Well good evening everyone and welcome to my fifty sixth episode. Tonight, I want to shift back to the book of Isaiah and work through the rest of chapter 11. The theme of this chapter is the deliverance of God’s people from evil and the restoration of creation. The idea is that in Christ’s eternal kingdom evil and suffering will be gone forever. So let’s go ahead and get started with verses 6-8:
6 In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard will lie down with the baby goat. The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion, and a little child will lead them all. 7 The cow will graze near the bear. The cub and the calf will lie down together. The lion will eat hay like a cow. 8 The baby will play safely near the hole of a cobra. Yes, a little child will put its hand in a nest of deadly snakes without harm.
These verses are describing a golden age of perfect peace and tranquility. As Christians, we know that this perfection is not possible until Christ returns to establish His kingdom. And that’s valuable knowledge because it prevents us from attempting to construct a utopia on our own ideologies. You should know that the natural order of things today is not aligned with God’s intended order for nature. God’s intended order does not include predator and prey, suffering and death. All of creation is cursed at this moment. But we know that God values His creation and that He intends to redeem it. That means we should also value creation and be good stewards of it. Listen to what Paul says about the cursed creation being redeemed in Romans 8:18-22:
18 Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. 19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. 20 Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, 21 the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. 22 For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
I want you to notice this piece about creation being freed from its bondage to death and decay. This verse is interesting because it could be understood as a poetic representation of the second law of thermodynamics, which is called entropy. Entropy means that the entire universe is moving from a state of order to disorder. It’s also losing heat. The only way to move this needle back in the other direction is by consuming and expending energy. This is a big part of the reason why you need to eat food. If you stopped eating right now, eventually your vital organs would shut down and you would die. Then your body would decompose until it returned to dust. We can delay this process in life by way of an energy transaction within our bodies.
Entropy is also one of the reasons why I never thought that a nihilistic worldview made any sense. If there is no God and if there is nothing after death, then our only hope is the continuation of our descendants. But when you factor in entropy, even the continuation of our descendants makes no sense. This is because without God, eventually the universe itself is going to suffer a heat-death and all that was will cease to exist. That is unless you make the claim that our descendants will be able to enter into a separate universe, a separate dimension, or reverse entropy altogether. But at that point you are arguing for something that requires far more faith than God. Okay let’s look at verse 9:
9 Nothing will hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for as the waters fill the sea, so the earth will be filled with people who know the Lord.
In the book of Job it says that humanity will be at peace with the stones of the field and its wild animals will be at peace with us. When we think of wild animals being at peace with us it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. But for people in the ancient middle east, this would have sounded like a miracle that was impossible in scope. There were, and are still some parts of the world where you just don’t go into the woods. It’s way too dangerous. In the ancient near east, hospitality and welcoming a sojourner into your home was emphasized as a great act because failure to do so could very well result in that person to being eaten. But this will no longer be a danger when Christ returns. Ezekiel says that we will be able to camp safely in the wildest places and sleep in the woods without fear. Listen to what God says about this in the book of Hosea 2:18:
18 On that day I will make a covenant with all the wild animals and the birds of the sky and the animals that scurry along the ground so they will not harm you. I will remove all weapons of war from the land, all swords and bows, so you can live unafraid in peace and safety.
Also notice how it says that the earth will be filled with people who know the Lord. Habakkuk says that the earth will be filled with an awareness of the glory of the Lord. It is this awareness that will bring peace. It’s not an abdication of free will – it’s not slavery to God – it’s just those who belong to Christ choosing to obey Him out of love. Okay moving on to verse 10:
10 In that day the heir to David’s throne[a] will be a banner of salvation to all the world. The nations will rally to him, and the land where he lives will be a glorious place.[b]
Christ is being referred to as a banner of salvation to all of the world – and in Luke’s Gospel He is called the light to reveal God to the nations – He is the glory of Israel. Paul quotes this passage in Romans 15 when he’s explaining that Christ came to save Jews and Gentiles alike and that all people may place their hope in Him. This banner of salvation idea also makes reference to how Moses had lifted up the bronze snake on the pole to save the Israelites in Numbers chapter 21. John’s Gospel uses that scene as an analogy for how Christ must also be lifted up on the cross so that everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life. Let’s look at verse 11:
11 In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to bring back the remnant of his people—those who remain in Assyria and northern Egypt; in southern Egypt, Ethiopia,[c] and Elam; in Babylonia,[d] Hamath, and all the distant coastlands. 12 He will raise a flag among the nations and assemble the exiles of Israel. He will gather the scattered people of Judah from the ends of the earth.
