Having
fully established Isaiah’s prophetic identification in chapter 11, of the
coming Messiah as none other than Jesus of Nazareth, we can now more
specifically investigate the core of this passage, regarding the very person
and attitude of our divine human Savior, Jesus himself!
Jesus
is indeed the Shoot from Jesse’s stump, the Branch that bears much fruit, and
also the Stone who grows into a mountain, as revealed to the prophet Daniel,
recorded in his second chapter.
Knowing,
without any doubt, that we have the prophetic spiritual bona fides of Jesus,
unfolded before us here by Isaiah, we can then clearly see our Lord in all His
magnificence, and more specifically in His perfect characteristic of “delighting
in the fear of the Lord.”
We
can then carry on to learn from and to emulate Jesus, as we grow in grace and
by the workings of the Holy Spirit, within our own hearts.
With Isaiah, we also
choose to gaze lovingly and longingly at our Lord Jesus, who not only fulfilled
everything prophetically written about Him hundreds of years before, but was so
astounding in His self-revelation of the full Godhead, that He completely
reduced the prior conceptualizations of His followers, and totally redirected those
who believed in Him, into new dimensions of revelation.
As the apostle Peter
wrote so aptly, for all of us who have been called to leave behind our small
worlds of self-centered comfort and false fulfillment, to grow more completely
in our own following of Jesus unconditionally, unapologetically, unabashedly,
unreservedly, and unswervingly:
1 PETER 1:8 Without
having seen Him, you love Him; though you do not [even] now see Him, you
believe in Him and exult and thrill
with inexpressible and glorious (triumphant, heavenly) joy. 9 [At the same time]
you receive the result (outcome, consummation) of your faith, the salvation of
your souls. 10 The
prophets, who prophesied of the grace (divine blessing) which was intended for
you, searched and inquired earnestly about this salvation. 11 They
sought [to find out] to whom or when this was to come which the Spirit of
Christ working within them was indicating when He predicted the sufferings of
Christ and the glories that should follow [them]. 12 It
was then disclosed to them that the services they were rendering were not meant
for themselves and their
period of time, but for you. [It is these very] things which have now already
been made known plainly to you by those who preached the good news (the Gospel)
to you by the [same] Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Into these things [the very]
angels long to look!
Though we are looking
at Him from our vantage point centuries in future, just as the prophets did
from their place in the long past, yet all seeing one single revelation of who
He really is now in glory, and who He was as He walked the earth in His own
day, overflowing with love and ministry wherever He went, with whoever He
touched.
This focus should
bring all of us into the same state of marvelously joyful reverie, as we deepen
our true knowledge of Jesus, coming closer together with all those past saints
and beings who worship Him face-to-face in the throne room of heaven itself, as
believers and children of God, from every time and place!
We are each so
privileged and grateful to be enabled, as we joined together with this adoring
eternal company of the prophets and the angels, in one company glimpsing our
Lord Jesus, through His word and by His Spirit, preparing our hearts to be in
His presence forever and forevermore!
Our united, adoring
company can also begin to see in some measure just who Jesus is, not only from
the outside, but through the Holy Spirit inspired insights of the Prophets and
the Apostles, into the very core of His divine human being!
Neil Uniacke
Executive Director
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