TODAY'S TECHNOLOGY IN BIBLE PROPHECY
Lesson 2: A review of the fulfillment of the first two of three
events listed in Isaiah 11, to look for in the years
leading up to Christ's Return.
I Isa. 11: 1-10 introduces Christ's promised reign of peace.
A Isa. 11:1 introduces Christ, "a shoot from the stump
of Jesse," as the main subject of the prophecy.
1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots (Isa. 11:1, RSV).
1 What does "the stump of Jesse" represent?
a (Jesse was the father of King David.)
b The stump of Jesse describes the ancient ruling
family of David that fell into decay after the
Babylonians conquered and destroyed Judah.
2 What does the "shoot from the stump of Jesse"
represent?
- It promises the reestablishment of the throne of
David by one of his obscure descendants.
3 Why is Christ the only person who could fulfill the
prophesied reestablishment of the Davidic kingdom?
a According to Mt. 1, Jesus Christ is the last bibli-
cally recorded descendant of David's kingly line.
b No contemporary Jew, claiming to be a descendant of
king David, could fulfill the prophecies concerning
Christ's First Coming--His birth, ministry, death,
and resurrection.
B Isa. 11:2-5 describes Christ's character and His coming
just rule over the people of the earth.
2 And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the
spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of
counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear
of the LORD.
3 And 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;
4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, . . .
C Isa. 11:6-9 describes Christ's restoration of harmony in
the whole of creation during this age of peace.
6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard
shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the lion
and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead
them (Isa. 11:6, RSV).
D Isa. 11:10 completes the prophetic overview of Christ's
earthly kingdom of peace.
10 In that day the root of Jesse shall stand as an ensign
to the peoples; him shall the nations seek, and his
dwellings shall be glorious (Isa. 11:10, RSV).
1 What is the general sense of the expression "in that
day" mean here?
- It means the following things will also occur
during the days of Christ's rule.
2 What does the word "ensign" mean here?
a Ensign refers to the flag or banner of a nation.
b It is a symbol of the authority of that nation.
c The meaning here is that Christ will be the
authority that the peoples and nations of the earth
will rally around and depend on to ensure world
peace.
3 After reading Isaiah's review of Christ's future
kingdom of peace, a natural question comes to mind:
When will Christ establish His kingdom? Where should
we expect to find answers to this question?
- In Isaiah's continuing prophecy directly following
this text.
II Isa. 11:11-15 lists three successive events that will
precede the prophesied Second Coming of Christ.
A Isa. 11:11-12 lists a second return of the dispersed
nation of Israel to their original homeland to be the
first event to look for in the prophecy's fulfillment.
11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD
shall set his hand again the second time to recover the
remnant of his people, which shall be left, from
Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from
Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath,
and from the islands of the sea (Isa. 11:11).
1 What is the general sense of the expression "And it
shall come to pass in that day" mean here?
- "It," that is, what has just been described in
Isa. 11:1-10--Christ's kingdom of peace--"shall
come to pass," or come about, "in that day"--i.e.,
in the days leading up to the establishment of
Christ's kingdom--according to the events described
next.
2 How do we know that the twentieth century return of
the Jews to their original homeland properly fulfills
this prophecy?
a (Isaiah recorded this prophecy over 100 years before
the Babylonians conquered Judah and carried the
survivors off to Babylon, and some 170 years before
Cyrus the Persian gave some of the Jews permission to
return to Judea.)
b Therefore, Isaiah's deliberate reference here to a
second return explicitly eliminates the first
return of the Jews from the Babylonian Captivity
as a candidate for the prophecy's fulfillment.
c The twentieth century Jews returned from many
nations; the first ingathering only included Jews
returning from Babylon.
3 At this point in the prophecy the question as to what
might make it possible for the Jews to return to
Palestine comes to mind? Quite appropriately, Isaiah
provides the answer in the next verse.
12 He will raise an ensign for the nations, and will
assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather the
dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth
(Isa. 11:12, RSV).
1 What does the statement "He will raise an ensign for
the nations" refer to here?
a Even as an ensign, or military standard, was raised
in battle to rally soldiers to one place for the
purpose of determining the next course of action,
so here does Isaiah predict that a place of
authority would be set up "for the nations" to
rally around for the purpose of making decisions.
b The prophetic flow of the narrative, up to this
point and in what follows, indicates that some
powerful international body would be set up before
the ingathering of the Jews could be accomplished,
"the second time."
c Moreover, that international body would be
instrumental in facilitating the Jews return.
2 What facts support this premise?
a If the ensign represented Christ here, then the
text would not read "he will raise an ensign," but
rather, "he will be an ensign" for the nations.
b Note further that the "and" in the sentence
definitely indicates that the reason for raising
the ensign/international body will be for the
purpose of "assembling the outcasts of Israel, and
gathering the dispersed of Judah from the four
corners of the earth."
c Also note that the rest of Isaiah's text will
clarify these issues further.