These are interesting verses because they are dual prophecies. They have what is called a near-future meaning and a distant-future meaning. The near-future fulfillment of this prophecy would happen after Judah had been exiled to Babylon. In the year 538 B.C., almost 50 years after Judah was exiled, the Persian King Cyrus would issue a decree releasing the remnant of God’s people so that they could return to their land. The distant-future fulfillment of this prophecy won’t take place until Christ establishes His kingdom. These locations: Hamath in the north, Egypt in the south, Assyria and Babylon in the east, and the distant coast lands in the west, represented the furthest corners of the known world. So in the distant-future fulfillment of this prophecy, Christ will come to reign over the earth and all his people throughout the world will be regathered to Him. Now let’s look at verses 13-14:
13 Then at last the jealousy between Israel[e] and Judah will end. They will not be rivals anymore. 14 They will join forces to swoop down on Philistia to the west. Together they will attack and plunder the nations to the east. They will occupy the lands of Edom and Moab, and Ammon will obey them.
These verses are predicting unity between the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. The prophet Jeremiah predicts this unity as well when he says that the people of Judah and Israel will return together from exile in the north. He says they will return to the land God gave their ancestors as an inheritance forever. Listen to how Ezekiel remarks on this unity in chapter 37:16-17:
16 “Son of man, take a piece of wood and carve on it these words: ‘This represents Judah and its allied tribes.’ Then take another piece and carve these words on it: ‘This represents Ephraim and the northern tribes of Israel.’[a] 17 Now hold them together in your hand as if they were one piece of wood.
That’s a very poetic description of the reunion of Israel and Judah. There’s a point to be made here. Human beings from all across the world are always going to have differences between each other. We can resist descending into tribalism if we shift our focus away from our differences and toward what we have in common. I know you hear this trope all the time and yet no one seems to follow it. I think the reason is because our differences outmatch our commonality when it comes to motivational power – unless we unite under Jesus. When we give ourselves fully unto the Lord, then no matter where in the world we go, we will be able to find others who share that commonality with us. Jesus has the power to transform people who are totally foreign to each other into brothers and sisters in Christ. That’s a powerful tool for diplomacy as well as global stability and communication.
Before we move on to the final verses, I want you to notice the names of the nations listed in verse 14: Philistia, Edom, Moab and Ammon. These were the people who watched and rejoiced when Judah fell. Then they swooped in to take their land. But now it’s their turn to face judgment. We can learn from these nations that it’s never a good idea to kick someone when they are down. Okay now we have verses 15-16:
15 The Lord will make a dry path through the gulf of the Red Sea.[f] He will wave his hand over the Euphrates River,[g] sending a mighty wind to divide it into seven streams so it can easily be crossed on foot. 16 He will make a highway for the remnant of his people, the remnant coming from Assyria, just as he did for Israel long ago when they returned from Egypt.
So we should remember that God will always provide the way for His people. During the Exodus, He parted the Red Sea so His people could make it through to the Promised Land. And in the book of Joshua He stops the flow of the Jordan River so that His people could cross into where He wanted them to go. Isaiah is predicting that God will once again provide the way for the remnant to return as well as for all of His people to be regathered at the second coming of Christ.
But there’s one more nuance that I want to point out in these verses. The Red Sea event and the Jordan River event were both examples of God pulling off the impossible by way of miracle. But the people still had to act in both events. The people still needed to have the faith to step out into the dried area where the water once was. Faith in action is how we can make it to the Promised Land in this life. If you have no faith, then your reality is a lifespan that is a wisp of vapor and your reality is watching everyone you love be taken from you forever. That’s what life looks like without faith. That’s the void of nihilism.
Without faith, it’s nearly impossible to put off what feels good today in the hope that doing so will bring you a better tomorrow. Why would you spend any of your time helping someone else when you could spend it helping yourself or your family? Why would you waste any time loving your enemy if all we have are these precious years here on earth? But that picture changes when you begin your relationship with Jesus Christ. Life just looks different in light of eternity. If we will allow our faith to give us the courage to step out into the unknown, God will provide and He will be the One to take care of the impossible things. He will part the Red Seas and stop up the Jordan Rivers that stand in your way. All we have to do is trust Him and get to work.
If you find this content valuable, feel free to share it and to use it in your own studies. If you’d like to support this podcast, you can do so at www.patreon.com/michaelhbaun. There is a link in the description. Your generosity goes a long way to promoting the growth of this enterprise and the cause of free speech. Thank you all for joining me this evening, and I will see you in the next episode.
The MHB Podcast 