the Kingdom of the Messiah
Isaiah 10:33-34; Isaiah 11:1-9
The advance of the Assyrian along the great north road is graphically described. It was marked by raided villages and towns. The night sky was lurid with flames. But his collapse would be as sudden and irretrievable as the felling of forest timber. As the one chapter closes we can almost hear the crash of the Assyrian tree to the ground, and there is no sprout from his roots. But in the next the prophet descries a fair and healthy branch uprising from the trunk of Jesse's line. The vision of the King is then presented, who can be none other than the divine Redeemer on whom rests the sevenfold Spirit of God. The second verse defines the work of the Comforter, and is evidently the model of that royal hymn, Veni Creator Spiritus. But remember that He on whom this divine unction rested longs to share the pentecostal gift with the least of His disciples, 1 John 2:27. Note that as man's sin brought travail and groaning on all creation, so will His redemption deliver it, Romans 8:19-25.