The Root, The Remnant, and The Return Text: Isaiah 11:10-16
Introduction: The Unfailing Logic of the Gospel
We live in an age that is drunk on the myth of progress, but which has no idea where it is going. Our secular prophets promise a global utopia built on the shifting sands of human autonomy, technological wizardry, and political maneuvering. But what they are actually building is a global tower of Babel, and the confusion of tongues is already well advanced. They dream of unity without a unifier, peace without the Prince of Peace, and a glorious future without God. It is a fool's errand, a chasing after the wind.
The prophet Isaiah, speaking centuries before Christ, lays out a vision for the future of the world that is radically different. It is not a future engineered by man, but one sovereignly orchestrated by God. It is not a horizontal project of human self-improvement, but a vertical intervention of divine grace. The hope Isaiah presents is not in a committee, or a program, or a political party. The hope is in a Person. This Person is the center of all history, the linchpin of reality, and the only hope for a fractured and fallen world.
This passage in Isaiah 11 is a glorious prophecy of the effects of the gospel. It is a postmillennial vision, not in the sense of some lazy, automatic escalator to glory, but in the sense of the hard-fought, blood-bought, Spirit-driven victory of the kingdom of Christ in history. What Isaiah describes here is the logic of the Great Commission. When the Messiah comes, He will not just save a few isolated souls. He will raise a standard that will reorganize the entire world. He will gather a people from every corner of the globe, heal ancient enmities, and accomplish a new and greater Exodus. This is not a description of a parenthetical "church age" before God gets back to His "real" work with ethnic Israel. This is the description of the work of the church, which is the true Israel of God, in the power of the Spirit.
We must read this with gospel eyes. If we try to read this through the lens of newspaper eschatology, looking for literal seven-humped rivers in Egypt and a reconstituted Philistine nation, we will miss the majesty of what is being said. Isaiah is using the language of his own time, the political and geographical realities he knew, to describe the spiritual and global realities of the kingdom of Christ. He is painting a picture of the victory of the gospel, and he is using the brightest colors on his palette.
The Text
Then it will be in that day, That the nations will seek the root of Jesse, Who will stand as a standard for the peoples; And His resting place will be glorious. Then it will be in that day, that the Lord Will again acquire the second time with His hand The remnant of His people, who will remain, From Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Ethiopia, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, And from the coastlands of the sea. And He will lift up a standard for the nations And assemble the banished ones of Israel, And will gather the scattered of Judah From the four corners of the earth. Then the jealousy of Ephraim will depart, And those who assail Judah will be cut off; Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah, And Judah will not assail Ephraim. And they will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines on the west; Together they will plunder the sons of the east; They will stretch out their hands over Edom and Moab, And the sons of Ammon will obey them. And Yahweh will devote to destruction The tongue of the Sea of Egypt; And He will wave His hand over the River With His scorching wind; And He will strike it into seven streams And make men walk over dry-shod. And there will be a highway from Assyria For the remnant of His people who will remain, Just as there was for Israel In the day that they came up out of the land of Egypt.
(Isaiah 11:10-16 LSB)
The Global Rallying Point (v. 10)
The prophecy begins by identifying the catalyst for this worldwide transformation.
"Then it will be in that day, That the nations will seek the root of Jesse, Who will stand as a standard for the peoples; And His resting place will be glorious." (Isaiah 11:10)
"In that day" refers to the Messianic era, the age of the gospel that was inaugurated at Christ's first coming. The central figure is the "root of Jesse." This is a title for the Messiah, Jesus Christ. He is the root of Jesse, the father of David, in the sense that He is David's Lord, the source of his life and authority. But He is also the branch from the stump of Jesse (Isa. 11:1), David's descendant. He is both David's son and David's Lord. This is the mystery of the incarnation that baffled the Pharisees.
And what will this Root of Jesse do? He will "stand as a standard for the peoples." A standard, or an ensign, is a battle flag. It is a rallying point for an army. Christ, lifted up on the cross and now reigning from heaven, is the great rallying point for all of humanity. He is the one to whom all men must look. And the result is astonishing: "the nations will seek" Him. The word here is Gentiles. This is a prophecy of the Great Commission. The gospel is not a tribal religion for the Jews; it is a global summons to every nation, tribe, and tongue.
The Apostle Paul quotes this very verse in Romans 15:12 to prove that his mission to the Gentiles was the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. The gospel age is the age of the great ingathering of the nations. And what do they find when they come to Him? "His resting place will be glorious." This is not talking about a fancy tomb in Jerusalem. The "rest" Christ gives is salvation. It is the Sabbath rest that we enter by faith, ceasing from our own works of self-justification (Hebrews 4:10). It is a glorious rest because it is rest in the glorious, finished work of Christ. It is peace with God, the forgiveness of sins, and the hope of eternal life. This is the glorious rest that the nations are seeking, whether they know it or not.
The Second Exodus (v. 11-12)
Isaiah then describes this great ingathering in familiar terms: a new and greater Exodus.
"Then it will be in that day, that the Lord Will again acquire the second time with His hand The remnant of His people, who will remain... And He will lift up a standard for the nations And assemble the banished ones of Israel, And will gather the scattered of Judah From the four corners of the earth." (Isaiah 11:11-12 LSB)
The Lord will act "the second time." What was the first time? The Exodus from Egypt. That event was the great defining act of salvation in the Old Testament. But Isaiah says God is going to do it again, and this time it will be bigger. The first Exodus was from one nation, Egypt. This second Exodus is from everywhere: Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Ethiopia, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the coastlands of the sea. This is a poetic way of saying "from the four corners of the earth."
