Mark's Blog

Reading: Isaiah 11:1-10

A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.

He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide by what his ears hear;
but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,
and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

The wolf shall live with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze,
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
They will not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.

On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious

We really don’t know what to do with the words the fear of the Lord!  We know intellectually that we should not be afraid of the Coming—but we are! We know that His coming judgment is righteous—but that may make us even more afraid.  How can anyone delight in the fear of the Lord?

Our problem is that we judge by what we see, and we decide by what we hear—and we know how flawed the judgments of human courts are because of this!  That makes us afraid.  But the One Who Comes does not judge by what He sees or decide by what He hears; He judges with righteousness! That’s a standard of judgment that is not based on real or circumstantial evidence. That is a standard of judgment based on and within the very nature of God—a seemingly impossible standard for us to even understand, much less to keep.

And the results of His righteous judgment are just as unfathomable to us: enemies lie down together in peace, killing beasts and their prey graze together, even the deadliest of serpents, natural and Ancient, are powerless against helpless children.

That’s us! Helpless children!  But when can we relax? When can we quit being afraid of the Enemy?  When can we quit being afraid of the Lord?

On that day —  it’s the Day of His Coming!

If you want to catch up with these readings and meditations, go to Advent 2010 under Categories in the right column of this page.