CHAPTER 11 May 21 
Perfect Justice in Messiah’s Kingdom
A shoot will come out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots will bear fruit. 2The Spirit of Yahweh will rest on him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Yahweh. 3His delight will be in the fear of Yahweh; he will not judge by the sight of his eyes, neither decide by the hearing of his ears; 4but with righteousness he will judge the poor, and decide with equity for the humble of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked. 5Righteousness will be the belt of his waist and faithfulness the belt of his loins. 6The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat; the calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf together; and a little child will lead them. 7The cow and the bear will graze, their young ones will lie down together. The lion will eat straw like the ox, 8the nursing child will play near a cobra’s hole, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. 9They will not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of Yahweh, as the waters cover the sea.

The Exiles Will Return

10It will happen in that day that the nations will seek the root of Jesse, who stands as a banner of the peoples; and his resting place will be glorious. 11It will happen in that day that the Lord will set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant that is left of His people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. 12He will set up a banner for the nations and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. 13The envy also of Ephraim will depart, and those who persecute Judah will be cut off. Ephraim won’t envy Judah, and Judah won’t persecute Ephraim. 14They will fly down on the shoulders of the Philistines on the west. Together they will plunder the children of the east. They will extend their power over Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon will obey them. 15Yahweh will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with His scorching wind He will wave His hand over the River, and will split it into seven streams, and cause men to march over in sandals. 16There will be a highway for the remnant that is left of His people from Assyria, like there was for Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.

Commentary

11:1 Jesus was the branch whose root was in David, son of Jesse; He was a literal descendant of David through Mary (Acts 2:30). He therefore couldn’t have personally pre-existed before His birth of her.
11:2 These words were clearly true of Christ (Lk. 4:18). 
11:4 The descriptions of how Christ in His life and future Kingdom would bring justice to the poor is set within the context of Isaiah’s repeated condemnation of Judah for not doing justice to the poor (3:14; 10:2). He would be an embodiment of all that God’s people ought to have been; had they followed God’s commandments, they could have been His Kingdom on earth. But they failed, as we do. Therefore Christ is presented as the essence of God’s Kingdom, it’s even one of His titles (Lk. 17:21). If we want to understand what the Kingdom of God will essentially be like, we must look at the character of Christ. If that’s not what we wish to be in ourselves 24/7, there will be no point in our being in His Kingdom. But if we long to be like that, and for the whole world to be as Him, then the coming Kingdom of God is truly good news for us.
11:9 A clear prophecy of God’s future Kingdom to be established on earth under Christ’s rulership- and not in Heaven.