Articles
The Root Of Jesse (Part Three)
“And He will delight in the fear of the Lord, and He will not judge by what His eyes see, nor make a decision by what His ears hear...” (Isaiah 11:3). It is likely that this prophecy is referring to the ability that Christ had to know and discern the hearts of men, and not just the outside manifestations of their intent. On numerous occasions, Jesus looked deep into the soul of His accusers to know why they questioned Him. At other times, He used this ability to look into the souls of those who had faith in Him, to test them to see whether or not their intentions were pure. The lesson for us is that God knows what we are thinking. He knows the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Hebrews 4:12). He judges based on the inside, rather than the outside of a person (1 Samuel 16:7).
“But with righteousness He will judge the poor, and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; and He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked” (11:4). See also Psalm 2:7-9 as a complement to this verse. Truly, Jesus came to the world to save sinners (Matthew 9:12, 1 Timothy 1:15), so in that sense He came to judge all of the spiritually poor and afflicted of the world. If we humble ourselves, and accept that we are spiritually lacking, Christ will stand beside us on the judgment day and be our Advocate (James 4:8-10). What is so encouraging about this scripture is that it takes only our Lord’s breath to strike down the plans of the evil. With only words He can confuse them and dispel any ideas of success. This is similar to the image of Jesus in Revelation 1:16, in which Jesus is pictured as having a sword coming from His mouth.
“Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins, and faithfulness the belt about His waist” (11:5). A belt could be used in either military garb or regular attire. What makes it such a good analogy for righteousness and faithfulness is that it could be seen by anybody making casual observation of another’s outfit. The belt was worn on the outside. In that sense, the prophecy could be compared to today’s adage, “Wear your righteousness on your sleeve.” Christ did not hide His righteousness and faithfulness, but used them as His standards. We should see ourselves in the same way. We should wear our Christianity like a belt, never afraid to let others know what we believe and where our hope lies (Matthew 5:13-17).
