Theological Commentary: Click Here
Discipleship Focus: Protection
- Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One. Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us. Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us. Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear. We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.
Isaiah 11
is a chapter of deliverance. Isaiah
tells the people that the day will come when Assyria will trouble them no
more. There will be a day when the
Hebrew people have a highway to let them out of Assyria and enabled them to
return to their homeland. We know that this
actually did happen – although not within Isaiah’s lifetime. Babylon conquers Assyria as well as
Judah. Then the Persians conquer Babylon
and decree that the Hebrew people may return to their homeland and re-establish
their national identity in God. The
point of this chapter is that God will protect them long enough for that
remnant to return.
In fact, this
chapter is specific about how that will come about. God will lift up shoots from the stump of
Jesse. In other words, leaders will come
from the lineage of David and lead His people home. We know that this happened from a historical
perspective. Zerubabbel is the grandson
of Jehoiachin, who we know to be of the line of David. He is the first to lead people out of
captivity and back into the Promised Land.
Of
course, this chapter is true on a spiritual level as well. We know that this passage likewise points us
to Christ. He is the ultimate shoot from
the stump of Jesse. He leads us away
from the captivity of sinfulness and into a spiritual Promised Land. And God is willing to keep us and protect in
that process as well. God is willing to
protect us from the natural consequences of our own actions and allow us to
know His grace and peace in eternal life.
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