Isaiah 11 paints a beautiful picture of the coming redemption… but it also lays out some of the hard twists and turns it will take to get there.
It seems like the world is speeding up somehow. With the Middle East taking dramatic twists and turns, President Trump moving at the speed of light, powers rising and falling, alliances flipping and forming — everything can change from one day to another. This is a rollercoaster time to be alive. In order not to get sea sick, we need to hold on tight to the Word of God, keeping our eyes firmly fixed on the horizon: Yeshua, our anchor and our hope.
Prophecies in the Bible, such as the book of Isaiah, have much to say about what is to come. In fact a third of the entire Bible is prophecy. Sometimes we get so used to having the Scriptures on hand that we get nonchalant, treating the warnings and instructions like the laminated card in the back of the airplane seat in front of us. Sure we might give a cursory glance at it but once the airplane starts to make unexpected noises, people will start grabbing that guide and start reading it for all its worth.
A blood moon and a red river
Rather ominously, this Purim in Israel there was a big blood moon hanging in the sky. A lunar eclipse in ancient Mesopotamia was considered “a direct assault on the king”, a portent signifying their imminent downfall.1 At a time of tyrants with no hope of electing a new king democratically, blood moons were a taken as sign that the leader’s time was up. Rabbi David Kimchi (known as the RaDaK, 1160–1235) also expressed his belief that a blood moon is an omen of the downfall of the wicked in his Medieval writings on the prophets.2
Signs in the sky like solar and lunar eclipses are very dramatic, and cause us to look up in wonder. They can be part of God speaking to us, but these natural phenomena don’t necessarily have spiritual significance and blood moons are not so rare. However, the moon turning to blood is mentioned in the Book of Joel as a harbinger of the “Great and terrible Day of the Lord” (Joel 2:31). When that day comes, we will most certainly get a new King!
The Purim story took place in Iran seven centuries ago. Today we are looking to God for another redemption story, another remarkable turnaround in Iran.
Just after Purim this year we saw another alarming natural phenomenon: Iran’s Hormuz beach turned a shocking shade of blood red. It was again a naturally occurring phenomenon caused by the high iron oxide content, but it sure looked spooky. It’s reminiscent of the first plague in the Exodus story, when the River Nile in Egypt was turned to blood. Let’s use these events as reminders to pray for Iran, for Israel, for the whole Middle East and for God’s great plan of redemption for all mankind.
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Just as the Purim deliverance is a story remarkable turnaround: a story of annihilation and violence but with a happy ending, so Passover has the same themes. Starting with systematic genocide of baby boys, unbearable oppression and slavery, the gods of Egypt are assaulted one by one as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob rains down plagues until His people are set free. In one of the most dramatic stories in the entire Bible, God saves His people with a miraculous deliverance, and the tables are turned on Israel’s enemies. However in both stories, we see multitudes of people, from both Egypt and Iran, joining the house of Israel as they witness the redemption that God brings.
In both stories, the peoples of Egypt and Iran give Israel all that they need for the tabernacle and then the temple in order to worship the One True God.
We also see the story of Yeshua’s first coming fits a similar pattern: starting with the genocide of baby boys, fraught with danger and persecution, an apparently hopeless situation which turns around to be the destruction of the enemy and and great joy breaking out as a result.
This is the pattern laid out for us that is repeated throughout Scripture, and will crescendo in the Ultimate Redemption ushering in the Messianic Age.
The promises of Isaiah 11
Here’s a great passage full of promise of the goodness to come:
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf 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 cobra,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.
They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
(Isaiah 11:6-9)
Finally, little ones will be totally safe. People have found the Hebrew names of the Bibas children in this passage, Kfir and Ariel, which mean a lion’s cub and a lion of God. In our devastation about the horrors of war, the passage brings hope and comfort that another reality is coming when Yeshua returns. Wrong will be put right.
However, what people often miss is the chapter before, and what leads to this idyllic state.
Isaiah 10 is a chapter full of judgement and wrath, mostly directed at the enemies of Israel. Isaiah 11 then begins with the promise of redemption and the introduction of the Messiah.
Of course, most Christians immediately identify the “shoot from the stump of Jesse” as Yeshua, Son of David, the son of Jesse, and rightly so. But many leap to the conclusion that the passage is all about the first coming. However, in most Messianic prophecies you’ll see the first AND the second coming in the same passage. Christians tend to see the incarnation, and Jewish people tend to see the grand finale. Both are usually there.
When we read verses 4-5 we are actually seeing a picture of Yeshua at the end of time, ruling and reigning as King of all the earth. He has all power, all authority, and this time He is not holding back:
With righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
and 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 of his waist,
and faithfulness the belt of his loins.
This picture matches Revelation 19:
Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. (Revelation 19:11-13)
This version of the Messiah in Isaiah 11 is now ruling in power and killing the wicked. He is striking the earth and judging its inhabitants. Quite different to the first coming. He is righteous, faithful, and true, but He means business and He has blood on his robe. Whose blood? Not His this time. He is making war against His enemies in order to bring righteousness and justice. This is what it will take to bring about the Eden-like vision of Isaiah 11.
Redemption requires a rescue from enemies
So the story of Purim resembles and repeats the story of Passover, and the ultimate Redemption described in Isaiah 11 — the “Geula” as its known in Hebrew —will also resemble the deliverances manifested in ages past like Passover and Purim, but on a greater level.
Funnily enough, the Passover event, which foreshadowed the redemption from sin and death at calvary, is right in the middle of the story of Purim:
“Upon careful reading of Megillat Esther, we discover that Esther’s soirée with Achashverosh and Haman, and Haman’s sentencing to the gallows, took place on the first days of Pesach!” Rabbi Dr. Kenneth Brander points out. He adds that this fact is mentioned in a Passover song, piyut “Vayehi Bachatzi Halayla,” recited at the end of the seder, and that a rabbi named Magen Avraham suggested adding an extra dish on the second day of Passover “to express our gratitude for the downfall of Haman which occurred on that day”.
These stories are closely related because they are part of the same existential battle that Israel finds itself in today: the ongoing war with Amalek that goes from generation to generation. Satan’s war against God and all that God loves. It’s the fight between good and evil, and we know who wins in the end.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, The Lord Is My Banner, saying, “A hand upon the throne of the Lord! The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.” (Exodus 17:14-16)
Amalek tried to destroy Israel right after the Exodus, and later King Saul was told to wipe them out completely, centuries before the time of Esther. This was a task he failed to accomplish which led to wicked Haman, descended from the king of the Amalekites, standing in the palace of Persia with the same genocidal intentions. The same spirit operates today in opposition to God and His purposes, but the Messiah will ultimately defeat all His enemies.
The sign of the throne of God
In Exodus 17:16, the Hebrew for the words “throne of the Lord” [כס יה] are both spelled unconventionally, missing half their letters. Some have interpreted this to signify a promise from God: “that His Name will not be complete and His throne will not be complete until the name of Amalek is completely obliterated. And when his name is obliterated, the Divine Name will be complete, and the throne will be complete.”3 This refers to Psalm 9, a powerful, imprecatory psalm which describes the final end of Israel’s enemies and God taking His throne forever. When He has soundly defeated His enemies in the spiritual and the natural realms, the Prince of Peace, the Lord of lords and King of kings will take His throne and rule.
In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.
(Isaiah 11:10)
- https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/features/lunar-eclipse-blood-moon-myths-legends-inca-evil-omen-folktales-a8465866.html
- https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/4087075/jewish/Blood-Moons-the-Lunar-Eclipse-and-the-15th-of-Av.htm#footnote2a4087075
- https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/9878/showrashi/true
