No matter how bleak or confusing our today, we can know hope
By Dean Collins
It was a devastating picture. The plight of God’s chosen looked bleak as the Assyrians exerted their power and control. But just as punishment came to God’s chosen for their idolatry and unfaithfulness, so too would punishment come to the proud Assyrians. They misunderstood their role. Their arrogance and lack of respect for God and for his chosen would end. God would cut them down like mighty trees, felled “with terrifying power” (see Isaiah 10:33, 34).
But Isaiah 11 opens with hope. Even as God’s own had experienced devastation, the prophet declared that a shoot would come forth from the stump of Jesse. The promises found in 2 Samuel would come true. The words of Samuel and of Isaiah were hard to imagine. Human minds find it hard to visualize God’s promises. The people alive in Isaiah’s time could hardly imagine the line of King David being saved. Yet from this stump, a shoot would come and grow stronger. And ultimately a messiah, the Messiah of God, would appear and rule forever.
When things look bleak
When things look bleak it’s hard to see past them. Here in 2021, it’s frankly hard to understand if things look bleak or not. It depends on the news. Or maybe the politics. Or maybe the economy. Or maybe the pandemic. Or actually none of the above.
What we need to somehow grasp with the eyes of faith is the shoot from the stump as it continues to grow and spread her branches. Our eyes haven’t seen what the disciples saw in the flesh, Jesus, the Messiah of God, doing miracles. Our ears did not hear the sound of the voice of our Savior as he taught the people about the Kingdom of God. But our eyes of faith have seen and have heard. And we believed and accepted this truth.
The Spirit of God rests on the Son and our Savior Jesus. And he will make—is making—all things right. He is sowing his seed through us as we await his second coming. Wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, knowledge and awe direct him.
Our faulty default
One of our problems in navigating our current challenges is that we default to making judgments and decisions based on what we see with our eyes and hear with our ears. It’s hard to admit that no one can see it all or know it all, yet we cling to the words and pictures we are given. We’re confident our sources are the right ones. And they probably have some of the truth, but they do not yet have all the truth.
But the one on whom the Spirit of God fully rests does have the whole story. And he is still spreading his Kingdom reign, even in this season of confusion and fear. And if we pause and silence the noise of all the voices around us and turn to him, we discover his truth and his wisdom. We remember our role and our purpose. We have been offered the mind of Christ. We’ve been grafted onto the vine. Our eyes and hearts can be enlightened.
His Kingdom comes!
This probably doesn’t mean you will discover the cure for all diseases or possess the secrets of economic stability. But we can know and be led by the One who is coming again to rule over all things. We can obey and follow him as he leads us in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. We can pray and watch God answer our prayers and see in little and big ways his Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven.
We’ve seen far more than Isaiah could ever have imagined. We know what is promised and that the promises are secure.
Do not allow pictures of devastation or words of doom to fill you. Remember the shoot from the stump of Jesus. Hope is coming.
Your time with God’s Word
Isaiah 11:1-5; 2 Samuel 7:9-10, 12-13, 16; Romans 12:2; Philippians 2:2-5; Ephesians 1:7-11, 15-23 ESV
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