Learning from Isaiah – Come, All You Who Are Thirsty

Isaiah 55:1-3

1 “Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.

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Learning from Isaiah 11 – The Sevenfold Spirit of God

Isaiah 11:1-3 – “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him; the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord –

– and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.”

Isaiah 11 is a prophecy about Jesus Christ, written about 700 years before he was born.  Jesus is the Shoot or the Branch who comes from the nation of Israel (the “stump of Jesse”).  Many other prophecies call Jesus “the Branch,” the “Shoot,” and the “Root” (see Psalm 80:15; Isaiah 4:2; Isaiah 53:2; Zechariah 3:8; Zechariah 6:12; Romans 11:16-18; Romans 15:12; Revelation 5:5; Revelation 22:6).  This prophecy also tells us something about the Holy Spirit, which inhabited Jesus and is inseparable from him.  God’s Spirit is sevenfold.  Of course, our mortal minds cannot fully understand or grasp this, as it transcends our mortal experience or comprehension.

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Learning from Isaiah 11 – Jesus, Banner for the Peoples

Isaiah 11:6-11 – “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. ⁷ The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. ⁸ The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest. ⁹ They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

¹⁰ In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious. In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the sea.”

This chapter in Isaiah is a prophecy about the coming of Jesus Christ.  Isaiah lived about 700 years before Jesus came into the world.  He wrote more than any other Old Testament prophet about the coming of the Messiah.  Chapter 11 begins with a description of the sevenfold Spirit of God that would anoint the Messiah (that is, the “Christ”).  It then talks about the peace and harmony that will come when Jesus reigns on earth for 1000 years after His second coming.  When Jesus returns, there will be no more killing, disease, or death.

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