of His ears;
But with righteousness shall He judge the poor,
And decide 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.
And righteousness shall be the girdle of His waist,
And faithfulness the girdle of His loins.And the wolf 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.
And the cow and the bear shall feed;
Their young ones shall lie down together;
And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp,
And the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.
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.And it shall come to pass in that day, that the root of Jesse,
That standeth for an ensign of the peoples,
Unto Him shall the nations seek;
And His resting-place shall be glorious.
We know that, in the original Hebrew text, there is no division of chapters and verses. Therefore, when we read the Bible, we need to remember that the division of chapters and verses came later, and they are arbitrary. Oftentimes they help, but sometimes they seem to cover up the thought that God may want us to see.
Now, when we begin with this chapter, we find that the first word is “and”: “And there shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse.” In other words, this word and shows us that it is a continuation of what has preceded this.
To get the right impression of this passage, we have to see the continuity of thought. As you read the preceding words, you will find that God disciplined His people Israel because of their unfaithfulness. God used a very strange instrument to discipline His own people: He raised up the Assyrians, the rod of His anger.
If you read Isaiah 10:5, it says:
Ho Assyrian, the rod of Mine anger, the staff in whose hand is Mine indignation!
I will send him against a profane nation,
And against the people of My wrath will I give him a charge,
To take the spoil, and to take the prey,
And to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
God raised up the Assyrians and used them as a rod of His anger to punish His own people. Why? Because His own people were a hypocritical nation. God disciplined His own with the enemy.
But unfortunately, the Assyrians, the enemy, did not realize that it was God who used them to discipline His people. They thought that they were mighty. They thought that they could do anything they liked.
Therefore, you find in Isaiah 10:7:
Howbeit he meaneth not so,
Neither doth his heart think so;
But it is in his heart to destroy,
And to cut off nations not a few.
While the Assyrians were used by God, they thought that they were the mighty ones. Instead of executing the will of God, they desired to do things for themselves, and oftentimes they overdid it.
So the Assyrians came. They conquered the nation of Israel, and yet they did more than they should to God’s people. When such a situation was created, how would God react?
God reacted against His unfaithful people by raising up the Assyrians. But the Assyrians had overdone themselves, and so God reacted again for His people against His enemy. How did God react? What was God’s reaction?
We find the answer in the passage that we read in Isaiah 11: “And there shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots shall bear fruit.”
Here you find that, when God reacts, He is not just reacting against a situation. He is not just reacting with another act. When God reacts, He reacts with a Person. In other words, His reaction is in a Person. He reacts to every situation with a Person, and that Person, of course, is our Lord Jesus Christ.
Brothers and sisters, this morning we would like to see the principle of divine reaction. The principle of divine reaction is not just some action; it is a Person. Whenever God really reacts, you will find that He always reacts with a Person. That Person is His total reaction to all situations, and that Person is our Lord Jesus Christ.
In your own experience, you can find that when God reacts in your life, in your situation, in the things that you are involved with, do you think that God just reacts with another action, and that is it?
Whenever God really reacts, you will find that He always reacts with His Son. He always brings in His Son. His Son is His reaction to all actions, to all things. In the case of the nation of Israel, this is very evident.
God reacted by raising up a shoot out of the stock of Jesse. We would like to ask this question: Why does not the Bible say, “There shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of David”? Because our Lord Jesus is the Son of David, and the Son of David is greater than David, because He is also the Lord of David.
Why should the prophecy say, “A shoot out of the stock of Jesse,” instead of David?
Probably this is the reason. We know that David was a king. David reigned and ruled. Yet, when Israel was disciplined by God because of their unfaithfulness, the nation was destroyed. The royal seed was not only taken into captivity, but even after they returned, before Christ was born, where was the royal seed of David? What was the condition of David’s seed?
Joseph, David’s seed, was a carpenter in Nazareth. He was not in Jerusalem. He was not sitting on the throne of David. You find Joseph was a commoner, a carpenter, hidden somewhere in the hills of Nazareth.
The house of David was reduced to a very low thing. I think this probably is the reason why, when God reacted, He reacted at a time when the house of David was in its lowest state: out of the stock of Jesse. Jesse was a commoner. It was not until David that this became a royal family. So, out of the stock of Jesse came a shoot, and a branch out of his roots.