And who is He gathering? "The remnant of His people." This is a crucial biblical theme. God has always worked through a faithful remnant. But in the New Covenant, this remnant is not defined by ethnicity, but by faith in Christ. It is composed of both Jews and Gentiles who have been grafted into the olive tree (Romans 11:5). This is "the banished ones of Israel" and "the scattered of Judah." In the gospel, God is reassembling His people, not in a geographical location, but around a Person. The standard is lifted up for the nations (Gentiles), and the result is the gathering of the true Israel, the church of Jesus Christ.
This is not a prophecy about the modern state of Israel. This is a prophecy about the expansion of the kingdom of God through the preaching of the gospel. The banished and scattered are all those who are in exile from God because of sin, both Jew and Gentile. Christ is the standard who calls them home.
The Healing of Old Wounds (v. 13)
This great gathering in Christ will have a profound effect on the internal relationships of God's people.
"Then the jealousy of Ephraim will depart, And those who assail Judah will be cut off; Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah, And Judah will not assail Ephraim." (Isaiah 11:13 LSB)
Ephraim (representing the northern kingdom of Israel) and Judah (the southern kingdom) were rivals. Their history was filled with jealousy, hostility, and civil war. They were the poster children for bitter family feuds. But Isaiah says that in the day of the Messiah, this ancient hostility will be healed. In Christ, the dividing wall of hostility is broken down (Ephesians 2:14). This is true first and foremost of the division between Jew and Gentile, who are made one new man in Christ. But it applies to all the divisions that plague mankind.
In the church, there is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, and we can add, there is no longer Ephraim or Judah. All the old tribal loyalties, the old political squabbles, the old ethnic hatreds are rendered obsolete at the foot of the cross. The unity we have in Christ is more profound and more fundamental than any of the things that divide us in the world. Where the gospel takes root, reconciliation follows. This is the power that heals centuries of strife.
The Victorious Advance of the Kingdom (v. 14-16)
The prophecy concludes with a vivid depiction of the triumphant march of God's redeemed people, using the military and geographical language of Isaiah's day.
"And they will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines on the west; Together they will plunder the sons of the east; They will stretch out their hands over Edom and Moab, And the sons of Ammon will obey them." (Isaiah 11:14 LSB)
This is not a call for literal, military conquest. The Philistines, Edomites, Moabites, and Ammonites were the traditional, perennial enemies of Israel. They represent the hostile world system that is opposed to God and His people. The language of "swooping down" and "plundering" is a metaphor for the victorious advance of the gospel. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:4). We plunder the kingdom of darkness by proclaiming the gospel, which rescues men from the dominion of Satan and brings them into the kingdom of God's dear Son. The nations that once raged against God's people will be subdued by the gospel and brought into obedience to Christ.
The final verses describe the removal of all obstacles to this great return.
"And Yahweh will devote to destruction The tongue of the Sea of Egypt; And He will wave His hand over the River With His scorching wind... And there will be a highway from Assyria For the remnant of His people who will remain, Just as there was for Israel In the day that they came up out of the land of Egypt." (Isaiah 11:15-16 LSB)
Here, the imagery of the first Exodus is explicit and powerful. Just as God parted the Red Sea ("the Sea of Egypt") and brought Israel across the Jordan River ("the River"), He will remove every obstacle that stands in the way of His people coming to Him. The "tongue of the Sea of Egypt" and the "River" (the Euphrates, associated with Assyria) represent the seemingly insurmountable barriers that the world, the flesh, and the devil erect to hinder the gospel. But God, with a mere wave of His hand and the power of His "scorching wind" (a picture of the Holy Spirit), will utterly demolish them.
He will create a "highway from Assyria." This is the highway of holiness Isaiah speaks of later (Isaiah 35:8). It is the way of salvation, made plain and clear by the gospel. God is in the business of removing obstacles and making a way for His remnant to return. The first Exodus was a type, a foreshadowing. The second Exodus, the great salvation accomplished by Christ and applied by the Spirit through the gospel, is the glorious reality. It is a global gathering that no political power, no geographical barrier, and no demonic opposition can stop.
Conclusion: Our Marching Orders
So what does this mean for us, today? It means that we are part of the most glorious, audacious, and victorious enterprise in human history. We are not engaged in a holding action, waiting for the cavalry to arrive and rescue us from a losing battle. We are the cavalry.
The Root of Jesse has been planted. The Standard has been raised. His resting place is indeed glorious. The second Exodus is underway. God is, right now, gathering His people from the four corners of the earth. He is healing ancient hatreds in the church. He is plundering the kingdom of darkness through the faithful proclamation of His Word. He is making a highway for the redeemed.
This is the story we are in. Therefore, our task is not to despair over the morning headlines. Our task is not to retreat into a holy huddle. Our task is to be about the business of the kingdom. It is to preach the gospel, to make disciples, to teach the nations to obey everything that Christ has commanded. It is to live as a reconciled people, demonstrating to a fractured world the unifying power of the cross.
The Philistines and the sons of the east are all around us, arrayed in their modern garb. But the strategy is the same. We are to "swoop down" on them with the truth of the gospel, with lives of radical obedience, and with a joyful confidence in our King. The victory is not in doubt. The Root of Jesse has been established as the standard, and the nations will continue to seek Him until the earth is filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.