To
read: Isaiah 11:1-10
A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow
out of his roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom
and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and
the fear of the Lord. His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not
judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with
righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of
the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the
breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt
around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins. The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den.
They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.
Text from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
To think about:
Isaiah was a court prophet for four kings in Judea in the sixth century B.C. It
was in that time that the northern kingdom of Israel had fallen to the
Assyrians. Hence the king and his court, along with the whole population of
Judea, feared for their safety in front of the military advance of these
despised conquerors.
Much needed in this environment of desperation were words of hope. Isaiah endeavors to provide just such words. There will be better times under the rule of a great king, a Messiah. This messianic time will be an age when God will bring life from death and victory from defeat. For Christians, they, like their master, can be endowed with or blessed with the spirit. You see, the Messiah and his followers have a social conscience. They have a passion for justice. The question for each of us is: Do we have a passion for justice in our daily work? Are we called to serve?
By justice, I mean not what each is due just because of his or her humanity, but rather what each needs as a Child of God. It is hymn writer F. Pratt Green who puts it so well in the fifth stanza of his hymn, The Church of Christ, in Every Age (Lutheran Book of Worship, 433).
We have no mission but to serve in full obedience to our Lord;
To care for all, without reserve, and spread his liberating Word.
Much needed in this environment of desperation were words of hope. Isaiah endeavors to provide just such words. There will be better times under the rule of a great king, a Messiah. This messianic time will be an age when God will bring life from death and victory from defeat. For Christians, they, like their master, can be endowed with or blessed with the spirit. You see, the Messiah and his followers have a social conscience. They have a passion for justice. The question for each of us is: Do we have a passion for justice in our daily work? Are we called to serve?
By justice, I mean not what each is due just because of his or her humanity, but rather what each needs as a Child of God. It is hymn writer F. Pratt Green who puts it so well in the fifth stanza of his hymn, The Church of Christ, in Every Age (Lutheran Book of Worship, 433).
We have no mission but to serve in full obedience to our Lord;
To care for all, without reserve, and spread his liberating Word.
