Verses: Isaiah 11:1-9

 

11 A new branch will grow

from a stump of a tree;

so a new king will come

from the family of Jesse

2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon that king.

The Spirit will give him wisdom and understanding, guidance and power.

The Spirit will teach him to know and respect the Lord.

3 This king will be glad to obey the Lord.

He will not judge by the way things look

or decide by what he hears.

4 But he will judge the poor honestly;

he will be fair in his decisions for the poor people of the land.

At his command evil people will be punished,

and by his words the wicked will be put to death.

5 Goodness and fairness will give him strength,

like a belt around his waist.

6 Then wolves will live in peace with lambs,

and leopards will lie down to rest with goats.

Calves, lions, and young bulls will eat together,

and a little child will lead them.

7 Cows and bears will eat together in peace.

Their young will lie down to rest together.

Lions will eat hay as oxen do.

8 A baby will be able to play near a cobra’s hole,

and a child will be able to put his hand into the nest of a poisonous snake.

9 They will not hurt or destroy each other

on all my holy mountain,

because the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord,

as the sea is full of water.

 

• Isaiah talked of coming of a ‘new king’ and a ‘new kingdom’. Let’s read the scriptures again and notice what is the relationship between the ‘new king’ and his people? How will he treat the weak and the poor? And how will he treat the evil people? Can you imagine living in a world like that?

 

• See how the scripture describes the relationship between animals and human, and relationship among animals themselves. Isn’t it amazing if there is complete harmony between human and animal, so that babies can play with cobras, and wolves would sleep with lamb?

 

• Ever since sin got into our world, the relationship among people, and among animals have been broken, to a point we cannot even remember the world of complete harmony in God’s originally created world. Close your eyes and imagine a world of no hunger, no sickness, no death, no sadness, no sin, no injustice … only joy, love and complete harmony. That is the world Jesus came to give us.