NOTES for Isa 11:1-16
Today's reading offers us one of Isaiah's best-known messianic prophecies. Before us is a messianic hymn describing not only the Messiah Himself but also certain features of the messianic Kingdom. Of course, Isaiah still sees the Messiah here in the image of an earthly king, a descendant of David (‘the son of Jesse’, v. 1), but the prophet immediately says of this king that he will be guided by God and that God's spirit will rest upon him (vv. 2–3).
The Messiah's chief task, as it is revealed to Isaiah, is the complete transformation of the whole life of God's people: He is to establish just laws in the country, in accordance with the Torah, and, as ruler, become a just judge for His subjects (vv. 3–5). But it does not end there. For no ruler and judge, even one guided by God, can change the laws of nature. Yet here they change so that animals which ordinarily cannot be at peace near one another become capable of peaceful coexistence (vv. 5–7). The hostility of certain members of the animal world towards human beings evidently disappears as well (v. 8). Such a thing would probably be possible in a world not yet corrupted by the Fall. Apparently, this is precisely what Isaiah has in mind: for him, the coming of the Messiah becomes a return to the origins, to the days when the world did not yet know sin.
Of course, the Kingdom to which Jesus bears witness is not the Garden of Eden, for He speaks not of the world's return to its state before the Fall, but of its transfiguration, of something this world has never known before. Yet the transfigured world and the world of which Isaiah speaks have something in common: neither knows evil or sin. Apparently, this was the most important point for Isaiah: he knew that before the Messiah appeared, the world would have to pass through Judgment, and that one can pass through it only by being completely freed and cleansed from sin. The full picture of the transfigured world had not yet been revealed to Isaiah, but he saw one thing with perfect clarity: there would be no place for any sin in it, and therefore it would also be free from evil.
Perhaps that is why he sees the Messiah precisely as a righteous ruler and judge. What we have here is more a symbol than an image of the actual Messiah, Christ, but this symbol is filled with profound meaning: for Isaiah, the Messiah embodies God's righteousness, and in this the prophet was undoubtedly entirely right. This is how the Messiah was revealed to Isaiah of Jerusalem; He will be revealed differently to other prophets, and His image will gradually become clearer, drawing ever closer to that of the Gospel.