3 What historical events support this position?
a In 1917 the British government issued the Balfour
Declaration which supported the Zionist ideal of
establishing a Jewish national home in Palestine.
b In 1919, the Treaty of Versailles that ended
WWI, set up the League of Nations.
- This is the League that Isaiah said would be raised
as "an ensign for the nations in that day" when the
Jews would return to their original homeland from
"the four corners of the earth."
c In 1922 the League of Nations approved a British
mandate over Palestine.
- Thousands of Jews returned to Palestine during the
Mandate years.
d Thus, Isaiah mentioned the League the nations
would establish after WWI because it provided a
legal right of passage for the world's Jews to
return to Palestine.
4 In view of the fact that the fulfillment of this
prophecy was carried out by the nations setting up the
League of Nations, why did Isaiah state "He" [God]
would raise an ensign for the nations?
a Isaiah, as did many of the Hebrew prophets, often
stated that God would carry out a future event for
the purpose of proclaiming the certainty of the
prophecy's fulfillment.
b Isaiah clarified this expressive writing style in
another prophecy that will be covered in a later
lesson.
5 A closer look at the opening statement "the LORD shall
set his hand again the second time to recover the
remnant of his people" (Isa. 11:11), provides further
insight into how the second return of the Jews to
Palestine came to pass according to the letter of the
prophecy.
a The word rendered "to recover" in Hebrew properly
means "to obtain possession of by purchase."
b During WWI the British munitions industry was
straining to overcome a critical shortage of high
explosives due to a shortage of cordite, previously
manufactured with chemicals imported from Germany.
c In 1916 a Russian Jew, Dr. Chaim Weizmann, a
Zionist politician and chemist by trade (who had
sold several patented discoveries in the late
1890s), gave the British valuable assistance by
devising a process to extract acetone (a vital
ingredient of cordite) from maize.
d The explosive unquestionably helped the British win
the war, and aided the Zionist political negotia-
tions Dr. Weizmann was then conducting with the
British government.
e When Dr. Weizmann approached cabinet ministers on
the question of a national home for his people, he
found them receptive.
f The result was the famous Balfour Declaration of
1917 which expressed Britain's official "sympathy
with the cause of the Zionists" and their quest to
establish a national home for the Jewish people in
Palestine.
g Thus, Dr. Weizmann, in effect, used his formula
for the manufacture of high explosives from maize
"to purchase" the legal right of passage for the
world's Jews to return to Palestine.
B Isa. 11: 13-14 lists Israel's conquest of adjacent
territory in a decisive war that would secure more
defensible borders in the southern portion of the newly
established country, as the second event to look for in
the prophecy's fulfillment.
13 The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart, and those who
harass Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not be
jealous of Judah, and Judah shall not harass Ephraim
(Isa. 11:13, RSV).
1 Here begins Isaiah's account of the significant
military actions that actually came to pass in the
1967 Arab-Israeli Six-Day War.
2 Why did Isaiah begin the Six-Day War prophecy with
the comment "the jealousy of Ephraim shall depart?"
- To point out that the jealousy the ancient northern
kingdom of Israel (Ephraim) had for the southern
kingdom (Judah), would be set aside for the sake of
the common commitment to fight together for the
survival of the renewed nation.
3 Why did Isaiah follow his opening remark with the
statement "and those who harass Judah shall be cut
off?"
a To emphasize the success of Israel's united
military front in the Six-Day War.
b In that war the Israeli Defense Force completely
"cut off those who harassed Judah" by overrunning
the former guerrilla strongholds based on the Arab
lands surrounding southern Israel.
14 And they shall fly down upon the shoulder of the
Philistines on the west; Together shall they spoil the
children of the east; They shall put forth their hand
upon Edom and Moab; And the children of Ammon shall obey
them (Isa. 11:14, THS).
1 Isaiah then described the sequence of battle that
Israel actually used to win the 1967 Six-Day War.
a "And they shall fly down upon the shoulder of the
Philistines on the west" was fulfilled in Israel's
opening air strike into the Gaza Strip to her west.
b (Today's Gaza Strip is the same land once
held by the ancient Philistines.)
c "Together shall they spoil the children of the
east." Three hours after Israeli armor punched
through the Gaza Strip's defenses, the descendants
of the ancient contending kingdoms of Israel and
Judah pushed the war eastward into Jordan's West
Bank.
d Four days later they overran Syria's Golan area to
their east as well.
2 "They shall put forth their hand upon Edom and Moab;
And the children of Ammon shall obey them."
a The net effect of Israel's conquest of Jordan's
West Bank weakened Jordan to the extent that "the
children of Ammon have come to obey Israel" instead
of their more powerful neighbors.
b This was obviously apparent in the Yom Kippur War
of 1973 when Jordan ignored Arab pressure to open
another front against Israel.
3 How do we know for certain that this prophecy is
about the 1967 Arab-Israeli Six-Day War?
a The prophecy only describes the successful securing
of the southern half of modern Israel, encompassing
the ancient territory of the kingdom of Judah.
b Israel did not secure the nation's northern border
until 1982 when they invaded Lebanon.