This speaks of the humanity of our Lord Jesus. God reacted by bringing in His own Son. When His Son was brought into this world, He was born of the family of Jesse.
He came as a man, as a human being just like we are. How He, the Son of God, emptied Himself and took upon Himself the form of a man. He was a man just like we are, and yet He was very fruitful—very fruitful.
Now, how was this Man characterized? What made this Man different from any other man? Here in Isaiah 11:2, you find: “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him.”
I believe this was fulfilled when Jesus was baptized. You remember when Jesus came to John the Baptist to be baptized. At first, John the Baptist refused to baptize Him, because somehow John the Baptist sensed the dignity that was in Jesus. He felt that this Man was greater than he. He should be baptized by Him instead of baptizing Him.
Yet the Lord Jesus said, “Do it, for the sake of righteousness.” And John did it. You remember that, after Jesus was baptized, as He came out of the water, the heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him as a dove and abode upon Him—rested in Him.
In Old Testament times, the Spirit of God sometimes came upon a particular person and gave him some special gift or special ability to do certain things. But never did the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, come into any man and dwell permanently with that person. Never.
Some prophets, some kings, and some great leaders in Old Testament times had the Holy Spirit come upon them, enabling them to do great things. Yet the Holy Spirit never took up His abode in any of them, even though there might have been a few special cases.
You can study your Bible and try to find who they are, but let me just mention one man: David. One day David prayed a prayer of repentance. In Psalm 51, he asked the Lord, “Do not take Thy Holy Spirit from me.” In other words, even with David, it seemed as if the Holy Spirit was given to him, yet it was not permanent. He could come and He could go.
But not so with our Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus was the first Man upon whom the Spirit of God descended and took up His abode in Him. He rested in Him permanently.
When John saw this, he bore witness and testified that this is the Son of God. How did John the Baptist know that Jesus is the Son of God? Because he was told, “Upon whom the Spirit shall descend and abide, this is He that baptizeth in the Holy Spirit.” So when he saw it, he bore witness and said, “This is the Son of God.”
Here, brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus, as a man, was filled with the Holy Spirit. He and the Holy Spirit are one. God gave Him the Holy Spirit without measure—without measure.
This Spirit that was in Him was described as the sevenfold Spirit: the Spirit of the Lord; the Spirit of wisdom and understanding; the Spirit of counsel and might; the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.
Now, not that the Holy Spirit is seven in number. No, the Holy Spirit is one—one Spirit. But this Holy Spirit is so full and complete that there is the sevenfoldness of the Holy Spirit. Just as you see in the book of Revelation, before the throne there are seven lamps of fire, which are the seven Spirits of God. Actually, there is one Spirit, but He is sevenfold; and seven in Scripture always speaks of fullness and completeness.
The Spirit of the Lord is the Spirit of the God who has covenanted with men. Some commentators think that the Spirit of the Lord especially emphasizes the Spirit of prophecy, the Holy Spirit of inspiration.
He is the Spirit of wisdom and understanding. Wisdom and understanding form a pair. It is very difficult to distinguish wisdom and understanding.
One man puts it this way: wisdom is the power of discerning the nature of things through their appearances. In other words, we see things by appearance. But if all you see are appearances, then it is just surface; there is not much wisdom in it. It is very superficial knowledge.
But wisdom penetrates behind the appearance of things and reveals to you the true nature of that thing. Now, that is wisdom.
How is understanding? The same person says that understanding is the power of discerning the differences between things in their appearances. One is discerning the true nature of a thing; understanding is discerning the differences in things. You can understand so that you can prove and approve the more excellent things. That is understanding.
The Spirit of God is the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, and He is the Spirit of counsel and might. Counsel is the ability to come to the right conclusion. That is counsel. Might is the energy to carry out the counsel. That is might.
You need wisdom and understanding to begin with. Then you need counsel, strength, and might to put what you understand into practice and to realize it.
Finally, the last pair is the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. The Spirit of knowledge is a knowledge that is obtained through fellowship of love—not just mental knowledge, but knowledge that comes out of fellowship of love.
To know Him, and the One whom He sent, that is eternal life. How do we know God? How do we know Him whom God has sent? It is through fellowship of love that you come to the knowledge of God.
The fear of the Lord is not in contradiction with love. On the contrary, the more you love, the more you fear. You fear not because of punishment; you fear because you do not want to displease the One whom you love. So there is a reverence, a holy awe, that is produced within that person.
