Isaiah 11

Because of the importance of Israel and its people, and my personal love for The Land, I’m inviting you to join me through the key Old Testament book of Isaiah.  Each day I’m posting some simple thoughts about this complex prophet.

Isaiah 11.

“A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse, from his roots a branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD – Adonai – will rest on Him. The Spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, fear (awe) of the LORD. Fear-of-God will be all his joy and delight.” (v1, MSG).

Remember Isaiah 6:13? “But there’s a holy seed in those stumps.” The olive tree is fascinating and prolific in The Land. Even when an old tree dies, the roots are still alive. And new shoots rise up, sometimes many feet away from the old tree. And there are so many connections between the olive tree and Jesus. Again, our Messiah shows up on the pages of the Old Testament!

The Jewish word for olive press is transliterated into English “Get-She’me.” Do you remember what happened to Jesus on the night He was betrayed? He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mt. of Olives.  See how similar “Get-She’me” is to “Gethsemane?” The weight of what He was going to do in the next 24 hours for you and me caused Him to sweat drops like blood as He prayed. “And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.” (Luke 22:44 NIV). He was being crushed in the Garden of Gethsemane as if in an olive press.

Here’s another connecting point to the olive tree branches and shoots. The word for “shoot” is transliterated “netzer.”   Jesus was from “Netzer-eth.” Nazareth.

Now look again at the second half of verse 1: “The Spirit of the LORD – Adonai – will rest on Him. The Spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, fear (awe) of the LORD. Fear-of-God will be all his joy and delight.” Jesus was full of the Spirit. It began with His baptism. Here’s what John the Baptizer said about Him: ^“I was there and saw the Spirit come down on him like a dove from heaven. And the Spirit stayed on him. Before this I didn’t know who he was. But the one who sent me to baptize with water had told me, “You will see the Spirit come down and stay on someone. Then you will know that he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.” I saw this happen, and I tell you that he is the Son of God.” (John 1:32-34 CEV).

Three years later we see this: “Then He took a deep breath and breathed into them. “Receive the Holy Spirit.”” (John 20:22 MSG). When Jesus breathed on His disciples, He breathed on us! So, this same Spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, fear/awe, joy and delight are ours too!

Thanks to the shoot from the stump of Jesse as foretold in Isaiah 11!

(c) 2020. Rich Ronald.