LECTURE III.

THE BRANCH AND ROOT OF JESSE.

ISAIAH xi. and xii.

1. "And there shall come forth a Rod out of the stem of Jesse,

And a Branch shall grow out of his roots:

2. And the Spirit of THE LORD shall rest upon Him; The Spirit of wisdom and understanding,

The Spirit of counsel and might,

The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of THE LORD: 3. And shall make Him of quick understanding in the

fear of THE LORD.

And He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, Neither reprove after the hearing of His ears: 4. But with righteousness shall He judge the poor, And reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: And He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth,

And with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked.

5. And righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, And faithfulness the girdle of His reins. &c. &c."

LTHOUGH the division of the chapters would here again, with this 11th Chapter, indicate

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the beginning of a new Prophecy; that it is a continuation of chapter x, and follows up a subject there introduced, is doubly marked in the first verse :-By the conjunction "And"; and further, and more pointedly, by the terms of this verse, which literally rendered gives-" And there shall come a rod (or slender twig') out of the trunk of Jesse"-(the stump as of a felled tree")-" and a branch (sprout, or shoot), shall grow out of his roots." Imagery carried on from the two last verses of the preceding chapter," Behold the Lord, the LORD of hosts, shall lop the bough with terror: and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled. And He shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a Mighty One." A judgment on the Jewish nation from which the royal house of David should suffer in common with the nation at large; and from it, so "cut down" even to "the roots," should spring up that" Branch" who should be the Reviver of both.

Whence, again,-to ascertain who is the inflicter of this calamity-we are sent back to the 5th verse of that chapter, where the Prophecy begins with a Divine Commission to "The Assyrian,"-already employed as the instrument in the hand of the

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1 Only here and Prov. xiv. 3; but so the cognate Arabic.

V only again ch. xl. 24, and Job. xiv. 8, stock; where comp. ver. 7. Aq. Theod. Symm. Kópμos, truncus. In Arab. the

cognate root is To cut down or off.

3 Heb. shall flourish or be fruitful.

Lord in executing His judgments on Israel-to invade Judea and Jerusalem with a like purpose :"Ho! Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets."

His proud boastings then follow, and his intention utterly to destroy Jerusalem and its people: not knowing that, as God's instrument, he can go no farther than is permitted him, (ver. 7-11). Which purpose answered, his own downfall is predicted, in punishment for his pride in claiming for himself and "the strength of his hand" the victories which were really the act of the hand by which he, as "the rod of the Lord's anger," was wielded (1219). While, in the same Divine purpose, mercy was in reserve for the people of whom he should be thus the scourge, who should survive when the Assyrian Empire should have passed away; and of whom a remnant should escape and should yet "stay upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth," released from the yoke of their oppressors (20-27).1 Where, however, that as in the instance of the confederate Kings of Syria and Israel

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So Mr. Payne Smith well observes on the words "the rod of mine anger":-Thus the Prophet at once marks the difference between the two kingdoms. The one has a definite place in the Divine economy; the other is used but for a temporary object. For the moment, therefore, it may triumph; but it has no mission of its own, no settled final purpose in the world, and

in the preceding prophecy-" the Assyrian" is the type of a greater enemy; as also that, in the nearer deliverance of a remnant of Israel from his oppression, a more distant is contemplated, appears from several distinct notes:

First. That the indignation against that people is stated to be consummated in this judgment, ver. 12:

"Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed His whole work upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks”.1

Second. That the remnant which escapes returns to God no more to forsake Him, and the consumption decreed issues in righteousness; ver.20-23 :

"And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel in truth. The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the Mighty God. For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness. For the Lord GOD of hosts shall make a consumption, even determined, in the midst of all the land.”

On which, moreover, we have an inspired comment, by the Apostle Paul, Rom. ix. 27, 28, who

therefore no special providence hems it around. But Jerusalem, however unworthy, was the actual centre of the world's history; and in spite of her feebleness, in spite of her comparative insignificance, she must outlive the far mightier kingdoms of Nineveh and Babylon, and Persia, and Macedon, and Antioch; for upon her existence depended the accomplishment of God's unchanging counsels.' [May we not add 'and still depends?']

''This' (says Eusebius here) 'his boasting style who is called AntiChrist.'