Brothers and sisters, this is the sevenfold Spirit: the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. This Spirit rested upon Christ and was one with Christ.
If you read the four Gospels, you will find that this is how our Lord Jesus lived upon this earth. While He walked upon this earth, He was in the power of the Holy Spirit. There was inspiration in Him, wisdom in Him, understanding in Him, counsel and might in Him, the knowledge of God and the fear of God in Him. Our Lord Jesus exhibited the fullness of the Spirit, and that characterized our Lord.
What does He do? This is given to us from Isaiah 11:3-5: “And His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.”
Now, the word translated delight in the original is the word scent, or smell. When the translators translated this, they could not understand how to put it: “His scent shall be in the fear of the Lord.” It did not seem to make sense to them, so they translated it as “delight” instead.
But actually, in the original, it is, “His scent shall be in the fear of the Lord; and He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither decide after the hearing of His ears.” Here you find three things: seeing, hearing, and smelling.
The Lord Jesus will not judge after the seeing of His eyes. He will not decide after the hearing of His ears. But His judgment will be based upon His smelling.
Smelling is more subtle and far-reaching than seeing and hearing. How far can you see? How far can you hear? If we are all in this room, you can see. But suppose someone is behind that partition. You cannot see, but you can hear the baby. You still can hear.
But, brothers and sisters, smelling is more far-reaching and subtle than seeing and hearing.
I have some kind of a reaction against fish, as most of you know. If I go anywhere and someone is cooking fish, even if they are a way outside the door, outside of the house, as I approach the door, I smell it. I do not see it. I do not hear it. But I smell it.
Brothers and sisters, scent is a very subtle thing—very subtle.
When you come to the life of our Lord Jesus as God’s reaction, you will find that He judges not by hearing and not by seeing the visible. The Lord never judges anyone just by sight. He never judges anyone by what He hears from you. No. He judges by His scent.
This is spiritual discernment. This is an inward ability. It is not based upon appearance.
Our Lord Jesus has a special sense, a special smell. He knows without seeing you or without hearing a word from you. He knows exactly what you are, where you are, and where you stand. He judges by that. That is spiritual discernment.
This discernment is based on the fear of the Lord. Where does this discernment come from? How do you develop this discernment? In the fear of the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus never needs you to tell Him anything. He never needs to see anything. He knows you. He has a spiritual knowledge there. He smells something, and as He smells, He judges. Therefore, His judgment is always true.
He does not deal with you by what you appear to be. He never deals with you by what people say about you. He judges by His scent.
You remember the Lord Jesus said that His judgment is true. Why? His judgment is righteous. Why? Because He does not judge according to Himself, but judges according to the One who sent Him and for the glory of the One who sent Him. Therefore, His judgment is always accurate and true.
As you grow in the Lord, as you grow in the fear of the Lord, your spiritual scent will also grow with you. You remember what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:
For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that One died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, that they that live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto Him who for their sakes died and rose again.
Wherefore we henceforth know no man after the flesh: even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know Him so no more.
Dear brothers and sisters, we know each other after the flesh. In other words, we know by hearing and seeing. We know each other by seeing what you are and what you do. We know each other by hearing what you say, or what is said about you by others. We know each other after the flesh.
What a mistake Paul made with Christ. When he judged Christ after the flesh, he judged Christ as an impostor, as One who deserved to be persecuted. He persecuted the followers of Christ from Jerusalem even to Gentile cities.
But when Christ met him on the road to Damascus, yes, his eyes were blinded, and yes, his scent was injured. He said, “I no longer know Christ after the flesh. I know Him in the Spirit.” Because of that, he knew nobody after the flesh, but he knew everybody according to the Spirit.
Paul, following Christ, knew no one after the flesh. He knew people in the Spirit. Because he had that spiritual discernment, he was able to minister to people’s needs.
Spiritual discernment is necessary for ministry. Spiritual discernment is not for criticism. Spiritual discernment is not even for ordinary fellowship. Spiritual discernment is for ministry.
There is a problem: the more you know, the less you are able to fellowship. Why? You know people too well to fellowship. The more you know, the more you are tempted to criticize. Why? Because you know so much.
But, dear brothers and sisters, fellowship is based on love, not on discernment. In order to have fellowship, sometimes you have to close your eyes. It is based on love.
