A PERFECT KING AND KINGDOM
‘A root of Jesse.’
Judah, like an old and decayed tree, in spite of springtime burst of bloom, followed by midsummer witherings, was tottering to its fall. A century and a quarter before that fall, and seven hundred years before the event, Isaiah saw a straight, tall, beautiful second-growth tree spring up from the root. With most beautiful figures and symbolism we are told of the perfect king and kingdom.
I. The king.—He is of David’s line, through which had poured for ages such spiritual revelations for men (Isaiah 11:1). The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him (Isaiah 11:2). What a flush of expressions, what figures of beauty, of gushing life, of justice, of care for the poor, perfectness of equity, what a stinging whip or rod of speech, what smiting of the wicked with words, what girding with righteousness! Thanks be to God for such efflorescence of expressive speech, and to the perfect King for so minutely fulfilling all that mortals inspired of God could utter. Mortals see Him ‘who looks and ten thousands of angels rejoice.’
II. The kingdom.—It is to be peace. To express it, each ferocious animal is coupled with its natural prey, living in perfect affection. All danger to a helpless child ceases, for the kingdom is one of transformed natures. As surely as a persecuting Saul can become a loving Paul, counting it all joy when he has divers persecutions inflicted on him, so surely can all nature, cursed by sin, be changed by grace.
It is a kingdom of knowledge. Even the knowledge of God shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.
It is a universal kingdom. Jews saw Palestine only as the place of the glorious kingdom. But God sitting above the sphere of the earth always saw it all.
It shall be. The Root of Jesse shall be the ensign of the people, and unto him shall the nations seek. Blessed vision. Blessed prophecy. The ages see it being blessedly fulfilled. For the complete fulfilment, ‘Hasten, Lord, the glorious time.’
Illustration
‘Israel, harmonious at last, shall at once be superior in strength to all its neighbours. It is very evident here how the prophet paints the remotest future with the colours of the present. Still in the period of the reign of peace (cf. 2:4) he makes Israel take vengeance on his enemies, and subdue them quite in the fashion that, in the prophet’s time, would be the heart’s desire of a true theocrat.’