But ministry must be based on discernment. If you do not have that scent, you cannot minister. Why? Because when people are hungry, you think they are full; when people are full, you think they are hungry. You cannot smell. You cannot see. You do not know the real situation.
Spiritual discernment is necessary for ministry. In a sense, we all have that scent in us. Anyone who is born of the Lord has a little scent in him.
If you read 1 John, you will find that even when John wrote to the little children, he said, “Little children, the spirit of antichrist is in this world. But you know.” Even if your knowledge is very limited, the spirit of antichrist is already in the world. How can you be kept from the spirit of antichrist? There is the anointing within you, and the anointing within you will keep you and teach you.
Is it not true? Sometimes you go to hear a person. He may preach the Word of God with great eloquence, or he may preach the Word of God with much truth in it. But when you listen to that person, somehow you smell something.
You cannot put your finger on it. You do not know what it is because you do not have the knowledge, yet you do smell that something is not quite right. There is something in that person. There is something in what he says. It looks all right, it appears all right, yet it is not right. You sense something within you. Brothers and sisters, that is scent.
That sense is in the fear of the Lord. Even with little children, that will keep us from hurt and harm. But this spiritual sense needs to be developed. How is this to be developed? In the fear of the Lord.
The more you live in the fear of the Lord, the more spiritual sense will be developed. As this spiritual sense is developed, then you are able to judge; you are able to minister.
Here you find our Lord Jesus: His scent is in the fear of the Lord, and He shall judge the poor and the meek. Who are the poor and the meek? The poor and the meek are those who are redeemed by the Lord. So far as the world is concerned, they are the poor and the meek. But the Lord shall judge them with equity. The Lord shall punish the wicked.
Why? Because He girds Himself with righteousness and faithfulness.
Now, here is a problem. The judgment of the Lord is often beyond our understanding. Probably you think, if the Lord is to judge the poor and the meek, and also the wicked, why is it that today you find the poor and the meek suffering, while the wicked seem to prosper? Where is the judgment of the Lord? How does He judge? Does He know how to judge? Has He judged rightly? Oftentimes we have such questions.
If you are poor, you find that you are oppressed. If you are meek, you find that you are deprived. If you are wicked, you find that you prosper. Where is the Lord? Where is His judgment? Where is His righteousness? Where is His faithfulness?
Remember one thing. The Bible says, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” If you are meek, it may seem that today you will lose the earth.
Suppose you are very meek and you have a property, and your next-door neighbor begins to expand his house into your property. Because you are meek, you will lose the earth. Yet the Bible says, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” What does that mean?
The judgment of the Lord is beyond our understanding. Let me read a passage that will probably explain a little.
In the New Testament, in 2 Thessalonians 1, you know that the young church in Thessalonica was greatly persecuted. They suffered a great deal, so Paul wrote his letter to comfort them. In 2 Thessalonians 1:4-5, he says:
So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions which ye endure;
Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God; to the end that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer.
Think of it. They were being persecuted and afflicted, and Paul said this was a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God. Why did they suffer? Was it because they did something wrong? No. Because they did something right. Yet they were persecuted; they were in tribulation.
Paul said this is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God: that you are persecuted, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for the sake of which you also suffer.
By all appearances, those who loved the Lord were persecuted and suffered. Yet Paul said this was the manifest token of the righteous judgment of God. How? You were counted worthy to be persecuted and to suffer for the kingdom of God, and you were given grace for endurance and faith.
This is a manifest token of the righteous judgment. In other words, you have the kingdom of God in you.
Oftentimes we look at things only for the present. If you see judgment only for the present, then you find that the whole thing is distorted. The righteous seem to suffer; the wicked seem to prosper.
But, dear brothers and sisters, if you can see far enough, the Lord is judging. The Lord is judging.
Those who are righteous suffer that they may be counted worthy for the kingdom of God. Your suffering is for the kingdom of God. If you do not suffer, you cannot enter into the kingdom of God. If you are not willing to suffer, you are not qualified to enter into the kingdom of God.
But while you suffer, you are given grace to endure. You are given faith to continue. Now, this is God’s judgment. Do you see the point?
In verse 6, Paul continues:
If so be that it is a righteous thing with God to recompense affliction to them that afflict you,
And to you that are afflicted rest with us, at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of His power.
It is true: the wicked today seem to prosper. But their prosperity is also a righteous judgment of God. God permits them to prosper so that they may be ready for the day of slaughter.
Just as you feed a hog, you let the hog grow. Why? For the day of slaughtering. That is God’s judgment.
Oh, brothers and sisters, that is the way the Lord judges. That is why it is always beyond us and oftentimes misunderstood. If only you can see what is in view, if only you can see the end, then you will find that His judgment is righteous and His judgment is faithful.
He is dealing very faithfully with you. He is dealing very righteously with you, and you will not misunderstand Him. Why? Because He judges by His scent. He is not wrong at all. He is right.
What will be the ultimate result? What will be the consummation? The Lord is judging. The Lord has been and is still judging. Even today the Lord is judging. He is judging with equity. He is judging with righteousness and faithfulness. Even though we may not see it to be so, yet He is.
What will happen ultimately? At the very end, as He judges and judges and judges, He will bring in His kingdom.
At the very end, you will find that the kingdom of God shall come upon this earth. This is the way it should come. The spiritual reality must be here first before there can be the physical manifestation of the kingdom of God.
Do you think that the kingdom of God will suddenly drop out of heaven upon the earth? Not so. Not so.
The kingdom of God will come upon this earth because, through the twenty centuries, the Lord is preparing the ground. The Lord is judging. The Lord is preparing His people. The Lord is bringing in the reality of the kingdom.
The spirit of the kingdom shall fill this earth first. There shall be a people who are filled with the spirit of the kingdom. When this has arrived, then the kingdom of God shall publicly be manifested upon this earth. That is the millennial kingdom of one thousand years.
From Isaiah 11:6 onward, we find this description:
And the wolf 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.
And the cow and the bear shall feed;
Their young ones shall lie down together;
And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp,
And the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.
This is a description of the kingdom of God on earth.
The curse of sin is removed. God has restored everything, the whole creation, to His original design. A general restitution has come upon this earth. You find that not only will the lion not attack the ox, but the lion will eat straw like the ox. The very nature, the carnivorous nature, of the lion is changed. He is no longer a meat-eating animal; he becomes a vegetarian. His very nature is changed.
Brothers and sisters, that is what happened in the garden of Eden. It is a reversal of the curse of fallen man. Before man fell, in the garden of Eden, all these animals lived together in peace. But it was the sin of man that changed the nature of everything: it changed the nature of man, it changed the nature of the animals, it changed the nature of the grass and everything. That is the curse.
But here you find that, through Christ, the redemption of Christ reaches not only to man but to the whole creation. The whole creation is redeemed and restored to its original state. Nature itself is transformed.
Why? The reason is:
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.
When the knowledge of the Lord fills the earth as the waters cover the sea, nothing will hurt or destroy. It is the knowledge of the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, how important is the knowledge of the Lord. Oh, how important that we know Him. Why? Because knowing Him is not just knowing something in your mind, filling your mind and making your brain big, as it were. No. Knowing the Lord transforms.
What is the power of transformation? The knowledge of the Lord. Why is this world like what we see today? It is because of the lack of the knowledge of the Lord.
When the knowledge of the Lord shall fill the earth as waters fill the sea, then nothing hurts. Oh, brothers and sisters, how we look forward to that day when the kingdom of God shall come upon this earth.
How will the kingdom of God come upon this earth? Through Christ. He is God’s reaction. Through Christ, He brings in His judgment. He brings in the kingdom upon Israel. He shall be as a banner, and all the nations shall flow to Him.
That is the beautiful picture of the consummation of God’s reaction to this world: through one Person, Christ.
So, dear brothers and sisters, do remember this: the principle of God’s reaction is Christ. If we allow Christ to judge us, if we learn to submit ourselves under His mighty hand, in due time He will exalt us. To Him be all the praise.
Our heavenly Father, how we praise and thank Thee that Thy Son, our Lord Jesus, is Thy reaction to all things. We do praise and thank Thee that He does judge by His scent, not by hearing, not by seeing. Whatever He judges is right and faithful.
So, Lord, we just commit ourselves to Thee afresh, trusting in Thee and Thy judgment, knowing that Thou art preparing us for Thy kingdom. Thou bring Thy kingdom upon this earth. Lord, our prayer is, “Thy kingdom come.” In Thy precious name. Amen.